Famous Criminal Couples

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Criminal couples do not commit crimes under the influence of hot passion, provocation, or anger. The motives behind the crimes committed by criminal couples is to achieve the mutually agreed upon objectives like being rich overnight, to get sexual satisfaction, to get rid of some common enemy, or to accomplish some unusual task to promote its unique identity. It is said that two can keep a secret provided that one of them is dead. It may perhaps also be said that two may keep a secret if both are either criminals or lovers. In the case of criminals, it is in their mutual interest to guard one another’s secrets. Men like to disclose their secrets and private matters to women because they think only a woman can best keep the secret of a man therefore known as his ‘confidante.’ It is not necessarily the married husband-and-wife couples that have been known to be criminals but same-sex couples too have been found involved in crimes.

1. Sarah Jane Makin and John Makin

Sarah Jane Makin and John Makin
Sarah Jane Makin

Sarah Jane Makin was born in New South Wales, Australia on December 20, 1845 and died on September 13, 1918 at the age of 72. John Makin was born February 14, 1845 and died on August 15, 1893 at the age of 48. They were baby farmers who used to take in infants or children for payment in order to breast feed or fostering. They were convicted of the murder of an infant, Horace Murray, and consequently sentenced to death. John Makin was hanged on August 15, 1893 while Sarah’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Responding to an advertisement, they accepted to take care of an illegitimate son of Amber Murray against 10 shillings weekly support and 3 dollars up front. The couple murdered the infant Horace Murray in order to get rid of caretaking while continuing to receive the weekly support. Police recovered 12 bodies of infants from different locations. The Discovery channel’s documentary Deadly Women was televised in 2009.

2. Paul Bernardo and Karla

Paul Bernardo and Karla
Paul Bernardo and Karla

Paul Bernardo and Karla were Canadian husband and wife serial killers. They committed serial murders and rapes in Scarborough. Paul Jason Teale, better known as Paul Bernardo, was born in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on August 27, 1964. He was also known as The Scarborough Rapist and the Schoolgirl Killer. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Karla Homolka was born on May 4, 1970. She is a convicted serial killer. She was convicted of the rape-murders of two teenage girls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French from Ontario  as well as for the rape and death of her own sister, Tammy. In exchange for a guilty plea, her punishment was reduced to 12 years imprisonment, and the Canadian press called it a deal with the devil.  An episode of Wicked Attraction known as The Perfect Couple which focused on Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka was aired on August 7, 2008.

3. Faye Copeland and Ray

Faye Copeland and Ray
Faye Copeland and Ray

Fay Della Copeland was born in 1921 and died on December 30, 2003. Ray Copeland was born in 1914 and died in 1993. This was the oldest couple ever sentenced to death in the history of the U.S. The couple was convicted of killing five homeless people; Paul Jason Cowart, John W. Freeman, Jimmie Dale Harvey, Wayne Warner, and Dennis Murphy. Given a clue by a farmhand, police discovered five decayed bodies buried in shallow graves at the Ray’s farm. Police also recovered a .22 caliber Marlin rifle from their home. Ray hired the homeless people to make payments by delivering bad checks. And once the purpose was served, he killed the employee by shooting him in the back of the head with one bullet. Awaiting his execution on Death Row, Ray died in the prison in 1993. Fay Copeland died on December 30, 2003 at the age of 82 in a nursing home.

4. Catherine Margaret and David John Birnie

Catherine Margaret and David John Birnie
David John Birnie

Catherine Margaret and David John Birnie were an Australian husband and wife. Belonging to Perth, this couple were serial killers and had murdered four women: Mary Nelson aged 22, Sunnah Candy 15, Noelene Patterson 31, and Denise Brown 21. For the fifth victim they attempted to murder Kate Moir aged 21, but she survived. She escaped and reported them to the police. Given the phone number and residential address, police quickly apprehended the couple. During the trial, the couple confessed of having murdered the four women who were raped by David while his wife Catherine observed nearby. These murders were known in the press as Moore House Murders after their residential address. Both were sentenced to four consecutive sentences of life imprisonment.  David committed suicide while Margaret’s papers were marked ‘Never to be released.’

5. Beck and Fernandez

Beck and Fernandez
Beck and Fernandez

Martha Beck was born in Milton, Florida on May 6, 1920 and was executed by the electric chair on March 8, 1951 at the age of 31 after being convicted of murder. Raymond Fernandez was born in Hawaii on December 17, 1914 and was executed by the electric chair on March 8, 1951 at the age of 36 in Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York after being convicted of murder. They were believed to have killed 20 women for sexual perversity. The couple was known as The Lonely Hearts Killers. The movies: The Honey Moon Killers, Deep Crimson, Lonely Hearts and a TV series episode Cold Case were based on this case.

6. Rosenberg and Ethel Greenglass

Rosenberg and Ethel Greenglass
Rosenberg and Ethel Greenglass

Julius Rosenberg was born on May 12, 1918. He became a student leader in the Young Communist League, U.S. at City College of New York. Ethel Greenglass was also born in New York on September 25, 1915. She joined the Young Communist League and met Julius in 1936. Both Rosenberg and Ethel Greenglass were convicted of espionage and passing information about the atom bomb to the Soviet Union. Both were executed on June 19, 1953, and they were the  only civilians to be executed in the U.S.’s history for espionage.

7. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley

Ian Brady and Myra Hindley
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley

Ian Duncan Stewart, better known as Ian Brady, was born on January 2, 1938 and was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of murder. Myra Hindley was born July 23, 1942 and died of pneumonia on November 15, 2002 at the age of 60. Brady was apprehended on October 7, 1965, and Hindley was apprehended on October 11, 1965. Brady confessed to killing five teenage children: Pauline Reade, John Kilbridge, Keith Bernett, Edward Evans, and Lesley Ann Downey in 1960 with Hindley being his accomplice. They recorded the proceedings of one child being murdered and the unimaginable torture they inflicted upon the child made them the devil incarnate in the history of crime.

8. Clyde and Bonnie

Clyde and Bonnie
Clyde and Bonnie

Clyde Chestnut Barrow was born March 24, 1909 and died on May 23, 1934. Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born on October 1, 1910 and died on May 23, 1934. They were well-known outlaws during the years 1931 to 1934. They operated along with other accomplices including Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, and others. The gang was known as the Barrow Gang. Both were killed during an ambush when five police officers under the command of Frank Hamer machine gunned a suspected car . The car received 130 hits. Clyde died instantly due to the bullet’s penetration in his head while Bonnie was wounded fatally. Their bodies were shown to the media for authentication.

9. Rosemary West and Fred

Rosemary West and Fred
Rosemary West and Fred

Rosemary Pauline Letts, better known as Rosemary West, was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England on November 29, 1953. She was convicted of killing 10 people and sentenced to life imprisonment. Her husband Frederick Walter Stephen West was born in Much Marcle, Hertfordshire, England on September 29, 1941 and committed suicide by hanging on January 1, 1995. Both the husband and wife were convicted of at least 11 murders of young women in Gloucestershire.

10. Charles Starkweather and Carol Fugate

Charles Starkweather and Carol Fugate
Charles Starkweather and Carol Fugate

Charles Raymond Starkweather was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S. on November 24, 1938 and died in Lincoln on June 25, 1959 at the age of 20. He was convicted of killing 11 people and was executed by the electric chair. Carol Ann Fugate was born on July 30, 1943 and is known as the accomplice of the serial killer Charles Starkweather. On January 21, 1958, Starkweather visited Fugate’s home while she was not there. And on being warned to keep away from her, he killed his father, mother and their two-year-old daughter Betty Jean.

Conclusion:

Criminal couples usually have no intent to commit a crime, but they do have some motive behind it. ‘Intent’ is different from ‘motive’ in the law, the former being a spontaneous disregard for the law, while the latter is a well thought of plan made over a period of time having its own history and background. The motives behind the cold-blooded murders by serial killers have been usually traced to some religious or socio-political dogma or to some sexual perversity.

 

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