83 Ruthless Facts About The World’s Most Vicious Mobs and Gangs

PCC, the largest Brazilian criminal organization forced residents of Sao Paulo, the country's largest city, into a curfew that paralyzed the city after a series of attacks in May 2006.

27. Hunter S. Thomson's relationship with the Hell's Angels was primarily amiable during his research for his articles and books, but when Thomson admonished a Gang Member by stating: "Only a punk beats his wife", Thomson was severely beaten, or "stomped" as well.

28. A man named Albert Anastasia at the age of 19 killed a coworker in a fight and was sentenced to death. He won a retrial on a technicality and was freed when no witnesses reappeared. He then became one of America’s deadliest mobsters personally murdering at least 1,200 people and ordering the deaths of 10,000+.

29. Wearing a Peyton Manning #18 jersey to school in Denver gets you sent home because the numbers 13, 14, 18, 31, 41, and 81 are banned in the district due to their association with local gangs.

30. Manchester City Football Club was initially formed as an alternative to gang warfare for young Manchester youths.

Thaddeus Jimenez was jailed at 13 years old for murder, served 16 years, and awarded $25 million for wrongful incarceration when his conviction was overturned. He used that money to start a gang.

32. A baboon gang roamed around Cape Town, led by Fred the baboon, and were pursued for 3 years by police after they became notorious for raiding cars, assaulting and interfering with tourists.

33. British Prime Minister David Cameron was part of a youth gang which smashed windows of businesses in Oxford.

34. After Selena's slaying, gang members in Texas attempted to raise $500,000 for the bond set on Yolanda Saldivar, her killer, so that they could murder her once she was released.

35. The Founder of the Crips Wrote Anti-Gang and Anti-Violence Books

Scandinavia was the site of an unusually violent gang war between the Hells Angels and another outlaw biker gang in the 1990s, with gang members using stolen military weapons such as grenades and anti-tank rockets to attack each others' clubhouses and bars

37. The Yakuza has been organizing Halloween in Japan for years, however, in order to ensure the children's safety, they had to cancel it in 2015 due to a gang war.

38. While searching for drugs in NYC, Jimi Hendrix was kidnapped by "wiseguy wannabes" looking for a quick ransom. When a mobster heard about this, he quickly got them to release him by threatening to kill them. Later the mobster tracked down the kids and "gave them a beating they would never forget"

39. The "real Mafia" did not allow the producers of "The Godfather" to use the word Mafia in the movie. They even sent "family" members to the set to monitor filming. That's how producers discovered Lenny Montana aka "Luca Brasi"

40. In Japan, a few foreign cartoons including "Bob The Builder" was suggested to be edited, adding the fifth finger to the characters' hands. The reason was that having only four fingers implies membership of the Japanese Mafia.

During the filming of Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortensen's Russian Mafia tattoos were so realistic that when he walked into a Russian Diner in London, everyone fell silent out of fear.

42. Frank Sinatra was a big activist in the civil rights movement, refusing to stay at hotels that didn't allow "blacks". Even using his mafia ties to help get labor unions behind JFK because he knew they shared the same opinions on equal rights.

43. Mafia capo Gregory Scarpa was recruited by the FBI to help find the bodies of three civil rights workers. Scarpa got the locations of the bodies after he kidnapped a Klansman, pistol-whipped him and stuck a gun in his mouth

44. There is a 'ghost town' in New York City - "The Hole", an area of Queens built too close to the water table, is mostly abandoned, usually flooded, and was once a body-dumping ground for the mafia.

45. A mafia boss named Vincent Gigante for 30 years wandered Greenwich Village in his pajamas mumbling incoherently to himself, in an elaborate act to avoid prosecution. They called him "The Oddfather."

The head of Columbia Studios had Sammy Davis Jr. kidnapped by the Mafia to keep him from marrying a white woman.

47. John Willis, the only white member of Ping On, Boston's Chinese mafia. He was introduced to the group by a young Asian man he saved. John later learned Chinese, became the boss' chief bodyguard, and received the nickname "White Devil". He is currently in a federal prison for drug trafficking.

48. Ella Fitzgerald worked for the mafia, got sent to boarding school, ran away, and was living on the streets when she debuted at the Apollo Theater all by the age of 17.

49. The name for the Japanese gangster organization Yakuza comes from the worst hand in the card game Oicho-Kabu: 8-9-3, pronounced "ya-ku-za".

50. American-made cheeses are so expensive in Canada. Corrupt Canadian police officers set up a "Mozzarella Mafia" to smuggle the cheeses in their cars. It paid anywhere from $1000-2000 per cruiser load.