True crime: You can't outrun the long arm of the law

There are enough examples on both sides: those whose arrest was uneventful, and those criminals who refused to give up quietly, preferring to die in a volley of bullets. (Illustration by Suneesh K.)

Last week, police in Canada arrested Louis Flood, one of America’s most wanted criminals who had been on the run for the last 20 years. Flood had disappeared when he was released on parole in 2001 after serving just three years of an 18-year sentence for sexual abuse of a minor. The Idaho Statesman reported that when the cops finally caught up with the fugitive, he made no effort to run away, largely because of his age. He was 77 at the time. Constable Dave Bickle who apprehended Flood, greeted him with the words: “Hey, Mr Flood, you’re under arrest and you’ll need to come with us because you’re wanted still in the States”.

The incident brought back memories of the sensational pursuit and eventual arrest in April 1986 of one of India’s most notorious criminals, Charles Sobhraj, after he had escaped from the high-security Tihar jail in Delhi, where he was serving a 12-year sentence for robbing a group of French tourists in 1976 after poisoning them. Madhukar Zende, the legendary inspector who tracked him down and finally apprehended him at O Coqueiro, a hippie hangout in Goa, greeted him sociably with the words: “Hello Charles, how are you?” Zende could well afford to treat the serial killer like an old acquaintance. This was the second time after 1971 that he was arresting Sobhraj. Which is why he was considered to be an expert on reading the mind of the man nicknamed The Serpent for his ability to evade arrest. This time Sobhraj offered little resistance and went quietly.

Flood and Sobhraj belong to that breed of criminals who found that the long arm of the law eventually caught up with them. What’s striking is the innocuous circumstances under which they were finally caught. No shootouts, or filmy fights marked their eventual capitulation. Indeed, for some such, the ending came wrapped in ignominy. Andrew Moran, one of Britain's most wanted fugitives, was caught when he was lounging in a swimming pool in Spain. Wearing a pair of red swimming trunks, Moran, who was wanted for armed robbery and was considered a vicious killer, was in no position to offer any resistance despite the handguns and the several rounds of ammunition lying around on the resort premises.

Back home, in 1978, the vile killing of two teenagers, Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, had shaken the very conscience of the nation because of the sadistic cruelty of their killers Billa and Ranga. Yet, the two hardened criminals were caught by four army jawans when they tried to forcibly enter a train compartment reserved for army personnel. The end was as anti-climatic as their crime was heinous.

Of course, there are those criminals who refused to give up quietly, preferring to die in a volley of bullets. The infamous Ma Barker on whom the Boney M song Ma Baker released in 1977 is based, was killed in a shootout in Florida. Some 1,500 rounds of ammunition were said to have been fired by FBI agents during the long shootout. As the song went:

“Ma Baker and her sons

They didn't want to hang

They died with blazing guns

And so the story ends

Of one who left no friends”

But that list of deadly endings is topped by Clyde Champion Barrow and his companion, Bonnie Parker, better known as Bonnie and Clyde and made famous in the movie by that name starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. The FBI records on the most notorious crime couple in American history, describe them thus: “She was just shy of five feet tall, all of 100 pounds, a part-time waitress and amateur poet from a poor Dallas home who was bored with life and wanted something more. He was a fast-talking, small-time thief from a similarly destitute Dallas family who hated poverty and wanted to make a name for himself.” Suspected of numerous killings and wanted for murder, robbery, and state charges of kidnapping, the two went on a crime spree. After a two-year-long manhunt, they were finally brought down by agents in a 16-second hail of 187 automatic rifle and shotgun rounds, fired at their Ford V8 sedan as they tried to escape. Their bodies, paraded through the town, had 50 bullets each.

They died the way they lived, by the gun.