Criminals with AARP eligibility
the true crime that's worth your time
“Although the majority of criminal offences are committed by young persons, about 1% of crimes have been reported in men over 65 years of age.” So begins a Tel Aviv-based study from 1995 entitled “Elderly criminals: A study of the first criminal offence in old age.” Twenty years later, CBS news fixed on the seeming trend of crimes committed by older folks in a 2015 report headlined “The rise of the geriatric criminal.”
Much of this so-called trend can be linked to the increase in life expectancy overall. If more folks live to old age, it seems to make sense that some of those people will engage in crimes. (Bloomberg has a paywalled report that also attributes an increase to “loneliness and poverty,” which, sure!)
As someone who will turn 52 later this month (hence this discussion topic), the idea of launching into a life of crime seems an exhausting, younger person’s game, like having kids or skateboarding. But then I read about cases like that of 74-year-old Mitsuaki Tanigawa, the so-called “Ninja of Heisei,” who reportedly said that “he hated working and thought stealing was quicker.” as an explanation for his eight-year-long series of alleged thefts. Or the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary (the inspiration for 2018 Michael Caine-starring heist film King of Thieves), in which the youngest member of the crew was a sprightly 57.
The older I get, the more interested I am in activities of folks my age or older, especially when those activities prove that it’s not over yet. (Bless you, Jennifer Lopez — nearly two years my senior — for the combination of impossible standards and inspiration you present.) I suspect I am not the only one here who thinks this way, so I ask you this: what over-50 criminal crosses your mind when you think of “geriatric” true crime? And, from your perspective, are there qualities an older perp brings to the table that is likely to make them more successful in the field? — EB