3,576 articles
Vietnamese criminal underworld
Vietnamese criminal underworld: diaspora gangs and crime networks, notably New York's Born to Kill gang founded by David Thai (1988-1992), plus Vietnam-based transnational fraud and scam-compound networks.
Vigilantism
Vigilantism: individuals or groups pursuing justice themselves when formal institutions are perceived to have failed. Covers traditional mob justice, digital vigilantism on TikTok and Twitter, and survey evidence on who supports it.
Vigilantism in the United States
Vigilantism in the United States: unauthorized civilian force to punish or prevent crime. Also called vigilance committees or 'regulators.' Began 1767 in South Carolina; spans San Francisco 1851/1856, racialized lynching, and modern armed border patrols.
Vikas Dubey (विकास दुबे)
Vikas Dubey (विकास दुबे), Kanpur gangster and history-sheeter with 62 criminal cases; his gang killed 8 policemen in the July 2020 Bikru ambush; he was arrested in Ujjain and died in a 10 July 2020 police encounter later given a clean chit by the Chauhan inquiry commission.
Viktor Bout (Виктор Анатольевич Бут)
Viktor Bout (Виктор Бут, Merchant of Death) is a Russian ex-military translator turned international arms trafficker, convicted in the US in 2011 for a DEA sting deal with FARC, sentenced to 25 years, and swapped for Brittney Griner in December 2022; he now sits as an LDPR deputy in Ulyanovsk Oblast.
Villisca axe murders
The Villisca axe murders were the unsolved June 1912 bludgeoning deaths of eight people, the Josiah Moore family and the two Stillinger sisters, in Villisca, Iowa. Reverend George Kelly was tried twice and acquitted; Senator Frank F. Jones, William Mansfield, and Henry Lee Moore were also suspects.
Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal
Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal: Janel Grant's January 2024 federal lawsuit against McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE over sexual abuse and a $3 million NDA, the SEC settlement, and 2026 arbitration.
Vince McMahon sexual misconduct allegations
Vince McMahon sexual misconduct allegations: accusations since 1992 against the WWE co-founder, including Rita Chatterton's 1986 rape claim, 2022 hush-money revelations, the SEC order, and Janel Grant's 2024 sex trafficking lawsuit.
Vincent Basciano
Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, convicted in three federal trials including a capital case, serving two consecutive life sentences.
Vincent Brothers
Vincent Brothers, Bakersfield vice principal and convicted mass murderer, killed his wife Joanie Harper, her three children, and her mother on July 6, 2003; convicted 2007, sentenced to death by Judge Michael Bush.
Vincent Corleone
Vincent Corleone (Vincent Santino Corleone, Vincent Mancini-Corleone), fictional character in The Godfather Part III (1990), played by Andy García; illegitimate son of Sonny Corleone and Lucy Mancini who becomes Michael Corleone's successor as Don.
Vincent Drucci
Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci (Ludovico Di Ambrosio, 1898-1927), Chicago North Side Gang boss after Hymie Weiss, killed by Patrolman Daniel Healy on April 4, 1927, the rare mob boss killed by police.
Vincent Gigante
Vincent "Chin" Gigante, nicknamed the Oddfather, was an American mobster who became boss of the Genovese crime family and evaded prosecution for decades by feigning mental illness.
Vincent Palermo
Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, DeCavalcante crime family captain, ruling panel member, and acting boss in New Jersey; became a federal cooperating witness in 2000 and entered witness protection in Houston.
Vincenzo Peruggia
Vincenzo Peruggia (1881-1925), Italian house painter and glazier, stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre on 21 August 1911, hid it in Paris for over two years, and was arrested in Florence in December 1913 after offering it to dealer Alfredo Geri.
Vinson Filyaw
Vinson Wayne Filyaw (1969-2021), the 'Girl in the Bunker' kidnapper, abducted 14-year-old Elizabeth Shoaf in South Carolina in 2006 while posing as police, held her ten days underground, and received a record 421-year sentence before dying in prison.
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act
The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (1994 crime bill, H.R. 3355, Public Law 103-322) is the largest U.S. federal crime law, signed September 13, 1994, funding 100,000 police and prisons, enacting VAWA, the three-strikes rule, the ten-year assault weapons ban, and Wetterling sex offender registration.
Virginia Hill
Virginia Hill (1916-1966), the "Queen of the Mob," was an American courier and money launderer for the Chicago Outfit and Bugsy Siegel's girlfriend, in whose Beverly Hills home he was murdered in 1947; she testified at the 1951 Kefauver hearings and died in Austria in 1966.
Virginia Tech shooting
The Virginia Tech shooting, also called the Virginia Tech massacre, occurred April 16, 2007, when senior Seung-Hui Cho killed 27 students and 5 faculty and wounded more than 17 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before killing himself; it led to Virginia mental health and background-check reforms.
Vitaly Kaloyev (Виталий Константинович Калоев)
Vitaly Kaloyev (Виталий Константинович Калоев), Russian architect who killed Skyguide controller Peter Nielsen in 2004 after losing his family in the 2002 Überlingen mid-air collision; convicted, released 2007, later North Ossetian deputy minister.
Vitel'Homme Innocent
Vitel'Homme Innocent (born 1986) is a Haitian gang leader heading Kraze Barye in Port-au-Prince, a Viv Ansanm figure, FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive, UN-sanctioned, facing US hostage-taking charges and a $2 million reward.
Vito Corleone
Vito Corleone (Don Corleone) is the fictional Sicilian-born Mafia patriarch of Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather and Coppola's films, played by Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro, head of a New York crime family succeeded by his son Michael.
Vito Genovese
Vito "Don Vito" Genovese (1897–1969), Italian-born American Mafia boss, underboss to Lucky Luciano, later boss of the New York family bearing his name; convicted of narcotics conspiracy in 1959 and linked to the 1957 Apalachin raid.
Vito Rizzuto
Vito Rizzuto (1946–2013), Montreal's "Teflon Don," led the Sicilian Rizzuto crime family that dominated Montreal organized crime. Extradited to the U.S. in 2006 for the 1981 Bonanno triple murder, he served six years, returned, and died of natural causes in 2013.
Vizconde murders
Vizconde murders (Vizconde massacre): killings of Estrellita, Carmela, and Jennifer Vizconde in Parañaque, Philippines, June 1991; Hubert Webb and six others convicted in 2000, acquitted by the Supreme Court in 2010; case remains unsolved.
Voir dire
Voir dire, French for "to speak the truth," is the pretrial questioning of prospective jurors by judges or lawyers to determine suitability, and of witnesses such as experts; it leads to challenges for cause and peremptory challenges limited by Batson.
Voluntary manslaughter
Voluntary manslaughter, also called nonnegligent manslaughter, is an intentional killing reduced from murder because it occurred in the heat of passion or on legally adequate provocation.
Voyeurism
Voyeurism: sexual arousal from secretly watching unsuspecting people naked, disrobing, or in sexual activity; a paraphilia distinct from voyeuristic disorder (DSM-5-TR, ICD-11 6D31), criminalized as video voyeurism and upskirting in many countries.
Vyapam scam
The Vyapam scam (Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal) was a Madhya Pradesh professional examination and recruitment fraud involving impersonators, leaked papers, and OMR manipulation; over 2,000 arrests, dozens of linked deaths, and a Supreme Court-ordered CBI probe from 2015.
W. D. Jones
W. D. Jones (William Daniel Jones) was a Barrow Gang member who rode with Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow from November 1932 to August 1933, was captured in November 1933, and later gave a 1933 Dallas police statement and a 1968 Playboy account.