Collection of Insane and Fun Facts
In 2001, Kenny Waters, a man who was wrongly imprisoned 18 years for murder, was finally freed after his high-school dropout sister went to law school to prove his innocence. Tragically, Kenny Waters died in an accident 6 months after his release from prison.
Conviction is a 2010 biographical legal drama film based on this story.
In the Philippines, the legal term for car-theft is “carnapping.” This is because when cars used to be very rare in the country and were prized status-items, thieves would steal and hold them for ransom like in a kidnapping. Now the term is used for both car-theft and carjacking cases.
In December 2014, a guy dressed as Santa robbed a bank in San Francisco. The robbery took place during “Santacon”, an annual event in which hundreds of people dressed as Santa swarm Union Square.
In 2006, $8 million were stolen from the Banco Rio branch in Acassuso, Argentina. During the robbery, the robbers ordered pizza for the hostages, sang happy birthday to a female lawyer, and then left a note that said they stole ‘money, not love’ before escaping on a boat.
Despite having a PHD in statistics, Carl Gugasian, the most prolific bank robber in American history AKA the Friday Bank Robber, chose a life of crime because he feared that he would never find a job due to spending 2 years in prison as a teenager for robbing a candy store.
A man taught himself how to pick the “unpickable” lock boxes of pay phones. He stole an estimated $500,000 in quarters from phones in 30 states, taunted the FBI, and was featured on America’s Most Wanted twice. After getting caught, he had to pay back $800.
Legendary crime fighter Eliot Ness was promised by Al Capone that $2,000 would be on his desk every Monday morning if he turned a blind eye to his gang’s bootlegging activities ( $33,000 a week in 2018 adjusting for inflation). Ness refused the bribe, was penniless when he died in 1957.
The first crime perpetrated in space was by astronaut Anne McClain, accused of illegally accessing her wife’s bank account during her stay on the International Space Station.
George Martonaro was sentenced to life without parole on non-violent charges. In his 32 years in the prison system, he learned dozens of subjects, taught numerous courses such as creative writing to over 8000 inmates, and authored more than 30 books.
When the artist, Melanie Willhide, got her stolen laptop back, all her files were deleted by the burglar. Data recovery experts were able to recover some of them. The photos were corrupted, but she decided to exhibit the work. The show was titled after the burglar.