19 Notorious Criminals That Actually Didn’t Do That Much
We’ve all heard of the exploits of legendary criminals, how they eluded law enforcement and the gruesome deeds they got up to. Like many urban legends, though, their exploits have been exaggerated over the years, to a mythical extent that makes little sense.
This is why we’ve collected today the names, exploits, and myths of the most notorious criminals in history, and how their stories aren’t really that big. They were certainly dangerous, and what they did was unlawful without a doubt, but they might not be the legends you think they are.
Billy the Kid
The legend claims this Wild West outlaw killed 21 men, one for every year of his life. Historians, though, have pored over the records and estimate he was actually responsible for fewer than 10 deaths.
Lizzie Borden
Despite the famous rhyme and becoming a household name for murder, she was tried and acquitted in June 1893 for the deaths of her father and stepmother. Legally, she did nothing.
The Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer terrorized California and taunted police, claiming he had killed 37 people in his cryptic letters. In reality, law enforcement has only ever been able to confirm 5 victims connected to the still-unidentified killer.
Jack the Ripper
While his name is synonymous with Victorian horror, the killer who stalked London in 1888 is only definitively linked to five victims. These women are now known to history as the ‘canonical five.’
Ma Barker
FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover painted her as a criminal mastermind to justify her death in a shootout. In reality, other gang members said she never planned their crimes and was mostly just along for the ride.
John Dillinger
He was branded ‘Public Enemy No. 1,’ and yet Dillinger was only ever formally charged with one murder. He was never convicted for it, and witnesses even disputed whether he was the one who fired the fatal shot.
Blackbeard
The fearsome pirate cultivated a terrifying image by putting smoking fuses in his beard. It was all for show, as he relied on psychological intimidation. No records show him ever harming or murdering a captive before his final battle.
Guy Fawkes
He’s the face of the famous Gunpowder Plot of 1605, but unexpectedly, Guy Fawkes wasn’t the leader. He was basically the hired help, an explosives expert brought in by mastermind Robert Catesby to light the fuse.
Belle Starr
Dime novels called her the ‘Bandit Queen,’ even though her only documented conviction was for stealing a horse in 1883. For this grand crime, she served just 9 months in a Detroit correctional facility.
Frank Abagnale Jr.
The movie Catch Me If You Can sold us a story of a brilliant con artist. His actual federal case involved just ten bad checks totaling less than $1,500, a far cry from a multimillion-dollar crime spree.
Richard Kuklinski
The ‘Iceman’ claimed he was a mob hitman who killed over 100 people, but he was only ever convicted of five murders. Law enforcement and mob experts believe his wild stories were mostly just that, stories.
Henry Lee Lucas
This drifter gained notoriety in the ’80s by falsely confessing to hundreds of unsolved murders. After extensive investigation, police could only definitively link him to 3 victims, causing his death sentence to be commuted in 1998.
Vincenzo Peruggia
He pulled off one of the greatest art heists, stealing the Mona Lisa in 1911. Far from a mastermind, he was just a former Louvre employee who hid the painting in his apartment for two years before being caught.
David Berkowitz
The ‘Son of Sam’ killer who terrified New York City from 1976 to 1977 had a final tally of 6 people killed and 7 wounded. A horrifying spree, but a smaller number than his massive legend might suggest.
Ed Gein
The inspiration for villains in Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gein was only confirmed to have murdered two women. The rest of the horror in his house came from bodies he dug up from local cemeteries.
Lee Shelton
He became the folk anti-hero ‘Stagger Lee,’ immortalized in dozens of songs. The entire legend stems from a single incident on Christmas night 1895, when he shot a man in a saloon during an argument over a hat.
Jesse James
He was portrayed as a Robin Hood figure, something not exactly accuarate. From 1866 to 1882, he and his gang only robbed a handful of banks and trains, and they definitely kept all the loot for themselves.
Butch Cassidy
The leader of the Wild Bunch gang was known as a ‘gentleman bandit.’ Despite a long career of robbing banks and trains across the American West, Cassidy was widely believed to have never actually killed anyone himself.
Clyde Barrow
He and Bonnie Parker are famous for being daring bank robbers. But the Barrow Gang primarily knocked over small-time targets like gas stations and grocery stores, with their 10 or so bank jobs rarely netting more than $1,500.