Who is your favorite criminal from history?

[NickGaspar]

To summarize the additional suggestions to add to our list of possible favorite criminals, I noted these nominations:

DB Cooper, nominated by @HJCarden

Spartacus, nominated by @Sculptor1

Johannes Kepler and his mum, nominated by @Steve3007

Georges-Jacques Danton, nominated by @LuckyR


If I missed any other nominations, let me know!


I also asked a similar question on Twitter and recieved the following additional suggestions of criminals via Twitter:

- Jesse James

- Dr OYENUSI

- Bridget Bishop


Finally, while I didn't include him in the original poll, I think Henry David Thoreau deserves a mention, especially considering he is literally the author of Civil Disobedience.

you missed Robin Hood and Batman.

[Count Lucanor]

Who is your favorite criminal from history? Why?

It's a tough pick. To my mind come now Giordano Bruno or Che Guevara. Why? They showed courage when pursuing the right causes.

Do you also think that person was the most heroic criminal from history? If not, who do you think was the most heroic criminal from history?

Can't tell none of these. How can we quantify levels of heroism objectively? Perhaps the ultimate level is sacrificing your own life, but since a lot of people have done it, no one could rise above the others in heroism.

If you were put in the same or very similar circumstances as these criminals, would you hope to make the same choices as some or all of these criminals? Why or why not? What role does bravery play in your answer, meaning in your hypothetical choice about whether or not to follow in the criminal footsteps of these criminals? In other words, if you were hypothetically a much more courageous person how would that change your answer if at all?

None of them really succeeded in their efforts (except to achieve immortality for themselves), perhaps because in the short run the system always wins, so I guess I would do something that looked less spectacularly heroic, but more effective.

[LuckyR]

To summarize the additional suggestions to add to our list of possible favorite criminals, I noted these nominations:

DB Cooper, nominated by @HJCarden

Spartacus, nominated by @Sculptor1

Johannes Kepler and his mum, nominated by @Steve3007

Georges-Jacques Danton, nominated by @LuckyR


If I missed any other nominations, let me know!


I also asked a similar question on Twitter and recieved the following additional suggestions of criminals via Twitter:

- Jesse James

- Dr OYENUSI

- Bridget Bishop


Finally, while I didn't include him in the original poll, I think Henry David Thoreau deserves a mention, especially considering he is literally the author of Civil Disobedience.

Sounds like we are going with the definition of criminal, anyone who was found to have broken a law (as opposed to a professional criminal who makes their living from crime), right?

[NickGaspar]

To summarize the additional suggestions to add to our list of possible favorite criminals, I noted these nominations:

DB Cooper, nominated by @HJCarden

Spartacus, nominated by @Sculptor1

Johannes Kepler and his mum, nominated by @Steve3007

Georges-Jacques Danton, nominated by @LuckyR


If I missed any other nominations, let me know!


I also asked a similar question on Twitter and recieved the following additional suggestions of criminals via Twitter:

- Jesse James

- Dr OYENUSI

- Bridget Bishop


Finally, while I didn't include him in the original poll, I think Henry David Thoreau deserves a mention, especially considering he is literally the author of Civil Disobedience.

Sounds like we are going with the definition of criminal, anyone who was found to have broken a law (as opposed to a professional criminal who makes their living from crime), right?

The concept of "devil" qualifies as one under that definition. It was always against the establishment. There is a great documentary about the evolution of the concept.

[Pattern-chaser]

OK, then I nominate the good people of Bristol (UK), who got fed up of a statue that glorified a slaver, that black citizens had to walk past every day. For years, requests were made to remove it, but they were ignored. [ Would Jewish citizens have been expected to walk past a statue of Dr Mengele on their way to and from work every day? No, they **** well would not! ] And so the people of Bristol took the law into their own hands - i.e. they broke the law - and they pulled down the statue. I nominate them.

[Steve3007]

OK, then I nominate the good people of Bristol (UK)

Interesting one. So far we've had individuals, individuals and their mums, fictitious people, groups of people and abstract concepts. (That last one was the suggestion that the economy should be nominated.). So a good bit of variety.

[LuckyR]

OK, then I nominate the good people of Bristol (UK), who got fed up of a statue that glorified a slaver, that black citizens had to walk past every day. For years, requests were made to remove it, but they were ignored. [ Would Jewish citizens have been expected to walk past a statue of Dr Mengele on their way to and from work every day? No, they **** well would not! ] And so the people of Bristol took the law into their own hands - i.e. they broke the law - and they pulled down the statue. I nominate them.

I admire those folks, but they were followers of a movement, not the originators.

[Scott]

Sounds like we are going with the definition of criminal, anyone who was found to have broken a law (as opposed to a professional criminal who makes their living from crime), right?

Yes, these are the definitions I am using:

criminal noun
1 : one who has committed a crime

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criminal

crime noun

1 : an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crime

[BobS]

I nominate Frederick Douglass. As Trump says, "he's done an amazing job."

I hope he's not disqualified on the technicality that he wasn't a criminal. I assume that in the South his running away made him one, and just not a piece of stray property.

But although he was heroic, I wouldn't say he was the most heroic. To the extent that comparisons can be make, I'd reserve that label for any of a number of people who willingly walked into the flames, as it were.

I also find it impossible to pick a most heroic for reasons that someone else has already expressed. Once you get to a certain level of horror, the heroism required to encounter it is all pretty much the same. But if I had to choose, just because I recently came across her I'd go with Marguerite Porete, who refused to recant and was burned at the stake for writing about her love of God in a frowned upon manner. The fact that I consider her cause a silly one doesn't detract from her heroism.

And no way would I have made the same choice as any of those heroes who decided that being burned alive, or whatever, was the thing for him or her. Bravery aside, I'm not a fan of spitting into the wind. Plus, I am a coward.

[LuckyR]

Sounds like we are going with the definition of criminal, anyone who was found to have broken a law (as opposed to a professional criminal who makes their living from crime), right?

Yes, these are the definitions I am using:

criminal noun
1 : one who has committed a crime

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criminal

crime noun

1 : an illegal act for which someone can be punished by the government

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crime

Well by that definition (committed vs convicted) you may as well change the question to: who is your favorite person.