# Who is responsible for killing the most people? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 17, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-responsible-for-killing-the-most-people/400410 "2007-04-17T01:22:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-responsible-for-killing-the-most-people/400410/21 "2007-04-19T19:58:06Z")
[Behram of the Indian Thuggee cult](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thug_Behram) has been credited with strangling anywhere for 125 to 931 people. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Was\_Easy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@That\_Was\_Easy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Was_Easy)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2007, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-responsible-for-killing-the-most-people/400410/22 "2007-04-19T20:09:12Z")
I hate following my own messages with more commentary, but while we’re on the subject of excutioners and war, it’s hard to leave out the [Einsatzgruppen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen). Without creating a debate on numbers (or the holocaust in general), as few as several thousand Einsatzgruppen members were responsible for killing a million Jews in WW2. There is little doubt that some small number of unnamed member of the Einsatzgruppen were on Zyklon B duty at Auschwitz, and as “executioners” (pardon the weak term), killed many, **MANY** more people. If we’re counting war duty, while this answer is probably out of the scope of the OP’s question, there is no doubt that [Paul Tibbets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tibbets) holds this dubious record. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2007, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-responsible-for-killing-the-most-people/400410/23 "2007-04-19T21:50:11Z")
[QUOTE=That Was Easy] I hate following my own messages with more commentary, but while we’re on the subject of excutioners and war, it’s hard to leave out the [Einsatzgruppen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen). Without creating a debate on numbers (or the holocaust in general), as few as several thousand Einsatzgruppen members were responsible for killing a million Jews in WW2. There is little doubt that some small number of unnamed member of the Einsatzgruppen were on Zyklon B duty at Auschwitz, and as “executioners” (pardon the weak term), killed many, **MANY** more people. If we’re counting war duty, while this answer is probably out of the scope of the OP’s question, there is no doubt that [Paul Tibbets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tibbets) holds this dubious record. [/QUOTE] From the OP: > [@](#): > > I mean a person physically beat, stabbed, shot, strangled, etc. the person. For the sake of this thread, I would kind of like to leave poisonings out, unless individuals were poisoned at a single time, i.e, not a mass poisoning. I am also not talking about suicide pacts like Heaven’s Gate. Bombings and fires don’t count either unless a single person was bombed/killed at a time. Sure it’s kind of a weird line to draw but it’s the OP’s thread. He is looking for something more personal. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2007, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-responsible-for-killing-the-most-people/400410/24 "2007-04-19T22:34:36Z")
[QUOTE=That Was Easy] If we’re counting war duty, while this answer is probably out of the scope of the OP’s question, there is no doubt that [Paul Tibbets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tibbets) holds this dubious record. [/QUOTE] Aside from being explicitly outside of the scope of the OP, there’s the detail here that the person who actually released Little Boy - and who was physically in control of the plane as he did so - was not Tibbets, but the bombardier [Thomas W. Ferebee](http://www.mishalov.com/Ferebee.html). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-responsible-for-killing-the-most-people/400410.md?page=1)