There’s a reason journalists will usually not accept Wikipedia as a reliable source—because the site can be edited by anyone, misinformation and hoaxes are lurking around every corner. While most of these are quickly caught by Wikipedia’s team of moderators, many have gone unnoticed for years. Here are some of the most disruptive cases—that have been discovered, that is. Feel free to mention any others you may know in the comments.

SEE ALSO: 10 Viral Photos That Were Proven To Be Hoaxes

10Sinbad’s Death

Famed stand-up comedian Sinbad is very much alive—but back in March 2007, some prankster decided to edit Sinbad’s Wikipedia page to claim he had died of a heart attack. Sinbad first learned of the inaccurate information in a telephone call he got from his daughter, and he expected it not to be that big of a deal—but over the next couple of days, hundreds of concerned people contacted him about his presumed death. He said the incident wasn’t “that strange”, though, and, given the large smattering of celebrities who have also been the victims of premature obituaries thanks to Wikipedia vandalism (everyone from Ted Kennedy to Miley Cyrus), he just might be right.^[1]

9 Wrightbus

Here’s a case in which a “prank” addition to a Wikipedia article created widespread panic because of a tense environment. In November 2015, a vandal added an erroneous statement to the Wikipedia article for Wrightbus (a bus manufacturer based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland) that claimed FirstGroup, a Scotland-based transport company, had purchased Wrightbus. The false information was quickly spread by word-of-mouth, panicking the company’s more than 1500 employees. It gets worse, though, because two significant businesses (a tire manufacturer and a tobacco company) had recently announced plans to leave Ballymena, costing more than 1700 jobs between them. The hoax was a match in the powder barrel for local workers who were already concerned about job loss. While the hoax was quickly discredited by a local newspaper, that only stopped the bleeding—it couldn’t heal the wound.^[2]

8Jar’Edo Wens

This case shows just how easy it is to compose a faux article that slips through the cracks and stays on Wikipedia for years. That’s what happened to an article created in May 2005 for a fake deity known only as Jar’Edo Wens (most likely a clever reworking of the name Jared Owens). The creator of the article made just three Wikipedia edits: besides creating the page, he also added Jar’Edo and another made-up deity, Yohrmum (an obvious pun) to a list of Australian aboriginal deities. The entire process took just eleven minutes to complete, but the Jar’Edo Wens page—despite being flagged in 2009 for lacking sources—stayed on the website for nearly ten years. During that time, Jar’Edo even found his way into a book criticizing theism, being mentioned as a god who had “fallen out of favor.” When the hoax was finally outed in March 2015, it was officially recognized as the longest-running hoax on Wikipedia. Though it’s since been surpassed in that respect, the “Jar’Edo Wens” debacle was definitely a key moment in the history of Wikipedia hoaxes.^[3]

7 Maurice Jarre

Our next entry proved that Wikipedia isn’t always the problem. Back in March 2009, Academy-Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre died. Quotes that appeared in several obituaries for him (including one published by “The Guardian”, a leading British newspaper) included “life itself has been one long soundtrack,” and “when I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear.” The problem? Jarre never actually said any of that. You see, when University of Dublin student Shane Fitzgerald heard of Jarre’s death, he thought it an excellent opportunity to test how the media used Wikipedia in an age of instant news. It took him less than fifteen minutes to make up a quote and add it to Jarre’s Wikipedia page. He expected newspapers not to use the quote because it wasn’t linked to any source other than Wikipedia. After the fabricated quote became widespread, however, he admitted his “crime” out of fear the quote would be forever attributed to Jarre. Instead of blaming Wikipedia for allowing the quote to spread, he blamed journalists, who, he said, write articles too quickly to verify sources, adding that Wikipedia moderators had removed the faux quote from the site multiple times within hours of it first being posted.^[4]

6 Bicholim Conflict

This entry showcases what is likely the most effort ever put into perpetrating a Wikipedia hoax. A group of editors on the site created a 4,500-word article all about a 17th-century war between Portugal and India—that never happened. The story was so convincing that Wikipedia granted it “good article” status, an honor granted to less than 1% of articles on the site. The creator of the hoax even nominated the page for “featured article” status, a privilege reserved for the best articles on the site, although the committee responsible for choosing featured articles noted that some of the article’s key sources were “weak” and ended up not selecting it. What they didn’t realize is that nearly every source used in the article was a nonexistent book, and the only mentions of a “Bicholim Conflict” on the internet linked back to the Wikipedia article. The fake history might never have come to light if amateur wiki-detective “ShelfSkewed” had not decided to double-check the article’s sources, leading to the unraveling of the elaborate hoax.^[5]

5 Orange Julius

Some Wikipedia hoaxes are just not believable. For instance, in June 2005, an article appeared on Wikipedia on the creator of Orange Julius (a popular fruit drink similar to an orange Creamsicle). On the surface, the article seemed in order: just a short biography of Julius Freed, featuring sections on his early life and his creation of the Orange Julius. It also mentioned his other “ingenious” inventions, such as the inflatable shrimp trap and the portable pigeon bathing unit. Wait … what? Amazingly, this obviously fake section of the article didn’t get fact-checked until “Jeopardy” legend Ken Jennings discovered it. He set to work disproving the hoax and then posted the results on his personal blog. Nobody was hurt by the little white lie, although, hilariously, Orange Julius briefly ran an ad promoting Freed’s (faux) accomplishments before Wikipedia removed the hoax.^[6]

4 Coati

Back in July 2008, Dylan Breves, a seventeen-year-old student from New York City, edited the Wikipedia article for the coati (a tropical American mammal). The only thing he altered was adding “Brazilian Aardvark” to a list of the creature’s nicknames. Why? While on a trip to the Iguazu Falls (a system of waterfalls in Brazil), Breves and his brother had misidentified coatis as aardvarks. Breves told “The New Yorker” he does not like “being wrong about things”, so he inserted the false nickname “as a joke.” Like many other minor wiki-vandals, he expected Wikipedia to remove his entry for a lack of sources, but, in a bit of circular reporting, an article in “The Telegraph” used Wikipedia as its source, and Wikipedia later sourced the claim using that same “Telegraph” article. From there, references to coatis as Brazilian aardvarks quickly spread, appearing in several major newspapers as well as a book published by the University of Chicago.^[7]

3Edward Owens

Don’t confuse him with Jar’Edo Wens! Edward Owens was a fictional pirate created by students at George Mason University as part of a 2008 course on “Lying about the past” taught by Professor T. Miles Kelly. The students created a website, videos, and, of course, a fake Wikipedia article to promote the hoax, which stated that Owens was an oyster fisherman who turned to piracy as a method of survival during “The Long Depression”—an economic slump in the late 1800s. After several blogs (most notably one connected with “USA Today”) reported the hoax as a factual historical account, the perpetrators admitted their deceit—but that did not stop Kelly from teaching the class again in 2012. This time, the students masqueraded as “Lisa Quinn”, a woman who thought her uncle was a serial killer based on some odd items she found in a trunk that had belonged to him. The students found four fairly similar cases of women murdered in New York City between 1895 and 1897, and created (factual) Wikipedia articles for them. The plan was that Lisa would then discover their names in her uncle’s documents, and the internet would believe it had unmasked a serial killer. Everything was going fine—until the students posted the hoax to Reddit, at which point it took just 26 minutes for someone to call foul, guessing the post was “viral marketing.” This led to the story being quickly picked apart by a bevy of eager Redditors, who pointed out, among other things, that the Wikipedia articles were new and the documents appeared artificially aged.^[8]

2 John Seigenthaler

In May 2005, an editor—like many other hoax creators, identified only by an IP address—created a Wikipedia article stating, among other falsities, that journalist John Seigenthaler was a suspect in the murders of both John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. In fact, Seigenthaler was one of Robert’s closest friends as well as a pallbearer at his funeral. The article wasn’t discredited until November 2005, when a friend of Seigenthaler spotted it and forwarded it to him. Seigenthaler described the incident in “USA Today” as “internet character assassination”, and described the perpetrator of the hoax as having a “sick, twisted mind.” The controversy made national news and marked one of the first times the media asked serious questions on how reliable sites with user-generated content really were. Finally, in December, a 38-year-old deliveryman named Brian Chase revealed himself as the author of the hoax, saying he posted it because he had thought Wikipedia was “some kind of ‘gag’ encyclopedia”.^[9]

1 Chris Benoit

Back in June 2007, Canadian WWE wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife, his son, and himself in a grisly double murder and suicide. About fourteen hours before police discovered the crime had taken place, a Wikipedia editor based in Stamford, Connecticut (about three miles from WWE headquarters), had edited the Wikipedia page for “Chris Benoit” to speculate that Chris had no-showed a WWE event because of “the death of his wife Nancy.” The mysterious editor (a 19-year-old wrestling fan who had a history of vandalizing Wikipedia articles) later gave a long apology on a Wikinews forum dedicated to the controversy, saying it was an “incredible coincidence” based on “rumors and speculation” he had found on the internet, and “the comment wasn’t meant to be a prank.” Police interviewed him and coerced him to cooperate with their checking of his computer equipment. The lesson here? No matter why you want to do it, don’t vandalize Wikipedia. Just don’t.^[10]

About The Author: About The Author: Izak Bulten is an animator and amateur film historian who loves writing articles about conspiracy theories, pop culture, and “crazy-but-true” stories. He’s created logic puzzles for World Sudoku Champion Thomas Synder’s blog, “The Art of Puzzles“, and the e-book “The Puzzlemaster’s Workshop”. More recently, he’s been writing animation news for his blog, “The Magic Lantern Show“.

We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a lawless time when desperate outlaws roamed the land. While that’s not totally fair, it is true that law and order often broke down. This allowed daring rogues to run wild, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

10Seguin de Badefol

Seguin de Badefol first appears in history as a mercenary for John II of France. After John was defeated by the Black Prince at Poitiers, France, England signed a peace treaty and the mercenaries were dismissed.

Instead of disbanding, the various mercenary companies simply transitioned to banditry, raiding and pillaging across France. De Badefol led the Margot, one of the largest bands, which could field up to 2,000 men. His favorite trick was occupying a town and demanding that the citizens pay him to leave.

In 1362, France sent an army to deal with the mercenaries, but Seguin united the various bands into the “Great Company” and shattered the royal force at the Battle of Brignais. It was a stunning victory, leaving eastern France completely at the mercy of the bandits.

Seguin died four years later from eating a poisoned quince while trying to extort some cash from ruthless maniac Charles “the Bad” of Navarre.

9Geoffrey Of Mandeville

After Henry I died without a son, the throne was claimed by the Empress Matilda (who was Henry’s daughter and rightful heir) and Stephen of Blois. Law and order broke down as England plunged into a civil war known as the Anarchy.

Perhaps the most notorious outlaw of the period was Geoffrey of Mandeville, a nobleman from East Anglia. Stephen made him Earl of Essex in return for his support, but Geoffrey betrayed Stephen and defected to Matilda, who gave him virtually unlimited control of Essex. Then Geoffrey defected back to Stephen in return for power over Middlesex and Hertfordshire.

In 1143, Stephen felt powerful enough to move against Geoffrey, but he escaped into the marshes of East Anglia. With a base on the Isle of Ely, Geoffrey became an outlaw, raiding and burning his way through the fens. He was killed by an arrow during a minor skirmish in 1144.

8Robert Fitz Hubert

During the Anarchy, Stephen shored up his position by hiring sellswords from Flanders, who soon developed an evil reputation. Arguably the worst was the practically feral Robert fitz Hubert.

Robert arrived in England in 1139. But instead of taking service with Stephen, Robert immediately attacked Malmesbury Castle and took it for himself. Stephen forced him out a few weeks later, at which point Robert hired his band out to Matilda.

He lasted a few months before sneaking away from Matilda’s army and taking Devizes Castle in a surprise night attack. He summoned more knights from Flanders and began to ravage the land in a determined effort to carve out a petty kingdom between Winchester and London.

This wild plan was only foiled by the cunning of John the Marshal, who offered to surrender his castle and then slammed the gate shut behind Robert when he arrived to negotiate. Robert was subsequently hanged.

7Eustace The Monk

At the height of his career, Eustace the Monk was so feared that he was rumored to be a sorcerer. A former monk, he was declared an outlaw and fled to the English Channel, where he became the most notorious pirate of his day.

Eustace was a formidable sea captain, and King John of England hired his powerful fleet to capture the Channel Islands from the French. Eustace subsequently used the island of Sark as a base to ravage the Norman coast and stage daring raids down the Seine.

In 1212, Eustace defected to the French. His pirates were sailing with a large French fleet when they came under attack from an English armada in 1217. The English triumphed by throwing quicklime onto the enemy ships, blinding the crew. Eustace was found hiding in the bilge and beheaded as “a traitor to the king and a most wicked pirate.”

6Owain Red Hand

Owain Lawgoch (“Red Hand”) was the last male-line descendant of the old Welsh kings of Gwynedd and one of the finest warriors of the 14th century. He was determined to regain his rightful throne and even launched two invasions, causing panic in England. However, his first fleet was prevented from landing by storms, while the second force was diverted to aid the king of France.

When not invading Wales, Owain fought for the French in the Hundred Years War and commanded a company of Welsh mercenaries against Pedro the Cruel of Castile. In 1375, Owain led the Guglers, a massive army of mercenaries that invaded Switzerland, only to be ambushed in a night attack by the enraged Swiss citizens.

Owain was assassinated in 1378 by an undercover agent of the English.

5Roger de Flor

Originally a member of the Knights Templar, Roger de Flor was drummed out of the order after his disgraceful conduct at the Siege of Acre, where he took control of a Templar galley and charged huge fees to carry civilians to safety in Cyprus.

After a spell as a pirate, Roger saw a chance to secure his fortunes. The king of Aragon had dismissed many of his soldiers after signing a peace treaty in 1302. Many of the newly unemployed Catalans had been fighting for two decades and had no other marketable skills. Roger recruited 6,000 into a mercenary band known as the Catalan Company and signed a lucrative contract with the Byzantines.

The Catalans were mildly successful against the Turks, but they also looted Byzantine land and openly fought rival Byzantine soldiers. To make matters worse, Roger was clearly plotting to carve out his own kingdom in Anatolia. Declaring him a bandit, the Byzantines murdered him in 1305.

4The Catalan Company

After the murder of Roger de Flor, the Byzantines sent an army to wipe out his mercenaries. Although the Catalans were outnumbered, they were also hardened veterans and defeated the Imperial Army at Apros in 1305.

After a fairly pathetic attempt to blockade Constantinople, the Company crossed into Greece, where the Duke of Athens realized they were a threat. Cunningly, he offered to hire the Catalans.

They conquered large territories of Greece for him until they realized that their money was never coming. Meanwhile, the duke was trying to split the Company by offering full pay and land to 500 of the Catalans if they would help him defeat the others.

The 500 Catalans declined to betray their comrades but sensibly took the bribe first. Then they pulled off another underdog victory over the duke’s larger army and established their own petty kingdom in Greece, which lasted for the next 80 years.

3Adam The Leper

In the mid-14th century, England experienced something of an urban crime wave. Even the Black Prince once sent his servants out to buy food, only for them to return beaten and robbed. The most notorious gang leader was Adam the Leper, who often targeted royal officials.

In his most famous crime, Adam learned that Queen Philippa had left her jewelry with a local merchant. The leper’s gang surrounded the merchant’s house and demanded that he hand over the gems.

The outraged merchant refused and stoutly beat off several attacks until Adam became exasperated and set the building on fire. Now the tables were turned, with the merchant and his family trying to get out and Adam keeping them in until they tossed out the jewels. The leper was apparently never punished for this daring attack.

2Momcilo

Hajduk Momcilo was a Bulgarian bandit who built a personal army of peasants in the Rhodope Mountains. He briefly served Stefan Dusan of Serbia but really came into his own during the Byzantine Civil War of 1341–1347.

In an impressive display of backstabbing, Momcilo switched sides in 1343, 1344, and 1345. By playing both sides, he was able to establish his own power in the borderlands.

Momcilo eventually became such a threat that the Byzantines teamed up with the Turks to launch a joint attack on his city of Peritheorion. Sensing which way the wind was blowing, the citizens locked Momcilo’s army outside the gates, where he was defeated and killed.

1The Archpriest

Arnaud de Cervole was Archpriest of Velines until he found that a career as a mercenary was more to his liking. (He kept “the Archpriest” as a nickname.) After the Battle of Poitiers, Arnaud was the first to realize that the French crown was no longer strong enough to hold the mercenaries in check.

He formed the first “Great Company” and led it into Provence, which had avoided serious damage in the war. Before long, the mercenaries had turned it into a wasteland. Arnaud even besieged Marseille with 3,000 men, although the city held out.

In 1358, the Archpriest ensured his infamy by essentially taking the Pope hostage, surrounding the Papal seat in Avignon, and demanding 20,000 florins to leave the region. After that, Arnaud largely went back to legitimate mercenary work and was part of the royal army defeated by Seguin de Badefol’s raiders at the Battle of Brignais.

In 1365, Arnaud was hired to lead the mercenaries in a crusade against the Turks, although the real goal was to get them out of France. He was stabbed to death months later in an argument over supplies.

The world of video games is an endlessly fascinating place, especially when you peek behind the curtain and learn its inner workings. Controversy is no stranger to video games, whether it’s attributed to a specific title or the people who made it. In this list, we’ll be running down some fascinating examples of various times the gaming industry was making headlines but for all the wrong reasons. 

10. The Last of Us Part II Leaks

Honestly, we could just mention the title The Last of Us Part II, end this paragraph early, and just assume the comment section is already in flames. Whether you love it or hate it, the follow-up to Neil Druckmann and Naughty Dog’s 2013 smash hit, The Last of Us, is still a point of contention for many fans. 

Not helping matters were the leaks before the game’s release back in April 2020, just two months before the game’s official release. On April 27, a leaker took to the internet and dropped over an hour of gameplay and cutscenes, spoiling some big reveals and moments from the impending sequel. These spoilers not only included the switch to the secondary protagonist of Abby partway through the game but the death of Joel as well! With these rather major reveals let loose on the web, many passionate fans quickly began voicing their displeasure with Naughty Dog’s creative choices. 

Despite Naughty Dog’s best efforts to extinguish the fire, the damage had already been done, casting a dark shadow over the once highly anticipated sequel. Despite these leaks, the game still went on to garner solid critical praise, as well as selling over four million copies in three days.

9. The Mass Effect 3 Ending

If one were to harness the concentrated rage directed at BioWare in 2012, you could probably use it to power a small country for over a thousand years. For those of you not familiar, back in 2012, the hype for the third installment of the Mass Effect series couldn’t have been more rabid. What amplified the anticipation was the “Choose your own adventure” tinted nature of the game’s ongoing narrative. From the customizable appearance of the lead character, Commander Shepard, to the way the player chooses to engage with the plot and characters, the experience is beyond immersive. 

So upon reaching Mass Effect 3’s ending and discovering that their various decisions over the past few years meant next to nothing, people were beyond disappointed and betrayed. For something this underwhelming and lazy to be presented as the finale to such a lauded franchise resulted in quite the backlash to be sure. Bloodthirsty fans look to the web to voice their displeasure, even going as far as to craft petitions for BioWare to change the ending. 

Overwhelmed by the backlash, BioWare opted to release the Extended Cut DLC, to expand on the previously released ending. While this redux did resolve some lingering plot and character threads, it still wasn’t enough to satisfy the fans.

8. The False Advertisement of No Man’s Sky

There have been many instances in the video game industry of a highly anticipated project simply not living up to fan’s expectations. A major example of this is No Man’s Sky, released in 2016, and the allegations of false advertisement thrown at it following its launch. 

For content, the advertisements of No Man’s Sky very much made it look like a next-level science-fiction game experience. Not only did the marking lead players to believe that the game would be teeming with diverse planets, wildlife, and deep exploration possibilities, as well as multiplayer functionality. Needless to say, players were very excited to play the game and explore every inch of its allegedly lavish and diverse world. 

Unfortunately, when people bought the game on its release day, they were met with a game that was a far cry from what was promised. Not only was the promised multiplayer functionality absent, but the planets in the actual game were not as diverse and immersive as initially promised. Hello Games and its founder, Sean Murray, were soon swept up in a tidal wave of backlash and criticism from the gaming community, many of whom felt cheated and lied to. It got to the point where Hello Games needed to publically address the disconnect between the marketing and the disappointing final product.

7. Star Wars Battlefront II Microtransactions

In the world of modern gaming, one of the more frustrating developments has been the genesis of microtransactions within major titles. This refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods – such as weapons, skins, and rare items – with micropayments. This means that many players can simply buy their way to a higher level in a certain game without progressing via their skill.

Nowhere was the inclusion of this aggravating trend more prevalent than when it came to Star Wars Battlefront II, published by Electronic Arts (EA). The game was heavily predicated on a loot box system, which effectively hinged the gameplay on a pay-to-win-based mechanic. When beta players realized that buying these loot boxes was integral to progressing in the game, it wasn’t too long before the backlash began. EA even found themselves under investigation by the likes of Belgium and the Netherlands as to whether the loot box mechanic constituted a form of illegal gambling.

Eventually, EA was forced to temporarily remove microtransactions from Battlefront just before its official release. They later reintroduced a revised gameplay system wherein the loot boxes were only for cosmetic upgrades. The whole debacle served as a harsh reminder that the modern consumer, especially in gaming, won’t blindly accept predatory microtransactions in their AAA titles. 

6. The Cyberpunk 2077 Launch

Following the success of The Witcher games, hardcore gamers were ready for whatever CD Projekt Red, the studio behind them, had in store next. So when it was announced that they’d be adapting Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk tabletop RPG series into their next title, fans were ecstatic. 

Despite being announced in the early 2010s, Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn’t arrive on store shelves until late 2022, the release date having been delayed several times. However, when console users, specifically PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners, popped the game in on launch day the disappointment was almost instant. Players quickly ran into a downpour of technical problems, including crashes, low frame rates, and graphical glitches that made the game borderline unplayable for some. Additionally, players were also dissatisfied with the lack of deeper customization, the shallow NPC interactions, and the incomplete open world.

This couldn’t have fallen further from the mark of what was originally advertised, which made the game out to be a visually stunning and fast-paced gaming experience. CD Projekt Red was severely criticized for putting out a game that, from a programming perspective, was as unstable as a house of cards. Not only that but their stock price sharply plummeted following the launch of the game, even offering refunds to dissatisfied players.

5. Ubisoft Workplace Misconduct

No industry has been untouched by the Me Too movement which picked up steam in the late 2010s, especially the gaming industry. A major example of this was a major scandal in 2020 surrounding allegations of workplace misconduct within the walls of Ubisoft. Things kicked off when numerous reports began to surface regarding the toxic behavior of several high-profile Ubisoft executives and employees.

Before too long, multiple current and former female employees were coming forward with stories of mistreatment and harassment within the company. The stories ran the gamut of heinous actions, ranging from inappropriate verbal comments and behavior to several instances of assault and systemic sexism. These revelations led to the resignation or dismissal of several key figures within Ubisoft, including the chief creative officer, Serge Hascoët. Another key figure who found himself out of a job was the managing director of Ubisoft’s Canadian studios, Yannis Mallat.

Many current and former employees, publically expressed disappointment and ample frustration with Ubisoft’s lack of accountability and transparency. Following this, Ubisoft opted to launch internal investigations, as well as implement changes to foster a safer environment and a more respectful workplace culture. The whole incident stands as a harsh reminder of how grimy the gaming industry can be and what needs to be done to improve it. 

4. Rockstar’s Infamous “Hot Coffee” Mod

When it comes to controversies within the gaming world, you can always count on the Grand Theft Auto franchise to provide more than a few. The irreverent and hyper-violent crime-based action-adventure games have always had a knack for making it into mainstream news headlines. Whenever there’s a discussion about violence in video games corrupting the youth, GTA has more often than not been a poster child for that claim. 

However, the most noteworthy scandal revolving around the franchise came in the form of a minigame found in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. In 2005, following its release, players who dug into the programming made a rather raunchy discovery, a hidden minigame buried in the game’s code. The game, now referred to as Hot Coffee, allowed the player to control the main character, CJ, as he engaged in aggressive sex acts with various women. The name itself is derived from CJ’s girlfriends asking him “Do you want to come inside for some coffee?” before the minigame starts.

While some fans might’ve been entertained by this discovery, it wasn’t too long before Hot Coffee was a source of major controversy. Rockstar Games and, their parent company, Take-Two Interactive were hit with a slew of lawsuits and fines, including a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission.

3. Blizzard’s Hong Kong Controversy

To understand the 2019 Blizzard Hong Kong Controversy, we must first quickly explain the game Hearthstone, one of the company’s flagship titles. Hearthstone is a free-to-play digital collectible card game where players build decks composed of different creatures, spells, and abilities from the Warcraft universe. The game became so popular that many skilled players have gone pro, even showcasing their prowess on highly touted tournament livestreams. 

This leads us to the aforementioned controversy that began when a professional Hearthstone player, Chung “Blitzchung” Ng Wai, used said platform to signal-boost the Hong Kong protests. Blitzchung opted to wear a gas mask, a symbol of the then-ongoing protests, and shout a slogan calling for Hong Kong’s liberation during a post-match interview. This resulted in Blizzard banning Blitzchung from competitive play for a full year and revoking his prize money.

This decision kicked off an influx of outrage from fans, fellow pro players, and human rights organizations around the world. Many were incensed that Blizzard would punish a player so harshly, simply to appease the often stringent Chinese government. Blizzard soon had fans boycotting all of their game titles, as well as their employees staging walkouts and protests within their offices. Eventually, Blizzard relented and reversed the ban they’d placed on Blitzchng, even returning his prize money as well. 

2. Bethesda’s Fallout 76 Launch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9FGaan35s0

It’s a bit hard to properly summarize just how passionate Fallout fans are about the still-ongoing post-apocalyptic game series. From its retrofuturistic style to its extremely immersive gameplay, when there is some new brewing in the Fallout universe people’s expectations are usually pretty high. So, when Fallout 76 was announced, especially following the success of Fallout 4, the anticipation train was right on track. 

So, when the game finally arrived in November 2018, you can imagine fans’ disappointment when they discovered the subpar quality of the released game. While bugs on a game’s initial launch day are to be expected, players dealt with a staggering amount of bugs, glitches, and performance issues that hindered gameplay. These issues included server instability, frequent crashes, graphics issues, and even side-missions that were broken or just flat-out unfinishable. Additionally, the game itself was just devoid of any real substance, especially compared to prior Fallout games, lacking meaningful quests, NPCs, or storylines.

In response, Bethesda, the game’s publisher, had no choice but to issue an apology, as well as address the technical issues with a series of patches and updates. Regardless of where the Fallout series goes next, this entry will likely always be regarded as its lowest point. 

1. GamerGate

Dread it, run from it, GameGate arrives all the same. Given the subject matter of this list, it was only a matter of time before we discussed one of gaming’s most volatile periods. Several years on, people are still analyzing and unpacking GameGate, the problematic online movement wherein female game developers and players were hit with targeted abuse and harassment. 

The whole thing was spurred on by allegations surrounding Zoe Quinn, a female indie game developer. It was rumored that Quinn had engaged in a romantic relationship with a gaming journalist for positive coverage of her game. Despite these claims being largely baseless, many gamers believed it and went to work on attacking Quinn online and defaming her character. From there, the whole situation only got worse, with more developers and journalists, including Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu, finding themselves the target of harassment campaigns. This harassment even escalated beyond hateful online comments with reported incidents including threats of violence, and even public doxxings of private information. 

The whole thing served to highlight many of the deep-seated issues within gaming culture, including sexism, racism, and homophobia. Even now, people are still unpacking the shameful fallout of GameGate and how gaming culture can move forward and improve.

How often do you think about the books that you read? For many, you likely pick up a book, enjoy yourself, and then put it down, likely only revisiting it when it comes up in conversation. However, this would be doing a great disservice to the often controversial world of publishing and the backstories of countless books. Whether the book was loaded with lies or its contents led to a massive backlash, these are some noteworthy publishing controversies you should be aware of. 

10. James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces

When James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces hit bookshelves in April 2003, nobody could’ve predicted the explosive controversy it would spark. Upon first glance, the book purported itself as James Frey’s memoir, focusing on his struggles with addiction, as well as his tenure in a twelve-step rehabilitation center.

The book’s first major claim to fame was being picked as an Oprah’s Book Club selection, a definite sign of mainstream popularity. This ended up propelling it to the top of Amazon.com and The New York Times Best Seller list for fifteen weeks. Unfortunately, its other claim to fame is far from positive and it’s the reason it’s earned a spot on this list. The Smoking Gun, a website focused on legal documents and arrest records, published a piece titled A Million Little Lies, listing the book’s litany of falsities and lies.

Eventually, the genie was out of the bottle and the truth behind Frey’s book was revealed, that he’d exaggerated or completely fabricated the events described within. Soon enough Frey’s lies were exposed, resulting in Doubleday and Anchor Books, the book’s publishers, needing to release public statements. This revelation certainly touched a nerve for many, including celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain who said, “As a former addict, I found this fake redemption memoir to be morally repugnant.”

9. Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses

Published in 1988, Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was a fantastical look at the life of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. Much like his previous books, Rushdie utilizes magical realism, a realistic story with fictitious elements, as well as real figures and events to convey his narrative. The plot centers around the lives of two Indian expatriates, people who live outside their native country, all while touching upon ideas of faith, culture, and identity.

However, controversy would soon be on Rushdie’s heels as many Muslims ended up perceiving the book, and its portrayal of Muhammad, as blasphemous. Another point of contention for many was Rushdie’s treatment of the titular Satanic Verses, which concerned three pagan Meccan goddesses: All?t, Al-Uzza, and Man?t. All of these perceived transgressions resulted in Iran’s then-supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, placing a fatwa on Rushdie, marking him for immediate assassination. 

Not only was the book banned in several countries, but Rushdie himself ended up living under police protection for nearly a decade. He was also often forced to hide for long periods and constantly change residencies for his safety. It’s a prime example of how a person’s work can incite ample backlash, as well as how limited freedom of speech can be within other cultures. 

8. J.D. Salinger’s Unauthorized Sequel

Whether you love it or find it insufferable, there is no denying the impact of J.D. Salinger’s famous novel The Catcher in the Rye. While the book itself has generated its own streak of controversy over the years, that’s not what we’ll be recapping here. Instead, we’ll spotlight John David California AKA Fredrik Colting, a book author who opted to pen his own sequel to The Catcher in the Rye.

60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, published in 2009, follows an elderly Holden Caulfield and his adventure following an escape from a retirement home. However, it wasn’t too long before Colting’s fanfiction began stirring up trouble with Salinger himself who, before he died in 2010, saw fit to slap him with a lawsuit. Sallinger argued, not unreasonably, that Colting’s book thoroughly infringed on his already existing work and was heavily exploitative regarding Holden Caulfield’s character. 

After the dispute went to court, a permanent injunction was granted by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. This injunction prevented the book from seeing official publication in the United States, though Colting did file an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals later on.

7. Maus by Art Spiegelman

We now turn to the world of comic books and graphic novels for a moment, a venue that’s been no stranger to its fair share of controversies. The focus here is the work of Art Spiegelman, specifically his serialized graphic novel Maus, which was first published in 1980 and lasted until 1991. The comic tells the story of Spiegelman’s father and his survival in the Holocaust, told through anthropomorphic animals. Despite using mice as the Jews and cats as the nazis, the story never once pulls its punches regarding the sobering historical events portrayed within it.

Many have critiqued the book for its animal allegories, as several critics have noted how comparing Jews to mice only serves to reinforce hurtful stereotypes. However, the comic was plagued with even further controversy when it made its way to schools and public libraries, with many taking umbrage with its content. Given the subject matter, the comic doesn’t hold back with its graphic depiction of violence, nudity, and strong language. This resulted in many schools banning the book, most notably the state of Tennessee who pushed for the decision due to the story’s profane language. Despite this, the controversial status of Maus has only pushed more readers to give it a look, further encouraging people’s education regarding the Holocaust. 

6. American Dirt Controversy

As years have passed and modern culture continually evolves, the debates regarding cultural appropriation and ethnic stereotypes have only increased. Nowhere was the debate more evident than in the discourse following the 2020 release of American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. The book concerns a Mexican woman who, with her son in tow, fled to the United States to escape cartel violence.

Many have praised the book as a thrilling read, however, just before its publication, many negative think pieces concerning American Dirt began popping up online. The common criticism was that Cummins wasn’t an appropriate choice to craft a narrative concerning Mexican culture and the immigrant experience. Many noted that Cummins, who’d identified as white in a previous interview, was simply reinforcing Mexican stereotypes via her book’s narrative. Additionally, many also pointed out several inaccuracies in its depiction of Mexican life and the lives of immigrants, further cementing the perceived inauthenticity. 

This was only heightened when American Dirt was selected for Oprah Winfrey’s book club, which propelled the controversy onto a grander and widespread stage. Cummins’ work stands as a reminder of how important cultural representation is to people and how mishandling it can lead to a serious backlash.

5. Amazon vs. Hachette Book Group

Nowadays, whether it’s a book, a new air fryer, or a six-pack of towels, if you need it at your doorstep quickly, you’re heading to Amazon.com for it. Alongside their convenient online shopping and streaming content, Amazon also has a wide array of electronic books AKA e-books for sale as well. The publishing controversy we’ll be spotlighting here is focused not just on Amazon but on Hachette Book Group, one of the largest book publishers in the industry. 

Back in 2014, Amazon, looking to lower the prices of their e-books, put pressure on Hachette to comply by delaying shipments of their physical books. They also decided to remove the pre-order option, usually present on a forthcoming book’s listing, from any new Hachette title on the site. The more this dispute went on, the more attention it received, with Amazon receiving criticism for its bullying tactics which were nothing short of harmful.

Many authors, whose work was published by Hachette, found themselves stuck right in the middle of this conflict, with the reach of their work being severely affected by it. Eventually, both parties came to a compromise via a multi-year agreement, though the specific details have never been revealed publicly.

4. The Da Vinci Code Plagiarism Allegations

When The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown hit bookshelves in 2003, it quickly became a major success, selling over 80 million copies worldwide by 2016. The book focuses on symbologist Robert Langdon who, along with cryptologist Sophie Neveu, investigates a murder in the Louvre Museum that leads them down a rabbit hole of religious conspiracy.

However, where the controversy began was the book’s alleged similarities to another book written years earlier in 1982 titled Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Much like The Da Vinci Code, the book shares a similar narrative throughline regarding the modern descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, two of the book’s three authors, ended up filing a lawsuit against Brown and his published, alleging copyright infringement.

Their argument was predicated on the notion that Brown has used the main crux of their story, plot points, and even character names without any acknowledgment, permission, or compensation. While on the stand, Brown and his legal team did state that The Da Vinci Code did draw influence from their work. However, they also maintained that the book itself was a work of fiction and drew influence from a wide crop of historical sources. Eventually, the judge ruled in favor of Brown, noting that the ideas and historical elements in question were not protected by copyright.

3. The Bell Curve

The Bell Curve, published in 1994, argued that measuring intelligence with IQ tests could predict a person’s social outcome in education, employment, and socioeconomic status. The book’s authors, Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, also suggested that racial differences played a role in the results of the tests.

Simply put, Herrnstein and Murray’s work heavily implied that racial minorities have less of a chance of success due to their genetics, a grotesquely antiquated idea to be sure. This claim sparked a fair amount of controversy, with many scholars, activists, and even the general public, accusing the authors of promoting racist ideas propped up by sketchy pseudo-science. Herrnstein and Murray also suggested that social welfare programs might be futile due to what they perceived as inherent and largely unchangeable differences in intelligence.

It has long been established that a higher IQ doesn’t always lead to higher pay or prolonged success, so their already flawed logic was shaky at best. The book’s highest critics even feared that such misguided ideas could lead to many justifying discrimination and the cutting of various social programs. The backlash was so immense that many universities were being pressured to cancel speaking events featuring the authors.

2. J.K. Rowling’s Transgender Comments

J.K. Rowling, it’s a name that at one time brought joy to the lives of many kids and young adults, but today just leaves a sour taste in their mouths. It all began in 2019 when the Harry Potter scribe tweeted support for a researcher who was terminated for stating that biological sex is immutable. This caused many to accuse her of transphobia, with many viewing her comments as diminishing toward those with transgender identities.

This was only exacerbated when, in 2020, Rowling published an entire essay outlining her concerns regarding the impact of transgender activism on women’s rights and safety. A big crux of her argument was concerning public bathrooms, claiming that a transgender person could sexually assault a biological woman. This revelation regarding Rowling’s views on the matter resulted in an ample backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates, fans, and fellow authors, all tremendously offended by her stance. 

Considering the sizable amount of Harry Potter fans who identify as LGBTQ+, this was a heartbreaking turn of events for many of her biggest fans. Rowling however remains largely unphased by her critics in this regard, even going on record as saying she doesn’t care how her legacy will be affected.

1. Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman

When it comes to famous books, there are perhaps few as famous and widely celebrated as Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. The book, based on Lee’s childhood, is told from the perspective of Scout, a young girl who greatly admires her father, a lawyer named Atticus Finch. The book deals heavily with the topic of racial inequality, as Atticus is appointed to defend a black man who has been accused of sexually assaulting a young white woman.

This narrative presents Atticus as an ethical and very intelligent man, who refuses to be intimated out of defending his client by the town’s various racist residents. This stands in strong contrast to the version of Atticus shown in Go Set a Watchman, Lee’s sequel to To Kill A Mockingbird which was released in 2015. In the sequel, which was written by Lee before To Kill A Mockingbird, the once-noble Atticus is portrayed as a racist.

This revelation proved quite devastating to many fans of Lee’s original book, as it tainted one of literature’s most beloved characters. Additionally, Lee’s then-lawyer, Tonja Carter, had also made rather dubious claims that Lee had reneged on her almost-lifelong decision to never release the book. This, when paired with the knowledge that Lee’s health was steadily declining at the time, led many to speculate that she was being taken advantage of.

When we hear the word “gangster,” we often think of the Bloods and Crips of California or the international cartels that control the drug trade. We don’t think of the middle ages.

But gangs have existed for at least 2,000 years—and probably a lot longer. The gangs of Milo and Clodius were duking it out for control of Rome in 50 BC, and in sixth-century Constantinople, an emperor effectively relied on the backing of either the Blue or Green gang for power: When they both united against Emperor Justinian, they burned half the city to the ground.

Gangs in the middle ages, though, were a more local affair, often run by unscrupulous noble families or ex-soldiers looking for ways to put their skills to use. Since there were no police, people were expected to take the law into their own hands, and it was actually a legal requirement, following the Assize of Arms in 1181, for all freemen in England to own weaponry and an iron helmet.^[1] This also made it very easy to turn to a life of mercenary work or outright banditry.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at ten of the most notorious criminal gangsters of the middle ages.

10 The Waraunt Family

Some gangs were just family members working together to survive, and that was the case with the Waraunt family.^[2] The Waraunts were a group of four siblings and another male relative who worked together to cheat the justice system, making a small fortune by the standards of their time.

The first record of the Waraunts is an accusation against three of the siblings—Matilda, Margery, and Richard—of receiving stolen goods in 1321, but they avoided punishment. The fourth sibling was again accused later in the year. There’s no way for us to tell how much was stolen in these cases, if anything at all, nor how many other crimes they may have committed that slipped through the net. However, the family were finally caught out when John Waraunt was found guilty of stealing clothes and household items worth eight shillings. The average wage of a laborer in 1331 was three pennies a day, and twelve pennies went into a shilling, so eight shillings was roughly a month’s wages. John Waraunt was hanged.

The rest clearly weren’t deterred, though, because their greatest exploits were yet to come. In 1325, the four remaining Waraunts were all in prison, accused of stealing cloth worth 60 shillings. Despite the instruction for forte et dure (“strong and hard”) punishment, which likely meant torture, they dodged conviction once again when they were put in front of the jury.

They went straight back to it: In 1326, they were acquitted of an accusation of stealing 32 cloths, and just four months later, two of the sisters were accused and acquitted of stealing 40 shillings’ worth of cloth.

Here, the Waraunts drop off the map, having stolen more than a year and a half’s wages worth of stuff and gotten away (mostly) unscathed.

9 Malcolm Musard

The earliest mention of Malcolm Musard is Feb 13, 1296, after he and some friends had been arrested for trespassing in a royal forest while they were heading to join the king’s army in Scotland.^[3] He was most likely in his early twenties, and this was the first event in a life spent on the wrong side of the law.

On his father’s death in 1300, Malcolm inherited his lands in Worcestershire, and it wasn’t long before he started selling his sword for profit. In 1304, he and his gang were paid to attack a rectory by the former tenant, something they would make their future careers doing. In the early 1300s, he and his men were accused of “many felonies, robberies and homicides” in Worcestershire and fled the county to escape justice. They can’t have been gone long because by 1316, the king had ordered an investigation into Musard’s “diverse crimes” across both Worcestershire and Warwickshire, though he was pardoned in 1318.

Malcolm was arrested in 1323, ostensibly for aiding the Marcher Lords in their rebellion, but he was released in 1326 and officially pardoned for all outlawry in Worcester. As soon as he was out, he seems to have returned to his old ways because when, in 1327, Isabella deposed the king, she ordered his arrest for theft in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. He had been released by the time Isabella was removed from power, and Edward III officially pardoned him in 1330.

8 Fulk FitzWarin

Not all medieval men who ended up living the life of the outlaw did so by choice. Fulk FitzWarin found himself on the wrong side of the king after the latter granted the estate of Whittington to a Welshman instead of Fulk, who had paid £100 for it and whose father had spent his life fighting for it.^[4]

Fulk refused to accept the king’s decision, and in 1200, he and his brothers, William, Philip, and John, started a guerilla campaign against the crown, joined by some family tenants and the ambitious young sons of a few knights. They numbered 52 in all. Declared outlaws by the king, they continued their campaign against the kingdom for three years, even in the face of Hubert de Burgh, who the king sent with 100 soldiers to end their rebellion. The king acquiesced in November 1203, paying Fulk 200 marks and giving him the estate of Whittington.

Once his dispute with the king was settled, Fulk happily returned to the life of a normal, landed noble in England and lived until 1258, by which point he must have been extremely old, especially for the time. In his later life, he was evidently well-respected, because the king of England trusted him to mediate disputes and truces in Wales on several occasions after 1230.

7 The Folvilles

In most cases, only the eldest son of a landowner would stand to inherit any of his property. Any other sons would usually join the retinue of a knight in search of glory and fortune, either in the form of rewards for valor or in ransom money for capturing another noble. Some, however, turned to crime.

As was the case with the Folville family.^[5] The eldest son, John Folville, lived the normal life of a landed noble, rarely, if ever, getting involved in the antics of his younger siblings. But the other Folvilles, Eustace, Robert, Walter, and Richard, worked together as a band of violent mercenaries. They frequently operated outside the law (or took it into their own hands), especially when their family was at stake. For example, in 1326, when Roger de Beler, the Baron of the Exchequer, made threats against the Folvilles, Eustace led a band of 50 men and captured and killed him on the road. A warrant was issued for their arrest, and they fled to join Queen Isabella’s army on the continent, where they were mustering to depose the king. The Folvilles fought in the queen’s army, and when she successfully seized the kingdom, they were pardoned.

On their return to England, they worked as a band of thugs for hire, committing acts of violence on behalf of people who wanted to keep their reputation. They first targeted the lands of de Beler, who had wronged them in the past, but were also roaming the country openly armed and holding travelers on the road for ransom.

After stealing animals from the estate of Henry de Beaumont, they were once again wanted for arrest, this time by the corrupt judge Richard Willoughby. However, rather than acquiesce to imprisonment, they captured the judge and ransomed him for 1,300 marks (a ludicrous amount of money at the time). The capture of a royal representative was unprecedented, and they were wanted men. However, they allied themselves with the infamous Coterel gang and together roamed Derbyshire openly armed, causing trouble and threatening travelers.

Fortunately for them, Edward III was at war and in serious need of warriors. He didn’t have the means to confront the gangsters, but he could put them to work. The Folvilles happily signed up for the English army and fought for Edward against the Scots through 1337 and 1338, receiving a full pardon in return.

They never served any punishment for their crimes.

6 John Fitzwalter

John Fitzwalter, a powerful Essex man and close relative of the esteemed de Clare family, is the embodiment of medieval noble privilege.^[6] He effectively treated Essex as his own personal kingdom and was too strong to be brought to justice by the king.

He first appears on record as being part of a gang who broke into the park of John de Seagrave, hunting and taking his animals and causing damage in 1340. It wasn’t long before he was terrorizing Essex with a gang of his own, engaging in cattle-rustling and extortion and taking goods from merchants without paying. He frequently refused to pay back any debts or rents he owed. Because of his power and influence, even royal justices simply refused to bring cases against him.

Things came to a head when men from Colchester broke into one of his parks, looted and damaged it, and killed one of his men (probably in retaliation for his abusive behavior). Fitzwalter brought all the force he could muster against the town, taking legal action, fixing juries against them (and assaulting jurors who didn’t support him), and besieging the town, preventing people from entering or leaving. He and his gangsters even armed themselves with wooden beams from the houses they destroyed and threatened passersby.

Justice finally caught up with him in 1351, when the king ordered a Commission of the Peace to investigate his crimes. The king issued an arrest warrant, and Fitzwalter was held in the Tower of London for a year, his entire estate confiscated. However, he was eventually freed and issued with a royal pardon. He was ordered to pay a fine of £847, an amount so large that most lower knights wouldn’t earn that in a lifetime.

His criminal activities end there. He dutifully paid his fine in annual increments until his death ten years later.

5 The Despensers

The Despensers were worse than ordinary thuggish medieval criminals. They were cunning and ambitious, and at the height of their power, they even had control over the king of England. They used their positions of trust in the royal court to bully and usurp people out of their money and lands until they were the most powerful men in England. It took a civil war to break their grip on the kingdom.^[7]

In 1317, Hugh Despenser the Younger was chosen to be the royal chamberlain, an extremely powerful position because the chamberlain controlled access to the king. Edward II was known for having favorites, and Hugh ingratiated himself with the king. By 1320, he was Edward’s closest confidant (other than his wife, Isabella). Now that his position was secure, he began manipulating the king and the power he held to extort peoples’ lands and titles from them at a staggering rate.

Despenser alarmed the other nobles to such an extent that by 1321, the kingdom was in open civil war, with those on the rebel side demanding restrictions on royal power and the removal of Despenser. Unfortunately for them, they were crushed at the Battle of Boroughbridge, opening the door to four years of unrestricted royal (and therefore Despenser) rule.

Hugh Despenser and his father systematically abused royal power to seize the lands of other landholders, often by imprisoning them until they agreed to give up the charter. They also twisted the king’s opinion against their own great enemies, Roger Mortimer, Damory, and Audley, and directed royal power against them, cementing their own power. They also controlled the king completely, not allowing him to meet with anyone else, even his wife, unless one of them was also present.

The corruption of the Despensers turned the whole kingdom against them and infected the monarchy so thoroughly that when the king’s wife, Isabella, landed in England with an army (after unsuccessfully asking Edward to get rid of the Despensers) Edward’s reign ended with theirs. The only people who stood with the king in the end were the Despensers and their allies, and within two months of Isabella’s arrival, he and the Despensers had been caught and imprisoned.

The elder Despenser was cut into pieces and fed to dogs, while Hugh was hanged from 15 meters (50 ft) while being forced to wear his own coat of arms turned upside down and then castrated and disemboweled.

4 Adam The Leper

Many bandit groups plagued rural areas, but towns and cities could also be the haunt of the medieval gangster. On page 245 of A History of Crime in England, there is a record of the exploits of a gang leader called “Adam the Leper.”^[8]

A trader who worked for Queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife of Edward III, was holding some jewels on her behalf in his house in London. Adam the Leper, whose gang operated in the area, somehow discovered that he had the jewels and led the gang to the trader’s house after dark, barricading him in and demanding that he hand over the jewels. When the merchant refused, the gangsters set fire to the house and burned it down, seizing the treasure anyway.

Not much else is known about Adam the Leper, except that he seems to have escaped punishment and lived another 20 years. It’s likely he was the head of an urban street gang who were used to pulling heists like this, the majority of which went unrecorded because they didn’t directly involve important nobles or royalty.

3 Roger Godberd (c. 1245–1276)

Roger Godberd is one of the people thought to be the inspiration behind the Robin Hood legend. In some ways, he certainly fits the bill, operating as an outlaw around Sherwood Forest and being caught and imprisoned by the Sheriff of Nottingham. In many ways, however, he is very unlike the Robin Hood of myth.^[9]

One of the earliest accounts featuring Roger is a court case in which he is accused of unlawfully assaulting one of his tenants. According to the court, he’d given Jordan le Fleming a ten-year tenancy at his manor in Swaninton but forcibly ejected him after just a year, taking some of le Fleming’s belongings as he did. He was accused of poaching venison in Sherwood Forest in 1264. Two years later, in 1266, he appears again, this time taking a charter (a deed for land) at swordpoint from the convent at Garendon, which he appears to have been renting to them, and then forcing them to sign a document forgiving him for doing so. Later that year, however, he was granted a pardon by the king for all his past crimes, apparently for his “good behaviour.”

Whatever the king’s reason for pardoning Roger was, it was clearly misplaced, since he was accused of committing a robbery in 1270. By this time, he was apparently the leader of a band of outlaws who lived around Sherwood Forest. He was imprisoned in Nottingham Castle but seems to have escaped with the help of a knight named Richard Folyot, who was harboring Roger and his men.

Roger, who was called the leader of outlaws in Leicester, Nottingham, and Wiltshire by Reginald de Grey, the Sheriff of Nottingham at the time, was imprisoned at Bridgnorth Castle in 1272 and put on trial in 1275, where he tried to defend himself by showing them the royal pardon he’d received nearly a decade earlier and arguing that he’d committed no crime since. Whether this worked or not is unknown, as some accounts say he died in prison the next year, while others suggest he went free and lived for as long as two decades more.

2 The Coterels

In many ways, the Coterels were similar to the Folvilles, operating at the same time and in roughly the same area as them—both gangs worked together in the kidnapping and ransoming of Richard Willoughby, the royal judge sent to convict them.^[10]

Led by James Coterel and his brothers, Nicholas and John, they were likely the sons of Ralph Coterel, who owned land in Derbyshire. They first appear fighting in the army of the Earl of Lancaster during his 1322 rebellion against the king. King Edward II lost authority in the region in the final years of his reign, which gave the gang room to grow. Protected by the priors of Lichfield, they were effectively untouchable: By 1330, they’d even raided one of the estates of Henry Lancaster, who was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom and a relative of the king, and they were wanted for murder. They’d already formed an association of criminals which operated across much of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, involved in systematic extortion and robbery.

Unusually, they also enjoyed the protection of Queen Philippa, who helped James Coterel buy his own land in 1332, at the height of their criminal activities. The royal commission which was ordered to investigate their crimes was cut off suddenly when war broke out between England and Scotland, and in 1338, the Coterels were included on a summons to join the royal army in Flanders.

The Coterels happily took up the opportunity to join the king’s army and turned away from their lives of crime. They were officially pardoned for their crimes in 1351, by which time James was acting as tax collector for Lenton priory, and his brother Nicholas was a royal bailiff.

The date of James Coterel’s death is ultimately unknown, but the last record mentioning him reveals that he owed over £100 to the Folville gang.

1 Johnnie Armstrong

The raider and nobleman John Armstrong—known as Johnnie in the ballad written about him after his death—was a bandit and gang leader. Armstrong held two forts in the debatable land that lay between England and Scotland and used these as a base to harass and ransack settlements in both Northern England and Southern Scotland for ten years between 1520 and 1530. He and his organized gang extorted villages and towns unable to protect themselves and made off with their animals and belongings (or just burned their houses down) when they refused to pay.^[11]

Though he had an extensive criminal record, he was officially a vassal of the Scottish lord of the West March, Lord Maxwell, who refused to punish him for his acts when asked to by the English wardens. The English Lord Dacre eventually took matters into his own hands, leading an army to burn Armstrong’s property at Cannonby.

Through political pressure, the English persuaded Lord Angus to declare Johnnie and his band outlaws, though Angus’s efforts to raise an army to oust him failed when he struggled to find volunteers.

Fortune turned against Armstrong in 1530, when James V became king of Scotland. He was determined to rid the countryside of bandits, and he tricked Armstrong into meeting him. The king hanged Armstrong and his 24 followers, refusing Armstrong’s pleas for mercy, even after Armstrong said he’d make all the men in Northern England pay their yearly rent to him.

From prison gangs to extortion rackets to neo Nazis, the United States is home to a variety of criminal groups and organizations. While we don’t hear about them as often as we should, they remain an active threat for the security apparatus of the country, with membership numbers comparable to some large, multinational corporations. 

10. Jewish Defense League

The Jewish Defense League is recognized as a far-right terrorist group by the FBI. Formed in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, one of the stated aims of the organization was protection from anti-Semitism worldwide. It was primarily founded on the principles of Jewish nationalism, territorialism, and the use of force to defend Jews against their enemies. The JDL has since been accused of numerous terrorist attacks, including bombings, assassinations, and extortion.

The group is primarily active in the US and Israel, where it has been responsible for a number of violent incidents over the years. It first gained prominence in the 1970s, when JDL members carried out a number of high-profile attacks against Arab targets in the United States and Europe. They were also known for their staunch opposition to the USSR, as Jews across the Soviet Union were barred from emigrating to Israel. Despite its small size, the JDL was able to gain a large following in the Israeli-American Jewish community due to its aggressive tactics.

9. MS-13

MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, is an international criminal organization that originated in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s. Originally formed as a protection racket for Salvadoran refugees in the city, the group gradually evolved into a violent criminal organization involved in activities like drug and human trafficking. Today, the group operates in several countries, including the United States, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala.

MS-13 got popular attention in the 1990s and early 2000s, when it was responsible for a string of murders and assaults across the country. The gang is infamous for its brutal tactics, like their preference for machetes and other melee weapons to fight their rivals. Despite its notoriety, however, MS-13 remains a relatively-small gang, with an estimated 6,000 – 10,000 members in the US. In central American countries, however, the gang’s membership may be as high as 60,000.

8. Vice Lords

Vice Lords Nation originated in Chicago, Illinois, in 1958 as a community organization aimed at helping local African Americans overcome poverty and discrimination. Over time, however, the group grew into one of the largest criminal organizations in the United States, with a chapter in almost every city and town across the country. The group is known to be involved in various criminal activities, including drug trafficking, robbery, extortion, and murder. 

The gang mainly operates in the Midwest and southern regions of the United States, and has an estimated total membership of anywhere between 30,000 – 35,000 regular and associate members. The US government has designated the group as a criminal organization, though despite several high-profile arrests over the years, it remains a large and influential gang, particularly in Chicago. 

7. Barrio Azteca

With an estimated 3,000 members across the United States and around 5,000 in the Juarez region in Mexico, Barrio Azteca – also known as Los Aztecas – began as a prison gang in the El Paso prison system in Texas. It was formed in 1986, and has since expanded its presence to other states like Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico. While it’s not a particularly large gang, they’ve set themselves apart by the sheer intensity of their violence, which often spills over to either side of the border. 

By the 2000s, Barrio Azteca had aligned itself with Mexico’s Juarez Cartel in their brutal fight against the Sinaloa Cartel. Many of the gang’s members have been killed or arrested in the years since – including its leader Eduardo Ravelo – severely weakening the group’s influence in the region. According to reports by law enforcement agencies, however, Barrio Azteca has regained a lot of its strength in recent years, particularly in the city of Juarez, where it’s still heavily involved in a variety of criminal activities like drug smuggling, money laundering, and extortion.

6. Mongols Motorcycle Club

The Mongols Motorcycle Club is a notorious outlaw motorcycle club founded in Montebello, California, in the 1970s. They have a strong presence in the Pacific and southwestern regions of the United States, with chapters in California, Nevada, Arizona, and other states. The group is predominantly made up of Hispanic members, though it also includes members from other ethnic backgrounds.

The Mongols gained fame in the 1980s and 1990s as a powerful and violent motorcycle club. They’ve been involved in a variety of criminal activities like assault, intimidation, and murder, including a high-profile shootout with members of rival Hells Angels gang in Las Vegas in 2002. 

Despite several attempts by law enforcement agencies to stop them, the Mongols Motorcycle Club remains a potent and influential gang, with many of its members maintaining strong ties with other Hispanic street gangs spread across the Los Angeles area. 

5. Crips And Bloods

Crips and Bloods are two rival gangs based in Los Angeles, California. Their origins are disputed, but some reports from the time suggest that Crips was born as a neighborhood protection gang in 1971, and Bloods was formed in response to the growing power of the Crips. Both the gangs eventually evolved into influential criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and extortion, as well as violent crimes like robbery and murder.

Crips and Bloods have a long-standing rivalry that has resulted in numerous violent clashes over the years. It’s fueled by a complex mix of factors, including territory, reputation, and personal conflicts between various gang members. Both are known for their heavy use of graffiti, hand signs, and colors to identify themselves.

The gangs’ criminal activities have led to a lot of violence and devastation in the communities they operate in, with innocent bystanders often getting caught in the crossfire. Despite various efforts by law enforcement, however, Crips and Bloods remain a major problem in many urban areas of LA.

4. Latin Kings

Latin Kings was formed in Chicago in the 1960s as a predominantly Mexican and Puerto-Rican street gang. They’re known to be involved in multiple criminal activities, like drug trafficking, burglary, homicide, identity theft, and money laundering, as well as high profile assassinations of law enforcement officers in cities across the United States. Currently, Latin Kings operate under two umbrella factions, Motherland and Bloodline, for their Chicago and New York Chapter, respectively. 

The group first got media attention in the 1980s and 90s, when they were associated with several gang-related murders and other crimes across Chicago. With over 160 chapters and 20,000 – 35,000 members around the country, Latin Kings is easily one of the largest gangs in the US, with a strong presence in multiple cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. 

3. Gangster Disciples

Black Gangster Disciple Nation – later renamed to Gangster Disciples – is a prison and street gang formed in Chicago in the 1960s. It was founded by the merger of two gangs led by Larry Hoover and David Barksdale – the Black Disciples and Supreme Gangsters. It’s a predominantly African-American gang involved in activities like drug trafficking, extortion, and murder.

While Gangster Disciples have a significant presence in the Midwest, particularly in Chicago and Detroit, the gang is also known to be active in other parts of the country like the East Coast and the South. It has grown into a large and powerful group in recent years, with an estimated 25,000 – 50,000 members spread across the United States.

2. Aryan Brotherhood

The Aryan Brotherhood started out as a white supremacist prison gang formed in response to race wars against rival black gangs. Over the years, it has grown into one of the most feared criminal organizations in the country, with many of its members openly sporting tattoos of Nazi insignia and other fascist symbols. 

Members of the Aryan Brotherhood primarily operate in prisons, though they’re also quite active on the streets. The group is involved in a wide range of criminal activities like drug trafficking and extortion, and while it’s not as large as other gangs like the Mexican Mafia, the Aryan Brotherhood remains a potent force in the criminal underworld.

While law enforcement agencies have been working to dismantle the Aryan Brotherhood for decades, the group’s highly-structured hierarchy and its members’ fierce loyalty to the organization make it difficult to infiltrate. Still, there have been numerous high-profile arrests of Aryan Brotherhood members in recent years, and many of its leaders have been sentenced to long terms in prison. Despite these efforts, however, the Aryan Brotherhood continues to operate as an influential and fairly-large gang in multiple parts of the country.

1. Mexican Mafia

Also known as La Eme and Los Carnales, Mexican Mafia is one of the largest prison gangs in the United States, with members active in over 13 states. It was founded in 1957 in southern California by former street gang member Luis Flores, and many of its early members were leaders of hispanic gangs active in LA and nearby areas. Since then, it has grown into one of the deadliest and most influential gangs in the country.

As of now, the Mexican Mafia operates both inside and outside the US prison system, and its crime portfolio includes robbery, extortion, assault, murder, and drug trafficking. It’s estimated that the gang has about 350 to 400 members inside US prisons, with tens of thousands of additional foot soldiers on the streets throughout California and beyond.

Most modern societies rely on a police force to enact law and order, but sometimes people feel like the wheels of justice turn too slowly so they decide to take matters into their own hands. These people are known as vigilantes and these are some of their stories:

10. Phoenix Jones

Given how hugely popular superhero movies are in today’s society, it is hardly surprising that some people have decided to put on a mask and suit and become crime fighters. Possibly, the most famous one of all is Phoenix Jones, the now-retired alter-ego of MMA fighter Ben Fodor who used to prowl the streets of Seattle, Washington, looking for lawbreakers.

For Fodor, it all started in 2011 when he put on a ski mask to stop a public assault. From then on, the costume steadily got more and more intricate until his new persona, Phoenix Jones, had a full-on superhero outfit, although Fodor wisely substituted the traditional spandex and underwear on the outside for a bulletproof vest and stab plating. It wasn’t long until Jones had his own little Justice League, the Rain City Superhero Movement. They mostly patrolled the streets of Seattle, trying to deter crime, although Jones himself was usually more proactive in his approach to crimefighting. He was even detained by the police a few times for being a little too “enthusiastic” in his use of pepper spray on suspected criminals.

Fodor retired from the crime-fighting game a few years ago and, most recently, he was in the news for different reasons after being arrested on drug charges for allegedly selling MDMA to an undercover cop.

9. The Alaskan Avenger

Jason Vukovich did not have a pleasant childhood. Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, he fell victim to both physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his stepfather. As often happens in such tragic cases, he ran away from home as a teenager and wandered the country, amassing quite an extensive rap sheet of petty crimes and misdemeanors. At some point, Vukovich moved back to Alaska as an adult, but his run-ins with the law continued.

In 2016, Vukovich decided that he might as well target people like his stepfather. He got onto Alaska’s Sex Offender Registry and created a list of men who had been convicted of sex crimes against children. He had three names and paid them all a visit in late June of that year. He beat up and robbed the first two, but he seriously escalated the violence with his third victim. Vukovich felt that the man had not paid enough for his crimes, so he beat the guy into unconsciousness with a hammer, all the while proclaiming himself to be an “avenging angel” there to mete out justice. 

Vukovich was arrested soon after and sentenced to 28 years in prison on various counts of assault and robbery. As is often the case with acts of vigilantism, his arrest prompted debates on whether or not there is any merit to this kind of street justice, and fans of the “Alaskan Avenger,” as he became known, still campaign on his behalf for a more lenient sentence.

8. The Bald Knobbers

During the 1880s, the Ozark region in southwest Missouri was a dangerous place to be. As a border state during the Civil War, Missouri saw a lot of bushwhacker activity that didn’t really end with the war. Famously, Jesse James and his gang used to be bushwhackers who carried on as if nothing changed and simply became outlaws, but they were far from the only ones. The people needed someone to stand up to these bushwhackers, and that led to the appearance of… the Bald Knobbers.

Ok, so they definitely take the prize for “silliest name for a vigilante group,” especially if you’re British and the word “knob” means something else entirely. But the Bald Knobbers were no joke. Founded by a man named Nat Kinney, they originally numbered only a dozen or so, but their numbers swelled to hundreds in just a few years, and were recognizable by the dark hoods with horns that they wore.

At first, the Bald Knobbers engaged in vigilantism against outlaws and criminals that prowled Missouri, but they eventually became just as bad, if not worse than the men they once hunted. As their strength grew, so did the violence, and the Bald Knobbers were believed to be responsible for a few dozen killings and hundreds of beatdowns. 

It got to the point where a new vigilante group emerged, the Anti-Bald Knobbers, who responded to violence with violence. The original group slowly disintegrated towards the end of the decade, after several Bald Knobbers were sentenced to death and Nat Kinney himself was assassinated by a rival.

7. The Bamberski Case

In July 1982, André Bamberski received word that his teenage daughter, Kalinka, had died under suspicious causes, possibly at the hands of her stepfather, a doctor named Dieter Krombach. Bamberski wanted justice, but there was an added wrinkle – he lived in France, while his daughter and her would-be killer lived in Germany.

Bamberski tried to appeal to the German legal system but felt that he was stonewalled by bureaucratic red tape. Ultimately, a German higher court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the doctor caused Kalinka’s death, whether intentional or through negligence. 

Not one to give up, Bamberski spent the ’90s lobbying for Krombach to be tried in France, and, in 1995, he got his wish, as the doctor was tried in absentia and found guilty of “intentional violence that led to unintentional death.” Basically, the court agreed with Bamberski’s suspicion that Krombach accidentally killed Kalinka with anesthesia when, in fact, he wanted to knock her unconscious and rape her.

Back in Germany, the doctor lost his license after several women came forward and accused him of drugging and sexually assaulting them, but, at least, he was still out of prison. Germany had already declared that it had no intention of extraditing him to France, so Bamberski got creative. In 2009, French police from the city of Mulhouse found an old man tied up, gagged, beaten up, and left on the street. It was Krombach, who claimed that three men kidnapped him in Germany, drove him across the border, and dumped him in France. 

That was, indeed, what happened. Bamberski even admitted that he hired the men and received a one-year suspended sentence. Meanwhile, Krombach was treated for his injuries and then imprisoned, thus bringing Bamberski’s 30-year quest for justice for his daughter to an end.

6. The San Francisco Vigilantes

The California Gold Rush that started in the late 1840s caused an explosion in the local population as more and more people arrived every day hoping to strike it rich. In two years, California’s population went from 15,000 to 250,000, and a large chunk of people settled in San Francisco, a city with a modest population of 1,000 that had to take in 36,000 arrivals by 1852.

With that kind of unchecked growth, crime rates were inevitably going to rise, and in the early 1850s, San Francisco was plagued by a gang of Australian immigrants known as the Sydney Ducks. Eventually, the locals said “Enough is enough” and in 1851 formed what would ultimately become the largest vigilante movement in American history – the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance.

And the committee didn’t play around. It started with the hanging of a Sydney Duck wanted for grand larceny. Soon enough, their ranks numbered in the upper hundreds and outnumbered California’s nascent police force which was simply ill-prepared to deal with vigilantism on such a large scale. After hanging another three men and running dozens of others out of town, the committee felt it got its message across and disbanded, only to reconvene in 1856 following the murder of newspaper editor James King by a corrupt political opponent named James Casey.  

This time, the committee was even bigger – around 6,000 members at its height – and, once again, it did not shy away from powerful enemies. Casey wasn’t just some two-bit criminal. He was a politician appointed to an important office, with influential friends, but it made no difference. The mob abducted him and another man named Charles Cora, found them guilty in a mock trial, and hanged them both. 

5. The Subway Vigilante

If you lived in New York City during the 1980s, you undoubtedly heard of and had an opinion on Bernhard Goetz, the so-called Subway Vigilante. On December 22, 1984, Goetz was riding the subway when he was approached by four young Black men who surrounded him and asked for money. Convinced that he was about to be mugged, Goetz pulled out a .38-caliber handgun and shot all four men. He fled the state but ultimately surrendered to New Hampshire police nine days later.

Three of the shooting victims received only minor injuries, but one of them, Darrell Cabey, was shot in his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed and with brain damage. Goetz’s lawyers successfully argued self-defense and their client was only convicted of illegal gun possession and served 250 days in prison. Cabey won a civil lawsuit a decade later and was awarded $43 million, causing Goetz to declare bankruptcy soon after. Even so, Goetz managed to parlay his moment of infamy as the Subway Vigilante into minor celebrity status, culminating in a failed campaign as Mayor of New York City during the 2001 election. 

4. Gary Plauché

On March 16, 1984, a man named Jeff Doucet landed at the airport in Baton Rouge in handcuffs, with a police escort. He had been flown in to stand trial for the kidnapping and sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy named Jody Plauché, but he never made it to the courtroom. In fact, he never made it out of the airport.

As a camera crew recorded his arrival, a man standing by the payphones turned around, aimed a handgun, and shot Doucet once in the head at point-blank range. He then dropped the gun and allowed himself to be taken in by the police without resisting.

The man was Gary Plauché, the boy’s father. The murder of Jeff Doucet had been broadcast live, so, unsurprisingly, the trial that followed was headline news throughout the country. Public opinion, however, was heavily in favor of the father who avenged his son, and, ultimately, so was the verdict. Plauché pled no contest to manslaughter and was given a suspended prison sentence and five years of probation.

3. The Revenge Mother

In 1980, Marianne Bachmeier from Lübeck, West Germany, experienced a parent’s greatest tragedy, the loss of a child. Her seven-year-old daughter, Anna, had been brutally murdered by her neighbor, a 35-year-old butcher named Klaus Grabowski.

In his defense, Grabowski claimed that the young girl tried to blackmail him by threatening to say he molested her if he didn’t pay up. At the same time, the butcher also blamed his state of mind on a hormonal imbalance, having undergone voluntary chemical castration in the past for previous sex crimes. 

There was no way that his strategy would work, but Marianne Bachmeier decided not to take any chances. On March 6, 1981, she walked into the courtroom where her daughter’s killer was being tried armed with a .22-caliber Beretta pistol and opened fire on Grabowski. She fired eight shots and hit him six times. He died instantly and then Bachmeier calmly allowed herself to be taken into custody. 

The entire country discussed the case of the “Revenge Mother,” as everyone debated whether or not her actions were justified. In 1983, Marianne Bachmeier was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to six years but served only three before being released and starting a new life.

2. The Vendetta Ride

The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral turned Wyatt Earp and his compatriots into legends of the Wild West, but there were consequences. During that shootout, they had killed three members of the group of outlaws known as the Cowboys, and they weren’t going to just let that slide. In two subsequent attacks, in December 1881 and March 1882, the Cowboys permanently maimed Virgil Earp and killed Morgan Earp. Obviously, baby brother Wyatt wasn’t going to sit idly by and let his family get slaughtered, so he gathered up a posse and went on a vendetta ride.

Make no mistake about it, Wyatt Earp might have been a deputy marshal at the time, but this was completely unsanctioned. In fact, as soon as they engaged in their first shootout in Tucson, Arizona, killing Cowboys member Frank Stillwell, arrest warrants were issued for Earp and his associates. 

But the posse had no intention of stopping or surrendering, and they continued their hunt into California, killing another Cowboy named Florentino Cruz at a logger camp they found on the way. 

The vendetta ride culminated on March 24, when the posse caught up with the main Cowboys group and a large-scale shootout ensued. Earp’s gang eventually retreated after finding itself outnumbered, but not before Wyatt gunned down another two Cowboys, Johnny Barnes and Curly Bill Brocius. 

After that, the vendetta posse soon disbanded and each man went his separate way. Although there were a few arrests, none of them faced serious repercussions for their actions. 

1. Skidmore, Missouri

It’s not every day that an entire town bands together to protect a murderous vigilante, but that is what happened in Skidmore, Missouri, in 1981. 

The victim was Ken McElroy, a man most people crossed the street to avoid. Described as the “town bully,” McElroy had been accused of dozens of felonies, including burglary, assault, and statutory rape. Somehow or other, he always managed to slink away a free man, usually by harassing or threatening witnesses. 

His final crime was also his most egregious. In 1980, McElroy was charged with attempted murder after shooting the 70-year-old local grocer with a shotgun. At first, the town breathed a collective sigh of relief as it looked like McElroy might finally end up behind bars, but he got convicted on the lesser charge of assault and was let out on bail while his lawyer appealed the conviction. 

On July 10, 1981, McElroy and his wife headed to the D&G Tavern, his favorite watering hole, and started drinking. Around 50 locals gathered outside the bar, firmly deciding that enough was enough. Once he left the tavern, McElroy made his way through the crowd, not saying a word, and got into his truck. Once he was behind the wheel, he calmly lit a cigarette, still confident that nobody would dare act against him, but this time he was dead wrong.

Two shots rang out and Ken McElroy slumped over the steering wheel, dead. And as to the shooter, no one saw a thing.

Think of a notorious crime boss from history and you’re probably picturing a man. Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, El Chapo, Lucky Luciano, Carlo Gambino, the CIA… 

However, plenty of women have been in charge – and not just as madams of brothels. Here are 10 of the most notorious.

10. Cheng Chui Ping, “Sister Ping” (1949-2014)

For more than a decade, Sister Ping, as she was called in New York’s Chinatown, smuggled up to 3,000 Chinese immigrants into the US — amassing a fortune of more than $40 million. Her fees were extortionate – $40,000 per person – and those who couldn’t pay in full were hounded for the balance, threatened with violence, and even held prisoner. Conditions aboard the smuggling ships were also inhumane. In June 1993, one ship carrying 300 immigrants ran aground in Queens and 10 drowned swimming to safety.

Ping set up her human smuggling (“snakehead”) operation shortly after her arrival in the US in 1981. From her store in Manhattan’s Chinatown, she joined with other snakeheads and steadily expanded operations. With the proceeds, she set up legitimate businesses – a travel agency, real estate company, restaurants, and a clothing store. She also bought real estate in Chinatown, apartments in Hong Kong, and a farm in South Africa.

After her indictment, she fled to China and continued to run her operation. In 2000, she was captured by Hong Kong police and, three years later, extradited back to the US. Witnesses from around the world testified against her.

9. Thelma Wright, “Boss Lady” (b. 1951)

Raised a Catholic in a loving family, Thelma didn’t seem fated for a life of crime. But she fell in love with Philadelphia heroin dealer Jackie Wright. Together, they enjoyed the lifestyle only crime can provide. And she was so in love that, when Jackie was eventually murdered, she impulsively agreed to keep his business going. She reasoned that it would at least put her son through college. Really, she wasn’t ready to let go of the life she’d got used to.

In any case, the new Boss Lady ran the coast-to-coast heroin and cocaine empire differently to her husband. For one thing she didn’t have employees, only people she supplied. And her careful, calculated approach actually won her more respect – and success – than her husband ever had. She continued to live the high life – private jets, custom cars, speed boats – until in 1991 she found herself in a shootout. One of her friends was killed, along with some of her associates, and she felt a desperate need to get out of the business. 

So she became a receptionist and kept her head down. Thelma Wright was never caught, and it’s probably a good thing. She’s doing far more good nowadays, helping vulnerable women and teenagers avoid the path she took. 

8. Tilly Devine, “Queen of the Loo” (1900-1970)

Tilly started out as a hooker in London, making £20 a week between the two World Wars (when the average wage was less than £3 a week). Then, at 17, she married one of her johns – Australian serviceman Jim Devine – who, three years later, became her pimp in Sydney.

Settling in Woollomooloo (or “the Loo” as locals call it), Tilly was in her element. It didn’t take her long to build a reputation for herself in the seedy seaside pleasure district. Within the first five years, she’d racked up 79 convictions – the last of which, for slashing a man with a razor, got her two years in jail.

But even this didn’t curb her ambition. When she got out, she opened a brothel. This was actually legal for a woman due to the naive wording of the Police Offences Act (1908), which only made it a crime for a man. In her new role as madam, she pampered her girls and took half their money while Jim kept them hooked on cocaine. It was a winning formula. By the end of the decade, she’d opened 18 brothels and amassed more diamonds than the Queen of England (“better ones too,” she liked to say). She dressed in furs, traveled the world, and, between lavish parties, even helped pay for Australia’s war effort. She also ditched Jim. In the press, she was dubbed “the Queen of the Night” or the “Queen of the Loo” or simply the “worst woman in Sydney.” 

7. Marica Licciardi, “The Godmother” (b. 1951)

Maria Licciardi was born into the mafia. Her father and brother were both bosses within the Camorra. It was when a nephew, next in the line of succession, was murdered that she took over as la Madrina (“the Godmother”).

Under her watch, the Licciardi Camorra ran extortion rackets, trafficked drugs, and hijacked public works contracts. Following one of the bloodiest mafia wars in living memory, she also formed an alliance between the Camorra clans – convincing her fellow leaders that cooperation was more profitable than war. She always had more sense than her associates. In 1999, when a large shipment of heroin arrived from Istanbul so pure that it was deadly, Licciardi ordered clans not to sell it. The Lo Russo clan defied her, killing numerous addicts and prompting public outrage, a police crackdown, and the collapse of Licciardi’s alliance.

Even the police respected her approach – even as she became one of Italy’s most wanted. 

6. Stephanie St. Clair, “Queenie” (1887/97-1969)

Born on Guadeloupe in the late 1800s, Stephanie St. Clair got to New York on a steamer, settling in Harlem aged 13 or 23 (her year of birth is disputed). Because she spoke in her native French as well as English, she was able to pass as an immigrant from France – and a sophisticated one too, given her education. At a time when African-Americans were arriving en masse to escape segregation in the south, this proved to be an advantage.

Setting herself up as the boss of the 40 Thieves, she got into “policy banking” – a numbers racket involving extortion and theft. And she was good at it too, maybe too good. Before long, her success (and notoriety) drew unwanted attention from New York’s established mobsters – especially after Prohibition ended. Dutch Schultz, one of the city’s top gangsters, began to move in on her racket. 

And he probably would have ousted her had his plan to assassinate the District Attorney not drawn the attention of the kingpin. Lucky Luciano, “chairman of the board” of New York’s Five Families, warned Schultz against the hit. When Schultz proceeded anyway, Luciano had him shot. It took Schultz a full day to die – just long enough for St. Clair to send him a telegram: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”

5. Alice Diamond, “Queen of the Forty Elephants” (1896-1952)

The Forty Elephants were a gang of working class women specializing in shoplifting, blackmail, and extortion. Under various female bosses, or “queens,” they worked London for almost a century – between the 1870s and 1950s. Their modus operandi was walking into department stores and stuffing the most expensive goods up their dresses. There was more than enough space in the fashions of the day.

The most famous Queen of the Forty Elephants was Alice Diamond, who at 5-foot-9 and with a full figure, was a match for most men of the time. She was known for her diamond rings and knuckle dusters, as well as for reorganizing the gang into separate cells allowing for simultaneous heists. This, she reasoned, would divide police attention and catch their targets by surprise. 

She also drafted the Hoister’s Code, outlining how they should operate. It mandated, among other things: the equal division of money; caring for relatives of imprisoned members; providing alibis for each other; and absolute fealty on pain of “ridicule or beating.” 

Unfortunately it was this Code that ultimately brought her reign to an end. She became too controlling, forbidding members from doing anything without her say so – including getting married. When one of the Elephants defied her on this point, she led an attack against the newlyweds – for which she was jailed for a year and a half. By the time she got out a new queen had replaced her.

4. Phoolan Devi, “Bandit Queen” (1963-2001)

As a low-caste woman in India, the naturally headstrong Phoolan Devi had a hard time growing up. In fact, her family hated her. When she was 10, her uncle knocked her out with a brick for saying he stole her father’s land. Then he married her off to a 45-year-old man to get rid of her. When she came back, aged 12 and no longer a virgin, her mother told her to jump down a well. She didn’t, so her uncle arranged for the local bandits to take her away for good. 

In captivity, Phoolan may have faced a lifetime of gang rape had it not been for an unlikely savior. Bikram Singh, a bandit of the same low caste as she, shot the high caste leader to death. The two became lovers, but not for long; Singh was killed in revenge, and Phoolan locked up in a village.

When she escaped, she gathered followers and took revenge of her own. On Valentines Day 1981, dressed in a khaki police coat, blue jeans, boots, and lipstick – with a gun and ammo slung over her shoulders – she marched her men to the village and demanded to know the whereabouts of her captors. The villagers didn’t know, so she had 30 of them (all men) lined up and shot. Because they were all from the landowning warrior caste, she became the most wanted person in India with a $10,000 bounty on her head.

Two years later, aged 20, she gave herself up. By this time, she had won the hearts of the Indian public. 8,000 people gathered at her hideout for the surrender. Evidently touched, she entered politics when she got out of prison.

3. Ma Barker, “Machine Gun Kate” (1872-1935)

Once called “the most vicious, dangerous, and resourceful criminal” in America by J Edgar Hoover, Ma Barker was, in her day, as infamous as Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and even Al Capone. She was the mother of a group of outlaws that terrorized the Midwest in the early 1930s. Ma helped them out and knew all their plans. She was also proficient with the Tommy gun, for which she earned the nickname Machine Gun Kate. 

Together, she and her boys “swept the nation like a spring tornado,” as one newspaper put it, amassing a fortune of up to $2 million. Their specialties were highway robbery, bank and post office heists, extortion, and kidnapping. They also killed cops. One of her sons, Herman, was already implicated for killing a policeman when he shot himself to avoid capture at a roadblock. That was in 1927. A few years later, the remaining Barker boys killed the police chief of Pocahontas, Arkansas, as well as the sheriff of Howell County, Missouri.

When kidnapping became a federal offense, however, they fell foul of the FBI. So they split up. Ma took her son Fred to Florida, while the other, Arthur, laid low on his own. Unfortunately for them all, when Arthur was arrested, the Feds found a map in his hideout showing the whereabouts of his mother and brother. Surrounding the house before sunrise, agents threw tear gas inside – to which Ma and Fred responded by opening fire from the second floor windows. It became a shootout – the “battle of Oklawaha” — and when the smoke finally cleared, Ma was found dead in an upstairs bedroom, machine gun still in her hands.

2. Maria Dolores Estevez Zuleta, “Lola la Chata” (1906-1959)

Lola la Chata grew up in La Merced, one of Mexico City’s oldest barrios, running drugs for her mother from a market stall. Here, in a neighborhood so criminal the police were afraid to invade, the young girl learned lessons that set her up for life. She learned the layout of the city, how to evade pursuers, and – from her prostitute friends – how to manipulate men.

After rounding out her education smuggling for a drug lord internationally, Lola returned to La Merced to build an empire of her own. Like her mother, she started out from a stall. She paid off the police and got kids to mule heroin in yo-yos. And she branded her products (a first for Mexico City) to encourage customer loyalty. She also offered loans to members of her community who couldn’t otherwise get one. 

By the 1950s, she was known as the “drug empress” – with her notoriety reaching the US.

1. Griselda Blanco Restrepo, “Cocaine Godmother” (1943-2012)

Raised by an abusive mother in Colombia, Griselda got into crime and prostitution at an early age. But it wasn’t until she met her second husband that she started trafficking cocaine to the US. Her contribution to the Medellin Cartel’s existing infrastructure was the design of a special undergarment for smuggling coke across the border.

She’s also known for killing her own husbands, earning her the nickname Black Widow. Her second husband she killed in a parking lot shootout, along with six of his bodyguards, while her third she had assassinated for cheating.

By this time her standing in the criminal underworld rivaled that of Pablo Escobar, and the DEA was out to get her. She was the Godmother of Miami’s cocaine underworld between the 1970s and 80s, but in the end was taken down for murdering her husbands, as well as a few others — although it’s estimated she killed as many as 200. Blanco was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison in the US before she was deported to Colombia. There, before her 70th birthday, she was gunned down outside a butchers shop in Medellin.

Red light districts, a center of sin, sexual vice, and debauchery, are where many go to unwind, escape reality, and indulge in their greatest pleasures. Legalized prostitution, drinking, and every vice imaginable lay within a few mere city blocks. Along with it come organized crime, violence, and sordid tales that are seemingly incredulous yet true. Red light districts have been the dirty underbelly of humankind since the days of Sodom and Gomorra and very possibly before.

In the United States, a country founded with deeply religious ideals against sexual activity, especially legalized activity, many red light districts did not survive to the modern day. We have listed, in no particular order, some of the most lustful, sinister, and sinful American red light districts of all time.

10 Storyville, New Orleans

Created in 1897, as prostitution in America’s original sin city was running rampant into suburban areas, Storyville was the first legal red light district in New Orleans. It was located in what is known as the Treme neighborhood today and was named after a local politician named Sidney Story. While other areas had operated illegally prior to its creation, it became the first fully legal red light district in the city’s history—and the most well-known.

This district was a four-by-four-block radius of brothels, sporting houses, and dance halls. It became a breeding ground for Jazz music and was essential in the development of the music. Mafia activity and other organized crime ran rampant as well. Storyville was closed in 1917 due to America joining WW1 after a federal decree was issued stating that a city could not have both a red light district and a naval base.^[1]

9 The Barbary Coast, San Francisco

Running along what is now the financial district in San Francisco, the Barbary Coast existed from around 1848 to 1911. It developed during the lawless days of the American wild west and Northern California gold rush. As the population of San Francisco grew from 200 to over 10,000 in 1851, local authorities struggled to control the rising population. Organized gangs such as “The Hounds” and “The Regulators” dominated the area, and the seedy history of the coastline began.

It was named after the Barbary Coast of Africa, a coastline where many pirates and slave traders would port, that ran along Morocco to modern-day Libya. The California port of the same name held a similar reputation. Many visitors were often ambushed, murdered, or mugged here at one of its many predatory dive bars. After the 1906 earthquake, the area was rebranded as Terrific Street and would go on to feature dance halls and jazz clubs. A different flavor of sin, but sinful nonetheless.

By 1911, newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst and Mayor James Rolph began to shut the area down permanently by implementing regulations against dancing women in places that served alcohol. By Valentines Day 1917, the final brothel was closed, and the Barbary Coast was no more.^[2]

8 The Sporting District, San Antonio

Hidden deep in San Antonio’s history was a 22-block area near where Market Square is today, known locally as the Sporting District. From 1889 to 1899, brothels were legally recognized in the area. But crackdowns in the area did not occur until the 1940s! Soldiers would often secretly travel here via a special rail trail from Fort Sam Houston.

Upon arrival, they would be handed a “blue book.” Blue books were common in red-light districts of the time and were directories of brothels, highlighting the women inside of them, often including their ethnicities. The blue book of San Antonio was unique, however, as it was published by a police officer named Billie Keilman, who owned property in the Sporting District.^[3]

7 Times Square, New York City

While today Times Square is known as the home of Disney, the M&M shop, and a plethora of costume-wearing street performers, it was not always this way. Once a thriving theatre district, the Great Depression of the 1930s led to its downfall, and by the 1970s, it became the home of porn shops, peep shows, and prostitution.

Being at the center of Manhattan and a major intersection of the subway system, it has always been a major thoroughfare for locals and tourists alike. The New York Times called 42nd Avenue the worst block in NYC in 1960, and this was before the brothels, burlesque shows, and grinder theaters were even fully developed.

The famous disco club, Studio 55, lay on the outskirts of this now-forgotten district. It wasn’t until 1985, as New York fought to regain control over its finances, that a cleanup campaign of Times Square began. A slew of regulations and laws by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani followed, and the area became the tourist attraction we know today.^[4]

6 Gallatin Street, New Orleans

Lesser known than its salacious cousin Storyville, Gallatin Street was the predecessor for the title of “most sinful street in New Orleans.” Laying where the quaint shops of the French Market now reside, right by the docks of New Orleans, it was considered the most dangerous street in New Orleans’s history. Many immigrants would enter New Orleans through the area, never to see any other part of the city.

They were often mugged, murdered, or shanghaied about as quickly as they got off the boat. Operating from the antebellum period to the end of the 1870s, the district produced some of the most violent criminals in New Orleans, a city known for a particularly violent past. With the opening of Storyville, the brothels of Gallatin Street were forced to move to the new legal red-light district, and the street folded. The old buildings were demolished, and the street was renamed French Market Place in 1935.^[5]

5 Hell’s Half Acre, Los Angeles

Along the Southern Pacific Railroad lay a stretch of Alameda Street that, at one point, many visitors were eager to visit. Know as Hell’s Half Acre, it was one of the seediest areas in California history, and much of it still remains a violent part of town today. Women in the area were known to service 13 to 30 men a day and would entice them by standing on wooden platforms outside their homes.

Police authority was extremely lax, as it was in many other red-light districts across the nation, and prostitution ran rampant. Suicides and drug abuse were part of everyday life, as was violence against women. In addition, women were often extorted for their money at the saloons by their pimps and forced to pay high rents for small squabbles of homes known as “crib houses.”

A man named Barolo Ballerino, known as the “father of the cribs,” was the kingpin of the area. His violent legacy still lives on today as the area still remains impoverished and crime-ridden. These “crib houses” were raided in 1903 due to protests from women’s rights organizations, and the area ceased from ever serving as an illegal red-light district again.^[6]

4 The Tenderloin, San Francisco

Just north of Union Square is one of San Francisco’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods. It has carried that reputation since shortly after the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. By the 1920s, “the TL” overflowed with speakeasies, brothels, and all other manner of sinful nightlife. It is believed its unique name was coined by Police Captain Alexander S. Wiliams because officers who patrolled the area could afford a more expensive cut of beef from the bribes they received there.

Later, it became a central hub for jazz and rock ‘n’ roll musicians. Miles Davis and John Coltrane both recorded live albums at the infamous Black Hawk in the early ’60s. Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, and Jefferson Airplane recorded records at nearby Hyde Street Studios in the late ’60s.

The Tenderloin also served, and still does, as a safe haven for the LGTBQ+ community. It was home to one of the nation’s first gay organizations, the Vanguard. While no longer a red light district, the Tenderloin is still the seediest and drug-ridden neighborhood in San Francisco and the epicenter of the city’s homeless problem.^[7]

3 The Levee District, Chicago

Chicago is just one of many American cities closely associated with illegality and violence. From roughly 1893 until 1912— although other districts had operated long before—”The Levee District” dominated the nightlife of Chicago. Running along the north bank of the city, along what is today Wells Street, this area had been a hotspot for criminal activity since the 1850s.

The lower section of the Levee District was known as “bed bug row” and hosted some of the grimiest and most disgusting brothels in United States history. In stark contrast was the Everleigh Club, a 5-star sporting house where women of the area were honored to work. At its height, in 1894, the Levee District had 46 saloons, 37 “houses of ill-repute,” and 11 pawnbrokers.

The Women’s Temperance Union (WTU) fought hard across the nation for women’s rights in red-light districts such as this. They won their battle, and by October 1911, 135 warrants were issued for establishments in the Levee District. Many red-light districts across America were closed due to the valiant efforts made on behalf of sex workers by the WTU.^[8]

2 Little Cheyenne, Chicago

Prior to the Levee District, “Little Cheyenne” dominated the scene shortly after the Great Fire of 1871. It ran along South Clark Street on the south side of the city and encompassed the spirit of the wild west, with every avenue of ill repute possible available to its patrons. Cheyenne, Wyoming, caught word of this and named their red light district “Little Chicago.”

Little Cheyenne operated all the way up until the 1970s. Today, a small portion of it exists in the form of a hotel called the Ewing Annex that rents 5×7-foot (1.5×2.1-meter) rooms to homeless men. These “rooms” are hardly suitable for human inhabitance, separated at times by sheets of chicken wire. This serves as a reminder that the degradation of times past still exists in our modern world.^[9]

1 Cripple Creek, Colorado

Just to the south of Denver lies the little town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. A western town that appeared during a gold boom, it quickly was able to provide “sporting houses” to visiting miners as the female population increased. This was common in the late 1800s across the west. During the days of the American wild west, it was often common for small boom towns such as Cripple Creek to turn into miniature centers of sin and fueled the already lawless young nation.

As part of the wild west as train robberies and shootouts in the streets, the brothels flourished from Kansas to Texas to even Alaska. Generally run by madams, the brothels enabled some working girls to leave the lifestyle for greener pastures. Two of the prostitutes who worked and lived in these brothels went on to marry famous gunslingers Harry Longbaugh—aka The Sundance Kid—and Doc Holliday. One woman, Laura Bullion, even joined Longbaugh’s gang, the Wild Bunch Gang.^[10]