Charles Manson in court

One of the century’s biggest trials spawned from the murder of actress Sharon Tate. Prior to her murder, however, Charles Manson gained notoriety for his “family,” which consisted basically a harem of women who followed Manson around as he spouted off philosophy and slightly Scientologist advice.

In 1968 Manson became acquaintances with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson, who would eventually introduce him to the man who rented out his home to Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski. He and the Family set up camp in the desert to prepare for a race war Manson wanted to create between whites and African Americans.

After a couple of murders by the Family that Manson thought might help start his war in August 1969, Manson instructed his followers to go to the Tate house and “totally destroy everyone in it.” They killed five people, including an 8 and ½ months pregnant Tate, by stabbing them repeatedly.

Sharon Tate, the day of her murder

The next night Manson accompanied the Family on the murders of supermarket exec Leno LiBianca and his wife, who were both stabbed by a bayonet.

LAPD ruled the two murders as unconnected and a few days after discovering the homicides, they picked up Manson and 25 members of the Family for drug charges that were later dropped. The breakthrough in the cases came from the arrest of Family members connected with one of the earlier murders after gang members suggested a connection between all the murders.

After one of the members confessed, evidence such bloody clothing, knives and finger prints were found, and all members involved in the attacks were apprehended. In June 1970, the trial commenced with the prosecution’s main witness being a Family member not involved with the killings, who was promised immunity for testifying against Manson.

Originally, the judge reluctantly granted Manson permission to act as his own attorney. Because of his conduct, including violations of a gag order and submission of “outlandish” and “nonsensical” pretrial motions, the permission was withdrawn before the start of the trial. Manson filed an affidavit of prejudice against the judge, who was later replaced. On Friday, July 24, the first day of testimony, Manson appeared in court with an X carved into his forehead (later changed into a swastika) and issued a statement that he was “considered inadequate and incompetent to speak or defend [him]self” — and had “X’d [him]self from [the establishment's] world.”

The prosecution placed the triggering of Manson’s so-called uprising, called “Helter Skelter,” as the main motive. The crime scenes’ bloody Beatles’ references—pig, rise, helter skelter—were correlated with testimony about Manson predictions that the murders blacks would commit at the outset of Helter Skelter would involve the writing of “pigs” on walls in victims’ blood.

Some Family members attempted to dissuade witnesses from testifying by threatening and poisoning some witnesses. Throughout the trial, which was heavily publicized and even commented on by President Nixon, there were many distractions and setbacks, and on October 5, after being denied the court’s permission to question a prosecution witness whom the defense attorneys had declined to cross-examine, Manson leaped over the defense table and attempted to attack the judge.

On November 16, the prosecution rested its case. Three days later, after arguing standard dismissal motions, the defense stunned the court by resting as well, without calling a single witness. Shouting their disapproval, the women defendants demanded their rights to testify. The women’s lawyers told the judge their clients wanted to testify that they had planned and committed the crimes and that Manson had not been involved. By resting their case, the defense lawyers had tried to stop this. In the prosecutor’s view, it was Manson who was advising the women to testify in this way as a means of saving himself.

The next day, Manson testified.  Speaking for more than an hour, Manson said, among other things, that “the music is telling the youth to rise up against the establishment.” He said, “Why blame it on me? I didn’t write the music.” “To be honest with you,” Manson also stated, “I don’t recall ever saying ‘Get a knife and a change of clothes and go do what Tex says.”

Disruptions of the prosecution’s closing argument by the defendants led the judge to ban the defendants from the courtroom for the remainder of the guilt phase. It had become obvious the defendants were acting in collusion with each other and were simply putting on a performance.

On January 25, 1971, guilty verdicts were returned against the four defendants on each of the twenty-seven separate counts against them. The women defendants quickly tried to exonerate Manson during their testimonies.

The effort to exonerate Manson failed and on March 29, 1971, the jury returned verdicts of death against all four defendants on all counts. On April 19, 1971, the judge sentenced the four defendants to death.

Charles Manson's latest photo, May 2009

In February 1972, the death sentences of all five parties were automatically reduced to life in prison by California v. Anderson in which the Supreme Court of California abolished the death penalty in that state.

In the ‘80s, Manson gave a handful of notable interviews, including one with Charlie Rose, which won an Emmy award.

On May 23, 2007, Manson was denied parole for the eleventh time. He will not be eligible to apply for parole again until 2012.

See what the prosecuting attorney had to say about this infamous trial. Also, read Los Angeles Magazine’s recent feature on the murder, which marked its 40^th anniversary in August.

Night Court

Sneakers with a judge's robe? So wacky!

While not technically a drama, per se – well, unless you count the romantic drama going on between Harry (Harry Anderson) and Christine (Markie Post) – Night Court gave us insight into a type of courtroom rarely seen, the night court, of course, which is full of eccentric and wacky characters.

The show centered on Judge Harry and his unorthodox ways presiding over a Manhattan night court. In an early review of the show, Time magazine called Night Court, with its emphasis on non-glamorous, non-violent petty crime, the most realistic law show on the air, so it has to be on this list if only for its realistic portrayal of the justice system during the time we’re all at home in our beds.

Plus, extra props for the addition of Bull, the huge but gentle bailiff, and John Larroquette as the sleazy and narcissistic prosecutor.

Law and Order

Buh buh.

We don’t mean Law and Order: Whatever Spinoff NBC Has Thought Up Now. We mean the original Law and Order. You know, the one with Sam Waterson. This show makes our list not only because of its catchy “buh buh” noise but also because its prevalence for taking real life cases and turning it into compelling TV.

You got your law, that’s the courtroom drama, and your order, that’s the police detecting. It’s a pretty simple equation that has lasted for almost 20 years. That’s pretty impressive. Also, we like that we get to learn about the justice system so deeply—it’s almost like a backstage pass into the judge’s chambers.

The best part of the show is that every episode is neatly wrapped up. There’s no ongoing, agonizing investigation and a long, drawn-out trial. It’s so cut and dry. It’s very satisfying. We can watch entire marathons of this show—of any season.

You know you have a good show on your hands, when Sesame Street mocks it.

Matlock

Who can’t help but love Andy Griffith?

Matlock was a renowned, popular yet cantankerous defense attorney. He solved and won at trial almost every case he had taken, especially murder cases where everyone else was sure his client was guilty. Usually, at the end of the episode, the person who is sitting on the stand being questioned by Matlock is the actual killer and there is some very emotional dramatic speech.

It was so riveting, and we always tried to see if we could solve the murder before Matlock did. (We never did.) Plus, Matlock had a penchant for hot dogs, which always made us smile, no matter how stingy he was.

Perry Mason

The original TV lawyer

But before Matlock there was Perry Mason, who was, perhaps, one of the first popular lawyers on American television with his show in the ‘50s. Played by Raymond Burr, Perry Mason, was, at the time television’s most successful and longest-running lawyer series. It has set the standards for every lawyer show to come since.

Much like Matlock, each episode’s plot was essentially the same: the first half of the show usually depicted the prospective murder victim as being deserving of homicide, often with Perry’s client publicly threatening to kill the victim; the body is found surrounded by clues pointing to Perry’s client. Perry’s client is charged with murder, but Perry establishes his client’s innocence by dramatically demonstrating the guilt of another character. The murderer nearly always broke down and confesses to the crime in the courtroom.

Our favorite parts of Perry Mason would be the ridiculous camera zooms on the actually guilty characters, who would make sour faces and visibly squirm in their seats. How would they ever evade Perry Mason if they made these awful faces?

Ally McBeal

Why is your skirt so short?

Although maybe known for the downfall of feminism and the trend of inappropriate, short skirts in the workplace (and also, that awful dancing baby), Ally McBeal also had incredibly unique cases and trials (and relentlessly quirky lawyers) that no other show before had ever featured.  Okay, fine the unisex bathroom sticks out in our minds too.

But often merely a catalyst for the main characters’ action—a divorce trial leading to Ally’s own breakup—the trials were as memorable as the weird characters. There was the trial about customers who sue a restaurant because they were served horse meat. Another trial featured a nun who was run out of her nunnery for breaking her vow of celibacy. A little boy who sues God. Ally McBeal was like the Grey’s Anatomy of its time—a show centered around a semi-obnoxious skinny chick we still rooted for and the weird and unusual cases she must win. We were upset because it never got the send off it deserved—that, and Robert Downey Jr. being forced out of his contract because of drug abuse. His duet with Sting was incredible. Oh, yeah, remember that piano bar they visited every episode? Wow, Ally McBeal was really about a lot more than law…

Banana Peels

It’s common knowledge that banana peels can cause some of the funniest slips in cinema history, but even the Mythbusters proved that banana peels are incredibly slippery. So, why not place a bunch of banana peels under your window, causing your unfortunate crook to slip about like a Three Stooges clip? Maybe he’d think twice about continuing his ill-thought journey into your home.

Glue

Much like Kevin’s adventures in Home Alone, you can try to deter your would-be burglar with a little bit of glue. Maybe it wouldn’t stop him entirely, but it would most certainly stick his shoes to the ground, preferably outside—you wouldn’t want glued shoes to your floorboards, no?

Plus it would be funny to any passersby if the following happened:

Which leads us to our next uncommon security device…

Broken Glass

Annie Lennox said it best when she sang that love’s like walking on broken glass. So, once your burglar has lost his shoes—and is still stupid enough to forge ahead with his harebrained idea to rob you—you can easily slow him down further with a layout of broken glass. This tactic would also make a very loud alarm, as you’d definitely hear the noise of glass being crunched (and probably some loud screams).  Hey, it worked for Hans Gruber in Die Hard—not that we’re rooting for the bad guy here or anything.

Note: this device might not be suitable for those with pets or small children who like to roam during the middle of the night.

Cacti

Look at how thrifty you’re being! Once your crook tumbles down the stairs, you can set a well-placed cactus to cushion his fall—on a bed of sharp needles! Not only might he have a broken bone, but now this hapless burglar will have a tushie full of cacti. We’d be incredibly shocked if he didn’t give up after this debacle.

Electricity

If this robber makes it to your bedroom door after all the pain you’ve inflicted on him—which would be a shocker—then perhaps you should, literally, shock him. Rig up your metal doorknob to electrocute the crook should he make it up the stairs. There’s no way he’d be able to open the door after the pain he’s been put through on top of some good, ol’ fashioned electricity.

Of course, you could go the traditional route—complete with alarms, monitors and even a guard dog—by why not get creative with your home security?

Too Lazy

It’s a pretty common fat that cats are lazy. They would much rather sleep in hilarious positions than actually get up and either exercise or catch foreign creatures in your home. Forget about mice, cats are fairly unlikely to even catch a bug, much less alert you to an intruder—they will be passed out asleep beside you instead of investigating a loud noise. Forget about what you’ve heard about “curiosity killing the cat.” That’s totally bogus.

Even this cat would rather sleep.

Would Rather Bathe Themselves

Even if your cat isn’t sleeping, chances are they will either be doing two other things than dissuading a burglar: eating or luxuriously bathing themselves.  Maybe if your intruder rolled around in tuna before breaking in, then you’d have an alert kitty cat. Other than that, your cat is probably bathing himself to a glistening purrfection (we couldn’t resist the pun, sorry), and then repeating tirelessly until he falls asleep while looking fabulous. Even if a burglar caught your cat in the action of bathing, nothing would dissuade him from finishing his own job. Too bad that doesn’t involve protecting you.

Cat Bathing Himself

Not Obedient

A good guard animal is one that is extremely obedient to its master. Cats refuse to accept any master, so that is pretty much thrown out the window here.  The number one trait a good guard dog must have is the ability to know who and when to bark. We don’t know if you’ve ever tried getting your cat NOT to meow. It’s insanely impossible. Cats will meow when they’re hungry, tired, happy, upset, sad, thirsty or just because they feel like it.  There’s no way even IF your cat tried to alert you to an intruder in your home that you would respond to it because you’d just be too used to that stupid cat crying for no reason at all.  Proof.  There is no way you could train them to meow at only strangers. We wish, though.

Would Rather Snuggle

Kitties are lovers, not fighters. In addition to lying around looking like kings on a throne, they also love to snuggle. They will snuggle you; they will snuggle their toys; they will snuggle each other.  This is an admirable quality in a pet companion, but when you want a ferocious animal to protect your home, snuggleability isn’t the way to go, unfortunately.  Which brings us to another point…

Cats are Just Too Cute

No robber would be able to take them seriously. Do you get a Pomeranian to be your guard dog? No, because they are just too precious for anyone to think they are menacing and scary.

They Would Rather Chase the Invisible

Cats like to chase what’s not actually there instead of killing bugs and rodents. It’s just a fact of nature. Although, it might make a burglar laugh out loud, alerting you to his presence, so, in a way, it’s not a bad tactic.

Although, apparently some cats are good at guarding museums.

And if you’re guilty of any of the following, Ann Richards might have to rise from the dead and take your ass out.

Loud talkers/obnoxious laughs/stage whispers

An audible whisper is the same as talking, so go ahead and ask your friend whatever you were asking. Along with ringing cell phones, this is the No. 1 most offensive crimes to perpetrate at the theater. Nothing you ask or say to your friend is going to be as interesting or funny as the movie, so don’t even bother. We especially hate the bad audience members who keep asking what other movies a particular actor or actress has been in. Mom, we’re talking to you!

Line repeaters

This is in a separate category from just talking loudly because it is four times more obnoxious than merely talking loudly. We’re talking about the guy who will laugh at a line in the movie and then repeat said line to his companion. We get the joke, buddy, we’re watching the same exact movie here. We hate sitting next to one of these criminals.

Texting during the movie

We all know that talking on our cell phones is a big no-no during the movie, but even remotely pulling your phone out is unacceptable. The blinding white light of your cell phone really detracts from what’s happening on the screen. This category means that you cannot text or even check your phone during the flick. We make exceptions for doctors—you’re allowed to at least check that thing.

This category also applies to movie critics with the clicky light pen. You don’t need those to take notes. You can see the notebook perfectly fine. Not only is the light annoying, but that little “click click” is pretty awful too. Thank you.

Having an offensive odor

Besides sitting next to a loud talker or line repeater, this is one of the worst offenses. If you smell bad, don’t sit next to someone. We’re not just talking B.O., folks. We mean anyone who smokes a lot, chooses not to wear deodorant or anyone who’s eaten anything stinky in a while. Have a friend sniff test you to see how offensive you are just to make sure.

Showing up late and asking us to move

We are very punctual movie goers. We love watching the previews; we stake out the perfect seat—which we’re told is three quarters of the way back, directly in the middle for optimum sound and audio; we hit up the bathroom; we keep our seats warm. It’s an exact science by now. So, nothing is more off putting then when moseying latecomers barge into the theater, eye the seats to the left and the right of us and not-so-politely ask us to shift. Sure, we’ll move—we don’t want to look like the villains, after all—but we don’t like it one bit, and we’ll certainly not make eye contact with you. Do us a favor and show up early. You have been warned.

Eating loudly

Popcorn is a fairly quiet snack. A pickle is not. We love pickles at the movies, yet even we know how loudly they can be when you’re eating them in a theater, so we’ve honed a perfected pickle eating method, which consists of very little loud chomping. We also tend to take bites during loud scenes and avoid chewing during quiet and/or romantic scenes. Please pay us the same courtesy.

Also, if you’re going to sneak food in, the No. 1 thing to NEVER EVER bring into a theater is an apple. We kid you not, we sat next to someone who brought an apple into a movie and ate it during some very quiet scenes. A pickle may require some loud chewing, but it has nothing on how loud an apple can be.

Selling Gas for Money

Sure gas still isn’t as high as it was last summer, but it’s still fairly expensive. We first heard of gas-selling scams on the F/X show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that doesn’t mean other (slightly stupid) people haven’t tried this get-rich-quick scheme.

Apparently, it’s thought that if you buy a lot of gas, you can sell it to other customers. However, the flawed logic here is that you’ll have to buy the gas for the same price as the rest of the customers—unless you have some sort of great gas hookup, but then you wouldn’t be trying to scam your way to wealth—and then having to sell it for cheaper to get customers to purchase from you instead of the gas station. We think of it as a big, fat failed attempt at undercutting the gas industry to make money. It ain’t gonna happen.

Using Household Items as Drugs

For Home Cooking Use Only

Want a surefire way to piss off drug addicts and still get arrested at the same time? Go ahead and lace that illegal substance with a household ingredient and you’ll be facing not only jail time, but also angry customers.

There have always been the rumors of the half-assed drug dealers who mix their weed with Italian spices or cocaine with powdered sugar, but we’re not sure if anyone actually a) does this incredibly stupid thing or b) gets away with it.

Actually, on second thought, it’s probably just best to steer clear of the whole drug dealing industry altogether.

Running a Home Casino

We’ve seen TV shows and movies with super cool underground casinos.  They look like lots of fun, don’t they? Especially if you threw in some Prohibition-era hooch, and some sassy ladies. You’d have yourself a party.

We don’t condone gambling—when done in a legal way, everyone wins…well, almost everyone. But, if gambling is illegal in your town, this might not be the smartest way to get some cash flowing in. Sure, it sounds like a cool idea, but think about it—there is a ton of work involved with running a casino.  You have to get competent dealers, you need to know the odds, you need to have impeccable accounting skills and you need to know the rules in every game you host. It’s way too much work for an illegal endeavor, and if you’re really smart enough to pull something like this off, maybe you should just get work as an accountant or statistician.

Plus, check out what Arnold could do to your club.

Cultivating your own Diamond

You may think that creating jewels may be easy—well it’s not. Sure, coal eventually becomes a diamond, but this is over many, many, many years. You will be waiting throughout the next 50 recessions for that lump o’ coal to become anything worthwhile, and even then it’s iffy. Even Mythbusters proved this was pointless.

Photocopying Money

This may be the dumbest of all crimes. Money counterfeiting looks like it’s very complicated—we mean, it must be considering how complicated our money looks with all of its stamps, insignias and codes—although some people are quite good at it. So, it might not be the smartest of crimes to get into if you know nothing of counterfeiting money—especially if you figure that you can merely color copy money and get away with it. You will get totally busted the second you try to use that faux-dollar bill.

Although, apparently counterfeiting can save your life from time to time:

Car Salesman

Car salesmen—and worse yet, used car salesmen—are perhaps the smarmiest of all professions. It is there job to do—and promise—whatever possible in order to get you into a car on their lot, so it’s hard to take what they say at face value.  When shopping for some new wheels, it’s hard to not feel like you’re being played or taken advantage of—or like there are some tactics used to seal the deal. It’s almost like a frat boy who’s circling the punch bowl for any willing lady to go home with him—that’s how used these salesman make us feel…

Realtor

Very similar to a car salesman, the Realtor and apartment locator use the same tactics but on a larger scale—your home. They weasel  you into a home that is probably out of your price range or an apartment that’s maybe facing construction you may not be aware of—all in the name of a commission. Now, we’re not saying they’re all bad, but pretty much any job that forces someone to use you for a commission check is probably not a very savory one, no? Both apartment locators and Realtors tend to get very antsy and impatient, which makes it sometimes difficult to close the deal when you’re unsure about the home you’re purchasing or apartment you’re renting.

Insurance Salesman

…or pretty much anything to do with insurance. Have you seen Michael Moore’s Sicko? The insurance industry is sometimes so corrupt sounding that it makes us want to move to France and enjoy unlimited amount of sick days. Anyone who has to sell you what you think your body is worth—or determine what your insurance doesn’t cover even though you thought it would—seems almost not out to screw you over instead of helping you. That’s why this profession makes the list, they are foes disguised as friends.

IRS Auditor

Do we even need to go into specifics here, folks? Auditors make you feel bad for not keeping receipts or feel stupid for not figuring out your taxes correctly. Also, they work for The Man, so, by definition, they must be evil—but still not illegal. Being audited also feels like an intense personal violation, especially coming from someone so impersonal.

Magician

Okay, we actually really love magicians, but, at the same time, we feel so manipulated by them. We know most of their tricks are slights of hand and fast changes or whatever but anytime something cool actually happens, we still feel like we’re being tricked  big time, and it almost makes the “magic” trick not as fun or as cool.

We do have a soft spot for the Masked Magician who reveals all the secrets of magicians’ acts—it’s like he’s the Donnie Brasco of magicians!

Mechanic

Who do you trust to fix your car?

Mechanics just seem to arbitrarily come up with a price for fixing your car; it seems to take them twice as long to fix it than they originally said and if you take your car to another shop, the estimate will be wildly different. It’s like they just make the whole thing up as they go along, and it’s pretty frustrating, which is why they make it onto this list.

Paris Hilton

Just no.  Sorry, Paris, having a “career” out of being famous should be outlawed.

Remember, diamonds really are a girl’s best friend, after all.

The Museon Museum Jewel Heist

In December 2002, jewelry thieves pulled off one of the most mysterious diamond heists of all time. The Museon, a science museum in The Hague, Netherlands, was putting on a diamond exhibit intended to educate the public about the gems. There were royal pieces on display, including a wedding gift given by King William III to Queen Mary II of England in the 1600s.

Museum officials came in on Tuesday morning to find that six of the diamond exhibit’s 28 display cases were empty. The pieces disappeared either Sunday night or Monday morning, and because the museum is closed on Mondays, the theft went undetected for at least a day.

The Museon had 24-hour security guards monitoring all entrances and exits as well as 24-hour surveillance-cameras that covered every inch of the exhibit. The cabinets were in a motion-detection zone, and the displays that housed the most valuable pieces were made of reinforced glass.

Today, no one still has any idea how the heist happened. Nothing showed up on the video footage, the guards never saw a thing, the motion sensors never went off and the display cabinets had no evidence of tampering. The only signs of a break-in were the smashed window leading into the museum—and, of course, the empty cases. The precision of the heist suggests inside information was used, but investigators haven’t been able to make any connection between the robbery and museum staff.

The museum eventually put a price tag of about $12 million on the robbery, but since many of the stolen pieces had historical significance, the haul is really priceless. The gems will probably never turn up for auction because they’re too famous to go unnoticed by anyone in the jewelry world. Finally, detectives were forced to close the case because the lack of leads.

Harry Winston Jewelry Heist

While not with the same finesse of the Museon heist, one of the biggest jewelry heists in history struck the Harry Winston store in Paris when, on December 4, 2008, $118 million worth of jewelry was stolen.

Four armed robbers arrived at the store just before closing time and requested entrance over the intercom. Out of the four robbers, three were dressed in drag, with long blond tresses, sunglasses and winter scarves.  They strolled in with a small suitcase on wheels, then pulled out a hand grenade and a .357 Magnum, smashed display cases, shouted orders to employees, many of them by name. In less than 20 minutes they made off with millions of dollars worth of emeralds, rubies, and very large diamonds.

Members of the Pink Panthers gang that operates out of the Balkans and have been involved in some other high-profile jewel thefts were originally suspects, but were ruled out when on June 22, 25 suspects were arrested. There has been no word if any of the jewels have been recovered yet.

Carlton Jewelry Store

Also taking place in France, one of the biggest heists of its time occurred at the Carlton Jewelry Store in Cannes in 1994. With a much smaller loot of $60 million, this heist played much more like a gangster movie when three men burst into the Carlton Hotel’s jewelry store firing machine guns into the air. As store employees and customers panicked, the thieves quickly packed nearly $60 million worth of jewels into bags and made their escape.

Later on it was discovered that the rounds were in fact blanks. The thieves and the jewels are still at large.

Antwerp Diamond Heist

Antwerp is one of the two diamond capitals in the world. The other one is Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Eighty percent of the world’s uncut gems go through Antwerp, and many of them are stored in the underground vault of the Antwerp Diamond Center building.

The largest diamond heist ever took place in Antwerp, Belgium, in 2003. With a value of at least $100 million in stolen jewels, this crime goes down in the history books as one of the biggest hauls.

At least four people had been planning the theft for years. They rented office space in the building in 2000, analyzed the alarm system and learned exactly how to bypass it. Now that’s patience. It’s still not exactly known how they pulled off the heist. The vault was thought to be impenetrable. It was protected by 10 layers of security, including infrared heat detectors, Doppler radar, a magnetic field, a seismic sensor, and a lock with 100 million possible combinations. They obtained keys to the vault and made copies. On the day of the break-in, they recorded over the security cameras and inserted fake tapes into the surveillance system to cover their movements.

Of the 189 safety deposit boxes where diamond brokers leave their stones while brokering deals, only 100 were emptied. The thieves had too many diamonds to carry, so they were forced to leave 37 vaults unopened, and Diamond Center employees came in to find loose diamonds strewn about the vault (see photo above).

The gang was identified as a group known as the School of Turin, a gang of thieves known for not using violence. The investigation led to Italy, and most of the group was arrested. Apparently, one of the thieves had left his DNA on a half-eaten sandwich among diamond-carrying bags dumped in a ditch near the crime scene. Another thief’s DNA was found in the vault. The leader, Leonardo Notarbartolo acted as a diamond merchant for years, apparently storing stones in the Diamond Center, and had somehow passed all of the Center’s background checks. He was released from prison earlier this year due to a short sentence based on circumstantial evidence.  Read more about Nortarbartolo.

The $100 million worth of gems they stole have never been found.

The Damiani Jewelry Heist

One of the most unusual heists in recent history could have easily been averted. A woman in Milan complained to police at least once about early-morning noise in her neighborhood. But because there was a construction project going on nearby, nothing came from her complaints. The police assumed that the noise was coming from the workmen. No one considered that the woman lived practically next door to the Damiani jewelry showroom.

Damiani is a world-famous jeweler. Its building was secure, with a high-tech alarm system and an armed guard at the front door. But, since the thieves had been drilling a hole every morning through the 4-foot wall that separated the showroom basement from the basement next door all the security didn’t matter.

The store had been preparing for a private showing, so there were no customers in the showroom. The thieves wore fake police uniforms and popped up in the showroom through an unguarded entrance. Unarmed they asked to see certain store records and then acted quickly, tying and gagging the staff. The operation took about a half hour, netting about $20 million in diamonds, rubies and gold.

There was one flaw in this heist though—the thieves would have made off with much more loot had it not been Oscar time. Some of the most valuable pieces were out on loan to Hollywood’s stars, including Oscar winner Tilda Swinton, who wore Damiani’s “Sahara Bracelet,” bearing 1,865 diamonds totaling more than 47 carats.

The investigation is ongoing. Police suspect an inside job as the timing was just too perfect.

If you’re scoffing at the amount of money these bandits have absconded with, perhaps you should be investigating a career change as a professional jewelry thief.

Flintstones Car

A real-life Flintstones car!

We love the Flintstones’ car, but how secure is this thing? Just about anyone could hop in it, run very quickly and escape. Made of stone and animal hides, it also seems very easy to take apart. We’re not sure why the cars are so basic and foot-powered when the Flintstones use animals for every other technological advance— pterodactyl airplanes and wooly mammoth dishwashers. Why couldn’t they have a saber tooth tiger carriage or something? Plus, isn’t the point of cars to not be walking? Anyway, we don’t deem the Flintstones car secure at all, and they were lucky they never had the darn thing stolen.  Plus, it doesn’t look like it would work out well in the real world.

KITT

Hyper-intelligent crime-fighting rover, the modified Trans Am known as KITT always sounded mildly pissed with his human counter-part, Michael Knight (David Hassellhoff). In addition to the ability to see, hear and smell, KITT also came equipped with the a slew of other features:

• Computer AI -- KITT is essentially an advanced supercomputer on wheels that could think, learn, communicate and interact with humans.
• Molecular Bonded Shell -- KITT is armored with “Tri-Helical Plasteel 1000 MBS” plating which protects him from almost all forms of conventional firearms and explosive devices.
• Pyroclastic Lamination -- KITT is protected by a thermal-resistant coating that can withstand sustained temperatures of up to 800 degrees.
• Turbo Boost - This allows KITT to accelerate to incredible speeds in excess of 200 mph.
• Etymotic Equalizer -- This system allowed KITT to hear sound.
• Olfactory Sensor -- KITT can “smell” via an atmospheric sampling device mounted in his front bumper.
• Silent Mode - KITT can run silently.
• Grappling Hook and Winch -- KITT has a hidden winch and grappling hook system.
• Oil Jets/Smoke Screen -- KITT can spray an oil slick and a plume of smoke from under the rear bumper.
• Flame Thrower -- KITT has flame throwers mounted under his bumpers
• Seat Ejection System -- KITT had two front ejection seats.

And this is just a smattering of all the cool things he can do. Simply put, don’t mess with KITT.

The Batmobile

You’d have to be an idiot to try to steal this car! In its earliest incarnations, the Batmobile was mainly just armored, but in the 21^st Century, the Batmobile has become much more than a car and is rather another weapon in Batman’s arsenal.

In later comics, the Batmobile has been modified into a tank-like armored riot control vehicle, complete with machine guns, a large cannon mounted on the front and large tank treads in place of tires. According to Batman’s narration, the only thing that can penetrate its armor “isn’t from this planet.”

In recent films, the Batmobile has a pair of autocannons mounted in the nose of the car between the front wheels. Other devices include:

• Rear flaps for brake
• Front autocannons
• Rocket launcher
• Landing hook to Sprung landing stabilization
• Integrated fire-extinguishing system
• Integrated safety connection to gasoline control
• Jet engine on back of car for quick boosts/rampless jumps
• Caltrops are deployed from the rear of the vehicle. B
• Stealth mode, which turns off the car’s lights and reduces the engine sound enormously, making the car very hard to find in dark places
• atman uses this to immobilize a police vehicle following him.
• Front of car is heavily armored, so the car can crash into and destroy objects, and also protects the driver (Batman) while in the prone driving position/”Attack” mode
• Both front wheels can eject when the vehicle is damaged to form the Batpod, a bat-cycle like vehicle (the rest self-destructs).

In other words, don’t try to break in or steal this car, or you will regret it. This is perhaps the coolest car on this list. A BATPOD. We rest our case.

Wienermobile

We’re not sure how easy it would be to swipe the Wienermobile. It must have some sort of advanced security, no? But imagine how hard it would be to hide that car—it would be impossible to find a place to store it, let alone find a buyer without getting caught. We think car thieves would have to be nuts to try to jack this car.

Some history about the Wienermobile: The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile evolved from Karl Mayer’s original 1936 vehicle to current vehicles seen on the road today. Although gas rationing kept the Wienermobile off the road during World War II, in the 1950’s Oscar Mayer created several new vehicles using a Dodge chassis or a Willy’s Jeep chassis.

These Wienermobiles were piloted by “Little Oscar,” who would visit stores, schools, orphanages, children’s hospitals and participate in parades and festivals. In 1988, Oscar Mayer launched its Hotdogger program, where recent college graduates were hired to drive the Wienermobile through various parts of the nation and abroad. Using a converted Chevy van chassis, Stevens Automotive Corporation built a fleet of ten Wienermobiles for the new team of Hotdoggers. In 1995, the Wienermobile grew in size to 27-feet long and 11-feet high—that would be very difficult to maneuver, let alone pilfer.

In 2000, the big dog was given the power of a 5700 GM VORTEC engine. The most recent version of the Wienermobile, built in 2004, has been updated to include a voice activated GPS Navigational System, an audio center with a wireless microphone and a horn that plays the Wiener Jingle.

There are 6 Wienermobiles currently in existence.

1981 DeLorean

Originally an ill-fated Irish sports car in real life, in Back to the Future, the DeLorean DMC 12 was capable of breaking the laws of quantum physics. Modified with a flux capacitor and a strategically placed nuclear generator, when traveling at precisely 88 mph, the DMC 12 was capable of time-travel.

Now, if you were in a car chase with someone, or a thief wanted to carjack you, the DeLorean would be a good fit for escaping, since you could merely jump to another time once you hit 88 mph. However, the same could be said for someone who wants to steal your car. They could easily—if they know how to use it—set the date on the display and travel to another time. Although, they would need to know that this baby doesn’t run on regular fuel.  You need a nuclear reaction (which was produced by plutonium borrowed/stolen from a group of Libyan terrorists) to generate the 1.21 “gigawatts” of electricity needed. Unless the DeLorean already has its Mr. Fusion generator supplied by the future. Then any thief would be good to go. Sorry, Doc—we hope you have a great security system on that baby.

Grave Digger

The most popular truck currently running, Grave Digger is considered to be one of the most influential monster trucks of all time.

Grave Digger was originally conceived in 1982 by Dennis Anderson. This first truck was a red 1952 Ford pickup truck, which was converted to a silver and blue 1951 Ford Panel Truck. The truck received its name when its owner, amicably trash talking with his fellow racers, said the famous line, “I’ll take this old junk and dig you a grave with it.”  Anderson gained a reputation for an all-or-nothing driving style and quickly became popular at local events. At one show, a scheduled monster truck failed to show up and Anderson, who already had large tractor tires on the truck, offered to crush cars in the absence of the full-size monster. Grave Digger was an instant success as a car crusher.

In 1986 Grave Digger underwent a transformation to complete monster truck and first received its famous black graveyard paint scheme. In 1987, Anderson beat Bigfoot, which was the first major victory for Grave Digger.

With a points championship now in place, Anderson moved to Grave Digger 2 in 1989, with a new 1950 Chevy panel van body. It was during this time that the reputation for wild passes was developed, and the popularity of the truck increased.

Throughout the 1990s, the popularity of the truck grew and forced Anderson to hire other drivers to run other Grave Digger trucks.

Perhaps the most visible trademarks of Grave Digger are the red headlights which glow menacingly whenever the truck is in competition. The lights were first used when Anderson was building a transporter out of a school bus and removed the red stop lights. After realizing they would fit in the headlights of the van, he installed them and the truck has had them ever since.

It would be quite a feat to even launch yourself up into the cab of this truck if you were trying to steal it. We’d save Grave Digger is pretty safe from criminals. Maybe it could just crush those in its way.

Here are a few of our favorite unsolved mysteries:

Black Dahlia

In January 1947, the nude, mutilated body of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short was discovered in a vacant lot in the Leimert Park area of Los Angeles. The body of the “Black Dahlia” had been neatly severed in half, gutted and drained of blood. Her face had also been very brutally cut from ear to ear in a grin.  She was the worst case of a sex crime in the history of Los Angeles County.

Like so many other young women, Elizabeth went to Hollywood with dreams of becoming a star. Her career was going nowhere and she was running out of cash. According to some, she eventually drifted into prostitution.

Men who were involved with Elizabeth were interrogated, but each had an airtight alibi. The authorities were completely stumped. Then a mysterious package was mailed to a local newspaper—a package from the killer, which contained Elizabeth’s address book—most certainly her client list. One of the pages in that book was missing. And it is probable that upon that page was the name of the man who actually had killed her.

The case had many of the same features as the Torso Slayings in Cleveland. Between 1934 and 1938, no less than 13 mutilated bodies were discovered in the surrounding areas of Cleveland. The victims were all prostitutes or drifters. The killer had dismembered most of the bodies with surgical precision, just like The Black Dahlia case, nine years later.

Police determined that Elizabeth had been tortured for several hours before being killed.  She had been tied up and had rope burns on her neck, arms and legs—exactly the same type of marks as the Cleveland victims. Also, the Dahlia’s body had been arranged in a sexually suggestive position, just like the Torso slayer’s victims.

To this day, the murderer’s identity remains a mystery.

Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart first earned attention in 1928 when she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. She was only a passenger on that trip, but she soloed across the ocean on May 20–21, 1932, setting a record time of 14 hours 56 minutes for the passage from Newfoundland to Ireland. In the intervening years she had set other records, including a speed record of 181 miles an hour in a Lockheed Vega and an autogiro altitude record of 18,451 feet.

In March 1937, when she was just shy of 40 years old, Earhart embarked on the most challenging flight of her career: an effort to fly around the world along the equator. On arriving in Hawaii on the first leg of the trip, heading toward that greatest of great circles, she suffered a crash when the landing gear failed. It took two months to repair her specially fitted Lockheed Electra, after which she and navigator Fred Noonan headed in the opposite direction, flying to Puerto Rico. There, speaking to reporters, she prophetically said, “I have a feeling there is just about one more good flight left in my system and I hope this trip is it. Anyway, when I have finished this job, I mean to give up long-distance ’stunt’ flying.”

A month and a half later, Earhart and Noonan were in New Guinea. From there, they set out for Howland Island, a coral atoll 1,650 miles southwest of Hawaii that was then used as a refueling station for planes flying to and from the United States and Australia. A few hours before they were scheduled to land, Earhart radioed ahead and reported that she was flying into a pretty violent storm. That was the last anyone heard from her.

Conspiratorially minded scholars have advanced several theories concerning Amelia Earhart’s disappearance. Some suggest that her trip was a front for espionage: she had been photographing Japanese military installations and ship movements and had been taken prisoner, held on the island of Saipan and then executed.

Others agree that she was a prisoner but that she was confined within Emperor Hirohito’s palace in Tokyo. After the war, according to one book, she wound up living in Bedford Village, New York, under the name Irene Bolam, whose name “appeared to be a code which spelled out in degrees and minutes of latitude and longitude the precise location of a tropical beach where Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crashed after being shot down.”

Still, others hold that the disappearance was staged, either to afford the U.S. Navy an excuse to poke around some of those distant islands or to give Earhart the chance to retire. And still others argue that Earhart and Noonan survived the crash and found shelter on an uninhabited atoll, where, it is variously said, they died of exposure, thirst or food poisoning.

Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Amelia’s sister, said that she believed that her sister had simply gotten lost in the storm, ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean without a trace.

D.B. Cooper

On Thanksgiving Eve, 1971, a man who identified himself as D.B. Cooper walked into the airport in Portland, Oregon. He was your typical businessman, a suit, tie, a raincoat, carrying an attaché case.

D.B. Cooper bought a one-way ticket to Seattle.  He took his seat while the 727 began taxiing to the runway. He handed a flight attendant a note that read, “Miss, I have a bomb in my briefcase. I want you to sit beside me.”

The flight crew immediately notified air traffic control about the hijacking. Cooper wanted $200,000 in cash in a knapsack and four parachutes.  He identified the parachutes as two front pack parachutes and two backpacks and he specified that the airline remain in the air until the money and the parachutes were ready at Seattle.

Each bill was photographed and the serial numbers recorded. Cooper also insisted the plane be refueled immediately once it landed in Seattle. No passengers were to be released until all of his demands were met. He also instructed that once it landed, the plane should stay on the runway rather than taxi up to the terminal.

At 5:43 pm, Flight 305 landed at the Seattle airport. The plane taxied in and parked in a remote area of the field. Then the bags of ransom money were brought aboard.

Finally, the passengers were allowed to deplane. Cooper demanded that the flight crew and one attendant stay on board. Cooper ordered the pilot to fly from Seattle all the way to Mexico City, at a height of 10,000 feet, and a speed of only 200 miles an hour. He agreed to refuel in Reno, Nevada.

At 7:37, Flight 305 took off again. The Seattle control tower alerted all other aircraft to remain clear. Cooper’s 727 had the sky to itself. Cooper then told the remaining flight attendant to go into the cockpit. Later in the cockpit, the light flashed indicating that the hijacker was attempting to operate the door. At 8:12, the pilot told the crew that they were experiencing a rapid change in the air pressure.

Somewhere over the forest of Washington state, Cooper jumped.

Upon landing in Reno, Nevada, every inch of the 727 was examined for clues as to who D.B. Cooper really was. But he left behind no identifiable fingerprints, no personal items and no clue to his identity.

The crew felt that Cooper had jumped somewhere near the southern tip of Washington state. It was believed he would be found in the area bordered by Lake Merwin and ending 20 miles north of Portland.

The search for D.B. Cooper continued with no new clues. Then, in November 1978, a hunter deep in the Washington forest discovered a plastic sign from a 727.  It had been ripped from the lower stairwell of Flight 305.

On February 10, 1980, a family was preparing a barbecue on the shore of the Columbia River, 20 miles southwest of Cooper’s supposed jump point, when they dug up stacks of water logged bills totaling $5,880. Of the 294 bills found, all of the serial numbers are on the ransom list.

To this day, no one knows the true identity of the man who called himself D.B. Cooper or if he survived his daring parachute leap from 10,000 feet. The case remains the only unsolved skyjacking in the world.

Bermuda Triangle

In 1945, five navy Avenger torpedo bombers took off on a routine training mission known as Flight 19. There were fourteen men on board. Five hours later, the entire squadron vanished without a trace.

It has been called “The Triangle of Death,” “The Hoodoo Sea” and “The Graveyard of the Atlantic,” it is more commonly known as “The Bermuda Triangle.” Some researchers claim that since the early 1900s, over 100 ships and planes have disappeared in this region. But the Triangle’s most famous victims were the five Avengers of Flight 19.

It was the afternoon of December 5th, 1945.  Lt. Charles Taylor was assigned to command Flight 19, and the crew of Flight 19 was briefed on the routine training exercise. Just before takeoff, Lt. Taylor made a strange request: he wanted to be removed from the flight. He said he wasn’t feeling up to it. But Taylor was the only instructor on base that afternoon, so he had to fly. The five planes lifted off and headed out over the Atlantic.

Their plan was to fly 123 nautical miles southeast, practice a bomb run, push 73 miles northwest and head 120 miles back to Fort Lauderdale.

The men successfully completed the practice bomb run. On the second leg of the flight, Taylor’s compass began to malfunction. He asked another airman what his compass reading was. The airman reported 330 degrees. When he looked down and saw a string of small islands, Taylor assumed they must be over the Florida Keys. But Taylor had made a critical mistake. Flight 19 was not in the Gulf of Mexico. It is assumed that the squadron was actually flying over the Abaco Islands in the West Atlantic, 300 miles northeast of where Taylor thought he was. From the air, the two island chains look very similar.

Taylor ordered the planes to fly northeast, then due east. If they had been over the Keys, this route would have taken them safely home. Instead, it took them further out to sea.
By 5:00 PM, the sun was setting and the weather was getting worse. Flight 19 was headed east, away from their base, when they began losing radio contact.

Fuel was low and time was running out. Taylor finally listened to his crewmen and headed west towards the Florida coast.

The remaining four pilots then made one other fatal mistake. They were only seven minutes away from the Florida coast, but they still had not spotted land. They began to think they perhaps they were flying over the Gulf of Mexico. So they once again reversed their course and headed east. This took them back out to sea, where they disappeared.

No trace of the planes or the fourteen missing men was ever found.

In 1986, the space shuttle Challenger exploded after liftoff from Cape Kennedy. Some of the debris fell in the exact location it was believe the first plane crashed. The Challenger salvage team reported a wrecked plane submerged in 400 feet of water.

After the arduous task of retrieving the submerged plane, the crew members recorded the serial numbers from parts of the recovered aircraft.  Several of these numbers partially matched those of one of the lost Avengers from Flight 19. But, unfortunately, the team was unable to positively identify the recovered aircraft.