“Most career criminals were losers, lazy men and women who lacked impulse control and who sometimes got lucky. Criminal Masterminds were for tv and books. Movies to probably”
-Reed Farrel Coleman – Hangman’s Sonnet
I struggle with the validity of this concept. Let’s forget the idea of organized crime, let’s look at individuals.
Adam Worth adding in some Simon Newcomb as possible models for Professor James Moriarty, from Sherlock Holmes fame.
We then have the brilliant criminals who are on various lists:
- Al Capone
- Nathan Leopold
- Leonardo Notarbartolo
- Carlo Gambino
- Bernard Madoff
I think it is possible to have a criminal mastermind at the head of an organization. The organization would be filled with Coleman’s described villains; thus marrying the two concepts.