889 articles
Manu Sharma
Manu Sharma (Siddharth Vashisht), son of Haryana Congress leader Venod Sharma, convicted of murdering model Jessica Lall in Delhi in 1999; acquitted in 2006, convicted by the Delhi High Court, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2010, released in 2020.
Marital rape
Marital rape: non-consensual sex by a spouse, long exempt from rape law under Hale's 1736 implied-consent doctrine. Abolished in the UK (R v R, 1991) and US (first conviction 1979), but retained in India's BNS 2023 and many other countries.
Mark Hofmann
Mark William Hofmann (born 1954, Salt Lake City) is a Utah rare-documents dealer and master forger of Mormon and American historical documents, including the Anthon Transcript and Salamander Letter; his 1985 pipe bombings killed Steven Christensen and Kathy Sheets, and he is serving five years to life in Utah prison.
Mary Kay Letourneau
Mary Kay Letourneau (born Mary Katherine Schmitz, 1962-2020), American teacher convicted of second-degree child rape of 12-year-old student Vili Fualaau in 1997; later married him in 2005 after prison; died of colon cancer.
Mary Winkler
Mary Carol Winkler, Tennessee woman who killed her minister husband Matthew Winkler in Selmer on March 22, 2006; convicted of voluntary manslaughter in April 2007 on an abuse defense, serving about two months.
Marybeth Tinning
Marybeth Tinning (born 1942), American murderer from Schenectady, New York; convicted 1987 of second-degree murder for smothering her 4-month-old daughter Tami Lynne; nine children died 1972-1985, one conviction, paroled 2018.
Matricide
Matricide is the killing of one's mother, a rare crime (under 2% of known-relationship U.S. homicides), usually by adult sons, often linked to psychosis; also a central theme in Greek tragedy and psychoanalytic theory.
Matthew Cox
Matthew Bevan Cox, American former Tampa mortgage broker and FBI most-wanted con man, committed an estimated $55 million in mortgage fraud using forged documents and stolen identities, pleaded guilty in 2007 to a 316-month sentence later cut to 234 months.
Matthew Falder
Matthew Falder, British geophysicist and Cambridge graduate, blackmailed 46 victims online as "Liz" and "666devil"; admitted 137 offences, jailed 32 years in 2018, reduced to 25 on appeal.
McStay family murders
McStay family murders: Joseph, Summer, Gianni, and Joseph Jr. McStay, missing from Fallbrook, California, since February 4, 2010; remains found in Mojave Desert shallow graves in 2013; business partner Chase Merritt convicted 2019, sentenced to death.
Medellín Cartel
Medellín Cartel: Colombian cocaine trafficking organization based in Medellín, led by Pablo Escobar, dominant in the 1980s US cocaine trade, defeated by the early 1990s.
Megan's Law
Megan's Law: US sex offender registration and community notification laws named for Megan Kanka, murdered in New Jersey in 1994. New Jersey enacted it in 1994; a 1996 federal law amended the Wetterling Act; SORNA (2006) later replaced it.
Mehul Choksi (मेहुल चोकसी)
Mehul Choksi (मेहुल चोकसी), fugitive diamantaire and former Gitanjali Gems managing director, accused with nephew Nirav Modi in the $1.8 billion Punjab National Bank fraud; fled India in 2018, holds Antiguan citizenship, arrested in Antwerp in 2025.
Melanie McGuire
Melanie McGuire, the "suitcase killer," is a former New Jersey fertility clinic nurse convicted in 2007 of murdering, dismembering, and dumping her husband Bill McGuire in Chesapeake Bay suitcases in 2004; she is serving a life sentence and maintains innocence.
Melbourne tobacco wars
Melbourne tobacco wars: violent turf conflict since March 2023 between organised crime syndicates, notably Kazem Hamad's 'The Commission', over Victoria's illicit tobacco and vape market, marked by 200+ arson attacks, homicides, and escalating police closure and seizure powers.
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky (Maier Suchowlansky), 1902-1983, American organized-crime financier and Syndicate accountant behind Las Vegas and Havana gambling; indicted 1970 and 1972, charges dropped; died nearly broke.
Miami cannibal attack
The Miami cannibal attack (Miami Zombie, Causeway Cannibal) was Rudy Eugene's 2012 face-biting assault on Ronald Poppo on the MacArthur Causeway; toxicology found no bath salts, only marijuana.
Michael J. Devlin
Michael J. Devlin is the Kirkwood, Missouri, pizzeria manager who kidnapped Ben Ownby and Shawn Hornbeck, pleaded guilty in 2007 to 71 counts, and received 70 life terms.
Michelle Knotek
Michelle "Shelly" Knotek, Raymond, Washington woman who pleaded guilty via Alford plea in 2004 to second-degree murder and manslaughter in the abuse deaths of Kathy Loreno and Ron Woodworth; her husband David killed Shane Watson; sentenced to 266 months.
Mickey Cobras
The Mickey Cobras, historically the Egyptian Cobras and Cobra Stones, are a Chicago street gang allied with the Black P. Stones and named for Henry "Mickey" Cogwell.
Mickey Cohen
Mickey Cohen (Meyer Harris Cohen, 1913–1976) was a Brooklyn-born Los Angeles mobster, featherweight boxer, and West Coast crime boss who took over Bugsy Siegel's rackets in 1947, feuded with Jack Dragna, and was twice convicted of tax evasion.
Miryang gang rape
The Miryang gang rape (밀양 집단 성폭행 사건) was a 2004 case in which 44 male high school students from Miryang, South Korea, sexually assaulted a Ulsan middle school girl over a year; it became a national scandal over police mistreatment of victims, an NHRC inquiry, and a 2008 Supreme Court state compensation ruling.
Moe incest case
The Moe incest case is an Australian criminal case from Moe, Victoria, in which a man was sentenced in 2010 to over 22 years in prison for decades of incest against his daughter.
Money laundering
Money laundering conceals the criminal origin of proceeds through placement, layering, and integration. Also called AML's target offense; governed by FATF standards since 1989; estimated at 2-5% of global GDP.
Mongols Motorcycle Club
Mongols Motorcycle Club (Mongol Nation, Mongols MC), founded December 5, 1969 in Montebello, California, is a predominantly Hispanic 1% outlaw motorcycle club, rival of the Hells Angels, subject of RICO prosecutions and a trademark forfeiture case.
Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft, also called car theft or auto theft, is the theft or attempted theft of a self-propelled land vehicle. Covers US definition, Dyer Act of 1919, immobilizer-driven declines, and 2025 US thefts of 659,880.
Moving violation
Moving violation: a traffic law breach committed by a driver while the vehicle is moving, also called a moving traffic offense. Distinguished from parking, equipment, and paperwork violations; typically strict liability; carries license points, fines, insurance effects, and possible disqualification.
Mr Cruel
Mr Cruel is an unidentified man who attacked girls in Melbourne homes in the late 1980s and is the chief suspect in Karmein Chan's 1991 murder.
MS-13
MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) is a violent street gang founded in 1980s Los Angeles by Salvadoran civil war refugees, spread to Central America by US deportations, structured in cliques, and designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US in 2025.
Mugging
Mugging: informal term for robbery, the theft from a person using force or threat of force, typically street robbery. Not a legal offence in English law; entered British usage after the 1972 Arthur Hills killing and analyzed by Hall et al. as a moral panic.