6 real-life vigilante stories
When the law has failed, it's easy to sympathize with a heroic vigilante who takes justice into their own hands. But vigilantism is way more complicated than it seems, as the following six examples show.
André Bamberski
For years, André Bamberski pursued justice for his 14-year-old daughter Kalinka, who died while visiting her mother and stepfather, Dr. Dieter Krombach, in the summer of 1982. Her autopsy uncovered multiple injection marks, a torn vagina, and a white substance within her body. Strangely, no one had tested the substance, but someone had inexplicably removed her sex organs during the examination.
The authorities barely questioned Dr. Krombach, a well-respected doctor. He admitted to administering Kobalt-Ferrlecit, which he presented as a treatment and a sleeping pill. Further investigation revealed he had also injected her with several other substances, a dangerous cocktail including dopamine and Isoptin. Some even suspected Krombach's presence at Kalinka's autopsy.
André Bamberski, a French resident, received the autopsy report months later, only to find German prosecutors had closed the case due to insufficient evidence. In 1995, a French court found Krombach guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Two years later, in another German trial, Krombach admitted to drugging and assaulting a different 16-year-old patient. He got a two-year suspended sentence and lost his medical license.
The legal fight continued when the European Court of Human Rights voided Krombach's manslaughter conviction in 2001, blocking France's efforts to have him re-tried. In 2009, Bamberski arranged Krombach’s kidnapping to France, where he left Krombach chained to a fence near a police station. He got a one-year suspended sentence for that.
A French court tried Krombach for involuntary manslaughter. Following further testimony from victims detailing drugging and sexual assault, the court sentenced him to fifteen years in prison. He was released after serving nine years on medical grounds in 2020.
Jason Vukovich
Jason Vukovich, born in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1975 to a single mother, was molested by his stepfather, Larry Fulton. Fueled by anger, Vukovich started attacking individuals registered as sex offenders in 2016. Police apprehended Vukovich in a nearby vehicle; inside, they discovered the hammer, stolen property, and a notebook listing the names of his victims—Charles Albee, Andres Barbosa, and Wesley Demarest.
The authorities charged him with 18 counts of assault, robbery, burglary, and theft, but he took a plea deal. In 2018, the courts sentenced the “Alaskan Avenger” to 28 years in prison.
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Taking justice into your own hands-the aspects of vigilantism
Throughout history, individuals, groups, and organizations have taken matters of justice into their own hands. But what exactly are vigilantes, what drives them, and are their actions justified?
Gary Plauché
In February 1984, Jeff Doucet kidnapped Gary Plauché’s eleven-year-old son, Jody, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and transported him to Anaheim, CA. After Doucet had raped Jody multiple times, he allowed Jody to call his parents. The police traced the call, arrested Doucet, and returned Jody to his family.
In March 1984, Plauché pulled a .38 revolver and shot his son’s abuser with a hollow-point bullet into Doucet’s brain from three feet away. The judge sentenced him to seven years in a suspended sentence, five years on probation, and 300 hours of community service.
Gary Sellers & Robert Bell
In August 2007, the police in Helenwood, Tennessee, arrested and charged 53-year-old Timothy Chandler with the possession of child pornography. Chandler received five years of probation and had to register as a sex offender, but was then released on bond.
Two of his neighbors, Gary Sellers and Robert Bell, decided they didn’t want a pedophile in their town, and hatched a plan to frighten him away by setting the man’s home on fire. Chandler’s wife, Peggy, died in the blaze.
Bell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated assault and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Sellers entered guilty pleas for the facilitation of second-degree murder and arson. He received two concurrent twelve-year sentences.
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Portraits of 6 real-life vigilantes
In an ideal world, justice would prevail for every transgression. However, reality often falls short, and people resort to force and violence to exact revenge against those they perceive as wrongdoers.
Marvin Heemeyer
In June 2004, Marvin Heemeyer transformed a Komatsu D355A bulldozer into a machine aptly nicknamed the “Killdozer”, and destroyed large parts of the town of Granby, Colorado. Despite the menacing name of his vehicle and an arsenal of guns and rifles within it, Heemeyer's rampage only claimed his life.
The crux of his fury was the approval in 2001 for the construction of a concrete plant, zoned for a plot next to his property. Heemeyer vehemently opposed this decision and attempted to have the land rezoned to prevent the plant's establishment, all of which were rejected. Frustrated and weary from continuous bureaucratic defeats, Heemeyer sought vengeance against the town he felt had unjustly thwarted him.
Knights of Mary Phagan
In April 1913, a court sentenced factory owner, Leo Frank, to death for the murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan. In June 1915, one day before his execution, the Governor of Georgia commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
In August 1915, a mob, calling themselves the “Knights of Mary Phagan”, abducted Frank from Milledgeville State Penitentiary, and hanged Frank near Mary Phagan’s home in Marietta, Georgia.
Decades later, a witness came forward, stating that he had seen Jim Conley, the janitor who testified against Frank, carrying Phagan's body into the basement. In 1986, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles posthumously pardoned Leo Frank.
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