Famous Thieves Who Were Successful at Stealing

From Sunday school to police lessons, there have been countless lessons and warnings reinforcing the notion that stealing is bad, but not everyone has taken to those lessons. Some of breaking the rule for a short burst of adrenaline, some have made a career out of it, like most of the famous thieves in history, who became very successful in the act of stealing. Some of these thieves have been successful enough to have movies and documentaries made about their life, and in this article, we will be considering some of them, including names like Frank Abagnale Jr. who was the subject of the classic film, Catch Me If You Can. Check it out below.

Famous Thieves who Became Very Successful at Stealing

John Dillinger

We are to start a list of these infamous men and women, perhaps we ought, to begin with, one of the most popular of them, John Dillinger. The brazenness with which he performed his criminal acts has enshrined him into pop culture, so much that a reference to him in a conversation is not likely to elicit the response ‘huh?’.John Dillinger exploits happened during the Great Depression era in the United States and it was no small feat. Although he did not have a very long robbery career compared to some of the other names on this list, the bravado involved in his targets makes up for his place among the most famous thieves in history. He robbed 24 banks and four police stations during his criminal career, along with other several crimes. John eventually met his end at the wrong end of a gun on the night of the 22nd of July 1934.

Carl Gugasian

When you think of thieves, you hardly imagine it is anyone with a Ph.D. in a highly valuable subject like statistics and probability, but that was exactly the credential of Carl Gugasian, along with committing a series of robberies that made him one of the most famous thieves in history. Deploying the intellect with which he earned his Ph.D., Carl Gugasian planned clever heists that saw him rob small-town banks multiple times. His signature use of scary face masks him it harder to catch him, and after a long period of investigation, he was eventually arrested in 2002. Today, the Ivy league army officer now teaches calculus to other inmates.

Frank AbagnaleJr.

We named-dropped Frank earlier as one of the most famous thieves who became very successful in the act of stealing and if you have seen the movie, Catch Me If You Can, you can understand why. Not only was he a nonviolent thief who had a long career as a thief, impersonating men in professions like an airline pilot, a doctor, lawyer, and prison officer, he has since served his sentence after he was caught and now works closely with the FBI, the agency tasked with catching him, to catch other thieves. He also owns a security firm, Abagnale & Associates. A long thieving career, your own firm, and a partnership with the FBI? If that doesn’t fine successful, we don’t know what does.

Bill Mason

Some of the most valuable things in the world are jewelry and you are bound to find a lot of thieves associated with them. One of them is Bill Mason, whose thieving career earned him a reputation as a gentleman jewel thief. By finding his way to classy and high society events where lots of rich and famous personalities would be present, wearing their finest, he managed to swipe up to $35 million worth of jewelry throughout his career. One of his major steals was Johnny Weissmuller’s Olympic gold medal, which he eventually returned. And typically, among the famous thieves in the world, Bill Mason has a memoir, Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief.

Albert Spaggiari

Albert Spaggiari is one of the most successful thieves in the world, not that he was caught and was able to leverage his skills into a legal career, but that his loot was never found and he lived a full life, at least until he died of natural causes from throat cancer. A stylish man who portrayed class, Albert Spaggiari successfully stole between 30 and 100m francs from the Societe Generale bank in Nice, disappearing with the money to never be seen alive again. Before taking up a career as a thief, he was an informant for the Chilean Intelligence Services.

Doris Payne

You don’t often find women to be among notorious personalities such as thieves but some of them have done enough to stake their claim among the famous thieves in history. Doris Payne’s criminal record is a long rap sheet of daring jewelry robberies. Despite a career that began over four decades ago, she was caught and imprisoned for the first time when she was aged 80, interestingly caught for stealing one carat diamond ring. Of course, it wasn’t her most daring steal. That title belongs to a 10-carat diamond ring she stole in Monte Carlo in the 1970s, believed to be worth $500,000. And if you are wondering if Doris Payne is retired, she isn’t. She has been arrested several times since her initial arrest and has been suspected to have stolen a $33,000 diamond ring. She has a documentary about her, which was released in 2013.

Jesse James

The 1880s was a difficult period in the history of America, and while America fought for its soul during this time, it also battled its criminal elements, one of which was Jesse James. He was one of the brazen armed robbers who took on some of the most impossible targets like banks and police stations. He became famous for performing his robberies in front of crowds, adding a theatrical dimension to his criminal history, an act that gave him a much-coveted Robin Hood persona. Of course, the party did not last long for Jesse James and he was murdered by another criminal, Robert Food in 1882. To date, Jesse James is still considered a folk hero in the American South where he performed a majority of his robberies.

Derek ‘Bertie’ Smalls

Derek Smalls was an English armed robber whose thieving career spanned about a decade between the 60s and the 70s. His first entry into the world of armed robbery was at the age of 15 and by the time he left prison for it, began life as a career thief. Some of his most famous robberies include the robbery of a Barclays Bank in Ilford, for which he was arrested. He cemented his place as one of the famous thieves in history when he ratted out his co-conspirators, who then went on to spend a combined 100 years in prison while he spent none, living the rest of his life under police protection.

The Pink Panthers

Robbery doesn’t have to be violent, and there are few thieves in history to exemplified that more than The Pink Panthers. They are a Serbian gang of thieves who are believed to be responsible for some of the most clever and glamorous robberies in history. They stole a £500,000 diamond for their first robbery in 1993 and have robbed over 120 stores across 20 countries. The gang, which reportedly consists of over 200 members, has stolen billions of dollars and is believed to be led by Dragan Mikic, who was once arrested but escaped prison using a rope ladder.1

Bonnie and Clyde

Despite the fact they were notorious thieves, you are less likely to find another reference for love and undying loyalty in a poem or love letter than Bonnie and Clyde. As famous thieving duos go, they are up there among the most popular, for robbing banks, gas stations, and other financial stops. The two of them met in January 1930 and committed several acts of robbery and murder for years until May 1934 when they were ambushed by the police and killed during a shootout. Despite their lives as career criminals, like a majority of the other famous thieves in history, they have had their history and life immortalized in movies like Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Bonnie Parker Story (1958). Several TV shows, books, and podcasts have also been made about them.

Vincenzo Peruggia

Vincenzo is believed to have masterminded the greatest theft in the 20th century, the theft of the Mona Lisa. He committed the theft that made him infamous in August 1911 when he worked into the Louvre Museum, disguised himself as a worker, and simply removed the Mona Lisa from its position and wrapped it under a robe, walking out the door with it. He was in possession of the infamous work of art for two years before he was eventually caught trying to sell it. Vincenzo spent just one year in prison for his crime and he later served in the Italian Army in World War I, where he cemented his place as an Italian hero.

Natwarlal

There are a lot of tricks and clever forms with which many famous thieves deployed to achieve their goals and one of the most popular was impersonation and Mithilesh Kumar Srivastava aka, Natwarlal, was very great at it. He developed over 50 aliases and devised various means of stealing from industrialists and the wealthy. He was pretended to be a government official and sold the Taj Mahal to foreigners, along with a host of other Indian landmarks. A lawyer by trade, he was jailed plenty of times throughout his career, well into the age 84 when he managed to escape his captors and cement his legacy as one of the famous thieves in the world, particularly in India where his name is used to describe a clever thief.