When truth imitates fiction

Yesterday's post about insider/outsiders bled naturally into discussions of fictional characters who blur lines between the criminal world and that governed by law. That, in turn, dovetailed nicely with a comment John Baker posted last week about the Mean Streets panel at New York's World Voices panel, a panel that included Jo Nesbø, Roberto Saviano, Christian Jungersen and Juan Gabriel Vasquez.

Baker quotes a commentator who said Saviano pointed out that:

"These very mafia types drew for exaggerated fictional types on which to model themselves — a mafia man who built his house in an exact replica of Tony Montana’s in Scarface, or made men, practicing lines from The Godfather; uncanny cases of real people drawing from fiction to appear more real."

That echoes a theme that my colleague George Anastasia has made, and it leads to today's question: What other real-life crooks or crime-stoppers have imitated fictional counterparts?

© Peter Rozovsky 2008