Top 10 Most Evil Men in History
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Most Evil Men in History.
For this list, we’ll be looking at the wickedest men throughout recorded history. We will be discussing some rather sensitive and violent subject matter, so please consider this your content warning.
Are there any evildoers you think we missed? If so, please share with us in the comments below.
#10: Caligula
12 AD-41 AD
Many Roman emperors can be described as self-centered, but Caligula’s appetite for amusem*nt, decadence and blood were on another level. The emperor’s short temper and even shorter attention span resulted in countless deaths of his subjects. Caligula killed people for his personal amusem*nt. During one particularly vile episode, he even ordered his guards to put game spectators in an arena to be eaten by wild animals because he was bored during intermission. The emperor was indulgent and purposefully wasted money, which led to starvation among his subjects. He openly slept with married women and sold his sisters to other men. His family’s disregard for their female relatives continued with Caliglua’s nephew Nero, who killed his own mother during his reign several years later.
#9: Kim Jong-il
1941-2011
In the vein of families of evil leaders, Kim Jong-il is both the father and son of other controversial North Korean figures. The government under Kim Jong-il was regarded as one of the most repressive on the entire planet, with no freedom of religion, press or political opposition. With nearly every facet of day-to-day life controlled by the government, Kim Jong-il’s regime had hundreds of thousands of political prisoners wrongfully incarcerated. During his regime, North Korea suffered through a famine, which was further exacerbated by Kim Jong-il’s mismanagement of land and the economy. Between 240,000 and 3.5 million North Koreans perished due to the four-year famine. Kim Jong-il’s oppressive and disastrous policies have continued under his son Kim Jong-un since the former’s 2011 death.
#8: Saddam Hussein
1937-2006
Hussein’s reign was one of political turmoil, war and human rights violations. From the very beginning, it involved attacks and the destruction of thousands of villages and the displacements and deaths of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. During these attacks and forcible relocations, thousands of civilians were wiped out and seriously injured by chemical weapons. Citizens were forced into silence and were wrongfully imprisoned if they spoke out. Political prisoners were subjected to beatings, torture and assault, which often proved fatal. Many prisoners also disappeared under mysterious circ*mstances. Even years after Hussein’s 2006 execution, these people remain unaccounted for. Hussein’s rule was filled with genocide, disapora, repression and countless crimes against humanity.
#7: Leopold II of Belgium
1835-1909
Greed is among the seven deadly sins for a reason, and this wicked tyrant personified it. Leopold was a colonizer to the core. He claimed ownership of an area he called the Congo Free State, but its citizens were anything but free. Leopold exploited both the Congolese people and natural resources. The tyrant exported ivory to build his own personal wealth, but it was the labor-intensive collection and exportation of rubber tree sap that led to the majority of his atrocities. Leopold forced the native population to harvest the rubber. When his insanely high quotas were not met, the people and their families were beaten, mutilated and killed. Leopold was responsible for the death of more than 10 million Congolese people, half of the population.
#6: Mao Zedong
1893-1976
As the founder of the People's Republic of China, the controversial Chairman Mao’s legacy is extremely complex. During Mao’s 27-year rule, his policies led to the deaths of between 40 million and 80 million people. These casualties were mostly the result of starvation from the Great Chinese Famine that resulted from the agricultural policies of the Great Leap Forward. Still more people perished from torture and beatings, and others passed from mass executions and prison labor. While Mao did not directly order the majority of these deaths, his policies led to mass casualties and trauma, the effects of which are still being felt today.
#5: Genghis Khan
c. 1162-1227
As one of the most infamous conquerors in history, Genghis Khan committed countless atrocities during his conquests and is believed to be responsible for between 40 and 60 million deaths. Considering they destroyed approximately 10 percent of the world’s population, Khan and his armies murdered quite a few people, but they were also responsible for driving cities to starvation and cannibalism. Khan’s forces left mountains of bones made up of the remains of those they slaughtered as a warning to others to not stand in their way. Khan’s ruthlessness laid cities to waste and struck fear in the hearts of millions.
#4: Vlad the Impaler
1431-76/77
Anyone with that nickname has to be pretty wicked. Also known as Vlad Dracula, this extremely cruel man ruled Wallachia intermittently between 1448 and 1477. His three reigns were punctuated by periods of exile, imprisonment and unease. During both his times in and out of power, Vlad committed unspeakable acts of cruelty and would be considered a war criminal by modern standards. Vlad sated his bloodthirsty ways by ordering inhumane executions, such as disembowelment, skinning people alive and boiling his enemies. However, his Impaler moniker came from one of the worst acts of mass murder of all time. In 1462, the vicious Vlad had 20,000 Turk prisoners impaled on wooden stakes. It’s no wonder his horrors might have later inspired Bram Stoker to write “Dracula.”
#3: Pol Pot
1925-98
This vile leader of the Khmer Rouge regime was the architect of the Cambodian genocide and devastating policies that led to widespread famine and deaths from preventable diseases. The Khmer Rouge’s xenophobic and racist views and policies led to widespread murders of minorities throughout Cambodia. The regime imprisoned, tortured and destroyed those who opposed it. Prisoners were subjected to horrific medical experiments, which often resulted in agonizingly drawn out deaths. Many prisoners, including babies and small children, were executed in the infamous Killing Fields and buried in mass graves. To save bullets, they were killed with pickaxes or smashed against trees. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge ended the lives of between 1.5 and 2 million Cambodian citizens, a quarter of the country’s population.
#2: Joseph Stalin
1878-1953
As the leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin established and continued many controversial and damaging policies and practices. Although he did not create the Gulag system, Stalin took full advantage of it, placing millions of Soviet citizens in the prisons and labor camps. Political prisoners and other “undesirables” were locked away, tortured and destroyed, and fear of the Gulag kept citizens from speaking out against the government. Stalin’s policies led to Holodomor, one of the worst famines in history. He used food shortages as a political tool and ensured certain areas were affected more than others, which resulted in millions of people perishing. Stalin’s rule led to widespread suffering throughout the Soviet Union.
#1: Adolf Hitler
1889-1945
Although there were many wicked people associated with the Holocaust, such as the vile SS commander Heinrich Himmler, the most evil of all was, of course, Hitler. As the dictator of Nazi Germany, Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, igniting World War II in the process. World War II became the deadliest conflict in human history, totaling between 70 and 85 million deaths. Hitler’s heinous views led to the Holocaust, during which he and his collaborators murdered two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population. The Holocaust claimed six million Jewish lives and millions of lives among other persecuted populations, including Roma, Ukrainians and Polish people. It’s no wonder Hitler’s name is synonymous with horrific evil.
