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Ronald Tackmann’s Prison Breakouts Have Made Him a Legend

25 points by bhousel 17y ago

JshWright 17y ago
I don't get it... This guy is a lousy criminal (frequently beaten up by the very people he's try to rob with a fake gun), lousy at escaping from prison (often laughed at by the guards he's try to scare with a fake gun), and when he does escape, he's not smart enough to leave the area and gets recaptured the next day. Why is this worth a multi-page article that has such a bizzare disconnect between reality and the author's perception? More to the point, why is this worth posting on HN?
- thinkbohemian 17y ago
  For the same reason people read about serial killers...we don't understand, and we want to see what makes them tick. What interested me about this article was his perception of his situations. It reminds me of Al Pacino's monologue in "Two for the Money" something about how gamblers are only happy when they're on the bottom, because there's no where to go but up. Everyone wants to be good at something...
  - JshWright 17y ago
    I guess that explains why it's on HN. It still doesn't explain the author's glorification of his incompetence... From the bottom of page 4: "It would have been reasonable to assume that a man with Tackmann’s criminal smarts would be on a Greyhound bus to Virginia or Florida or anywhere across state lines to get out of New York. But he went to Spanish Harlem." It seems like the entire article is about this criminal genius who is so insanely good at being a criminal, he actually appears to be a _bad_ criminal. Why not just make the leap to the conclusion that he simply sucks at being a criminal?
    - thinkbohemian 17y ago
      He's so good at predicting human behavior and noticing minutia...his tales of escape place him well above the average intelligence of a typical inmate...yet he robs places as if he was in a 70's straight to beta-max released cop movie. The two pieces of the puzzle just don't add up.
- darien 17y ago
  Probably due to the typical HN reader's belief that anything is possible.
- randallsquared 17y ago
  Most prisoners don't escape at all. Since the naive assumption is that most prisoners want to escape, the fact that he's managed to escape repeatedly seems impressive. Of course, it might be that most prisoners don't want to escape, for various reasons.
josefresco 17y ago
I have to think that if this guy's crimes were online/Internet/computer related he'd have quite a booming consulting business waiting for him each and every time he made it out of prison. Of course, he'd probably still not be happy with that, and would do something dumb to send him back to prison where he's apparently happiest.

25 points by bhousel 17y ago

I don't get it... This guy is a lousy criminal (frequently beaten up by the very people he's try to rob with a fake gun), lousy at escaping from prison (often laughed at by the guards he's try to scare with a fake gun), and when he does escape, he's not smart enough to leave the area and gets recaptured the next day. Why is this worth a multi-page article that has such a bizzare disconnect between reality and the author's perception? More to the point, why is this worth posting on HN?

thinkbohemian 17y ago
For the same reason people read about serial killers...we don't understand, and we want to see what makes them tick. What interested me about this article was his perception of his situations. It reminds me of Al Pacino's monologue in "Two for the Money" something about how gamblers are only happy when they're on the bottom, because there's no where to go but up. Everyone wants to be good at something...
- JshWright 17y ago
  I guess that explains why it's on HN. It still doesn't explain the author's glorification of his incompetence... From the bottom of page 4: "It would have been reasonable to assume that a man with Tackmann’s criminal smarts would be on a Greyhound bus to Virginia or Florida or anywhere across state lines to get out of New York. But he went to Spanish Harlem." It seems like the entire article is about this criminal genius who is so insanely good at being a criminal, he actually appears to be a _bad_ criminal. Why not just make the leap to the conclusion that he simply sucks at being a criminal?
  - thinkbohemian 17y ago
    He's so good at predicting human behavior and noticing minutia...his tales of escape place him well above the average intelligence of a typical inmate...yet he robs places as if he was in a 70's straight to beta-max released cop movie. The two pieces of the puzzle just don't add up.
darien 17y ago
Probably due to the typical HN reader's belief that anything is possible.
randallsquared 17y ago
Most prisoners don't escape at all. Since the naive assumption is that most prisoners want to escape, the fact that he's managed to escape repeatedly seems impressive. Of course, it might be that most prisoners don't want to escape, for various reasons.

josefresco 17y ago

I have to think that if this guy's crimes were online/Internet/computer related he'd have quite a booming consulting business waiting for him each and every time he made it out of prison. Of course, he'd probably still not be happy with that, and would do something dumb to send him back to prison where he's apparently happiest.