Alessandro Cagliostro, 1743-1795

 

Count Cagliostro’s real name was Giuseppe Balsamo, and he became famous as a charlatan or confidence trickster, as we would call him today. As a young man he learned a little about chemistry and medicine and then left Sicily in 1769. After getting some knowledge of the supernatural, he appeared in Malta as the great Count Cagliostro, specialist in medicine, magic and all kinds of strange arts. He was soon fleecing the rich of Europe, selling them an elixir of youth and love potions. Finally, he was condemned to death in Rome for setting up a secret society and died in prison at San Leone.

 

Jack the Ripper

 

“Jack the Ripper” was a mysterious killer who terrorized the East End of London in the autumn of 1888. His victims, all women, were killed by having their throats cut, and in many cases the bodies were savagely mutilated as well. The number of victims is said to be between four and fourteen, though police authorities generally thought that only five murders were definitely the work of the Ripper. The Ripper was never caught, and his identity remains a mystery. All kinds of people have been suggested as possible Rippers, including the Duke of Clarence and even a barrister.

 

Mata Hari, 1876-1917

 

Mata Hari, who was executed by a firing squad in France in October 1917, is probably the most famous spy of all time. She is renowned for her beauty, her numerous military lovers, her provocative oriental dancing, and, above all, her espionage. Yet in fact, she was not oriental, or even a spy. Mata Hari was a stage name adopted by a plump middle-aged Dutch divorcee, named Mrs. Margaretha MacLeod, who had left her alcoholic Scottish husband and opted to become a dancer in Europe. The evidence of her alleged espionage on behalf of the German Kaiser is based merely on her being mistaken for a well-known German agent Clara Bencdix, by the British in November 1916. In that month, Mrs. MacLeod was arrested in Falmouth, Cornwall, on board of the ship Hollandia while she was on her way to the Netherlands. The police released her when they realized the mistake. Later she was arrested in France and charged with having been in contact with German intelligence officers in Madrid (though she had never even been there). At her trial in Paris her lurid life-style was used to damning effect. It was only in 1963, when the secret files relating to her case were released, that the legend was reassessed. Most historians now think that, far from being a spy, Mata Hari was simply an innocent scapegoat ‒ shot because the French government wanted to cover up its military ineptitude by fabricating an all-powerful ring of German agents.

 

 

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Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow), d.1934

 

In the days of the Depression in America after 1929, these two young people made a great name for themselves robbing stores and committing murders quite casually and often for the sheer fun of it. Bonnie Parker was a waitress when she met Clyde Barrow, and she ended up a legendary figure known for her love of red dresses, cigars and firearms. Working in the southern states of the USA they left behind a trail of destruction. On several occasions they were trapped by the police, but seemed to bear a charmed life and escaped even through a hail of bullets. On one occasion they held up a prison farm killing a guard and helping a friend to escape. Huge rewards were by then offered for their capture. Following a tip-off, the police finally ambushed Bonnie and Clyde at a crossroads and killed them in the gunfight that followed. In 1967 a film was made of their exploits, which resulted in the two becoming almost cult figures, and a pop song was written about them, which became a best-selling record.

 

Alphonse Capone, 1899-1947

 

‘Al’ Capone is possibly the best-known of all American gangsters, though by no means the most important. His home ground was Chicago. He was brought into the racket by Johnny Torrio and Torrio’s uncle “Big Jim” Colosimo. Capone seized his chance when Prohibition was declared in 1920, which made the manufacture and sale of alcohol illegal in America. He soon rose to control a large part of the illegal liquor market in Chicago and the Middle West. A fierce and vicious man, he was responsible for many gangland killings, including the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, in which seven rival “bootleggers” (men selling illicit liquor) were trapped by gunmen dressed as police and machine-gunned to death. He was imprisoned in 1931 on income tax charges, became a model prisoner and was released in 1939.

 

Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945

 

Benito Mussolini was not always a great dictator, but he always knew what it took to become one. He had the ability to use people and make himself appear like a God in a hectic society. His father was a blacksmith and his mother a schoolteacher. He did not grow up in a rich home and was rejected most of his young adult life. When he came to power, Mussolini threatened to make Italy ungovernable through violence unless he was promoted Prime Minister. Mussolini made Italy a fascist state that stood totally behind him. He knew how to use the media to promote fascism and himself. Like Hitler, he used propaganda to gradually build himself up as a legend who was always right and could solve all of Italy’s problems. He took control of everything from what was written in newspapers to what children learned in school. Mussolini made Italy dependent on him. And anyone who didn’t feel this way about him was killed. He became known as “Il Duce” (the leader). On April 28, 1945, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, were arrested by Italian partisans. Realizing he was going to be killed, Mussolini opened up his shirt and asked to be shot in the chest. But for some reason the attempts to shoot him failed ‒ the gun would not fire. Eventually he was shot and his body was strung upside down the next day for all to see.

 

 

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