[chippy]

They did indeed overdo it in the article, but I would say that its a relevant angle - the article actually repeats various quotes from the different criminals saying that their ages were important to put the police off the scent.

Generally I dislike age based stories especially ones that imply that older people should have a different standard of behaviour, or be more intelligent, mature etc. Often I suspect these arguments to come from young people who view those older as more different than themselves. The truth of the matter appears to me to be that people don't become more smarter as they age from middle age to old age, and they don't get any more mature or emotionally more intelligent, however you would imagine that time passed may give a little bit more wisdom in certain aspects (e.g. dealing with grief and personal vanity)