| 1 | [[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MafiaII https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled_1_513.jpg]]]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350:What's a killer to do when the fighting is over?]] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ->''"There's a group of guys down here, ''way'' out on the hairy edge. They did covert stuff, and then... they went rogue. Went renegade, dropped off the face of the Earth, disappeared into drug land. And with their 'special skills', they cut one hell of a swath through their competition."'' |
| 5 | -->-- '''Colonel Styles''', ''Film/{{Basic}}'' |
| 6 | |
| 7 | Being in the military can teach you some skills, but the skill that people most commonly associate with the military, (i.e. how to plan attacks, how to use guns and explosives and how to incapacitate or kill people) doesn't exactly translate well to civilian life. However, there is a way around that for more morally... ''flexible''... people; put those skills to work in crime, especially organized crime, and start [[DeadlyEuphemism thinning out]] the [[{{Gangbangers}} local criminal competition]] with guns and car bombs. |
| 8 | |
| 9 | Many fictional criminals who come from a military background not only tend to be much more effective, dangerous, and capable than everyday thugs, but also tend to have a reputation for ruthlessness and cold-bloodedness when getting their hands dirty in an [[InescapableAmbush ambush]] or assassination. As these guys have years of combat experience and military tactics up their sleeve, it's no surprise that they'll become TheDreaded to communities and other criminal organizations alike. Even the law has to be extra careful when pursuing one; if cornered, a soldier-turned-crook can give the good guys a ''[[CrooksAreBetterArmed nasty]]'' run for their money. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | This trope is particularly common if the character in question is a ShellShockedVeteran who has been broken by their experiences, a SociopathicSoldier who was clearly a bad apple while in the service, and the ReturningWarVet who finds YouCantGoHomeAgain may be likely to fall into this. May be accompanied by NoPlaceForAWarrior. Because ElitesAreMoreGlamorous, expect a character doing this to be from a section of the military either known for being unusually badass or flat out from special forces/covert ops. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | While often exaggerated in the media, this is very definitely TruthInTelevision, in ways which can vary from the tragic to the terrifying. It is also OlderThanFeudalism, at the very least, as it was a significant factor in the ''coup d'etat'' staged by Critias and the other Thirty Tyrants in ancient Athens (of which the execution of Creator/{{Socrates}} was just one consequence). It also played pivotal roles in the 20th century, specifically in the rise of Fascism and Nazism, and conversely, in the Russian and Chinese revolutions. The demobilization of former combat vets is something governments have to treat seriously. If done well, most of these vets can be guided to civilian jobs as [[CityGuards watchmen]], police and light industries. However, if the vets end up unemployed, poor, and bitter, they may be potential recruits for organized crime, or for TheCoup or LaResistance. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | A companion trope to LawmanGoneBad. Contrast BadgesAndDogTags, when ''policemen'' have an ex-military background. Compare and contrast the {{Privateer}}, who was essentially paid by his nation to become a pirate against another nation's shipping, and the BoxedCrook. The inversions are RecruitingTheCriminal and TradingBarsForStripes, where a character facing prison time or in prison is given the choice of serving in the military instead. May sometimes overlap with FormerRegimePersonnel, RogueSoldier and RogueAgent. See also YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters, where two different sides in a conflict disagree on where the line is drawn between "camouflage" and "criminal." |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | !!Examples: |
| 18 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 21 | * ''Manga/BananaFish'' has Dino resorting to recruiting ex-commandos who had seen action in Afghanistan as French Foreign Legion soldiers as a commando force to hunt down Ash and his allies. |
| 22 | * ''Anime/BlackLagoon'': |
| 23 | ** Lagoon Associates' Dutch is said to be a Vietnam War swift-boat veteran, and puts his skills to use at the helm of the smuggler/pirate protagonists' UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era Elco PT boat. [[spoiler:Caxton, the commander of the US Special Forces unit Grey Fox, realizes after speaking with him that Dutch says he was part of a unit that didn't participate in an operation he cited and doesn't recognize common GI slang from the period. Later chapters suggest Dutch does in fact have military experience, he's just lying about the details.]] |
| 24 | ** Hotel Moscow is a {{Mafiya}} group composed of ex-Army Spetsnaz commandos and VDV paratroopers, led by veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War and shown in the {{Yakuza}} arc to have connections to the Russian government. Their military skills and personal loyalty to their old commanding officer [[IronLady Balalaika]] make them the single most-feared of the many criminal organizations in [[WretchedHive Roanapur]]. Most feared of all is their private army, the [[EliteMooks Vysotniki]], similarly composed of Soviet and Russian combat veterans: when Balalaika deploys them during Hansel and Gretel's rampage, Dutch recalls the carnage they wreaked against the other Roanapur syndicates when Hotel Moscow was first setting up shop. |
| 25 | * ''Manga/CrazyFoodTruck'': Gordon and Arisa visit Blue Lake City, and help liberate them from a gang of military deserters. |
| 26 | * ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' has an arc dealing with a group of ex-soldiers who have formed their own group of marauders, led by a Colonel with ESP. |
| 27 | * ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'': |
| 28 | ** WellIntentionedExtremist[=/=]AntiVillain Kuze was once a soldier of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces, before becoming extremely disillusioned with his work and deserted from his North Korean outpost. |
| 29 | ** The episode "JUNGLE CRUISE" has Marco Amoretti, a former [[DividedStatesOfAmerica American Imperial Navy]] special warfare operator-turned-SerialKiller after being driven insane by atrocities he was ordered to commit in [[WorldWarWhatever World War IV]] as terror tactics against anti-AE guerrilla forces. Batou came across some of Amoretti's handiwork in the war while stationed there with a [=JGSDF=] Ranger contingent and is determined to stop him. |
| 30 | ** Some of the Individual Eleven terrorists investigated by Section 9 were career airmen/officers with the Japanese Air-Self Defense Forces and were hinted to be involved in assassination and bombing attacks throughout Japan. |
| 31 | * ''Manga/MoriartyThePatriot'': Moran had already returned from war as a Colonel after being marked K.I.A. by the time he meets William and devotes himself to William's life of crime. |
| 32 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'': |
| 33 | ** One of the Super Rookie pirates, X. Drake was once a Rear Admiral in the Marines, seemingly following in the footsteps of his late father Barrels, who was also a Navy man who became a pirate. [[spoiler:Subverted once he's revealed to be a spy and FakeDefector.]] |
| 34 | ** Hody Jones was once part of the Fishman Island's Neptune's Royal Army before he became the captain of the New Fishman Pirates. |
| 35 | ** [[spoiler:Monkey D. Dragon]] learned to fight in the Navy, but disagreed with their ideas of justice. He left to [[spoiler:form the Revolutionary Army and became the most wanted man in the world.]] |
| 36 | ** After Akainu's promotion to Fleet Admiral, [[spoiler:Admiral Kuzan]] leaves the Marines and joins the Blackbeard Pirates. |
| 37 | ** In the non-canon movie ''Anime/DeadEndAdventure'', the main antagonist Gasparde used to be a marine before stealing a ship and becoming a pirate captain. |
| 38 | * ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'' is set in 1870s Japan following the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration. A number of villains are unemployed former {{samurai}} and {{ronin}} who turned to crime. |
| 39 | [[/folder]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 42 | * Creator/DCComics: |
| 43 | ** ''{{ComicBook/Batman}}'': The obscure villain Gunhawk is a former [[SemperFi USMC]] sniper turned assassin. |
| 44 | ** ''ComicBook/CaptainAtom'': Clifford Zmeck was originally a US Air Force sergeant until he was court martialed and convicted of rape and murder. He was offered a chance to participate in the science experiment that granted Captain Atom his powers and became the supervillain Major Force. |
| 45 | ** ''{{ComicBook/Deathstroke}}'' (aka Slade Wilson). He joined the army at a young age, lying about his age and was part of a SuperSoldier program. After being set up by one of his commanding officers, he became a notorious mercenary for hire. |
| 46 | ** ''{{ComicBook/Hitman}}'': Tommy Monaghan was a sniper in the USMC before returning to Gotham to become a professional hitman. |
| 47 | ** ''{{Franchise/Superman}}'': In the backstory of ''ComicBook/TheThirdKryptonian'', Karsta and many of her friends in the Kryptonian Stellar Navy became mercenaries and SpacePirates after the navy was disbanded. Returning home would have cost them the powers they gained under yellow suns, as well as their cherished lifestyles as soldiers. However, many of them eventually returned to Krypton or retired to more peaceful lives. |
| 48 | * Creator/MarvelComics: |
| 49 | ** ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': |
| 50 | *** Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, in all his various incarnations, is a veteran turned VigilanteMan after his family is killed by criminals, and he goes far, far outside the law to act as JudgeJuryAndExecutioner on any criminal he meets. He's also faced off with other veterans of various wars (mostly Vietnam) who have turned to crime (including a former squadmate and an unnamed colonel smuggling drugs in the bodies of fallen American soldiers). |
| 51 | *** The Slavers from ''Comicbook/ThePunisherMAX'' arc of the same name are hardened soldiers and war criminals from the Bosnian War. The fact that they're all former professional soldiers puts them well above the average Mafia goons and even have Frank on the ropes for a while. |
| 52 | *** Also from MAX comics; Barracuda the AxCrazy mercenary and Frank's arch-nemesis (or as close as it gets), who is a former Green Beret, and didn't even wait to be kicked out to start a drug-smuggling operation in Nicaragua. |
| 53 | *** Sniper is a former squad mate of Frank's in Vietnam, who became a ProfessionalKiller after the war, putting his sniper skills to good use and earning a reputation as one of the finest long-range shots in the world. |
| 54 | ** ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Adrien Toomes was a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII fighter pilot, and quite a skilled one at that. This gave him some inside knowledge when he founded his company Toomes Aerodynamic. The skills further translated when, seeking revenge on a treacherous business partner, he donned his famous wings and took to the skies as the villainous Vulture. |
| 55 | ** ''{{ComicBook/Venom}}'': |
| 56 | *** The symbiote itself was purportedly bred to be an Agent of the Cosmos -- a member of an order of noble warriors dedicated to maintaining peace across the universe -- but was corrupted into a bloodthirsty predator by its first host. This was retconned to it being a veteran of the Kree/Skrull war, ending up becoming a supervillain-turned vigilante antihero. |
| 57 | *** Lee Price, the symbiote's sixth human host, was a member of the Army Rangers discharged after a mine damaged his hand, and who turned to crime to make ends meet. |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/LobsterRandom'' is a former SuperSoldier who turned to a life of crime after being discharged from the military after a war ended. He specialises as a TortureTechnician and his inability to feel pain leaves him no empathy for his victims. |
| 59 | * In ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'', Joss Jamon's gang turned to crime after the end of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. |
| 60 | * In ''ComicBook/SherwoodTexas'', Rob Hood is a decorated Navy veteran who takes over running the Jesters outlaw motorcycle gang when his father is murdered. |
| 61 | [[/folder]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 64 | * ''Fanfic/DeathAndTaxes'': While serving in [[GreatOffscreenWar some ambiguous war]], several of Flippy's friends he fought with were sent to their death by his commander, which sent him spiraling down a path of anger and revenge. In the modern day, he terrorizes the cursed town he's trapped in along with the rest of its inhabitants, utilizing torture and fear to get his way. |
| 65 | * In ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'', it's revealed that after [[WesternAnimation/TheBlackCauldron the demise of the Horned King]], the few of his former soldiers who survived have been terrorizing Prydain's villages and selling people into illegal slavery as outlaws. It comes as no surprise to the [[ResurrectedForAJob resurrected Horned King]] that his former henchmen haven't needed him to continue their barbaric lifestyle. |
| 66 | * In ''Fanfic/TheButcherBird'', while not elaborated on extensively, Cha Chandos of [[TheBerserker the Oni]] is a former [[{{Mooks}} Marine]] who killed his commanding officer and ended up joining a pirate crew afterwards. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 70 | * ''WesternAnimation/BatmanGothamByGaslight'': [[spoiler:The SerialKiller "UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper" (a.k.a. [[AdaptationalVillainy Commissioner James Gordon]]) is a [[BadgesAndDogTags soldier-turned-cop]]-[[LawmanGoneBad turned-serial-killer]]. He served as a [[CombatMedic battlefield surgeon]] in the Union Army during the UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar. Though he was [[ShellShockedVeteran broken by his combat experiences]], seeing fellow soldiers dying from venereal diseases spread by the {{camp follower}}s drove him further off the edge, instilling him with a violent hatred of prostitutes. After the war, he joined the Gotham City Police Department and eventually rose to the rank of Commissioner, but his [[KnightTemplar extremist views on enforcing law and order]] led him to begin secretly murdering [[DisposableSexWorker prostitutes]], along with other types of people whom he blamed for Gotham's moral corruption. The fact that Gordon is a war veteran with plenty of fighting experience, in addition to being a tall and muscular [[BoxingBattler boxing champion]], allows him to seriously challenge Batman and give him a lot of trouble during their final duel.]] |
| 71 | [[/folder]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 74 | * Creator/AlPacino has (coincidentally) played this type of character on three separate occasions:[[note]](It should be noted that Al Pacino has never been a soldier nor a criminal in real life.)[[/note]] |
| 75 | ** Michael Corleone from ''Film/TheGodfather'' was a [[SemperFi US Marine captain]] in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and although he had wanted to avoid getting entangled in "[[TheMafia the family business]]" in the past, once he does get involved with it, he proves shockingly effective and ruthless in ways his other criminal rivals are completely unprepared for. |
| 76 | ** Sonny Wortzik in ''Film/DogDayAfternoon'' tries to keep the police from storming the bank by saying that he and his cohort were in the Army in [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], and have no problem getting violent with the hostages. While at the time it seems like a desperate bluff, later on, he is seen showing some of the hostages how he learned to march and handle a gun during training. His relationship with the hostages makes it pretty clear he doesn't intend to hurt them, however. In fact Sonny subverts nearly all of the stereotypes associated with this trope; despite his bluff he isn't ruthless and has no intention of hurting innocents, he badly fumbles the robbery because he hasn't put any real planning or thought into it, ands while he has some level of StreetSmart, (for example [[CanAlwaysSpotACop he correctly sees through a ploy where a cop disguised as a civilian tries to worm info out of him]]) he's in over his head all throughout the film. |
| 77 | ** Tony Montana of ''Film/Scarface1983'' is a former Cuban Army soldier who gradually becomes a fearsome Miami [[TheCartel cocaine kingpin]], and quickly becomes known for being quite fearless and ruthless to his rivals. Tony's military training could explain his deadly skills with firearms, such as an [[MoreDakka assault rifle]] and {{grenade launcher}} that he uses to [[OneManArmy kill dozens of enemy gangsters]] with in the final battle. |
| 78 | * While no attention is drawn to it, Porter from ''Film/{{Payback}}'' has a [[SemperFi USMC]] tattoo and is a dangerously effective and utterly ruthless criminal who is more than capable of taking down drug dealers, {{Dirty Cop}}s, [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triads]], or even TheSyndicate if any of them stand in the way of getting back the money his ex-partner stole from him. |
| 79 | * ''Film/{{Basic}}'' takes place in Panama before the US base closed up there. The film has a rumor going around on base that a group of high-level covert ops guys and elite Army Rangers turned to crime and set themselves up as a criminal empire. And since some members of the group were trained by the much feared and hated [[DrillSergeantNasty Sergeant West]], who is infamous for making his trainees want to kill him, and West has just gone missing along with a number of his current trainees, it's speculated that they may be behind it. The ending shows that this rumor is false, but [[spoiler:the course of the movie shows that the base's commander, Colonel Styles, and several others, including members of the medical staff, were involved in smuggling drugs back to the US ''and'' distributing stimulants to soldiers on the base.]] |
| 80 | * The bad guys of ''Film/LethalWeapon1987'' are former members of a Vietnam era covert ops unit who have since turned into a major heroin syndicate. |
| 81 | * The bad guys from ''Film/DieHard2'' are a rogue military unit, [[spoiler:or two]] who violently oppose a changing US foreign policy and decide to go rogue and save TheGeneralissimo who was a former US ally in the Cold War and is now been arrested and put on trial. Their ruthlessness and competence are shown more than once, especially in how they slaughter the police SWAT team. |
| 82 | * The baddies in ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'' are mostly members of a former East German special forces unit specialising in infiltration and sabotage. |
| 83 | * Neil [=McCauley=] from ''Film/{{Heat}}'' is a retired Marine who has since turned to specializing in armed robberies, leading an extremely skilled crew who draw special attention from the police. |
| 84 | * In ''Film/RocknRolla'', TheDragon of Russian gangster Yuri is former Spetznaz, as are two old war buddies of his who he calls in at one point. Those two show themselves to be much tougher than the petty gangsters they tangle with and almost [[TheDeterminator superhumanly determined]]. |
| 85 | * ''Film/TheManFromUNCLE'': Napoleon was in the Army helping track down art stolen by the Nazis, and took to thieving himself. He was eventually caught, but the CIA decided his skill-set was too useful to be locked up and made an agreement with him to work for them. |
| 86 | * ''Film/DeadPresidents'', follows a group of black soldiers through Vietnam, their alienation upon returning home, and their eventual decision to commit armed robbery. In a subversion of the trope, their organisation and military skills don't do them much good. |
| 87 | * An InvokedTrope in ''Film/TheLeagueOfGentlemen''. The eponymous league is a gang of cashiered British army officers brought together to use their various military specialties (demolitions, communications, etc.) to stage a bank robbery. |
| 88 | * ''Film/TheLastOutlaw'' is about a unit of Confederate ex-soldiers led by their bitter colonel who turned outlaw after the end of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar. |
| 89 | * ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'': |
| 90 | ** In ''Film/IronMan3'', the Mandarin's elite mooks are all war veterans who suffered career-ending injuries on the battlefield. They were recruited with the promise of having their injuries undone with Extremis. |
| 91 | ** ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' reimagines Helmut Zemo from someone who was essentially raised to be a supervillain by his NaziNobleman father to a former special forces officer who turned to villainy after the destruction of his country and the loss of his family, for which he blames the Avengers. |
| 92 | ** In ''Film/BlackPanther2018'', Erik "Killmonger" Stevens is a former US black-ops operative turned international criminal and the usurper of Wakanda's throne. |
| 93 | * The villains of ''Film/{{Keoma}}'' are former Confederate soldiers who have taken over a small frontier town. |
| 94 | * The bad guys in ''Film/XXx'' are all ex-Russian military who started a grand theft auto network in Europe to make a profit. Subverted though in that this is simply so they can finance their real objective, which is anarchic terrorism. |
| 95 | * Cain Miro of ''Film/{{Gunslinger}}'' is an ex-Confederate soldier turned gun-for-hire. He takes the job as hired muscle for the film's BigBad both for the money and a chance for revenge on the town's mayor (Cain's former commanding officer, who Cain considers a traitor and a coward). |
| 96 | * The bank robbery crew in ''Film/DenOfThieves'' is made up exclusively of ex-Marines. |
| 97 | * In ''Film/Triple9'', Russell and Michael are ex-navy [=SEALs=]. On watching the video of the bank robbery, one of the cops comments that these guys have had tactical training. |
| 98 | * ''Film/Juggernaut1974'': While defusing the bombs planted by Juggernaut, the BombDisposal officer realises they resemble a particular German TimeBomb used during World War 2, and tells the police to consult a man he served with during the war who has experience with such devices. He turns out to be Juggernaut. |
| 99 | * ''Film/AssaultOnWallStreet'': Jim is an army veteran. The skills he acquired in the military come in handy both in his initial job as an armored truck driver, and later when he becomes a domestic terrorist and assassinates various high-profile targets in the financial sector. |
| 100 | * The original ''Film/Oceans11'' has ten of them being former paratroopers who wanted to put those skills back to use by robbing casinos. |
| 101 | * ''Film/HarshTimes'' is about a former Army Ranger who committed numerous wartime atrocities. He's now back stateside and has gotten into drug dealing with local gangs. The film follows his attempt to get ''back'' into the military doing black ops for the Department of Homeland Security, but first he has to find a way to beat the drug test. |
| 102 | * ''Film/TigerHouse'': Shane did two tours of duty with Callum's father. It is implied that it was the other man's death from cancer that inspired Shane to leave the military and take up a life of crime. |
| 103 | * In ''Film/AccidentMan'', Mac and Mick are a pair of form special forces soldiers (one British, one American) turned {{Professional Killer}}s. |
| 104 | * Knockout Ned (AKA Mané Galinha) from ''Film/CityOfGod'' served in the Brazilian Army for an unspecified period of time; he states that he was the best marksman in his squad, and that he also learned martial arts during his military service. Though he tried to live an honest life as a law-abiding citizen afterwards, he unfortunately crossed paths with a ruthless gangster named Lil' Zé, who violently attacked Ned and his loved ones. Ned then becomes allied with Zé's rival Carrot, and soon he starts participating in armed robberies and a brutal gang war across Rio de Janeiro in order to get his revenge on Zé. |
| 105 | * ''Film/TheKillingOfAChineseBookie'' has a riff on the concept. Cosmo is a Korean War veteran who's sucked into the underworld to pay off gambling debts. Mobsters strongarm him into doing a contract murder of a Chinese criminal rival, expecting him to [[UriahGambit get killed by the man's bodyguards afterwards]]. Things hit a snag when Cosmo mows through all the Chinese gangsters and lives. The mob then tries to put out a hit on him, but he proves to be more than they can handle. During one confrontation, Cosmo dismisses the mobsters as "amateurs." |
| 106 | * {{Implied}} with ''Film/JohnWick'', a HitmanWithAHeart whose back tattoo includes a variant of the motto of the 3rd Marine Regiment: "Fortis Fortuna Adiuvat" instead of "Fortes Fortuna Juvat".[[note]]"Fortune favors ''he'' who is bold" as opposed to "Fortune favors ''those'' who are bold"[[/note]]. Before he went to work for Viggo Tarasov and the Continental, John used to work for the military and presumably picked up his very deadly fighting and gunplay skills from them. Actor Creator/KeanuReeves, who helped write the story, [[WordOfGod confirmed]] John's military service. |
| 107 | * ''Film/WrathOfMan'': Jackson's gang is a group of disgruntled ex-soldiers who have turned to a life of crime. They start with a fairly amateur home invasion but then use their military training to plan more complex armored truck roberries. However, one of them turns out to be a SociopathicSoldier who murders two guards and a bystander. |
| 108 | * ''Film/TheLastHeist'': Most of the criminals are ex-military. |
| 109 | * In ''Film/{{Battletruck}}'', Col. Straker was a decorated U.S. Army officer prior to the Oil Wars, and is now a post-apocalyptic warlord in the same vein as [[Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior Lord Humungus]]. |
| 110 | * In ''Film/GrandSlam'', Sergeant Eric Weiss is a German ex-military man (probably a paratrooper) who acts as the muscle for the CaperCrew. |
| 111 | * ''Film/{{Surrounded}}'': Tommy Walsh, a notorious bandit, says he fought in the American Civil War with the Union Army. |
| 112 | [[/folder]] |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 115 | * The ''Scarface'' novel (which the ''Film/Scarface1932'' movie was based on) gives this backstory to its rising criminal kingpin named Tony Guarino. Notably, it not only explains his greater expertise at killing (and his trademark scar), but also gives him a convenient amount of anonymity, as a newspaper [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated mistakenly reported him as having been killed during]] UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. |
| 116 | * Played with in ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby''. The title character, Jay Gatsby, is an American UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran who later became a successful millionaire businessman by TheRoaringTwenties. Later on through the story, it's revealed that he acquired his fortune through not-so-legitimate methods -- he's apparently a bootlegger involved with alcohol smuggling during Prohibition, and his business partners include mobsters such as [[KosherNostra Meyer Wolfsheim]]. However, Gatsby's military service is never brought up as a connection to his criminal activities; and (at least as far as we know), he never directly got his own hands dirty by engaging in the more violent side of organized crime. |
| 117 | * ''Literature/HammersSlammers'': In ''The Sharp End'' former Slammer Angel Tijuca returns to his homeworld after his enlistment term is over and ends up working for one of the drug cartels fighting over it. He spends his time trying (and failing) to train their thugs and just getting stoned most of the time. |
| 118 | * Franchise/StarWarsLegends: |
| 119 | ** Several books (including ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' and ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'') establish that Han Solo had once undergone officer training in the Imperial Navy, but left the service not long after and turned to being a pilot for hire and smuggler. ''The Thrawn Trilogy'' is pretty vague about the details of how/when/why Han left the navy, but ''The Han Solo Trilogy'' shows the events in full detail: he was dishonorably discharged for attacking a superior officer to protect the Wookiee slaves he was abusing. One slave, name of Chewbacca, swore a LifeDebt to Han and started following him around. In fact, Han had been a criminal prior to joining the Empire and then was forced into it again since he was blacklisted from legal piloting with his dishonorable discharge. |
| 120 | ** Mara Jade was an Emperor's Hand, a private spy and assassin with limited Force training employed directly by Emperor Palpatine. She ended up as unemployed FormerRegimePersonnel after Endor, becoming a gun-for-hire and eventually falling in with smuggling kingpin Talon Karrde. During the ''Thrawn Trilogy'', Luke Skywalker begins training her as a Jedi, and she ultimately joins the New Jedi Order as one of its first Jedi Masters. |
| 121 | ** ''Literature/IJedi'' has BigBad Leonia Tavira. Originally the TrophyWife of an Imperial moff, she arranged her husband's downfall and took his job, then turned warlord after the death of the Emperor. By the start of the book, she's the admiral of a coalition of SpacePirates dubbed the "Invids" after her flagship, the Star Destroyer ''Invidious''. |
| 122 | * ''Literature/PrinceOfTheCity''. The 'paratroopers' are particularly tough Mafiosi with military experience in [=WW2=]. |
| 123 | * ''Literature/JackReacher'' frequently features veterans engaging in criminal behavior. Reacher doesn't take kindly to this, and the novel usually ends with him beating the unholy hell out of them. |
| 124 | * One of the major villains of the ''Literature/JohnRain'' series is Jim Hilger, ex-Special Forces and former CIA agent who causes the title character no end of headaches. Could also technically apply to Rain himself, as he served in Vietnam before pursuing his career as a freelance assassin. |
| 125 | * ''Literature/{{Parker}}'' served in the army in Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII before being dishonorably discharged for black marketeering. Although he was probably a criminal before he enlisted (or was drafted), it is implied his time in the service is part of why he is so good with firearms. Due to ComicBookTime, his military service is not mentioned in the later novels. |
| 126 | * In near-future thriller ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', DarkMessiah John Rumford and his group of militiamen are a KnightTemplar example. As rebels against the increasingly dysfunctional and corrupt Federal Government, the veterans who join the [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Christian Marines]] are technically criminals, and this is certainly how their enemies see them. Early on, Rumford and his lieutenant, former Gunnery Sergeant Matthews, use military discipline and tactics to rally the downtrodden citizens into a formidable force to take on the ethnic crime gangs who terrorize their neighborhoods, thus building popularity and muscling in on their business. Later, they move on to overt anti-government action. |
| 127 | * In many adaptations of ''Franchise/SherlockHolmes'', Holmes' EvilCounterpart Moriarty has [[TheDragon a dragon]] named Sebastian Moran who is an ex-Army officer and ColdSniper. This actually comes from the original stories, although there, Moran only appears (in just one story) after Moriarty is dead. |
| 128 | * In ''Literature/RedDragon'', the serial killer of the novel spent time in the military in the fallout of a crime that was apparently never entirely cleared up, which is how his lifelong cleft lip and palate became the subject of a then-experimental surgical procedure. |
| 129 | * ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'''s [[TheDon John Marcone]] mentions enlisting "in a fit of youthful patriotism" alongside his enforcer [[TheDragon Hendricks]]. |
| 130 | * ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'': Kovacs ran with street gangs before enlisting with the UN Protectorate [[SuperSoldier Envoy]] corps, and after mustering out found that the civilian job market for sociopathic killing machines was somewhat limited. With the result that most of the time he worked as a mercenary for criminal syndicates. According to him most other ex-Envoys do the same. |
| 131 | * In the early ''Literature/NickVelvet'' stories, it is established that Nick dropped out of high school and joined the army; serving in an overseas conflict (before ComicBookTime kicked in, this would have been UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar). It is never plays a major part in the stories, but it is established that it was in the service that Nick discovered his talent for illegal activity that would become his career when he was discharged. |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 135 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': |
| 136 | ** Floyd Lawson/Deadshot is a former US Army sniper whose [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatic experiences]] resulted in the dissolution of his marriage. After he was imprisoned for drawing a gun on his wife, Lawton was approached by an agent of H.I.V.E. who offered him money and freedom in exchange for killing a man named Andy Diggle and the rest is history. |
| 137 | ** On occasion, the [[MonsterOfTheWeek villain of the week]] is ex-military, like a crew in season one that robbed armored cars using tactics they picked up in their Special Forces training, or an officer in the second season who supplies his gangster Foster brother with assault rifle shipments. |
| 138 | ** As always, Deathstroke is an example, despite his AdaptationalNationality. Here, he was an Australian secret agent who turned to mercenary work after a mission went horribly wrong (he lost the woman he loved and was injected with a PsychoSerum that gave him superpowers), and ended up working with several violent criminals and cutthroat corporate executives to terrorise his perceived enemy. |
| 139 | * The title character of ''Series/{{Barry}}'' is a ShellShockedVeteran of Afghanistan; after returning home with PTSD and depression and no applicable civilian skills, he is manipulated by a family friend into becoming a hitman. At the start of the show, Barry's depression is back, and he's looking for a way out of his life of crime. His handler Fuches also served in the military during the Vietnam War, albeit as a cook. |
| 140 | * ''Series/TheBlacklist'': |
| 141 | ** Raymond Reddington, ex-US Navy officer turned criminal after he was framed for being a KGB mole. |
| 142 | ** Gaia was formerly a US Navy pilot who saw action in Fukushima before he turned into a pro-environment criminal and terrorist. |
| 143 | * One episode of ''Series/BlueBloods'' features a SympatheticCriminal variant when a group of USMC Iraq War vets robs a bank [[spoiler:to pay for medical procedures for the leader's husband, a squadmate, when the VA won't]]. They run headlong into fellow Iraq vet Danny Reagan, who became an NYPD detective instead (following family tradition). |
| 144 | * Both Jimmy Darmody and Richard Harrow from ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'' were WWI soldiers who were hardened by their experiences and alienated from their past friends, family, and society in general. [[HitmanWithAHeart While decent enough in many ways]], they fall into bootlegging and being hardcore gangsters with few, if any moral qualms, and often prove themselves much more competent and deadly than most of the thugs they encounter. |
| 145 | * Season 2 of ''Series/{{Braquo}}'' revolves around a gang called "The Invisibles", the sole survivors of a Légion Etrangère unit dispatched to Angola, led by [[ColonelBadass Colonel Aymeric Dantin]]. They have turned to blackmail, armed robbery and outright murder in order to get revenge on the French officials who betrayed them, and get enough money to compensate the families of their fallen comrades and then disappear. |
| 146 | * [[Characters/BreakingBadMikeEhrmantraut Mike Ehrmantraut]] from ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' is strongly implied to be this trope in the latter show, which was later confirmed by WordOfGod. He served as a [[SemperFi US Marine]] during the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar, [[BadgesAndDogTags before he joined the Philadelphia Police Department]]. Mike (who was already a fairly [[DirtyCop corrupt policeman]]) eventually [[LawmanGoneBad went rogue]] after his son (who was also a cop) was murdered by his own treacherous partners in the police force, whom Mike then killed for revenge before fleeing to Albuquerque. He eventually found new work as a security guard, enforcer and [[ProfessionalKiller hitman]] for local [[CorruptCorporateExecutive fast-food tycoon/meth kingpin]] [[Characters/BreakingBadGustavoFring Gustavo Fring]], and always conducts his duties as Gus' [[TheDragon right-hand henchman]] with unflinching professionalism. Mike's military/police training can explain all his various fighting skills such as stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and marksmanship with firearms ([[ColdSniper including sniper rifles]]); all of which he frequently uses to successfully take down enemy gangsters in most confrontations, even when he's outnumbered and outgunned by them. |
| 147 | * ''Series/BurnNotice'' features these quite often: |
| 148 | ** Main character Michael went from being a tough street kid to Army Special Forces to CIA legend to someone who works outside the law to manipulate and destroy criminal organizations on a weekly basis while seldom, if ever, being in real danger from the criminals he takes down. His team member Sam Axe is a former Navy SEAL who was forced into early retirement by a scandal that ensued from his last mission (the circumstances are explored in the spinoff ''Film/BurnNoticeTheFallOfSamAxe''). |
| 149 | ** Occasionally a VillainOfTheWeek will be ex-military or a former intelligence agent of some sort, and they are generally depicted as presenting a much greater danger and more difficult challenge to Team Weston than the normal crooks and con men they usually deal with. One such case is the ex-Green Berets and Marines operating a heroin ring in the first season finale, and many more would come after that. The show's recurring villains are also often ex-military, such as: |
| 150 | *** Michael's EvilMentor Larry was once involved in covert ops, and now he's a FauxAffablyEvil (and ''completely'' psycho) [[PsychoForHire assassin for hire]] whose solution to every problem is "If you kill enough people it'll sort itself out." |
| 151 | *** Tyler Brennan was once Military Intelligence, now he's an ArmsDealer. |
| 152 | *** Gilroy went from being involved in black ops for the British government to a RogueAgent to a freelance killer/spy who will do any job, for anyone, anywhere in the world if the pay is right and it amuses him enough. These jobs range from assassination to terrorism for hire to selling nuclear secrets on the black market. |
| 153 | * ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': Kate Beckett's character arc has her dealing with a CorruptPolitician who has a gang of former special warfare operators employed as his personal assassins. [[ItsPersonal One of their victims was her mother]]. |
| 154 | * ''Series/ColonelMarchOfScotlandYard'': In "The Headless Hat", the mysterious 'Monsieur Z' was a leader of LaResistance during WWII. However, when the war ended, rather than returning, Z stayed in the shadows and used their skills at organization and subterfuge to take control of the Marseilles underworld. |
| 155 | * The Blacksmith from Season 2 of ''Series/Daredevil2015'' is actually [[spoiler:Colonel Ray Shoonover, Frank Castle's former officer. He and some of his most [[AFatherToHisMen loyal men]] became drug dealers after the war and he is partially responsible for the massacre of the Castle family]]. |
| 156 | * ''Series/DarkWinds'': Frank Nakia is a highly decorated Vietnam veteran. After coming home, he became involved with murder and bank robbery as part of the radical Buffalo Society. |
| 157 | * Malcolm Reynolds and Zoe Washburne from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' were a sergeant and a corporal, respectively, in the Independent Faction army during the Unification War, and are now captain and first mate of a {{Space Pirate|s}}/smuggling crew. Mal likes to insist that "the war's long done; we're all just folk now," but he's still bitter that the Independents lost and will sometimes do things he normally wouldn't (like sheltering River and Simon), just so he can flip the bird to the [[NicknamingTheEnemy purple-bellies]]. In |
| 158 | * ''Series/GangRelated'': The Metas Cartel heavily recruits Mexican special forces soldiers, making them even more dangerous than most cartels as a result. |
| 159 | * John Kline in Creator/TheBBC's ''Gangsters'' is a former SAS operative who turned to crime. |
| 160 | * Jeremiah Bello from ''Series/{{Graceland}}'' was a soldier in his home in Nigeria, and after being on the wrong side of a coup, came to Los Angeles and set himself up as a drug kingpin. Mike infiltrates his organization by pretending to be a Marine turning to criminal ventures on the side, and Bello hires him to give his gangsters proper training in guns and marksmanship. Later on, Mike gets fellow FBIAgent "Johnny" Tuturro to go undercover in a similar role, aided by Johnny's past as a sailor in the Navy and [[UsefulNotes/NavySeals Navy SEAL]] trainee. |
| 161 | * One episode of ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' focuses on a former military sharpshooter who has had a nervous breakdown and goes on a killing spree. |
| 162 | * ''Series/{{Justified}}'': |
| 163 | ** Bo Crowder and Arlo Givens served in Vietnam together where they met Drew Thompson, a military pilot. After the war, Bo and Arlo returned to Harlan County and made a living stealing mining equipment while Drew flew drug shipments for the Detroit Mob. When Drew run afoul of Theo Tonin, he stole 2 million worth of drugs from the mob and faked his own death. He was forced to seek help from Bo and Arlo who used the drugs to turn themselves into the crime kingpins of Harlan County. In contrast Drew [[spoiler:became an honest policeman]]. |
| 164 | ** Bo Crowder's son, Boyd, served in the Iraq War and when he returned home he became a notorious criminal. He later recruited Colton Rhodes, a war buddy of his and a former military policeman to be his second in command. While Boyd came out of the war mostly OK, Colton turned out to be a mess and suffered from PTSD and heroin abuse which made him a highly unstable criminal. |
| 165 | ** Hunter Mosley at one point [[spoiler:while discussing how his tenure as a DirtyCop working for the Dixie Mafia was also spent putting down home-grown criminals]] recounts to Raylan Givens an old acquaintance of theirs named Chris Lighter, who served as a Marine before he came back and became a marijuana grower that operated from Kentucky ''all the way to the Virginia border''. |
| 166 | ** In season 6, Avery Markham brings in Tigerhawk Securities as his main muscle in his bid to control the soon-to-be-legal marijuana trade in Harlan County. The security company is composed of three veterans who served together in the Iraq War. They still maintain the old chain of command and sometimes even address each other by their old ranks. |
| 167 | * ''Series/TheKillPoint'': The hostage-takers were part of a military unit that saw combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, but were dishonorably discharged after refusing to carry out a SuicideMission. Some of their old comrades later reunite in Pittsburgh to help them stage a break-out. |
| 168 | * ''Series/LAsFinest'': Duke Ingram is a military veteran who's now a therapist and supposedly helping other veterans with PTSD. However, he really recruits them to be assassins, carrying out hits in LA's Koreatown. |
| 169 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderOrganizedCrime'': |
| 170 | ** Stabler is nearly killed by a hit woman who's a former soldier. |
| 171 | ** In season 4 Stabler finds out a Marine veteran is leading other veterans he's recruited into drug trafficking. He infiltrates the group going undercover to stop the operation. |
| 172 | * ''Series/LetTheRightOneIn'': A drug dealer's enforcer who hunts down Mark served in the US Army Special Operations. |
| 173 | * ''Series/{{Leverage}}'': In one episode, Eliot, Parker, and Hardison foil an attempted assassination by a sniper. Eliot realizes the shooter used to be in the Navy [=SEALs=] based on a specific type of watch he was wearing. Eliot also used to be in Spec Ops before he went beyond the bounds of lawful. |
| 174 | * ''Series/MayansMC'': |
| 175 | ** A lot of the Mayans are veterans of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror. |
| 176 | ** Another gang made up of veterans shows up in one episode of Season One and the latter half of Season Five. They are major players in the California drug trade; acting as middlemen for TheCartel on the street, and controlling all contraband in the Southern California prison system. They are exceptionally violent, combining their military training with tactics adopted from jihadists, but also exceptionally loyal to each other; in their first appearance they force E.Z. and Angel to smuggle an Afghan translator who was denied asylum and his wife into the country from Mexico. Despite not being overtly racist, they also apparently control the white supremacist prison gangs and Iron War, a Neo-Nazi tinged biker gang made up of cops and prison guards. |
| 177 | * ''Series/{{Mindhunter}}'' William Henry Hance is a serial killer who operated while stationed at Fort Benning in Georgia, and his first few victims were women at the base, until he moved on to sex workers. The service history of David Berkowitz aka. Son of Sam is briefly mentioned. |
| 178 | * ''Series/TheNightAgent'': Gordon Wick is a former US Special Forces soldier turned CEO of Turn Lake Industries (they are PrivateMilitaryContractors). He uses murder and extortion to eliminate issues preventing him from profiting. One of the people he employed to commit a bombing also was once in the military. |
| 179 | * In ''Series/TheNightManager'', BigBad Richard Roper employs a mercenary force that seems to be mostly or entirely composed of former soldiers who like the military life and who are unburdened by excessive morality. His big mistake is thinking that his new employee, Jonathan Pine, is a high-end version of the same type, when in fact, [[spoiler:Pine has [[TheInfiltration a very different agenda]]]]. |
| 180 | * ''Series/{{Oz}}'': |
| 181 | ** Burr Redding, a middle-aged drug dealer and member of the Homeboys prison gang (a faction of black inmates in Oz), also happens to be a {{shell shocked|Veteran}} [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veteran]]. |
| 182 | ** Edward Galson is a [[SemperFi US Marine colonel]] who was serving a sentence in Oz after being convicted of [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil raping]] a fellow female officer. Subverted, though, in that [[spoiler:his military experience didn't make him a more efficient criminal, but rather too arrogant to effectively kill another inmate who kills him instead]]. |
| 183 | * ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' is about the rise to power of the eponymous gang in Birmingham after WWI. Arthur, Tommy, and John all served in a tunnelling unit in France, doing arguably the most difficult and dangerous kind of work there is to do on a freaking battlefield. Some of their squadmates end up working with the gang from time to time, like BadassPreacher Jeremiah, literal ShellShockedVeteran Danny, FriendlySniper Barney, and even the intellectual Freddy Thorne. Their recurring ally [[KosherNostra Jewish gangster]] Alfie Solomons also has some service under his belt, as do plenty of other people on the scene. There's a clear disparity between the men who were of conscription age during the war and the characters who never saw the horrors of the battlefield, with Polly blaming most of the boys' ruthless actions on the things they saw and endured in the war. The Shelbys are especially shown to have grown much more organised due to their time in the military, with Tommy's gang leadership position tying into his higher rank in the unit, even though Arthur's older than him. The Blinders, the Lee family, and Alfie are all shown using the same kind of booby traps they used to place in their trenches, with the targets usually recognising the patterns. |
| 184 | * ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': |
| 185 | ** John Reese is a former Army Special Forces NCO who then did a stint in black ops with the CIA. He's homeless when he's introduced, but Finch recruits him to be a vigilante. |
| 186 | ** One episode revolves around a gang of veterans getting revenge on the government that abandoned them by robbing banks with military precision and stolen military tech, which regularly recruits new vets to replace the ones who acquired enough loot to retire in luxury. Turns out [[spoiler:the "retired" members were actually murdered in secret by the ringleader so he could take their cut]]. |
| 187 | * In ''Series/ThePunisher2017'', [[spoiler:Billy Russo was a former squadmate of Frank Castle who later formed a private security group and was a part of the conspiracy that led to the death of Frank's family]]. In Season 2, [[spoiler:Billy leads a few fellow disillusioned veterans in vigilante justice and armed robbery, eventually graduating to a large gang that dominates the New York underworld with military tactics and organization]]. |
| 188 | * Played several different ways in ''Series/{{Rome}}''. |
| 189 | ** Zigzagged in the case of Vorenus, who almost does this by ''accident'' in the first season. When Vorenus needs to get a FallenOnHardTimesJob, he thinks he's taking a job to be a bodyguard for Erastes Fulmen, a man he mistakenly assumes to be a respected local merchant but who is actually a mobster who wants Vorenus to be an enforcer for him. Vorenus doesn't realize the truth until Fulmen starts trying to beat money out of a "business partner" of his, and Vorenus almost immediately walks out on the job. In the second season, however, Vorenus does become part of the Roman underworld for real, and he lives up to the ruthless stereotype in the description and then some, as the entire Roman underworld comes to both fear and loathe him. |
| 190 | ** BoisterousBruiser Titus Pullo falls into being a thug/killer for hire in the first season due to lacking a sense of purpose or direction once he's not in the Legion anymore. He becomes Vorenus' right-hand man in the second season when Vorenus becomes a prominent underworld figure, and the two also have at least one (and maybe more) fellow legionaries in the mob they lead. |
| 191 | * In ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'', most of the founding "First 9" were [[TheVietnamVet Vietnam veterans]], and several current members are implied or explicitly stated to have served in the military. |
| 192 | * A few of the gangsters in ''Series/TheSopranos'' have some military background. |
| 193 | ** Corrado "Junior" Soprano, one of the [[TheDon leaders]] of the [[TheMafia DiMeo crime family]], was a veteran of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. |
| 194 | ** Paulie Gualtieri, a [=DiMeo=] underboss, served for a few years in the US Army. Though it's downplayed because he never experienced any wars. |
| 195 | ** [[TheMafiya Russian mobsters]] Slava Malevsky and Valery from "[[Recap/TheSopranosS3E11PineBarrens Pine Barrens]]" are both veterans of the [[UsefulNotes/TheChechnyaWars First Chechen War]]. [[HuskyRusskie Valery]] in particular was reportedly such a badass, that [[OneManArmy he allegedly killed 16 Chechen rebels by himself]]. |
| 196 | * ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'': The plot of "[[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS2E1TheBrokenCircle The Broken Circle]]" revolves around a dilithium mine shared between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, guarded by ex-Federation and -Klingon soldiers that have effectively become an organized crime gang, whose share of the profits has been significantly reduced by the reduction in tensions three years on from the war's end. [[spoiler:They attempt to launch a {{false flag|Operation}} attack on a Klingon battlecruiser with a salvaged Starfleet ship in hopes of restarting the war. The ''Enterprise'' foils the attack and is able to convince the Klingons that the Federation wasn't involved.]] |
| 197 | * ''Series/SWAT2017'': |
| 198 | ** "[[Recap/SWATS01E16Payback Payback]]" has the LAPD facing off against a group of ex-Army soldiers who are upset about a private security company double-crossing them after being recruited due to the fact that they're experienced in the field. |
| 199 | ** In "[[Recap/SWATS02E06NeverAgain Never Again]]" the robbers turn out to be [[AmazonBrigade a group of female]] [[BadassIsraeli Israeli military veterans]] using their skills against an Israeli criminal syndicate. All of the team are [[WorthyOpponent very impressed by them]]. |
| 200 | * The {{Villain Protagonist}}s of one episode of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' are a pair of Gulf War veterans who have become poachers. They get their comeuppance when a soldier whose platoon had been killed when one of the poachers had ordered a mortar strike in their position lures them into the home of a bunch of vampires living in the Alaskan wilderness. |
| 201 | * A number of ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' villains have some sort of military background prior to turning to a life of crime. Mitch Bolton (Season 3's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS3E16AndS3E17WarZone War Zone]]"), [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic Bart Hawkins]] (Season 5's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS5E2Patriot Patriot]]") [[ThoseWackyNazis Stan Gorman]] (Season 6's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS6E22TheSoulOfWinter The Soul of Winter]]"), [[MurderDotCom Theodore McNeely]] (Season 9's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E16SixHours 6 Hours]]")... just to name a few. Of these villains, however, there is none more [[AxCrazy notorious]] and [[SerialRapist loathsome]] to earn this dishonorable mention than Victor [=LaRue=]. |
| 202 | * ''Series/TheWire'': It's implied, though never outright stated, that Chris Partlow was a soldier prior to joining Marlo Stanfield's crew, based on his discipline in combat. |
| 203 | * ''Series/TheXFiles'' |
| 204 | ** "[[Recap/TheXFilesS02E04Sleepless Sleepless]]" focuses on a disgruntled Vietnam vet who had no need to sleep and the ability to alter other people's perception and plans to use his abilities to murder everyone involved in the experiment that gave him his powers |
| 205 | ** "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E07TheWalk The Walk]]" focuses on a disgruntled Gulf War vet who can astral project and plans to use his ability to murder his superior officer's family. |
| 206 | ** "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E16Unrequited Unrequited]]" focuses on a disgruntled Vietnam vet who can effectively turn invisible by exploiting people's ocular blind-spots and intends to use it to assassinate a major military official for having left many soldiers in Vietnam as secret [=POWs=] (including him). |
| 207 | * ''Series/ZeroZeroZero'': One of the three plotlines follows a squad of counternarco commandos who use brutal methods to hunt down and kill TheCartel. The only problem is that their point man is on the take. When his cover gets blown, he leads his men into joining the very cartel they were nominally fighting and uses their elite military tactics to take the underworld by storm. The story is loosely based on Los Zetas. |
| 208 | [[/folder]] |
| 209 | |
| 210 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 211 | * The Music/SteveEarle song "Copperhead Road" is the story of John Lee Pettimore, who follows in his grandfather's (a [[HillbillyMoonshiner moonshiner]]) and father's (a bootlegger) footsteps after serving [[TheVietnamVet two tours in 'Nam]] by growing marijuana in the hollow in the titular Copperhead Road. He uses his experiences with guerrilla warfare from the Viet Cong to defend himself against the DEA. |
| 212 | * Music/DavidBowie's "Running Gun Blues" describes a soldier at the end of the Vietnam War waiting to be picked up and taken home, who decides to turn his skills on desecrating the innocents he still lives among. |
| 213 | * Music/PinkFloyd's "Wish You Were Here" contains the line "Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?". It's not clear if it's this trope or a conscientious objector who chose prison over military service, though. |
| 214 | [[/folder]] |
| 215 | |
| 216 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 217 | * ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': |
| 218 | ** Many Inner Sphere pirates are former military personel who deserted, either by fleeing from battle or by their unit not being paid on time. This is also the most common origin of Inner Sphere mercenary bands, with the only real difference between certain pirate groups and certain mercenary bands being whether or not they can get enough sanctioned contracts from the Mercenary Review Board to count as 'mercenaries'. |
| 219 | ** The Clan Dark Caste are outcasts from Clan society, and consists of a great deal of former Warrior Caste personel, either wash-outs from [[TheSpartanWay Warrior training]], Warriors who are dishonoured, or Warriors who reached retirement age (which for the Clans is ''35'' and not being Bloodnamed) and refused reassignment to a [[CannonFodder Solahma unit]]. |
| 220 | * The classic game ''TabletopGame/{{Champions}}'' features a number of supervillains who have military backgrounds. |
| 221 | ** Lazer (Emil Nelson) was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Vietnam, where he learned about corruption and villainy. When he returned he used his illegal contacts and GI benefits to become an illegal ArmsDealer. |
| 222 | ** Death Commando (Henry Wadsworth) was [[SociopathicSoldier a highly aggressive soldier in Vietnam]], which earned him fast promotions and good pay. After the war ended he became a super criminal and joined The Destroyers. He supplies the group with tactical planning and other military skills. |
| 223 | ** Bullet (Randolph Bullet) fought in the Vietnam War for years. After he got out he created an organization of superpowered mercenaries and hires them out to whoever pays the most, which often leads them into criminal acts. |
| 224 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' actually features quite a lot of war veterans turned criminals. Some of the series' most important background characters all qualify. The Solo class is made up almost exclusively of ex-soldiers who became mercenaries-for-hire using their combat training (and their [[{{Cyborg}} military-grade cyberware]]). Any ''Cyberpunk 2013'' character can even take Military Education in their Lifepaths to increase their starting combat skills. |
| 225 | * ''TabletopGame/DeltaGreen'': |
| 226 | ** Spider J in the scenario ''Reverberations'' is a former U.S Army soldier and [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Academi]] (ex-Blackwater) contractor turned [[FantasticDrug Reverb]] dealer. |
| 227 | ** The real-life Los Zetas cartel serves as a secondary antagonist in a chapter of ''Targets of Opportunity'' detailing the Children of the Worm Cult. The criminal organization began when a group of Mexican Special Forces defected to serve as cartel muscle -- an NPC in the scenario is one such member. |
| 228 | * ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'': This is part of Fright Train's backstory. A marine under Lt. Vance, Graves was wounded in the line of duty just like Vance. Unlike Vance who was fast tracked to man an experiment battle armor and become the superhero Bunker, Graves was given an honorable discharge, something he felt was in error. Some gene therapy and experimental steroids later, he's become Fright Train. |
| 229 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': A common backstory for shadowrunners, it helps explain ArtificialLimbs and combat implants. |
| 230 | [[/folder]] |
| 231 | |
| 232 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 233 | * The true identity of the BigBad of ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth'' is that of [[spoiler:Ambassador Quercus Alba. Formerly a decorated veteran of the Principality of Cohdopia, Alba was recognized as a war hero who was crucial to many of the principality's military victories. However, during his time as an ambassador for one of Cohdopia's two successor states, the Kingdom of Allebahst, he had begun to use his position to head a sizeable international smuggling ring, and had personally committed at least two murders, while ordering at least three.]] |
| 234 | * ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'': Edward Kenway was a {{privateer}} in the employ of the United Kingdom during the UsefulNotes/WarOfTheSpanishSuccession, but when the war ended it left him without a livelihood, and he turned to plain old piracy. |
| 235 | * ''Franchise/BatmanArkhamSeries'': |
| 236 | ** Deadshot a.k.a. Floyd Lawton (from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'') is stated to be this according to his ''Origins'' bio. He was originally a [[ColdSniper sharpshooter]] in an unspecified military unit until he was dishonorably discharged for his reckless behavior, after which he put his [[ImprobableAimingSkills incredibly deadly marksmanship]] to use working as a [[ProfessionalKiller hitman]] for the criminal underworld, much like Deathstroke (see below). |
| 237 | ** Deathstroke a.k.a. Slade Wilson (from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'' and ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'') has pretty much the same exact backstory as his counterpart from the comics. He was originally a U.S. Army special forces veteran who was physically enhanced to become a SuperSoldier, and after leaving the military he decided to become a mercenary and assassin for hire. In ''Knight'', he also serves as one of the co-commanders of the Militia (see below). |
| 238 | ** [[PrivateMilitaryContractors The Militia]] (from ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'') are comprised mostly of former (U.S.) military personnel who have turned to illegal mercenary work. They are hardened veterans of numerous conflicts around the world, and some of them allude to having been dishonorably discharged or committing war crimes while they served in the armed forces. The aforementioned Deathstroke is one of their commanding officers, however their leader the Arkham Knight [[spoiler:is ''not'' really ex-military himself -- [[ComicBook/RedHood he's actually Batman's rogue former sidekick turned evil]]]]. |
| 239 | * In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareII'', Colonel Alejandro Vargas was once mentioned that Las Almas Cartel are often recruited soldiers into their ranks due to their combat training. [[spoiler: One of such recruits is none other than the ''El Sin Nombre'' [[SamusIsAGirl herself]], Valeria Garza. Which upon her reveal, turned out to be a former member of the same Mexican Special Forces unit as Alejandro's (albeit in a different squad) before deciding to join Las Almas Cartel as their top sicaria, and eventually taking up the mantle of the Cartel's leadership herself.]] |
| 240 | * ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' -- much like its [[TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} TTRPG predecessor]] -- features many war veterans turned criminals. V, the game's protagonist can very well be one (depending on player choices) before becoming an outlaw. Johnny Silverhand (the game's deuteragonist) was also a soldier before becoming an anti-corporate terrorist. Nearly every member of the Aldecaldo Clan that V runs into was a Militech soldier before becoming mercenaries and smugglers. Then, of course, there are the members of the 6th Street Gang - all of whom are ruthless street criminals who are fanatically loyal to the NUSA and the idea of Reunification. Adam Smasher was also a former soldier who was [[SociopathicSoldier dishonorably discharged]] before he became an infamous merc and later on a corporate hatchetman. |
| 241 | * The male Sole Survivor can do this in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'''s ''Nuka World'' DLC, going from pre-war United States Army to post-apocalyptic raider gang leader. |
| 242 | * ''Franchise/FarCry'': |
| 243 | ** The Jackal of ''VideoGame/FarCry2'' was a former member of the US Navy who claims in one of his interview tapes to have delivered crates of illicit weapons to local fighters for them to take out dictators and the like, before eventually "losing" several crates and using them to start running guns himself. He also claims in the same tape that every gun-runner he's ever met got their start the same way. |
| 244 | ** Bambi "Buck" Hughes of ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' used to serve in the Australian military, which you'd think would make him an AwesomeAussie. Except, he proved to be an AxCrazy {{Sadist}} who enjoyed hurting the enemy [[SociopathicSoldier more than was healthy]], so he was dishonorably discharged. He now works as a [[PsychoForHire mercenary]] under [[AmoralAfrikaner South African slaver and drug kingpin]] Hoyt Volker. And to make him even scarier, he's also a SerialRapist who [[DepravedHomosexual prefers other men]], [[spoiler:such as Jason Brody's friend Keith, who he's keeping as a SexSlave]]. |
| 245 | ** ''VideoGame/FarCry5'': Jacob Seed enlisted in the US Army after leaving juvie. He served several tours in UsefulNotes/{{Afghanistan}} and UsefulNotes/{{Iraq}} until he developed PTSD and was sent to a military hospital, then discharged after running out of money. He lived in a homeless shelter until found by his brothers Joseph and John. Jacob's military skills are now used in the criminal actions of terrorizing Hope County. |
| 246 | * Rolento from ''VideoGame/FinalFight'' is a former member of a fictional Special Forces unit who is in charge of the weapons plant that supplies the Mad Gear gang (though this [[FridgeLogic makes one wonder]] why a gang that has its own weapons factory generally attacks you with knives and lead pipes instead of guns). After crossing over to the ''Franchise/StreetFighter'' universe, in some of his endings, he starts his own criminal organization, looking to recruit other militant characters, and in others, he has a [[VideoGame/MetalGear Big Boss-esque]] dream of creating an ideal nation for soldiers. |
| 247 | * ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'': |
| 248 | ** Victor Vance from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories'' is a heroic example. Early on in the game, he's set up for a number of infractions by his CO and discharged. This being a ''Grand Theft Auto'' game, he turns to crime afterwards and ends up running a major drug operation with his brother. |
| 249 | ** Niko Bellic from ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' served as an infantryman and helicopter pilot in the Serbian Army during UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars. The game picks up after he arrives in Liberty City and finds new work as a [[ProfessionalKiller gun-for-hire]]. |
| 250 | ** The Lost MC in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheLostAndDamned'' were founded by US Marines that met during the Vietnam War, but after the war ended they turned into a biker gang since they continued thirsting for violence. As for their current incarnation, Jim Fitzgerald and Clay Simmons originally belonged to the USMC and the US Army respectively and now use their skills to help the Lost. |
| 251 | ** [[AxCrazy Trevor Philips]] of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' enlisted in the Canadian Air Force, and was almost done with his training until the head of psychological evaluation [[SociopathicSoldier deemed him unfit for service]], this is used to explain his skill in piloting. |
| 252 | ** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoOnline'' features Charlie Reed, an ex-USAF pilot who was discharged as a fall guy for an accident, and Rooster [=McGraw=] whose backstory is more similar to Trevor's, being sent home for a bad psych evaluation. One of the criminal gangs in Los Santos is The Professionals, who are referred to as ex-military unit and have voice lines implying a Marine background. |
| 253 | * ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'': |
| 254 | ** It's revealed that Jacket, the protagonist of the first ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', served in the Hawaiian conflict as part of a Special Unit called Ghost Wolves alongside Beard before becoming a hitman for the 50 Blessings terrorist organization attacking Russian Mob spots associated with the Russo-American coalition. |
| 255 | ** The Fans also served in the Hawaiian conflict as a separate unit and pose as a homicidal vigilante group [[GlorySeeker seeking fame]], inspired by Jacket's vigilante actions in the first game. |
| 256 | * ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'': Atton Rand served as a soldier of the Galactic Republic during the Mandalorian Wars, [[spoiler:and defected to Revan's side along with a great number of Republic forces when Revan took on the mantle of the Dark Lord of the Sith. Under Revan, he was part of [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous an elite special forces unit]] trained to hide their presence from Force users so they could capture or kill Jedi. After deserting from the Sith to avoid having his Force-sensitive nature discovered]], he became a smuggler and scoundrel while blending in with thousands of refugees on Nar Shaddaa that were displaced by both the Mandalorian and the Jedi Civil wars. |
| 257 | * In ''VideoGame/LANoire'', the central conflict is around a shipment of military supplies (including weapons and medical grade opiates) stolen by embittered soldiers. [[spoiler:Specifically by members of the protagonist's former unit in Okinawa during World War II (partially because they resented him becoming a decorated cop after they [[UnfriendlyFire fragged him]] when he [[DarkAndTroubledPast ordered them to torch a cave that turned out to be full of civilians]]).]] |
| 258 | * ''VideoGame/{{Mafia}}'': |
| 259 | ** Vito Scaletta from ''VideoGame/MafiaII'' served in World War II, and almost immediately upon arriving home, his friend Joe convinces him to resort to a life of crime. When he meets Lincoln in ''III'', he asks him about his experiences in Vietnam. Then again, Vito was always a criminal, as the reason he was in WWII [[TradingBarsForStripes was to avoid going to jail]] after a cop caught him breaking into a store. |
| 260 | ** In ''VideoGame/MafiaIII'', PlayerCharacter Lincoln Clay is a Vietnam veteran who joins the black mob in New Orleans upon mustering out. |
| 261 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 262 | ** Every turian criminal ever, given their species is a [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Proud Soldier Race]] with universal {{conscription}} and a meritocratic military dictatorship. |
| 263 | ** ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' squadmate Jacob Taylor was formerly an Alliance Marine assigned to an elite black ops unit called the Corsairs. He later joined the human-supremacist terrorist organization and NGOSuperpower Cerberus. Zaeed Massani is mentioned to be an ex-Alliance soldier before he became a mercenary. |
| 264 | * The first ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}'' game has the second in command of [[TheMafiya the Russian Mob]] being introduced as a former [=KGB=] agent and implied to at one point to having been Spetznas. |
| 265 | * ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': |
| 266 | ** Soldier: 76, aka Jack Morrison. Once a commander of the titular organization, he believes the events leading up to its disbandment to have been a conspiracy and became a vigilante to try and uncover it. |
| 267 | ** Really, most of the Overwatch cast is this, with special mentions to Gabriel Reyes, aka Reaper, Morrison's right-hand man who CameBackWrong; and Cole Cassidy[[note]]a.k.a. [=McCree=][[/note]], who was actually [[TradingBarsForStripes a criminal before joining Overwatch]], was reformed, and then forced back into hiding. |
| 268 | * ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'': Prior to joining the Van der Linde gang, Bill Williamson was a soldier. He got a dishonorable discharge for his troubles, which he attributes to his captain becoming corrupt with power. On account of distrusting the government, he wholeheartedly joins the gang. |
| 269 | * Jack Krauser from ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' and its {{Prequel}}, ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheDarksideChronicles''. He was a Special Forces officer that worked alongside Leon on a fateful mission that left him with a CareerEndingInjury. Unable to adjust to life outside the military, he underwent a FaceHeelTurn and joined [[BigBad Wesker]]'s bio-terrorist organization in pursuit of power. |
| 270 | * In ''VideoGame/SakuraWars1996'', Maria Tachibana served as a soldier for the White Army during the Russian Revolution. However, when the revolution ended in a decisive victory by the Red Army, Maria fled to America and used her marksman skills to work as a mafia hitwoman before joining the Imperial Combat Revue in Tokyo. |
| 271 | * ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': The Cardassian-supremacist True Way terrorist organization draws much of its membership from [[FormerRegimePersonnel unemployed former Cardassian Guard personnel]] (following the Cardassian Union's treaty-imposed military reductions). In [[DummiedOut missions that were deleted in Season 11]], the group devolved to little more than a GenericEthnicCrimeGang after their leader Gul Madred was captured by the PlayerCharacter. |
| 272 | * ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'': |
| 273 | ** [[CoolOldGuy Victor Sullivan]] is a former US Navy sailor. After leaving the military, he became a professional thief who travels around the world to find and steal ancient artifacts for a living. [[AntiHero While he's not much of a bad guy]], he knows how to use guns and won't hesitate to shoot at other armed criminals he encounters on his journeys. Sullivan also happens to be a trained pilot, presumably another skill he learned from the Navy. |
| 274 | ** Zoran Lazarevic, the [[BigBad main villain]] of ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', is an infamous [[BalkanBastard Serbian mercenary warlord]] who was a veteran of UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars. He also holds a very well-deserved, fearsome reputation as a [[SociopathicSoldier psychopathic war criminal]] who tortured and murdered countless people; and even while living as a wanted fugitive on the lam, he still continues to be just as [[AxCrazy bloodthirsty and merciless]] as he was back then. |
| 275 | * The Shadow Platoon from ''VideoGame/UrbanReign'' is made up of former military men who have been discharged for various reasons. |
| 276 | * ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'': Delford "Iraq" Wade is an Iraq war veteran who made the move to organized crime back home, using the same advanced military training he picked up in "the desert" to train up his gangbanger buddies into a legitimate fighting force. While to the public, he and his crew just look like another wannabe street gang, behind the scenes he's hacking government files and laundering military-grade arms. |
| 277 | * {{Implied|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' with Shaojie "Chilong" Zhang. Why else would the former Chinese Triad member be a better shot than elite soldiers, have several more [[ClassAndLevelSystem levels]] than the new recruits and be a specialist in heavy weapons? |
| 278 | [[/folder]] |
| 279 | |
| 280 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 281 | * Daniel from ''Webcomic/AquaRegia'' was a common grunt, and ends up as a vigilante, and before long, a CorporateSamurai. |
| 282 | * Viktor from ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' was a WWI veteran who is now muscle for a bootlegging gang. |
| 283 | [[/folder]] |
| 284 | |
| 285 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 286 | * ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': According to UnreliableNarrator Mephisto, many WWII-era {{Super Soldier}}s (who were often disguised as CaptainPatriotic figures while training on the home front) ended up as supervillains in the 1950s, due in large part to how the government mismanaged their return to civilian life. Between being {{Shell Shocked Veteran}}s, the side effects of the {{Super Serum}}s and other enhancements, and the frustration at being unable to tell others what they'd seen and done due to post-war security restrictions, many simply found themselves unable to cope, or to find legal work. |
| 287 | [[/folder]] |
| 288 | |
| 289 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 290 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'': |
| 291 | ** Ed Wuncler III and Gin Rummy, both of whom served in the US Army during [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the Iraq War]]. Rummy even claims that the two [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous were in Special Forces]]. After returning home to Woodcrest, they decided to become [[WhiteGangBangers gangsters]] who commit crimes such as armed robbery and kidnapping, despite [[UpperClassTwit both of them being from wealthy families]]. Although Ed and Rummy often use military gear in their schemes, they prove to be [[StupidCrooks incompetent and unprofessional]] most of the time (for some reason, [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy they can't even shoot straight]]). |
| 292 | ** In the episode "Riley Wuz Here", Riley starts taking art lessons from an unnamed painter who is (allegedly) a {{shell shocked|Veteran}} UsefulNotes/GulfWar veteran. Although Riley's art teacher seems like a mellow man at first, he becomes an accomplice to vandalism by helping Riley with spray-painting graffiti onto houses in the neighborhood. Later on during the climax, [[spoiler:the art teacher pulls out a handgun and starts shooting at the police, resulting in a wild car chase]]. |
| 293 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': The titular squad of {{Modified Clone}}s lack functioning inhibitor chips, causing them to be unaffected by [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Order 66]]. They refuse to serve the new Galactic Empire and go on the run, fugitives making their way as mercenaries for an InformationBroker named Cid. |
| 294 | [[/folder]] |
| 295 | |
| 296 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 297 | * Many historians believe that the decision by [[UsefulNotes/ThePope Pope Urban II]] to launch [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades the First Crusade]] was influenced by the large numbers of landless knights who were turning to banditry at the time, as well. After the rather... ''mixed'' success of the Peace of God movement, the idea seems to have been that [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Emperor Alexios I Komnenos]]' request for aid was seen as a golden opportunity to get all of these lawless 'nobles' to go fight somewhere ''else'', thank you very much. In theory, this would neatly accomplish a thawing of relations with the Byzantines and especially the Orthodox Church and also set a precedent for the Papacy raising significant multi-national, and supra-national, forces under its command (which would suit the Papacy's ambitions nicely). Within a year it had all GoneHorriblyRight, with those same bandits now having carved kingdoms out of territory which was supposed to go back to the Eastern Romans; tens of thousands were dead on all sides; huge numbers of peasants who had gotten lost on the way to the Holy Land during the People's Crusades were wandering Eastern Europe starving and stealing; the Jewish communities of Germany had been massacred repeatedly by groups of Crusaders who took the Cross up but decided to stick to targets closer to home; large swathes of Hungary, the Byzantine Empire, and the eastern Mediterranean had been laid waste; and the relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church had been permanently poisoned. Oh, and the military forces under Church command? The military orders? They became notorious for more or less doing whatever the hell they liked. And that's just how it went for the European Christians... |
| 298 | * Very common after the UsefulNotes/ThirtyYearsWar - for several years after its end bands of deserters and discharged veterans roamed Central Europe, essentially continuing in the wartime RapePillageAndBurn practice, especially in severely depopulated areas without effective control of local governments. |
| 299 | * During the colonial era, many {{privateer}}s (naval mercenaries) went on to become outlaw {{pirate}}s. |
| 300 | * UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution had the Doan Boys, a gang of loyalist raiders who attempted to hurt the patriot war effort through robbery and sabotage. They continued their criminal activity for several years after the war ended, but their motives had changed to profit. |
| 301 | * Ottoman soldiers in European Turkey (the Balkans) in the late 18th century after the empire started to lose ground against the Habsburgs and Russia and face multiple economic crises, being left unable to pay their armies. Bands of renegade soldiers called "kırçaali" (field marauders) pillaged the countryside, sometimes allying with a rogue "ayan" (warlord), frequently one of them who managed to take control of a major city and secede. Until the early 19th century, such bands, often numbering in the thousands, would ravage the locals which couldn't hope for any protection from the weakened empire and were thus left to fend for themselves with what little they had. |
| 302 | * While British colonial accounts of the notorious [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggee Thuggee]] phenomenon in India tended to portray it as a bandit cult that adhered to a vaguely Hindu ReligionOfEvil, modern scholars increasingly believe that the Thugs were closer to this trope; many soldiers who had fought in the service of Indian princes found themselves discharged and unemployed after the British conquest, which forced them to turn to highway robbery to survive. That Thugs were known to organize themselves according to military-style rankings supports this interpretation. |
| 303 | * After the end of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, quite a few ex-soldiers (especially from the Confederate side) turned outlaw, the most famous such group being the [[BanditClan James-Younger Gang]] led by Frank and UsefulNotes/JesseJames. Many others went into a campaign of terrorism and guerrilla warfare by forming groups such as the UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_League White League]] and striking against anything perceived as Northern, Republican (which back then were progressive), and ''especially'' attacking freed slaves. |
| 304 | * Several members of the early {{Yakuza}} were {{Ronin}}. It's unclear whether the organizations were founded by Ronin who started running protection rackets or by semi-legit vending and gambling guilds who hired ronin as muscle, but regardless they frequently claim to be heirs to the samurai. This only got worse following the UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration, where the samurai were effectively abolished. |
| 305 | ** Post-[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII WW2]], several members of the former [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun Imperial Japanese military]] ended up becoming members of the Yakuza. The most famous example would likely be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshio_Kodama Yoshio Kodama]], whose wartime government-funded drug smuggling operations gave him the funding and connections to become one of the most powerful and influential post-war Yakuza. |
| 306 | * During the Prohibition era in America, there were numerous bootleggers who cut their teeth in the trenches of Europe during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. |
| 307 | * In the Weimar Republic, many German [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WW1]] veterans formed the right-wing ''Freikorps'' and ''Sturmabteilung'' militias to rob and terrorize leftists, Jews, and other groups that they blamed for Germany's defeat. These gangs would later join the Nazi Party, and participated in the failed Beer Hall Putsch coup. |
| 308 | ** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself served as a dispatch runner in [=WW1=], and was jailed for his role in the aforementioned Beer Hall Putsch coup before becoming leader of the Nazi Party and Chancellor of Germany. |
| 309 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Lamm Herman Lamm]] was a former Prussian soldier who immigrated to the United States. He is regarded as the "father of modern bank robbery" because he used military planning and precision in the execution of his robberies. The "Lamm Technique" has been copied by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger John Dillinger]] and other criminals up to the present day. |
| 310 | * The infamous biker gang [[AllBikersAreHellsAngels Hells Angels]] was founded by UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veterans in 1948. Meanwhile, one of their main rivals, Bandidos MC was founded by Vietnam war Marine vetran Donald Chambers, who took the gang's red and yellow colors from the Marine insignia. |
| 311 | * One theory about the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ioanid_Gang Ioanid Gang]], a Jewish group who in 1959 allegedly carried out an armored car robbery in Communist Romania, was that they were former members of the SecretPolice who'd been fired due to post-war antisemitism and were carrying out the raid as a TakeThat. |
| 312 | * Music/IceT joined the U.S. Army after high school, and after serving for four years, returned to his old neighborhood and eventually joined his school friends in crime. His military experience gave him the tools to plan and perform bloodless jewelry store robberies and the like. |
| 313 | * In the aftermath of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda-Tanzania_War Uganda–Tanzania War]] of the late 1970s, Tanzania experienced a spike in crime, especially [[TheRustler cattle rustling]]. Many young men from poorer families and backgrounds had enjoyed the power, chance of {{plunder}}, and relatively good salaries of military life, and grew accustomed to violence. So when they were demobilized -- usually becoming unemployed and plunging back into poverty due to Tanzania's economic problems at the time -- many of them decided to use weapons to make an illegal living. |
| 314 | * The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_FBI_Miami_shootout 1986 Miami FBI shootout]] is infamous in the bureau's history because of this. Two serial bank-robbers with military experience, one of whom served as an infantryman during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, managed to pin down eight FBI agents with suppressive rifle fire, despite being outnumbered 4 to 1. The two suspects were killed in the shootout, but not without taking two agents with them and wounding five. |
| 315 | * US Army veterans Timothy [=McVeigh=] and Terry Nichols perpetrated the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing Oklahoma City bombing]], a truck-bomb attack on a federal office building that stands as the deadliest terrorist attack in US history, apart from 9/11. |
| 316 | * Los Zetas, one of the most feared and ruthless [[TheCartel Mexican drug cartels]], was founded by deserters from the Mexican Army special forces. |
| 317 | * Some criminal gangs operating in the Americas and Europe in the 1990s and early 2000s have recruited Singaporeans, mostly due to having done their time in conscription with the Singaporean military.[[note]]A small number do their conscription with the police or with the civil defense force.[[/note]] |
| 318 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Allen_Muhammad John Allen Muhammad]], one of the two [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._sniper_attacks D.C. snipers who shot and killed 17 people]] in 2002, was a former US Army soldier and veteran of UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar. |
| 319 | * The disbanding of the Iraqi Army after the 2003 Invasion of Iraq saw a lot of former Iraqi soldiers turn to either crime or the insurgency, a factor which made the subsequent occupation that much more difficult. |
| 320 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Dorner_shootings_and_manhunt Christopher Dorner]] was a former US Navy marksman and Los Angeles police officer, before he went rogue and began attacking other LAPD members in targeted shootings. |
| 321 | * [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_presence_in_the_United_States_military A small minority of (current) US military personnel are involved in criminal gangs or organized crime]]. A number of gangs in the US used to require members to enlist in the Army and go through at least basic training before leaving so they'd learn how to shoot straight. |
| 322 | * There is significant concern about the radicalization of US military personnel, with fears that some leaving enlistment can become [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic right-wing extremists]] and use their military training in crime, domestic terrorism, or direct attacks on the government. For instance, a number of those either arrested or killed for participating in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_United_States_Capitol_attack 2021 attack on the US Capitol]] were former military members, such as Jake “[=QShaman=]” Angeli and Ashli Babbitt, who served in the Navy and Air Force respectively. |
| 323 | * Tetsuya Yamagami, the assassin who [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Shinzo_Abe shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe]], was previously a member of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (though he hadn't been for nearly 20 years before the assassination, and had no criminal history before the shooting). |
| 324 | * Though Israeli criminals who formerly served in elite units are fairly common in fiction, the actual IDF works to avert this trope in two ways. Youths with a criminal record severe psychological issues are generally not drafted into the army at all, and are restricted to non-combat positions when they are. Furthermore, Israelis who serve in the special forces generally gain the same level of prestige and connections as Ivy League graduates, and rarely have to steal for a living. |
| 325 | * Walter Dicketts went from being a soldier and airman in World War I (having lied about his age - he was only 15 when he enlisted), to being a con man in the 1920s and 1930s, then was recruited by [=MI5=]'s Bureau XX as a deep cover spy operating in Portugal and Germany during World War II. He would return to his illegal dealing in the years after the war, setting up a Ponzi scheme under an alias only to be caught and sentenced to a four year prison term. |
| 326 | * It is [[https://www.ranker.com/list/22-serial-killers-who-served-in-the-military/ranker-crime not uncommon]] for {{Serial Killer}}s to have served some time in the military, although usually not in combat roles. Most famous cases would include Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis "BTK" Rader, David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz, "Green River" Gary Ridgeway, Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, Andrei Chikatilo, and Israel Keyes. |
| 327 | [[/folder]] |
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