5 Most Vicious Gangs From History

young men forming together in tightly knit groups that use violence and crime to obtain wealth and power are often viewed as a modern phenomenon however the truth is that the world has been plagued by such gangs for millennia whether formed by shared poverty ideology or just plain boredom these historical gangs were in fact even more brutal and deadly than their modern counterparts often wielding power on the same level as kings and emperors here are my choices for five of the most vicious gangs from history number five the Kabuki MO no the passing of a hundred years of unending Civil War might seem like a welcomed period of calm but for many young men in 17th century Japan this dawn of peace and stability merely meant a lack of opportunities for glory and advancement in society and so instead of proving their valor on the battlefield these would-be heroes banded together in drunken street gangs to take out their frustration on each other and the world as an entire generation felt robbed of their chance to make their mark on history born too late to engage in the legendary exploits of their forefathers instead most likely doomed to an early death as the result of common street brawls and petty crime as they roamed the country bringing violence and disorder with them wherever they went in a twisted inversion of the noble attributes so often associated with the samurai between 1467 and 1603 Japan was reduced to ashes during a bloody era of chaos upheaval and conflict as rival clans and warlords fought each other over land influence and power in a dark episode of Japanese history known as the Sengoku period yet although Japan had now finally been united under one military leader the calm that followed the storm was not to everyone's liking the ending of civil war along with the establishment of long term peace and stability led to the rapid demilitarization of the country meaning that large standing forces of samurai were simply no longer required in the new Shogun's united japan the expert martial skills and adherence to a strict warrior code rendered nearly obsolete in a time of economic growth and social order that would mark the beginnings of several centuries of peace and isolationism from the outside world around the same time that the Sengoku period of civil war came to an end strange groups of young men began appearing on streets across the Khan dressed in flamboyant and colorful clothing sporting unusual hairstyles and armed with elaborately designed but no less deadly katana these groups of odd-looking young men quickly earned the nickname kabuki mono meaning the crazy ones however their titles not given merely based upon their unusual appearance wears no more Wars to fight these testosterone-fueled young warriors found their skills in low demand and so with no other outlet for their aggressive energy turned to violence petty crime and conflict with rifle gangs deliberately violating Japan's strict rules regarding behavior they would waste away their days engaging in wild drunken behavior brawling with each other in the streets stealing from civilians setting up protection rackets to take advantage of business owners and even engaging in wanton murder the practice of cutting down innocent bystanders for no other reason than to test the effectiveness of a new weapon wherever the gangs were present violence was rife and although looking ridiculous to the rest of Japanese society the strange appearance made them no less deadly the gang members had all been trained to kill and carried weapons which they knew how to use with more than enough skill to dispatch even a competent opponent the gangs were made up of young men from the lower ranks of the samurai class younger sons from the nobility who were not in line to inherit or masterless Ronin who wandered the countryside looking for some purpose to life despite often being from different backgrounds they were united in their frustration at a lack of opportunities for upward social mobility through heroism on the battlefield their fashion sense acting as something of a uniform while outwardly displaying the anger of the times into which they had been born a feeling powerfully captured by the motto they commonly used i have lived too long a cry of rage which demonstrates the feeling of having nothing to lose by risking their lives in honor-based street quarrels and turning their backs on the code of conduct they might have valued so dearly in another life the Shogun eventually grew tired of the disruptive gangs fearing their loyalty to one another was too dangerous a bond to be allowed to spread lest the established order of loyalty to family and master above all else be overthrown and so a nationwide crackdown was launched resulting in large numbers of gang members being rounded up and executed while further edicts were issued which forbid high-ranking samurai from being seen in public with members of the kapu kimono as a result of the crackdowns this unusual gang was all but extinct by the end of the 17th century however it's possible that the legacy still lives on to this day with many believing that the infamous Yakuza were created as local vigilante groups specifically to oppose the kabuki mow no menace number for the free companies life in medieval Europe was hard dangerous and often short yet as though great plagues devastating Wars sweeping poverty and back-breaking labor are not bad enough the 12th to 15 centuries saw much of the continent ravaged by groups of rampaging soldiers of fortune who became known as the free companies armed gangs for hire filled with hardened international criminals and skilled experienced warriors led by talented ambitious and ruthless men who despite initially forming as mercenary companies intending to make a living fighting in the continents many wars often descended into operating as nothing more than a medieval mafia earning vast fortunes through murder extortion theft and fear during this period of history wars between feuding Lords as well as entire kingdoms was commonplace as ambitious men squabbled over power and territory in a never-ending game to further their prestige while securing a future for their dynasty yet these rulers lacked the kinds of permanent standing armies we are familiar with today and so in order to prosecute their Wars mercenary companies who worked for the highest bidder were often hired to do the fighting for them the bands of well-armed and experienced fighters providing a quick and easy solution for the wealthy and powerful who needed large numbers of troops at short notice with the Hundred Years War raging between England and France as two royal families fought bitterly for control of the French throne and with the patchwork of rival Italian city-states who were short on manpower by packing plenty of cash continually fighting each other for supremacy these free companies found no shortage of wealthy customers eager to purchase their particular set of skills yet it would not be long before these armed and dangerous groups of men found more profitable and far less risky uses for their time despite being called the Hundred Years War hostilities between England and France were broken by frequent and often long periods of truce where large armies of hired soldiers would be laid off as there could be years of peace ahead with no battles to fight lacking any other skills or opportunities these newly unemployed battle-hardened men did not simply disperse and go home to live in harmony and instead fragmented into roving armed gangs who wandered the French countryside to make a living from pillage plunder and extortion terrorizing and taking advantage of the often defenseless peasants merchants and craftsmen who were simply trying to survive in an already hard world with no income from their former pay masters soldiers resorted to living off the land which in the beginning involved simply taking what they needed from the local village but quickly evolved into forcing the villagers to pay the men for protection and even capturing larger towns and castles which would be held until the rightful owner paid the free company to leave in fact the ones wealthy and powerful Italian city-state of Siena was reduced to a shadow of its former glory after being forced to pay free companies not to attack them an incredible 37 times traveling along the roads which connected the major French cities became a perilous task and even all towns provided little protection against the companies of men who were desolating France and Italy yet simply filling their pockets might still not be enough to save you as the men who had grown accustomed to a life of violence sought to relieve their boredom with random and horrific acts of brutality with the senseless massacre of entire populations of towns and villages becoming depressingly common yet while it might be easy to simply dismiss the companies as nothing more than violent criminals and bandits the reality was in fact far more complex many of the company members and leaders came from the lower nobility men with little chance of a prosperous future in a time when estates were inherited by the eldest son alone the younger sons drawn to a life of war as the only method with which to make their own way in the world far from being just brutish hordes of bloodthirsty peasants the companies had actually grown into well-organized formidable fighting forces in their own right even capable of defeating the armies of powerful kingdoms the men usually wearing professional in uniforms and serving under a sophisticated command structure there was often Democratic in nature with leaders being elected important decisions made collectively and loot divided up fairly according to rank and service yet the existence of such an uncontrolled independent power which was capable of rivaling kings and emperors could not be allowed to exist indefinitely and by the 1400s the power of the free companies was in rapid decline as the establishment of permanent standing armies became more commonplace in a way the free companies were victims of their own success demonstrating to the world the power that could be wielded by making soldiering a profession rather than just a part-time activity with men making careers out of war in exchange for regular pay becoming the model for modern national standing armies as the old feudal system was rendered obsolete and war became a full-time business number three the blues and the greens sports-related gang warfare is by no means a modern phenomenon nearly 1500 years ago the greatest city on earth was torn apart by an ancient turf war between two groups of Chariot Racing fans as the line between sports and politics became blurred with bloody consequences over the course of five dark days the simmering animosity between rival gangs erupted in a brutal riot that resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and destroyed the fabled city of Constantinople in a display of violence and vandalism that makes modern day Sports hooligan gangs look as innocent and timid as a group of Boy Scouts Chariot Racing was extremely popular in the Byzantine Empire with vast crowds of over 100,000 people frequently gathering in the main Hippodrome in the capital city of Constantinople to revel in the blood-soaked spectacle that the sport had become chariot races from across the Empire were drawn to the city and the riches she contained risking gruesome deaths on the stadium sands for the opportunity to become fabulously wealthy and famous the lucky few who made their fortune in the sport eclipsing the Forgotten majority who would often meet at gruesel the end crushed under the wheels of their opponents chariots or smashed against the cold stone columns of the racetrack the chariot races were initially organized into four color themed teams the reds whites greens and blues with each team attracting their own fanatical fan base from the city's population much like the sports teams of today however unlike modern sports the rivalry between these groups of supporters ran far deeper than who their favorite chariot racer happened to be the Hippodrome was not simply a place to gather for relaxation and entertainment but also frequently the scene of political demonstrations with the different gangs of fans becoming something akin to an early form of political party whose members took official positions on the great issues of the day using their massive numbers to try and influence the Emperor's policies by shouting out political demands in the calm between races with the differences in opinion and rivalries between the gangs often descending into bloody riots exactly what determined which gang an individual would join is still subject to debate with family loyalties religious belief and political views or being popular theories but what is known is that practically every member of Byzantine society from the Emperor down had sympathies were if one of the factions yet by the time Emperor Justinian ascended to the throne in five to seven ad just two of the original four teams remained with the greens and the blues rising to such prominence that they now eclipsed the reds and the whites eventually absorbing the lesser two teams completely until the city of Constantinople was left split in half along gang affiliation lines with every chariot race threatening to unravel and to murder and mayhem perhaps even escalating into all-out Civil War if left unchecked the Empire was already under great strain with Justinian's Wars to recapture lost territory from the barbarian tribes in the West placing a great burden on the Treasury the cost of these impressive reconquest SRA's ulting in the introduction of 26 new taxes many of which targeted the wealthy and powerful and led to massive discontent amongst the kind of people who possessed the influence required to cause serious trouble yet the Emperor's unpopularity was not just tax related with his choice of wife causing nothing short of a scandal due to her lowly common origins coupled with her refusal to play the role of quiet and obedient wife civics affected of the Empress instead insisting on involving herself in the management of the enormous and ancient empire Justinian had at one time given his support and protection to the blues making use of the numbers and influence to cement his own claim on the throne however recognizing the danger posed by the ever rising power of the greens and blues he instructed authorities in cities across the empire to impartially punish all gang-related crime and disorder regardless of whether committed by green or blue the situation was a powder keg waiting to explode all that was needed was a spark to ignite the whole thing and with the two gangs growing ever more powerful and aggressive it wasn't long before the situation exploded with devastating consequences in the aftermath of an especially bloody clash between the blues and greens following a heated chariot race the ringleaders of the riot from both teams were captured and sentenced to death by Justinian's Imperial Guard have a fallen man from each team survive their date with the hangman's noose when the execution scaffold broke the watching mob of greens and blues quickly rushed in to save the reprieved men before hiding them in the safety of a nearby church where they would be out of reach of the Emperor's men for the first time the two rival gangs now found themselves united under a common cause that of hatred for the Emperor who had initiated the recent crackdown against them by the time the next chariot race was held on January the 13th 532 AD violence was menacingly in the air at the Hippodrome it quickly became clear that the crowd had little interest in what was going on in the sands below the focus and anger instead directed at the Emperor and his entourage almost as soon as the race began the crowd began hurling insults at Austin e'en rapidly working themselves into a frenzy before finally charging forward unable to contain their pent-up anger any longer the race was quickly abandoned and the out-of-control mob spilled out onto the streets of Constantinople to begin a five-day orgy of violence and destruction that would leave an estimated 10% of the city's population dead and much of the historic capital are smoldering ruin the Emperor himself nearly fled for his life however after Stern words from his Empress he resolves to stay and fight the marauding gangs luring most of the rioters back into the Hippodrome with promises of gold bribes before deviously blocking the axes and sending in his elite troops to hack the great press have trapped greens and blues to bloody pieces by the time the smoke had cleared the streets were littered with the corpses of 30,000 rioters and innocent citizens however with so many dead the Emperor was able to easily restore order over the ruins of his once great city before rounding up for the remaining gang leaders confiscating their property and breaking the power of both the greens and blues forever marking the end of a bloody chapter of Byzantine history in which a couple of Chariot Racing street gangs held to ransom one of the greatest empires mankind has ever known number two the order of Hashshashin over the course of two hundred years a shadowy and obscure religious sect of just a few thousand followers would come to exerts power and influence far beyond what should have been possible for such a small grouping of people the reclusive leader known as the old man in the mountain able to bend great empires of millions to his will as Sultan's Kings princes and even European Crusaders all learned to live in fear of his mysterious but fanatical army of seemingly unstoppable assassins men who had been trained since childhood to murder anyone their master had marked for destruction even if it meant their own certain death the terror they unleashed across the Middle East so enduring that even today their name is used to describe the action of murdering a target for political reasons as much of the order's history was either destroyed or written by their enemies its origins are shrouded in mystery and rumor however the beginnings of the cult can be reliably traced back to his first Grand Master a Persian missionary born in the 11th century named Hasan who belonged to a branch of Shia Islam known as the Nazari much of his early life was spent as a missionary attempting to spread his sects version of the faith throughout the Middle East however at some point it's believed he used his fame and popularity to found the order of fashion his exact reasons for founding the order are unknown however it's likely that surrounded by people who regarded him as a heretic as well as constantly under threat by the many great empires and kingdoms present in the region who regarded the Nazari with suspicion he sought some way to defend his people in a hostile world lacking the manpower and resources of his rivals he instead adopted a strategy of acquiring a series of easily defendable fortresses and mountain strongholds which could provide a safe haven from his enemies as well as a discreet location to carry out the indoctrination of his followers yet his activities soon earned him the attention of the Seljuk Empire who viewed his growing power as a threat to their own authority with a relatively small number of followers and with the stronghold spread thinly across the Middle East between Syria and Persia the Hashashin should have been no match for their many enemies who had access to military power that was in another league to anything the order could muster however for the old man in the mountain perfected the use of assassination fear and shrewd political maneuvering to balance the odds and spread his power and influence with even the mighty Sultan of the Seljuk Empire falling to the assassins daggers after he dare to attempt to destroy the order young volunteers were recruited by the sect to carry out the deadly and often suicidal missions the men selected for the courage strength and willingness to carry out orders without question or hesitation as Hassan built himself a private army of killers who could be used to remove anyone who might threaten his power or stand in his way political military and religious figures all fell to the blades of his acolytes as even the most powerful in society grew to live in dread of the old man in the mountains reach his agents capable of eliminating even the most well protected and wealthy should the order be given the group's favored strategy was that of the public attack where the murder was as visible as possible the violent and gruesome death of the victim often witnessed by large crowds and as such obtaining the ration valuable publicity spreading fear and his agents actions across the Middle East and Europe discouraging others from moving against the order as it became clear that anyone who presented themselves as an enemy of the Hashshashin would stand little chance of escaping with their lives no matter how large their retinue of bodyguards or how high the walls of their castles the assassins demonstrated a chilling level of patience and persistence often spending years obtaining knowledge about their enemies and then infiltrating the targets personal entourage slowly biding their time as they gained his trust enabling them to get close enough to execute their mission this cunning method of attack negated their enemy's advantages while at the same time only requiring that the Hashshashin risk the lives of just a small number of their own enabling them to achieve wide reaching aims with far less bloodshed and expense than would be required using conventional military operations a single assassination potentially achieving more than an entire battle in fact simply the threat of an assassination might be all that was needed with psychological warfare proving just as potent a weapon the appearance of a dagger left on a pillow as a warning often enough to persuade an enemy to cease his operations against the order however despite the Hessians fearsome reputation there's always a bigger fish and they finally met their match when the Mongols swept across the Middle East in a series of lightning assaults in the early part of the 13th century perhaps under estimating this new power on the scene the order attempted to use the tried and tested methods of assassination and intimidation however the Mongols would not be cowered by such actions the Grand Master made the fateful mistake of sending hundreds of assassins to kill the Mongol Khan in his palace an act of war which would lead to the group's extermination realizing that such a formidable force of trained killers could not be allowed to exist within their new empire the Mongols failed to root out every last Hashshashin from their mountain fortresses and put them to the sword the hunters had now become the hunted a powerful Mongol army accompanied by 1,000 of the best Chinese siege engineers was dispatched to break the power of the order forever and by 1256 their main stronghold once thought to be impregnable fell to Mongol forces marking the end of a 200 year long campaign of terror which had ended the lives of some of the world's most powerful men number one the Thuggee over the course of hundreds of years a highly organized gang of professional robbers and murderers claimed the lives of perhaps as many as 2 million victims making them the most lethal gang in recorded history using an elaborate spy network that spanned an entire subcontinent the murderous cult terrorized the roads and trails of India preying upon travelers without mercy using deception to first gain the trust of their targets before richly strangling the victim and relieving them of all their worldly possessions the brutality with which the thuggees of India operated leaving a legacy that still remains today with the modern word thug being derived from the disturbing wave of terror they unleashed so many years ago rumors and accounts of a secretive cult-like gang of bandits and ritualistic murderers operating in India stretch as far back as the 14th century however it was with the British Empire's expansion into India during the 1800s for the terrifying exploits of the thuggy first reached the wider world like something out of a modern-day horror movie British colonial officials began receiving disturbing reports of massive numbers of merchants and travelers simply disappearing from the face of the earth while traversing the many remote roads and trails that snaked across the enormous country further investigation into such reports unearthed a series of grisly mass graves filled with the bodies of unfortunate victims who had all been strangled and buried in an almost identical manner such horrific evidence led colonial investigators to an alarming conclusion the disappearances and the mass graves were linked and most likely the work of a single criminal enterprise that had infested the entire Indian subcontinent this secretive gang was already known to many Indians however the fear which accompanied their name letter the Thuggee merely being whispered of in hushed tones as their spies and members were ever-present from the lowliest villages to the grand halls of princes and kings the enormous booty plundered from their victims used to bribe those in power with their willingness to kill used to quell the weak into sub the true origins of the Thuggee are shrouded in a mystery and speculation however it's known that they were a quasi religious cult whose members worshipped Kali the goddess of destruction and who actually believed that their killings served a positive role in saving human lives they held the twisted view that in carrying out their murders they were actually helping Kali to maintain the balance between good and evil and thus prevent the destruction of all humankind however just how seriously the individual members bought into this philosophy remains to be seen with many likely to have been primarily motivated by the opportunity for riches which came with membership of the group the massive network of informants would relay information to thuggy members about which groups of travelers carried the weightiest coin purses the traveling groups then slowly infiltrated by the operatives in the field members appeared as ordinary law-abiding citizens even hiding their membership of the gang from close family members posing as tradesmen and Merchants to provide a believable cover story for their unusual and lengthy trips far from home a group of travelers who had been in marked for destruction would be approached on the road by a small group of innocent-looking thuggy who would then attempt to befriend the group and earn their trust proclaiming their simple desire to travel together so that they might have safety in numbers against the ever-present threat of bandits and highwayman however little did the travelers know that their new charming acquaintances had murder on their mind if the targeted group was large and well-defended additional small groups of thuggy might be dispersed along hundreds of miles of road joining at various stages in small numbers and concealing the fact that they knew each other until they outnumbered their prey the patience of the Thuggee was chilling and they might travel with their targeted group for days slowly earning their trust and causing them to let their guard down when the time was finally judged to be right the codewords bring the tobacco would be uttered by the senior member of the group letting his colleagues know that the murderous work should begin the sight of the chosen killing ground would usually be as a remote as possible away from prying eyes with the robbery and murder usually committed at night or during a rest break when the travelers were busy or asleep strangulation was the murder method of choice being quick and quiet while leaving no trace behind and requiring no specialized weapons working in groups of three one lucky would loop the Rope round of the targets neck while another pressed his head against the ground with the third holding the victims legs when the deed was done the body would be stripped of anything of value and then either buried or thrown into a well the lucrative profits from this callous system were used to enrich a wide network of important individuals across the country and as such ensure the gang survival for so long the most valuable items plundered were kept aside as gifts for whomever had financed the expedition while another portion of loot was kept to cover the expenses of bribing local officials and rulers with whatever was left divided up amongst the gang members who had taken part in the attack however for the meek of remains were rarely enough to enable lower-level thuggy to ever abandon their chosen profession despite this there was no shortage of willing candidates waiting in line to sign up for membership although admittance into the gang was usually hereditary with the family business of murder being passed down from father to son aspiring thug II would do their best to befriend current gang members in the hope of being accepted into the tri blank community of the band of murdering thieves and there even existed the equivalent of an apprenticeship program where the applicant would train under a guru as he attempted to perfect the many skills required to successfully carry out the group's murderous work yet most chillingly of all motor travelers might not only lose their wealth and their lives but perhaps also have any children who might have accompanied them inducted into the very organization that put them in an early grave stealing the orphans future in the process while the true number of victims claimed during the group scourge on the land is impossible to accurately determine the death toll is still staggering regardless of whose estimate you believe with figures ranging from 50 thousand up to an incredible 2 million deaths all attributed to the making them perhaps the most deadly gang in history yet being responsible for such a devastatingly high death toll it's no surprise that it was only a matter of time until the thuggy themselves were targeted for destruction with the British expanding their power and presence in India the foreign administrators could not allow such a secretive and influential criminal organization to operate with impunity and then doing so challenged their own authority yet with the thuggy protected by an extensive network of accomplices including police local rulers village officials and civil servants who were all ready to obstruct any investigation into the group he's out of fear or financial self-interest eradicating the thuggin must have seemed an impossible task yet for a British official named William Henry Sleeman the job of ridding the world of this plague became something of an obsession Sleeman x' investigation led to the capture of a thuggy named Syed Amir Ali who was persuaded to become an informant for the crown the prisoner led investigators to a grave containing the remains of 100 slain victims and named the gang members responsible for the killings and it wasn't long before Moore captured also became informants in an attempt to escape the hangman's noose the terrifying scale of the Thuggee presence in India was revealed as thousands of men were imprisoned executed or exiled from British India with their trials uncovering the horrific truth behind what had really happened to the uncountable number of travelers who had gone missing in the centuries the group had been operating one small team of 20 men readily confessed to having been responsible for a staggering 5,200 murders while one thug he confessed to personally strangling 931 victims refusing to show any remorse for his actions which he coldly described as simply following his chosen trade the work of Sleeman finally broke the power of the shadowy secret organization and by the late 19th century the gang was all but extinct however although the chilling mass murders are now just a painful but distant memory rumors still persist that should you venture too far off the beaten path he might just find yourself amongst the thuggees many unfortunate victims so those are my choices four or five of history's most vicious gangs as always leave me a comment below with your thoughts and I'll see you again next time you

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Keywords: gangs, gangs from history, history, medieval history, education, entertainment, documentaries, documentary, history documentary, top 5, top 10, unknown5, educational, Kabukimono, The Blues And Greens, nika, byzantine empire, Thuggee, The Free Companies, list

Id: biZogYOd9oo

Length: 30min 18sec (1818 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 08 2018