The 11 biggest gangsters of all time are a bunch you will not see on the cover of you favorite hip hop album. It’s highly unlikely that you could see them in the hip hop scene at all or even in the 5 most gang infested cities in America. They didn’t wear saggy pants and they most certainly did not hold their guns sideways. While drugs and prostitutes around them were certainly in the picture, none of them went to the studio and made a song about it. They had it all, from power and fame to ties with politicians or just the image that would make the blood in your vein freeze, even though they all bled like anyone else. They are not the fattest, they are not the tallest. Most of them are not the richest and most certainly, none of them were big in any physical way. Instead they were notorious, leaving their legends and legacy behind in this world for us to learn from and maybe even admire a little.
The US has been the home of gangs of criminals ever since masses of immigrants from Europe started settling in the yet not so established country. The loose rules and control allowed for gangs to develop and fight for supremacy. The earliest example you can find are probably the gangs of Irish immigrants, then followed by the Italians and later on by Chinese organizations. The American mafia, fueled by “nativists” who were no more native than their enemies were another group which saw its beginnings in the dawn of gangs. In the twentieth century’s first half, cities grew to be bigger, more dense and quite a lot more appealing for gangsters of all ranks. The growth of narcotics and alcohol smuggling and illegal distribution, together with gambling and prostitution, started forming because of the notorious work of a more and more intricate network of people.
11. Carlo Gambino
We are kicking off our list with Carlo Gambino, the man who rose to notoriety as the leader of the Gambino crime family. He spread out his area of control as far as being the man who knows what and how passes through almost all of the ports in New York.
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10. John Dillinger
Most of you have probably heard of John Dillinger who, in his lifetime, was dubbed as the most notorious criminal in history (later to be kicked out of that position by our next contenders). He was also the man behind as much as twenty-six bank robberies and a serious number of murders.
9. Frank Costello
Our ninth contender, Frank Costello (also known as the Prime Minister), was an infamous Italian mobster who controlled some of the most notorious and dangerous gangs in the US, particularly in New York.
8. Arnold Rothstein
The man behind one of the most notorious Jewish gangs, Arnold Rothstein, was mostly known for his business with setting up athletic competitions. He even went as far as fixing the 1919 World Series. Rothstein was also heavily involved in the gambling and smuggling activities which took place in his area of control then.
7. Enoch Johnson
Enoch Johnson takes the seventh place with his notoriety as a politician and organized crime leader that controlled much of the trade in Atlantic County and especially Atlantic City.
6. Lucky Luciano
Lucky Luciano is another prolific figure in the gangster world of the last century. He takes the sixth spot in the list of the 11 biggest gangsters of all time with his strong involvement in organized crime, being credited as its father as far the US goes.
5. Billy The Kid
Billy the Kid might not fit your typical “gangster” stereotype, whatever it may be. However, he was strongly related with gangs which at this time were dealing with theft of cattle and robbing trains. Billy the kid is notorious for his otherworldly gunmanship, which served him in killing around thirty people in his lifetime. However, people close to him claim that he only ever harmed those who he thought really deserved it.
4. Al Capone
The not-so-familiar with the gangsters of the past century are probably wondering why the man behind “Scarface” takes the fourth spot. Even so, Al Capone was one of the most active and notorious people in the business, having dedicated his life to making serious sums of money from alcohol, drugs and prostitution.
3. Jesse James
Another one you must have heard of at some point in your life, the legendary Jesse James takes the third spot. A very notorious figure in the nineteenth century’s criminal organizations of the USA, Jesse James has been praised and feared by many for the actions he chose to take in his criminal career.
2. Griselda Blanco
Known as the “Cocaine Godmother”, Griselda Blanco makes the first spot with her fame as a pioneer of the drug trade in Miami which continues to flourish to this date. She was so powerful that even when she was sentenced to ten full years in prison, she kept on running her business from there by using a network of people inside who worked for her.
1. Pablo Escobar
Escobar takes the first place in our list of the 11 biggest gangsters of all time and quite not as a surprise. The Colombian drug overlord was infamous for his unimaginable fortune and eccentric lifestyle. He was known to have so much cash stashed at one point that mice started eating through his piles of money.
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