"I am neither known nor wanted in this country. At best, I'm a person of interest in the places I do my work. Such is the curse of my talent. So since I have taken the time to find you, please don't spoil it with rudeness... You know, I've enjoyed our sparring so far. The look on your faces when I jumped from the building was uh... amusing, but I'd be remiss if I didn't inform you that you're way out of your league. The simple fact is, you'll never catch me. It's impossible. Which makes what should be an exciting life somewhat pedestrian. I'll tell you what - to make this more interesting for me, I'm going to write down everything that I'm going to do. Sometime tomorrow, I'm going to steal a Manet. And then, I'm going to make you look foolish again. And then the next day, I'm going to treat myself like a king"
— Pierre Despereaux, Extradition: British Columbia
Over the course of 8 Seasons, the Psych duo and the SBPD have run into their fair share of memorable schemers who have evaded the radar of Santa Barbara's resident pseudo-psychic. These stand out as the most notable:
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
- Pierre Despereaux is a notoriously elusive art thief who commits two successful thefts in his first appearance despite Shawn's best efforts at stopping him. After Shawn exposes his thefts as an insurance fraud scheme, he is inspired to commit the "perfect crime", which Despereaux pulls off by inviting Shawn and Gus to prison, stowing himself away with them, committing the theft, and returning to prison with only the Psych duo being aware of what he did. In his third appearance, Despereaux helps the duo steal a dagger—a key to a "core collection" of art—and fakes his death by blowing up his escape speedboat. He makes his death seem authentic by changing his DNA database information to that of an unidentified body he was holding onto. After helping the duo find the "core collection", Despereaux steals one of the paintings and restores the more valuable Rembrandt painting underneath it. His last appearance reveals him to be an INTERPOL agent named Royston Staley, but it is indicated that Despereaux infiltrated the organization and rose up the ranks. It is left ambiguous as to whether Staley was real or Despereaux fooled the duo once again.
- "Zero to Murder in Sixty Seconds": Wally is the owner of a chop-shop, which he uses to run a drug smuggling operation with Jonny G, the owner of a custom car repair shop. Wanting complete control over the repair shop and the operation, he rigs a canister of lethal nitrous oxide to leak in a yet-to-be inspected car, knowing that Jonny always does the final checks himself. To give himself an alibi, he gets himself arrested by stealing Lassiter's car so that he is in prison at the time of Jonny's death, posting for bail in time to be present for an exchange. Even Shawn is led to believe that Wally was just a Fall Guy for Jonny's operation.
- "There's Something About Mira": "Jann" is a con man scheming to rob a winery belonging to Mira Gaffney's parents. To help achieve this, he enters a relationship with her, intending to use their planned wedding as a cover to get the family away from the winery while he and his partner rob it. However, upon genuinely falling in love with Mira, he decides to back out of the scheme and end his "relationship" with his partner, as he regards his relationship with Mira to be the best thing to happen to him.
- "Earth, Wind and... Wait for It": Army Johnson was a former firefighter who lost two of his colleagues during the Renkel Fires of '98. Seeking revenge, he hunted down the arsonists responsible, executed them, and hid their bodies in construction sites, where they remained for 10 years. In the present day, to prevent the bodies from being discovered during a seismic retrofitting procedure, he set the buildings alight, planning it such that the fire would be easy to put out and the casualties would be minimum. The one death that occurs is accidental, although he was willing to let arson inspector Morgan Conrad - who was investigating the fires he caused - go up in flames when she catches him in the act.
- "You Can't Handle This Episode": Ewan O'Hara is Juliet's older brother, who does covert missions for the US government. Initially joining the gang to help investigate the apparent murder of a Private, he course corrects upon being given orders to "root out the bad seed on the base", destroying evidence that would have helped with the case. When Shawn becomes suspicious of him, Ewan humors him and returns to help, but also uses the opportunity to find the killer with the intention of capturing and executing him, to prevent bad publicity for the army. When the Psych duo and the cops intervene to stop the execution, he gracefully surrenders, although he mysteriously disappears shortly thereafter.
- "Think Tank": Walter Snowden is the leader of the eponymous think tank, seeking revenge on billionaire Ashton Bonaventure for causing the death of Snowden's wife due to negligence. Fabricating a security firm, Snowden recruits Shawn Spencer and several other experts seemingly to protect Bonaventure from assassination, while truthfully using them to find a method to assassinate Bonaventure that they wouldn't expect, nearly succeeding when Shawn's idea of an assassination from underground is viewed as too ridiculous to take seriously. When the think tank finds out about Snowden's true nature and discusses how to stop Snowden's second assassination attempt, Snowden has his brother-in-law, Fred Collins Boyd, feed Snowden information about their plans while subtly sabotaging the plan to protect Bonaventure. Even when captured, it's revealed that Snowden had a backup plan, having Boyd wait in Bonaventure's limo and kill him when he flees there to escape.
- "Ferry Tale": Dane Northcutt is the leader of a group of convicts planning a prison escape. Taking advantage of being on work detail on a ferry, he and his teammates overpower their guard and almost succeed in making a clean getaway till Shawn intervenes and sabotages their escape. In response, they hold him and the rest of the passengers hostage, using them as a Human Shield so that the SBPD snipers can't shoot him. Northcutt and his partner later escape from the ferry by pretending to be wounded hostages and hijacking the medic raft that picks them up.
- "Extradition II: The Actual Extradition Part": Valeria Crosley is a crime boss who makes it look like her husband is running her empire while in prison. When the Head Detective of the RCMP finds out her secret and provides the information to a Crown Prosecutor, she sets the investigation back by killing them both, without being suspected of any wrongdoing. She also charms Pierre Despereaux into breaking out of prison to commit a theft, successfully using the situation to frame him for the latter's murder as well as that of her husband, leaving the Gentleman Thief impressed.
- "The Amazing Psych-Man & Tap-Man, Issue #2": Reginald Parker is a reporter who moonlights as a Batman-esque vigilante called "The Mantis". Under this alter ego, he targets and fights members of the Camino Drug Syndicate, tying them up and leaving them for the police to find. It later turns out that he wanted to take the syndicate down, not for the greater good, but for their drug money. However despite his intentions, he sincerely thanks Shawn for helping him, even offering him some of the cash as a gesture of gratitude.
- "In For A Penny...": Frank O'Hara is a Con Man and Juliet's estranged father. Initially coming to Santa Barbara to reconnect with his daughter, he also takes the opportunity to plan a heist on the fly - stealing a rare bronze penny and framing another group of thieves for it, all while pretending to help the SBPD prevent the theft. When Shawn figures out that he stole the coin and threatens to tell Juliet, he plants it in the suspects hotel room with no one in the department any the wiser. After Juliet finds out what he did and chews him out, Frank apologizes by revealing that he did show up for "all the important moments in her life", only hiding because he thought her stepfather was doing a good job. He also redeems himself by coming up with the plan to catch the thieves at the end of the episode.
- Neil Simon's Lovers Retreat: Barbie and Clive are an Outlaw Couple who befriend Shawn and Jules while they are on a romantic getaway. Introduced faking a bike accident to rob their latest victim, they check in to the hotel, connect with Shawn and Jules over tennis and have dinner together, before robbing them and leaving the hotel before they are aware of their true nature. Upon being caught, they admit to liking Shawn and Jules, and that of all of their victims, they were their favorites.
