I Was a Teenage Elusive Criminal

[Any of N]

No, not me, but that would make a great title for a low budget movie, no?

Oh, those crazy posters who think the EAR may have started out young, as a teenager of all things.  You can number me among them. Shouting out to my fellow compatriots, let's make this thread a clearing house of representative examples. Let's list and discuss those young souls who showed great stealth while bereft of extensive adult experience.  The only criteria are as follows:  (1) the person was a serial offender, (2) the person was difficult to capture, and (3) he or she ranged in age from 13 to 19.

Here's the dude who pops up first in a web search: Colton Harris-Moore.

AP:

Elusive teen burglar becomes local legend
He’s suspected in 50 break-ins in Wash., now may be stealing airplanes

EASTSOUND, Wash. — In the darkness of this sleepy island town, the beam of a deputy's flashlight caught the back of a lanky teenager wanted in a notorious 18-month burglary spree.

The teen glanced over his shoulder — and vanished into the woods. "He virtually vaporized in front of me," deputy Jeff Patterson recalled.

Such encounters have become all too common on the bucolic islands north of Seattle as police hunt for an elusive thief whose crime spree is quickly becoming a local legend. Colton Harris-Moore is suspected in about 50 burglary cases since he slipped away from a halfway house in April 2008. ...

www.nbcnews.com/id/33198806/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/elusive-teen-burglar-becomes-local-legend/

Wikipedia:

Colton Harris Moore (born March 22, 1991) is an American criminal and former fugitive from Camano Island, Washington. He was charged with the thefts or destruction of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and property, including several small aircraft, a boat, and two cars; and the burglaries of at least 100 private residences in various locations around the Pacific Northwest of the United States and adjacent areas of Canada, all committed while still a teenager.

He fled to the Bahamas on July 4, 2010, allegedly in a plane stolen from Bloomington, Indiana. He was indicted on July 6, 2010, by a U.S. Federal Court in Seattle, Washington, on charges of transporting another stolen aircraft in that state. Harris Moore, still only 19, was arrested in Harbour Island, Bahamas, on July 11, 2010, after police shot out the engine of the boat in which he was attempting to flee. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colton_Harris_Moore

Okay, that's the first.  More to come.

[NaptimeNancy]

Have you read Barefoot Bandit? I have the book but haven't read it yet. Part of me is reluctant just because this kid just wanted to be glorified (as most criminals do) but I must admit it is a very interesting story and think the book will be worth the read.

[Any of N]

No, but I might, if only to get an idea for how he could fly an airplane after only having watched a few DVD's. Can't even imagine.  Makes you wonder about his level of intelligence.  Amazing that I never heard the story until I made that web search.

Colton Harris-Moore: Precocious elusive teenager and future reality TV star?

[Mitchell]

Jul 10, 2016 23:11:37 GMT Any of N said:

No, but I might, if only to get an idea for how he could fly an airplane after only having watched a few DVD's. Can't even imagine.  Makes you wonder about his level of intelligence.  Amazing that I never heard the story until I made that web search.

Colton Harris-Moore: Precocious elusive teenager and future reality TV star?

I've wondered about this kid for awhile. His exploits are the stuff of fiction. He had a very sad childhood. Poverty, abuse, neglect, hopelessness, etc... No way out. Young, homeless, and hungry, he did what he did out of necessity.

I pondered posting a link and making a comparison between Harris-Moore and EAR but I didn't want to be percieved as casting EAR as sympathetic. Colton did do some bad things but he was hardly on par with the level of criminality evidenced by EAR. Most of his break ins only required the homeowner to buy more popcorn and change the sheets.

The evolution in MO is the most telling similarity from which we can extrapolate. Starting with the inconsequential to brazen to incredulous. That is, if we don't consider EAR attack #1 as his first uninvited foray into quarters of the unknown. I don't.

Harris-Moore forced us to consider that EAR could have been young. In his mid-teens. It establishes the possibility.

I personally defer to the victims and witnesses when considering the age of EAR, whatever that may be. They were there. I was not. They could be wrong.

[Drifter]

Oh, those crazy posters who think the EAR may have started out young, as a teenager of all things.

(hehehehe)

Well you could be right. But ...

I doubt it.

The one difference is that, by definition, every "child" elusive criminal you can name has already been identified.  Whatever "great stealth" those "young souls" exhibited, it wasn't stealthy enough to keep them from being captured.

Which is not true of the EAR/ONS.

D.

[Any of N]

The one difference is that, by definition, every "child" elusive criminal you can name has already been identified. Whatever "great stealth" those "young souls" exhibited, it wasn't stealthy enough to keep them from being captured.

Which is not true of the EAR/ONS.

Can't argue with that. While the sample size for uncaught criminals is presumably quite large, their demographic breakdown is unfortunately rather obscure. We can still look at the apprehended for instruction, right?

Elusive teenager #2: Dennis Rabbitt

Rabbitt came up in a recent discussion, and yorkshireman promised to provide us with a book review, so I won't steal his fire. I'll just point out here that Rabbitt is one of the seminal benchmarks for the EAR, leaving behind a series of intruder attacks that show striking parallels. And he started out as a teenager.

St. Louis Magazine:

Chasing Rabbitt
Why was the South Side Rapist so hard to catch--and why do his motives still elude us?

Jeannette Batz - July 29, 2006

Dennis Rabbitt was raping women for 25 years before he was caught--and for almost 20 years before anybody even started looking for him. ...

Rabbitt started raping in the early 1970s, as a teenager, and is estimated to have raped more than 100 women across Missouri and Illinois and, at the end, in New Mexico. The victims' ages (14 to 82), traits and appearance were irrelevant ...

www.stlmag.com/Chasing-Rabbitt/

Previous threads on Rabbitt:
earonsgsk.proboards.com/thread/2622/slow-dollar-month
earonsgsk.proboards.com/thread/90/dennis-rabbitt-serial

[Mitchell]

One could argue that Harris-Moore's identity being known for the majority of his time at large accompanied with the extensive media coverage of his exploits greatly increased the difficulty level of his crimes when compared to an unknown subject such as EAR(longest sentence ever). That his crimes were merely of property lowers the difficulty level when compared with rape.Extrapolate what you will.

It is an impressive offering for a juvenile.

[Deleted]

I remember when the Barefoot Bandit was in the news.

I've seen the Dennis Rabbitt episode of Cold Case Files several times but can't find it on Youtube.

[Any of N]

I seem to recall watching a documentary or two on Rabbitt.  As I reflect on it now, it seems like he should be more infamous and more well known.  No, we don't want to glorify a criminal, but his story can serve as a good warning about what's possible.

Dennis Rabbitt: A few years and a perhaps a few pounds past his teen years.

[Mitchell]

Jul 12, 2016 12:37:31 GMT Any of N said:

I seem to recall watching a documentary or two on Rabbitt.  As I reflect on it now, it seems like he should be more infamous and more well known.  No, we don't want to glorify a criminal, but his story can serve as a good warning about what's possible.

Dennis Rabbitt: A few years and a perhaps a few pounds past his teen years.

It's probably the geography and the fact that he didn't kill anyone. Another similarity he shares with EAR. The EAR before linkage with ONS.

[Any of N]

Elusive Teenager #3: Frank Abagnale

The real Catch Me If You Can guy is obviously someone who's not to be trusted. Even after factoring-in the likely exaggerations about his exploits, one thing seems clear. Abagnale was a pretty darn elusive teenager.

Wikipedia:

Frank William Abagnale, Jr. (/ˈæbəɡneɪl/; born April 27, 1948) is an American security consultant known for his history as a former confidence trickster, check forger, and impostor between the ages of 15 and 21. He became one of the most famous impostors ever,[1] claiming to have assumed no fewer than eight identities, including an airline pilot, a physician, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons agent, and a lawyer. ...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Abagnale

Bob Baker's Newsthinking blog:

What's known: In 1970, Abagnale was arrested by the FBI, which suspected him of posing as a Pan Am pilot and cashing forged checks in a number of cities. He served almost four years in prison. Once released in 1974, he began working as a check-fraud consultant to the government as a condition of his parole, then gradually expanded to a private-sector consulting business. His appearances on several "Tonight" shows in the late '70s led to a 1980 first-person book whose title the movie borrows.

What's unverified are most of the intriguing claims in both the book and the movie, all of which Abagnale says are true: That, beginning at age 16, he cashed $2.5 million in bad checks in every U.S. state and two dozen foreign countries. That his impersonation of a Pan Am pilot -- which helped him wangle free transportation to stay one step ahead of the law -- went on for the better part of five years. That he also posed for months at a time as a hospital pediatric supervisor, a college sociology professor and an assistant district attorney. That he spent six months in French prison when authorities there caught up with him.

web.archive.org/web/20071012201111/http://www.newsthinking.com/story.cfm?SID=166

[Any of N]

Regarding our roll call of highly elusive serial offenders who also happened to be teenagers, we've had three very good examples so far. The burglar Colton Harris-Moore reached legendary status just a few years ago in the Pacific Northwest, going so far as to steal aircraft and fly them away without the benefit of pilot training. The rapist Dennis Rabbit started out as a teenager and was very EAR-like in his offenses, possibly even doubling the number of victims. And then there was Frank Abagnale, the true life inspiration for the Catch Me If You Can story.

A burglar, a rapist and a conman. Our list of teenagers might be complete if we can only find a serial killer, and sadly that's not a difficult thing to add. As most members of our message board are probably aware, perhaps the ultimate example of a commuter style offender started out as a... teenager.

Elusive teenager #4: Israel Keyes

Keyes seems to haunt our forum, embodying a kind-of worst case scenario for the EAR-ONS: a hyper-methodical, ultra devious planner and killer. To execute a murder, he might fly to one location and drive thousands of miles further in a rental car, using a supply kit he had stored at the kill site years in advance. His first admitted crime was a brutal sexual assault, occurring when he was around 19.

Israel Keyes told investigator he let his first victim go
Lisa Demer - The Anchorage Daily News

Back in the 1990s when he was a teenager, Israel Keyes picked his first victim, a teenage girl in Oregon, he later told investigators.

It was summer, sometime between 1996 and 1998, FBI special agent Jolene Goeden said in an interview Tuesday.

He admitted to "very violently sexually assaulting a young girl there," Goeden said. He thought she was 14 to 16 years old.

Investigators have not been able to find a report of that rape. They believe authorities were not alerted at the time.

www.mcclatchydc.com/news/crime/article24741226.html

It's surprising that we don't have a long dedicated thread on Israel Keyes.  Perhaps he hits too close to our worst fears.


Keyes with his writing.

[Drifter]

Any of N ...

I have bumped up the one thread we do have on Keyes. Feel free to use it to further discuss this guy.


D.

[Any of N]

Like other posters, I've made note of the EAR's juvenile behavior during his attacks: the histrionics, the stilted language, the transparent attempts at misdirection, etc.  It was enough for me to think he may have been a teenager starting off in June of 1976.  Now I read cityofchill's argument about the offender's choice of BMX bikes, and the possibility seems even stronger.

Jul 15, 2016 13:58:59 GMT cityofchill said:

I have personally come to believe that the perp used many different methods in doing his recon work. He must have used all kinds of approaches in order to stay under the radar and to suit the topographical features of the neighborhood he was scouting. Sometimes he may have posed as a jogger, or a walker, or a worker of some kind (he may have worked in a trade that gave him access and cover). We know he used a car at some points (ie, victim #1), that he stalked the canals, and he was comfortable on a bike.

That last point — the bike — has always been of particular interst to me, because he seemed to favor a BMX-style bike over other models. Having been into BMX myself as a youth, I can tell you that the bikes are pretty awkward for tall people or those with large frames. An adult on a BMX looks strange to most people because they are not comfortable or easy to ride. When have you ever seen a full-grown man cruising around on a BMX? Probably never. But our perp was able to ride one adeptly and escape pursuing authorities, which suggests he had lots of practice. Given the choice of any kind of bike he wanted, he repeatedly chose to steal BMX-style bikes for use in his crimes. That tells me a lot. BMX bikes are not particularly fast. To ride one the way he did takes skill and practice. At the time he was attacking, BMX had not been around long, so it's not something he would have learned years earlier and then put those skills to use when he began his spree. This past Christmas my nephew got a BMX and I took it for a little spin. It felt so awkward for me to ride it, and I certainly would have crashed if I tried to pedal fast. And I spent years as a kid and teen practically glued to my BMX. With all this in mind, and considering many other known facts, I believe the offender must have been young. Perhaps not even 20 when he started his attacks. It is very unlikely that a grown man would have had the experience and skill with a BMX that our offender did. If I had to choose a bike to make an escape at my age, BMX would be my last choice. However, when I was younger, it would have been my first choice.

I thought I should add that a skilled BMX rider can ride with ease on almost any terrain. If you are skilled with one, a BMX can be a very versatile ride. I mention this because we know that the offender stalked "the underbelly" of the communities he targeted, as Quester put it. He used trails, canals, drainage ditches, etc. in order to move undetected through a community. If he was skilled with a BMX, the bike would have allowed him to travel these routes with more ease and speed, and the difficult terrain would not have been an obstacle as it would be for a 10-speed. It would have allowed him to move seamlessly and mostly unnoticed from street/sidewalk to dirt path to canal/drainage ditch to grass/gravel. Very few people would take a second look at a young guy on a BMX. A man on a BMX would look strange. So our perp was old enough to drive a car, but young enough to be skilled with a BMX. I would guess his age to he somewhere between 17-19 when he started offending. 

(Swiping the quote from the "I think EAR ran" thread, in part so I can more easily find it later.)

I'm trying to think if I've ever seen an older guy ride a BMX bike, other than on TV.  Watch those competitions and you'll see guys in their mid-20's or older stop and take off their helmets. Uncanny valley all the way.

[Mitchell]

The fact is that every town in America has a local kid or two who offended prolifically and was never caught. It might be B&E's, car stereos, peepers, or possibly rapes.

Kids get to know the lay of the land in an intinmate way that adults just dont, for obvious reasons. Kids are spry and a bit more adventurous. They are more imaginative and creative. They also think they are invincible.

The one aspect that I can't wrap my mind around in regard to a juvenile delinquent is the precision and obsessive planning. Caution and invincibility do not good bedfellows make. Could be though.

If we are looking for an underlying theme, all those mentioned came from terrible homes. Violence, neglect, alcoholism, etc...

How do we apply that to EAR? Family court records? DHS records? School counselor? Psychologist?