History's Biggest Villains

Marcus Wesson was someone who was extremely hungry for power. Since he was extremely inadequate in his outside life, he decided to create his own cult. However, the members of his “family” came from incestuous relationships with his daughters and nieces, fathering seven children, bringing the number of children in Wesson’s to 18 . He sheltered them in the house and brainwashed them into believing he was the Messiah. He couldn’t keep a steady job as he constantly moved the family into uninhabitable homes, including army tents, abandoned trailers and tugboats. On March 12, 2004, Marcus bought a house in Fresno that used to be an office building. The city authorities took action to evict the family as the building was non-residential. Taking this as an attack against his family, Marcus decided that his days as a cult leader were over.

George Hassell was an alcoholic womanizer who had met, married and divorced several women. He also had a lengthy criminal record that included embezzlement and desertion from military service. In 1924, his brother died after being kicked in the head by a mule while working a field. George then married his brother’s widow, adopting her eight children as well. On December 5 1926, George and his wife Susan got into an argument after he had impregnated his 13 year old stepdaughter. After this, George grabbed a hammer and killed his wife. But then he decided that the entire family had to die.

What do you usually imagine when you think of the Bahamas? Probably loads of sun, beaches, resorts and overall relaxation. Well in the early 1970’s, this mostly peaceful nation was rocked by the gruesome murders of three American tourists. Ironically, the killer wasn’t from the Bahamas, either.

On February 24, 2020 in Oak Park, Michigan, career criminal Kenyel Brown shot himself in the head in a backyard after being surrounded by police. He would die four days later, ending a two month long murder spree that left six people dead. After his death, the city as well as the entire state of Michigan was shocked to find out that this habitual offender was actually a police informant.

The Grantham and Kesteven Hospital in Lincolnshire was a respected medical facility in the local community. But in 1991, very strange things started happening in Children’s Ward 4, as several code blues happened over a 60-day period. Four children had died during this time, and the hospital staff were flustered as to what the cause was. But, nobody would’ve guessed that one of the nurses might’ve been responsible.

William Wickline had everything going for him. He had a loving family, good grades and he was on the school wrestling team. But suddenly his school performance suffered and he turned to a life of crime. From 1971-1984, he was arrested at least nine times for charges of burglary, drug dealing and running a prostitution ring. During this time, he developed an obsession with knives and was allegedly involved in animal sacrifices. It wouldn’t be long before he graduated to murder.

It was an extremely hot and humid day on August 9, 1987 in Philadelphia. 1631 North 19th Street was an area with numerous drug busts and several abandoned buildings, most with the doors and windows boarded up. The apartment complex at 1631 also looked abandoned, as several windows were broken and the front door was missing. Harrison Graham or “Marty” as he was known was evicted from his apartment due to terrible odors emanating from his residence. Before he left, he took most of his belongings and nailed the door shut. When the landlords couldn’t get into the apartment later, the police were called and their discovery shocked the entire city.

James Edward Pough’s life was falling apart at the seams. His new 1988 Pontiac Grand Am got repossessed less than 15 months later. His mother also died this year as well, causing him to spiral further into depression. He would often say that he had nothing to live for, and that he “would take someone with him when he leaves this world”. He was subject to frequent violent outbursts, often aimed at his wife, Theresa. He had even put a gun to her head on multiple occasions. On March 2, 1990, Theresa was granted an injunction that banned James from contacting her for a year. Now without a wife, James was at his breaking point and now he was ready for revenge.

Velma Barfield was a sweet, loving, God-fearing grandmother that was cherished by her community. But unbeknownst to most, her and her husband, Thomas Burke, were at odds again. Velma had recently gotten a hysterectomy and became addicted to her painkillers. Thomas started drinking heavily and the two constantly argued. On April 4, 1969, Thomas was passed out on the couch after another disagreement. Velma had taken the kids and left, but when they returned, the house was burned to the ground, with Thomas’ body later found in the destruction. This was the first of many people that mysteriously died in the presence of Velma Barfield.

In 1974, Jack Unterweger was in prison for murder. However, during his prison stint, he became somewhat famous for writing poems, short stories and an autobiography, titled Purgatory or The Trip to Prison – Report of a Guilty Man. His autobiography would even become required reading in some schools. By 1985, several prominent figures in Austrian journalism and writing industries saw this as an example of a reformed prisoner, and started campaigning for his early release. After he was released in 1990, he became a minor celebrity, even hosting TV shows about criminal rehabilitation. But not long after this,he couldn’t control the urge to kill again.

On September 23, 1988 in Louisville, Kentucky, Melvin Ignatow recruited his ex-girlfriend, Mary Ann Shore, to help him kill his current girlfriend, Brenda Schafer. He had been carefully planning her murder for a while and now was the time to act. Melvin held Brenda at gunpoint before taking her to Shore’s house. He raped and tortured her for several hours while Shore stood by, taking several pictures. Melvin killed Brenda with a chloroform soaked cloth. They then buried her in a shallow grave behind Shore’s house. Everyone in the community was sure that Melvin had killed Brenda, but when her body was finally dug up 14 months later, there was no conclusive evidence that clearly tied him to her death. Mary Ann’s actions at the trial coupled with skillful work by his defense attorney led to Melvin being acquitted of Brenda’s murder. But did he really get away with it?

Colin Ireland was a pretty unremarkable guy. Often a victim of bullying as a child, Colin Ireland turned to petty theft, burglary and blackmail. After a stint in juvenile detention, he became obsessed with survivalism, often wearing military gear and camping out in the woods. After getting divorced twice and losing his job at a homeless shelter due to explosive temper, Colin was at a crossroads in his life. That is until 1993, where he made a very strange New Year’s Resolution.

On December 1st, 1996, 27 year old Tracie Andrews was riding in the car with her 25 year old fiance Lee Harvey, after a night at the local pub. Suddenly, a black Ford Sierra started following them, forcing them off of the road. After they stopped, two men exited the car and confronted Lee as he also exited the car. The two men suddenly attacked Lee, stabbing him 42 times, leaving him dead on the side of the road. Two days later at a press conference for the media, Tracie elaborated on the attack, stating that a fat man with glaring eyes attacked Lee. But as the conference went on, she gave some contradictory information, which confused the reporters. After the police conducted their investigation, it was discovered that all was not what it seemed.

On March 8, 1954, Carl Marion Fisher returned home from his job to find his door locked. He immediately grew concerned as his wife Constance frequently suffered from anxiety and depression. He contacted her physician Richard Chasse and when he arrived, the two men broke down the door. They would not be ready for what they saw.

Emani Moss was failed by a lot of the adults around her. After her birth, her mother surrendered parental rights to her and her four siblings due to her drug addiction. Emani ended up in the custody of her father, Eman. He then met Tiffany Moss, a preschool teacher, married her and moved in with her, having two children of their own. However, for some reason, Emani’s new stepmother was extremely cruel to her, starving and beating her until she tragically died from the abuse. Then Tiffany and Emani’s father did the unthinkable.

Randall Woodfield was a talented football player who seemed to be on his way to long term success in the NFL. But his deep-seeded sexual urges were uncontrollable, even from middle school, but most times his coaches would conceal the incidents to save his football career. While playing football for Portland State University, he was arrested multiple times for vandalism and public indecency, then he decided to drop out. Despite his fairly average college career and his extensive rap sheet, he was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1974 but he failed to make the final roster after being cut during training camp. With a burden of a failed NFL career on his shoulders, he took out his anger on women all over the country.

The Lainz General Hospital in Vienna, Austria was a place where death was common. Especially the Pavilion 5 area, normally reserved for terminally ill patients in their seventies. In 1983, 24 year old Waltraud Wagner was a nurse’s aide at the hospital, when a 77 year old asked her to end her suffering. Wagner hesitated, but she granted the lady’s wish by injecting her with morphine. In this situation, most would feel guilty or remorseful, but she enjoyed the sense of power she got. She liked playing God, but she simply couldn’t hoard this power for herself, and she recruited three other nurses to join her in a six year murder spree.

Even at an early age, Craig Price’s life was filled with nothing but violence. At the age of 9, he started having disturbing thoughts about death and murder. He then joined a gang of juveniles and built up a rap sheet with charges of breaking and entering, robbery, stalking, drug use, and assault. On July 27, 1987, at the age of 13, he broke into the home of Rebecca Spencer and started down a path of infamy, making him the youngest serial killer in U.S history.

On June 3, 1981 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, police received a phone call from a man with a whiny, high-pitched voice, saying, “God damn, will you find me? I just stabbed somebody with an ice pick. I can't stop myself. I keep killing somebody." Later, police found a woman dead in a field, with over 60 stab wounds. The caller’s voice was so unique that the police felt like somebody would recognize him, as they shared the phone calls with the news, receiving numerous tips but the killer's identity couldn’t be provided. However, this would not be the last time that the killer would call and taunt the police.

Anthony Arkwright was someone who knew nothing but rejection from an early age, as his mother abandoned him and his five siblings. He spent a lot of time in children’s homes, drifting into criminality after being expelled from school. By the age of 21, he was fired from his job for poor attendance and a bad attitude. This firing was the catalyst for a 56 hour murder spree that left four people dead.

Karol Kot was a pretty normal kid growing up in Poland, with a normal life and a normal family. But, one summer holiday, his family took a trip down south, where Karol would stumble upon the slaughterhouse. Seeing the graphic deaths of animals firsthand, he became fascinated with blood and the concept of death. He also began to collect knives, which he would use to torture his sister’s cats and kill several small animals. It wasn’t long before his obsession with death compelled him to act out his fantasies.

Samuel Little was a career criminal who had spent his life in and out of jail. At the young age of 13, he was already stealing and breaking into homes. As he matured, he developed a strange obsession with strangling women, and he ultimately gave in to his urges. In 2014, at the age of 74, he was arrested after DNA connected him to the murders of 3 women who were killed in the 80’s. But his confessions would reveal an even higher total. A MUCH higher total.

In the mid 1970’s, Roch Theriault convinced a group of people to leave their jobs and homes to join him in a religious movement. He prohibited the group from remaining in contact with their families and with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as this was against his cult's values of freedom. Thériault made the commune build their town while he relaxed, comparing them to ants working in an ant hill, naming the group the Ant Hill Kids. However, he controlled his cult with a iron fist, which led to severe physical and sexual abuse of the members. When all was said and done, 5 people, including two small children died as a result of Theriault’s actions.

Anu Singh was a very mentally disturbed woman. She would constantly complain that she was fat even though she barely weighed over 100 pounds. She began complaining of aching legs, hot flashes and other pains in her body. Her parents were becoming increasingly concerned about her mental health, and her boyfriend Joe Cinque recommended a drug Ipecac, an vomit inducer, or emetic, that was supposed to help those suffering with bulimia or other eating disorders. For some reason, she blamed all of her perceived medical problems on her boyfriend, saying that he poisoned her.Then, she planned to kill him at a dinner party, with others in attendance. Joe would be dead 36 hours later.

On September 2, 1998 in Poughkeepsie, New York, the green house at 99 Fulton Avenue, which belonged to McKinley and Paulette Francois, was just like any other house on the block, although it looked slightly run down.But, everyone in the neighborhood knew about the house, especially the awful smell permeating from it. As police got a tip from Christine Sala, a sex worker who barely survived an attack by 6 foot 4 inch 350 pound Kendall Francois the previous night, what they found inside the house he shared with his family would turn the stomachs of the entire community.

Everyone around Jennifer San Marco knew she had mental health issues. In 2000, she had to be wheeled out of her post office job by police after she was found hiding under a mail-sorting machine. In 2004 San Marco's car broke down in Grants, New Mexico, where she ultimately chose to stay. There, she earned a reputation for her strange behavior, which included shouting to herself, ordering food at restaurants and running out the door before eating it, stripping naked in public , kneeling and praying in random places , talking to an imaginary friend, screaming death threats, and making racist comments. On January 30, 2006, Jennifer decided that she was done with life, but she didn’t want to go alone.

On June 14, 2015 in Greene County, Missouri, police found the body of Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard lying on the bed in a pool of blood from 17 stab wounds to the back and neck. There was no sign of her 23 year old daughter, Gypsy Rose, who apparently had chronic conditions including leukemia, asthma, and muscular dystrophy with "mental capacity of a seven-year-old due to brain damage" as the result of premature birth. When Gypsy Rose and her boyfriend were later arrested, the details of this case would shock the entire country.

Peter Bryan’s mental issues seemed to take control of his life. In 1994, he was admitted to Rampton Secure Hospital after admitting to the murder of 21 year old store assistant Nisha Sheth, who he beat to death with a claw hammer. By 2004, officials at the hospital were satisfied with Peter’s progress and they moved him to Newham General Hospital, an open psychiatric ward,before being completely discharged a month later. On February 17, 2004, Nicola Newman went to visit her friend, 43 year old Brian Cherry, who lived in a ground floor flat at Manning House, Walthamstow. The sight she saw as the door opened was one of the most horrific scenes the police had ever witnessed.

From an early age, it was pretty clear that Richard Chase wasn’t a normal kid. By the time he was 5, he had an obsession with killing animals and drinking their blood. His heavy drug and alcohol use combined with his numerous mental health issues caused him to develop hypochondria. While hospitalized, Chase frequently complained of his heart occasionally stopping or someone having stolen his pulmonary artery. In 1977, after a stay in the mental hospital, he was found naked in a field with his body smeared in cow’s blood. Even after this bizarre incident, Richard’s blood thirst became unquenchable.

Wolfgang Abel and Marco Furlan both came from privileged backgrounds, living in the upper echelon communities of their respective countries. Wolfgang was the son of the manager of a prestigious German insurance company, and Marco was the son of a police officer. When they both met in high school, they both agreed that they would rid the world of the “undesirables''. Afterwards they embarked on a seven year murder spree.

Robert Charles Gleason Jr. (April 10, 1970 – January 16, 2013) was an American serial killer who was sentenced to death and executed in Virginia for two separate murders of two of his cellmates. Gleason, who was already serving a life sentence for another murder, was an execution volunteer who vowed to continue killing in prison if he was not put to death. Capital punishment was abolished in Virginia on March 24, 2021, officially making Gleason the last person to be executed in Virginia by electrocution.

Douglas Gretzler , was an American serial killer who, together with accomplice Willie Steelman, committed seventeen murders over a three-week period in October and November 1973 in the states of Arizona and California. All the victims were shot, strangled, or stabbed to death, and the majority of the murders were committed in the commission of robberies or for the purpose of eyewitness elimination.

Doctors are some of the most important figures in society. We trust them with our lives based on their extensive amount of schooling. Doctors take the hippocratic oath to swear that they will do the best they can to help their patient. Harold Shipman was a respected member of his community and he built trust with his patients. But he would betray these people in the worst way possible. Welcome to the story of Dr. Death.

John Christie was a man who was always destined to be a criminal. After being discharged from the Royal Air Force in 1924, he was in and out of prison for the next decade. In 1934, they moved into the now infamous 10 Rillington Place. Over a period of 10 years, 10 women would fall victim to his murderous rampage. The ineptitude of the police and the execution of an innocent man allowed Christie to avoid capture for so long This is the story of the Monster of Rillington Place.

Lucy Letby was a NICU nurse at the Countess of Chester Hospital in Chester England. After the deaths of infants began to mysteriously rise in June 2015, Letby was named as the suspect and was subsequently arrested. She is currently on trial for the murders of seven infants and the attempted murders of fifteen more.

Earl Brian Bradley (born May 10, 1953) is a former pediatrician from Lewes, Delaware and a convicted serial child rapist. He was indicted in 2010 on 471 charges of molesting, raping, and exploiting 103 child patients (102 girls and 1 boy). Some of the victims were as young as three months old. He was charged in April 2010 with an additional 58 offenses in relation to the abuse of 24 additional victims. He has been described by a number of reputable news outlets and commentators as "the worst pedophile in American history." Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a pediatrician who has studied child abuse cases for almost 40 years, said Bradley's was "the worst pediatrician abuse case I've ever heard of." Bradley had access to an estimated 7,000 pediatric patients. According to a personal injury law firm in Baltimore, one of many representing class action plaintiffs, 1,400 families in the class action alleged abuse. Bradley was ultimately found guilty on all consolidated charges brought and was sentenced to 14 consecutive terms of life without parole plus 165 years in prison on June 26, 2011. His conviction was affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court on September 6, 2012. In the wake of his arrest, it emerged that he had faced accusations of child abuse as early as 1995 in both Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Reynhard Tambos Maruli Tua Sinaga (born 19 February 1983)is an Indonesian sex offender who was convicted of 159 sex offenses, including 136 rapes of young men committed in Manchester, England, between 2015 and 2017, where he was living as a student. He was found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting 48 men during this period, 44 of whom he raped, some repeatedly, although the police believe he was offending for years beforehand. Sinaga was prosecuted in four trials between 2018 and 2020 and was given concurrent life sentences with a minimum term of 30 years; raised to 40 years in December 2020 by the Court of Appeal. The Crown Prosecution Service described Sinaga as being the most prolific rapist in British legal history.  Sinaga is believed by police to have raped or assaulted at least 206 men since 2015, which includes the two years before his arrival in the UK.  In Manchester, he waited for potential victims outside nightclubs, pubs, and similar venues in the early hours. He then offered them a stay at his flat, subsequently drugging and raping his victims. After some of the assaults, he boasted about his actions on WhatsApp.

David Carrick (born 4 January 1975) is an English serial rapist and a former police officer who worked for the Metropolitan Police. He joined the police force in 2001 and worked as an armed police officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection from 2009 until his initial suspension without pay and subsequent sacking from his position.  Carrick was arrested in 2021 and in 2022 pleaded guilty to multiple counts of rape between 2002 and 2021. In 2023, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Frank Davidson Fraser (13 December 1923 – 26 November 2014), better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offenses.

Leopold II ( Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 and the autocratic prime colonizer of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State was characterized by atrocities and systematic brutality, including forced labor, torture, murder, kidnapping, and the amputation of the hands of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. In 1890 and in one of the first uses of the term, George Washington Williams described the practices of Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State as "crimes against humanity". These and other facts were established during Leopold's rule by eyewitness testimony, by on-site inspection from an international commission of inquiry, by the investigative journalism and activism of E. D. Morel, and by the 1904 Casement Report. While it has proven difficult to accurately estimate the pre-colonial population and the amount by which it changed under the Congo Free State, estimates for the Congolese population decline during Leopold's rule range from 1 million to 15 million.

On February 12, 1993, 2-year-old James Bulger was abducted from the New Strand Shopping Center in Liverpool, England by two 10-year-old boys, Robert  Thompson and Jon Venables. His body was found near a railroad track by a group of children. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. They were found guilty on 24 November, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. They were sentenced to indefinite detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, and remained in custody until a Parole Board decision in June 2001 recommended their release on a lifelong licence aged 18.Venables was sent to prison in 2010 for breaching the terms of his licence, was released on parole again in 2013, and in November 2017 was again sent to prison for possessing child  abuse images on his computer.  The Bulger case has prompted widespread debate about how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.

Mary Ann Cotton (October 31,1832 – March 24,1873) was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their insurance policies. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic.  Cotton's undoing came after she tried to have the son of her deceased husband sent to a workhouse. When that failed, five days later she told parish officials that Charles Edward Cotton had died. Investigations into her behavior soon showed a pattern of deaths. The body of the stepson was examined and found to contain arsenic. Cotton was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death. She was hanged at Durham Gaol. She did not die on the gallows from the breaking of her neck but died by strangulation because the rope was set too short, possibly deliberately.

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout ( born January, 13th 1967) is a Russian arms dealer. An entrepreneur and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the nicknames the Merchant of Death and Sanctions Buster after Peter Hain of the British Foreign Office read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes.  In a U.S. sting operation, Bout was arrested on 6 March 2008 in Thailand on terrorism charges by the Royal Thai Police in cooperation with American authorities and Interpol. The U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Eric G. John requested his extradition under the Extradition Act with Thailand, which was eventually mandated by the Thai High Court in August 2010. Bout was accused of intending to sell arms to a U.S. DEA informer pretending to represent the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for use against U.S. forces in Colombia, but denied the charges and predicted an acquittal.  On 2 November 2011, Bout was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, and was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment because the crime was due to the sting operation. From June 2012 until December 2022, Bout was held at the United States Penitentiary, Marion, before being released in a prisoner exchange for U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was arrested in February 2022 at a Moscow airport for smuggling vaporizer cartridges containing under a gram of hashish oil which is illegal in Russia.

On February 9th, 1983 at the Cranley Gardens apartments in London, Dyno-Rod employee Micheal Cattran was responding to plumbing complaints made by tenants. Opening a drain cover at the side of the house, Cattran discovered the drain was packed with a flesh-like substance and numerous small bones of unknown origin. Cattran reported his suspicions to his supervisor, Gary Wheeler. As Cattran had arrived at the property at dusk, he and Wheeler agreed to postpone further investigation into the blockage until the following morning. Prior to leaving the property, Nilsen and fellow tenant Jim Allcock convened with Cattran to discuss the source of the substance. Upon hearing Cattran exclaim how similar the substance was in appearance to human flesh, Nilsen replied: "It looks to me like someone has been flushing down their Kentucky Fried Chicken." This was the beginning of the end of the 5-year killing spree by Scotsman Dennis Nilsen (1945 - 2018), who killed at least 12 young men and boys from 1978-1983.

Jack the Ripper terrorized London in 1888, killing at least five women and mutilating their bodies in an unusual manner, indicating that the killer had a substantial knowledge of human anatomy. The culprit was never captured—or even identified—and Jack the Ripper remains one of England’s, and the world’s, most infamous criminals.  All five killings attributed to Jack the Ripper took place within a mile of each other, in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End, from August 7 to September 10, 1888. Several other murders occurring around that time period have also been investigated as the work of “Leather Apron” (another nickname given to the murderer).  A number of letters were allegedly sent by the killer to the London Metropolitan Police Service (often known as Scotland Yard), taunting officers about his gruesome activities and speculating on murders to come. The moniker “Jack the Ripper” originates from a letter—which may have been a hoax—published at the time of the attacks.  Despite countless investigations claiming definitive evidence of the brutal killer’s identity, his or her name and motive are still unknown.  Various theories about Jack the Ripper’s identity have been produced over the past several decades, which include claims accusing the famous Victorian painter Walter Sickert, a Polish migrant and even the grandson of Queen Victoria. Since 1888, more than 100 suspects have been named, contributing to widespread folklore and ghoulish entertainment surrounding the mystery

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KCSG  (October 31, 1926 – October 29, 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. In obituaries, Savile was praised for his personal qualities and his work raising an estimated £40 million for charities. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific.

Ted Bundy (1946-1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 murders committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. His true victim total is unknown and is likely significantly higher.

From August 16-18, 1988, Germans Hans Jurgen Rosner, Dieter Degowski & Marion Loblich robbed a bank, and held dozens of people hostage at gunpoint, while news reporters followed their every move, capturing the hostage situation on live TV while it happened. They were conducting interviews with the abductors and the hostages, asking them to pose for photographs, and aiding them by giving them road directions and coffee,  drastically impeding the ongoing police investigation. Unfortunately, 3 people lost their lives because of this, and the situation brought up a unique question about the media's dramatic sensitization of traumatic events and the incompetency of the police at the time.

Pol Pot ruled over Cambodia for many years and his rule was very barbaric, as millions of people died due to his evil communist tactics. 

Josef Mengele was a German doctor during the Nazi regime. Nicknamed "The Angel of Death", he performed unsafe experiments on Jewish prisoners, often leading to their deaths. He was never arrested for his war crimes, remaining on the run until his death in 1979.

Felicien Kabuga was a Rwandan millionaire that financed the Rwandan genocide that claimed over 800,000 lives, evading capture for over 25 years until he was finally caught in May 2020.

Peter Sutcliffe was a serial killer from Yorkshire who killed 13 women in 12 years, all while the police struggled to find him.

Today, I look at Austrian man Josef Fritzl, who abducted his daughter, keeping her in his basement and fathering 7 children with her.

Vlad the Impaler, in full Vlad III Dracula or Romanian Vlad III Drăculea, also called Vlad III or Romanian Vlad Țepeș, (born 1431, Sighișoara, Transylvania [now in Romania]—died 1476, north of present-day Bucharest, Romania), voivode (military governor, or prince) of Walachia (1448; 1456–1462; 1476) whose cruel methods of punishing his enemies gained notoriety in 15th-century Europe. Some in the scholarly community have suggested that Bram Stoker’s Dracula character was based on Vlad.