Re: RARA-AVIS: The Talented Mr. Ripley

From: Patrick King ( abrasax93@yahoo.com)
Date: 08 Apr 2007


Robert Elkin wrote: Prisons are full of criminals who are bad at their jobs, no?
********** Emphatically, NO! For a professional criminal a certain amount of time in prison is worked into the equasion when they figure how much money their crimes will net over the course of their careers. It's a very fortunate criminal indeed, a virtual Ripley, who never goes to prison at all. The trick is understanding the politics of crime. If you do murder, plead to a B&E that took place at the time of the murder, take 2-5 and you're out in 6 months with good behavior. Even if the police KNOW you committed the murder, they've already accepted your plea for the B&E, you can't be in 2 places at once. Look how Bugsy Seigal handled his arrest for the Big Greeny murder, how he handled his time in jail, and how he got away with the Big Greeny crime. Even a genius at murder and robbery like Seigal goes to jail occasionally. He's just set aside resources to handle the problem when he has to. Most real criminals are very very wealthy people. I might go so far as to say most wealthy people ARE criminals. Certainly that's what Balzac meant when he said:
"Behind every great fortune there is a crime." I'm not talking about thoughtless and resentfull street thugs who are just struggling in a hard environment. I'm talking about amoral people who've decided on a life of crime, Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, Joe Bananno, Charles Luciano, Jame Bulger, these people would have made a good living running hot dog stands or roofing or construction. But they decided criminal activity would give them better livings faster...and they were right! All of them spent time in jail, but they were extraordinarilly good at their jobs. You go to jail to avoid being murdered or convicted of murder, just as a manager takes a hard assignment in Alaska or Texas or somewhere no one else wants to go in order to be considered for a bigger assignment later. For the professional criminal, prison is a stepping stone toward success. In many cases, it's like a university degree in crime. The harder the prison, the better the criminals they turn out. Whitey Bulger is a graduate of Alcatraz! At the same time, as Timothy Leary observed and proved clinically, crime is a mental desease and can be cured.

Patrick King
--- Robert Elkin < rictusaporia@yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> Patrick King wrote:
>
> 'Because someone performs an act that is not of
> benefit to you or your extended group does not make
> them "evil," however inconvenient their actions may
> have proved to you. If they perform these acts based
> on twisted logic, though, they are very likely
> insane.'
>
> You're right, of course--it's the twisted logic that
> does it (although "insane" is no more accurate a
> word
> than is "evil"--they are both generalizations for
> broad ranges of more accurate adjectival phrases.)
>
> "Prisons are full of entirely sane people," how
> do you know this? Do you vist prisions frequently?
>
> Prisons are full of criminals who are bad at their
> jobs, no?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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