The Dichotomy of Evil & Good

The human Ambassadors of Darkness through history upon whose fiendishly diabolical trials the world exists in exquisite tension between Good and Evil.

Recognizing Evil

Outward masks of great piety and the extreme self righteous convictions of fanatical fundamentalism may conceal egregious evil

• 25 Most Evil People in History Scroll down to bottom for #1

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Architects of Evil

• Timur
• Nero - Emperor of Rome
• Genghis Khan
• Maximillien Robespierre
• Vlad The Impaler lll
• Countess Elizabeth Báthory
• Ivan the Terrible Tsar of Russia
• Leopold II
• Adolf Hitler
• Joseph Goebbels
• Joseph Mengele
• Heinrich Himmler
• Adolf Eichmann
• Francisco Franco
• Joseph Stalin
• Mao Zedong
• Hideki Tōjō
• Osama bin Laden
• Tomás Torquemada
• Caligula - Emperor of Rome
• Jack the Ripper
• Kim Il-sung
• Kim Jong-il
• Belle Gunness
• Alois Brunner
• Benito Mussolini
• Pol Pot - Khmer Rouge
• Idi Amin
• Baby Doc Duvalier
• Nicolae Ceaușescu
• Saddam Hussein
• Klaus Barbie

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Dictators

see Modern dictators project

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Notorious Villains

Ten most Notorious Villains of History

1

Joseph Stalin

Totalitarian leader of the U.S.S.R. from 1929-53, Stalin crushed the Soviet peoples with his megalomania and repressive version of communism. His adopted name meant "man of steel," and the term Stalinism has become the definition of a cruel, draconian socialism. He sent millions of Soviets not conforming to the Stalinist ideal to forced-labor camps, and he persecuted his country's vast number of ethnic groupsreserving particular vitriol for Jews and Ukranians. Soviet historian Roy Medvedev estimated that about 20 million died from starvation, executions, forced collectivization, and life in the labor camps under Stalin's rule. Another 20 million survived imprisonment and deportation.

2

Tamerlane (Timur)

Tamerlane's life ( 1336-1405) was spent conquering the inhabitants of Asia. A Turkik Mongol, his goal was to make his capital, Samarkand, the most impressive in Asia. Yet he rarely stayed at home, preferring to vanquish and destroy additional lands. Legendary for his ruthless savagery and lack of mercy, Tamerlane massacred entire populations including the 80,000 residents of Delhi and razed whole cities, leaving behind nothing but rubble. And he had a macabre sense of architecture building towers out of the skulls of his victims.

3

Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV) Tsar of Russia

On January 16, 1547, Ivan became the first czar of Russia, ruling until 1584. His early reign was primarily spent in battle in an effort to expand Russian land. His tyrannical cruelty only developed later in life, when he turned increasingly paranoid and vindictive historians suspect mental instability. In 1570, Ivan formed a troop of personal bodyguards called oprichniki, who answered only to him and became the vehicle for massacring his perceived enemies over a seven-year period (1565-1572). The landed gentry was Ivan's particular nemesis, and he unleashed his oprichniki upon thousands of them. He was equally guilty of domestic violence, killing his son and heir, Ivan, in a state of fury, as well as several of his wives he is believed to have had seven of them.

4

Maximillien Robespierre

Robespierre was the mastermind of the Reign of Terror (1793-1794), the dark underside of the French Revolution that perverted its lofty ideals of democracy with fanaticism and inhumanity. Robespierre, leader of the infamous Committee of Public Safety, turned France into a police state, sending "enemies of the nation" to the guillotine without benefit of a public trial or legal representation. About 40,000 French men and women were executed or died in prison, and another 300,000 were imprisoned. Only Robespierre's own beheading ended the slaughter.

5

Adolf Hitler

History's most chilling tyrant, Hitler controlled Germany from 1933-45. His fascist maneuverings for world domination, his dream of a Teutonic master race subjugating all non-Germanic peoples, led to a criminality unmatched by any leader this millennium. Responsible for the genocide of six million Jews, the slaughter of Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals, Communists, and other "undesirables" and "decadents," as well as the invasion of Europe and the preposterous ambition to rule the world, Hitler defies any more sophisticated explanation than categorical evil.

6

Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung)

A despotic ideologue who controlled China from 1949-76, Mao subjected the Chinese people to his massive social experiments, all of which went catastrophically amok. Early in his reign, he encouraged free speech in an attempt to avoid the mistakes of Stalinism. When criticism of his regime arose, however, his true sentiments absolute intolerance of dissent and opposition emerged, and he retaliated savagely. When he launched the Great Leap Forward his economic plan to forge an industrial revolution in China it resulted in the worst famine of the century, described as a "totally unnecessary, entirely man-made holocaust that claimed between 23 million and 30 million lives." He then masterminded the Cultural Revolution, which, despite its ideological claim to "purify" communism of bureaucrats and elitists, was a vehicle for settling Mao's personal scores and shoring up power. During the nightmarish decade when culture was equated with depravity, millions most of whom were guilty of the crime of belonging to the bourgeoisie were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered as suspected class enemies.

7

Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier

Up to 60,000 Haitians died under the 1957-71 reign of Duvalier, and millions were exiled. With his henchmen, the Tontons Macoutes ("Bogeymen"), Duvalier terrorized and murdered potential political foes and ordinary Haitians. Trained as a doctor hence his ironically paternalistic nickname Duvalier declared himself President-for-Life in 1964 and portrayed himself as a semidivine, voodoo-empowered ruler . . . a portrait shows him posing with Jesus Christ. His corrupt policies spawned a fabulously wealthy elite and a dirt-poor populace Haitians' per capita annual income under Duvalier was $80, the lowest in the Western Hemisphere. After his death, his pudgy, somewhat dim son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier was enthroned, and carried on his father's venal policies until he was driven out of the country in 1986.

8

Nicolae Ceausescu

Running a neo-Stalinist police state from 1967-89, Nicolae Ceausescu wound the iron curtain tightly around Romania, turning a moderately prosperous country into one at the brink of starvation. To repay his $10 billion foreign debt in 1982, he ransacked the Romanian economy of everything that could be exported, leaving the country with desperate shortages of food, fuel, and other essentials. Yet no costs were spared for his own self glorification the self-proclaimed "Genius of the Carpathians" spent lavishly on party office buildings and personal residences. Ceausescu also razed thousands of villages and forced citizens into concrete high-rises, a misguided socialist idea of modernity as well as a way of wiping out Romanian culture and history. His corruption and nepotism were legion, and former Secretary of State George Shultz claimed that during Ceausescu's reign, Romania had "possibly the worst" human rights record in the East bloc.

9

Idi Amin

Brutally authoritarian president of Uganda from 1971-79, Idi Amin oversaw the torture and murder of an estimated 300,000 of his own people. He orchestrated the persecution of the Lango and Acholi tribes, and expelled all 60,000 ethnic Asians from the country, thereby destroying the economy. He lined his own pockets with his country's wealth, and as an advocate of Islamic terrorism, was personally involved in the Palestinian hijacking at Entebbe in July 1976. With his bombast and buffoonery, he gained an international reputation as a parody of an African despot: he called himself "Conqueror of the British Empire" and the national heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, for example, and claimed to have direct conversations with God. As amusing as his pompous antics were from afar, his savagery and repression have deeply scarred Uganda, in spite of its remarkable recovery under current President Yoweri Museveni. Today, Amin lives in a large marble villa in Saudia Arabia.

10

Pol Pot

Radical Marxist leader of Cambodia from 1975-79, who butchered his own people. The four years of nightmarish Khmer Rouge rule led to the state-sponsored extermination of citizens by its own government. Between 1 million and 2 million people were massacred on the "killing fields" of Cambodia or were worked to death through forced labor. Pol Pot's radical vision of transforming the country into a Marxist agrarian society led to the virtual extermination of the country's professional and technical class anyone wearing glasses, for example, was murdered. Pol Pot died in 1998 without remorse, declaring, "My conscience is clear."

Source: Leaders/Villians

• The above ten are easy to accept as villains, but a project would have to permit a much larger number of profiles.
  
• No Americans and no Britons made this list.
  
• Below is a description of a publication that names 177 American villains (Maybe there's something comparable that would identify villains in other nations — Scotland among them!):
  

American Villains

Editors: The Editors of Salem Press
August 2008 · 2 volumes · 640 pages · 6"x9" ISBN: 978-1-58765-453-4 List Price: $120

Detailed biographies of 177 of the most infamous assassins, serial killers, frauds, gangsters, murderers, terrorists, thieves, and traitors in American History.

American Villains explores the lives, deeds and punishments of 177 of the most infamous villains of our time. What makes this set unique is that it focuses on U.S. criminals who are not generally covered in American biographical surveys. While there are many books that cover fictional villains in videogames, comic-books, and movies, few cover real villains of history in one convenient set.

The essays in American Villains have been selected from our Great Lives from History: Notorious Lives set. Each essay has been updated and reedited for accuracy. A broad range of personages is covered, including such notorious names as Benedict Arnold, Ma Barker, David Berkowitz, Al Capone, John Dillinger, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Sam Giancana, John Hinckley Jr., Jim Jones, Meyer Lansky, Timothy McVeigh, Lee Harvey Oswald, Scott Peterson, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Sirhan Sirhan, Tokyo Rose, Aileen Wuornos and Giuseppe Zangara.

Categories of Villain include:

• Assassins
• Con Artists, Cheats, and Frauds
• Corrupt Politicians
• Cult Leaders
• Gangsters and Associates
• Military Figures
• Murderers and Accused Murderers
• Outlaws and Gunslingers
• Pirates
• Political Rebels and Revolutionaries
• Racists and Hatemongers
• Scientists and Doctors
• Serial Killers
• Sexual Predators and Accused Predators
• Terrorists
• Thieves and Bank Robbers
• Traitors and Spies
• War Criminals

The essays in this set are approximately 1,000 words in length and are arranged alphabetically. Each essay begins with ready-reference information, including: Name of Villain; Identity (e.g., Spree murderer, Gangster); Born (date and place of birth); Died (date and place of death); Also known as (aliases, nicknames, full and birth names); Major offenses (crimes); Active (period of greatest offenses); Locale (where operated) and Sentence (years in prison, other punishment). "Early Life" is a summary of the upbringing of the villain and entry into crime. "Criminal Career" is a chronological overview of all criminal activities; "Legal Action and Outcome" identifies legal response, trials, sentences and punishments; "Impact" assesses why the person is remembered and what his or her significance is in history and popular culture; and "Further Reading" lists sources for further study.

Hope these notes are useful!

Michael Delahunt , Geni Member, Lexicographer, and Art Teacher.

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'Worst' historical Britons named

from: BBC News December 2005: Historians have put together a list of the 10 "worst" Britons of the last 1,000 years.

A list of the 10 worst Britons of the last 1,000 years has been put together by historians for BBC History Magazine.

The historians chose one villain from each of the last 10 centuries. See Project Documents for details.

• 1900-2000: Oswald Mosley (1896-1980)
• 1800-1900: Jack the Ripper
• 1700-1800: Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-65)
• 1600-1700: Titus Oates (1649-1705) *
• 1500-1600: Sir Richard Rich, Lord Rich of Leighs (1496/7-1567)
• 1400-1500: Thomas Arundel (1353-1414)
• 1300-1400: Hugh Despenser (The Younger) (died 1326)
• 1200-1300: King John (1167-1216)
• 1100-1200: Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (c.1120-70) *
• 1000-1100: Eadric Streona (died 1017)

Please feel free to join this project and add profiles of individuals whom humanity has judged as an enemy of good. ie. Repressive leaders, brutal dictators, mass murderers, religious inquisitors, barbaric conquerers etc. or their surviving accusers.

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This Project's philosophy was inspired by C.S. Lewis' *The Screwtape Letters , C.S. Lewis Bio , The Screwtape Letters Book

Freedom & Justice Activists

• Natan Sharansky
  
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  
• Elie Wiesel
  
• Dissident-Freedom Activists Worldwide
  
• Resistance Movements during WWll
  

Project Photo
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Individuals with an ( * ) after their name are looking for profile creators.