The Top Ten Most Evil Individuals in History
Thinking about this blog blew my mind.
Unfortunately there are so many horrifying choices. I tried that exercise - you know the one where you hear a word and blurt out the first things that come to mind.
Evil Person
Hitler, Idi Amin Dada, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Stalin, Pol Pot, Ted Bundy,
That’s my short list. I decided to consult the media and various list serves to get other opinions. One site ranked the evil ones by the number of people they’ve reputedly killed. Here’s that list:
Idi Amin Dada 300,000
Ante Pavelic (Croatia) 300,000
Saddam Hussein 2,000,000
Theonista Bagosara (Rwanda) 1,000,000
Pol Pot 1,400,000
Mohamed Suharto (Indonesia) 2,000,000
Kim II Sung (North Korea) 3,000,000
Adolph Hitler 11,000,000
Joseph Stalin 20,000,000
Mao Tse Tung 35,000,000
A few other lists included historical figures that I hadn’t:
Attila the Hun
Maximilien Robespierre (leader of the French Revolution)
Rulloah Khomeini (leader of the Iranian Revolution against the Shah)
Leopold II of Belgium
Vlad Tepes III of Romania
Ivan IV of Russia (Ivan the Terrible the first Tsar)
Tomas de Torquemada (the first Grand Inquisitor)
Adolph Eichmann
Genghis Khan
H.H. Holmes (First Word’s Fair killer)
Gilles de Rais (killer and sodomizer of over 140 boys)
Heinrich Himmler
Whew! That’s quite a couple of lists and Ted Bundy never even made one. Yeech!
How many did I miss?
Chime in,
Jianne Carlo
I'm not sure how many you missed, Jianne, but what you came up with is terrifying. So many people killed!! It doesn't excuse Ted Bundy, though....eerie research. Thanks!
Hi Jianne,
Hope you're going to do something with this research! I did see one name missing--that of my ex-husband's!LOL REally, he wasn't that bad, like not a serial killer or anything. Chuckle, chuckle.
It saddens me when I think of the atrocities mankind is capable of inflicting on each other. Thankfully, there is more good in people than bad.
Thanks for your comments Judy, Patrice, and Pamela. I must admit a couple of the names that turned up in the lists surprised me.
I never realized how many people Stalin murdered.
I'm not sure why I still think Ted Bundy belongs in the list - possibly because beneath his innocent boy-next-door looks lurked such evil.
Shudder, next week I'll do a list about the top ten "good" individuals in society.
Balance is necessary, right?
Cheers,
Jianne
Dear heavens! What a list you've compiled. Very interesting.
Jianne,
Why did you compile this list? Is it something to do with your citizenship test? Those names give me cold chills! How can one human being do such things. Or more important how can others stand by and allow it to happen! Remember the quote All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. Guess your list proves it true.
Good gracious, Jianne. What research you did. I'm shivering!
Interesting that the people you listed as the 11 most evil are all "modern." I would think Vlad Tepes should be in there, after all his "Forest of the Impaled" held over 30,000 alone. I've read that his motto was "Cruel, but Just."