Kevin is well known for his skills, mostly as a social engineer. I'd argue that he's one of if not the best at it.
He became famous when he was on the run from the FBI for a few years. This was one of my favorite stories: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Watch-Kevin-Mitnick-Explainin...
A lot of people don't know the history around him because it happened years ago. If you were following him at the time or if you've read his "ghost in the wires" book you'd see why he he's rightfully famous.