There is something inherently fascinating about famous bandits in history. Maybe it's the larger-than-life personalities of the people who commit these types of famous robberies, or the sophisticated methods they employ to achieve their nefarious goals. Or it could just be that people are fascinated with an underdog story: there is something romantic in the drama of a small group or individual going up against a much larger entity, which often has the benefits of numbers and superior technology. Whatever the reason, an act of robbery (especially when violence is kept to a minimum) has the potential to catapult an individual into the ranks of super-stardom, turning them into a real-life Robin Hood or Danny Ocean. Here is a collection of criminals who raised the bar on crime.

Leonardo Notarbartolo Pulled Off the Largest Diamond Heist in History.

Leonardo Notarbartolo is famous for stealing $100m in diamonds - the largest diamond heist ever committed - from the Antwerp Diamond Center. The facility's security measures are intense: the vault is secured by a lock with one hundred million combinations, and is also equipped with a seismic alarm, infrared sensors, an electromagnetic lock, and requires a key almost three feet long to turn the massive deadbolts of the vault door.

Originally, Notarbartolo declared that the place would be impossible to rob when he was paid 100,000 Euros by a client to scope out the place in 2001. Five months later, Notarbartolo was contacted by the same client and instructed to meet in an abandoned warehouse. In a scene straight out of Ocean's Eleven, when Notarbartolo arrived, he found himself standing in an exact replica of the Diamond Center's vault, where his client outlined the plan to rob the place. Notarbartolo agreed to the heist.

As part of the operation, Notarbartolo had a security box at the Center, and on one of his regular visits he managed to install a hidden camera, which recorded the guard entering the code for the vault door. Right before the robbery, he managed to spray the vault's infrared sensor with a thin coating of hair spray, temporarily knocking it out of commission. The electromagnetic lock was duped by a custom-made aluminum block which the thieves placed on the side of the vault door, allowing them to remove the door without breaking the circuit.

Ultimately, however, this cunning heist was foiled by a single mistake. Notarbartolo wanted to burn the evidence, but his accomplice, a getaway driver named Speedy, insisted that they dump it immediately, and the pair was spotted by a property owner who reported them for illegal dumping. When the police investigated, they found the bags used in the jewelry heist, as well as a half-eaten sandwich covered in Notarbartolo's DNA. The police subsequently raided his house and found seventeen diamonds. He was sentenced to ten years in prison and is now out on parole.

In an interview with Wired, Notarbartolo claimed that the gang only stole $20m, and the other $80m was claimed as part of an insurance scam. No evidence of this has been found, and only a fraction of the loot has been recovered.

The Stopwatch Gang Robbed Banks in Under 90 Seconds

The infamous Stopwatch Gang was a group of three Canadian bank robbers: Stephen Reid, Lionel Wright, and Paddy Mitchell. Known for their ability to rob banks in under two minutes with virtually no trace left behind, the group got their name because the FBI noticed Reid wearing a large stopwatch around his neck during one of their robberies.

The gang was active during the 1970s and 1980s, and is best known for completing the largest bank robbery in San Diego history. They stole $283,000 from Bank of America (this was the second time that they robbed this particular bank) and ran off with $750,000 worth of gold bars from the Ottawa Airport in 1974.

In addition to their rigorous planning skills, the gang had a keen insight into how witnesses would react during a robbery - and what they would remember afterward. The gang paid attention to the press they received for their crimes and quickly noticed that witnesses were often distracted by obvious, eccentric, but unessential details. To test this, Reid left a banana hanging out of his pocket during some of the gang's robberies. Sure enough, the witnesses remembered that detail, but not much else.

Law enforcement closed in on the gang when an elderly couple looking for cans in a dumpster found a bag filled with wigs, make-up, two license plates, and several Bank of America bags. The authorities were able to obtain a partial thumbprint on one of the bags, but it was not until the three gang members were identified by a confidential informant that the FBI was able to match the print with some evidence from the Ottawa airport heist.

Reid and Wright were arrested in October 1980 and were each sentenced to 20 years in prison for the Bank of America robbery. After the capture of the other gang members, Paddy Mitchell continued his career as a bank robber, escaping prison four times, and living in exile in the Philippines for 15 years until he was finally captured after a botched bank robbery in 1994 and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

The Pink Panthers Have Performed Over 370 Heists Worth $500 Million in 35 Countries

The largest, most successful group of thieves in the world are the Pink Panthers. The group earned their name from Interpol after a diamond heist in 1993. Using a tactic originally seen in the 1975 film Return of the Pink Panther, the gang of thieves hid £500,000 ($614,500) in diamonds in a jar of facial cream. Using photographic, DNA, and fingerprint evidence, Interpol has identified 800 active members of the Pink Panthers, a group primarily composed of Serbs from Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia. Many of the members are believed to be Serbian ex-special forces who fought in the Bosnian wars.

The Pink Panthers are a truly international gang of thieves, with operations ranging from Dubai to Tokyo. The Pink Panthers are credited for the largest successful robbery in Japanese history, where the group stole ¥284 million ($2,734,780) in jewelry.

While the Pink Panthers are predominantly known for stealing jewelry and diamonds, they have expanded their sphere of operations into the realm of fine art. In 2008, an art museum in Zurich, Germany was robbed, in what is the largest art theft in European history. The group stole four paintings, the last of which was recovered in 2012, a Cezanne painting with an estimated value of $113 million.

In addition to their masterful heists, which some investigators have elevated to the level of "artistry," the group is surprisingly hard to take down and imprison. In part, this is because the group practices omerta, a code of silence, so capturing one or two members of the group does little to harm the overall organization. The group has also proven adept at breaking members out of prison, with one of the most recent attempts in May 2013, when a group of Panthers assaulted a Swiss prison with assault rifles to break out a fellow gang member. The imprisoned Panther and four other prisoners escaped during the commotion. The Panther is still at large.

The group is currently alive and well, and Interpol estimates that they have added over 180 new members in the last few years. Despite their whimsical name, the Pink Panthers are as efficient and professional as they come.

The Ioanid Gang Was Forced to Star in a Reenactment of Their Own Heist

The Ioanid gang, named after two brothers in the group, was a group of six Jewish intellectuals that stole 1.6 million Romanian lei (approximately $250,000 at the time) from the National Bank of Romania in 1959. The case was investigated by the Communist secret police, the Securitate, and within two months all of the alleged robbers were apprehended and tried behind closed doors. All but one of gang members were executed in 1960 (their executions were even kept secret from their families), but not before they were forced to reenact the robbery for a propaganda film titled Reconstituirea. The film was only shown to loyal Communist party members, with the robbers reprising their own roles. The film heavily emphasized the gang members' Jewish identities, and portrayed them as living a life of luxury with money obtained from the heist.

No real motive was ever given for the heist, but the film alleged that the goal was to send funds to Zionist organizations to get Romanian Jews to Israel. However, this seems highly unlikely as it was impossible to convert lei into any other hard currencies around the world during this time period.

To this day, no one knows for sure if the gang actually committed the robbery - many believe that it was an operation carried out by the Securitate to purge disloyal party members. Several documentaries have been made about the heist, most recently Closer to the Moon, from 2014.

Valerio Viccei Stole £40m from Security Boxes Without Firing a Shot

Valerio Viccei, also known as the Wolf, the Italian Stallion, and the Gentleman Thief, had a love for money, women, fast cars, and weapons. He is most famous for being the mastermind of the Knightsbridge Security Deposit Box robbery in 1987. In under two hours, with the help of security guard uniforms, drilling equipment, and a man on the inside, Viccei and his gang were able to steal an estimated £40m-60m ($65-98m at the 1987 exchange rate) from security boxes without firing a single shot or injuring another person. The victims were primarily celebrities, millionaires, and royalty.

A bloody fingerprint left at the scene was traced back to Viccei, and after a period of surveillance by law enforcement, several of his accomplices were apprehended by police. Viccei originally managed to escape capture and fled to Latin America, but he was apprehended in England when he was caught in 1987 trying to ship his Ferrari out of the country.

He was sentenced to 22 years in prison. He was transferred to a jail in Italy in 1992 to finish his sentence, and was allowed to participate in a work-release program. Viccei worked at a translating company by day, and returned to prison each night at 10:30. However, Viccei stuck to his old profession, and on April 19, 2000, when Viccei was supposed to be working at his job, he and an accomplice got into a firefight with police, resulting in Viccei's death. Police suspect that Viccei and his accomplice were either trying to rob a bank security van or kidnap one of the children from the one of the area's three wealthiest families.

Edward Kelly Stood up to the Police and Became Australia's Greatest Folk Hero

Edward "Ned" Kelly, leader of the notorious Kelly Gang, is arguably Australia's most famous historical figure, as more books, songs, and websites have been written about Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang than any other figures in Australian history.

Kelly's trouble with the law began when he was just 14 old and arrested for stealing ten shillings from a Chinese man. He was arrested again a year later for armed robbery, although he was freed for lack of evidence. In 1878, Kelly was indicted for the attempted murder of a police officer named Arthur Fitzpatrick, after Fitzpatrick showed up at the Kelly property to serve an arrest warrant for Ned's brother Dan for alleged horse stealing . Although Fitzpatrick was later dismissed from the police force for being a liar, his testimony resulted in Kelly's mother, Ellen Kelly, receiving three years of hard labor for assaulting a police officer. Ned and Dan fled into the bush to evade capture, and Ned issued an ultimatum to the government, saying that he would open the eyes of the Australian people to the corrupt strategies employed by the police.

Later that year, four heavily armed policemen were sent to apprehend the Kelly gang, but they were ambushed and three officers were killed in a shootout with the gang, prompting the government of Victoria to label Ned Kelly and his accomplices "outlaws," meaning they could be shot on sight by any citizen with no legal consequences. The gang committed several armed bank robberies during this time, and also murdered a friend-turned-police informant before their final stand in 1880, where they took sixty hostages in a hotel in Glenrowan, Victoria. The police assaulted the hotel, and eventually forced the gang to retreat into the wilderness. The gang famously wore suits of armor during their final assault on the police, but the gang was defeated, and only Ned survived.

Ned was arrested and tried for the murder of a police officer, and with the famous last words "Such is life," was hanged on November 11, 1880. Despite being a ruthless criminal, many Australians saw Ned Kelly as a champion of the downtrodden who resisted the tyranny of a corrupt legal system.

Toni Musulin Stole 11.6 Million Euros Without a Gun

In 2009, Toni Musulin, who was working as a driver for the Loomis security company, absconded with 11.6 million Euros while working on the job. Only two days after the robbery, police were tipped off by witnesses and raided a garage where they found 9.1 million of the missing money. Musulin turned himself in two weeks later, claiming that he had no idea where the missing 2.5 million Euros were.

The robbery catapulted Musulin to folk hero status, as Internet users dubbed it "the heist of the century," and they praised Musulin for not resorting to guns or violence. Musulin claimed that he had only robbed the company because he and his colleagues had been mistreated while on the job.

Musulin was only sentenced to three years in prison, because he did not use violence during the robbery, although his sentence was extended two years for an unrelated insurance fraud charge. Musulin was released from prison in 2013, and he maintains that he does not know where the missing money is to do this day.

Edwin Alonzo Boyd Set Off the Biggest Manhunt in Canadian History

Edwin Alonzo Boyd started his career as a criminal on September 9, 1949. Unable to find suitable employment after returning from World War II, Boyd turned to a life of robbing banks. Although he started out as a solo bandit, he soon graduated to leading a gang that bore his namesake. Boyd carried out at least six robberies from 1959-1961, but an accomplice of his was captured and ratted him out to police, landing Boyd in prison.

In prison, Boyd met up with another professional thief, Leonard Jackson, who had been working with a different, more violent group of bandits at the time. Due to a previous accident involving a train, Leonard Jackson had a wooden foot, which he used to smuggle hacksaw blades into prison. Using the hacksaw blades, Boyd, Jackson, and another thief managed to escape prison. The gang then launched a string of robberies over the next four months totaling over $75,000, including what the largest bank heist in Canadian history at the time, when they took $46,000 in one haul.

Boyd ended up back in prison in 1952 after two members of the gang were involved in a traffic stop that resulted in the fatal shooting of a police officer. The gang immediately began working on a plan to escape prison, and they were able to obtain a key to their cell, although no one knows for sure how they were able to do so. The group escaped prison on September 8, 1952. The reward for their capture was set at $26,000 and set off the largest manhunt in Canadian history.

Despite their notoriety, the gang was captured only eight days later, while hiding out in a local barn. Boyd was sentenced to eight life sentences in December 1952, and was paroled in 1966. He lived in British Columbia under an assumed name until he died in 2002.

Egan's Rats Terrorized St. Louis for 35 Years

The Rats were the most dominant gang in St. Louis from 1890 to 1924. Originally a political organization founded by Democratic Committeeman Thomas Egan and Missouri State Senator Thomas Kinney, the group donned the name Egan's Rats in 1907. The group was responsible for a wide range of criminal activities, such as bank robbery, voter intimidation, union busting, bootlegging, and murder. In 1919, Thomas Egan died of natural causes, and his brother, William Egan, replaced him as leader of the Rats.

The gang wielded tremendous political influence at the time: William Egan was able to pull strings with President Woodrow Wilson to get a fellow Rat's sentence for interstate theft commuted, and the criminal only served six months of a five-year sentence. William Egan was shot and killed in 1921, and his death was believed to be the work of the rival Hogan gang. Egan's successor, William Colbeck, went to war with the Hogan gang in 1923. The subsequent two-year gang war resulted in 23 deaths, and turned public opinion against the Rats. The Rats were also involved in the theft of $2.4 million in negotiable bonds at the time, but when several Rats were captured by authorities in relation to the crime, one of the gang members turned informant, resulting in 25 year sentences for eight prominent members of the gang, including Colbeck.

By the time Colbeck was released from prison sixteen years later, the gang had disbanded, although some ex-Rats participated in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Colbeck was murdered in 1943, but his murder was never solved.

The Thugs Were the Deadliest Bandit Group in History

The Thugs were a well-organized group of professional murderers and thieves who operated out of India for several hundred years. The English word "thug," referring to any violent person, traces its roots back to this group. The Thugs practiced ritualized killing, and primarily murdered their victims via strangulation. The Thugs would gain the trust of travelers in their area, then murder them when an opportunity presented itself. The group had a special reverence for the Hindu goddess of destruction Kali, and would dedicate their kills to her. The Thugs also developed their own special language and signals so they could secretly identify each other.

The group presumably met its end in 1837, due to the efforts of Lord William Bentinck and his agent Captain William Sleeman. In just five years, they captured 3,266 Thugs. Since membership in the Thugs was primarily gained through family lineage, such a large loss of members in such a short time was devastating for the group and it never recovered. Although estimates vary, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the Thugs murdered more than two million people throughout their history, making them the deadliest criminal group in the world.

SADDAM HUSSEIN AND FAMILY

On March 18, 2003, just hours before the invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his family perpetrated the largest bank robbery in history. With a short handwritten note bearing his signature, under the pretext of "protecting the money from American aggression," Saddam ordered the Central Bank of Iraq to hand over $920 million and 90 million Euros to his son Qusay. The massive amount of money was loaded onto several trucks in a five-hour operation. The whereabouts of the money are unknown to this date, although many people believe it is with Sadaam's family, who is living in exile. When American forces raided the palace of Uday Hussein (Saddam's eldest son), they found $650 million behind a false wall, although it is unknown if the hidden cash was part of the money taken from the bank.

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