Catchy Suspect Nicknames Solve Crimes
The FBI is giving bank robbers on the lam catchy nicknames that are spurring public interest and leading to arrests.
The Spiderman Bandit had weblike tattoos on his arms, the Skunk Bandit wore black clothes and a white tie, and the Clearasil Bandit had a bad case of acne. The nicknames spur news coverage, greater public interest and more tips that lead to arrests, according to the Washington Post.
Bill Rehder, who became the FBI’s bank robbery coordinator in 1981, popularized the practice. He decided that bandits should get a nickname after they hit a second bank. But he says the tradition of nicknames goes all the way back to Jack the Ripper, accused of killing prostitutes in late-19th-century England.
“Had they called him Prostitute Killer Number 104, no one would have remembered,” he told the Post.
