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TV is full of shows that portray a ragtag group of "criminals" who have reformed and are now using their crime/spy skills to help regular people instead of continuing their criminal activities for self enrichment. Examples include:
Burn Notice
The A-Team
Leverage
Robin Hood & His Merry Men
Question...
Are there any documented examples in history that back up this meme?
In life those sorts of people and organizations have tended to be mercenaries, not altruists.
I think the Symbionese Liberation Army, the screwballs who murdered a few people and kidnapped Patty Hearst, conceived of themselves as something which might fall under your definition. The ransom for Patty Hearst was supposed to have been this big free food giveaway in the East Bay paid for by Patty's old man. The distribution was kinda a fiasco and the army reneged on returning Patty, so Robin Hood they were not. The group was primarily egoists run wild, the leader styled himself not just as General Cinque, not just Field Marshal Cinque, but General Field Marshal Cinque.
At the time of Great Britain's notorious Sears Crossing train robbery (August 1963), a British criminal who had been pardoned (in part) for assisting the Crown in intelligence during World War II was asked to offer his observations to the press. Those comments eventually found their way into a number of publications, including an article in Life magazine here in the U. S.
Unfortunately, I don't recall his name, but maybe one of the British regulars here could fill us in.
I've read where people would forget the combination to their safe and bring in a Yeggman (safecracker) to open it for them. There were a number of outlaws in the old west that became great lawmen because of their knowledge of the criminals they were chasing.
TV is full of shows that portray a ragtag group of "criminals" who have reformed and are now using their crime/spy skills to help regular people instead of continuing their criminal activities for self enrichment. Examples include:
Burn Notice
The A-Team
Leverage
Robin Hood & His Merry Men
Question...
Are there any documented examples in history that back up this meme?
In France, Eugene Francois Vidocq was a career criminal who later joined the Parisian police and is credited with developing many modern police procedures, as well as being considered the first private detective. He served as an inspiration for Poe's Auguste Dupin in Murders of the Rue Morgue.
They were an elite special forces unit in Vietnam that was sent on a covert mission in Hanoi by their own commanding officer, that included robbing the Bank of Hanoi. Although successful in their mission, they returned to find their immediate commanding officer had been killed and they were framed by their own government and imprisoned at Fort Bragg.
Fortunately they all escaped and regrouped as the soldiers of fortune known as the A-Team.
The issue in real history would be the fugitives / criminals have no vested interest in revealing themselves.
An exception on TV would be someone like James Garner as Rockford Files who often would gather old contacts from prison to help in a case, to varying effect. For example, Angel Martin (Stuart Margolin) to others that were more adept at their various 'skill' sets to assist in pulling a con for example.
The roots of the OSS (predecessor to the CIA) involved organized crime syndicates (Mayer Lansky et al) to assist in espionage and assassination as well as other activities (the training precursor to better honed black ops illegal revenue support activity: Golden Triangle Drug trade). While more mercenary in nature some of these more business oriented 'types' of contractors with varying skill sets then later sold their 'talents' to corporate work.
I don't know if any ever would do work for an 'everyman' type out of altruism but they have done work for high net worth individuals. If I recall Eamon Javer's, Broker Trader Lawyer Spy: Secret World of Corporate Espionage, alluded to it but who can vouch for accuracy? Lot of hearsay and no desire to be exposed.
Also, depending how loosely you want to 'define' it - you could consider "anonymous" a form of this. There are advocacy groups like human trafficking exposing efforts that perhaps may meet your criteria. But I think the meme of a specialist consortium of highly multi-faceted skilled all - stars is indeed simply a meme. The Frank Abagnale example is one of few examples, but again, he was a one off specialist.
There's few of those type of individual, yet Hollywood let's us all live vicariously as if these super talented all coalesce behind good hearted endeavors. They likely go to highest bidder as mercenaries. Hence, governments, corporations and high net worth individuals. Perhaps they have the equivalent of 'community service' somewhere?
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