When discussing the worst people in history, it’s a somber reflection on the depths of human evil. From tyrants to serial killers, these figures have left indelible marks on the world through their heinous actions. While the term “worst” might be subjective, there’s no denying the immense impact these individuals have had on countless lives and historical events.

Consider Adolf Hitler, the man behind the atrocities of the Holocaust and the driving force of World War II. His actions led to the suffering and death of millions. Then there’s Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the September 11 attacks, whose plans caused one of the most devastating terror attacks in modern history. Dennis Rader, infamously known as the BTK Killer, haunted Wichita, Kansas for decades with his gruesome murders, embodying the kind of evil only seen in horror films.

Curious to know where these terrible people rank among their peers? Scroll through our list and cast your vote on who you believe are the most evil individuals to have ever lived. Engage with this eye-opening compilation and help shape the understanding of bad people in history who have, unfortunately, left their dark legacies behind.

Most divisive: Al Gore

Over 372.8K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The All-Time Worst People in History, Ranked

• 1125,230 votesAgree or Disagree?Adolf HitlerDec. at 56 (1889-1945)Adolf Hitler orchestrated some of the most horrific atrocities in history, making him a definitive candidate for one of the most evil people of all time. As the dictator of Nazi Germany, he masterminded the Holocaust, resulting in the genocide of six million Jews and millions of others. His aggressive militarism triggered World War II, leading to unprecedented death and destruction. Hitler’s reign of terror and ruthless ideology left an indelible scar on humanity.
• 264,070 votesPol PotDec. at 72 (1925-1998)Pol Pot (born Saloth Sâr; 19 May 1925 – 15 April 1998) was a Cambodian politician who led Cambodia as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1976 to 1979. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Khmer nationalist, he led the Khmer Rouge group from 1963 until 1997 and served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kampuchea from 1963 to 1981. Born to a prosperous farmer in Prek Sbauv, French Cambodia, Pol Pot was educated at some of Cambodia’s elite schools. In the 1940s, he moved to Paris, France, where he joined the French Communist Party and adopted Marxism–Leninism, particularly as it was presented in the writings of Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. Returning to Cambodia in 1953, he joined the Marxist–Leninist Khmer Việt Minh organisation in its guerrilla war against King Norodom Sihanouk’s newly independent government. Following the Khmer Việt Minh’s 1954 retreat into Marxist–Leninist controlled North Vietnam, Pol Pot returned to Phnom Penh, working as a teacher while remaining a central member of Cambodia’s Marxist–Leninist movement. In 1959, he helped convert the movement into the Kampuchean Labour Party, later renamed the Communist Party of Kampuchea. In 1960, Pol Pot took control as party secretary. To avoid state repression, he relocated to a Việt Cộng jungle encampment in 1962 before visiting Hanoi and Beijing, backing China amid the Sino-Soviet split. In 1968, he re-launched the war against Cambodia’s government. Aided by the North Vietnamese military, Pol Pot’s forces advanced and controlled all of Cambodia by 1975. Pol Pot reformed Cambodia as a new, one-party state called Democratic Kampuchea. Seeking to create an agrarian socialist society, his government forcibly relocated the urban population to the countryside to work on collective farms. Those regarded as enemies of the new government were killed. These mass killings, coupled with malnutrition, strenuous working conditions and poor medical care, killed between 1.5 and 2 million people, approximately a quarter of Cambodia’s population, a period later termed the Cambodian genocide. Marxist–Leninists unhappy with Pol Pot’s government encouraged Vietnamese intervention. After Pol Pot attacked several Vietnamese villages, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in December 1978, toppling Pol Pot’s government in 1979. The Vietnamese installed a rival Marxist–Leninist faction opposed to Pol Pot and renamed the country the People’s Republic of Kampuchea. Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge retreated to a jungle base near the Thai border. Until 1993, they remained part of a coalition internationally recognized as Cambodia’s legitimate government. The Ta Mok faction placed Pol Pot under house arrest, where he died in 1998, possibly from suicide. For Pol Pot’s supporters, he was an advocate of socialism who championed Cambodian sovereignty in the face of Vietnamese imperialism. He received Chinese support as a bulwark against Soviet Union influence in the region. Conversely, he has been internationally denounced for his role in the Cambodian genocide, regarded as a totalitarian dictator guilty of crimes against humanity.
• 347,822 votesKim Jong-ilDec. at 70 (1941-2011)Kim Jong-il (officially transcribed Kim Jong Il; Korean: 김정일; Korean pronunciation: [kim.dzɔŋ.il]; 16 February 1941 or 1942 – 17 December 2011) was the second leader of North Korea. He ruled from the death of his father Kim Il-sung, the first leader of North Korea, in 1994 until his own death in 2011. He was an unelected dictator and was often accused of human rights violations.In the early 1980s, Kim had become the heir apparent for the leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and assumed important posts in the party and army organs. Kim succeeded his father and DPRK founder, Kim Il-sung, following the elder Kim’s death in 1994. Kim was the General Secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), WPK Presidium, Chairman of the National Defence Commission (NDC) of North Korea and the Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army (KPA), the fourth-largest standing army in the world. During Kim’s rule, the country suffered famine and had a poor human rights record. Kim involved his country in state terrorism and strengthened the role of the military by his Songun (“military-first”) politics. Kim’s rule also saw tentative economic reforms, including the opening of the Kaesong Industrial Park in 2003. In April 2009, North Korea’s constitution was amended to refer to him and his successors as the “supreme leader of the DPRK”.The most common colloquial title given to Kim was “Dear Leader” to distinguish him from his father Kim Il-sung, the “Great Leader”. Following Kim’s failure to appear at important public events in 2008, foreign observers assumed that Kim had either fallen seriously ill or died. On 19 December 2011, the North Korean government announced that he had died two days earlier, whereupon his third son, Kim Jong-un, was promoted to a senior position in the ruling WPK and succeeded him. After his death, Kim was designated the “Eternal General Secretary” of the WPK and the “Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission”, in keeping with the tradition of establishing eternal posts for the dead members of the Kim dynasty.
• 454,356 votesMao ZedongDec. at 82 (1893-1976)Mao Zedong (; December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who became the founding father of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which he ruled as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Idelogically a Marxist, his theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism. Mao was the son of a prosperous peasant in Shaoshan, Hunan. He had a Chinese nationalist and an anti-imperialist outlook early in his life, and was particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. He later adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University, and became a founding member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927. During the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang (KMT) and the CPC, Mao helped to found the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, led the Jiangxi Soviet’s radical land policies, and ultimately became head of the CPC during the Long March. Although the CPC temporarily allied with the KMT under the United Front during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), China’s civil war resumed after Japan’s surrender and in 1949 Mao’s forces defeated the Nationalist government, which withdrew to Taiwan. On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the PRC, a single-party state controlled by the CPC. In the following years he solidified his control through land reforms and through a psychological victory in the Korean War, as well as through campaigns against landlords, people he termed “counter-revolutionaries”, and other perceived enemies of the state. In 1957, he launched a campaign known as the Great Leap Forward that aimed to rapidly transform China’s economy from agrarian to industrial. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in history and the deaths of 20–45 million people between 1958 and 1962. In 1966, Mao initiated the Cultural Revolution, a program to remove “counter-revolutionary” elements in Chinese society which lasted 10 years and was marked by violent class struggle, widespread destruction of cultural artifacts, and an unprecedented elevation of Mao’s cult of personality. The program is now officially regarded as a “severe setback” for the PRC. In 1972, Mao welcomed U.S. President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling the start of a policy of opening China to the world. After years of ill health, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976 and died at the age of 82. He was succeeded as paramount leader by Party Chairman Hua Guofeng, who was quickly sidelined and replaced by Deng Xiaoping. A controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in modern world history. He is also known as a political intellect, theorist, military strategist, poet, and visionary. Supporters credit him with driving imperialism out of China, modernising the nation and building it into a world power, promoting the status of women, improving education and health care, as well as increasing life expectancy as China’s population grew from around 550 million to over 900 million under his leadership. Conversely, his regime has been called autocratic and totalitarian, and condemned for bringing about mass repression and destroying religious and cultural artifacts and sites. It was additionally responsible for vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 30 to 70 million victims through starvation, prison labour and mass executions.
• 538,382 votesHeinrich HimmlerDec. at 44 (1900-1945)Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈluːɪtˌpɔlt ˈhɪmlɐ] (listen); 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of the Holocaust. As a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service. He studied agronomy in university, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923 and the SS in 1925. In 1929, he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Adolf Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a million-strong paramilitary group, and, following Hitler’s orders, set up and controlled the Nazi concentration camps. He was known for good organisational skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates, such as Reinhard Heydrich in 1931. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo (Secret State Police). Himmler had a lifelong interest in occultism, interpreting Germanic neopagan and Völkisch beliefs to promote the racial policy of Nazi Germany, and incorporating esoteric symbolism and rituals into the SS. On Hitler’s behalf, Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps. As facilitator and overseer of the concentration camps, Himmler directed the killing of some six million Jews, between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people, and other victims; the total number of civilians killed by the regime is estimated at eleven to fourteen million people. Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens. Late in World War II, Hitler briefly appointed him a military commander and later Commander of the Replacement (Home) Army and General Plenipotentiary for the administration of the entire Third Reich (Generalbevollmächtigter für die Verwaltung). Specifically, he was given command of the Army Group Upper Rhine and the Army Group Vistula; he failed to achieve his assigned objectives and Hitler replaced him in these posts. Realising the war was lost, Himmler attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitler’s knowledge, shortly before the end of the war. Hearing of this, Hitler dismissed him from all his posts in April 1945 and ordered his arrest. Himmler attempted to go into hiding, but was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known. While in British custody, he committed suicide on 23 May 1945.
• 650,260 votesIdi AminDec. at 78 (1925-2003)Idi Amin Dada Oumee (May 30, 1928 – August 16, 2003) was a Ugandan military officer and politician who served as the third president of Uganda from 1971 until his overthrow in 1979. He ruled as a military dictator and is considered one of the most brutal despots in modern world history.
• 731,528 votesJosef MengeleDec. at 67 (1911-1979)Josef Mengele ([ˈjoːzɛf ˈmɛŋələ] (listen); 16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979), also known as the Angel of Death (German: Todesengel) and the White Angel (German: der Weisse Engel or Weißer Engel), was a German Schutzstaffel (SS) officer and physician in Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. He performed deadly human experiments on prisoners and was a member of the team of doctors who selected victims to be killed in the gas chambers. Arrivals that were judged able to work were admitted into the camp, while those deemed unsuitable for labor were sent to the gas chambers to be killed. With Red Army troops sweeping through Poland, Mengele was transferred 280 kilometers (170 mi) from Auschwitz to the Gross-Rosen concentration camp on 17 January 1945, just ten days before the arrival of the Soviet forces at Auschwitz. After the war, he fled to South America where he evaded capture for the rest of his life. Before the war, Mengele had received doctorates in anthropology and medicine, and began a career as a researcher. He joined the Nazi Party in 1937 and the SS in 1938. He was assigned as a battalion medical officer at the start of World War II, then transferred to the Nazi concentration camps service in early 1943 and assigned to Auschwitz, where he saw the opportunity to conduct genetic research on human subjects. His subsequent experiments focused primarily on twins, with little regard for the health or safety of the victims.Mengele sailed to Argentina in July 1949, assisted by a network of former SS members. He initially lived in and around Buenos Aires, then fled to Paraguay in 1959 and Brazil in 1960, while being sought by West Germany, Israel, and Nazi hunters such as Simon Wiesenthal who wanted to bring him to trial. Mengele eluded capture in spite of extradition requests by the West German government and clandestine operations by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. He drowned in 1979 after suffering a stroke while swimming off the Brazilian coast, and was buried under the false name Wolfgang Gerhard. Mengele’s remains were disinterred and positively identified by forensic examination in 1985.
• 814,570 votesKim Il-sungDec. at 82 (1912-1994)Kim Il-sung (officially transcribed Kim Il Sung; English pronunciation: ; Korean: 김일성; Korean pronunciation: [kimils͈ʌŋ]; born Kim Sŏng-ju (김성주); 15 April 1912 – 8 July 1994) was the first leader of North Korea which he ruled from the country’s establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Premier from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to 1994. He was also the leader of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) from 1949 to 1994 (titled as Chairman from 1949 to 1966 and as General Secretary after 1966). Coming to power after the end of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, triggering an intervention in defense of South Korea by the United Nations led by the United States. Following the military stalemate in the Korean War, a ceasefire was signed on 27 July 1953. He was the third longest-serving non-royal head of state/government in the 20th century, in office for more than 45 years. Under his leadership, North Korea was established as a communist state with a publicly owned and planned economy. It had close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union. By the 1960s, North Korea briefly enjoyed a standard of living higher than the South, which was fraught with political instability and economic crises. The situation reversed in the 1970s, as a newly stable South Korea became an economic powerhouse fueled by Japanese and American investment, military aid and internal economic development while North Korea stagnated and then declined in the 1980s. Differences emerged between North Korea and the Soviet Union, chief among them being Kim Il-sung’s philosophy of Juche, which focused on Korean nationalism, self-reliance, and socialism. Despite this, the country received funds, subsidies and aid from the USSR (and the Eastern Bloc) until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. The resulting loss of economic aid adversely affected the North’s economy, causing widespread famine in 1994. During this period, North Korea also remained critical of the United States defense force’s presence in the region, which it considered imperialism, having seized the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968, which was part of an infiltration and subversion campaign to reunify the peninsula under North Korea’s rule. He outlived Joseph Stalin by four decades and Mao Zedong by almost two and remained in power during the terms of office of six South Korean Presidents, ten U.S. Presidents and the rule of British monarchs George VI and later his daughter Elizabeth II. Known as the Great Leader (Suryong), he established a personality cult which dominates domestic politics in North Korea. At the 6th WPK Congress in 1980, his oldest son Kim Jong-il was elected as a Presidium member and chosen as his heir apparent to the supreme leadership. Kim Il-sung’s birthday is a public holiday in North Korea called the “Day of the Sun”. In 1998, Kim Il-sung was declared “eternal President of the Republic”. During his rule, North Korea was founded as a totalitarian state with widespread human rights abuses, including mass executions and prison camps which killed between 710,000 and 3.5 million people with a mid-estimate of 1.6 million.
• 916,930 votesJim JonesDec. at 47 (1931-1978)James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American civil rights preacher, faith healer, and cult leader who conspired with his inner circle to direct a mass suicide and mass murder of his followers in his jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana. He launched the Peoples Temple in Indiana during the 1950s. Rev. Jones was officially ordained in 1956 by the Independent Assemblies of God and in 1964 by the Disciples of Christ. He moved his congregation to California in 1965 and gained notoriety with its activities in San Francisco in the 1970s. He then left the United States, bringing many members to a Guyana jungle commune. In 1978, media reports surfaced of human rights abuses in the Peoples Temple in Jonestown. U.S. Representative Leo Ryan led a delegation to the commune to investigate. Ryan and others were murdered by gunfire while boarding a return flight with some former cult members who had wished to leave. Jones then ordered and likely coerced a mass suicide by 918 commune members, 304 of them children, almost all by cyanide-poisoned Flavor Aid.
• 1084,981 votesOsama Bin LadenDec. at 54 (1957-2011)Osama bin Laden, born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957, was the founder of the extremist group Al-Qaeda, an organization that orchestrated some of the most significant terrorist activities in history, including the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. The son of a billionaire construction magnate, Bin Laden’s privileged upbringing sharply contrasted with his later life as a fugitive. His early education included studies in economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University, but it was during this time that he also began to develop radical Islamic beliefs. Bin Laden’s transformation from wealthy businessman to infamous terrorist is largely attributed to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Deeply affected by the plight of the Muslim Afghan people, he funded fighters resisting the Soviet occupation and later joined their ranks himself. This experience solidified his militant outlook, leading him to establish Al-Qaeda in the late 1980s, an organization that sought to unite jihadists worldwide and create a single Islamic political leadership. The 1990s marked a period of escalated violence under Bin Laden’s leadership, culminating in the devastating 9/11 attacks, which resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths. Bin Laden’s actions led to his being labelled as the top target of the U.S., sparking a manhunt that lasted for nearly a decade. Ultimately, he was located in Pakistan and killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in May 2011. Despite his death, Osama bin Laden’s legacy continues to influence global terrorism and international relations, his life serving as a stark embodiment of extremism and violence.
• 11101,412 votesJoseph StalinDec. at 74 (1878-1953)Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; 18 December [O.S. 6] 1878 – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet politician who led the Soviet Union from the mid–1920s until 1953 as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922–1952) and Premier (1941–1953). Initially presiding over a collective leadership as first among equals, by the 1930s he was the country’s de facto dictator. A communist ideologically committed to the Leninist interpretation of Marxism, Stalin formalised these ideas as Marxism–Leninism, while his own policies are known as Stalinism. Born to a poor family in Gori in the Russian Empire (now Georgia), Stalin joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party as a youth. He edited the party’s newspaper, Pravda, and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin’s Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings, and protection rackets. Repeatedly arrested, he underwent several internal exiles. After the Bolsheviks seized power during the 1917 October Revolution and created a one-party state under Lenin’s newly renamed Communist Party, Stalin joined its governing Politburo. Serving in the Russian Civil War before overseeing the Soviet Union’s establishment in 1922, Stalin assumed leadership over the country following Lenin’s 1924 death. Under Stalin, “Socialism in One Country” became a central tenet of the party’s dogma. Through the Five-Year Plans, the country underwent agricultural collectivisation and rapid industrialisation, creating a centralised command economy. This led to significant disruptions in food production that contributed to the famine of 1932–33. To eradicate accused “enemies of the working class”, Stalin instituted the “Great Purge”, in which over a million were imprisoned and at least 700,000 executed between 1934 and 1939. By 1937, he had complete personal control over the party and state. Stalin’s government promoted Marxism–Leninism abroad through the Communist International and supported European anti-fascist movements during the 1930s, particularly in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, it signed a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany, resulting in the Soviet invasion of Poland. Germany ended the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941. Despite initial setbacks, the Soviet Red Army repelled the German incursion and captured Berlin in 1945, ending World War II in Europe. The Soviets annexed the Baltic states and helped establish Soviet-aligned governments throughout Central and Eastern Europe, China, and North Korea. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged from the war as global superpowers. Tensions arose between the Soviet-backed Eastern Bloc and U.S.-backed Western Bloc which became known as the Cold War. Stalin led his country through the post-war reconstruction, during which it developed a nuclear weapon in 1949. In these years, the country experienced another major famine and an anti-semitic campaign peaking in the doctors’ plot. Stalin died in 1953 and was eventually succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who denounced his predecessor and initiated the de-Stalinisation of Soviet society. Widely considered one of the 20th century’s most significant figures, Stalin was the subject of a pervasive personality cult within the international Marxist–Leninist movement which revered him as a champion of the working class and socialism. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Stalin has retained popularity in Russia and Georgia as a victorious wartime leader who established the Soviet Union as a major world power. Conversely, his totalitarian government has been widely condemned for overseeing mass repressions, ethnic cleansing, deportations, hundreds of thousands of executions, and famines which killed millions.
• 1228,616 votesBenito MussoliniDec. at 61 (1883-1945)Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (, also US: , Italian: [beˈniːto mussoˈliːni]; 29 July 1883 – 28 April 1945) was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy from the fascists’ takeover of state power in 1922 until 1943, and Duce from 1919 to his execution in 1945 during the Italian civil war. As dictator of Italy and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired several totalitarian rulers such as Adolf Hitler.A journalist and politician, Mussolini had been a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1910 to 1914, but was expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party’s stance on neutrality. Mussolini served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism and later founded the fascist movement which came to oppose egalitarianism and class conflict, instead advocating “revolutionary nationalism” transcending class lines. Following the March on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini became the youngest Italian Prime Minister up to that date. After removing all political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes, Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the Vatican, ending decades of struggle between the Italian state and the Papacy, and recognized the independence of Vatican City. Mussolini’s foreign policy aimed to expand the sphere of influence of Italian fascism. In 1923, he began the “Pacification of Libya” and ordered the bombing of Corfu in retaliation for the murder of an Italian general. In 1936, Mussolini formed Italian East Africa (AOI) by merging Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia following the Abyssinian crisis and the Second Italo–Ethiopian War. In 1939, Italian forces occupied Albania. Between 1936 and 1939, Mussolini ordered the successful Italian military intervention in Spain in favor of Francisco Franco during the Spanish civil war. At the same time, Mussolini’s Italy tried to avoid the outbreak of a second global war and took part in the Stresa front, the Lytton Report, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Four-Power Pact and the Munich Agreement. However, Italy distanced Britain and France by forming the axis powers with Germany and Japan. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, resulting in declarations of war by France and the UK and the start of World War II. On 10 June 1940—with the Fall of France imminent—Italy officially entered the war and occupied parts of south-east France, Corsica and Tunisia. Mussolini planned to concentrate Italian forces on a major offensive against the British Empire in Africa and the Middle East, while expecting the collapse of the UK in the European theatre. The Italians invaded Egypt, bombed Mandatory Palestine, and occupied British Somaliland with initial success. However, the British government refused to accept proposals for a peace that would involve accepting Axis victories in Eastern and Western Europe; plans for an invasion of the UK did not proceed and the war continued. In October 1940, Mussolini sent Italian forces into Greece, starting the Greco-Italian War. The British air force prevented the Italian invasion and allowed the Greeks to push the Italians back to Albania.The Balkan campaign was significantly prolonged until the definition of the Axis occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. Furthermore, the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour forced Mussolini to send an Italian army in Russia and declare war on the United States. Mussolini was aware that Italy, whose resources were reduced by the campaigns of the 1930s, was not ready for a long conflict against three superpowers but opted to remain in the conflict to not abandon the fascist imperial ambitions. In 1943, Italy suffered major disasters: by February the Red Army had completely destroyed the Italian Army in Russia; in May the Axis collapsed in North Africa despite previous Italian resistance at the second battle of El Alamein. On 9 July the Anglo-Americans invaded Sicily; and by the 16th it became clear the German summer offensive in the USSR had failed. As a consequence, early on 25 July, the Grand Council of Fascism passed a motion of no confidence for Mussolini; later that day the King dismissed him as head of government and had him placed in custody, appointing Pietro Badoglio to succeed him as Prime Minister. After the king agreed the armistice with the allies, on 12 September 1943 Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and Waffen-SS commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (Italian: Repubblica Sociale Italiana, RSI), informally known as the Salò Republic. In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station to publicly confirm his demise.
• 1336,353 votesSaddam HusseinDec. at 69 (1937-2006)Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti (; Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba’ath Party and its regional organization the Iraqi Ba’ath Party—which espoused Ba’athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq. As vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and at a time when many groups were considered capable of overthrowing the government, Saddam created security forces through which he tightly controlled conflicts between the government and the armed forces. In the early 1970s, Saddam nationalized oil and foreign banks leaving the system eventually insolvent mostly due to the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, and UN sanctions. Through the 1970s, Saddam cemented his authority over the apparatus of government as oil money helped Iraq’s economy to grow at a rapid pace. Positions of power in the country were mostly filled with Sunni Arabs, a minority that made up only a fifth of the population.Saddam formally rose to power in 1979, although he had already been the de facto head of Iraq for several years. He suppressed several movements, particularly Shi’a and Kurdish movements which sought to overthrow the government or gain independence, respectively, and maintained power during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War. Whereas some in the Arab world lauded Saddam for opposing the United States and attacking Israel, he was widely condemned for the brutality of his dictatorship. The total number of Iraqis killed by the security services of Saddam’s government in various purges and genocides is conservatively estimated to be 250,000. Saddam’s invasions of Iran and Kuwait also resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. He acquired the title “Butcher of Baghdad”.In 2003, a coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq to depose Saddam, in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair erroneously accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda. Saddam’s Ba’ath party was disbanded and elections were held. Following his capture on 13 December 2003, the trial of Saddam took place under the Iraqi Interim Government. On 5 November 2006, Saddam was convicted by an Iraqi court of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi’a, and sentenced to death by hanging. He was executed on 30 December 2006.
• 1416,774 votesTed BundyDec. at 42 (1946-1989)Theodore Robert Bundy (born Theodore Robert Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer and necrophile who kidnapped, raped, and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade of denials, before his execution in 1989 he confessed to 30 homicides that he committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. The true number of victims is unknown and possibly higher. Many of Bundy’s young female victims regarded him as handsome and charismatic, traits that he exploited to win their trust. He would typically approach them in public places, feigning injury or disability, or impersonating an authority figure, before overpowering and assaulting them in secluded locations. He sometimes revisited his secondary crime scenes, grooming and performing sexual acts with the decomposing corpses until putrefaction and destruction by wild animals made any further interactions impossible. He decapitated at least 12 victims and kept some of the severed heads as mementos in his apartment. On a few occasions, he broke into dwellings at night and bludgeoned his victims as they slept. In 1975, Bundy was jailed for the first time when he was incarcerated in Utah for aggravated kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. He then became a suspect in a progressively longer list of unsolved homicides in several states. Facing murder charges in Colorado, he engineered two dramatic escapes and committed further assaults in Florida, including three murders, before his ultimate recapture in 1978. For the Florida homicides, he received three death sentences in two separate trials. Bundy was executed in the electric chair at Florida State Prison on January 24, 1989.Biographer Ann Rule, who had previously worked with Bundy, described him as “a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human’s pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death, and even after.” He once called himself “the most cold-hearted son of a bitch you’ll ever meet.” Attorney Polly Nelson, a member of his last defense team, wrote he was “the very definition of heartless evil.”
• 1515,073 votesJefferey DahmerDec. at 34 (1960-1994)Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer (; May 21, 1960 – November 28, 1994), also known as the Milwaukee Cannibal or the Milwaukee Monster, was an American serial killer and sex offender who committed the rape, murder, and dismemberment of 17 men and boys from 1978 to 1991. Many of his later murders involved necrophilia, cannibalism, and the permanent preservation of body parts—typically all or part of the skeleton.Although he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and a psychotic disorder, Dahmer was found to be legally sane at his trial. He was convicted of 15 of the 16 murders he had committed in Wisconsin, and was sentenced to 15 terms of life imprisonment on February 15, 1992. He was later sentenced to a 16th term of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed in Ohio in 1978. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution.
• 1617,249 votesKim Jong-unAge: 43Kim Jong-un (officially transcribed Kim Jong Un; Korean: 김정은; Korean pronunciation: [kim.dzɔŋ.ɯn]; born 8 January 1983 or 1984) is a North Korean politician. He is currently the incumbent Supreme Leader of North Korea since 2011 and Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea since 2012. Kim is the second child of Kim Jong-il (1941–2011), the country’s second leader from 1994 to 2011, and Ko Yong-hui (1952–2004). He is the grandson of Kim Il-sung, who was the founder and first leader of North Korea from 1948 to 1994. Kim is the first North Korean leader who was born after the country’s founding, and is also the second youngest currently-serving head of government in the world.From late 2010, Kim Jong-un was viewed as heir apparent to the leadership of the DPRK, and following the elder Kim’s death, North Korean state television announced him as the “Great Successor”. Kim holds the titles of Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (as First Secretary between 2012 and 2016), Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, commander-in-chief (as SAC chairman), and member of the Presidium of the Politburo of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the highest decision-making body in North Korea. Kim was promoted to the rank of Marshal of North Korea in the Korean People’s Army on 18 July 2012, consolidating his position as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. North Korean state media often refers to him as Marshal Kim Jong-un, “the Marshal” or “Dear Respected.”Forbes magazine ranked Kim as the 46th most powerful person in the world in 2013 and the third highest amongst Koreans after Ban Ki-moon and Lee Kun-hee. On 12 December 2013, Kim ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song-thaek for “treachery”. Kim is widely believed to have ordered the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, in Malaysia in February 2017.In 2018, Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in met twice in Panmunjom on the border between North and South, and once in Pyongyang. On 12 June 2018, Kim and US President Donald Trump met for a summit in Singapore, the first-ever talks held between a North Korean leader and a sitting US President, to discuss the North Korean nuclear program. A follow-up meeting in Hanoi in February 2019 ended abruptly without an agreement. On 25 April 2019, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin held their first summit in Vladivostok, Russia. On 30 June 2019, Kim met with both South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Trump at the Korean Demilitarized Zone.
• 1722,712 votesJoseph GoebbelsDec. at 47 (1897-1945)Paul Joseph Goebbels (German: [ˈpaʊ̯l ˈjoːzɛf ˈɡœbl̩s] (listen); 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler’s closest and most devoted associates, and was known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitism, which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust. Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, and worked with Gregor Strasser in their northern branch. He was appointed Gauleiter (district leader) for Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme. After the Nazi’s seizure of power in 1933, Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted control over the news media, arts, and information in Germany. He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes. Topics for party propaganda included antisemitism, attacks on the Christian churches, and (after the start of the Second World War) attempting to shape morale. In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce total war, including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labour force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht. Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments manufacture and the Wehrmacht. As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children joined him in Berlin. They moved into the underground Vorbunker, part of Hitler’s underground bunker complex, on 22 April 1945. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. In accordance with Hitler’s will, Goebbels succeeded him as Chancellor of Germany; he served one day in this post. The following day, Goebbels and his wife committed suicide, after poisoning their six children with cyanide.
• 1810,120 votesJohn Wayne GacyDec. at 52 (1942-1994)John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer who raped, tortured and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978 in Cook County, Illinois (a part of metropolitan Chicago). All of Gacy’s known murders were committed inside his Norwood Park ranch house. His victims were typically induced to his address by force or deception, and all except one of his victims were murdered by either asphyxiation or strangulation with a makeshift garrote, as his first victim was stabbed to death. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawl space of his home. Three other victims were buried elsewhere on his property, while the bodies of his last four known victims were discarded in the Des Plaines River. Convicted of 33 murders, Gacy was sentenced to death on March 13, 1980 for 12 of those murders. He spent 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on May 10, 1994. Gacy became known as the “Killer Clown” because of his charitable services at fund-raising events, parades, and children’s parties where he would dress as “Pogo the Clown” or “Patches the Clown”, characters that he had created.
• 1911,767 votesIvan the TerribleDec. at 53 (1530-1584)Ivan IV Vasilyevich (; Russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич, tr. Ivan Vasilyevich; 25 August 1530 – 28 March [O.S. 18 March] 1584), commonly known as Ivan the Terrible (Russian: Ива́н Гро́зный​ , Ivan Grozny; “Ivan the Formidable” or “Ivan the Fearsome”), was the Grand Prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan was the crown prince of Vasili III, the Rurikid ruler of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and was appointed Grand Prince at three years-old after his father’s death. Ivan was proclaimed Tsar (Emperor) of All Rus’ in 1547 at the age of seventeen, establishing the Tsardom of Russia with Moscow as the predominant state. Ivan’s reign was characterized by Russia’s transformation from a medieval state into an empire under the Tsar, though at immense cost to its people and its broader, long-term economy. Ivan conquered the Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan and Sibir, with Russia becoming a multiethnic and multicontinental state spanning approximately 4,050,000 km2 (1,560,000 sq mi), developing a bureaucracy to administer the new territories. Ivan triggered the Livonian War, which ravaged Russia and resulted in the loss of Livonia and Ingria, but allowed him to exercise greater autocratic control over Russia’s nobility, whom he violently purged in the Oprichnina. Ivan was an able diplomat, a patron of arts and trade, and the founder of Russia’s first publishing house, the Moscow Print Yard. Ivan was popular among Russia’s commoners (see Ivan the Terrible in Russian folklore) except for the people of Novgorod and surrounding areas who were subject to the Massacre of Novgorod. Historic sources present disparate accounts of Ivan’s complex personality: he was described as intelligent and devout, but also prone to paranoia, rages, and episodic outbreaks of mental instability that increased with age. Ivan is popularly believed to have killed his eldest son and heir Ivan Ivanovich and the latter’s unborn son during his outbursts, which left the politically ineffectual Feodor Ivanovich to inherit the throne, a man whose rule directly led to the end of the Rurikid dynasty and the beginning of the Time of Troubles.
• 2020,810 votesCharles MansonAge: 91Charles Milles Manson (né Maddox, November 12, 1934 – November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and cult leader. In mid-1967, he formed what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune based in California. Manson’s followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. According to the Los Angeles County district

• 2124,760 votesVlad the ImpalerAge: 595Vlad III Dracula, known as Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș, Bulgarian: Влад Цепеш, pronunciation: [ˈvlad ˈtsepeʃ] ) or Vlad Dracula ( (Romanian: Vlad Drăculea, pronunciation: [ˈdrəkule̯a] , Bulgarian: Влад Дракула); 1428/31 – 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian history and a national hero of Romania. He was the second son of Vlad Dracul, who became the ruler of Wallachia in 1436. Vlad and his younger brother, Radu, were held as hostages in the Ottoman Empire in 1442 to secure their father’s loyalty. Vlad’s father and eldest brother, Mircea, were murdered after John Hunyadi, regent-governor of Hungary, invaded Wallachia in 1447. Hunyadi installed Vlad’s second cousin, Vladislav II, as the new voivode. Hunyadi launched a military campaign against the Ottomans in the autumn of 1448, and Vladislav accompanied him. Vlad broke into Wallachia with Ottoman support in October, but Vladislav returned and Vlad sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire before the end of the year. Vlad went to Moldavia in 1449 or 1450, and later to Hungary. Relations between Hungary and Vladislav later deteriorated, and in 1456 Vlad invaded Wallachia with Hungarian support. Vladislav died fighting against him. Vlad began a purge among the Wallachian boyars to strengthen his position. He came into conflict with the Transylvanian Saxons, who supported his opponents, Dan and Basarab Laiotă (who were Vladislav’s brothers), and Vlad’s illegitimate half-brother, Vlad the Monk. Vlad plundered the Saxon villages, taking the captured people to Wallachia where he had them impaled (which inspired his cognomen). Peace was restored in 1460. The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, ordered Vlad to pay homage to him personally, but Vlad had the Sultan’s two envoys captured and impaled. In February 1462, he attacked Ottoman territory, massacring tens of thousands of Turks and Bulgarians. Mehmed launched a campaign against Wallachia to replace Vlad with Vlad’s younger brother, Radu. Vlad attempted to capture the sultan at Târgoviște during the night of 16–17 June 1462. The sultan and the main Ottoman army left Wallachia, but more and more Wallachians deserted to Radu. Vlad went to Transylvania to seek assistance from Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, in late 1462, but Corvinus had him imprisoned. Vlad was held in captivity in Visegrád from 1463 to 1475. During this period, anecdotes about his cruelty started to spread in Germany and Italy. He was released at the request of Stephen III of Moldavia in the summer of 1475. He fought in Corvinus’s army against the Ottomans in Bosnia in early 1476. Hungarian and Moldavian troops helped him to force Basarab Laiotă (who had dethroned Vlad’s brother, Radu) to flee from Wallachia in November. Basarab returned with Ottoman support before the end of the year. Vlad was killed in battle before 10 January 1477. Books describing Vlad’s cruel acts were among the first bestsellers in the German-speaking territories. In Russia, popular stories suggested that Vlad was able to strengthen central government only through applying brutal punishments, and a similar view was adopted by most Romanian historians in the 19th century. Vlad’s reputation for cruelty and his patronymic inspired the name of the vampire Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula.
• 2219,542 votesRobert MugabeAge: 102Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; Shona: [muɡaɓe]; born 21 February 1924) is a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He chaired the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) group from 1975 to 1980 and led its successor political party, the ZANU – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), from 1980 to 2017. Ideologically an African nationalist, during the 1970s and 1980s he identified as a Marxist–Leninist, although after the 1990s self-identified only as a socialist. His policies have been described as Mugabeism. Mugabe was born to a poor Shona family in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia. Following an education at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare, he worked as a school teacher in Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Ghana. Angered that Southern Rhodesia was a colony of the British Empire governed by its white minority, Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalist protests calling for an independent state led by representatives of the black majority. After making anti-government comments, he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his leadership of ZANU, and oversaw ZANU’s role in the Rhodesian Bush War, fighting Ian Smith’s predominantly white government. He reluctantly took part in the peace negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom that resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement. The agreement ended the war and resulted in the 1980 general election, at which Mugabe led ZANU-PF to victory. As Prime Minister of the newly renamed Zimbabwe, Mugabe’s administration expanded healthcare and education and—despite his professed Marxist desire for a socialist society—adhered largely to mainstream, conservative economic policies. Mugabe’s calls for racial reconciliation failed to stem growing white emigration, while relations with Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) also declined. In the Gukurahundi of 1982–1985, Mugabe’s Fifth Brigade crushed ZAPU-linked opposition in Matabeleland in a campaign that killed at least 10,000 people, mostly Ndebele civilians. Internationally, he sent troops into the Second Congo War and chaired the Non-Aligned Movement (1986–89), the Organisation of African Unity (1997–98), and the African Union (2015–16). Pursuing decolonisation, Mugabe emphasised the redistribution of land controlled by white farmers to landless blacks, initially on a “willing seller–willing buyer” basis. Frustrated at the slow rate of redistribution, from 2000 he encouraged black Zimbabweans to violently seize white-owned farms. Food production was severely impacted, leading to famine, drastic economic decline, and international sanctions. Opposition to Mugabe grew, although he was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2013 through campaigns dominated by violence, electoral fraud, and nationalistic appeals to his rural Shona voter base. In 2017, members of his own party ousted him in a coup, replacing him with former Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Having dominated Zimbabwe’s politics for nearly four decades, Mugabe is a controversial figure. He has been praised as a revolutionary hero of the African liberation struggle who helped to free Zimbabwe from British colonialism, imperialism, and white minority rule. Conversely, in governance he has been accused of being a dictator responsible for economic mismanagement, widespread corruption, anti-white racism, human rights abuses, and crimes against humanity.
• 237,952 votesRuhollah KhomeiniDec. at 86 (1902-1989)Sayyid Ruhollah Mūsavi Khomeini (UK: khom-AY-nee, US: khohm-; Persian: سید روح‌الله موسوی خمینی‎ [ruːholˈlɑːhe xomejˈniː] (listen); 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989), also known in the Western world as Ayatollah Khomeini, was an Iranian politician and cleric. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and the end of the 2,500 year old Persian monarchy. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country’s Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution of the Islamic Republic as the highest-ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death. He was succeeded by Ali Khamenei on 4 June 1989. Khomeini was born in 1902 in Khomeyn, in what is now Iran’s Markazi Province. His father was murdered in 1903 when Khomeini was five months old. He began studying the Quran and the Persian language from a young age and was assisted in his religious studies by his relatives, including his mother’s cousin and older brother. Khomeini was a marja (“source of emulation”) in Twelver Shia Islam, a Mujtahid or faqih (an expert in Sharia) and author of more than 40 books, but he is primarily known for his political activities. He spent more than 15 years in exile for his opposition to the last shah. In his writings and preachings he expanded the theory of welayat-el faqih, the “Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (clerical authority)”, to include theocratic political rule by Islamic jurists. This principle (though not known to the wider public before the revolution), was appended to the new Iranian constitution after being put to a referendum. According to The New York Times, Khomeini called democracy the equivalent of prostitution. Whether Khomeini’s ideas are compatible with democracy and whether he intended the Islamic Republic to be democratic is disputed. He was Time magazine’s Man of the Year in 1979 for his international influence, and Khomeini has been described as the “virtual face of Shia Islam in Western popular culture”. In 1982, he survived one military coup attempt. Khomeini was known for his support of the hostage takers during the Iran hostage crisis, his fatwa calling for the murder of British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, and for referring to the United States as the “Great Satan” and Soviet Union as the “Lesser Satan.” Khomeini has been criticized for these acts and for human rights violations of Iranians (including his ordering of execution of thousands of political prisoners, war criminals and prisoners of the Iran–Iraq War).He has also been lauded as a “charismatic leader of immense popularity”, a “champion of Islamic revival” by Shia scholars, who attempted to establish good relations between Sunnis and Shias, and a major innovator in political theory and religious-oriented populist political strategy. Khomeini held the title of Grand Ayatollah and is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran and by his supporters internationally. He is generally referred to as Ayatollah Khomeini by others. In Iran, his gold-domed tomb in Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahrāʾ cemetery has become a shrine for his adherents, and he is legally considered “inviolable”, with Iranians regularly punished for insulting him.
• 2410,605 votesCaligulaDec. at 28 (12-41)Caligula (; Latin: Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; 31 August 12 – 24 January 41 AD) was Roman emperor from 37 to 41 AD. The son of the popular Roman general Germanicus and Augustus’s granddaughter Agrippina the Elder, Caligula was born into the first ruling family of the Roman Empire, conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Germanicus’s uncle and adoptive father, Tiberius, succeeded Augustus as emperor of Rome in 14. Although he was born Gaius Caesar, after Julius Caesar, he acquired the nickname “Caligula” (meaning “little [soldier’s] boot”, the diminutive form of caliga) from his father’s soldiers during their campaign in Germania. When Germanicus died at Antioch in 19, Agrippina returned with her six children to Rome, where she became entangled in a bitter feud with Tiberius. The conflict eventually led to the destruction of her family, with Caligula as the sole male survivor. Untouched by the deadly intrigues, Caligula accepted an invitation in 31 to join the emperor on the island of Capri, where Tiberius had withdrawn five years earlier. Following the death of Tiberius, Caligula succeeded his adoptive grandfather as emperor in 37. There are few surviving sources about the reign of Caligula, although he is described as a noble and moderate emperor during the first six months of his rule. After this, the sources focus upon his cruelty, sadism, extravagance, and sexual perversion, presenting him as an insane tyrant. While the reliability of these sources is questionable, it is known that during his brief reign, Caligula worked to increase the unconstrained personal power of the emperor, as opposed to countervailing powers within the principate. He directed much of his attention to ambitious construction projects and luxurious dwellings for himself, and initiated the construction of two aqueducts in Rome: the Aqua Claudia and the Anio Novus. During his reign, the empire annexed the client kingdom of Mauretania as a province. In early 41, Caligula was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy by officers of the Praetorian Guard, senators, and courtiers. The conspirators’ attempt to use the opportunity to restore the Roman Republic was thwarted, however. On the day of the assassination of Caligula, the Praetorians declared Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, the next Roman emperor. Although the Julio-Claudian dynasty continued to rule the empire until the fall of his nephew Nero in 68, Caligula’s death marked the official end of the Julii Caesares in the male line.
• 255,101 votesRichard Ramirez – The Night StalkerDec. at 53 (1960-2013)Richard Ramirez, infamously known as “The Night Stalker,” terrorized California during the mid-1980s with a series of brutal home invasions, murders, sexual assaults, and robberies. His random, sadistic acts of violence left a trail of fear and devastation, targeting men, women, and children alike. Ramirez’s lack of remorse and his satanic rituals further highlighted his malevolent nature. His reign of terror and sheer brutality have solidified his legacy as one of the most evil figures in history.
• 268,356 votesAdolf EichmannDec. at 56 (1906-1962)Otto Adolf Eichmann ( YKHE-mən, German: [ˈʔɔto ˈʔaːdɔlf ˈʔaɪçman]; 19 March 1906 – 1 June 1962) was a German-Austrian Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (Senior Assault Unit Leader) and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He was tasked by SS-Obergruppenführer (Senior Group Leader) Reinhard Heydrich with facilitating and managing the logistics involved in the mass deportation of Jews to ghettos and extermination camps in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe during World War II. He was captured by the Mossad in Argentina on 11 May 1960 and subsequently found guilty of war crimes in a widely publicised trial in Jerusalem, Israel. Eichmann was executed by hanging in 1962. After an unremarkable school career, Eichmann briefly worked for his father’s mining company in Austria, where the family had moved in 1914. He worked as a travelling oil salesman beginning in 1927, and joined both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. He returned to Germany in 1933, where he joined the Sicherheitsdienst (SD; Security Service); there he was appointed head of the department responsible for Jewish affairs—especially emigration, which the Nazis encouraged through violence and economic pressure. After the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Eichmann and his staff arranged for Jews to be concentrated in ghettos in major cities with the expectation that they would be transported either farther east or overseas. He also drew up plans for a Jewish reservation, first at Nisko in southeast Poland and later in Madagascar, but neither of these plans were ever carried out. The Nazis began the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, and their Jewish policy changed from emigration to extermination. To co-ordinate planning for the genocide, Heydrich, who was Eichmann’s superior, hosted the regime’s administrative leaders at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Eichmann collected information for him, attended the conference, and prepared the minutes. Eichmann and his staff became responsible for Jewish deportations to extermination camps, where the victims were gassed. Germany invaded Hungary in March 1944, and Eichmann oversaw the deportation of much of the Jewish population. Most of the victims were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp, where about 75 per cent were murdered upon arrival. By the time that the transports were stopped in July 1944, 437,000 of Hungary’s 725,000 Jews had been killed. Dieter Wisliceny testified at Nuremberg that Eichmann told him he would “leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him a source of extraordinary satisfaction”.After Germany’s defeat in 1945, Eichmann was captured by US forces, but escaped from a detention camp and moved around Germany to avoid re-capture. He ended up in a small village in Lower Saxony, where he lived until 1950, when he moved to Argentina using false papers. Information collected by the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, confirmed his location in 1960. A team of Mossad and Shin Bet agents captured Eichmann and brought him to Israel to stand trial on 15 criminal charges, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against the Jewish people. During the trial, he did not deny the Holocaust or his role in organising it, but claimed that he was simply following orders in a totalitarian Führerprinzip system. He was found guilty on all of the charges, and was executed by hanging on 1 June 1962. The trial was widely followed in the media and was later the subject of several books, including Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, in which Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to describe Eichmann.
• 273,843 votesGary Ridgway – The Green River KillerAge: 77Gary Ridgway, known as the Green River Killer, is one of the most prolific serial killers in American history. He confessed to murdering 71 women in the 1980s and 1990s, often targeting vulnerable individuals like sex workers and runaways. Ridgway’s calculated cruelty involved luring victims, strangling them, and disposing of their bodies in remote locations. His remorseless nature and the sheer number of his heinous acts have cemented his legacy as one of history’s most evil individuals.
• 284,031 votesJeffrey EpsteinAge: 73Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender, orchestrated a massive sex trafficking ring involving underage girls. Using his wealth and connections, Epstein manipulated, abused, and exploited countless young victims over decades. His actions not only caused immense psychological and physical harm but also highlighted systemic issues of power and corruption. Epstein’s ability to evade justice for so long and the horrifying scope of his crimes make him one of the most evil individuals in recent history.
• 2910,941 votesNeroDec. at 30 (37-68)Nero (; Latin: Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus; 15 December 37 – 9 June 68 AD) was the last Roman emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. He was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius and became Claudius’ heir and successor. Like Claudius, Nero became emperor with the consent of the Praetorian Guard. Nero’s mother, Agrippina the Younger, was likely implicated in Claudius’ death and Nero’s nomination as emperor. She dominated Nero’s early life and decisions until he cast her off. Five years into his reign, he had her murdered.During the early years of his reign, Nero was content to be guided by his mother, his tutor Lucius Annaeus Seneca, and his Praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. As time passed, he started to play a more active and independent role in government and foreign policy. During his reign, the redoubtable general Corbulo conducted a successful war and negotiated peace with the Parthian Empire. His general Suetonius Paulinus crushed a major revolt in Britain, led by the Iceni Queen Boudica. The Bosporan Kingdom was briefly annexed to the empire, and the First Jewish–Roman War began. Nero focused much of his attention on diplomacy, trade and the cultural life of the empire, ordering theatres built and promoting athletic games. He made public appearances as an actor, poet, musician and charioteer. In the eyes of traditionalists, this undermined the dignity and authority of his person, status, and office. His extravagant, empire-wide program of public and private works was funded by a rise in taxes that was much resented by the upper classes. In contrast, his populist style of rule remained very popular among the lower classes of Rome and the provinces until his death and beyond. Various plots against his life were revealed; the ringleaders, most of them Nero’s own courtiers, were executed. In 68 AD Vindex, governor of the Gaulish territory Gallia Lugdunensis, rebelled. He was supported by Galba, the governor of Hispania Tarraconensis. Vindex’s revolt failed in its immediate aim, but Nero fled Rome when Rome’s discontented civil and military authorities chose Galba as emperor. He committed suicide on June 9, 68 AD, when he learned that he had been tried in absentia and condemned to death as a public enemy, making him the first Roman Emperor to commit suicide. His death ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty, sparking a brief period of civil wars known as the Year of the Four Emperors. Nero’s rule is usually associated with tyranny and extravagance. Most Roman sources, such as Suetonius and Cassius Dio, offer overwhelmingly negative assessments of his personality and reign; Tacitus claims that the Roman people thought him compulsive and corrupt. Suetonius tells that many Romans believed that the Great Fire of Rome was instigated by Nero to clear the way for his planned palatial complex, the Domus Aurea. According to Tacitus he was said to have seized Christians as scapegoats for the fire and burned them alive, seemingly motivated not by public justice but by personal cruelty. Some modern historians question the reliability of the ancient sources on Nero’s tyrannical acts. A few sources paint Nero in a more favorable light. There is evidence of his popularity among the Roman commoners, especially in the eastern provinces of the Empire, where a popular legend arose that Nero had not died and would return. At least three leaders of short-lived, failed rebellions presented themselves as “Nero reborn” to enlist popular support.
• 304,511 votesPedro LópezAge: 77Pedro Alonso López (born 8 October 1948) is a Colombian serial killer, who was sentenced for killing 110 girls, but who claims to have raped and killed more than 300 girls across Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Aside from uncited local accounts, López’s crimes first received international attention from an interview conducted by Ron Laytner, a longtime freelance photojournalist who reported interviewing López in his Ambato prison cell in 1980. Laytner’s interviews were widely published, first in the Chicago Tribune on Sunday, 13 July 1980, then in the Toronto Sun and The Sacramento Bee on 21 July 1980, and over the years in many other North American papers and foreign publications, including the National Enquirer. Apart from Laytner’s account and two brief Associated Press wire reports, the story was published in The World’s Most Infamous Murders by Boar and Blundell, and has found its way into many serial murder anthologies, both in print and online. According to Laytner’s story, López became known as the Monster of the Andes in 1980, when he led police to 53 graves in Ecuador. The victims were all girls 9 ⁠–⁠12 years of age. In 1983, he was found guilty of the murder of 110 girls in Ecuador. He further confessed to an additional 240 murders in Peru and Colombia. An A&E Biography documentary reports that he was released from an Ecuadorian prison on 31 August 1994, then rearrested as an illegal immigrant and handed over to Colombian authorities, who charged him with a 20-year-old murder. He was declared insane and held in the psychiatric wing of a Bogotá hospital. In 1998, he was declared sane and released on $50 bail, subject to certain conditions. He later absconded. The same documentary says that Interpol released an advisory for his rearrest by Colombian authorities over a fresh murder in 2002.
• 312,723 votesJosef FritzlAge: 91Josef Fritzl, an Austrian engineer, shocked the world when it was revealed he had imprisoned his daughter in a secret basement for 24 years, fathering seven children with her through repeated rapes. His horrific actions confined her to unimaginable suffering and isolation, showcasing a deeply depraved mind. Fritzl’s ability to lead a double life while inflicting such profound trauma on his family cements his legacy as one of the most evil individuals in history.
• 323,361 votesLuis GaravitoAge: 69Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos (born January 25, 1957), also known as La Bestia (“The Beast”) or Tribilín (named after the Disney character “Goofy”) is a Colombian rapist and serial killer. In 1999, he admitted to the rape, torture and murder of 138 children and teenagers. His victims, based on the locations of skeletons listed on maps that Garavito drew in prison, could exceed 300;

• 332,432 votesAbu Omar Al-baghdadiAbu Omar al-Baghdadi, the original leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, laid the groundwork for what would become ISIS. Under his brutal reign, the group carried out horrific acts of violence, including bombings, beheadings, and mass executions. His leadership significantly contributed to the widespread terror, instability, and suffering in the region. By fostering an environment of extreme radicalism and savagery, al-Baghdadi’s actions have marked him as one of the most evil figures in contemporary history.
• 342,479 votesAbu Khattab Al-kurdiAbu Khattab Al-Kurdi, a key ISIS figure, was notorious for his involvement in brutal terrorist operations and mass atrocities. His command included perpetrating widespread violence, including bombings, executions, and abductions aimed at instilling fear and chaos. Al-Kurdi’s ruthless tactics, targeting civilians and opposition alike, played a significant role in the devastation across war-torn regions, earning him a reputation as one of the most malevolent individuals in recent history. His legacy is stained with cruelty and destruction.
• 355,322 votesAyman al-ZawahiriAge: 74Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s leader after Osama bin Laden, is notorious for his role in global terrorism. A key architect behind numerous attacks, including 9/11, al-Zawahiri’s actions have led to the deaths of thousands and widespread fear. His ideological influence helped sustain and expand al-Qaeda’s reach, promoting a legacy of violence and extremism. His commitment to causing mass destruction and destabilizing nations cements his place as one of the most evil figures in modern history.
• 365,219 votesJerry SanduskyAge: 82Gerald Arthur Sandusky (born January 26, 1944) is an American retired college football coach who was convicted of rape and child sexual abuse. Sandusky served as an assistant coach for his entire career, mostly at Pennsylvania State University under Joe Paterno, from 1969 to 1999. He received “Assistant Coach of the Year” awards in 1986 and 1999. Sandusky authored several books related to his football coaching experiences. In 1977, Sandusky founded The Second Mile, a non-profit charity serving Pennsylvania’s underprivileged and at-risk youth. After Sandusky’s 1999 retirement as assistant coach at Penn State, he continued working with The Second Mile at Penn State, maintaining an office at the university until 2011. In 2011, following a two-year grand jury investigation, Sandusky was arrested and charged with 52 counts of sexual abuse of young boys over a 15-year period from 1994 to 2009. He met his molestation victims through The Second Mile; they were participating in the organization. Several of them testified against Sandusky in his sexual abuse trial. Four of the charges were subsequently dropped. On June 22, 2012, Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of the 48 remaining charges. Sandusky was sentenced on October 9, 2012, to 30 to 60 years in prison—at his age, effectively a life sentence. On October 18, 2012, Sandusky’s lawyers appealed his conviction in Centre County Court in Pennsylvania. They claim that they did not have enough time to prepare for their client’s case. On October 31, 2012, Sandusky was moved to Pennsylvania’s SCI Greene “supermax” prison to serve his sentence. On January 30, 2013, Pennsylvania Judge John Cleland denied Sandusky’s request for a new trial.
• 372,780 votesYang XinhaiDec. at 35 (1968-2004)Yang Xinhai (Chinese: 杨新海; 29 July 1968 – 14 February 2004), also known as Yang Zhiya, and Yang Liu, was a Chinese serial killer who confessed to committing 67 murders and 23 rapes between 1999 and 2003, and was sentenced to death and executed for 67. He was dubbed the “Monster Killer” by the media. He is the most prolific known serial killer China has seen since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
• 382,175 votesDaniel Camargo BarbosaDec. at 64 (1930-1994)Daniel Camargo Barbosa, a Colombian serial killer, left an indelible mark of horror by murdering up to 150 young girls across Colombia and Ecuador during the 1970s and 1980s. His gruesome methods included luring his victims with promises of gifts, then brutally assaulting and killing them. Camargo’s calculated and remorseless approach, combined with the sheer number of his victims, has cemented his reputation as one of history’s most evil individuals.
• 397,355 votesZodiac KillerZodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California from at least the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The Zodiac murdered victims in Benicia, Vallejo, Lake Berryessa, and San Francisco between December 1968 and October 1969. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted, with two of the men surviving attempted murder. The Zodiac himself claimed up to 37 victims. The killer originated the name “Zodiac” in a series of taunting letters sent to the local Bay Area press. These letters included four cryptograms (or ciphers). Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved.Suspects have been named by law enforcement and amateur investigators, but no conclusive evidence has surfaced. The San Francisco Police Department marked the case “inactive” in April 2004, but re-opened it at some point prior to March 2007. The case also remains open in the city of Vallejo, as well as in Napa County and Solano County. The California Department of Justice has maintained an open case file on the Zodiac murders since 1969.
• 404,705 votesAbubakar ShekauAbubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, is notorious for his relentless campaign of violence in Nigeria and neighboring countries. Under his command, Boko Haram has committed mass kidnappings, including the abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, widespread bombings, and countless killings. Shekau’s reign has terrorized civilians, destabilized regions, and displaced millions, earning him a place among history’s most evil figures due to his unyielding brutality and disregard for human life.
• 419,060 votesJack the RipperJack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer generally believed to have been active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. In both the criminal case files and contemporary journalistic accounts, the killer was called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron. Attacks ascribed to Jack the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of the East End of London whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations. The removal of internal organs from at least three of the victims led to proposals that their killer had some anatomical or surgical knowledge. Rumours that the murders were connected intensified in September and October 1888, and letters were received by media outlets and Scotland Yard from a writer or writers purporting to be the murderer. The name “Jack the Ripper” originated in a letter written by someone claiming to be the murderer that was disseminated in the media. The letter is widely believed to have been a hoax and may have been written by journalists in an attempt to heighten interest in the story and increase their newspapers’ circulation. The “From Hell” letter received by George Lusk of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee came with half of a preserved human kidney, purportedly taken from one of the victims. The public came increasingly to believe in a single serial killer known as “Jack the Ripper”, mainly because of the extraordinarily brutal nature of the murders, and because of media treatment of the events. Extensive newspaper coverage bestowed widespread and enduring international notoriety on the Ripper, and the legend solidified. A police investigation into a series of eleven brutal killings in Whitechapel up to 1891 was unable to connect all the killings conclusively to the murders of 1888. Five victims—Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly—are known as the “canonical five” and their murders between 31 August and 9 November 1888 are often considered the most likely to be linked. The murders were never solved, and the legends surrounding them became a combination of genuine historical research, folklore, and pseudohistory. The term “ripperology” was coined to describe the study and analysis of the Ripper cases. There are now over one hundred hypotheses about the Ripper’s identity, and the murders have inspired many works of fiction.
• 425,856 votesJihadi JohnJihadi John, the alias of Mohammed Emwazi, shocked the world with his brutal beheading videos as a member of ISIS. Known for his cold-blooded executions of journalists, aid workers, and other captives, Emwazi became a symbol of the group’s savagery. His calculated and publicized acts of violence were intended to spread terror globally, amplifying the fear and horror associated with ISIS. Jihadi John’s gruesome actions and propaganda cement his legacy as a particularly evil figure.
• 438,108 votesAbu Musab al-ZarqawiDec. at 39 (1966-2006)Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al-Qaeda in Iraq, is infamous for pioneering extreme methods of violence and terrorism. His brutal tactics, including bombings, beheadings, and targeting civilians, escalated the violence during the Iraq War and deepened sectarian divides. Al-Zarqawi’s ruthless approach not only resulted in countless deaths but also inspired a generation of terrorists, influencing groups like ISIS to continue his legacy of terror and destruction.
• 444,413 votesUday HusseinDec. at 39 (1964-2003)Uday Hussein, the eldest son of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, earned a notorious reputation for his extreme cruelty and sadistic behavior. Known for torturing and murdering his own citizens, Uday’s reign of terror included innumerable acts of violence, including against women, athletes, and perceived political enemies. His excessive indulgence in power, combined with unchecked

• 451,986 votesFred WestDec. at 53 (1941-1995)Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941 – 1 January 1995) was an English serial killer who committed at least 12 murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, the majority with his second wife, Rosemary West. All the victims were young women. At least eight of these murders involved the Wests’ sexual gratification and included rape, bondage, torture and mutilation; the victims’ dismembered bodies were typically buried in the cellar or garden of the Wests’ Cromwell Street home in Gloucester, which became known as the “House of Horrors”. Fred also committed at least two murders on his own, and Rose murdered Fred’s stepdaughter, Charmaine. The couple were apprehended and charged in 1994. Fred West fatally asphyxiated himself while on remand at HM Prison Birmingham on 1 January 1995, at which time he and Rose were jointly charged with nine murders, and he with three further murders. In November 1995, Rose was convicted of ten murders and sentenced to ten life terms with a whole life order.
• 465,657 votesMohamed AttaDec. at 33 (1968-2001)Mohamed Atta, the ringleader of the 9/11 hijackers, played a pivotal role in orchestrating one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in history. Leading the team that executed the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Atta’s actions resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people and sent shockwaves around the world. His meticulous planning and willingness to sacrifice innocent lives for a radical cause cement his legacy as one of history’s most evil individuals.
• 478,743 votesKhalid Sheikh MohammedAge: 62Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is widely regarded as one of the most evil individuals in history due to his central role as the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks. As a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda, he meticulously planned the devastating assault that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and forever altered global politics and security. His actions not only showcased a terrifying level of malevolence but also underscored the profound impact of organized terrorism on the world stage.
• 484,872 votesDennis Rader – The BTK KillerAge: 81Dennis Rader, infamously known as the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill), horrified the world with his series of brutal murders in Kansas between 1974 and 1991. His sadistic approach involved methodically torturing and killing his victims, often taunting law enforcement with letters that detailed his horrific acts. Rader’s dual life as a seemingly ordinary family man and a calculating serial killer added a twisted layer of deceit, solidifying his place among history’s most evil individuals.
• 494,183 votesMullah OmarAge: 67Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, orchestrated a brutal regime in Afghanistan marked by severe human rights abuses. Under his rule, Taliban forces imposed extreme interpretations of Islamic law, leading to public executions, amputations, and systemic oppression of women. His support for terrorist groups, including harboring Osama bin Laden, directly facilitated the rise of global terrorism. Mullah Omar’s leadership fostered a climate of fear and repression, cementing his legacy as a profoundly evil figure.
• 502,712 votesAbu Ali Al-anbariAbu Ali al-Anbari, a senior ISIS leader, played a key role in orchestrating the group’s brutal campaigns in Syria and Iraq. Known for his involvement in mass executions, ethnic cleansing, and the use of extreme violence against civilians, al-Anbari’s actions contributed significantly to ISIS’s reign of terror. His strategic planning and ruthless enforcement of ISIS’s radical ideology left countless communities devastated, marking him as one of the most heinous figures in modern history.
• 513,306 votesHideki TōjōDec. at 63 (1884-1948)Hideki Tojo (Kyūjitai: 東條 英機; Shinjitai: 東条 英機; Tōjō Hideki ; 30 December 1884 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese politician and general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) who concurrently served as Leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II. He was among the most outspoken proponents for preventive war against the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor and one of the leading perpetrators behind Japanese war crimes on prisoners of war and civilians during the Pacific conflict. After the end of the war, Tojo was arrested, condemned and sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and hanged on December 23, 1948.
• 522,001 votesFrançois DuvalierDec. at 64 (1907-1971)François Duvalier (French pronunciation: ​[fʁɑ̃swa dyvalje]; 14 April 1907 – 21 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc (Daddy Doc), was the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in 1957 on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d’état in 1958, his regime rapidly became totalitarian and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, killed opponents indiscriminately, and was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult. Prior to his rule, Duvalier was a physician by profession. His profession and expertise in the field acquired him the nickname “Papa Doc”. He was unanimously “re-elected” in a 1961 election in which he was the only candidate. Afterwards, he consolidated his power step by step, culminating in 1964 when he declared himself as President for Life after another faulty election, and remained in power until he died in 1971. He was succeeded by his son, Jean‑Claude, who was nicknamed “Baby Doc”.
• 531,708 votesHenry Lee LucasDec. at 64 (1936-2001)Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 12, 2001) was an American serial killer. Lucas was arrested in Texas and on the basis of his confessions to Texas Rangers, hundreds of unsolved murders were attributed to him and officially classified as cleared up. Lucas was convicted of murdering 11 people and condemned to death for a single case with an unidentified victim. A newspaper exposed the improbable logistics of the confessions made by Lucas, when they were taken as a whole, and a study by the Attorney General of Texas concluded he had falsely confessed. Lucas’s death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1998. In some cases, law enforcement thought that Lucas had demonstrated knowledge of facts that only a perpetrator could have known.
• 542,472 votesJean-Claude DuvalierAge: 74Jean-Claude Duvalier (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɑ̃klod dyvalje]), nicknamed “Baby Doc” (Haitian Creole: Bebe Dòk; 3 July 1951 – 4 October 2014), was a Haitian politician who was the President of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in 1986. He succeeded his father François “Papa Doc” Duvalier as the ruler of Haiti after his death in 1971. After assuming power, he introduced cosmetic changes to his father’s regime and delegated much authority to his advisors. Thousands of Haitians were killed or tortured, and hundreds of thousands fled the country during his presidency. He maintained a notoriously lavish lifestyle (including a state-sponsored US$ 2 million wedding in 1980) while poverty among his people remained the most widespread of any country in the Western Hemisphere.Relations with the United States improved after Duvalier’s ascension to the presidency, and later deteriorated under the Carter administration, only to again improve under Ronald Reagan due to the strong anti-communist stance of the Duvaliers. Rebellion against the Duvalier regime broke out in 1985 and Baby Doc fled to France in 1986 on a U.S. Air Force flight. Duvalier unexpectedly returned to Haiti on 16 January 2011, after two decades in self-imposed exile in France. The following day, he was arrested by Haitian police, facing possible charges for embezzlement. On 18 January, Duvalier was charged with corruption. On 28 February 2013, Duvalier pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption and human rights abuse. He died of a heart attack on 4 October 2014, at the age of 63.
• 551,969 votesDavid BerkowitzAge: 72David Richard Berkowitz (born Richard David Falco; June 1, 1953), also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pleaded guilty to eight separate shooting attacks that began in New York City during the summer of 1976. Using a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, he killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977. As the number of victims increased, Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the history of New York City while leaving letters that mocked the police and promised further crimes, which were highly publicized by the press. The killing spree terrorized New Yorkers and achieved worldwide notoriety. On the night of August 10, 1977, Berkowitz was taken into custody by New York City police homicide detectives in front of his Yonkers apartment building, and he was subsequently indicted for eight shooting incidents. He confessed to all of them, and initially claimed to have been obeying the orders of a demon manifested in the form of a dog named “Harvey” which belonged to his neighbor “Sam”. Despite his explanation, Berkowitz was found mentally competent to stand trial. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was incarcerated in state prison. He subsequently admitted that the dog-and-devil story was a hoax. In the course of further police investigations, Berkowitz was also implicated in many unsolved arsons in the city. Intense coverage of the case by the media lent a kind of celebrity status to Berkowitz, and some observers noted that he seemed to enjoy it. In response, the New York State legislature enacted new legal statutes known popularly as “Son of Sam laws”, designed to keep criminals from profiting financially from the publicity created by their crimes. The statutes have remained law in New York in spite of various legal challenges, and similar laws have been enacted in several other states. Berkowitz has been incarcerated since his arrest and is serving six consecutive life sentences. During the mid-1990s, he amended his confession to claim that he had been a member of a violent Satanic cult that orchestrated the incidents as ritual murder. A few law enforcement authorities have said that his claims might be credible, but he remains the only person ever charged with the shootings. A new investigation of the murders began in 1996 but was suspended indefinitely after inconclusive findings.
• 561,361 votesAdam LanzaDec. at 20 (1992-2012)Adam Lanza was the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting which occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States.
• 571,465 votesEdmund KemperAge: 77Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948) is an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered ten people, including his paternal grandparents and mother. He is noted for his large size, at 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 m), and for his high IQ, at 145. Kemper was nicknamed the “Co-ed Killer” as most of his victims were students at co-educational institutions. Born in California, Kemper had a disturbed childhood. He moved to Montana with his abusive mother at a young age before returning to California, where he murdered his paternal grandparents when he was 15. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic by court psychiatrists and sentenced to the Atascadero State Hospital as a criminally insane juvenile. Released at the age of 21 after convincing psychiatrists he was rehabilitated, Kemper was regarded as non-threatening by his victims. He targeted young female hitchhikers during his killing spree, luring them into his vehicle and driving them to secluded areas where he would murder them before taking their corpses back to his home to be decapitated, dismembered, and violated. Kemper then murdered his mother and one of her friends before turning himself in to the authorities. Found sane and guilty at his trial in 1973, Kemper requested the death penalty for his crimes. Capital punishment was suspended in California at the time, and he instead received eight concurrent life sentences. Since then, he has been incarcerated in the California Medical Facility. Kemper has waived his right to a parole hearing several times and has said he is happy in prison.
• 584,696 votesDelphine LaLaurieDec. at 67 (1775-1842)Marie Delphine Macarty or MacCarthy (March 19, 1787 – December 7, 1849), more commonly known as Madame Blanque, until her third marriage, when she became known as Madame LaLaurie, was a New Orleans Creole socialite and serial killer who tortured and murdered slaves in her household. Born during the Spanish colonial period, Delphine Macarty married three times in Louisiana, and was twice widowed. She maintained her position in New Orleans society until April 10, 1834, when rescuers responded to a fire at her Royal Street mansion. They discovered bound slaves in her attic who showed evidence of cruel, violent abuse over a long period. LaLaurie’s house was subsequently sacked by an outraged mob of New Orleans citizens. She escaped to France with her family.The mansion traditionally held to be LaLaurie’s is a landmark in the French Quarter, in part because of its history and for its architectural significance. However, her house was burned by the mob, and the “LaLaurie Mansion” at 1140 Royal Street was in fact rebuilt after her departure from New Orleans.
• 591,416 votesRamadan Abdel Rehim MansourAge: 46Ramadan Abdel Rehim Mansour (Arabic: رمضان عبدالرحيم منصور‎; c. 1980 – 2010), also known as “al-Tourbini” (التوربيني‎), was an Egyptian street gang leader and serial killer who raped and murdered at least 32 children in the course of seven years, throughout several locations in Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria, Qalyoubeya and Beni Sueif. All of his victims were 10 to 14 years old, most of them boys. Mansour was arrested in 2006 along with his six accomplices, and subsequently sentenced to death.
• 609,653 votesAttila the HunDec. at 47 (406-453)Attila (; fl. c. 406–453), frequently called Attila the Hun, was the ruler of the Huns from 434 until his death in March 453. He was also the leader of a tribal empire consisting of Huns, Ostrogoths, and Alans among others, in Central and Eastern Europe. During his reign, he was one of the most feared enemies of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. He crossed the Danube twice and plundered the Balkans, but was unable to take Constantinople. His unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He also attempted to conquer Roman Gaul (modern France), crossing the Rhine in 451 and marching as far as Aurelianum (Orléans) before being defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. He subsequently invaded Italy, devastating the northern provinces, but was unable to take Rome. He planned for further campaigns against the Romans, but died in 453. After Attila’s death, his close adviser, Ardaric of the Gepids, led a Germanic revolt against Hunnic rule, after which the Hunnic Empire quickly collapsed.
• 611,314 votesAbu IzzadeenAge: 51Abu Izzadeen (Arabic: أبو عز الدين‎, Abū ‘Izz ad-Dīn, born Trevor Richard Brooks, (born 18 April 1975), is a British spokesman for Al Ghurabaa, a British Muslim organisation banned under the Terrorism Act 2006 for the glorification of terrorism. He was convicted on charges of terrorist fund-raising and inciting terrorism overseas on 17 April 2008, and sentenced to four and a half years in jail. He was released in May 2009, after serving three and a half years, including time on remand. In January 2016, he was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment for breaching the Terrorism Act by leaving the UK illegally.
• 6212,260 votesH. H. HolmesDec. at 34 (1861-1896)Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, or more commonly, as H. H. Holmes, was an American serial killer. While he confessed to 27 murders, only nine could be plausibly confirmed and several of the people he claimed to have murdered were still alive. He is said to have killed as many as 200, though this figure is only traceable to 1940s pulp magazines. Many victims were said to have been killed in a mixed-use building which he owned, located about 3 miles (5 km) west of the 1893 World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition, supposedly called the World’s Fair Hotel (informally called “The Murder Hotel”), though evidence suggests the hotel portion was never truly open for business.Besides being a serial killer, Holmes was also a con artist and a bigamist, the subject of more than 50 lawsuits in Chicago alone. Many now-common stories of his crimes sprang from fictional accounts that later authors assumed to be factual. In a 2017 biography, Adam Selzer wrote that Holmes’ story is “effectively a new American tall tale – and, like all the best tall tales, it sprang from a kernel of truth”.H. H. Holmes was executed on May 7, 1896, nine days before his 35th birthday, for the murder of his friend and accomplice Benjamin Pitezel. During his trial for the murder of Pitezel, Holmes confessed to many other killings.
• 631,642 votesElias AbuelazamAge: 49Elias Abuelazam, known as the “Flint Serial Stabber,” is infamous for a series of brutal stabbings across multiple states in 2010, primarily targeting African American men. His spree resulted in the deaths of five individuals and the serious injuries of many others. Abuelazam’s indiscriminate, racially motivated violence created widespread fear and chaos. His cold-blooded attacks and the racial hatred fueling them mark him as one of the most malevolent figures in recent history.
• 644,303 votesEd GeinDec. at 77 (1906-1984)Edward Theodore Gein (; August 27, 1906 – July 26, 1984), also known as the Butcher of Plainfield or the Plainfield Ghoul, was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes from their bones and skin. Gein confessed to killing two women; tavern owner Mary Hogan in 1954, and a Plainfield hardware store owner, Bernice Worden, in 1957. Gein was initially found unfit to stand trial and confined to a mental health facility. In 1968, Gein was found guilty but legally insane of the murder of Worden, and was remanded to a psychiatric institution. He died at Mendota Mental Health Institute of cancer of the liver and respiratory failure, on July 26, 1984, age 77. He is buried next to his family in the Plainfield Cemetery, in a now-unmarked grave.
• 651,775 votesOttis TooleDec. at 49 (1947-1996)Ottis Elwood Toole (March 5, 1947 – September 15, 1996) was an American drifter and serial killer who was convicted of six counts of murder. Like his companion Henry Lee Lucas, Toole made confessions he then later recanted, which resulted in murder convictions. The discrediting of the case against Lucas for crimes Toole had offered corroborating statements created doubts as to whether either was a genuine serial killer or, as Hugh Aynesworth suggested, both were merely compliant interviewees whom police used to clear unsolved murders from the books. Toole received two death sentences, but on appeal they were commuted to life imprisonment. He died in his cell from cirrhosis, aged 49. Police attributed the murder of Adam Walsh to Toole on the basis of recanted statements. Lucas had backed Toole’s confession to the Walsh murder, claiming he had been in possession of the victim’s severed head.
• 662,442 votesNicolae CeaușescuDec. at 71 (1918-1989)Nicolae Ceaușescu (, Romanian: [nikoˈla.e tʃe̯a.uˈʃesku] (listen); 26 January 1918 – 25 December 1989) was a Romanian communist politician and leader. He was the General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989 and hence the second and last Communist leader of Romania. He was also the country’s head of state from 1967, serving as President of the State Council and from 1974 concurrently as President of the Republic until his overthrow and execution in the Romanian Revolution in December 1989, part of a series of anti-Communist and anti-Soviet Union uprisings in Eastern Europe that year. Born in 1918 in Scornicești, Olt County, Ceaușescu was a member of the Romanian Communist youth movement. Ceaușescu rose up through the ranks of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej’s Socialist government and, upon Gheorghiu-Dej’s death in 1965, he succeeded to the leadership of the Romanian Communist Party as General Secretary.Upon his rise to power, he eased press censorship and openly condemned the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in his speech on 21 August 1968, which resulted in a surge in popularity. However, the resulting period of stability was very brief as his government very soon became severely totalitarian and was considered the most repressive in the Eastern Bloc at the time. His secret police, the Securitate, was responsible for mass surveillance as well as severe repression and human rights abuses within the country and he suppressed and controlled the media and press, implementing methods that were among the harshest, most restrictive and brutal in the world. Economic mismanagement due to failed oil ventures during the 1970s led to skyrocketing foreign debts for Romania. In 1982, he exported much of the country’s agricultural and industrial production in an effort to repay them. The shortages that followed drastically lowered living standards, leading to heavy rationing of food, water, oil, heat, electricity, medicine and other necessities. His cult of personality experienced unprecedented elevation, followed by extensive nepotism and the intense deterioration of foreign relations, even with the Soviet Union. As anti-government protesters demonstrated in Timișoara in December 1989, he perceived the demonstrations as a political threat and ordered military forces to open fire on 17 December, causing many deaths and injuries. The revelation that Ceaușescu was responsible resulted in a massive spread of rioting and civil unrest across the country. The demonstrations, which reached Bucharest, became known as the Romanian Revolution—the only violent overthrow of a communist government in the turn of the Revolutions of 1989. Ceaușescu and his wife Elena fled the capital in a helicopter, but they were captured by the military after the armed forces changed sides. After being tried and convicted of economic sabotage and genocide, they were immediately executed by firing squad on 25 December and Ceaușescu was succeeded as President by Ion Iliescu, who had played a major part in the revolution. Capital punishment was abolished shortly thereafter.
• 671,549 votesAbu Muslim Al-turkmaniFadel Ahmed Abdullah al-Hiyali (died 18 August 2015), better known by his noms de guerre Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, Haji Mutazz, or Abu Mutaz al-Qurashi, was the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) governor for territories held by the organization in Iraq. He was considered the ISIL second-in-command (along with his counterpart Abu Ali al-Anbari, who held a similar position in Syria); he played a political role of overseeing the local councils and a military role that includes directing operations against opponents of ISIL. His names were also spelt Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, and Hajji Mutazz.
• 686,436 votesTimothy McVeighDec. at 33 (1968-2001)Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people and injured over 680 others. The bombing was the deadliest act of terrorism in the United States prior to the September 11 attacks, and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States