The Crime Book

334

ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS

CAESAR

15 March 44 BCE

Roman ruler Julius Caesar’s

prestige soared after his military

victories in Gaul, and many in the

Senate saw him as a threat to the

existing order. Calls for him to be

crowned emperor brought things to

a head and on the Ides of March he

was assassinated by senators, who

stabbed him more than 20 times on

the Senate steps. His death

plunged the empire into civil war.

See also: The Assassination of

Pertinax 304 ■ The Abduction of

Aldo Moro 322−23

RICHARD OF PUDLICOTT

24 April 1303

Driven to recklessness by his large

debts, London wool merchant

Richard of Pudlicott stole the

contents of Edward I’s Westminster

“Wardrobe treasury”, which was

filled with the king’s personal

treasures. With the assistance of

corrupt clergymen, Pudlicott broke

KABUKIMONO GANGS

16th–17th centuries

The end of Japan’s Sengoku period,

marred by civil war and unrest,

saw the marginalization of its

great Samurai clans and left many

well-armed warriors without an

occupation. Some formed criminal

gangs, as kabukimono (“strange

ones”), adopting flamboyant hair-

and clothing-styles, and often

carried elaborate, highly decorated,

or oversized weapons. The gangs

were involved in crimes from major

robberies to minor hooliganism.

Many believe these gangs to be the

precursor to the modern Yakuza.

See also: The Triads 146–49

■ The Yakuza 154–59

FRANÇOIS RAVAILLAC

4 May 1610

A Catholic fanatic, Ravaillac made

several attempts to meet and

convert his country’s Huguenot

(French Protestant) king, Henri IV.

Ravaillac tried to join a Jesuit group

in 1606, but was rejected when he

DIRECTORY

N

o society has managed to eradicate crime completely. The more

sophisticated the society – and the more elaborately developed

its code of rules – the greater the scope for infraction there has

been. Many of the most infamous crimes in history have already been

discussed in this book, but no database is large enough to categorize

every notorious offence. The criminals below all occupy a special place

in the history of crime, and deserve further exploration – whether for their

ingenuity, depravity, audacity, or even their ridiculousness. The victims,

methods, and motives represented here provide an eerie index of the many

forms criminality has taken, and demonstrate that sometimes, true crime

really is stranger than fiction.

into the crypt beneath Westminster

Abbey’s chapter house and helped

himself to gold and jewels worth

up to £100,000. When the treasures

began to flood London’s pawn

shops, investigators traced them

back to Pudlicott. At trial, he falsely

claimed to have worked alone,

saving the clergymen from

punishment. Pudlicott was hanged

and skinned for his crime.

See also: Thomas Blood 18 ■ The

Hatton Garden Heist 58–59

ASSASSINATION OF

GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI

26 April 1478

A leading member of Renaissance

Florence’s famous Medici family,

Giuliano was cut down during

Easter Mass in the city’s cathedral

by nobleman Francesco de’ Pazzi

and other members of the rival

banking clan. Many more members

of both families were killed in the

faction-fighting that ensued, but

the Medici family managed to

retain their power and influence.

See also: The Sicilian Mafia 138–

45 ■ Murder of Roberto Calvi 241

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DIRECTORY 335

told them about his religious

“visions”, which the Jesuits

considered to be the hallucinations

of a madman. In one, Ravaillac

believed God had told him that it

was his duty to convert Henri IV.

The king’s moves against the

Netherlands, a Catholic nation,

angered Ravaillac. When his

attempts to convert the king proved

fruitless, Ravaillac waylaid the royal

carriage in a Paris street, then

climbed up and stabbed Henri to

death. He was tortured, drawn, and

quartered for his act of regicide,

and his body was torn apart by

angry mobs.

See also: Jean Calas 203 ■ The

Assassination of Pertinax 304

CATHERINE MONVOISIN

1677–82

Fortune-teller Catherine Deshayes,

Madame Monvoison – known as

“La Voison” – was the head of a

network of self-styled sorcerers and

alchemists who sold their services

to aristocratic French families in

the so-called Poison Affair. Her

followers sold poisons and amulets,

and arranged “black masses” for

aristocrats, which resulted in the

death of more than 1,000 people.

Thirty-six of her followers were

rounded up and executed in the

“burning court”, and La Voison

herself was burned at the stake

for witchcraft in February 1680.

The affair later took on a political

dimension, when La Voisin’s

daughter, Marie-Marguerite, named

Madame de Montespan, King Louis

XIV’s mistress, as one of her

mother’s clients. Due to the

resulting scandal, the burning

court was abolished in 1682.

See also: Alice Kyteler 263

■ Elizabeth Báthory 264–65

GREGOR MACGREGOR

1821–37

Scottish soldier MacGregor fought

for the British in the Peninsula War

before he joined Venezuela’s fight

for independence against Spain.

During his career, MacGregor

pretended to hold many different

titles, but the most extravagant was

his claim, upon returning to Britain

in 1821, to have been made “Cazique

of Poyais” – a fictional Prince of an

imaginary Central American colony.

MacGregor made a fortune selling

shares and parcels of land in the

colony, and even created a fake

“Poyais” currency to convince

buyers of its authenticity. Several

hundred Scots went out to settle

there, only to discover that their

future homeland did not exist.

MacGregor saw through several

iterations of the scheme before he

returned to Venezuela in 1838.

See also: The Crawford

Inheritance 66–67 ■ The Black

Friday Gold Scandal 101

TONG ORGANIZATIONS

1850s–

The name Tong – the Cantonese

for “hall” – came from the meeting-

places established by Chinese

emigrants when they settled in

North America. What sprang up as

societies for mutual support often

became criminal organizations,

associated most notoriously with

the trafficking of women. Gang

wars, called the Tong Wars, also

took place between 1880 and 1920

in San Francisco, as well as in New

York and Chicago in the 1920s and

1930s. Many Tongs still exist today,

purely as social clubs. They provide

immigrant support services and act

as meeting places for Chinese

communities in major US cities.

See also: The Beer Wars 152–53

■ The Ya k uza 15 4 – 59

JOHN AND SARAH MAKIN

1892

When New South Wales brewery

drayman John Makin was injured

and unable to work, he and his wife

became “baby farmers” – they took

in illegitimate infants in exchange

for payment. However, to cut costs,

Makin and his wife murdered some

of the babies, and periodically

moved to new locations to make it

hard for the infants’ mothers to

track them down. Their crime was

discovered in October 1892, when

the new owners of the Makins’

house in Macdonaldtown tried to

fix the plumbing and discovered

the decaying bodies of two dead

infants. Eventually, 12 bodies were

found in three houses that the

Makins had occupied. John Makin

was hanged for his crimes in

August 1893. Sarah was sentenced

to life imprisonment, but was

released on parole in 1911.

See also: The Lindbergh Baby

Kidnapping 178–85 ■ Fred and

Rosemary West 286–87

CASSIE L. CHADWICK

1897–1904

This Canadian-born swindler

committed some minor forgeries

and frauds before she moved on

to her biggest con: fabricating an

identity as the illegitimate daughter

of Scottish–American steel tycoon

Andrew Carnegie. On the basis of

this pretend parentage, she secured

loans of up to $20 million (£467

million today), and used them to

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