Who is your favorite criminal from history?

[AverageBozo]

As a list of criminals, this leaves a lot to be desired. The choices should have been along the lines of Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jesse James, etc.

Maybe Scott meant to ask who your favorite executed/assassinated person from history is.

[LuckyR]

As a list of criminals, this leaves a lot to be desired. The choices should have been along the lines of Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jesse James, etc.

It depends if by favorite, one means most entertaining vs most admired.

[Neil Wallace]

Who is your favorite criminal from history? Why?

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?

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?

Probably Eve.

Hell no, I'd just stay in paradise and do as I was told.

[Scott]

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.

Since the above quoted post, the following additional nominations have been made for favorite criminal:

Galileo would be front and centre.
What about Thomas Paine????

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.

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.

Not heroic but I think he's cool. Pablo Escobar raided the supreme court with tanks and destroyed evidence against him he got the country to let him build his own prison because they feared him, no one even comes close to don Pablo. Please don't judge me.

Any other names that would be good to add to the list?

[Sculptor1]

Chelsea Manning
Julien Assange
Walter Benjamin

[mahfouz]

If perusing Philosophy forums on company time is illegal than I will nominate myself as my favorite criminal.

I voted for John Brown in the poll. Cloudsplitter (Russell Banks) is a great novelization of his life and it left me in a dark funk for weeks after reading it.

[Pattern-chaser]

Chelsea Manning
Julien Assange
Walter Benjamin

And Edward Snowden, of course.

[Astro Cat]

Hypatia. I would have said Emmy Noether, but as far as I know, she wasn't a criminal. I looked up to her reputation for using her mind during a time that women weren't expected or celebrated for doing so.