Bad Apples

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*There's plenty of them to choose from.

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Alphonse Capone may be the most celebrated, or infamous, mobster in American history. His story has been told in dozens of fictionalized and true-to-life movies, television shows, books and other media. It’s an impressive collection for a man whose success and indeed whose life were relatively brief.

Growing up in New York City, Capone was active in the Five Points gang, a criminal enterprise of mostly younger Italian-Americans in Manhattan that also graduated such well-known mobsters as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano and Johnny Torrio. It was in New York that Capone suffered a facial wound in a fight at a brothel, earning him the nickname “Scarface.” Torrio moved to Chicago in 1909 to work for syndicate boss “Big Jim” Colosimo, and in 1920 Torrio called upon Capone to join their growing enterprise in the Windy City. Colosimo operated hundreds of brothels and gambling rackets, but he reportedly refused to go into bootlegging, which, with the enactment of Prohibition in 1920, was a huge growth opportunity for organized crime groups.

Colosimo was shot to death the same year Capone came to Chicago. Although nobody was ever arrested for Colosimo’s murder, many believe Torrio ordered the hit, and that Capone was an accomplice in the killing. Torrio inherited Colosimo’s organization and quickly capitalized on the illegal alcohol industry. His leadership was relatively short. In 1925, Torrio was shot and injured by a rival gang, and then he was sentenced to nine months in prison for operating an illegal distillery.

Torrio resigned as leader of the criminal organization that became known as the Outfit and, for three years, moved back to Italy. (He later returned to the United States and became something of an elder statesmen among mobsters, helping to found the national Commission of the American Mafia in 1934.) With Torrio’s resignation, Capone took control of the Outfit. From 1925 through 1929, Capone was the most-visible mobster in America. Capone worked with local media and friendly politicians to cultivate an image of a businessman concerned with the welfare of his fellow Chicagoans. But Capone’s tenure was also a period of rising rivalries with other Chicago gangsters, conflicts that frequently turned violent.

The escalating Mob violence in Chicago culminated with the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre on February 14, 1929. Seven members or associates of the Bugs Moran gang – rivals of Capone — were lined up against the wall of a garage by men posing as police and machine-gunned to death. The brutality of the murders made headlines throughout the country. Although Capone was at his vacation house near Miami at the time of the massacre and never arrested for the crime, he was widely suspected of ordering the massacre. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre happened just a month before Capone was arrested by federal agents for contempt of court for his failure to answer a federal subpoena, and he would ultimately be sentenced to six months on that charge.

But before he served his time on the contempt charge, Capone and his bodyguard were arrested in Philadelphia for carrying concealed weapons. Capone was sentenced to one year in Pennsylvania’s Eastern State Penitentiary. He served nine months, earning time off for good behavior, and was released in March 1930.

Capone’s troubles were just beginning. The U.S. Treasury’s Special Intelligence Unit had started compiling a tax evasion case against him. In contrast to the standard movie plot of tommy gun-firing G-Men bringing down the Mob, accountants and prosecutors assembled the most effective cases against people like Capone. They did not have to prove Capone was orchestrating gambling, protection, prostitution and bootlegging rackets, simply that he wasn’t paying taxes on his income from those rackets. And it was clear that Capone had to have substantial income to support such a lavish lifestyle.

On October 18, 1931, Capone was convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. He served his time in the Cook County Jail and the Atlanta and Alcatraz federal prisons. The prison time was severe – a longer term than most tax evasion cases yielded — but that wasn’t Capone’s biggest problem.

Capone was infected with syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease, which in advanced cases was then incurable. By the time he left Alcatraz in 1939, the disease had profoundly affected his mental and physical health. Doctors reported that Capone had, in 1939, the cognitive processes of a 12-year-old child. He essentially retired with his family to his Florida mansion, where he died in 1947 at age 48. Capone essentially retired from the Mob after his imprisonment in 1931, but the Outfit he had built up through bootlegging and other rackets went on without him under the leadership of Capone disciples such as Frank Nitti, Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana.

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[Swamp-Duck]

capo dei capi.

 

[Alticus]

capo dei capi.

I had to google that. lol "Boss of all bosses" Cool

 

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Late in 1865, just after the United States Civil War ended, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded. The Klan, a secret organization that used terror tactics to target newly freed African Americans, attracted defeated Confederates who resented the changes of Reconstruction. Under the cloak of darkness and in disguise, the KKK worked to enforce white supremacy as the political and social order of the South.

The end of the Civil War brought freedom to enslaved African Americans in the former Confederacy. The 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, as well as federal laws introduced during the years of Reconstruction (1866–1877), were intended to protect the civil rights of freed people. However, when they tried to exercise their new rights, they encountered intimidation and violence, much of it organized by the Klan.

The votes of formerly enslaved men helped give the Republican Party control of the Mississippi state legislature, which made Hiram Rhodes Revels the first African American in the United States Senate. In 1870, South Carolina directly elected Joseph Rainey, another African American, to the U.S. House of Representatives. The Klan reacted with terrorizing night rides to the homes of black voters. Throughout the South, lynching and intimidation were prevalent. The KKK used secrecy, intimidation, violence, and murder to prevent formerly enslaved African-American men from voting. Black officeholders and their supporters were especially targeted.

In 1871, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, anti-Klan laws were passed allowing the president to declare martial law. Grant did not use these powers to the full extent of the law, but some state militias did break up Klan chapters. Nine South Carolina counties were placed under martial law and arrests followed.

However, after Reconstruction ended in 1877, state legislatures were able to put in place Jim Crow laws that ensured white superiority and segregation. Black voters were intimidated or simply blocked from registering and voting. The new laws placed almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of voting. The early Klan disbanded in the 1870s, partly because of federal laws but also because its goals had been met. The Klan would be revived in the early 20th century with its falsely heroic portrayal in The Birth of a Nation film. The influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe offered a new target for the Klan's prejudice.

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*Damn, this guy takes narcissism to a whole new level.

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Luka Rocco Magnotta (born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman; July 24, 1982) is a Canadian pornographic actor and model accused of killing and dismembering Lin Jun, a Chinese international student, then mailing his severed limbs to political parties and elementary schools. After a video allegedly depicting the murder was posted online, Magnotta fled the country, becoming the subject of an Interpol Red Notice and prompting an international manhunt. He was apprehended at an Internet café in Berlin while reading news about himself.

He was previously sought by animal rights groups for allegedly uploading videos of himself killing kittens.Eric Clinton Kirk Newman was born in July 24, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario. He attended I. E. Weldon Secondary School in Lindsay. He legally changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta on August 12, 2006. In 2003, he began to appear in gay pornographic videos, occasionally working as a stripper and a male escort. He appeared as a pin-up model in a 2005 issue of Toronto's fab magazine using the pseudonym "Jimmy". In 2007, he was an unsuccessful competitor in OUTtv's reality series COVER guy. Magnotta had multiple cosmetic surgeries and auditioned for Slice network show Plastic Makes Perfect in February 2008.

In 2005, he was convicted of one count of impersonation and three counts of fraud (against Sears Canada, The Brick, and 2001 Audio Video) after impersonating a woman to apply for a credit card and purchasing over $10,000 worth of goods. He pleaded guilty and received a nine-month conditional sentence with 12 months of probation. Magnotta declared bankruptcy in March 2007, owing $17,000 in various debts. The bankruptcy was fully discharged in December 2007.

Rumors emerged in 2007 claiming Magnotta was in a relationship with Karla Homolka, a high-profile Canadian murderer, though he denied this in an interview with the Toronto Sun. During the murder investigation, Montreal police initially announced the pair had dated but subsequently retracted the statement and acknowledged that they had no evidence to corroborate the claim.

Many profiles on various internet social media and discussion forums were created over several years to plant false or unverified claims about Magnotta. Magnotta himself repeatedly dismissed such accounts as hoaxes and part of a campaign of cyber stalking against him. According to police, Magnotta set up at least 70 Facebook pages and 20 websites under different names. Lin Jun (Chinese: 林俊; pinyin: Lín Jùn) (30 December 1978 – May 2012) also known as Justin Lin, was an international student from Wuhan and an undergraduate in the engineering and computer science faculty at Concordia University. He worked part-time as a convenience store clerk in Pointe-Saint-Charles. Lin had been studying in Montreal since July 2011. Lin moved into a Griffintown-area apartment with a roommate on May 1. He was last seen on May 24, 2012 and his friends reported getting a text message from his phone at 9 PM. His boss became suspicious when he didn't show up for his shift the next day. Three of his friends went into his apartment on May 27. He was reported missing to police on May 29.

On May 25, 2012, an 11-minute video titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick was uploaded to Bestgore.com depicting a naked male tied to a bed frame being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick and a kitchen knife, then dismembered, followed by acts of necrophilia. The perpetrator uses a knife and fork to cut off some of the flesh and gets a dog to chew on the body.

During the video, the 1987 New Order song "True Faith" plays in the background, and a poster for the 1942 film Casablanca is visible on the wall. Canadian authorities were able to obtain a "more extensive" version of the video and confirmed that cannibalism may have been performed. Materials promoting the video appeared online at least 10 days before the murder took place.

On May 26, an attorney from Montana attempted to report the video to Toronto Police, his local Sheriff, and the FBI, but the report was dismissed by officials. Bestgore viewers also attempted to report the video. Police later confirmed it as authentic and identified the victim, an Asian male, as the same one whose body parts were sent to Ottawa.

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Late in 1865, just after the United States Civil War ended, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was founded. The Klan, a secret organization that used terror tactics to target newly freed African Americans, attracted defeated Confederates who resented the changes of Reconstruction. Under the cloak of darkness and in disguise, the KKK worked to enforce white supremacy as the political and social order of the South.

The end of the Civil War brought freedom to enslaved African Americans in the former Confederacy. The 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, as well as federal laws introduced during the years of Reconstruction (1866–1877), were intended to protect the civil rights of freed people. However, when they tried to exercise their new rights, they encountered intimidation and violence, much of it organized by the Klan.

The votes of formerly enslaved men helped give the Republican Party control of the Mississippi state legislature, which made Hiram Rhodes Revels the first African American in the United States Senate. In 1870, South Carolina directly elected Joseph Rainey, another African American, to the U.S. House of Representatives. The Klan reacted with terrorizing night rides to the homes of black voters. Throughout the South, lynching and intimidation were prevalent. The KKK used secrecy, intimidation, violence, and murder to prevent formerly enslaved African-American men from voting. Black officeholders and their supporters were especially targeted.

In 1871, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, anti-Klan laws were passed allowing the president to declare martial law. Grant did not use these powers to the full extent of the law, but some state militias did break up Klan chapters. Nine South Carolina counties were placed under martial law and arrests followed.

However, after Reconstruction ended in 1877, state legislatures were able to put in place Jim Crow laws that ensured white superiority and segregation. Black voters were intimidated or simply blocked from registering and voting. The new laws placed almost insurmountable obstacles in the way of voting. The early Klan disbanded in the 1870s, partly because of federal laws but also because its goals had been met. The Klan would be revived in the early 20th century with its falsely heroic portrayal in The Birth of a Nation film. The influx of Catholic and Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe offered a new target for the Klan's prejudice.

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Not criticising what you've poasted but it is compartmentalised. ie post civil war 1 or 2/3rds of those lynched were white southerners who supported the north, scallywags. The Klan rather than some race movement(which they were) was a collection of gangsters. This chimes in with what Thomas Sowell says about the culture which was imported from rural east Anglia and why black migration to NY was heavily influenced by it, eg Gangster rap.

 

[Ray_Pissed]

I can't be bothered reading all that. Let me know when the movie comes out.

 

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Leonarda Cianciulli was not what she seemed. She was far from your normal middle-aged woman; while she looked like a loving and caring person on the outside, she was really a sadistic murderer of several innocent victims. And, as is the case with most serial killers, problems were evident early on in her youth. In fact, she tried to kill herself not just once but twice while still a child.

She then grew into what those at the time would consider a very rebellious adult. Instead of agreeing to the arranged marriage her parents had intended, she became the wife of Raffaele Pansardi, a registry office clerk she had chosen herself. Their wedding was in 1917, and her parents refused to give their blessing. Quite the contrary, Leonarda would come to believe that her mother cursed them out of spite and brought about bad luck on their family for generations.

To be fair, Leonarda and Raffaele did have their share of unfortunate events. In 1927, Leonarda was imprisoned on charges of fraud, and then three years later, their home was demolished by an earthquake. Three of her pregnancies ended in miscarriage, and ten more resulted in babies who died very young. Despite seventeen pregnancies, only four kids survived.

She was desperate to protect these four, no matter the cost. Already a very superstitious person, it didn’t help that a fortune teller had predicted the death of not only some but all of her offspring. While this would be unsettling to most, she became what you might consider a bit paranoid as a consequence. When World War II started, Leonarda's oldest son, Giuseppe, told her of his plans to join the army. This is one of the reasons many believe she completely lost her already unstable mind. Giuseppe would be directly in harm’s way, and this was particularly upsetting as he was Leonarda's favorite remaining child. She felt especially helpless to protect him, let alone her other children, until she came up with a truly awful idea.

At some point, Leonarda became convinced that the only way to keep them all safe was to offer up some human sacrifices. Only then did she believe her children would be free from harm, and Giuseppe would come home alive.
With this goal in mind, Leonarda used her charm and influence to her advantage. She worked in a small store in their hometown of Correggio, and was well-liked and respected by the locals. She was a poetess and fortune teller, and many sought her advice and came to her with their troubles.

For her, it was almost too simple. She had virtually the entire village to choose from, but who would have the misfortune of dying first, before the others? Leonarda was strategic about her intended targets. All were older women who lived on their own and were, she reasoned, less likely to be missed. All of the women dreamed of a more exciting and fulfilling life elsewhere outside of Correggio. To Leonarda, this made them perfect. The first unsuspecting victim she selected was a spinster named Faustina Setti.

Since she had no immediate family, Leonarda believed Faustina could disappear with few people thinking to check on her. In other words, she could easily get away with her murder without many questions. Leonarda tricked Faustina by saying that she had found her the perfect future husband. However, this man wasn’t in their hometown but in the large city of Pola. Further, she convinced Faustina not to tell anyone. Instead, Faustina wrote letters explaining she had left, which she would send once she had arrived in Pola. Before she left on her trip, Faustina visited Leonarda and paid her a large sum of money for her assistance. This consisted of her entire life savings of 3,000 lire, the equivalent of $530 at the time and around $9,500 today. Leonarda offered Faustina a glass of wine to celebrate. Unaware that it was drugged, she drank it and she soon lost consciousness.

Leonarda then attacked her with an ax and dragged the body across the room to the closet. There, Leonarda sliced Faustina apart by hacking her into exactly nine pieces. She collected all of the blood in a large bowl and left it to cool down. The chunks of flesh were mixed with lye, a harsh chemical that dissolved them into mush. This was then dumped into a septic tank and likely into waste. Faustina’s blood eventually grew cold and thick, after which Leonarda dried it in her oven and then pulverized it into a red powder. The powder was later incorporated with other ingredients such as flour, eggs, and sugar and kneaded together. The dough became tea cakes. These pastries had a crunchy texture and were served to clueless visitors, as members of Leonarda’s family.

In other words, Leonarda, her son, and her neighbors all ate Faustina over the span of a few days. It was a fate that Faustina never saw coming.

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[Adam Hitler]

I've always been interested in the 1930's gangster era in the US, back when Italians ruled the streets.

I love the style, dress sense, code of conduct etc, very cool.

In a former life, I could see myself as some kind of enforcer, dressed in a pinstripe suit and fedora, wielding a tommy gun heh.

 

[Garraty_47]

A bit of a tangent but related:

My current character (Druid) Title in GuildWars2 is "Good Apple". He's not in any 'families' though... at the moment he's not even in a guild.

 

[The New Holliday]

 

[Alticus]

I love Trump but his hair is jacked!

 

[The New Holliday]

I love Trump but his hair is jacked!

Here come ol flat top..he
.. HeCome groovin up slewwwwly....

 

[Reggie_Essent]

I've always been interested in the 1930's gangster era in the US, back when Italians ruled the streets.

I love the style, dress sense, code of conduct etc, very cool.

In a former life, I could see myself as some kind of enforcer, dressed in a pinstripe suit and fedora, wielding a tommy gun heh.

At least when the dagos ran the street crime they hit what they were shooting at and kept the collateral damage to a minimum. Our "gangsta" youth nowadays just spray lead all over the streets. we had 62 shootings and 14 deaths over the weekend.

 

[Alticus]

Come on ol flat top..he
.. HeCome groovin up slewwwwly....

Now we're talking. The Kojak look.

 

[The New Holliday]

Now we're talking. The Kojak look.

Well, as it's said ownlay the good die young so that's coming.

Needs the orange prison onsey but otherwise accurate.

 

[Alticus]

Well, as it's said ownlay the good die young so that's coming.

Needs the orange prison onsey but otherwise accurate.

Nice one.

 

[The New Holliday]

Nice one.

I know - I do this part time.

 

[Adam Hitler]

At least when the dagos ran the street crime they hit what they were shooting at and kept the collateral damage to a minimum. Our "gangsta" youth nowadays just spray lead all over the streets. we had 62 shootings and 14 deaths over the weekend.

Spray and pray....

What happened to the Italian mob in Chicago? Are they still around, but more low key these days or did they get replaced by nigger and Hispanic gangs?

 

[Reggie_Essent]

Spray and pray....

What happened to the Italian mob in Chicago? Are they still around, but more low key these days or did they get replaced by nigger and Hispanic gangs?

They're still around. Some bought car dealerships, others started Italian restaurants and still others went into politics as Democrats to continue criminal grifting.

 

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At its height, the Islamic State - also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh - held about a third of Syria and 40 percent of Iraq. By December 2017 it had lost 95 percent of its territory, including its two biggest properties, Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, and the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, its nominal capital. The following is a timeline of the rise, spread and and fall of the Islamic State. The Islamic State – also known as ISIS, ISIL, or Daesh – emerged from the remnants of al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a local offshoot of al Qaeda founded by Abu Musab al Zarqawi in 2004. It faded into obscurity for several years after the surge of U.S. troops to Iraq in 2007. But it began to reemerge in 2011. Over the next few years, it took advantage of growing instability in Iraq and Syria to carry out attacks and bolster its ranks.

The group changed its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2013. ISIS launched an offensive on Mosul and Tikrit in June 2014. On June 29, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi announced the formation of a caliphate stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq, and renamed the group the Islamic State.

A U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq on August 7, 2014, and expanded the campaign to Syria the following month. On October 15, the United States named the campaign “Operation Inherent Resolve.” Over the next year, the United States conducted more than 8,000 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. ISIS suffered key losses along Syria’s border with Turkey, and by the end of 2015, Iraqi forces had made progress in recapturing Ramadi. But in Syria, ISIS made gains near Aleppo, and still firmly held Raqqa and other strongholds.

In 2015, ISIS expanded into a network of affiliates in at least eight other countries. Its branches, supporters, and affiliates increasingly carried out attacks beyond the borders of its so-called caliphate. In October, ISIS’s Egypt affiliate bombed a Russian airplane, killing 224 people. On November 13, 130 people were killed and more than 300 injured in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris. And in June 2016, a gunman who pledged support to ISIS killed at least four dozen people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

By December 2017, the ISIS caliphate had lost 95 percent of its territory, including its two biggest properties, Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, its nominal capital. The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi declared victory over the Islamic State in Iraq on December 9, 2017. But ISIS was still inspiring and carrying out attacks all over the world, including New York City.

In 2018, the focus of the campaign against ISIS shifted to eastern Syria, where a U.S.-backed coalition of Syrian Kurds and Arabs known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gradually captured key ISIS positions. The SDF briefly suspended its offensive in November 2018 after Turkish attacks on Kurdish positions diverted its attention. On December 14, the SDF captured the town of Hajin. Hajin’s fall reduced ISIS territory to a few villages along the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border.

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Myra Hindley was an English serial killer. In partnership with Ian Brady, she committed the rapes and murders of five small children. Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law tipped off the police about her crimes. Hindley plead not guilty to all of the murders. She was found guilty of three murders and was jailed for life. She was never released and died in prison in 2002.Born on July 23, 1942, in Manchester, England, Hindley grew up with her grandmother. After the drowning death of a close male friend when she was 15, Hindley left school and converted to Roman Catholicism.

In 1961, she met Ian Brady, a stock clerk who was recently released from prison. She fell in love with him and soon gave herself over to his total control.Testing her blind allegiance, Brady hatched plans of rape and murder. In July 1963, they claimed their first victim, Pauline Reade. Four months later, 12-year-old John Kilbride disappeared, never to be seen again. In June 1964, 12-year-old Keith Bennett followed. On the afternoon of Boxing Day, 1964, 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey disappeared from a local fairground.

Finally, in October 1965, police were alerted to the duo by Hindley's 17-year-old brother-in-law, David Smith. Smith had witnessed Brady killing 17-year-old Edward Evans with an axe, concealing his horror for fear of meeting a similar fate. Smith then went to the police with his story, including Brady having mentioned that more bodies were buried on Saddleworth Moor. Hindley and Brady were brought to trial on April 27, 1966, where they pleaded not guilty to the murders of Evans, Downey and Kilbride.

Brady was found guilty of the murders of Downey, Kilbride and Evans, while Hindley was found guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans, and for harboring Brady, in the knowledge that he had killed Kilbride. They were both jailed for life.In 1970, Hindley severed all contact with Brady and, still professing her innocence, began a lifelong campaign to regain her freedom. In 1987, Hindley again became the center of media attention, with the public release of her full confession, in which she admitted her involvement in all five murders. Her subsequent applications for parole were denied. She died of respiratory failure on November 16, 2002.

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Chikatilo was born on October 16, 1936, in the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union during Stalin's regime. Due to the agricultural plans, starvation was rampant and stories about cannibalism circulated. At one point, Chikatilo was told by his mother, Anna, that his older brother, Stepan, was kidnapped, killed and cannibalized by starved neighbors, though the story has never been verified, nor has the claim that Chikatilo even had a brother. Both his parents were farm laborers who shared a single room hut with him, forcing him to also share a bed with them. A frequent bed wetter, Chikatilo was often beaten by his mother as punishment. It was discovered later in life that he had been born with brain damage that affected his ability to control seminal and bladder emissions. When the war began, Chikatilo's father, Roman, was drafted into the Red Army and the rest of the family was left in the crossfire of the German Blitz. In 1943, Anna Chikatilo gave birth to a baby girl.

Given the timeline of her husband's departure, the child was apparently conceived outside of marriage (some theorize that she was raped by a German soldier in front of Chikatilo). When the war ended, Roman Chikatilo was placed in a Russian prison camp for having surrendered in combat and his son forced to denounce his father as a coward publicly.Over the following 12 years, Chikatilo committed over 50 known murders. Because reports of crimes like serial murder and rape were greatly suppressed by Soviet authorities in the state-controlled media, stories began taking a life of their own; among the rumors that circulated was that the victims were killed and mutilated by a werewolf. The murders weren’t publicized until August 1984, by which time Chikatilo had killed at least 30 people.

He was suspected of killing Yelena Zabotnova and had been seen with her, but because another man confessed to the murder under torture and was consequently executed, Chikatilo was able to continue killing. In September 1984, he was arrested after soliciting a prostitute, having been seen approaching a number of women at the Rostov bus station. His briefcase was searched and found to contain a kitchen knife, a towel, a rope and a jar of petroleum jelly. Unfortunately, his blood type did not come back a match to the semen found on the bodies, forcing the investigators to release him. This has never been fully explained and is sometimes believed to have been the result of a clerical error. Other sources claim that it was because he was a non-secretor, which meant his blood type wouldn't be determinable from his semen. Weeks after his arrest, he was expelled from the Communist party after being convicted of stealing from his workplace and sentenced to three months in jail.

In November 1990, Chikatilo was stopped and questioned when coming out of the area in which his final victim, Svetlana Korostik, was found. On November 14, the day after the remains were discovered, he was formally arrested and interrogated. Over the following two weeks, he confessed to as many as 57 murders, of which the investigators had only attributed 36 to him. The case went to trial on April 14, 1992. Chikatilo had to be placed inside an iron cage when on the stand to protect him from the family members of his victims. His behavior during the proceedings was bizarre, to say the least; twice he pulled down his pants, exposed himself and shouted that he was not a homosexual, he claimed to be pregnant and lactating at some points and alternated between boredom and anger. He also denied being guilty of several murders to which he had already confessed while confessing to unknown ones. When the prosecutor was about to deliver the final argument, Chikatilo broke into song and had to be removed from the courtroom. When he was brought in and offered a moment to speak, he said nothing. Though the defense tried to claim he was insane, a group of court-appointed psychiatrists disagreed. On October 14, 1992, Chikatilo was found guilty of 52 murders; 21 males and 31 females. On February 14, 1994, he was executed with a single shot to the head, his last words apparently being "Don't blow my brains out! The Japanese want to buy them!"

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MS-13 was formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country. Some of its members were trained in guerilla warfare and the use of military weapons. The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives. Fear and intimidation are used in extorting payments from any legitimate or illegitimate business owners for the right to conduct their business in MS-13 territory. MS-13 members have been involved in rapes and witness intimidation.

In addition to local crimes, MS-13 is known to participate in numerous transnational crimes; for example, they are involved in the illegal trafficking of stolen vehicles from the United States to Central America. They also participate in weapon smuggling and illegal firearm sales. They are believed to be a major retail distributor of drugs in Houston. MS-13 also has theft crews traveling across the United States, stealing over-the-counter medications from retail stores that are then sold in the illegal market. There have also been reports of MS-13's involvement in human smuggling.

In 2004, the FBI created the MS-13 National Gang Task Force, which coordinates cooperation among local and State law enforcement agencies, including facilitation in the flow of information among these agencies in order to dismantle MS-13. Other strategies involve the deportation of MS-13 members to their home countries. This effort, however, has exacerbated the gang problem by fueling its international proliferation.

MS-13 has been called the most dangerous gang in the world. The gang’s shocking violence and satanic influences have earned it a high level of notoriety and it’s a favorite talking point for Republicans seeking to justify stricter immigration policies, especially Donald Trump. According to them, MS-13 is proof that violent immigrants are flooding into America. The large number of migrants arriving at the border as well as a recent gruesome murder in New York City by suspected MS-13 members are likely to bring these talking points back. Yet many misconceptions about the notorious gang are abound and the history of MS-13 may surprise you.

To understand MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha (the exact origin of the name is disputed), one must go back to the El Salvadoran Civil War that began in 1979 and lasted throughout the 1980s. It was one of the many proxy conflicts of the Cold War, with the US-backed government pitted against left-wing guerrillas backed by Cuba, and other Communist countries. According to the UN, 85 percent of the violence against civilians was committed by government forces and death squads, whom the United States supported with weapons and training. The brutal conflict created hundreds of thousands of refugees, many of whom ended up in the United States.

MS-13 originated in the United States, not Central America. Los Angeles was a major hub for those fleeing the war, and that’s where the gang that became MS-13 got its start. The teenage children of Salvadoran refugees banded together to smoke weed and listen to rock music, creating something that was a far cry from the violent gang that it later became.

It’s unclear exactly when or why MS-13 transformed from stoner kids (the first LAPD reference to MS-13 calls them the “Mara Salvatrucha Stoners”) to a network of hardened criminals. One theory is that while the original members had little first-hand experience of El Salvador’s conflict, later generations of Salvadoran immigrants had been more exposed to the horrors of war and turned MS-13 violent. Another explanation is that MS-13 became more violent as a result of repeated confrontations with other street gangs. Yet another is that many of the gang’s delinquent youth ended up in prison as a result of “tough on crime” policies, where they were transformed into hardened criminals.

When El Salvador’s Civil War ended in 1992, the US government began deporting many Salvadorans. These deportations included members of MS-13 as well as Barrio 18 (also known as the 18th Street gang), one of Los Angeles’ first multi-ethnic and multiracial gang that included large numbers of Central Americans. Barrio 18 is similarly dangerous but receives less attention from Trump and the GOP, probably because MS-13 has a more ominous-sounding name.

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Saddam Hussein was a secularist who rose through the Baath political party to assume a dictatorial presidency. Under his rule, segments of the populace enjoyed the benefits of oil wealth, while those in opposition faced torture and execution. After military conflicts with U.S.-led armed forces, Hussein was captured in 2003. He was later executed.Hussein was born on April 28, 1937, in Tikrit, Iraq. His father, who was a shepherd, disappeared several months before Saddam was born. A few months later, Saddam's older brother died of cancer. When Saddam was born, his mother, severely depressed by her oldest son's death and the disappearance of her husband, was unable to effectively care for Saddam, and at age three, he was sent to Baghdad to live with his uncle, Khairallah Talfah.

Years later, Saddam would return to Al-Awja to live with his mother, but after suffering abuse at the hand of his stepfather, he fled to Baghdad to again live with Talfah, a devout Sunni Muslim and ardent Arab nationalist whose politics would have a profound influence on the young Saddam.In 1963, when Qasim's government was overthrown in the so-called Ramadan Revolution, Saddam returned to Iraq, but he was arrested the following year as the result of in-fighting in the Ba'ath Party. While in prison, however, he remained involved in politics, and in 1966, was appointed deputy secretary of the Regional Command. Shortly thereafter he managed to escape prison, and in the years that followed, continued to strengthen his political power.

In 1968, Saddam participated in a bloodless but successful Ba'athist coup that resulted in Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr becoming Iraq's president and Saddam his deputy. During al-Bakr’s presidency, Saddam proved himself to be an effective and progressive politician, albeit a decidedly ruthless one. He did much to modernize Iraq's infrastructure, industry and health-care system, and raised social services, education and farming subsidies to levels unparalleled in other Arab countries in the region. He also nationalized Iraq's oil industry, just before the energy crisis of 1973, which resulted in massive revenues for the nation. During that same time, however, Saddam helped develop Iraq's first chemical weapons program and, to guard against coups, created a powerful security apparatus, which included both Ba'athist paramilitary groups and the People's Army, and which frequently used torture, rape and assassination to achieve its goals.

In the months that followed, an intensive search for Saddam began. While in hiding, Saddam released several audio recordings, in which he denounced Iraq's invaders and called for resistance. Finally, on December 13, 2003, Saddam was found hiding in a small underground bunker near a farmhouse in ad-Dawr, near Tikrit. From there, he was moved to a U.S. base in Baghdad, where he would remain until June 30, 2004, when he was officially handed over to the interim Iraqi government to stand trial for crimes against humanity.

During the subsequent trial, Saddam would prove to be a belligerent defendant, often boisterously challenging the court's authority and making bizarre statements. On November 5, 2006, Saddam was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentencing was appealed, but was ultimately upheld by a court of appeals. On December 30, 2006, at Camp Justice, an Iraqi base in Baghdad, Saddam was hanged, despite his request to be shot. He was buried in Al-Awja, his birthplace, on December 31, 2006.

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From the most comical of cartoons to the most grotesque of gargoyles, the majority of the population today can immediately recognize an image of the devil. But does our modern conception of Satan have any resemblance to the devil in the Bible? Just who is Satan? Is this horned, red-skinned monster with a pitchfork ruling hell truly the great enemy of God envisioned by the writers of the Biblical texts?

The short answer: no, not really.

In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH’s greatest enemies are not fallen angels commanding armies of demons, nor even the gods of other nations, but, rather, human beings. It isn’t the devil that spreads evil across the face of creation—it is mankind. Other than human beings, YHWH has no nemesis, nor are there malevolent spiritual forces not under his authority. YHWH is ultimately a god of justice. He is behind the good and the bad, behind the blessings and the curses. It is within this divine court of justice and retribution that Satan has his origins.

The Hebrew word śāṭān, meaning “accuser” or “adversary,” occurs several times throughout the Hebrew Bible and refers to enemies both human and celestial alike. When referring to the celestial adversary, the word is typically accompanied by the definite article. He is ha-satan—the Accuser—and it is a job description rather than a proper name. From the Accuser’s appearances in the Books of Job and Zechariah, it seems that the job entails calling attention to the unworthiness of mankind. The Accuser is essentially the prosecuting attorney of the divine court of YHWH, and part of his job includes collecting evidence to prove his cases. With this bit of knowledge in mind, it isn’t difficult to envision the various “outcries against sin,” such as that against Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20–21), as the voice of the Accuser.

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In the West today, Russia is often, if sometimes unfairly, stereotyped as a shadowy and hostile threat. As recent events have shown, there is no smoke without fire, but it is frequently forgotten that this characterisation first took shape long before Putin, the Cold War, Stalin, the Bolsheviks, and even before Russia’s doomed monarchy. In fact, it stretches back to the very birth of the nation, and is as much a part of its conception as the nature of the man who first ruled it: Ivan Grozny, popularly known as Ivan the Terrible.

Complicated, ruthless and intelligent, Ivan’s legacy is, like Russia’s, widely misunderstood. His nickname suggests a bloodthirsty and ineffective tyrant, but when ‘The Terrible’ title was first coined, it was intended to suggest an awe-inspiring and fearsome power. Accomplishing more than previous leaders, he aggressively expanded Russian territory, centralising a system of governance under his control. Of course, none of that would have been possible without possible without use of the sword, which Ivan never shrank from, but it is a simplification to remember him purely as a brutal despot. Ultimately, Ivan was a complicated man who suffered considerably in childhood and endured bouts of mental illness throughout his life. His reign transformed Russia from a feudal state into an empire, but also left her economically weakened for centuries to come. As the country’s first Tsar, Ivan laid the foundation for the nation Russia was to become, both through the nature of his personality and of his politics.

Following the death of his father, Ivan was chosen to become Grand Prince at just three years old. Russia was composed of various aristocratic ruling factions at the time, all vying for power when the infant King was crowned. To keep competitors at bay, Ivan’s mother was to rule until he came of age, but she died in 1538 - allegedly by poison – and the plan unraveled. Orphaned, Ivan became the center of a reanimated and bloody power struggle. From 1538 onwards, until he could assume control, the cast of noble clans abused, mistreated and took advantage of Ivan. Often hidden for his protection, his childhood was lonely and challenging; it was a suffering the child would never forget.

In 1547, at sixteen, Ivan was crowned Tsar; the first Tsar. The early years of his rule were relatively peaceful as he consolidated his position through administrative and bureaucratic reform. Amongst Ivan the Terrible’s achievements were the introduction of the printing press, the founding of a standing army, and the establishment of the first laws restricting the mobility of peasants – something which would eventually lead to serfdom. Prosperity, however, would not last long.

Once secure at home, Ivan sought to expand his territories; he waged a series of unsuccessful wars against the Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdoms of Poland and Sweden. These resulted in enormous suffering to his people, and, compounded by the effects of drought and famine at home, his allies abandoned him. His wife was murdered - poisoned like his mother - and his closest adviser defected to the Lithuanians. Personally and professionally betrayed, Ivan descended into paranoia.

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Hamas is an Islamist militant movement and one of the Palestinian territories’ two major political parties. It governs more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the group is best known for its armed resistance to Israel. In October 2023, Hamas launched a massive surprise attack on southern Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers and taking dozens more as hostages. Israel has declared war on the group in response and indicated its military is planning for a long campaign to defeat it.

Dozens of countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organization, though some apply this label only to its military wing. Iran provides it with material and financial support, and Turkey reportedly harbors some of its top leaders. Its rival party, Fatah, which dominates the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and rules in the West Bank, has renounced violence. The split in Palestinian leadership and Hamas’s unwavering hostility toward Israel have diminished prospects for stability in Gaza. Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement”), was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who became an activist in local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza, both of which Israel occupied following the 1967 Six-Day War. Yassin established Hamas as the Brotherhood’s political arm in Gaza in December 1987, following the outbreak of the first intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. At the time, Hamas’s purpose was to counter Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another organization whose commitment to violently resisting Israel threatened to draw Palestinians’ support away from the Brotherhood. In 1988, Hamas published its charter, calling for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine. In what observers called an attempt to moderate its image, Hamas presented a new document [PDF] in 2017 that accepted an interim Palestinian state along the “Green Line” border established before the Six-Day War but that still refused to recognize Israel.

Hamas first employed suicide bombing in April 1993, five months before PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Oslo Accords. The historic pact established limited self-government for parts of the West Bank and Gaza under a newly created entity called the Palestinian Authority (PA). Hamas condemned the accords, as well as the PLO’s and Israel’s recognition of each other, which Arafat and Rabin officially agreed to in letters sent days before Oslo.

In 1997, the United States designated Hamas a foreign terrorist organization. The movement went on to spearhead violent resistance during the second intifada, in the early 2000s, though PIJ and Fatah’s Tanzim militia were also responsible for violence against Israelis. Hamas has a host of leadership bodies that perform various political, military, and social functions. General policy is set by an overarching consultative body, often called the politburo, which operates in exile. Local committees manage grassroots issues in Gaza and the West Bank.

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Mao was a Chinese communist leader and founder of the People's Republic of China. He was responsible for the disastrous policies of the 'Great Leap Forward' and the 'Cultural Revolution'.

Mao was born on 26 December 1893 into a peasant family in Shaoshan, in Hunan province, central China. After training as a teacher, he travelled to Beijing where he worked in the University Library. It was during this time that he began to read Marxist literature. In 1921, he became a founder member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and set up a branch in Hunan. In 1923, the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party had allied with the CCP to defeat the warlords who controlled much of northern China. Then in 1927, the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek launched an anti-communist purge.

Mao and other communists retreated to south east China. In 1934, after the KMT surrounded them, Mao led his followers on the 'Long March', a 6,000 mile journey to northwest China to establish a new base. The Communists and KMT were again temporarily allied during eight years of war with Japan (1937-1945), but shortly after the end of World War Two, civil war broke out between them. The Communists were victorious, and on 1 October 1949 Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island of Taiwan.

Mao and other Communist leaders set out to reshape Chinese society. Industry came under state ownership and China's farmers began to be organized into collectives. All opposition was ruthlessly suppressed. The Chinese initially received significant help from the Soviet Union, but relations soon began to cool.

In 1958, in an attempt to introduce a more 'Chinese' form of communism, Mao launched the 'Great Leap Forward'. This aimed at mass mobilization of labor to improve agricultural and industrial production. The result, instead, was a massive decline in agricultural output, which, together with poor harvests, led to famine and the deaths of millions. The policy was abandoned and Mao's position weakened.

In an attempt to re-assert his authority, Mao launched the 'Cultural Revolution' in 1966, aiming to purge the country of 'impure' elements and revive the revolutionary spirit. One-and-a-half million people died and much of the country's cultural heritage was destroyed. In September 1967, with many cities on the verge of anarchy, Mao sent in the army to restore order. Mao appeared victorious, but his health was deteriorating. His later years saw attempts to build bridges with the United States, Japan and Europe. In 1972, US President Richard Nixon visited China and met Mao.

Mao died on 9 September 1976.

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Pol Pot rose to power as leader of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia’s Communist regime, which took control of the country in 1975. During its reign, which ended in 1979, Pol Pot oversaw the deaths of an estimated one to two million people from starvation, overwork or execution. The mass graves he commanded his people to dig were often referred to as "the killing fields." Pol Pot was arrested in 1997 and died under house arrest on April 15, 1998.Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar on May 19, 1925, in Kompong Thom Province, Cambodia. He was the eighth of nine children born to relatively prosperous parents who owned 50 acres of rice paddies.

Saloth was initially educated at a monastery in the capital city of Phnom Penh and later attended a French Catholic school. He eventually studied carpentry and then received a government scholarship which sent him to Paris to study radio technology in 1949. In Paris, he became involved with the Communist Party, taking on the name Pol Pot. When his scholarship was withdrawn, he returned to Cambodia, intent on building a revolution there.

In 1956, Pol Pot married Khieu Ponnary, whom he had met in Paris, and became a high school educator. In 1962, Pol Pot became his party's secretary general. Afraid he would be arrested, he fled Phnom Penh the following year. In 1970, Cambodia’s Prince Norodom Sihanouk was overthrown and replaced by Lon Nol, who had U.S. support. After a civil war, which included heavy U.S. bombing aimed at preventing communist leaders from taking over Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge army took control of Phnom Penh in spring 1975. Setting the calendar to “Year Zero,” Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge embarked on building what they considered to be the new Cambodia.

The Khmer Rouge was one of the most brutal regimes of the 20th century. Pol Pot had been influenced and impressed by China’s Cultural Revolution under Mao Tse-tung, thus following that country’s lead in evacuating cities and forcing people into a rural, farming life. More than two million people were evacuated from Phnom Penh when the Khmer Rouge took power. The evacuation process itself was ruthless, as even children, elderly people and those who were hospitalized were forced to move. Thousands died in just the first few weeks of the Khmer Rouge’s reign.

Until 1979, the Khmer Rouge executed those they believed represented the “old society.” That included intellectuals, merchants, Buddhist monks, former government officials and former soldiers. In addition, they targeted members of Cambodia’s ethnic minorities. Half of the Chinese living in Cambodia at the time were killed, as were about 90,000 Muslims of the Cham culture. Vietnamese residents were either expelled or murdered.

According to estimates, the Khmer Rouge was responsible for one to two million deaths in Cambodia. One group that suffered huge losses was the new farm workers, recently arrived from the cities, who labored under devastating conditions. Forced to toil nonstop on very little food, many died of starvation, disease or overwork.

Those who survived were subjected to the Khmer Rouge’s control of virtually every aspect of their lives. The government outlawed money, private property, religion and most books. The dictatorship separated children from their parents and forced arranged marriages. With a recent history of border conflicts, Vietnam entered Cambodia by late 1978, deposing Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge early the following year. As the country opened its borders to outsiders, the world became aware of the full horror of Pol Pot’s tenure as Cambodia’s leader. Mass graves, or "killing fields," provided evidence of the atrocities, with Pol Pot found guilty of genocide by a tribunal though he was never imprisoned.

The horror of the regime was depicted in the 1984 Oscar-nominated film The Killing Fields, directed by Roland Joffé and featuring Haing S. Ngor and Sam Waterston.

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