Criminal Minds

Something that I have been interested in learning more about has been the history of infamous men and women. I remember my old history teacher talking about it during our after school sessions (pm school), but it wasn't really part of the curriculum, so we couldn't spend that much time on those subjects. Lately, the issue has caught my eye again. I know that many people feel that they're not that important to study their true lives behind the scenes. From what I have heard, they're basically normal people, sometimes even heroes to other people. For example, I heard that Pablo Escobar was a hero too many of the poor people in Colombia. He was like a modern day Robin Hood. Now that's just what I've heard, it may or may not be true.

One thing that I know for sure about infamous men and women is that they were just people... just like the rest of us. Many of them simply misunderstood. Now I've studied my share of U.S. & Global History and The lives of many people famous for making the world a better place. Personally, it's funny to me how the lives of infamous men and women are not studied as much as other people. They're story is only told from one side... which is usually the side against them.
The lives and history of infamous men and women might just help us understand why they went about doing the things that they did. For example, Pablo Escobar's past life can explain to the outside world that he was honestly a sweet and loving family man. His original goal was to improve the lives of poor people, no matter what the cost was. He simply got caught up in his dealings and let it all get to his head. He never lost track of his original goal, but the cost became too extensive, and he became a villain.
Being that I didn't have a lot of background information on the lives and history of infamous men and women, I chose to do some research on the topic. As I searched for blogs and news articles on Google, I came across this one article: "Susan Smith - Profile of a Child Killer". This article provided a lot of information and opinions on the background and life of a woman who brutally murdered her two sons. Some people felt that she was simply a psychotic and deranged woman. But others saw her reality... “In her final year of high school, she received the 'friendliest female' award and was known for her cheerful and fun disposition", this statement didn't really surprise me all that much, but it did make me feel more connected to the killer. She was a normal person hiding her life at home from the outside world by fitting in and being cheerful on her exterior. Her outside life was an escape from the horrors and molestation she was going through at home
In another article, "Hunting Pablo Escobar" by the National Geographic, there was this one statement that made me get deeper into my subject as it sent shivers down my spine. It was: “we lived in a time when a gangster was a hero", because it was true. At Pablo Escobar's time, gangsters were respected and loved by many, if not all, of the average civilian. He gave back to his community, building parks and recreation centers for children, as well as taking care of the elderly and always having his neighborhood's back. He was truly a hero to the. He only became an enemy to those who got in his way, which were usually politicians All of this makes me think that it's wrong for historians and classes to teach only one side of the story to all of these infamous men and women. There are always two sides to the story. They should not be discriminated by what they've done. These men and women were people too.