Roman Emperor Caligula once reportedly burst into laughter during a dinner party, and when asked why, he replied that he had just realized he could give the order to have every guest’s throat cut. The anecdote captures the blend of cruelty and unpredictability that defined some of history’s most notorious rulers and criminals. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia resisted reform during a period of profound social and political upheaval. His poor military decisions and indifference to the welfare of his people contributed to the Russian Revolution.
The 300-year Romanov dynasty ended with his execution in 1918. Ferdinand I of Naples governed through oppression, provoking a revolt among the nobility. After falsely promising amnesty to his defeated enemies, he had them murdered, mummified, and displayed in his personal museum dressed in their clothes. He reportedly took suspected plotters on tours of the exhibit.
Ranavalona I of Madagascar kept British forces at bay through extreme ruthlessness, allegedly reducing the island’s population by half. She imposed forced labor instead of taxes, and an estimated 10,000 subjects died building a road she demanded be constructed quickly for her hunting party. Several assassination plots and a coup attempt only deepened her paranoia. Emperor Qin Shi Huang of China unified the country by destroying its education system and overworking his subjects.
He followed contradictory principles, burned books, and buried hundreds of scholars alive. His accomplishments unraveled within a decade of his death. King John of England, brother of Richard the Lionheart, earned such a poor reputation that no later British monarch took his name. While Richard was on crusade, John had his nephew Arthur murdered to eliminate a rival claimant, then launched a losing war against France.
Murad IV, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, ruled during a violent period. He killed his siblings, banned smoking and coffee, and executed anyone who defied him by hanging or impalement. He also had his corrupt advisor strangled in his presence and ordered the deaths of military officials and the head of the Islamic Supreme Court. Emperor Commodus of Rome forced wounded soldiers and disabled civilians into the arena to be slain and slaughtered exotic animals in public displays.
His brutality was eventually too much even for Rome, and he was assassinated. King Leopold II of Belgium created the Congo Free State as a project to extract rubber and ivory. Under the pretense of missionary work, he enslaved the Congolese people, and between 8 and 12 million people were killed or tortured during his exploitation in the late 1800s. His personal fortune once made him one of the richest men in the world.
Nero, the Roman emperor, tortured Christians and blamed them for the great fire of Rome. He murdered his mother and both of his wives. After numerous difficulties in rebuilding the city, he died by suicide in 68 AD. Tiberius, stepson of Augustus, was initially hailed as a great general.
After becoming emperor, he grew bitter over personal tragedies and the burdens of power. A Roman writer alleged that he engaged in child sex abuse and paranoid cruelty, and he launched treason trials that resulted in multiple executions. Charles VI of France suffered his first recorded bout of mental illness in 1392. During a military expedition, the accidental clang of a spear against a helmet caused him to draw his sword, scream that he was betrayed, and attack his own men, killing several before being subdued.
Countess Elizabeth Báthory of Hungary was called the Bloody Countess for her alleged torture and murder of hundreds of servant girls. She was reputed to bathe in their blood. In 1610, she was arrested, but due to her family’s social standing, she was not executed. Instead, she was walled into a room in her castle, where she remained until her death in 1614.
Josef Mengele, a physician at Auschwitz concentration camp, was notorious for performing horrific medical experiments on prisoners, with a particular interest in twins, dwarves, and people with abnormalities. He also sent hundreds of thousands to the gas chambers. Madame Delphine LaLaurie, a wealthy French Creole woman in New Orleans, was known for her lavish social events. After a fire in her mansion, authorities discovered tortured slaves in the attic, scattered human remains, and other horrifying conditions.
She had been cruel to the slaves in her household and reportedly murdered some of them. Maximilien Robespierre, a leader of the French Revolution, oversaw the Reign of Terror. He had political rivals and suspected traitors sentenced to death by guillotine, including thousands of citizens. Genghis Khan ruled the Mongol Empire from 1206 until his death in 1227.
Upward of 40 million people were killed under his rule as his campaigns sought to eliminate entire civilian populations. Because of his belief that he could not spill blood, he reportedly crushed victims to death under boards while he and his nobles dined on top. He also murdered his half-brother at age ten during a hunting trip. Tamarlane the Great, a possible descendant of Genghis Khan, spent 40 years emulating his cruelty.
He destroyed cities, killed tens of thousands, and sent spies to spread rumors of his brutality. In Baghdad, he allegedly beheaded 90,000 people and built towers from their skulls. He also skinned people alive for rejecting Islam. Attila the Hun was so feared that no surviving accounts of his appearance exist.
He attacked and looted the Roman Empire and was called the Scourge of God. Tomás de Torquemada, a Dominican priest appointed Inquisitor General in Spain, oversaw the burning of 2,000 people and the mutilation of over 17,000 others during the Spanish Inquisition. Over 45 million people died under the leadership of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China. His Great Leap Forward program was intended to expand agriculture and industry but instead caused famine and economic collapse.
The government suppressed opposition, arresting or killing those who spoke out. Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar of Russia, became erratic after his first wife’s death. He destroyed the city of Novgorod, suspecting its nobles of causing the deaths of his mother and wife. In a fit of rage, he struck his son with a scepter, killing him.
He once assaulted his pregnant daughter-in-law, causing her to miscarry. Adolf Hitler, once a young man who wanted to become an artist, became the dictator of Nazi Germany. He was responsible for the Holocaust and the creation of death camps where millions were murdered. He died by suicide in a bunker on April 30, 1945.
Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1929 until 1953. Millions were sent to labor camps or executed. His forced collectivization of farms led to the shooting and exile of millions of farmers and a widespread famine. Hamilton Howard Albert Fish, known as the Gray Man and the Brooklyn Vampire, was an American serial killer with a taste for cannibalism and sadistic behavior.
He was believed to have killed up to nine victims, mostly children, and was executed in the electric chair in 1936. Charles Manson, leader of the Manson Family, was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy for the deaths of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. He had a troubled youth and used the book How to Win Friends and Influence People to help build his cult. Miyuki Ishikawa, a hospital director and midwife in Japan, was nicknamed the demon midwife.
In the 1940s, she murdered infants from poor families through neglect, claiming she was doing them a service. She was accused of 103 deaths and sentenced to eight years in prison, although it was believed over 200 children died under her care. Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, oversaw the deaths of more than one million people between 1975 and 1979 through exhaustion, starvation, and execution. He was arrested in 1997 and died under house arrest in 1998.
Rasputin, a Russian mystic, gained influence over Tsarina Alexandra when traditional medicine failed to heal her son. Rumors of an affair between Alexandra and Rasputin grew, and he became disturbingly close to her daughters. His influence was considered a factor in the downfall of the Romanovs. King Herod the Great, known in Christian tradition for ordering the slaughter of baby Jesus, was also said to have had his wife executed after accusing her of adultery.
Her body was reportedly preserved in honey, and he continued to perform disturbing acts with it for years. Mary I of England, daughter of Henry VIII, reinstated Catholicism when she took the throne and burned over 280 dissenters during her five-year reign, earning the name Bloody Mary. Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, sent a threatening message to Sparta, declaring he would raze the city and enslave its people. The Spartans replied with a single word: “If.
” Philip backed down, and Sparta remained the only Greek city that stood against him.
