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The World's Most Evil Men
Pol Pot, 'Emperor' Bokassa, Idi Amin, Josef Stalin, Papa Doc, Rev Jim Jones, Adolf Hitler, Josef Mengele, Al Capone, The Mafia and Murder Incorporated, The Kray Twins, Vlad the Impaler, Marquis de Sade, The Borgias, The Conquistadores, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Ivan the Terrible, Nero, Caligula.
History is blighted by the deeds of many men whose cruelty and violence have changed the face of the human race and certainly given it cause to examine its own nature more closely.
The World's Most Evil Men takes a penetrating look at the lives of such men and attempts to explain the motives or driving forces behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed.
History is blighted by the deeds of many men whose cruelty and violence have changed the face of the human race and certainly given it cause to examine its own nature more closely.
The World's Most Evil Men takes a penetrating look at the lives of such men and attempts to explain the motives or driving forces behind some of the most heinous crimes ever committed.
- GenresHistoryNonfictionCrime
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 21, 2013
after reading sweeney todd, i didn't think anything that humans could do would actually shock me.. then i managed to find this book.
it's a strange mix of politics, history, murder, torture, sadism, voodoo and generally all things that would make up your worst nightmares really. i think most sane people wouldn't finish reading the book, however, i don't think i'm particularly sane so yeah..
the book switches from characters such as pol pot to idi amin to the kray twins to vlad the impaler. it's not particularly a read for the faint hearted, but if you like to be shocked and probably terrified, give it a read.
it's a strange mix of politics, history, murder, torture, sadism, voodoo and generally all things that would make up your worst nightmares really. i think most sane people wouldn't finish reading the book, however, i don't think i'm particularly sane so yeah..
the book switches from characters such as pol pot to idi amin to the kray twins to vlad the impaler. it's not particularly a read for the faint hearted, but if you like to be shocked and probably terrified, give it a read.
August 8, 2022
This little book reads like a tabloid of villany. The authors search for the most outrageous and outlandish claims and run with them. Other times, the "evil" seems forced, as though the authors gave up caring. Blandford and Bruce probably wrote different sections and entries as some of the chapters are written with better prose and organization. Others are casual to the point of high school reporting. It is too easy to imagine the authors taunting a young coed: "You know what he did...don't you? He fed children to his pet frogs. Ewww! Gross!" Yeah. It reads like that.
To begin, the organization is weird. There are six chapters including 20th Century tyrants, non-20th Century tyrants, gangsters, religious people, Nazis, and "Blood lust" / other. The first chapter was surprisingly well done. Yes, there was the ick factor of feeding school kids to foreign dignitaries and related mad autocrat behavior, mostly from African and Caribbean countries, although Pol Pot and Stalin were included. The second chapter was a group of less than 10 tyrants throughout history. Sure, Attila the Hun is a given. But the Ottoman Sultans and Abdul Hamid II?
This is probably a good way to examine the very different writing styles throughout the book. The chapters or subheadings on people like Emperor Bokassa and Idi Amin are carefully written out and conform to a basic style and page length. There is a beginning, a plot, bloodshed, outrage, and fall. Contrast this with the other style of writing, say the two page report on Tamerlane that barely distinguishes him from the section on the Mongols. The report almost begins with his capture of Delhi and the massacre of 100,000 people and ends with his defeat of the Ottomans at Ankara - beheading 5,000 prisoners. Grisly, bloody, and exciting.
Towards the end, the authors seemed to stop caring, or sought to include filler. The chapters on the Nazis and the gangsters hardly count. The first chapter on the Nazis describes Hitler before he came to power in 1933. It basically tells readers all of the missed opportunities History offered humanity before Hitler became a tyrant. Subsequent chapters barely mention Nazi outrages. But there is a fascinating chapter on the Nazis who got away. It does not do enough to describe their crimes. Josef Mengele is merely listed as a doctor charged with proving Aryans to be superior to other races. It is one of the few resources I have found that actually lists the most-wanted Nazis who evaded capture.
Admittedly, I read this book for the chapter on gangsters. Like the chapter on the Nazis, the gangsters are fascinating and sensational; but their crimes are just not as fascinating as those of Bokassa, Tamerlane, Pol Pot, or even the Vampire of Dusseldorf. The chapter on Bugsy Siegel did not mention any crimes except a vague idea that he profited from prostitution and gambling. Maybe he killed someone - another gangster. The chapter on Capone blandly recited that 1,000 Chicagoans were killed by gangsters in the 1920s. Only a fraction were killed on Capone's orders. The coverage is very short, cursory, and tries to regurgitate the most sensational. But there is often not much to work with. How sensational was Meyer Lansky or Frank Costello?
Overall, the book has some solid pros and cons. It offers good glimpses at some truly awful people. But much of the book is meaningless. It offers some of the only print material on the Vampire of Dusseldorf, H.H. Holmes / Herman Mudgett, and the Marquis de Sade. It is fascinating how de Sade, a French noble repeatedly escaped from prison during the Revolution even though he was an aristocrat. Eventually, Napoleon had to give a direct order for his death. It is mostly fun casual reading, if amateurish and disbelieving at times.
To begin, the organization is weird. There are six chapters including 20th Century tyrants, non-20th Century tyrants, gangsters, religious people, Nazis, and "Blood lust" / other. The first chapter was surprisingly well done. Yes, there was the ick factor of feeding school kids to foreign dignitaries and related mad autocrat behavior, mostly from African and Caribbean countries, although Pol Pot and Stalin were included. The second chapter was a group of less than 10 tyrants throughout history. Sure, Attila the Hun is a given. But the Ottoman Sultans and Abdul Hamid II?
This is probably a good way to examine the very different writing styles throughout the book. The chapters or subheadings on people like Emperor Bokassa and Idi Amin are carefully written out and conform to a basic style and page length. There is a beginning, a plot, bloodshed, outrage, and fall. Contrast this with the other style of writing, say the two page report on Tamerlane that barely distinguishes him from the section on the Mongols. The report almost begins with his capture of Delhi and the massacre of 100,000 people and ends with his defeat of the Ottomans at Ankara - beheading 5,000 prisoners. Grisly, bloody, and exciting.
Towards the end, the authors seemed to stop caring, or sought to include filler. The chapters on the Nazis and the gangsters hardly count. The first chapter on the Nazis describes Hitler before he came to power in 1933. It basically tells readers all of the missed opportunities History offered humanity before Hitler became a tyrant. Subsequent chapters barely mention Nazi outrages. But there is a fascinating chapter on the Nazis who got away. It does not do enough to describe their crimes. Josef Mengele is merely listed as a doctor charged with proving Aryans to be superior to other races. It is one of the few resources I have found that actually lists the most-wanted Nazis who evaded capture.
Admittedly, I read this book for the chapter on gangsters. Like the chapter on the Nazis, the gangsters are fascinating and sensational; but their crimes are just not as fascinating as those of Bokassa, Tamerlane, Pol Pot, or even the Vampire of Dusseldorf. The chapter on Bugsy Siegel did not mention any crimes except a vague idea that he profited from prostitution and gambling. Maybe he killed someone - another gangster. The chapter on Capone blandly recited that 1,000 Chicagoans were killed by gangsters in the 1920s. Only a fraction were killed on Capone's orders. The coverage is very short, cursory, and tries to regurgitate the most sensational. But there is often not much to work with. How sensational was Meyer Lansky or Frank Costello?
Overall, the book has some solid pros and cons. It offers good glimpses at some truly awful people. But much of the book is meaningless. It offers some of the only print material on the Vampire of Dusseldorf, H.H. Holmes / Herman Mudgett, and the Marquis de Sade. It is fascinating how de Sade, a French noble repeatedly escaped from prison during the Revolution even though he was an aristocrat. Eventually, Napoleon had to give a direct order for his death. It is mostly fun casual reading, if amateurish and disbelieving at times.
October 1, 2024
Okay I knew humans are evil, but the monstrosity of people showcased in this book is beyond redemption. On one hand I developed utter disgust towards them and on other hand I noticed a pattern that these menacing maglomaniacs are produced in a nation where a financial or political distress was going on. The way they were able to convince an entire nation of their obnoxious ideas is just dangerously admirable. All of these people had one common quality 'Rigidness' that there ideology is correct and it can't be questioned. This book gave a brief 'bout them and developed a curiosity in me to study the oration skills and mindset of these psychopaths...
November 13, 2016
Engrossing, yet concise. I got a fair background on most of these monsters and it will definitely guide further reading. The only thing that bothered me was this edition's print ... A bit small, but that's not a valid complaint, is it?
July 22, 2013
A really graphic, shocking book outlining the lives and careers in bloodshed of some of the most evil and bloodthirsty figures in history.
The first chapter is about Twentieth century tyrants. These include Idi Amin who had 500 000 of his fellow Ugandans systematically and ruthlessly butchered, and was the first Sub Saharan African leader to open an office for the PLO in his capital (as the Nazis were the first European regime to support the Arab 'Palestinian' cause). Amin capped it by pronouncing his admiration for his political hero Adolf Hitler who he drew up plans to build a monument for in Kampala.
Pol Pot who had three million Cambodians liquidated out of a population of eight million, in four years, and Josef Stalin who cut down more than 20 million lives of Soviet residents.
This is followed by a section of Merciless Despots of earlier times such as Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan , Timerlane , Ivan the Terrible and the Ottoman Sultans who among other things carried out the first great genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian Holocaust in which two million Armenian men, women and children were murdered.
There is a section of the war on the French population carried out by Marat and Robespierre during the French Revolution, where you can read about some really horrific atrocities carried out in the name of Revolution. We hav not come very far when we see atrocities and mass murder in the name of 'defending the revolution' today in countries like Iran, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Syria.
A chapter on the Satanic death machine of the Nazis focusing on such monsters as Himmler, Eichmann, Reinhardt Heydrich, Klaus Barbie and Josef Mengele. And a chapter on The Mafia. The last chapter is a really gruesome one on those who killed for the pure pleasure and (often sexual gratification) of it. It includes Cailgula, the Marquid de Sade, Gilles de Rais, Vlad the Impaler, the Bean family of Galloway and the Marquis De Sade.
This book was published in 1985.
In an updated version I would include blood-soaked tyrants such as Robert Mugabe, Saddam Hussein, Omar el Bashir of Sudan (perhaps the man alive today with the most blood on his hands) , the Interhamwe of Rwanda and Slobodan Milosevic.
I would also include a section on Terrorism outlining the atrocities committed by those such as George Habash, Yasser Arafat, the Japanese Red Army, the Baader Meinhof Gang, Osama Bin Laden and Hamas and Hezbollah.
The first chapter is about Twentieth century tyrants. These include Idi Amin who had 500 000 of his fellow Ugandans systematically and ruthlessly butchered, and was the first Sub Saharan African leader to open an office for the PLO in his capital (as the Nazis were the first European regime to support the Arab 'Palestinian' cause). Amin capped it by pronouncing his admiration for his political hero Adolf Hitler who he drew up plans to build a monument for in Kampala.
Pol Pot who had three million Cambodians liquidated out of a population of eight million, in four years, and Josef Stalin who cut down more than 20 million lives of Soviet residents.
This is followed by a section of Merciless Despots of earlier times such as Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan , Timerlane , Ivan the Terrible and the Ottoman Sultans who among other things carried out the first great genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian Holocaust in which two million Armenian men, women and children were murdered.
There is a section of the war on the French population carried out by Marat and Robespierre during the French Revolution, where you can read about some really horrific atrocities carried out in the name of Revolution. We hav not come very far when we see atrocities and mass murder in the name of 'defending the revolution' today in countries like Iran, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Syria.
A chapter on the Satanic death machine of the Nazis focusing on such monsters as Himmler, Eichmann, Reinhardt Heydrich, Klaus Barbie and Josef Mengele. And a chapter on The Mafia. The last chapter is a really gruesome one on those who killed for the pure pleasure and (often sexual gratification) of it. It includes Cailgula, the Marquid de Sade, Gilles de Rais, Vlad the Impaler, the Bean family of Galloway and the Marquis De Sade.
This book was published in 1985.
In an updated version I would include blood-soaked tyrants such as Robert Mugabe, Saddam Hussein, Omar el Bashir of Sudan (perhaps the man alive today with the most blood on his hands) , the Interhamwe of Rwanda and Slobodan Milosevic.
I would also include a section on Terrorism outlining the atrocities committed by those such as George Habash, Yasser Arafat, the Japanese Red Army, the Baader Meinhof Gang, Osama Bin Laden and Hamas and Hezbollah.
August 24, 2011
C1995: A perfect book for those rooms that enable you to pick up and read a bit at a time! Light reading but enough to give you a bit of a background if you have been asleep for a couple of hundred years. FWFTB: description, labelled, terrorism, phenomenon, hated. FCN: Hitler, Rasputin, Crippen, Pol Pot.
October 20, 2011
Read this collection of short chapters on sick, evil, nasty men a long time ago. Not really bedtime reading!
July 8, 2013
the people of today are milder now then our predecessor.
February 4, 2014
Not the most objective mini-biographies, but an interesting read if you have some grains of salt to spare.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews