Jan: When we write mysteries, we spend a lot of time making sure our protagonist has a "worthy" opponent. We try to invent clever bad guys with ingenious moves that keep our protagonist and our readers scratching their heads until the very end of the book.
The Sopranos television series did a great job of pointing out that hey, maybe people drift into criminal behavior because they don't have the smarts and the attention span to succeed at real jobs. But even those characters, who were uneducated and full of funny malapropisms, were still pretty crafty and street smart.
But in real life, many bad guys are flat out stupid. For example:
In Florida, Kyle Coker, 21-years old, wanted to impress his girlfriend by giving her a puppy so he took her Puppies Galore & More in Jacksonville. They hung out so long checking out dogs and looking so suspicious, that employees took notice.
When Coker tried to walk out of the store with a 9-week-old Shih Malt under his jacket, the store owner's daughter followed him outside and confronted him. He tried to deny taking the dog, but the cute little Shih Malt was peeking out of his jacket. The daughter's owner was able to grab the puppy back.
Coker ran away, but apparently forgot he left his girlfriend in the store. Employees were able to use her cell phone to call him and demand he come back to the store where he was arrested. He was charged with grand theft.
In Birmingham, Alabama, a 19-year old tried to rob an elderly man with a toy gun. Not only did he fail to intimidate the old man, when a neighbor saw what was happening and started screaming, the would-be robber ran away. He was caught by police, and tried in court, where he got a fifteen-year sentence for fake armed robbery. He was lucky, real armed robbery in Alabama carries a twenty year mandatory sentence.
Most real life criminals just aren't fit enough for our novels, but I'm wondering, do they have their literary uses? Could they be material for short stories?
