CRIMINAL ARCHIVE

Was Pretty Boy Floyd really pretty? 10 criminals’ nicknames explained

Image: Ye Jinghan

Just like an artist chooses a stage name, criminals have long used aliases to instill fear and avoid capture. These pseudonyms often embody part of the essence of the individual behind the mask, or are related in some way or another to their past.

Let's delve into the stories behind these 10 infamous criminal aliases and the individuals who wielded them.

Image: Miami Police Department

Al Capone, dubbed "Scarface" for the distinctive scar on his face, was one of America's most notorious gangsters during the Prohibition era. He earned the scar during his time in the Five Points Gang of New York. Capone insulted a woman while working in a gang-operated dance hall, only to be viciously attacked by her brother, who slashed his face with a knife. In time, his hair-raising alias became synonymous with organized crime in Chicago, where he ran speakeasies and engaged in bootlegging.

Image: Artur Tumasjan

Frank Abagnale, an American con artist famous for his many frauds against individuals and small businesses during the ‘60s, earned the alias "The Skyway Man" for his audacious scheme of impersonating a Pan Am pilot and using his status to cash fraudulent checks without suspicion everywhere in the world. His life was later portrayed in the acclaimed Steven Spielberg film "Catch Me If You Can."

Image: Indiana State Penitentiary

John Dillinger was a notorious bank robber during the Great Depression, known for his brazen heists and daring escapes from the police. His dangerous exploits earned him the nickname "Jackrabbit" due to his graceful movements during heists, such as leaping over the counter - something he allegedly copied from the movies. The FBI also dubbed him "Public Enemy Number One," and his larger-than-life figure epitomized the glamorization of outlaws in American folklore.

Image: Nastya Dulhiier

The Zodiac Killer, an unidentified serial killer active in California during the late 1960s and early 1970s, earned his alias for his taunting letters sent to newspapers and police, filled with cryptic ciphers and threats and signed under the "Zodiac" pseudonym. Though the police identified a series of potential suspects, the killer behind the letters was never positively identified, leaving behind an enduring mystery surrounding his identity and motives.

Image: Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

Blackbeard was the nickname of Edward Teach, a notorious English pirate who roamed the Caribbean during the early 18th century. He earned his alias for his fearsome appearance and ruthless tactics. The pirate was described as a tall man with a thick black beard, often braided into pigtails. During battles, he often stuck lighted slow matches under his hat to scare his enemies. However, despite his appearance and reputation, most historians believe that Blackbeard never murdered or harmed those he held captive.

Image: Rob Wicks

John Gotti, a powerful Mafia boss in New York City during the 80s, earned the alias "The Teflon Don" for his ability to evade conviction despite numerous charges against him. His apparent legal invincibility was achieved by intimidating witnesses and buying jury members with the help of the Gambino crime family. However, he was eventually convicted by the FBI after a lengthy investigation, receiving life in prison without parole.

Image: Konrad Summers, CC BY-SA 2.0

Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug lord known for her ruthlessness, earned the alias "The Black Widow" for reportedly ordering the killing of each of her husbands. Also known as the "Godmother", she rose to prominence in the underworld of Miami during the 1970s and was known for her penchant for eliminating rivals who dared cross her path.

Image: Scott Graham

Meyer Lansky was a key figure in organized crime during the Prohibition era, as he earned his alias "The Mob's Accountant" for his financial prowess in managing illicit enterprises. Lansky’s alias reflected his strategic role in introducing money laundering and offshore banking in 1932 to the American criminal underworld. However, until his death in 1983, he was never found guilty of anything more than illegal gambling.

Image: George Bergman, GFDL 1.2

Ted Kaczynski, an American domestic terrorist and mathematician, gained notoriety as "The Unabomber" for his targeting of universities and airlines with homemade bombs. But before his real identity was known, the FBI internally used the name UNABOM (meaning University and Airline Bomber) to refer to his case. The media soon picked up the FBI identifier and creatively transformed it into the "Unabomber."

Image: Roman Kraft

Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, a Depression-era bank robber and folk hero, earned his alias for his youthful appearance and charm. His exploits and story contributed to the romanticized image of the outlaw as a Robin Hood figure, as he was believed to burn mortgage documents during robberies, in theory freeing many people from life-long debts.

The real meaning

What do these 10 legal concepts actually mean?

The popularity of legal movies and TV shows has resulted in people becoming familiar with terms and concepts they wouldn’t know otherwise, but it has also contributed to some mistaken ideas about what some of these terms mean. Is a waiver just a simple permit? What does free speech really entail? When does something qualify as hearsay? Here are 10 legal concepts you’ve probably heard before but might not mean what you think they do.

As any American knows, freedom of speech is an inalienable right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But what does this mean? Freedom where or from whom? Many interpret this right as a freedom to express their mind everywhere and anywhere, but this is not exactly correct. Free speech is the guarantee we have as citizens that the government cannot censor, restrain, or interfere with our free and public expression. When it comes to private establishments and contexts, or to speech that might lead to harm to others, the right to free speech is not absolute.

Slander is a form of defamation, that is, damaging someone’s reputation by spreading false statements about them. But are all forms of defamation the same? There are many ways to spread false information or statements, but the law makes two main distinctions: whether or not it’s recorded or written down. While "slander" is a term we might hear often in legal shows, it refers strictly to spoken defamation, meaning an oral remark or statement, or a broadcast that was not recorded. For anything written down, published, or recorded, the proper term is "libel".

Many people think that waivers are similar to permits, so signing a waiver would be akin to giving your consent for something. While a waiver requires consent, it is not a simple permit. As its name suggests, it implies waiving or giving away something. In this case, a right. If you sign a liability, contractual, or any other type of waiver, you are willingly giving up a known right, privilege, or claim, which cannot be invoked later.

Whether something was done with malice or not might be the difference between a lesser or greater charge, both in civil and criminal law. But what is malice? In its legal sense, malice is not ill will or evilness, but the intention to cause harm or do something illegal without cause or justification. While mitigating circumstances such as accidents or spontaneous emotion might result in a lesser charge, malice will always increase the severity of the situation.

You might have heard this term in relation to car insurance, workers’ compensation, or divorce and wondered if it meant that no one was responsible. While there might be situations where no one’s to blame, this is not what no-fault systems are about. In many legal cases, determining the responsible party is necessary to resolve the case or award compensation. In a no-fault system, however, the law focuses on resolving the dispute rather than assigning blame, settling matters without needing to prove who is responsible.

Affidavits are quite common in all sorts of legal procedures, but their use in TV shows might make them seem as something that is only used in court. An affidavit is a written statement that the signer swears to be true, under penalty of perjury, and that is signed in front of a notary who can verify their identity. While affidavits can be presented in court in replacement of in-person testimony, they are also used in business, financial matters, official applications, and many other proceedings.

In everyday talk, we understand "hearsay" as information that you heard from someone else and are unable to verify. Legally, hearsay is slightly different, as it refers to written or spoken statements made outside the court that are presented as evidence. As the person who made the statement is not present to swear their veracity, hearsay is usually not admissible as proof, but the court might decide to accept it anyway if the situation requires it.

Unlike civil cases, criminal cases require that guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt to convict the accused. But what is reasonable doubt? The law is not asking the jury or judge to be 100% certain or to not have any shred of doubt left, but that they are firmly convinced by the evidence presented, with no other logical explanation. If their common sense and the evidence (or lack thereof) make them hesitate or admit a logical alternative, it means that the case was not proven "beyond a reasonable doubt", in which case the law gives the accused the benefit of the doubt.

It is common for people to group burglary with other criminal acts such as theft or robbery, but it belongs in a separate category. While robbery or theft involve taking someone else’s property without consent (i.e., stealing), burglary is the act of entering a place illegally to commit a crime inside. Why is it commonly associated with stealing then? Because most burglary cases involve theft.

We are used to referring to most illegal acts as crimes or offenses, but these terms strictly belong to criminal law. When it comes to civil law, which deals with private wrongs towards people and their property, the correct term is "tort", defined as a wrongful act that causes harm, loss, or injury to another person and that leads to legal liability, meaning that the person who committed the act is held responsible, whether it was intentional or not.