An
outlaw or
bandit is a person living the lifestyle of
outlawry; the word literally means "outside the
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
".
In the
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" (that is, "Let his be a wolf's head"), and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal rights, but also that he could be killed on sight as if a wolf or wild animal.
An
outlaw or
bandit is a person living the lifestyle of
outlawry; the word literally means "outside the
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
".
In the
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" declared the subject to be "Caput gerat lupinum" (that is, "Let his be a wolf's head"), and it followed not only that, since the subject was no longer human, he had no legal rights, but also that he could be killed on sight as if a wolf or wild animal. Outlawry was thus one of the harshest penalties in the legal system, since the outlaw could not use the law to protect himself if needed, such as from mob justice, and could be robbed or even murdered with impunity.
Though the judgment of outlawry is now obsolete (even though it inspired the
pro forma Outlawries BillThe Outlawries Bill is customarily introduced in the United Kingdom's House of Commons at the start of each session of Parliament....
which is still to this day introduced in the
British House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
during the
State Opening of ParliamentIn the United Kingdom, the State Opening of Parliament is an annual event that marks the commencement of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is held in the House of Lords Chamber, usually in November or December, or in a General Election year, when the new Parliament first assembles...
), romanticised outlaws became
stock characterA stock character is a stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes, but they are often more narrowly defined...
s in several fictional settings. This was particularly so in the United States, where outlaws were popular subjects of newspaper coverage and stories in the 19th century, and 20th century fiction and Western movies. Thus, "outlaw" is still commonly used to mean those violating the law or, by extension, those living that lifestyle, whether actual criminals evading the law or those merely opposed to "law-and-order" notions of conformity and authority (such as the "
outlaw countryOutlaw country was a significant trend in country music during the late 1960s and the 1970s , commonly referred to as The Outlaw Movement or simply Outlaw music...
" music movement in the 1970s).
A feature of older legal systems
In
EnglishEnglish law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countriesand the United States...
common lawCommon law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through legislative statutes or executive action, and to corresponding legal systems that rely on precedential case law....
, an outlaw was a person who had defied the laws of the realm, by such acts as ignoring a
summonsA summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...
to court, or fleeing instead of appearing to plead when charged with a
crimeCrime is the breach of one or more rules or laws for which some governing authority, via mechanisms such as police power, may ultimately prescribe a conviction...
. In the earlier law of Anglo-Saxon England, outlawry was also declared when a person committed a
homicideHomicide refers to the act of a human killing a human being. A common form of homicide, for example, would be murder. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...
and could not pay the
weregildWeregild in early Germanic law was a reparational payment usually demanded of a person guilty of homicide or other wrongful death....
, the blood-money, that was due to the victim's kin.
Outlawry also existed in other legal codes of the time, such as the ancient
NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
and
IcelandThe Republic of Iceland is a European island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík, whose surrounding area is home to approximately two thirds of the national population...
ic legal code. These societies did not have any police force or prisons and criminal sentences were therefore restricted to either fines or outlawry.
To be declared an outlaw was to suffer a form of
civilCivil death is a term that refers to the loss of all or almost all civil rights by a person due to a conviction for a felony or due to an act by the government of a country that results in the loss of civil rights...
or
socialSocial death is a term used to describe the condition of people not accepted as fully human by wider society. Used by sociologists like Zygmunt Bauman and historians of the holocaust to describe the part played governmental and social segregation in that process...
death. The outlaw was debarred from all civilized society. No one was allowed to give him food, shelter, or any other sort of support — to do so was to commit the crime of aiding and abetting, and to be in danger of the ban oneself.
An outlaw might be killed with impunity; and it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill a thief flying from justice — to do so was not
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
. A man who slew a thief was expected to declare the fact without delay, otherwise the dead man’s kindred might clear his name by their oath and require the slayer to pay weregild as for a true man. Because the outlaw has defied civil society, that society was quit of any obligations to the outlaw —outlaws had no civil rights, could not sue in any court on any cause of action, though they were themselves personally liable.
In the context of
criminal lawThe term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential for unique and often severe impositions as punishment for failure to comply...
, outlawry faded not so much by legal changes as by the greater population density of the country, which made it harder for wanted fugitives to evade capture; and by the international adoption of
extraditionExtradition is the official process whereby one nation or state requests and obtains from another nation or state the surrender of a suspected or convicted criminal. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
pacts. In the civil context, outlawry became obsolescent in
civil procedureCivil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits...
by reforms that no longer required summoned
defendantA defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute....
s to appear and plead.
Still, the possibility of being declared an outlaw for derelictions of
civilCivil law, as opposed to criminal law, is the branch of law dealing with disputes between individuals and/or organizations, in which compensation may be awarded to the victim...
duty continued to exist in English law until 1879 and in
Scots lawScots law is a unique legal system with an ancient basis in Roman law. Grounded in uncodified civil law dating back to the Corpus Juris Civilis, it also features elements of common law with medieval sources...
until the late 1940s. The Third Reich made extensive use of the concept. Prior to the
Nuremberg TrialsThe Nuremberg trials were a series of trials, or tribunals, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of Nazi Germany after its defeat in World War II....
, the British jurist
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
Lord SimonJohn Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon GCSI GCVO OBE PC was a British politician and statesman.-Biography:...
attempted to resurrect the concept of outlawry in order to provide for summary executions of captured
NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
war criminals. Although Simon's point of view was supported by
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
, American and Soviet attorneys insisted on a trial, and he was thus overruled.
Hobsbawm's Bandits
Hobsbawm's book discusses the bandit as a symbol, and mediated idea, and many of the outlaws he refers to, such as Ned Kelly, Mr. Dick Turpin, and Billy the Kid, are also listed below. The colloquial sense of an outlaw as bandit or brigand is the subject of a monograph by British author
Eric HobsbawmEric John Ernest Hobsbawm, CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian and author, one of the most influential British historians of the late twentieth century.-Life:...
:. According to Hobsbawm
Famous outlaws
The
stereotypeA stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups, or types of individuals.The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups, based on some prior...
owes a great deal to
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
precedents, in the tales of
Robin HoodRobin Hood is a hero in English folklore, a highly-skilled archer and outlaw. In particular, he is known for "stealing from the rich and giving to the poor," assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men"...
and of gallant
highwaymenA highwayman was a robber who preyed on travelers, particularly one who traveled by horse; those who robbed on foot were called footpads. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
. But outlawry was once a term of art in the
lawLaw is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets...
, and one of the harshest judgments that could be pronounced on anyone's head.
The outlaw is familiar to contemporary readers as an archetype in Western movies, depicting the lawless
expansionismIn general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a nation's expanding its territorial base usually by means of military aggression...
period of the United States in the late 19th century. The Western outlaw is typically a criminal who operates from a base in the
wildernessWilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
, and opposes, attacks or disrupts the fragile institutions of new settlements. By the time of the Western frontier, many jurisdictions had abolished the process of outlawry, and the term was used in its more popular meaning.
American Western
- Big Nose George
Big Nose George Parrot, also known as George Manuse and George Warden, was a cattle rustler in the Wild West in the late 19th century...
- Joaquin Murietta
- Tom Bell
Tom Bell was a western outlaw and physician known as the "Outlaw Doc". He is the first outlaw to organize a stagecoach robbery in the United States....
- The Sundance Kid
- William Quantrill
William Clarke Quantrill , was a Confederate guerrilla leader during the American Civil War. After leading a Confederate bushwhacker unit along the Missouri-Kansas border in the early 1860s, which included the infamous raid and sacking of Lawrence, Kansas in 1863, Quantrill eventually ended up in...
- Jim Miller
James B. "Killer" Miller, was also known as Deacon Jim because he regularly attended the Methodist Church and because he did not smoke or drink. He was an outlaw and assassin of the American Old West who was lynched by a mob of angry citizens over his assassination of a former Deputy U.S...
- Sam Bass
Sam Bass was a nineteenth-century American train robber and outlaw.-Early life:...
- Kid Curry
- Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy , born Robert LeRoy Parker, was a notorious American train robber, bank robber and leader of the Hole in the Wall Gang.- 1880-1887 — first incidents, becoming a robber :...
- Billy the Kid
Henry McCarty , better known as Billy the Kid, but also known by the aliases Henry Antrim and William H. Bonney, was a 19th century American frontier outlaw and gunman who participated in the so-called Lincoln County War...
- John Wesley Hardin
John Wesley Hardin was an outlaw and gunfighter of the American Old West. He was born in Bonham, Fannin County, Texas. When Hardin went to prison in 1878, he claimed to have killed 42 men...
- Jesse James
- Frank James
Alexander Franklin James was a famous American outlaw. He was the older brother of outlaw Jesse James.-Childhood:...
- Cole Younger
Thomas Coleman Younger was a famous Confederate guerrilla and an outlaw after the American Civil War....
- Marlow Brothers
- Belle Starr
Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr , better known as Belle Starr, was a notorious American outlaw.-Early life:...
- Black Jack
Thomas Edward Ketchum, known as Black Jack Ketchum , was a cowboy and cattle driver who later turned to a life of crime. He was hanged in 1901 for attempted train robbery.-First train robberies and murders:...
- Black Bart
Charles Earl Bolles , alias Black Bart, was an American Old West outlaw noted for his poetic messages left after each robbery. He was also known as Charles E. Boles, C.E. Bolton, Charles E...
- John Daly
John Daly was an Old West outlaw and leader of the "Daly Gang".-Outlaw life, hanging:Little is known of Johnson's early life. He is thought to have been from the Eastern part of the U.S., but that has never been confirmed. John Daly arrived in Nevada from California in the early 1860s, as a hired...
- Tiburcio Vasquez
Tiburcio Vásquez was a Californio bandit who was active in California from 1857 to 1874. The Vasquez Rocks, 40 miles north of Los Angeles, were one of his many hideouts and are named for him.-Early life:...
- Reno Gang
The Reno Brothers Gang, also known as the Renos or the Reno Gang, was a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, they carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history...
- Rufus Buck Gang
The Rufus Buck Gang was an outlaw multi-racial gang of mixed-blood Negros and Creek Indians who operated in the Indian Territory of the Arkansas-Oklahoma area from 1895 to 1896....
- Dalton Gang
The Dalton Gang was an infamous outlaw group in the American Old West during 1890-1892. They specialized in bank and train robberies. They were related to the Younger brothers who rode with Jesse James, though they acted later and independently of the James-Younger Gang.-Beginnings:The Dalton...
- The Clantons, "Cowboys"
- Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley was an American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter. Oakley's amazing talent and timely rise to fame led to a starring role in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, which propelled her to become the first American female superstar.Using a .22 caliber rifle at 90 feet , Oakley reputedly...
- Although erroneously alleged in cocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system and an appetite suppressant...
trafficking, did engage in "underground" revolutions for women's rights. Both considered to fit the legend (or fact) of outlaw status.
Argentinian
- Juan Bautista Bailoretto
Juan Bautista Bailoretto or J.B. Vailoretto , son of Italian immigrants to Argentina, was born in Santa Fe. Bailoretto escaped from justice after killing a sheriff because of "lover matters" with a prostitute in Castex city, a little town in La Pampa Province, this outlaw bandit who robbed the rich...
- Mate Cocido
Segundo David Peralta, also known as Mate Cocido, born in 1897 in Tucuman's environs, was a redoubtable Argentine outlaw robber of trains, banks and rural bandit in northern Argentina.-Popular Culture:...
(Segundo David Peralta)
- Sydney Canning
Australian
In Australia two gangs of
bushrangerBushrangers, or bush rangers, were outlaws in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities....
s have been made outlaws - that is they were declared to have no legal rights and anybody was empowered to shoot them without the need for an arrest followed by a trial.
- Ben Hall
Ben Hall was an Australian bushranger of the 19th century. Operating mainly in New South Wales, he was known variously as `Bold Ben Hall', `Brave Ben Hall' and `The Gentleman Bushranger' for his avoidance of bloodshed and his audacious raids, many of which were intended simply to taunt the police....
- the New South Wales colonial government passed a law in 1865 which outlawed the gang (Hall, John GilbertJohnny Gilbert was an Australian bushranger shot dead by the police at the age of 25 near Binalong, New South Wales in 1865.- Early life :He was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1842. His mother Eleanor died shortly after his birth. His father William subsequently married Eliza Cord, a girl...
and John Dunn*Jack Dunn , minor league baseball owner and manager*Jack Dunn , British figure skater*John Dunn , Scottish settler in South Africa*John Dunn , Australian bushranger...
) and made it possible for anyone to shoot them. There was no need for the outlaws to be arrested and for there to be a trial.
- Ned Kelly
Edward "Ned" Kelly was an Australian bushranger, and, to some, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities. Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish convict father, and as a young man he clashed with the police. Following an incident at his home in 1878, police parties searched for him...
- The Victorian colonial government passed a law on 30 October 1878 to make the Kelly gang outlaws: they no longer had any legal rights and they could be shot by anyone. The law was modelled on the 1865 legislation passed against the gang of Ben Hall. As well as Ned Kelly, his brother Dan KellyDan Kelly was the youngest brother of Australian Bushranger Ned Kelly. He was a member of the Kelly Gang and was killed at the siege of Glenrowan....
was subject to the warrant as well as Joe ByrneJoe Byrne was an Australian bushranger born in Victoria to an Irish immigrant. A friend of Ned Kelly, he was a member of the Kelly Gang, who were declared outlaws after the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek...
and Steve HartSteve Hart was an Australian bushranger renowned for his membership in the Kelly Gang.-History:Hart was born in Beechworth to Irish immigrant parents Richard and Bridget Hart...
.
- Martin Cash
Martin Cash was a notorious convict bushranger known for escaping twice from Port Arthur, Van Diemen's Land...
- Frederick Wordsworth Ward also known as Captain Thunderbolt
Frederick Wordsworth Ward was an Australian bushranger renowned for escaping from Cockatoo Island with the help of his wife Mary Ann Bugg, and for committing over 200 crimes over six and a half years across the northern section of the state of New South Wales.-Biography:Frederick Ward was born at...
- Dan Morgan
John Fuller was an Australian bushranger.Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen. From the ages of 2 to 17 he lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts. He began work as a stockman but soon became tired of this, and headed for the...
- Jack the Rammer
Jack the Rammer aka Billy the Rammer was a bushranger in the Monaro District near Cooma in New South Wales during the latter half of 1834. His real name was probably Billy Roberts.-References:* *...
- Mary Ann Bugg
Mary Ann Bugg was one of two notable female bushrangers in mid 19th century Australia.Bugg's influence on her husband Frederick Wordsworth Ward, the bushranger known as Captain Thunderbolt, is cited as the reason he was able to sustain a prolonged evasion of law enforcement...
- Moondyne Joe
Joseph Bolitho Johns , better known as Moondyne Joe, was Western Australia's best known bushranger.- Biography :...
- William Westwood also known as Jackey Jackey
William Westwood Jackey Jackey was often referred to as a "gentleman bushranger" because of his dress and respect for his victims. - Youth :...
British
- Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake , known in his own times as Hereward the Outlaw or Hereward the Exile, was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon leader involved in resistance to the Norman conquest of England...
- Saxon outlaw during the Norman conquest of England
- John Nevison
John Nevison was one of Britain's most notorious highwaymen, a gentleman-rogue supposedly nicknamed Swift Nick by King Charles II after a renowned 200 mile dash from Kent to York to establish an alibi for a robbery he had committed earlier that same day...
- 17th century highwaymanA highwayman was a robber who preyed on travelers, particularly one who traveled by horse; those who robbed on foot were called footpads. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
- Dick Turpin
For other meanings see Dick Turpin .Richard Turpin was an infamous English rogue and highwayman. Turpin engaged in poaching, burglary, cattle rustling, horse theft, highway robbery and murder before being executed in York by Gareth Wynne...
- 18th century highwayman
- James MacLaine
"Captain" James MacLaine was a notorious highwayman with his accomplice William Plunkett. He was known as the "Gentleman Highwayman" as a result of his courteous behaviour during his robberies. He famously robbed Horace Walpole, and was eventually hanged at Tyburn...
- Scottish highwayman
- William Plunkett
William Plunkett was a highwayman and accomplice of the famed "Gentleman Highwayman," James MacLaine.Plunkett lived during the mid-eighteenth century in London, on Jermyn Street, and was said to have been an apothecary who was also presumed to be a gentleman...
- English highwayman
- Tom King
Tom King was an English highwayman who operated in the Essex and London areas.King was a close associate of fellow highwayman Dick Turpin; however unlike Turpin, who is often seen by historians a mere rogue, King was the kind of swashbuckling, charming, devil-may-care character into which legend...
- English highwayman
- Sawney Beane - Scottish outlaw
- Edgar the Outlaw
Edgar Ætheling, also known as Edgar the Outlaw was the last male member of the West Saxon royal house of Cerdic. He was proclaimed, but never crowned, King of England....
- English king
- Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a hero in English folklore, a highly-skilled archer and outlaw. In particular, he is known for "stealing from the rich and giving to the poor," assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men"...
- Legendary Medieval EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
outlaw
- Eustace Folville
]Eustace Folville was the leader of a robber band active in Leicestershire and Derbyshire in the first half of the 14th century. With four of his younger brothers, he was responsible for two of the most notorious crimes of early 14th century England: no mean achievement, considering the same...
- English outlaw and soldier
- Adam the Leper
Adam the Leper was the leader of a fourteenth-century robber band, operating in the south west of England in the 1330s and 1340s. Like the north Midlands bandits Eustace Folville and James Cotterel, he and his gang specialised in theft and kidnap. Unlike these contemporaries, he seems to have...
- Fourteenth-century English gang-leader
- Rob Roy MacGregor - Scottish Chieftain.
- Twm Siôn Cati
Twm Siôn Cati is a figure in Welsh folklore, often described as the Welsh Robin Hood.- Background :...
- Welsh Outlaw from Tregaron in Tudor times, ended up mayor of BreconBrecon is a long-established market town in southern Powys, mid Wales, with a population of roughly 8,000 with around 6,000 in the surrounding area...
- James Hind
Captain James Hind was a 17th century highwayman and Royalist rabble rouser during the English Civil War. He was hanged at Worcester in 1652. He was the subject of a biography The English Gusman by George Fidge , and 16 pamphlets detailing his exploits...
- 17th century highwayman
- John Clavell
John Clavell was a highwayman, author, lawyer, and doctor.He is known for his poem A Recantation of an Ill Led Life, and his play The Soddered Citizen...
- English highwayman, author, and lawyer
- Claude Duval
Claude Du Vall was a French-born gentleman highwayman in post-Restoration Britain.-Early life:Duval was born in Domfront, Normandy, France in 1643 to a poor family. His origin and parentage is in dispute. At the age of 14 he was sent to Paris where he worked as a domestic servant...
- FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
-born highwayman in England
- John Wilkes
John Wilkes was an English radical, journalist and politician.In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives. In 1771 he was instrumental in obliging the government to concede the right of printers to publish...
- 18th century English politician
Mexican
- Doroteo Arango Arambula - Better known as Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula , better known as Francisco “Pancho” Villa, was the first Mexican Revolutionary general along with Troyal Gonzales and Uriel Carrasco....
, a general in the Mexican Revolution,
East Asian
- Zhang Xianzhong
Zhang Xianzhong or Chang Hsien-chung , nicknamed Yellow Tiger, was a Chinese rebel leader who conquered Sichuan Province in the middle of the 17th century. Upon capturing it, he declared himself emperor of the Daxi Dynasty.According to Chinese chronicles, many scholars rejected that claim, so he...
- nicknamed Yellow Tiger, was a Chinese bandit and rebel leader who conquered Sichuan Province in the middle of the 17th century.
- Lao Pie-fang
Lao Pie-fang, known as a Hun-hutze , he was a bandit chieftain in western Liaoning. He led several thousand followers to attack Japanese garrisons the southern portion of the South Manchurian Railroad mainline in early 1932, during the pacification of Manchukuo.The Japanese garrison of...
- known as Hun-hutze (red beard), was a bandit chieftain in western Liaoning' is a northeastern province of the People's Republic of China. Its one-character abbreviation is Liao ."Liáo" is an ancient name for this region, which was adopted by the Liao Dynasty which ruled this area between 907 and 1125. "Níng" means "peacefulness"...
.
- Wang Delin
Wang Delin or Wang Teh-ling, , bandit, soldier and leader of the National Salvation Army resisting the Japanese pacification of Manchukuo....
- bandit, soldier and leader of the National Salvation ArmyAfter the Invasion of Manchuria, and until 1933, large volunteer armies waged war against Japanese and Manchukuo forces over much of Northeast China....
resisting the Japanese pacification of ManchukuoThe Pacification of Manchukuo, was a campaign to pacify the resistance to the newly established puppet state of Manchukuo between the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies of Manchuria and later the Communist Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army and the Imperial Japanese Army and the forces of Manchukuo...
.
- Song Jiang
Sòng Jiāng was the leader of a group of bandits who lived during the Song Dynasty in the 12th century. The bandits were active in the present-day provinces of Shandong and Henan before their eventual surrender to the government. Song Jiang is also featured as a character in the Water Margin, one...
- Historical Chinese outlaw immortalised in the classic Water MarginWater Margin is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature...
- Hong Gildong - Historical/legendary Korean outlaw
- Ishikawa Goemon
was a legendary bandit hero who stole gold and valuables and gave them to the poor. He is notable for being boiled alive after a failed assassination attempt on Toyotomi Hideyoshi...
- Legendary Japanese thief featured in kabuki plays
- Nezumi Kozō
Nezumi Kozō is the nickname of Nakamura Jirokichi , a Japanese thief and folk hero who lived in Edo during the Edo period.-Capture and tattoo:In 1822, he was caught and tattooed, and banished from Edo...
- Japanese thief
- Wong Fei Hung
Wong Fei Hung or Hwang Fei Hung was a martial artist, a medical doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and revolutionary who became a Chinese folk hero and the subject of numerous television series and films....
- Famous Chinese herbalist considered an outlaw hero in Chinese folklore
- Saigō Takamori
was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. He has been dubbed the last true samurai.
[ History Channel The Samurai, video documentary ]-Early life:...
- the last true Samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
, he led the Satsuma RebellionThe , was a revolt of Satsuma ex-samurai against the Meiji government from January 29, 1877 to September 24,1877, 9 years into the Meiji Era. It was the last, and the most serious, of a series of armed uprisings against the new government.-Background:...
Irish
- Grace O'Malley
Gráinne Ní Mháille , also known as Granuaile or Gráinne Mhaol, sometimes known in English as Grace O'Malley , is an important figure in Irish folklore, and a historical figure in 16th century Irish history...
- Redmond O'Hanlon
Redmond O'Hanlon was a 17th-century Irish tóraidhe or rapparee , and an important figure in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.- Early life :...
- Neesy O'Haughan
Naoise O'Haughan, also known as Neesy, Ness and Nessie was a highwayman in County Antrim, Ireland in the late 17th and early 18th centuries....
- Tiger Roche
"Tiger" Roche, was a celebrated soldier, duellist and adventurer, variously hailed as a hero and damned as a thief and a murderer at many times during his stormy life...
- Captain Gallagher
Captain Gallagher was an Irish highwayman who, as one of the later Irish Rapparees, led a bandit group in the hills of the Irish countryside during the late 18th century....
- Sean Kelly
Sean Kelly may refer to:* Sean Kelly , Irish professional road bicycle racer* Seán Kelly , Irish Member of the European Parliament and former president of the Gaelic Athletic Association...
Italian
- Carmine Crocco
Carmine Crocco, known as Donatelli was an Italian brigand. Despite his controversial deeds and behaviour, many people of South Italy consider him a folk hero.-Youth:...
(1830-1905) - Italian bandit and folk hero
- Salvatore Giuliano
Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian peasant. The millennia-long subjugated social status of his class led him to become a bandit and separatist who has been mythologised during his life and after his death...
(1922-1950) - Sicilian bandit and separatist
- Giuseppe Musolino
Giuseppe Musolino, better known as the "Brigante Musolino" or the "King of Aspromonte" , was an Italian brigand and folk hero.-Biography:...
(1876-1956) - Calabrian outlaw and folk hero
- Nicola Napolitano
Nicola Napolitano , also known by the nickname Caprariello, a nickname derived from his activity of goats shepherd, was born in Nola from the peasants Sabato and Carmela from Naples...
(1838-1863) - Italian bandit
- Gaspare Pisciotta
Gaspare Pisciotta was a companion and close friend of the Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano, and considered to be the co-leader of his outlaw band.- Origins :...
(1924-1954) - Sicilian bandit and separatist
- Rinaldo Rinaldini - Italian outlaw and folk hero
- Marco Sciarra - famous Neapolitan brigand chief
- Francesco Paolo Varsallona
Francesco Paolo Varsallona or Varsalona was a Sicilian bandit who operated on the island around the turn of the 20th century. He is considered to be the last great bandit of the pre-fascist era...
- notorious Sicilian bandit leader
Central Asian
- Timur
Timur , also known as Tamerlane , was a 14th-century conqueror of much of western and central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire and Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, which survived until 1857 as the Mughal...
- conqueror of much of western and Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
began his life as a bandit leader in what is now UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
.
- Togtakhu Taiji - most famous bandit chief in Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia is a Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the country's north....
, active before World War I.
Middle Eastern and Indian
- Fudayl ibn Iyad - famous highwayman of Khurasan
Greater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
who repented and traveled in search of knowledge. He is revered by Muslims as a major figure of early Sufism.
- Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari - rose from a bandit to the rule of much of modern Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
, AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
and PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
.
- Simko Shikak
Simko Shikak also Ismail Agha Shikak , was a bandit. He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near Baranduz river in Urmia region in northwestern Iran. By 1920 parts of Iranian Azerbaijan located west of Lake Urmia were under his control. He organized raids...
- KurdishThe Kurds are an Ethnic-Iranian ethnolinguistic group mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...
bandit and rebel leader
- Nirushan Tharmachandran - famous Bandit of southern Asia who was never caught by police. Stopped killing in 1930 and was never heard from again. Recent studies found that he killed under the code name, Pundai.
- Dulla Bhatti
Rai Abdullah Khan Bhatti a.k.a Dulla Bhatti was a famous legendary Rajput hero of Punjab, who led a rebellion against the famous Mughal king Akbar.Such was the level of resistance put by Rai Abdullah Khan that Akbar had to shift his capital from Delhi to Lahore for nearly 20 years of time and made...
- was a PunjabiThe Punjabi people are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group from South Asia. They originate from the Punjab region, which has been host to some of the oldest civilizations in the world including one of the world's first and oldest civilizations, the Indus Valley Civilization...
who led a rebellion against the Mughal emperor Akbar. His act of helping a poor peasant's daughter to get married led to a famous folk take which is still recited every year on the festival of LohriLohri is an extremely popular harvest festival in India, especially North India. Come January, and the fields of Punjab are filled with the golden harvest of wheat and farmers celebrate Lohri during this rest period before the harvesting and gathering of crops. Lohri is usually celebrated in the...
by Punjabis.
- Veerappan
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan Gounder was a notorious bandit of India...
, South IndiaSouth India, also known as the Dravida in the Indian anthem, is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of area...
's most famous bandit, Elephant poacher, sandalwood smuggler
- Phoolan Devi
Phoolan Devi , popularly known as "The Bandit Queen", was an Indian dacoit and later a politician...
- one of IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
's most famous dacoits ("armed robber").
- Shiv Kumar Patel
Shiv Kumar Patel , also known as Dadua, was notorious dacoit who operated in ravines and forests on the borders between the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh....
- led one of the few remaining bands of outlaws that have roamed central India for centuries.
- Hashshashin
The Hashshashin from which the word assassin is thought to originate, was the Arabic designation of the Nizari branch of the Ismā'īlī Shia Muslims during the Middle Ages...
- militant Ismaili' is a branch of the Islamic faith. It is the second largest part of the Shī‘ah community, after the mainstream Twelvers...
Muslim sect, active from the 8th to the 14th centuries.
- Thuggee
Thuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
- IndianThe known history of India - the name in this context includes the areas now known as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, from c. 3300 to 1300 BCE. Its Mature Harappan period...
network of secret fraternities engaged in murdering and robbing travellers.
Canadian
- Simon Gunanoot
Simon Gunanoot was a prosperous Gitxsan man and a merchant in the Kispiox Valley region of Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada. He lived with his wife and children on a large ranch...
- Slumach
Slumach an elderly man who once lived in a Katzie settlement at the south end of Pitt Lake is said to have discovered one of the richest bonanzas in British Columbia history....
- Allan McLean
- Bill Miner
Ezra Allen Miner , more popularly known as Bill Miner, was a noted American criminal, originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky, who served several prison terms for stagecoach robbery. Known for his unusual politeness while committing robberies, he was widely nicknamed The Gentleman Robber or The...
- Bevan Gang - Train robbers during the early years of CN's (Canadien National) Transcontinental Railroad.
German
- Eppelein von Gailingen
Eppelein von Gailingen was a famous German robber baron in the Middle Ages....
- Johannes Bückler, nicknamed Schinderhannes
- Lips Tullian
- Nickel List
- Matthias Klostermayr
Matthias Klostermayr, known as Bavarian Hiasl was a renowned German outlaw, poacher and social rebel who had come to be described, particularly in accounts written in the English-speaking world, as the Bavarian Robin Hood.A native of the municipality of Kissing...
, aka Bavarian Hiasl, aka Hiasl of Bavaria, aka der Bayerische Hiasl, aka da Boarische Hiasl
- Martin Luther
Martin Luther changed the course of Western civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation. As a priest and theology professor, he confronted indulgence salesmen with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Luther strongly disputed their claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could...
was outlawed in 1521 with the Edict of Worms
Russian
- Nightingale the Robber
Nightingale the Robber or Solovei the Brigand , also known as Solovey Odikhmantievich , was an epic robber from bylinas poetry of Kievan Rus....
- myth
- Yermak Timofeyevich
Yermak Timofeyevich , Cossack leader, Russian folk hero and explorer of Siberia. His exploration of Siberia marked the beginning of the expansion of Russia towards this region and its colonization...
- 16th century CossackCossacks were originally members of military communities in the uninhabited borderland areas in the steppe that lies North of Black Sea...
outlaw and explorer
- Stenka Razin
Stepan Timofeyevich Razin Тимофеевич Разин, ; 1630 – ) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.-Early life:...
- Cossack leader
- Yemelyan Pugachov - pretender to the Russian throne
Spanish
- Perot Rocaguinarda, Catalan
The Catalans are the people from, or with origins in Catalonia, an Autonomous Community in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France –known in Catalonia proper as Catalunya Nord, and in France as the Pays Catalan– are often included in this definition.-Extended concept:The...
bandit
- Sanchicorrota, Navarre
Navarre is a region in northern Spain, constituting one of its autonomous communities - the "Chartered Community of Navarre" .-History:...
se late Middle Age bandit
- El Tempranillo, Andalusia
Andalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("51301")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Andalusia">Andalusia
Andalusia Andalusia Andalusia ' onMouseout='HidePop("673")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Ince_Memed_tetralogy">İnce Memed
The İnce Memed tetralogy is a series of four epic novels written by the Turkish novelist Yaşar Kemal. The novels follow the life and career of Memed, the only son of a poor widow who escapes from his village in the Anatolian highlands and transforms himself into a legendary, Robin Hood-like figure,...
, a legendary fictional character by
Yaşar KemalYaşar Kemal is one of Turkey's leading writers. He has long been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, on the strength of Memed, My Hawk....
- Atçalı Kel Mehmet Efe
Atçalı Kel Mehmet Efe was a Zeybek, who led a local revolt against Ottoman authority and established control of the Aydın region for a short period between 1829 and 1830 .- Early Ages :...
, an outlaw who led a local revolt against Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
- Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe
Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe was a Zeybek, who was active as an outlaw in the region enclosing İzmir, Aydın, Denizli, Muğla and Antalya in modern western Turkey, from 1893 to 1910...
, one of the most powerful outlaws of late OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
era
New Zealander
- James Mckenzie Shepherd, drover, sheep rustler http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/dnzb/default.asp?Find_Quick.asp?PersonEssay=1M30
- Te Kooti
Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki was a Māori leader, the founder of the Ringatu religion and guerrilla.While fighting alongside government forces against the Hauhau in 1865, he was accused of spying. Exiled to the Chatham Islands without trial along with captured Hauhau, he experienced visions and...
Maori warrior & leader
Others
- Tadas Blinda
Tadas Blinda was a Lithuanian folk hero of the 19th century. He was a subject of several popular books, plays, and movies and is often compared to Robin Hood.-Biography:...
(LithuanianLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the southernmost of the three Baltic states. Situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, it shares borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to the southeast, Poland, and the Russian exclave of...
bandit)
- Alexander Friedman (German
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
bandit)
- Michael Monafis (Greek
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
outlaw)
- Lampião
Lampião was the nickname of "Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, the most famous leader of a Cangaço band .-Biography:...
(BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
)
- Jack the Robber (Roma
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
)
- Juraj Jánošík
Juraj Jánošík was a famous Slovak outlaw.Jánošík has been the main character of many Slovak and Polish legends, novels, poems, and films. According to the legend, he robbed nobles and gave the loot to the poor...
(SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
)
- Václav Babinský (Czech
The Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
outlaw)
- Johann Georg Grasel
Johann Georg Grasel was a leader of robber's gang. His name is used in Czech language as common term for rascal or villain until now....
(MoraviaMoravia is a historical region in central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, one of the former Czech lands. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region.-Geography:...
)
- Michael Labedzki (Polish
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
rebel leader and bandit)
- Sobri Jóska (Hungarian
Hungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
highwayman)
- Rózsa Sándor
Sándor Rózsa was a legendary Hungarian bandit from the Great Alföld. He is the best-know Hungarian highwayman, his life inspired numerous writers, notably Móricz Zsigmond, Krúdy Gyula...
(the most famous HungarianHungarians are an ethnic group primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 10 million Hungarians in Hungary . Hungarians were the main inhabitants of the Kingdom of Hungary that existed through most of the second millennium...
highwayman)
- Louis Dominique Cartouche
Louis Dominique Bourguignon, also known as Cartouche , was a highwayman who terrorized the roads around Paris during the Régence until the authorities had him broken on the wheel....
(famous FrenchFrench people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law.* People whose ancestors lived in France or the area that later became France....
bandit)
- Heraclio Bernal
Heraclio Bernal was a bandit from the Sinaloa region of Mexico. He is widely known as the "Thunderbolt of Sinaloa."-Bandit years:Bernal led a group of pistoleros, who operated along the mining zones of the Sierra Madre Occidental, dominating parts of Sinaloa and Durango...
(Mexican bandit)
- Cercyon (Greek), a bandit killed by Theseus
For other uses, see Theseus Theseus was the legendary founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, with both of whom Aethra lay in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with...
- Ibrahim Ag Bahanga, Tuareg
The Tuareg are a Berber nomadic pastoralist people. They are the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior of North Africa...
bandit and rebel leader
- Kassa Hailu, later Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia
Tewodros II was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death.He was born Kassa Haile Giorgis, but was more regularly referred to as Kassa Hailu...
- Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte later known as Napoleon I, and previously Napoleone di Buonaparte, was a military and political leader of France whose actions shaped European politics in the early 19th century.Born in Corsica and trained as an artillery officer in mainland France, Bonaparte rose to prominence...
by the coalition in Vienna
- When the government of the First Spanish Republic
The First Spanish Republic was the political regime that existed in Spain between the parliamentary proclamation on 11 February 1873 and 29 December 1874 when General Martínez Campos's pronouncement marked the beginning of the Bourbon Restoration in Spain...
was unable to reduce the CantonalistCantonalism, mainly prevalent in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Spain, is an insurrectionary movement which aims to divide the nation state into almost independent cantons....
rebellion centered in Cartagena, SpainCartagena is a Spanish Mediterranean city and naval station in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia....
, the Cartagena fleet was declared piratic, allowing any nation to prey on it.
- Toño Bicicleta (Bicycle Tony), A notorious bicycle-riding Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands...
criminal who became an element of local folklore.
- Martin Luther
Martin Luther changed the course of Western civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation. As a priest and theology professor, he confronted indulgence salesmen with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Luther strongly disputed their claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could...
was declared an outlaw by the Diet of WormsThe Diet of Worms
[p] was a general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in 1521 at Worms, a small town on the Rhine River located in what is now Germany. It was conducted from 28 January to 25 May 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding...
- Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, who held office from 1994–99. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress's armed wing Umkhonto...
See also
- American Old West
The American Old West comprises the history, geography, peoples, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the period of the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
- Vigilante
A vigilante is someone who unlawfully punishes a criminal, or participates in a mob or conspiracy to mete out unlawful punishment to a criminal or criminals....
- Pirate
- Buccaneer
The buccaneers were pirates who attacked Spanish and French shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
- Gangster
A Gangster is a criminal who is a member of a crime organization, such as a gang. The terms are most commonly used in reference to members of the criminal organizations associated with American prohibition and the American offshoot of the Italian Mafia, such as the Chicago Outfit, the Philadelphia...
- Hajduk
Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans.Forms of the word in various languages include:...
- Highwayman
A highwayman was a robber who preyed on travelers, particularly one who traveled by horse; those who robbed on foot were called footpads. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
- Brigandage
Brigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder, and a brigand a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.- Origin of the word :...
- Thuggee
Thuggee is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in India....
cult
- Outlaw motorcycle club
An outlaw motorcycle club is a type of motorcycle club that is part of a subculture with roots in the post-WWII USA, centered on cruiser motorcycles, particularly Harley-Davidsons and choppers, and a set of ideals celebrating freedom, nonconformity to mainstream culture, and loyalty to the biker...
- Shanlin
The term shanlin 山林 means literally "mountain and forest" in Chinese and was frequently used to describe bandits in Manchuria from the time of the Qing dynasty, because they knew the local wooded and mountainous terrain very well. Most operated in a fairly small district and took pains to maintain...
- Shifta
Shifta is term used in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia for rebel, outlaw, or bandit. The word is derived from shúfto. Historically, shifta served as local militia in the lawless rural mountainous regions on the Horn of Africa...
- Social bandits
Social bandit or social crime is a term invented by the historian Eric Hobsbawm in his 1965 classic study of popular forms of resistance, Primitive Rebels. He further expanded the field in the 1969 study, Bandits. Social banditry is a widespread phenomenon known in many societies and some argue...
, a term invented by Eric HobsbawmEric John Ernest Hobsbawm, CH, FBA, is a British Marxist historian and author, one of the most influential British historians of the late twentieth century.-Life:...
- Honghuzi
Honghuzi were armed robbers, bandits in the areas of the eastern Russia-China borderland: Southeastern Siberia, Russian Far East, and Northeast China . the word has been variously transliterated as hong huzi, hong hu zi, hunghutze, hun-hutze, etc...
("red beards")
- Thug
A thug in Modern English means a violent and/or anti-social person, including:-People:*Thug, a person, often a criminal, who treats others violently and roughly, especially for hire. Often a member of a gang, as an enforcer in organized crime...
- Dacoit
- Klepht
Klephts , were Greek bandits and warlike mountain folk who lived in the countryside when Greece was a part of the Ottoman Empire...