Have you ever known personally someone you later found out had committed heinous crimes?

[raccoon]

I haven’t, that I know of.

If you have, please check in.

[slackmaster]

1. One of my high school classmates murdered his wife and son, then killed himself

Other than that, nobody I know of.

[Brickbat]

2. Actual crimes? I know people who have done borderline things in war.

[raccoon]

4. I was thinking more of murder in civilian life. nt

[Horse with no Name]

3. When I was a kid we used to show horses

with Max Dunlap's kids. I heard many say that he just took the fall for Kemper Marley and the mafia--because as I remember, from a kid's point of view, he seemed like a really nice guy.

[Deep13]

5. Yup. I used to do criminal defense work. nt

[xchrom]

6. oh yes -- i lived a very seedy life for quite some time.

while there were no white collar doers of dastardly deeds --
there drug dealers, hells angels, prostitutes, mother fuckers, father fuckers, murderers, -- just about anybody you can imagine.

[yellerpup]

11. LOL! I'm surprised we haven't run into each other IRL.

:rofl:

[alfredo]

38. They weren't crooks, they were our neighbors.

They were much more friendly and trust worthy than the upright, uptight that looked down their noses at us.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. Pick a category

Murder? Yes.

Rape? Yes.

Arson? Yes (although nobody was injured in the instance for which he was convicted; there may well have been other cases that were not prosecuted, however).

Assault? Yes - at least three perpetrators.

Over the years, I've made the acquaintance over a least a half-dozen people who have gone on to commit heinous crimes...that I can recall. I called off sick from work, so I'm not 100% today.

I would also like to point out that none of these people were what I ever considered 'friends,' although their convictions made me more circumspect in my personal relations henceforth.

On edit: I have to include a couple more whom I found on a list of sexual offenders; both of them are required to stay registered as to their whereabouts for life.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

107. My X wife was murdered by her buisiness partner for the insurance money.

Does that count? Of course, as her X, I was a suspect but we were actually still friends. After 16 years together, we didn' t hate each other, we had just grown in different directions. Her business partner is now doing life without possibility of parole. Works for me. I hope he is being buttraped every day.

[Atman]

8. WTF? But...yes.

What an odd subject for a thread, especially since you don't know any such person. But since you asked...I once worked for a guy, many many years ago, who it turned out was an "enforcer." One day he bragged about wrapping a guy's head in duct tape and throwing him out of a car into a roadside ditch for not paying a debt. Don't know if his story was true, but I quit the job right after that and kept a 22 in my desk drawer for a while.

[Capitalocracy]

75. A security guard at a pharmacy where my wife worked

said that when he worked at a supermarket, when they caught shoplifters they would take them to the back and beat them.

This is in Argentina

[babydollhead]

88. My sister was engaged to a loan-shark collector

he moved drugs and boats, from Miami to Mobile and had guns and mysteriously died going 90 miles per hour. He could not read.

[Le Taz Hot]

9. I used to teach adult basic education

to parolees. Obviously, they had all committed crimes but I always made it a point NOT to know what their offense was. I had a particularly low-key, very nice young man who came to class fairly regularly. Always very polite and soft-spoken. All of sudden he wasn't coming in anymore so I checked with his Parole Agent. Apparently he had been sent back to prison on a parole violation. The agent then volunteered that this guy was originally sent to prison because he shot his girlfriend's face off. My jaw dropped.

[Zephie]

10. Yes. A guy I considered a close friend turned out to be a child molester

He molested his mentally handicapped cousin on multiple occasions. My other friend, who was dating him at the time, never really recovered from that revelation and the guy consistently sent letters from prison trying to justify his actions. It was pretty horrific.

[BlueIris]

22. Yikes.

Horrible story.

[babydollhead]

89. my brother in law molested my sisters daughter from age 6-10

we didn't know.

[undeterred]

12. I knew someone who worked as a criminal defense attorney.

And he had a very different view of things. There are some evil people. But there are a lot of ordinary people who do something evil on the worst day of their lives. That's who he defended. Ordinary people who did a terrible thing on the worst day of their lives. Or at least thats how he thought of them, not as constitutionally evil people, but as ordinary people who made a once in a lifetime huge mistake.

[rustydog]

41. I know someone who is one of the best people I know who

made one gigantic mistake one day in his life. he served his time and has been a productive member of society for over twenty years never even coming close to "re offending".

[undeterred]

72. So I guess he is one of those people.

Puts things into perspective.

[H2O Man]

13. Yes.

[Davis_X_Machina]

14. Three old students have been convicted of murder...

...that's one a decade. Pretty good clip for rural New England.

[raccoon]

15. You may ask why I would ask such a question in the first place. (Somebody did.)

I’m very interested in true crime. The murder of the Clutter family (the book IN COLD BLOOD was about that) in particular fascinates me, as apparently it does many other people.

I’m interested in why the perps do the things they do. And if there was anything about the perp that seemed weird or off-putting before anyone knew about the things they’d done. For instance, Ann Rule, a well-known true crime writer, knew Ted Bundy before he was even a suspect in the murders he’d committed—and apparently she didn’t suspect him at all for a long time.

I guess it’s looking for some way you can tell there’s something about this person that you need to stay away from. Like the mark of a pentagram on their palm :silly:

[logosoco]

28. Ahhh. now I see why you asked!

I did used to love reading those "true crime" stories. I used to try to figure out the "why" and was always amazed by how they could prove what happened and who did it. But yeah, after the crime hits so close to home, these books weren't as interesting. Maybe because it wasn't something that happened to "other people" anymore.

In my situation, there were no "warning signs". The defense was trying to use a "had a bad childhood/was using drugs" stand. But really, my nephews childhood was not any worse than my own. And this event made me think more about how a drug can't make you do something that is not already there. It may break the inhibitions or cloud your judgement, but it doesn't put that thing there.

And I think it also made me see that some people are just really evil. Plain and simple. It would be nice if they came with warning labels!!!

[pipi_k]

43. I share your interest...

Like you, I'm fascinated by True Crime stories, and the people who commit murder.

I can't even keep track of the many books I've read on the subject...

the Clutter family

John Wayne Gacy

The I-5 killer

Ted Bundy

Lindy Chamberlain

The Green River Killer

The Zodiac Killer

etc, etc, etc


The only "sign" I can think of...and one I've been suspicious of even when I was a very small child...is that some of these people, like Gacy and Bundy, are a little TOO friendly and helpful if you know what I mean. Excessively "normal". I don't know what it is...just a vibe I get that creeps me out. People who seem overly friendly to a stranger just put me off for some reason.

Anyway, I'm fascinated as well by the inner workings of the minds of killers...

[Shiver]

63. Serial killers in particular fascinate me.

I've read every book on every one of them that I can find.

[Jamastiene]

97. I'm fascinated with a couple of serial killers.

Not all of them, though. In particular, Aileen Wuornos and Jeffery Dahmer both fascinated me.

I was mostly curious about the Aileen Wuornos murders, because her first murder was due to a rape attempt. I still thought that one should not have been tried, because it could have been argued that one was in self defense. I DO think the other murders definitely should have been tried. I do still have questions about whether she had PTSD though.

Dahmer was said to have a thing where he didn't want his victims to leave him. I used to have the same impulse when I was younger (to not want lovers to leave me), but never enough to kill them, attempt to zombify them, or eat them. :/ That was always curious to be about him. Also, he never killed or hurt animals, but he did collect dead animals and look at them. Usually, you hear that murderers start out abusing animals, but Dahmer was said to only deal with animals that had already died. Yet, he did what he did to so many of his human victims. :scared:

[Shiver]

100. Actually, I recall Dahmer did begin with animals.

I'm looking for the source on that now, so unfortunately I can;t give it. You might be right, though, and I'm just remembering it wrong.

I tend to have strict criteria, it seems, for a serial killer to fascinate me. They need four or more victims, need to fit other serial killer patterns, and shouldn't have been in an out of jail their entire lives. The ones that fascinate me the most, like Herb Baumeister and John Wayne Gacy, are the ones who seem completely normal on the outside. They have lots of friends, a seemingly good relationship with their family, well-liked by everyone - and then you find the bodies and the sick creature beneath is exposed. Reading about serial killers isn't so much true crime for me, it's pure horror. These people actually exist, and that scares me more than any story about demons or vampires or whatever.

And fun fact about Dahmer - the student union at my first college was, several years back, one of the bars where Dahmer picked up at least one victim.

[Capitalocracy]

73. I DO know someone with that mark...

but I don't think he's killed anybody yet.

[devilgrrl]

16. Yes.

eom

[madokie]

17. Yes I have

a guy I grew up with raped and murdered a local young lady. I hope he rots in hell. Its been 40 years ago when this happened I doubt the rat is still alive today. I don't even want to know.

[NoGOPZone]

18. A former tenant in my apartment building was convicted of armed robbery. nt

[JuniperLea]

19. Two

A high school acquaintance who is now serving a life sentence for murder.

The second one was more chilling. I needed something notarized, so I went to a local real estate office that offered the service. The guy really creeped me out... he was terse and he looked like he was holding back a lot of anger. A week later I learned that he killed his wife and stuck her in the trunk of her Mercedes... which was found about five blocks from my house. Very creepy.

[Johonny]

20. A lot of DUI

some with multiple. People laugh it off like it is funny.

[Luciferous]

21. Yes.

[logosoco]

23. Well, I didn't "find out later", I lived it in real time

so to speak. My nephew (by marriage) took the 6 year old child of a long time friend out in the woods, attempted to rape her and then killed her by hitting her in the head. He is on death row now. (Totally changed my stance on that, I used to be against it).

This happened in 2002. Still makes me physically sick to my stomach.

Up until that point in my life, I had not really known anyone to commit such a heinous crime ,although I have another nephew (my own sisters son) whose great grandfather killed his own father (but i did not know either of them personally.)

Interesting question....are you dealing with something bad close to you or just curious?

[raccoon]

24. Just curious. See my post #15. nt

[hamsterjill]

25. Murder/Suicide

We had an IT guy for a while. He was a contractor that we used to fix our computers, etc. There was something about him that simply unnerved me. I complained about that to my two male bosses, who totally dismissed me. I wanted them to simply get another company for computer repair, but they refused.

About two years later, the guy was on the news as a suspect in a murder. He got out on bail, and then promptly took his own life.

It was simply awful. The murder was never solved officially. The police quit looking once the suspect committed suicide. Two families totally devastated.

But it reaffirmed something to me that I've known for years, and yet still sometimes forget. That being to "trust your instincts".

[geardaddy]

26. I know someone who was murdered by her husband

because he found out he was terminal. He then tried to kill their sons with CO through a garden hose and ended up killing himself.

The sons are alive and living with the grandparents.

[PeaceNikki]

27. One of my son's best friends strangled and killed his girlfriend (also a close friend).

They were 18 and it happened almost 3 years ago.

[bighart]

29. Several.

Cousin that committed execution style murder. He was dealing drugs pretty heavy and an associate got busted. When the associate bonded out my cousin and another guy kidnapped him and executed him so he couldn't turn states evidence on them. He is on death row now.

Used to know a guy that ended up moving to Tx where he killed his live in girlfriend with a claw hammer when he was tripping on lsd, death row as well.

Another guy I used to know shot a guy in the face with a 12ga shotgun because he got ripped off on a drug deal, life without.

Had a guy that used to make daily delivers to a place I worked that killed his girlfriend and their child. He was married with 2 kids with his wife and got the girlfriend pregnant again and she refused to have an abortion. He killed her and a small child that they had togethe

[EstimatedProphet]

30. When I was in Jr. high a classmate killed his father

The father was beating him and his mother. He finally had enough.

[Codeine]

31. I dated a girl who later killed a clerk while robbing a donut shop.

She had become a tweaker by then.

[rustydog]

32. a serial killer was a classmate of my younger brother

[eowyn_of_rohan]

33. i knew a family friend who turned out to be a peeping Tom

and was caught looking in my parents bedroom windows! Not heinous but weird.

[EFerrari]

66. One of my mom's dates turned out to be a peeping Tom

as we found out about three weeks into it when I caught him looking into my bedroom window. That was pretty weird.

[Horse with no Name]

34. There were two others that I didn't later find out...but I knew when it happened

The first one I mentioned above, Max Dunlap, was pretty notorious.

The second was a teacher that I had worked with prior to her becoming a teacher that I worked with that was murdered by her preacher husband. Never knew the motive. When it became obvious that he was going to be indicted, he jumped off the Mix Master in Dallas.

The third was a salesgirl that I worked with. She and her husband lived a very high lifestyle. We all wondered how they afforded it. She ended up murdered in her trunk. When they asked him to come in for his second polygraph, he blew his brains out. The motive was financial. They were bankrupt.

[sense]

35. Yes.

I had a step father, one of many, who molested children, one of whom later murdered an elderly woman when she protested that he'd broken into her home. My mum married him twice!

[chowder66]

131. dear god.

[sense]

36. Oh, yes....

and then I had a room-mate who's fiance raped and murdered two young girls, 9 and 10 years old.

[alfredo]

37. Yes

[davsand]

39. I used to be on a dart team with a guy who abducted and raped a woman.

I'd known him for years--had initially met him back when we both worked in a restaurant--and my husband and I threw on a steel tip dart team with him two nights a week. He'd been at our house for cookouts and stuff, and as far as we knew he was mostly ok.

He got hooked up with some woman that was a crack whore, and he also got hooked on crack. She was living in his house and something sent him off the deep end. He took her upstairs, tied her to the bed, and abused her over a period of hours. She got loose and ran out of the house and he fled the state. By the time he turned himself in the charges were a veritable laundry list of felonies. They got convictions and pleas on a lot of the charges and he went away for something like 60 years.

Literally, the last time I saw him was the day I found out I was pregnant with our daughter. I remember that night (the same night he snapped at home later) and he did seem wrapped pretty tight, but I never expected him to ever do anything like that.

I've not spoken to him since. I tried to go to visit him in county jail at one point, and could not get in to see him. Last I heard he was doing hard time in a maximum security facility.


Laura

[Keith Bee]

40. What's the point of the OP?

:shrug:

[raccoon]

45. See my post # 15. nt

[Initech]

42. I think I remember finding out the guy who bullied me in high school is in federal prison.

And guy who actually was a good friend of mine - his dad did time for participating in a ponzi scheme where he made millions by swindling money from old people - and got caught when he tried to buy the school's new football stadium.

[nomb]

50. And my HS best friend got sent up for life without parole.

Was in town for the 4th of July from London where I lived and ran into him, he had just that day thought he had killed her (she lived).

I told my other best friend, we were a group of three, that I had run into him, I said "I just ran into "Dave" but he doesn't seem the same. This is not the "Dave" we knew."

Although he was arrested later that night I did not find out until I was home for Christmas and his brother told me. "Dave's" case became famous across the nation and was featured on quite a few talk shows in which he was broadcast live from prison and his victim from the studio.

"Dave" will spend the rest of his life in prison without chance of parole. All of his appeals are exhausted. He continues to express his innocence and has a number of followers to his cause including the Innocence Project and other prisoner rights groups.

[varkam]

44. Several.

[nomb]

46. I met Jeffrey Dahmer in a Milwaukee bar.

I was 17, it was about 7pm, and I was staying alone overnight in the Holiday Inn near Marquette University.

I went into a close by bar to buy my underage ass a drink, it was empty except for Dahmer and the bartender. It was a long Disco-like place. I knew nothing at all of Milwaukee, or really bars in general - although I had been in a few for underage beer.

I sat down two seats from him. He began to talk to me ~ really bad vibes. When the bartender came over I ordered a Coke, beer suddenly seemed like a terrible idea there. (Why do we never walk quickly away from weirdness when we sense it?) I drank my Coke quickly and left.

I then went across the street somewhat and walked into a hardcore, really hardcore, punk club. My 17 year old mind was then introduced to facial piercings and tattoo's in the mostly densely packed, hot and loud place I may have ever been in - decades before facial self-mutilation became fashionable.

That was one fucking weird night Milwaukee.

[raccoon]

56. But it sounds like you did walk away quickly--at least quickly enough to save your life.

Good thing you did.

[nomb]

61. I've thought of that on occasion.

I didn't use to think I was at risk there at that moment since I'm not gay, but then I heard he drugged some.

Since then I've been in lots of places around the world, over 100 countries and a decade outside the US, and been in a lot of places very, very alone. But that night in Milwaukee still freaks me out.

But really I think the event, for me, that changed my perspective on a lot of things was an Australian couple I met on the Khorat Plateau who crossed over to see Angkor Wat. They made it in about, if I remember correctly, about 15 miles when some remnant of the Khmer Rouge killed them as they stood on the side of a road.

They were killed without ceremony, no pretext, no message, nothing taken ... or left. Dropped where they stood and left there with no more thought than one would give a wad of gum.

In that moment...

[raccoon]

67. I guess the perp was never found? nt

[nomb]

79. Perp never found?

No one cared. It was an event that on some profound level never occurred, of no more notice than dust dislodged from a ripple in the dirt.

It was an act of supreme nihilism. The moment of its occurrence had no more import to anything around it at that place and time, or to those people including victim, killer and passerby - than to any people at any place and time.

[Capitalocracy]

76. Underage beer...

the best kind

[RZM]

47. Several murderers

One was a kid we grew up around. Never liked him at all.

Another was a somebody I worked with at my very first job - he and I actually hung out a few times.

Both were convicted of murder. Both cases made big headlines where I lived because there was no apparent motive in either. I looked for both of them on the Ohio prison database last year. I was unable to locate one (he might have been eligible for parole since he was simply 'present' at the incident and did not pull the trigger). The other will be eligible for parole in the 2050s.

[raccoon]

57. Your post made me think of 2 brothers I grew up around, both of whom I never liked.

Nor did a lot of other kids.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear either of them is in jail.

THen there was a third who seemed a mean little shit in the 4th grade--I remember he said something real mean and abusive to me once. Later I heard that his wife divorced him because he beat her. I wasn't surprised.

[mainer]

48. Yes. Someone who went on to commit murder.

And I didn't notice a single thing different or "off" about him.

The point is, you just don't know. Killers look like everyone else.

[readmoreoften]

49. Yes. I found out that a "nice sweet guy" we all hung out with was a serial rapist.

And he attacked two quieter acquaintances of mine on separate occasions. He was supposedly pro-LGBT and supposedly a feminist. I guess, except for when he was raping lesbians. Talk about wolf in sheep's clothing.

[Dappleganger]

51. Yes, all child molestors.

[hobbit709]

52. I once met Henry Lee Lucas.

It set me on edge.

[nomb]

53. And my HS best friend got sent up for life without parole.

I was in town for the 4th of July from London where I lived and ran into him, he had just that day thought he had killed her (she lived).

I told my other best friend, we were a group of three, that I had run into him, I said "I just ran into "Dave" but he doesn't seem the same. This is not the "Dave" we knew."

Although he was arrested later that night I did not find out until I was home for Christmas and his brother told me. "Dave's" case became famous across the nation and was featured on quite a few talk shows in which he was broadcast live from prison and his victim from the studio.

"Dave" will spend the rest of his life in prison without chance of parole. All of his appeals are exhausted. He continues to express his innocence and has a number of followers to his cause including the Innocence Project and other prisoner rights groups.

[madmom]

54. Yes, a cousin who murdered his girlfriend and another cousin who beat someone up to

the point he died of his injuries. Both are lifers in prison as we speak.

edit for spelling

[Bosonic]

55. Hmmmm, personally no

but I'm fairly sure I played against someone in an MMORPG who was involved in this nasty business:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13962555/ns/dateline_nbc/

[Solly Mack]

58. No...but several people I knew first who later committed truly horrible crimes.

[Shandris]

59. Some of you may be interested to know that during a police interrogation...

...one of the questions they often ask is whether or not you enjoy reading True Crime books. If you answer affirmative, it's a presupposition that you do so because you are trying to find a way to avoid being caught for (*reason you're being questioned*).

NEVER answer in the affirmative.

[Mariana]

70. Of course, you shouldn't even be talking to the police at all

without an attorney present.

[Shandris]

95. Yeah, a very good point I forgot to mention. :-)

It really should be part of childhood to not only learn that rule...but learn WHY its a rule. Someone, and I think it was here on DU, linked to some Youtube vids a month or so ago about this topic and, I have to admit...I didn't exactly get the ~why~ of it either until I viewed those. Good Christ, there is NEVER a reason to talk to the police!

[varkam]

120. But no one heeds that advice.

They all talk, always.

[marions ghost]

60. Mostly I have known victims

one student I taught was killed by a serial murderer. I know someone else who got murdered, but it's not known how it happened. A third one was a victim of a hate crime.

As for criminals I did know someone fairly well, enough to call a friend, who did unspeakable tortures to his family members (so bad he got life). This guy did have some strange issues with dominance behavior, so what happened seemed connected, but he did not seem all that twisted or unusual and was fully functional in society. It came as a shock. His demons made him do it. Creepy.

Another friend did white collar crimes that were every bit as damaging as brutal attacks, but of course in our culture he got off free. I also know a woman who did this kind of evil white collar crime with very damaging attacks on innocent people and they were never able to get any restitution. There are so many extreme crimes in our courts that white collar crimes are considered lesser, but some of them should not be.

I think there are some signs of deviant and pre-crime behavior that we should pay more attention to.

[Blue_In_AK]

62. I've known many.

I worked for criminal defense lawyers and also was a correctional officer for a year. Of course, I knew that all those people had committed crimes, so it wasn't a surprise.

I've had some crimes perpetrated on me by close friends/lovers that I didn't expect, though.

[seabeyond]

64. no. nt

[JDPriestly]

65. Yes. A neighbor. After her house was condemned, we learned

that she had served time for manslaughter and the circumstances were very frightening.

In addition, when I lived in Europe, I met NAZI sympathizers some of whom were pretty scary when they really opened up to you.

In my work, I knew lots of people accused of various crimes. But that does not count in my view because I knew before I met them what the story was. I have known gang members in that context.

In some cases, I have seen the very vulnerable, human sides of people who have done things we would call "horrible." When you see that a person like my neighbor or many others I have known can be accused of terrible crimes and may have committed them, you see how thin the line can be between cruelty and inhumanity and love and humanity.

My experiences have made me more skeptical about people but also more compassionate. It is clear to me that it is usually not that a person is "bad," but that the person does something that is antisocial and therefore "bad." Stealing another person's car or shoplifting are bad things to do, but the same person who has done those things may be very kind to his mother or her children. It's quite mistaken to view people as just downright "bad." Very rarely is it so simple.

And most people rationalize the acts that they do that hurt others. In fact, I think we all do that.

Some of our mythology was written to make people feel good about killing animals or eating plants.

[WildEyedLiberal]

68. Someone I went to school with is on the sex offender registry

And for "aggravated sexual assault of a minor under age 14," not indecent exposure or something like that. I don't know the details, other than he was 18 or 19 when it apparently happened, and I don't know what happened to make it "aggravated," though the statutory language leads me to assume that it was forcible rather than purely statutory. He was a kid who was a year older than me but who ended up in my class because he'd had to repeat first grade, and he was always odd and creepy. I think he may have been mentally handicapped in some manner; he was always in remedial classes and just generally seemed off. He got suspended in high school for wearing a t-shirt that depicted a gun on it (this was a year after Columbine). He dropped out during sophomore year and I haven't seen or heard from him since, until I found out he was on the sex offender registry.

So I guess that doesn't really count, since I know almost nothing about the details, but I did know who he was, and apparently he did do something pretty heinous.

[Mosby]

69. During training a few jobs back I worked with a guy for about 3 weeks

Who turned out to be a serial killer. Right after I started working in my assigned store I told the manager at that store that the guy IMO was doing drugs but he did not do anything with the info - couple months later he was fired for stealing money from the safe in another store and arrested soon there after for picking up and murdering prostitutes.

[countingbluecars]

71. I had a childhood friend

whose little brother grew up to be a murderer. He walked into a bank and shot every one in the bank, killing 3. I think he is currently on death row. I remember him as a cute little boy who always tagged along with his sister. I do remember that both he and his sister were very afraid of their father. We were seldom allowed to play at their house and then only when their father was not home.

[Capitalocracy]

74. I met a guy who said he killed children in Iraq

he said they were under orders to shoot to kill anything that moved in the area

And apparently my mother kind of knew someone who later turned out to be a serial killer in Kansas.

[Odin2005]

77. I guy I knew from high school was convicted for raping a 12yo girl.

Rot in Hell, Chris! :puke:

And then there is a monster that raped my disabled friend... :grr:

[Tom_Foolery]

78. I had a good friend in high school...

who 13 years ago killed a business partner after the guy ripped my old friend off. I was shocked by what he did because he was one of the nicest people whom I had ever met. I guess he was driven over the edge and killed the guy.

[REP]

80. I was acquainted with Bob Berdella

[Raine]

81. Yes, I was friends with this kid who

later murdered his half brother after making the guy did his own grave. As a kid he was really sweet, I still wonder how and why he would do such a thing. :-(

[Nay]

82. Yep. Worked with a guy who turned out to be a serial rapist/batterer of

prostitutes. He always had given me the absolute creeps, so no surprise when I found that out.

Then, the clerk at a local used bookstore that I frequented ofter turned out to be a child molester and kiddie porn addict.

[Saphire]

83. Now that you made me think...several actually.

Our neighbor was in the process of getting divorced...he came home one morning, shot his son and wife then himself. Sad.

A friend on drugs...robbed and elderly lady of $8.00 and beat her to death for it. He's still in prison.

Another friend...paid by his "girlfriend" to kill her husband, so he shot him. They are both in prison.

Nothing really heinous or even evil about it....just stupidity, I think.

[nomb]

85. Five!! deaths by Violence, yet "Nothing really heinous or even evil about it" ???

Please tell me there is a typo in there somewhere. Please.

[etherealtruth]

84. Yes

.... a co-worker/friend introduced me to her "new" boyfriend ... she later admitted he had spent 20+ years behind bars for his part in the brutal rape and murder of a woman.

He had seemed like a nice enough guy ... I desperately wanted to believe in "redemption" ... when it came out that he also was a "skin head" ... it was too much to deal with (for me).

[babydollhead]

86. my friend admitted he hadn't paid child support in 19 years

he went to jail for this. I was surprised to still like him. He had left his wife, a 6 year old, 3 year old and new born for a man, who also left his wife and kids for him. and they did not look back. At the time, I had children that very age, and STILL accepted him, flaws and all as my friend.

[Yo_Mama]

87. Yeah, a boy I went to school with

He was a very nice kid.

He kind of went wild out of high school, and he got drunk and was doing some drugs one night and murdered a prostitute.

[flvegan]

90. I usually meet them after. It's more fun that way.

[devils chaplain]

91. Yeah...

No murder, but a lot of drug dealing and theft and child abuse. These are people I went to school with. Some of them were very predictable. One or two absolutely stunned me. If you haven't yet, and it's available, search through your state's online criminal database. It's a bit eerie when a name you'd forgotten about pops up.

[Terra Alta]

92. my cousin's stepfather raped her for years

when she was a teen and told her he'd hurt her mother if she ever said anything to anybody. She was an adult with a child of her own before she said anything.. she is still in therapy for it and he got off with a slap on the wrist.. it really makes my blood boil.

[blueamy66]

93. To all of those interested in serial killers

I was a Justice Studies major in college. I took a class about the narratives of serial killers. I aced every assignment.

JW Gacy was a whackjob.....got an A on my final because of him.

I remember, as a child, keeping a "scrapbook" of the Sam killer in NYC.

Maybe that is when my life changed.. :-)

[OmahaBlueDog]

94. I once sold used cars in South Florida

It's not something I talk about much, or that I'm proud of. Fortunately, I avoided any serious prison time.

[Jamastiene]

114. ...

:spray:

[Yo_Mama]

96. Also A Guy Who Used to Come To Fish

At our farm. He'd bring his son. They were really close. I didn't know him well - my husband knew him better - but he always seemed nice and I really liked watching him and his son together. There was a lot of warmth and love there, and they seemed normal as all get out.

He started sleeping around on his wife. She got fed up and divorced him. I gather he was running with a fast crowd in the next town over (alcohol, sex and maybe drugs).

In a couple of years after the divorce, his wife started dating and was getting serious. He blew up. One day he went to the house and threatened to kill his wife and kids. The sheriff came down and talked him out. He had a business, and they worked out a deal (his wife supported this) where he got 20 years probation, some jail, had to go to a bunch of programs but was out and could work. Within a year, he did it again. The sheriff came down and got him out again (word has it not too diplomatically) and he is now in jail for a long, long time.

No one could believe this, but it did happen. They lived not far from us. I cannot understand how this could happen in a person's mind.

After reading this thread, I'm thinking that jails are going to be around for a long, long time.

[Jamastiene]

98. When I was in school, I was friends with a girl.

I had been to her house for sleepovers several times. I had met her mother, father, younger brother and older brother both. Later, her older brother shot and killed their father. He went outside the window of the den where his father was reading and shot him through the window. It was a major crime in this area at the time with a lot of scandal that followed due to how much the father was worth, financially, and due to the fact that the son had had a fight with the father earlier that evening, then tried to kill him and make it look like a robbery attempt gone wrong to get his money. The scandal was that the mother tried to protect the son who did the shooting.

In school, my mother was friends with a woman who later got murdered by her own mother. Her mother beat her to death with a hammer, then got sent to Dorothea Dix.

I have more friends that ended up getting maimed or killed in wars and maimed or killed as police officers (some emotionally as well as physically). I was surprised at how many of my childhood friends grew up and became police officers, although I should not have been. Some of the ones who took up for me the most often in school when I was being bullied are the same ones who became cops. As a matter of fact, one who particularly took up for me a lot, has a bridge named after him in Fayetteville now. He died in the line of duty there via a drug dealer's gunfire during a raid. RIP Troy

[txwhitedove]

99. Yes, a husband who in turn was heinously beaten to death. Everyone

has their level of 'bad', but my good christian grandmother did something I consider heinous. My daughter says I should write the story..., someday. HEY, John Grisham, I've got a good southern story for you.

[Critters2]

101. My adminstrative assitant worked for me for 5.5 years, before

I found out that she had started embezzling while working under my predecessor. The day there was a meeting scheduled to go over financial improprieties, she set fire to the home of our treasurer.

The whole time she worked for me, she was a Sunday School teacher, a Girl Scout leader, the all-around good mom. It still boggles my mind. And now she's in prison, while her husband raises their kids alone. So sad.

Not exactly the scenario you're asking about, but still...

[wickerwoman]

115. A kind of similar thing happened to me.

I was working as a bookkeeper and covering the customer service desk in a grocery store and one of my coworkers was arrested for stealing lottery tickets, sending unauthorized Western Union wire money to herself and stealing from the tills. Looking back she was always offering to "cover" for other people but fortunately I never let her.

The real kicker was that her husband was a cop and it was a very, very small town (like only three or four cops). I wasn't there when she got arrested, but I always wondered if her husband was the one who had to do it.

[Critters2]

122. This woman's husband is a former State's Attorney (what others call a District Attorney)

He's in private practice now, but you can imagine what this has done to his practice. It's all so tragic. I wasn't in the office when the police arrested her. I was with the women whose house she had set on fire.

I often feel like that woman sheriff in "Fargo": "And for what? A little bit of money."

[wickerwoman]

116. Sorry dupe.

[socialist_n_TN]

102. I used to play a game with women I had just met

and I didn't think that I'd ever see again. I'd ask them to tell me their deepest, most hidden secret. It's was a good way to get to know someone quickly. And most of the time the secret was about sex, so it kind of steered the conversation in a direction I wanted it to go too. Sex with brothers-in-laws, sister-in-laws, twin brothers, etc.

So I met a pretty wild redhead who was SERIOUSLY too young for me and I popped my question. She said, "Well, I threw a State Trooper over a highway overpass one time." After that whenever I asked that question, I made sure to say "No violent felonies please."

Everybody else I've know, I knew what their felonies were. :)

[socialist_n_TN]

113. OOOOH! I just thought of another one........

I'm REALLY surprised I forgot this one because... well you'll see.

As a REALLY young hippy type in Lower Alabama, I met a girl at the mall named Katie. She was from California and pretty weird, even for that time. But she was intriguing because she was older and from Cali which was a big deal in our little southern burg. We hung out a little a couple of times. About two or three weeks later, I saw her on the news. She had been arrested in connection with the Sharon Tate murders. It was Patricia Krenwinkel (sp?). I think she's still in jail.

[tridim]

103. My childhood friend stabbed his girlfriend 40 times.

Makes me sick just thinking about it.

His home was completely broken, and even at 5 years old I knew he was going to turn out bad.

[Esurientes]

104. Yes, a few

When I first read your post, I thought you meant whether we'd known people who'd committed heinous crimes in the past, before we met them, that later came to light. Every murderer I knew did it after I wasn't in contact with them any longer (moved a lot when I was in my 20s and 30s).

One of my brother's ex-girlfriends plotted with her new boyfriend to kill her parents for insurance money. I had liked her very much when she was dating my brother, and had even given her a job reference!

An ex-boss's sister killed her estranged husband, shot and seriously wounded his girlfriend, and then killed herself. This event made up a tiny episode in Jerry Bledsoe's Bitter Blood. I had a drink with her once; she seemed very nervous (spilled her drink) but certainly not murderous.

Finally -- my downstairs neighbor strangled two women he was dating, after his wife divorced him and he had moved out from our apartment complex. Once he gave me a ride on his new motorcycle, and was a perfect gentleman. When he was arrested, my best friend kept moaning over and over, "You went for a ride with him!"

[Lydia Leftcoast]

105. I had a teaching colleague (thankfully, not in the same department) who,

I later found out, beat his wife and molested his daughters. I had always felt that there was something vaguely creepy about him.

[Liberal_in_LA]

106. Something you want to tell us?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

108. I just remembered that a dear friend, a co-worker of mine...

was brutally murdered by her husband.

I didn't know him, so this doesn't exactly fit your parameters.

She was apparently thinking about leaving him. So, one night, she was in her twin bed asleep when he came in the room and smashed her skull with a baseball bat.

Then he went in the kitchen and shot himself.

I was sickened and horrified. We'd been close at work.

Reading your thread jogged my memory.

[proud2BlibKansan]

109. Several.

1. A former student and his brother beat a guy up so badly he was paralyzed. They are now in prison serving 40 year sentences.

2. A couple of my former students are in prison for murder. At least three that I know of.

3. One of the sweetest kids I taught shot a cop. Of course, I had him in 1st grade so I am assuming something happened to change him before he shot the cop when he was 20.

4. My husband had a co-worker who was a parolee for a bank robbery conviction. Really nice guy and last we heard, he was still staying out of trouble and doing well.

[opiate69]

110. Yep....

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/opiate69/7

[lib2DaBone]

111. Rick Scott stole $600 Million.. and was then elected Governor of Florida...

Rick Scott

On March 19, 1997, investigators from the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Health and Human Services served search warrants at Columbia/HCA facilities in El Paso and on dozens of doctors with suspected ties to the company.<19>

Following the raids, the Columbia/HCA board of directors forced Scott to resign as Chairman and CEO.<20> He was paid $9.88 million in a settlement. He also left owning 10 million shares of stock worth over $350 million.<21><22><23>

In 1999, Columbia/HCA changed its name back to HCA, Inc.

In settlements reached in 2000 and 2002, Columbia/HCA plead guilty to 14 felonies and agreed to a $600+ million fine in the largest fraud settlement in US history. Columbia/HCA admitted systematically overcharging the government by claiming marketing costs as reimbursable, by striking illegal deals with home care agencies, and by filing false data about use of hospital space. They also admitted fraudulently billing Medicare and other health programs by inflating the seriousness of diagnoses and to giving doctors partnerships in company hospitals as a kickback for the doctors referring patients to HCA. They filed false cost reports, fraudulently billing Medicare for home health care workers, and paid kickbacks in the sale of home health agencies and to doctors to refer patients. In addition, they gave doctors "loans" never intending to be repaid, free rent, free office furniture, and free drugs from hospital pharmacies.<3><4><5><6><7>

In late 2002, HCA agreed to pay the U.S. government $631 million, plus interest, and pay $17.5 million to state Medicaid agencies, in addition to $250 million paid up to that point to resolve outstanding Medicare expense claims.<24> In all, civil law suits cost HCA more than $2 billion to settle, by far the largest fraud settlement in US history.<25>

[JanMichael]

112. There used to be a guy on DU who sat beside Ted Bundy in law school

I can't remember who it was, but I remember reading his post and being completely creeped out. I was hoping he would post on this thread--

[wickerwoman]

117. I used to work with a woman,

in her forties, totally, totally average. After I'd known her about two years, one day at lunch out of the blue she started telling me about the time she was kidnapped as a seven year old. They held her for ransom for something like two weeks and drew blood every few days to send to her parents to prove that she was still alive. Her parents paid up, and the kidnappers let her go because she'd never seen them and her parents hadn't called the cops.

Don't know if it was real or bullshit, but I never looked at her exactly the same way again.

[Gormy Cuss]

118. I'm surprised that you haven't.

I've known a lot.

[SharonAnn]

119. HR Director at the Fortune 100 company I worked for was led out of HQ in handcuffs.

He been molesting boys in the Special Olympics.

He'd always been lauded for his volunteer work with the Special Olympics. But it turned out it was his young boy harem.

It was all over TV and I was absolutely dumbfounded. I didn't know him well, but he seemed like the typical upper management type. And while they may have done lots of nefarious things, I never suspected them of molesting disabled boys.

[opiate69]

121. Oh yeah.. also went to school with this guy..

Convicted of killing a State Trooper
http://www.fotojones.com/editorial/deathrow/inmates/johnson.html

[DURHAM D]

123. I used to babysit a young man who later murdered his parents.

The part in this article about the parents abusing him is a complete lie.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948056,00.html

I understand he changed his name and is currently practicing law. scary eh?

[lonestarnot]

125. Wow, Kansas law I hope.

[DURHAM D]

127. Not sure - Missouri I think.

This is a very interesting case and someone should have written a book about it. This became a cultural war between Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics. The parents had converted to Catholicism and the SB's believed that is why Greg murdered them as they basically deserved it. It was crazy time.

Greg and his younger brother came to see my Dad after Greg got out of the asylum. They were looking for more money. They thought their parents were worth more and they just couldn't find it. My Dad had testified at the trial as a character witness for the parents as it was the murdered parents who were actually put on trial.

My parents always thought the murder was about money. Greg had threatened his parents if they didn't let him move out of the house into his own apartment while he was still in high school and give him plenty of money. Greg was never crazy - he was just entitled and greedy.

[lonestarnot]

128. Were they pugs?

[lonestarnot]

124. creepy.

[xmas74]

126. Knew a murderer, knew an arsonist,

and a serial rapist. The rapist was quite charming, which I now find frightening.

[robinlynne]

129. I met a Nazi in Brazil. an old man. he owned the little hotel we stayed in.

he said he was austrian. then night after night sitting around a fire, he told us about the concentration camp he worked at.
Actually he told me. not us. I don't remember if the others were there that night. He said his uncle ran the concentration camp, and he wanted to be a Nazi because having a uniform was the best way to get a date.

I had absolutely no reaction. I couldn't move.

[chowder66]

130. To everyone who says yes....my sympathies to you.

I knew (but barely) Bob Bordella.

[joshcryer]

132. Yes, husband of the mother of my sister in law's nephew was a convicted armed robbery...

...and was an escaped convict. Apparently she actually helped him get a new birth certificate, ID, whole nine yards, because he was pretending to be someone else. She had a kid with him. They had a nasty falling out after he lost his oil rig job, and he went back to criminal activity. It wasn't until they printed him for a background check that they caught him (interestingly he didn't get caught when he got his new ID, which requires a fingerprinting in my state).

All told she spent about 6 years with the man and didn't know he had that background.

We used to go off roading, and we'd get to talking sometimes and he'd go off somewhere in his head, you could tell something was weighing on him, heavily. Nice guy, though, in retrospect it would've been impossible to know he did what he did (armed robbery, then escaped from a low security prison, non-violently at least, so he just has to do his full time).