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0 / 28 Fotos
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934)
- Undoubtedly one of the most famous gangsters in history, Parker was one half of the iconic crime duo Bonnie and Clyde. Together, the notorious bank robbers terrorized America during the early '30s.
© Getty Images
1 / 28 Fotos
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934)
- Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, where she earned a reputation for being smart and outspoken. She met Clyde in 1930 and they hit it off, even though she was already married.
© Getty Images
2 / 28 Fotos
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934)
- However, their lives were cut short in a gruesome shootout with the police in 1934. She was 23, he was 25.
© Getty Images
3 / 28 Fotos
Ma Barker (1873-1935)
- Matriarch of the notorious Barker-Karpis Gang, Kate "Ma" Barker, along with her husband and four sons, terrorized Middle America throughout the '20s and '30s.
© Getty Images
4 / 28 Fotos
Ma Barker (1873-1935)
- The end of her vicious reign came when she was killed alongside one of her sons during an FBI raid. They found her hideout.
© Getty Images
5 / 28 Fotos
Stephanie St. Clair (1897-1969)
- Known as Madame St. Clair in Harlem, this Guadalupian immigrant beat back the incursions of Jewish and Italian-American gangsters desperate for money after Prohibition ended. She offered cheap lottery bets to the poor and ran the numbers racket in Harlem. She even used some of the profits to advocate for political and civil rights reforms.
© Getty Images
6 / 28 Fotos
Kathryn Kelly (1904-1985)
- Married to famed gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Kathryn Kelly was the brains behind the famous kidnapping of oil baron Charley Urschel, whom they held for ransom of US$200,000.
© Getty Images
7 / 28 Fotos
Kathryn Kelly (1904-1985)
- She was more brutal than her husband, wanting to kill Urschel even after the ransom was paid. Both convicted for the kidnapping, some even say she's the one who pushed her husband into a life of crime.
© Getty Images
8 / 28 Fotos
Kathryn Kelly (1904-1985)
- Kathryn Kelly was released from prison after 25 years. Upon her release, she changed her name to Lera Cleo Kelly and lived a quiet life, working as a bookkeeper in Oklahoma City.
© Public Domain
9 / 28 Fotos
Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (1907-1969)
- Billie met infamous gangster John Dillinger after her first husband was jailed for robbing a post office. She and Dillinger got involved and went on a cross-country crime spree together, living through several gun battles and robberies.
© Getty Images
10 / 28 Fotos
Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (1907-1969)
- She eventually served two years in prison for harboring a fugitive. When she was released, she went on a lecture tour called "Crime Does Not Pay."
© Public Domain
11 / 28 Fotos
Helen Gillis (1908-1987)
- Helen Gillis married infamous gangster Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis when she was 16. By the time she was 20, she had two children and was wanted by the police. She even took part in the Battle of Barrington, where Nelson was shot to death. Helen was eventually caught but, unlike so many of her kind, lived into old age.
© Getty Images
12 / 28 Fotos
Virginia Hill (1916-1966)
- Known as the "Flamingo" as well as "Queen of the Gangster Molls," Hill became notorious as the girlfriend of Brooklyn mobster Bugsy Siegel. He even named the Las Vegas Flamingo Hotel in her honor, as she loved to gamble.
© Getty Images
13 / 28 Fotos
Virginia Hill (1916-1966)
- However, the hotel became their undoing. Siegel was killed in Hill's home due to suspicions that Hill was skimming money off the top. She later said: "If anyone or anything was his mistress, it was that Las Vegas hotel. I never knew Ben was involved in all that gang stuff. I can't imagine who shot him or why."
© Getty Images
14 / 28 Fotos
Virginia Hill (1916-1966)
- Hill went on to live in Austria, and committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 49 years old.
© Getty Images
15 / 28 Fotos
Mae Capone (1897-1986)
- Married to the notorious mobster Al Capone, Mae Capone may not have been a true gangster, but she did help cover up many of his crimes.
© Getty Images
16 / 28 Fotos
Mae Capone (1897-1986)
- Mae Capone is pictured here leaving a boat after visiting her husband inside the prison on Alcatraz Island in 1938.
© Getty Images
17 / 28 Fotos
Phoolan Devi (1963-2001)
- Popularly known as the Bandit Queen, Devi came from a poor background and was kidnapped by a gang at a young age. She eventually became romantically involved with the gang's leader and secured her place in the hierarchy.
© Getty Images
18 / 28 Fotos
Phoolan Devi (1963-2001)
- But when a fight broke out, her significant other was murdered and the rival gang sexually assaulted her. They left her for dead. Enraged, Devi enlisted the remaining men that she could trust, lined up 22 of her attackers, and had them shot dead.
© Getty Images
19 / 28 Fotos
Phoolan Devi (1963-2001)
- Devi drew a lot of press attention, and she would even become a member of parliament before she was murdered by associates of the men she had killed.
© Getty Images
20 / 28 Fotos
Buda Godman (1888-1945)
- Once married to popular songwriter Tell Taylor, Godman was most notoriously busted in 1916 for her part as the seductress in a badger game, which is when a wealthy businessman, caught in a compromising situation, is extorted. In 1932, under the name of Helen Smith, she was convicted for grand larceny, and sentenced to prison in New York.
© Public Domain
21 / 28 Fotos
Rosetta Cutolo
- Also known as "Icy Eyes," Cutolo is the sister of Raffaele Cutolo, who was the head of Italy's most powerful mafia organization, Nuova Camorra Organizzata. She became the leader after her brother was arrested.
© Getty Images
22 / 28 Fotos
Rosetta Cutolo
- Wanted by the police for 10 years, she surrendered in 1993, telling officers that she had become tired of life on the run. She was convicted to nine years in prison on charges of Mafia association, later reduced to five years.
© Getty Images
23 / 28 Fotos
Griselda Blanco (1943-2012)
- Known as the "Black Widow" and the "Godmother of Cocaine," Blanco was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel. She was also in the Miami-based cocaine drug trade during the 1970s through the early 2000s. She was shot dead on September 3, 2012, at the age of 69.
© Public Domain
24 / 28 Fotos
Cheng Ping (1949-2014)
- Also known as Sister Ping, she was sentenced to 35 years for smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants into New York, ultimately charging about 3,000 people as much as US$40,000 a head. She also enlisted gangster enforcers to ensure payment. She died in prison in 2014.
© Public Domain
25 / 28 Fotos
Judy Moran
- Judy Moran may not be very well known outside of her native Australia, but she's the matriarch of one of the country's biggest criminal dynasties.
© Getty Images
26 / 28 Fotos
Judy Moran
- In 2011, Moran was sentenced to 26 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 21 years, for ordering the murder of her own brother-in-law in 2009. Sources: (All That's Interesting) (History Hit)
© Getty Images
27 / 28 Fotos
© Getty Images
0 / 28 Fotos
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934)
- Undoubtedly one of the most famous gangsters in history, Parker was one half of the iconic crime duo Bonnie and Clyde. Together, the notorious bank robbers terrorized America during the early '30s.
© Getty Images
1 / 28 Fotos
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934)
- Parker was born in Rowena, Texas, where she earned a reputation for being smart and outspoken. She met Clyde in 1930 and they hit it off, even though she was already married.
© Getty Images
2 / 28 Fotos
Bonnie Parker (1910-1934)
- However, their lives were cut short in a gruesome shootout with the police in 1934. She was 23, he was 25.
© Getty Images
3 / 28 Fotos
Ma Barker (1873-1935)
- Matriarch of the notorious Barker-Karpis Gang, Kate "Ma" Barker, along with her husband and four sons, terrorized Middle America throughout the '20s and '30s.
© Getty Images
4 / 28 Fotos
Ma Barker (1873-1935)
- The end of her vicious reign came when she was killed alongside one of her sons during an FBI raid. They found her hideout.
© Getty Images
5 / 28 Fotos
Stephanie St. Clair (1897-1969)
- Known as Madame St. Clair in Harlem, this Guadalupian immigrant beat back the incursions of Jewish and Italian-American gangsters desperate for money after Prohibition ended. She offered cheap lottery bets to the poor and ran the numbers racket in Harlem. She even used some of the profits to advocate for political and civil rights reforms.
© Getty Images
6 / 28 Fotos
Kathryn Kelly (1904-1985)
- Married to famed gangster George "Machine Gun" Kelly, Kathryn Kelly was the brains behind the famous kidnapping of oil baron Charley Urschel, whom they held for ransom of US$200,000.
© Getty Images
7 / 28 Fotos
Kathryn Kelly (1904-1985)
- She was more brutal than her husband, wanting to kill Urschel even after the ransom was paid. Both convicted for the kidnapping, some even say she's the one who pushed her husband into a life of crime.
© Getty Images
8 / 28 Fotos
Kathryn Kelly (1904-1985)
- Kathryn Kelly was released from prison after 25 years. Upon her release, she changed her name to Lera Cleo Kelly and lived a quiet life, working as a bookkeeper in Oklahoma City.
© Public Domain
9 / 28 Fotos
Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (1907-1969)
- Billie met infamous gangster John Dillinger after her first husband was jailed for robbing a post office. She and Dillinger got involved and went on a cross-country crime spree together, living through several gun battles and robberies.
© Getty Images
10 / 28 Fotos
Evelyn "Billie" Frechette (1907-1969)
- She eventually served two years in prison for harboring a fugitive. When she was released, she went on a lecture tour called "Crime Does Not Pay."
© Public Domain
11 / 28 Fotos
Helen Gillis (1908-1987)
- Helen Gillis married infamous gangster Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis when she was 16. By the time she was 20, she had two children and was wanted by the police. She even took part in the Battle of Barrington, where Nelson was shot to death. Helen was eventually caught but, unlike so many of her kind, lived into old age.
© Getty Images
12 / 28 Fotos
Virginia Hill (1916-1966)
- Known as the "Flamingo" as well as "Queen of the Gangster Molls," Hill became notorious as the girlfriend of Brooklyn mobster Bugsy Siegel. He even named the Las Vegas Flamingo Hotel in her honor, as she loved to gamble.
© Getty Images
13 / 28 Fotos
Virginia Hill (1916-1966)
- However, the hotel became their undoing. Siegel was killed in Hill's home due to suspicions that Hill was skimming money off the top. She later said: "If anyone or anything was his mistress, it was that Las Vegas hotel. I never knew Ben was involved in all that gang stuff. I can't imagine who shot him or why."
© Getty Images
14 / 28 Fotos
Virginia Hill (1916-1966)
- Hill went on to live in Austria, and committed suicide by an overdose of sleeping pills. She was 49 years old.
© Getty Images
15 / 28 Fotos
Mae Capone (1897-1986)
- Married to the notorious mobster Al Capone, Mae Capone may not have been a true gangster, but she did help cover up many of his crimes.
© Getty Images
16 / 28 Fotos
Mae Capone (1897-1986)
- Mae Capone is pictured here leaving a boat after visiting her husband inside the prison on Alcatraz Island in 1938.
© Getty Images
17 / 28 Fotos
Phoolan Devi (1963-2001)
- Popularly known as the Bandit Queen, Devi came from a poor background and was kidnapped by a gang at a young age. She eventually became romantically involved with the gang's leader and secured her place in the hierarchy.
© Getty Images
18 / 28 Fotos
Phoolan Devi (1963-2001)
- But when a fight broke out, her significant other was murdered and the rival gang sexually assaulted her. They left her for dead. Enraged, Devi enlisted the remaining men that she could trust, lined up 22 of her attackers, and had them shot dead.
© Getty Images
19 / 28 Fotos
Phoolan Devi (1963-2001)
- Devi drew a lot of press attention, and she would even become a member of parliament before she was murdered by associates of the men she had killed.
© Getty Images
20 / 28 Fotos
Buda Godman (1888-1945)
- Once married to popular songwriter Tell Taylor, Godman was most notoriously busted in 1916 for her part as the seductress in a badger game, which is when a wealthy businessman, caught in a compromising situation, is extorted. In 1932, under the name of Helen Smith, she was convicted for grand larceny, and sentenced to prison in New York.
© Public Domain
21 / 28 Fotos
Rosetta Cutolo
- Also known as "Icy Eyes," Cutolo is the sister of Raffaele Cutolo, who was the head of Italy's most powerful mafia organization, Nuova Camorra Organizzata. She became the leader after her brother was arrested.
© Getty Images
22 / 28 Fotos
Rosetta Cutolo
- Wanted by the police for 10 years, she surrendered in 1993, telling officers that she had become tired of life on the run. She was convicted to nine years in prison on charges of Mafia association, later reduced to five years.
© Getty Images
23 / 28 Fotos
Griselda Blanco (1943-2012)
- Known as the "Black Widow" and the "Godmother of Cocaine," Blanco was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel. She was also in the Miami-based cocaine drug trade during the 1970s through the early 2000s. She was shot dead on September 3, 2012, at the age of 69.
© Public Domain
24 / 28 Fotos
Cheng Ping (1949-2014)
- Also known as Sister Ping, she was sentenced to 35 years for smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants into New York, ultimately charging about 3,000 people as much as US$40,000 a head. She also enlisted gangster enforcers to ensure payment. She died in prison in 2014.
© Public Domain
25 / 28 Fotos
Judy Moran
- Judy Moran may not be very well known outside of her native Australia, but she's the matriarch of one of the country's biggest criminal dynasties.
© Getty Images
26 / 28 Fotos
Judy Moran
- In 2011, Moran was sentenced to 26 years in jail, with a non-parole period of 21 years, for ordering the murder of her own brother-in-law in 2009. Sources: (All That's Interesting) (History Hit)
© Getty Images
27 / 28 Fotos
Notorious female gangsters of the underworld
These women were some serious criminals
© Getty Images
The image of the mobster is predominantly male. But although it does tend to be a boys' club, there have been a number of female mobsters who made a name for themselves, too. Witty, strong, resourceful, and ruthless, these women rose to prominence in the world of organized crime. And they were often even more successful than their male counterparts.
From Bonnie Parker to Stephanie St. Clair, check out the deadly women who were vicious gangsters.
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