Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz (August 10, 1907 – August 26, 1979), born Alvin Karpowicz, nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile, was a noted American criminal known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the 1930s. He was the last "public enemy" to be taken, a capture which elevated J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to national prominence.
Karpis was born to Lithuanian immigrants in Montreal, Quebec, Can...
more
Alvin Francis "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz (August 10, 1907 – August 26, 1979), born Alvin Karpowicz, nicknamed "Creepy" for his sinister smile, was a noted American criminal known for his alliance with the Barker gang in the 1930s. He was the last "public enemy" to be taken, a capture which elevated J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to national prominence.
Karpis was born to Lithuanian immigrants in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and was raised in Topeka, Kansas. He started in crime at about age 10 running around with gamblers, bootleggers, and pimps. When Karpis was 14 he took a 24-year-old librarian at a local library hostage and raped her. He was never tried or captured. In 1926, he was sentenced to 10 years at the State Industrial Reformatory in Hutchinson, Kansas, for an attempted burglary. He escaped with another inmate Lawrence De Vol and went on a year-long crime spree interrupted briefly while he lived with his parents after De Vol was arrested. After...
less
