- 1 year ago
From ancient rulers to modern dictators, history's darkest figures have left trails of suffering in their wake. Join us as we examine those whose cruelty, violence, and disregard for human life earned them infamy. These individuals manipulated power, committed genocide, tortured innocents, and destroyed lives on unimaginable scales.
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00:00I saw him as just Uncle Saddam, and I saw him throughout my teenage life as the brutal dictator
00:05that committed so many crimes against so many people in Iraq.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most evil people throughout history.
00:14I was not the instigator of these tribulations.
00:18God grant me the strength to exact vengeance.
00:23Nero.
00:23I've never seen a burning city.
00:25You said one must suffer an experience to recreate it.
00:31His reputation in modern times speaks for itself.
00:34There are several conflicting stories on Nero's reign in ancient Rome,
00:38but many are negative, and it's clear to see why.
00:41He was a compulsive leader who raised taxes and destroyed the value of Roman currency just to build a palace.
00:47Prepare a list of the richest men, landowners, noblemen.
00:54Make them leave everything they have to me.
00:57He also used violence to gain more power, reportedly forcing his supposed rivals to end their own lives,
01:03and even planning the deaths of multiple family members.
01:06Nero's cruelty expanded beyond his inner circle, with his constant persecution of Christians,
01:12torturing and killing so many that it was believed he was the Antichrist.
01:15While not many official writings have survived the era,
01:18those that have make it clear just how awful he was.
01:21Nero is often portrayed as the Antichrist.
01:26He is said to have had hundreds of innocent Christians brutally put to death,
01:30the first persecution of Christians in history.
01:33Kim Il-sung.
01:34In 25 years, he's gone from Soviet puppet to unassailable leader.
01:40But Kim's still haunted by one question.
01:43How can he ensure his regime continues after his death?
01:47It takes a cruel person to take the trust of a struggling nation and use it to subjugate.
01:52When Kim Il-sung was installed as premier of North Korea following World War II,
01:56people looked to him for positive change after Japan's prior rule.
02:00His way of doing this was by filling his cabinet with soldiers and invading the newly created South Korea.
02:05The subsequent war led to millions dying across both sides,
02:09and yet he still declared himself the winner.
02:11His rule only got worse from there.
02:22He became a dictator who punished civilians for writing on his photos and imprisoned dissidents in labor camps.
02:29It was a dark start to the country, and unfortunately, his successors continued that legacy.
02:33U.S. officials believe Kim Jong-il, Kim's son and likely political heir,
02:39is surrounded by a circle of top advisors who may actually be in charge.
02:43But American intelligence about North Korea is almost non-existent.
02:47John Wayne Gacy.
02:48I enjoyed the limelight of being involved in something.
02:53And consequently, I used to involve myself with a lot of stuff.
02:56He seemed like an average man, but beneath the surface lurked a monster.
03:00John Wayne Gacy was no stranger to the law.
03:03He'd been arrested several times for sexual assault,
03:06but dropped charges and sealed criminal records helped him maintain his reputation.
03:10Throughout the 1970s, he presented himself as an innocent man
03:13who entertained at children's parties and participated in politics.
03:17At the same time, he was assaulting his employees, and much worse.
03:21You need to show some respect, girl.
03:24I'm the one who's gonna teach it to you.
03:26He tortured and killed dozens of young men,
03:29and stored their remains beneath his home,
03:31until his arrest in 1978.
03:34Even after being tried and sentenced to death,
03:36he showed no remorse,
03:38cementing his legacy as one of the worst serial killers in U.S. history.
03:42I've taken five and a half hours, three and a half hours of true serum,
03:47and under sodium amethyl,
03:48the maximum amount that I could have,
03:50it shows that I have no knowledge of the crime whatsoever.
03:53Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
03:55He became everything he claimed to hate.
04:05The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had been exiled from Iran in 1964 for opposing one revolution,
04:11but his support for another helped him become more powerful than he could have anticipated.
04:15He returned in 1979, and from there, enacted his regime.
04:19He made several promises, ranging from personal freedoms to affordable housing,
04:23all of which fell apart.
04:25Under his rule, citizens from the United States were taken as hostages.
04:29A supposedly blasphemous author had a death warrant placed on him,
04:32and citizens' rights were rolled back.
04:34His megalomania worsened,
04:35until he had a goal of converting the entire world to his beliefs.
04:39Decades later, his influence is still strong in politics,
04:42to the detriment of countless civilians.
04:45Gone forever was the image of the Gandhi-like spiritual leader
04:49built up by the Western media.
04:51In its place was the image of the Muslim cleric
04:54which fills the Western media to this day.
04:56Harsh, angry, and implacably hostile.
04:59Shiro Ishii.
05:00One may not be able to name all of the perpetrators of atrocities during the Second World War.
05:14For the Empire of Japan, one terrible name stands out.
05:18Shiro Ishii used his previous experience as a scientist to man Unit 731.
05:23There, prisoners were forced to undergo cruel experiments,
05:26from being infected with various diseases,
05:29to being used as test weaponry and the effects of frostbite.
05:33Shiro Ishii's depraved plans didn't end there.
05:44He concocted a plan to spread a plague across the United States via fleas,
05:48which fell through after the war ended.
05:50To add insult to injury,
05:52he was given immunity in exchange for information,
05:54allowing him to simply go back to a normal life
05:57and ignore the suffering he had caused.
05:59Ishii's men must swear never to reveal any details of their activities.
06:04Shortly before the end of the war,
06:05he orders all the prisoners to be killed.
06:07Albert Fish.
06:08I always had the desire to inflict pain on others
06:14and to have others inflict pain on me.
06:18He goes by many names,
06:19all of which point to his disgustingly violent actions.
06:23Albert Fish received national attention in 1934
06:26when he was arrested following his kidnapping,
06:28killing, and cannibalizing of Grace Budd.
06:30He detailed his gory crimes in a letter to her mother,
06:33writing out every step he had taken in ending her life
06:36and then eating her remains.
06:38You know why you're here, Mr. Fish?
06:41Do you remember when you started writing these obscene letters?
06:45And how are you able to reconcile the things you do
06:50with the teachings of your faith?
06:52That wasn't the only macabre note he wrote.
06:54In another piece of correspondence with his lawyer,
06:57he graphically described how he had committed a similar,
06:59yet even more intense act against Billy Gaffney.
07:02What stuck out was his apparent glee in carrying out these crimes,
07:05as he showed absolutely no remorse up until his execution in 1936.
07:09The parents will breathe easier after today,
07:13as child killer Albert Fish was taken away to Sing Sing prison
07:17to await his execution by the electric chair.
07:21Heinrich Himmler
07:22He may not have had full power,
07:35but he was still pulling the strings behind the scenes.
07:37Along with other trusted confidants,
07:39Heinrich Himmler helped plan and orchestrate
07:41several aspects of the Holocaust.
07:43He created and helped run several concentration camps,
07:46all designed to be as tortuous as possible.
07:49He even devised different murder methods,
07:51including the usage of Ziclone B in gas chambers.
07:55In the camps, doctors became murderers,
07:57only instead of murder, it was called selection.
08:00Many doctors thought selection was an act of mercy.
08:03In private, he helped convince Hitler
08:05to instate a violent police force
08:07so that their plans couldn't be impeded.
08:09Himmler's cruelty knew no bounds,
08:11with his main desire being to rid Germany
08:13of those he believed to be beneath him.
08:15When he was finally caught,
08:16he took his own life before he could be punished.
08:18My loyalty to Herr Admiral
08:21is exceeded only by your loyalty
08:24to the Fuhrer himself.
08:26Isn't that so?
08:27Benito Mussolini.
08:29Mussolini reveled in his conquest
08:30and called it
08:31the greatest colonial war in all history.
08:34In fact, it cost Italy dearly.
08:37He may not be as extensively discussed
08:39as his counterparts,
08:40but that doesn't make his regime any less awful.
08:43Benito Mussolini used his position
08:44as the Italian prime minister
08:46to help dispense a fascist ideology
08:48across the globe before the start of World War II.
08:51He had insane desires of reclaiming Africa
08:54and beginning a new Roman empire,
08:56leading to Libyan civilians
08:57being the victims of a mass slaughter campaign
08:59and Ethiopians being subjected to a violent invasion.
09:02In his own home country,
09:04Mussolini had created a police state
09:06that kept citizens from speaking out against him.
09:08He ruled with an iron fist until his removal in 1943.
09:12He was publicly executed two years later
09:14and his body was desecrated by his former subjects.
09:17It's almost terrifying
09:19what a lonely man he must have been
09:20because he wanted himself to be seen
09:22as the person who's winning the war.
09:24I'm doing it on my own.
09:24I'm commander-in-chief.
09:26Jeffrey Dahmer.
09:27The reason why Jeffrey Dahmer
09:28was able to get away with his crimes
09:30was because of just what you are seeing here.
09:34Jeffrey Dahmer is intelligent and articulate.
09:36That is what makes him so frightening.
09:39There have been several truly awful serial killers
09:41throughout American history
09:42and somehow he manages to embody each of their traits.
09:46For over a decade,
09:48Jeffrey Dahmer terrorized the Midwest.
09:50He would find potential victims and take them home
09:52before revealing his true intentions.
09:54He would then drug and assault them
09:56before violently murdering and dismembering them.
09:58I feel so bad for what I did to those poor families
10:01and I understand their rightful hate.
10:04I am so sorry for that
10:06and sorry for everyone else that I have hurt.
10:08As horrific as that sounds on its own,
10:11it didn't end there.
10:12He would dismember some victims
10:13and keep the body parts,
10:15take photos of their corpses to keep as mementos,
10:18and sometimes even eat the remains.
10:20After brutally slaying 17 people,
10:22he was finally caught in 1991
10:24and given 16 life sentences,
10:27only to be murdered himself in prison.
10:29I called y'all
10:30and I told you over and over a million times
10:34that something was going on
10:35and you know what you did?
10:36Y'all did nothing!
10:38Josef Mengele.
10:39It's not like, you know,
10:40he was just the sort of surgical murderer.
10:44He was also a brute as well.
10:45Several people participated
10:47in Hitler's genocidal desires,
10:49but Josef Mengele was one of the most involved.
10:51He was originally a researcher and anthropologist,
10:54but he pivoted to a much darker role
10:56following the chancellor's rise to power.
10:58He was primarily stationed at Auschwitz,
11:00where he chose which prisoners
11:01would be sent to their deaths.
11:03He also treated several inmates
11:05like his own personal lab rats,
11:07using them to conduct twisted experiments of his own.
11:09After the war ended,
11:11Mengele managed to flee to Argentina,
11:13where he escaped the punishment met by his cohort.
11:16He continued to evade capture for decades,
11:18until his death in 1979
11:20prevented him from facing any legal consequences.
11:24Right here, this God-forsaken place,
11:26I have created a scientific miracle.
11:29I have turned the whole world into a laboratory.
11:32Jim Jones.
11:34Building a following with fake miracles,
11:36Jim Jones founded his own church,
11:38the People's Temple, in Indianapolis in 1954.
11:42His religion fused Christianity and socialism.
11:45His driving force was less the Bible than social justice.
11:49He was very much ahead of the current climate
11:52in terms of race relations.
11:55In the 1970s, however,
11:57investigations began to expose abuses within the church
12:00and the methods behind his so-called miracles.
12:03Deciding to leave the U.S.,
12:06Jones founded a secluded commune
12:08named Jonestown in Guyana, South America.
12:10I've got some land over there with a black president.
12:13I'm sending my people there little by little.
12:16Jim, I just planned to go to Guyana.
12:18It was the only English-speaking country in South America.
12:23Land was cheap.
12:24It had a socialist lean to it.
12:26When Democratic Congressman Leo Ryan visited the compound
12:29to investigate in November 1978,
12:32he was assassinated,
12:34along with defectors and journalists.
12:36The panicked Jones ordered his followers
12:38to take their own lives.
12:41Under armed guard,
12:42918 people were killed,
12:45mostly from poison.
12:46We know from autopsies conducted later
12:49that a considerable number of people
12:52were held and forcibly injected with the poison.
12:55Jones also died,
12:57but from a gunshot that may have been self-inflicted.
13:01Amelia Dyer.
13:02Back in Victorian England,
13:04women could adopt babies for money
13:06in a practice known as baby farming.
13:08Amelia Dyer volunteered her services
13:10and charged up to 80 pounds per baby.
13:13But Dyer did not care for those she adopted.
13:17Rather, she killed them.
13:18Amelia Dyer was a murderer
13:20and she knew what she was doing.
13:22This was a calculated career plan
13:24that she'd embarked on
13:25and sustained over 30 years,
13:27come what may.
13:28This wasn't really questioned at the time,
13:30as mortality rates were very high in children.
13:33Dyer was allowed to continue the practice
13:35for 30 years,
13:37claiming hundreds of victims.
13:39She was eventually caught
13:40after a body was found floating in the Thames,
13:43and she was hanged on June 10, 1896.
13:46Her death closed a casebook
13:48on one of the most deadly serial killer cases
13:50in British history.
13:52Delphine Lalaurie.
13:54A prominent socialite from New Orleans,
13:56Delphine Lalaurie owned a mansion
13:58on the city's Royal Street.
14:00While she presented a kind face in public,
14:02rumors circulated about her cruel treatment of slaves.
14:05The Code Noir,
14:07a decree that dictated the conditions of slavery,
14:10did not exist on these grounds.
14:12It was replaced by the Madame's own Code of Terror.
14:15And the torture she inflicted on her slaves
14:18would spawn 179 years of hauntings.
14:22According to funeral registers,
14:24a dozen slaves died at her residence
14:26between 1830 and 1834.
14:29She chased one young girl off the roof with a whip.
14:33On April 10, 1834,
14:35a 70-year-old cook who had been chained to the stove
14:38deliberately lit a fire.
14:40This led to the discovery of seven horrifically abused slaves
14:43chained up in the attic.
14:45Bonsoir, my pets.
14:50An outraged mob attacked the residents,
14:52but Lalaurie fled to France,
14:55escaping justice.
14:56Osama bin Laden.
14:58Born into a wealthy family in Saudi Arabia,
15:01Osama bin Laden fought against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan
15:04before founding the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in 1988.
15:08Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan,
15:12and Osama bin Laden found his calling,
15:15helping the Afghans fight their jihad,
15:18holy war,
15:19against the communists.
15:20In the mid-1990s,
15:21he declared war on the United States for the country's military actions
15:25and continued presence in the Middle East,
15:27as well as its support for Israel.
15:30In the following years,
15:31bin Laden and his organization became responsible for thousands of deaths.
15:35This included hotel and embassy bombings,
15:38and, of course,
15:39the September 11th attacks.
15:41Later, bin Laden would gloat that the plan succeeded beyond his imagination.
15:46The latter claimed the lives of 2,977 people
15:50and injured a further 25,000.
15:53Bin Laden became the target of a manhunt
15:55and was killed by U.S. forces on May 2nd, 2011.
16:00Elizabeth Bathory
16:01A Hungarian countess,
16:03Bathory is an alleged serial killer
16:05who was said to have tortured and killed hundreds of women with her servants.
16:09Elizabeth Bathory had a terrible temper,
16:11and she enjoyed torturing people.
16:14She enjoyed humiliating them.
16:17If you didn't iron her things properly,
16:19she would put an iron onto your face
16:21and leave you marked for life.
16:23As rumors circulated,
16:24the monarch's representative was ordered to investigate.
16:28The investigation supposedly proved
16:30that Bathory was responsible for hundreds of murders,
16:33perhaps as high as 650.
16:36As a result,
16:37Bathory became known as the blood countess.
16:40Her punishment?
16:41House arrest inside her castle.
16:43She was allowed to live.
16:44She was imprisoned in her castle.
16:47That's, you know,
16:47what we've been led to believe,
16:49and that no one was allowed to talk about her
16:51or say her name for 100 years
16:52meant that they almost just wrote it out of history.
16:55It's there that she died in 1614.
16:58However,
16:59the case against Bathory is disputable.
17:02Some modern scholars argue that Bathory was the target of political machinations,
17:06and that she was innocent of the horrible crimes so often attributed to her.
17:10It will explain that it was a conspiracy to do her down and get hold of her land.
17:16This is not the case at all and defies the historical evidence.
17:19Ivan the Terrible
17:20Renowned for his temper and paranoia,
17:24Russian ruler Ivan IV Vasilievich inspired incredible fear.
17:28Legend says the sky split open and lightning struck the Kremlin
17:32As a teenager, he liked abusing animals,
17:40throwing cats and dogs from the Kremlin ramparts.
17:43He served as the first czar of Russia, reigning from 1533 to 1584.
17:49He established a personal guard,
17:51the oprychnik, who helped him terrorize and oppress his subjects through torture and execution.
17:57A bitter saying was born,
17:59the closer to the czar, the closer to death.
18:04The czar came to be known as Ivan Grozny,
18:07a word that translates as awesome or dread,
18:11but most commonly as terrible.
18:13After defections and the death of his wife in the 1560s,
18:17he became even more violent,
18:19ordering the massacre of Novgorod in 1570,
18:23with casualties in the thousands.
18:24He also beat his own pregnant daughter-in-law,
18:28after which she miscarried and killed his own son.
18:31The czar had never been happy with his son's choice for a bride.
18:35This night, disapproval boiled over into bloodshed.
18:38Ivan IV eventually died on March 18, 1584,
18:42leaving his empire to his son, Feodor.
18:45Irma Grise
18:46After volunteering for Hitler's SS,
18:50this German woman became a concentration camp guard at 19,
18:53working at the likes of Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz.
18:57Grise became notorious at these camps,
18:59striking terror in the prisoners,
19:01who testified against her after World War II.
19:04A sadist,
19:05she set her dogs on prisoners,
19:07sexually assaulted them,
19:09and beat them with a whip.
19:10These women SS guards set savage dogs on prisoners.
19:14She helped select victims for the gas chambers.
19:17Following the liberation of her camps,
19:19Grise was taken into custody,
19:20and became a defendant in the Belsen trial.
19:23Kramer's chief sadist was Irma Grise,
19:26in curls,
19:27whose name struck terror into the hearts of Belsen's inmates.
19:30She was hanged at 22,
19:32on December 13, 1945.
19:36Idi Amin
19:36Serving as president of Uganda from 1971 to 79,
19:41Idi Amin was one of the most brutal world leaders of the 20th century.
19:45Amin rose through the military ranks,
19:47and deposed the country's president in a coup in January 1971.
19:52After establishing military rule in Uganda,
19:55Amin demonstrated eccentric and ruthless behavior.
19:58A year and a half after gaining power,
20:01Amin expelled most Asians from Uganda.
20:04His rule was marked by widespread human rights abuses,
20:07corruption,
20:08and economic mismanagement.
20:08It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of people were murdered by his regime,
20:14which targeted ethnic minorities,
20:16political activists,
20:17and journalists.
20:18Amin eventually became known as the Butcher of Uganda,
20:22but he fled the country in 1979,
20:25and died in Saudi Arabia in 2003.
20:28In his eight years in control,
20:29hundreds of thousands of people were killed.
20:32Abandoned by all his allies,
20:34he was finally expelled from power in 1979.
20:36Attila the Hun
20:38Between 434 and 445,
20:42Attila ruled the Huns with his brother Bleda.
20:45Attila may have had his brother killed in 445,
20:49and ruled alone for the next eight years.
20:51Attila the Hun stands as one of the most ruthless,
20:55if not the most ruthless,
20:57military leaders of all time.
20:59His reign was one of terror,
21:01as he built an empire by besieging, pillaging,
21:05and massacring the inhabitants of Roman cities across Europe.
21:08In 451, Attila invaded Gaul in modern-day France,
21:12but was defeated in the Battle of the Catalonian Plains and retreated.
21:16The myth of his invincibility had been shattered.
21:20The following year, he invaded Italy,
21:23looking for revenge.
21:24But again, after initial success was driven back by Aetius.
21:29His violent incursions left countless dead,
21:32and his empire soon collapsed after his death in 453.
21:35His burial place is unknown,
21:38as those that performed the burial were reportedly slain to protect the secret.
21:43Caligula
21:44This infamous Roman Empire was born Gaius Julius Caesar,
21:48but was nicknamed Caligula, meaning little boot, as a child.
21:52To this day, Caligula's name is synonymous with tyranny.
21:56And have insisted he be worshipped as a living god.
22:01And ever since, he has become a template for tyranny,
22:05with chilling echoes right up to our own age.
22:09Contemporaneous sources describe him as an unhinged and unpredictable ruler
22:13with a god complex.
22:15Narcissistic and cruel,
22:17he betrayed allies and family members,
22:19and had them executed.
22:21He extorted his own citizens to pay for his lavish indulgences,
22:25and invaded and plundered neighboring regions.
22:28Caligula has become more than anything
22:30a byword for sexual excess and perversion.
22:33We can hardly hear his name
22:35without conjuring up images of drunken orgies,
22:39sex in the wrong place, with the wrong people.
22:42He was assassinated in 41 AD at the age of 28.
22:47In 54 AD, his nephew Nero became emperor,
22:50and acquired his own reputation for cruelty.
22:54Nero is said to have persecuted early Christians,
22:57blaming them for the great fire of Rome,
22:59which he himself may have started.
23:01As time went on, people started telling stories about Nero himself,
23:06seen on the palace balcony with a lyre,
23:09manically reciting his own epic poem,
23:11The Fall of Troy,
23:13as the flames lapped the Palatine.
23:15Kim Jong-il
23:16Between 1994 and 2011,
23:19Kim Jong-il served as Supreme Leader of North Korea,
23:22having inherited the mantle from his father
23:24and founder of the country, Kim Il-sung.
23:26Known as Dear Leader,
23:28Kim Jong-il controlled his country with an iron fist.
23:32Amnesty International has called North Korea
23:34the last worst place on Earth.
23:37In 1978, before taking over this role,
23:40he had South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok
23:43and his wife kidnapped to make propaganda films.
23:46Kim fostered a cult of personality around himself
23:48and ran a repressive government
23:51that gave considerable power to the military
23:53and engaged in countless human rights violations.
23:56The North Korean repression has been extreme.
24:01Very tight control of every aspect of a citizen's life.
24:04Attempts to control every aspect of flows of information
24:06from the outside world.
24:08Concentration camps for people who are misbehaving.
24:12Known for economic incompetence,
24:15Kim arguably prolonged a devastating famine
24:17triggered by floods and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
24:21It's estimated that this famine alone
24:23killed at least half a million people.
24:25Kim Jong-il's North Korea faced natural disasters,
24:28but with the resources focused on the military,
24:31the country experienced one of the worst famines
24:33in the 20th century.
24:35The country was starving.
24:36There had been famine.
24:37There had been floods.
24:39Saddam Hussein
24:40Born to a poor family in northern Iraq,
24:43Saddam Hussein eventually made his way
24:45through the political ranks
24:46and helped stage a coup in 1968.
24:49After assuming the presidency in 1979,
24:52he purged opponents within his own party.
24:55Hundreds were executed.
24:56Dozens of Ba'athist officials were singled out by Saddam
24:59at a party conference in Baghdad.
25:02Some were in the room at the time
25:03and despite their pleas for mercy,
25:06were led out and immediately executed.
25:09It was vicious, swift, and methodical.
25:12A year later, he invaded Iran,
25:14starting a war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
25:18His invasion of Kuwait in 1990 led to the Gulf War.
25:22A brutal, repressive leader,
25:24his rule included the use of chemical weapons
25:26against Iranians and Kurdish separatists,
25:29and a ruthless security apparatus
25:31that used torture and execution to suppress opposition.
25:35Saddam was eventually found guilty of crimes against humanity
25:38and hanged in 2006.
25:40The verdict was predictable.
25:43Saddam was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.
25:47Biljana Plavšić.
25:48The Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995
25:51saw Serb forces perpetrate horrific ethnic cleansing
25:55and mass rapes against Bosnian Muslims.
25:58It was perpetrated by political leaders.
26:01It was political leaders who,
26:03with the aim of expanding their territory
26:06and consolidating their own power,
26:09set one ethnic group against another.
26:12Several leaders were indicted for these atrocities,
26:15including President of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic
26:18and former presidents of Republika Srpska
26:20Radovan Karadzic and Biljana Plavšić.
26:23Nicknamed the Iron Lady,
26:25Plavšić served as Karadzic's vice president
26:28before ascending to the presidency herself.
26:31Originally a biology professor,
26:32she claimed that ethnic cleansing
26:35was a, quote, natural phenomenon,
26:37blaming, quote, genetically deformed material.
26:40Plavšić entered a plea deal
26:42and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
26:45She was released in 2009.
26:47I have accepted responsibility for my part in this.
26:54This responsibility is mine and mine alone.
27:01Leopold II.
27:01The second king of the Belgians
27:04is notorious for his creation of the Congo Free State.
27:07Leopold II, king of the Belgians,
27:10was the personal owner of 1 million square miles
27:13of Central Africa
27:14and king-sovereign of 20 million Africans.
27:18Under the guise of humanitarian work,
27:20Leopold II took control of a large swath of the Congo Basin
27:24and ruled it as his own personal colony,
27:27using forced labor to amass a fortune in ivory and rubber.
27:30His private army, the Force Publique,
27:33committed brutal atrocities,
27:35including amputating the hands of laborers
27:38who did not meet their quotas.
27:40Leopold's Congo was a prison state.
27:43Africans had no rights, no justice, and no freedom.
27:47They were there to serve a voracious European king.
27:51Children were not spared.
27:53Many died of overwork and malnutrition,
27:55while others were killed outright.
27:58It's estimated that Leopold II's vicious reign
28:00killed 10 million people.
28:03Mao Zedong
28:03On October 1st, 1949,
28:07Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong
28:09founded the People's Republic of China,
28:11following a civil war against the Kuomintang,
28:14or Chinese Nationalist Party,
28:16who retreated to Taiwan.
28:17The birth of this new nation
28:19is the culmination of 27 years of terror,
28:23torture, and manipulation.
28:26During his rule,
28:27Mao persecuted and silenced political opponents,
28:30and launched the invasion of Tibet,
28:32where Chinese policies have been accused of,
28:35quote,
28:35cultural genocide.
28:37He's remembered for enacting the Great Leap Forward
28:39and the Cultural Revolution.
28:41The chairman has no doubt
28:42that his vision
28:43will cede China's meteoric rise
28:46to vast wealth and global domination
28:48with him at the helm.
28:51The Great Leap Forward
28:52was supposed to industrialize
28:54China's agrarian economy,
28:55but resulted in a famine
28:57that killed between 15 to 55 million people.
29:01As Mao's power waned,
29:03the Cultural Revolution was designed
29:05to silence opponents and bolster his power.
29:07Communist Chairman Mao Zedong's
29:09Cultural Revolution
29:10Intended to crush all those
29:12who dare oppose him in China
29:14is reaching its endgame.
29:19He is more determined than ever
29:20to hang on to power.
29:22It saw the persecution and deaths
29:24of hundreds of thousands
29:25and perhaps millions,
29:27and the destruction of artifacts,
29:29erasing much of the country's history.
29:32Genghis Khan
29:33Born Temujin,
29:35this Mongol ruler
29:36was one of the most destructive conquerors
29:38in human history,
29:39ruling as the first Great Khan
29:41of the Mongol Empire
29:42from 1206 to 1227.
29:45Genghis Khan led his armies
29:46to numerous victories
29:47and established a massive empire.
29:49His empire was now four times the size of Alexander the Great's
29:53and twice the size of the Roman Empire.
29:58But even this was not enough
30:00to satisfy the desire of Genghis Khan.
30:02By 1300,
30:04most of Eurasia was under Mongol control.
30:06In order to attain such vast power,
30:09the Mongol armies destroyed cities
30:11and killed all who stood in their way.
30:13God grant me the strength
30:15to exact vengeance.
30:17Genghis Khan sent an army
30:19200,000 strong
30:21to invade Persia.
30:25On his order,
30:27every Persian town
30:28that did not submit
30:28was burned to the ground.
30:30In fact,
30:31some estimates
30:32placed the death toll
30:33as high as 60 million,
30:35which would account
30:36for roughly 10%
30:37of the entire world's population
30:39at the time.
30:40Khan's conquests
30:41spread fear
30:42throughout the known world
30:43and his empire
30:44continued to grow
30:45long after his death
30:47in 1227.
30:48Vlad the Impaler
30:49Officially Vlad III,
30:52Vlad the Impaler
30:53ruled the Romanian region
30:54of Wallachia
30:55on and off
30:55between 1448
30:57and 1477.
30:58Once he took power
30:59in 1448,
31:01Vlad began
31:02a lifelong battle
31:03to protect his country
31:04from invaders
31:05from all sides.
31:07Hungarians,
31:07rival nobles,
31:09but most of all,
31:10the ever-expanding,
31:12ruthless Ottoman Empire.
31:13He earned
31:14his famous nickname
31:15owing to his penchant
31:16for impaling
31:17captured soldiers
31:18and villagers
31:18on poles,
31:20also going
31:20by Vlad Dracula.
31:22He was ruthless
31:23in his political campaigns
31:24and plundered territories
31:26belonging to both
31:27the Transylvanian Saxons
31:28and Ottomans.
31:29And also began
31:30to embrace
31:31the practice
31:31of impalement
31:33as punishment,
31:34a common practice
31:35used to execute
31:36prisoners and traitors
31:37of the Ottoman Empire,
31:38something he must have
31:40witnessed
31:40as a young hostage.
31:42By his own account,
31:44Vlad killed
31:4423,884 Turks
31:47and Bulgarians.
31:48According to some estimates,
31:50he is believed
31:51to have killed
31:51up to 80,000 people
31:53during his lifetime.
31:54It's no wonder
31:55Bram Stoker
31:55drew upon this
31:56historical figure
31:57in creating
31:58his vampire character,
31:59Count Dracula.
32:01Pol Pot
32:01Born Salotsaw
32:03in Cambodia
32:04in 1925,
32:06Pol Pot
32:06attended school
32:07in France
32:07where he started
32:08associating
32:09with communism.
32:10Returning to Cambodia,
32:12he ignited
32:12a communist revolution
32:14in 1968
32:15with his guerrilla army,
32:16the Khmer Rouge.
32:17He sent the Khmer Rouge
32:18into Phnom Penh
32:20to empty it.
32:21It was part
32:22of an experiment
32:22to set up
32:23an ideal peasant state.
32:26They marched
32:26the population
32:27into the fields
32:28to work
32:28and cut Cambodia
32:30off from the world.
32:31They took control
32:32in 1975
32:33and went to work
32:35re-establishing
32:36the country
32:36as the agrarian
32:37social-democratic
32:38Kampuchea.
32:39Pol Pot's
32:40tyrannical regime
32:41built detention centers
32:42and targeted
32:43intellectuals,
32:44political opponents,
32:45followers of religion
32:47and ethnic minorities.
32:48Tul Slang
32:49was once a high school,
32:50but the Khmer Rouge
32:51turned it into
32:52a torture chamber.
32:54Here they interrogated
32:55anyone who they considered
32:56to be an enemy
32:57of the state,
32:58which seemed
32:59to be just about
33:00everyone.
33:01Torture and executions
33:03became commonplace.
33:04Many more people
33:05were starved
33:06and overworked.
33:07All told,
33:08Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
33:10are believed to have
33:10caused the deaths
33:11of two million people,
33:13most through direct violence.
33:15The memory of Pol Pot
33:16and the killing fields
33:18still has a profound effect
33:20on the Cambodian people.
33:21Joseph Stalin
33:22One of the most
33:23infamous dictators
33:25of the 20th century,
33:26Joseph Stalin ruled
33:27the Soviet Union
33:28from 1922 to 1953.
33:30In terms of ruthlessness,
33:33bloodlust,
33:34Stalin remains
33:35one of the greatest
33:37villains of the 20th century.
33:39Stalin subjected
33:40his citizens
33:40to numerous atrocities
33:42while transforming
33:43the Soviet Union
33:44into a global superpower.
33:46He continued
33:46to implement
33:47Vladimir Lenin's
33:48gulag system
33:49of forced labor camps
33:50and eliminated
33:51ideological opponents
33:53through the Great Purge,
33:54which caused the deaths
33:55of roughly 1 million people.
33:57Stalin's rule
33:58also resulted
33:59in the Soviet famine
34:00of the early 1930s,
34:02which killed
34:02between 5.7
34:03and 8.7 million people.
34:05At the outset
34:06of World War II,
34:07he also cooperated
34:09with Hitler,
34:10invading Poland
34:11with Germany,
34:12and offering
34:12to join the Axis powers
34:14until Germany
34:15invaded the Soviet Union.
34:17Just before World War II,
34:19Hitler and Stalin
34:20signed a non-aggression pact.
34:22That fell apart
34:23in June of 1941
34:25when Hitler
34:27invaded the Soviet Union.
34:28Before we continue,
34:30be sure to subscribe
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34:44Adolf Hitler
34:45After Germany's defeat
34:47in World War I,
34:48the country was forced
34:49to disarm
34:50and make reparations.
34:51Many Germans
34:53saw themselves
34:54as the victims,
34:55a sense of grievance
34:56that populist political leader
34:57Adolf Hitler
34:58rode to power.
34:59Hitler,
35:00very quickly
35:00after World War I,
35:02began to engage
35:03in political activity,
35:04joining and helping
35:05start the German
35:06Workers' Party
35:07in 1919.
35:08He was a mesmerizing speaker,
35:10using rallies
35:11to fire up his supporters
35:12and scapegoat
35:14the Jewish people
35:14as to blame
35:15for the country's problems.
35:16Hitler felt adamant
35:18that it was his duty
35:19to mankind
35:20to rid the world
35:21of all Jews.
35:22In 1933,
35:24he became
35:25Chancellor of Germany
35:26and six years later
35:27instigated World War II,
35:30which claimed
35:30an estimated
35:3170 to 85 million lives.
35:34With the help
35:34of Heinrich Himmler,
35:35he also oversaw
35:36the Holocaust,
35:38in which six million Jews
35:39and other minorities
35:40were killed
35:41in pogroms,
35:42shootings,
35:42and concentration camps.
35:44Himmler was responsible
35:45for carrying out
35:46the plan
35:47to exterminate
35:48all Jewish men,
35:50women,
35:50and children
35:50who fell
35:51under Nazi occupation.
35:53Responsible
35:54for unprecedented destruction,
35:56Hitler is regarded
35:57today as the epitome
35:59of human evil.
36:00Hitler claimed
36:01that if Germany
36:02did not stand
36:03behind him now,
36:04the nation
36:04had no moral worth
36:06and deserved
36:07its own destruction.
36:08of human evil.