# Evilest People In History **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 29, 2010, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238 "2010-11-29T01:40:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/41 "2010-11-29T17:32:34Z")
Not evil but as far as negative unintended consequences go you have to look hard to better [Thomas Midgley,Jr](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley,_Jr.) First he did leaded gasoline which over the years caused untold damage to millions of people. He then went on to work on the first CFC’s. Doh! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/42 "2010-11-29T17:33:56Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Emperor Trajan destroyed an entire culture, scattered the people, killed most of the men, to the point where we know nothing about a philosophical figure once considered equal to Jesus or Buddha. > > To the Dacians… who we only know by the name the Romans gave them. Who was this Dacian philosopher? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/43 "2010-11-29T17:51:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Who was this Dacian philosopher? [Zalmoxis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zalmoxis) I am amazed that I actually remembered =) ---
**Author:** ![smileybastard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@smileybastard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smileybastard)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/44 "2010-11-29T17:57:57Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, wasn’t Frankenstein himself Jewish? The whole golem thing, and all. He was, well partly. I think it was his left arm. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/45 "2010-11-29T18:06:16Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Wait, wasn’t Frankenstein himself Jewish? The whole golem thing, and all. And he achieved what Jews have been dreaming of for thousands of years: A mode of reproduction that involves no mother! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/46 "2010-11-29T21:36:32Z")
> [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](#): > > Surprised that no one has mentioned [Gilles de Rais](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais) or the [Countess Bathory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thory). The Wikipedia author puts a good spin on Bathory. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![fumster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9c0ed/32.png) [@fumster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fumster)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/47 "2010-11-29T22:42:19Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And he achieved what Jews have been dreaming of for thousands of years: A mode of reproduction that involves no mother! 😃 You win the thread. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/48 "2010-11-29T22:48:24Z")
I’d say Stalin. His purges and famines killed tens of millions, and they stopped once he died and was replaced. He also decimated the officers corp in the Russian military, so when Hitler attacked the Soviets weren’t as capable of fighting back. Who knows what effect that had on the duration of WW2. But maybe it had some good too. A Soviet Russia that fully conquered Germany and Japan wouldn’t be too good either. He was supposedly planning a massive pogrom of hte Jews and a nuclear strike on the US, and was poisoned by Beria (his security chief) in 1953. So tens of millions more dead. Probably the one redeeming thing Beria did in his whole life. He probably helped ruin communism as a palatable ideology (him, Mao, Pol Pot, etc), which may have set back worker and labor rights all over the globe. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/49 "2010-11-30T00:06:06Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > He was supposedly planning a massive pogrom of hte Jews and a nuclear strike on the US, and was poisoned by Beria (his security chief) in 1953. So tens of millions more dead. Probably the one redeeming thing Beria did in his whole life. [For all the thanks it got him . . .](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beria#Downfall) Well, if tyrant’s dirty-worker is your career choice, you should never bother with retirement plans. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/50 "2010-11-30T00:13:03Z")
Evil Roy Slade. You can close the thread now. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/51 "2010-11-30T00:15:09Z")
Dave ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/52 "2010-11-30T04:16:41Z")
> [@MOIDALIZE](#): > > Dave Dave’s not here, man. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/53 "2010-11-30T04:47:56Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Curtis LeMay. A tie between Curtis LeMay and Qin Shi Huangdi. ---
**Author:** ![Namaste\_Che](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Namaste\_Che](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namaste_Che)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/54 "2010-11-30T04:48:21Z")
_Personal evil_ done to me is the ONLY evil I can confirm as undeniably _evil_ from my perspective, therefore I nominate my prick of a father. If we’re talking _potential evil_ then Bob Oppenheimer. If it’s overall _suffering evil_ then it’s got to be Jesus. If it’s the _evil I can least relate to or comprehend_ then it’s parents murdering their own. I agree with the anti-body-count theory as that’s really just a question of access, opportunity and timing. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/55 "2010-11-30T05:16:15Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > A tie between Curtis LeMay and Qin Shi Huangdi. Knock it off. [/Modding] ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238/56 "2010-11-30T05:19:33Z")
That said, this never did develop into a debate. I would move it to IMHO, but I suspect that it would just carry the same baggage over there. Closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/evilest-people-in-history/562238.md?page=2)