Probably has definitely surpassed Al Capone as the most well known, and, for many people, believe it or not, beloved Gangster of all time.

Who really was Pablo Escobar, and what does he mean to 20th century American history?

How does he compare to someone like, Joaquin, “El Chapo” Guzman?

It is hard to really say what a criminal’s “net worth” is but while El Chapo was definitely a billionaire, Pablo Escobar was a multi-billionaire back when there were far fewer than today. In fact, Time Magazine’s seminal “richest men in the world” article from the late 80’s tagged Pablo aka “El Patron” as one of the absolute richest men in the world. This was before Bill Gates and ahead of Warren Buffett.

El Chapo was certainly very rich, but relative to Pablo, not so much.

Political power- well, El Chapo certainly corrupted plenty of politicians, but Pablo ran for political office himself, and the Medellin Cartel went so far as to assassinate the leading reform candidate for Colombian President.

The candidate was Luis Galan, and Escobar had been told that if Galan became President that he would extradite Pablo to the United States- the thing that the members of the Medellin Cartel feared most. Escobar and Rodriguez Gacha, aka the Mexican, orchestrated the hit, and Escobars chief hitman- a man known as “Popeye”- says that they were helped by other Colombian Presidential candidates and even a President of Colombia.