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If you’re a firm believer in karma, you probably don’t worry too much about getting revenge on the person who cut in line at the grocery store or who refused to make space for you to sit on the bus. They’ll get what’s coming to them! But unfortunately, life isn’t fair. And sometimes, even the most terrible people don’t get what they deserve while they’re still alive.
Redditors have recently been discussing evil historical figures who somehow managed to leave the Earth without ever having to answer for their crimes. Whether they were let off way too easily or avoided any punishment at all, below, you can read all about these awful people who somehow “won.” Keep reading to also find a conversation with Alan Bellows of Damn Interesting, and be sure to upvote the people that you wish had seen justice!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Mother Teresa.
Lived in luxury, and died with dignity, while the people she was supposed to help suffered, dying in agony, because she believed pain in death brought you closer to god.
A belief she didn’t have the courage to test.
RELATED:
#2
Shirō Ishii The commander of Unit 731 and other facilities that performed medical experiments on human beings during WW2 in Japan Surgeons would cut open someone without anesthesia, ripping off limbs, or tearing out body parts. They’d sometimes tie a person to a pole outside in the freezing winter and then pour cold water on them to speed up the process of freezing their limbs. Once completely frozen they’d then smash the limbs off with a metal rod. Some of the most sickest, heinous s**t imaginable. The part that angers me the most is that he, along with several others were granted immunity in exchange for information and research. Got away free and never was punished.
Carl Roberts 9 months ago
There's a 1988 Japanese film about this. "The Man Behind The Sun". It's extremely disturbing and there's been accusations that the director committed animal cruelty during filming.
#3
Kim Jong Il. He lived in the lap of luxury while the vast majority of his country lived in abject poverty. He got steak and lobster every night, expensive alcohol imported from all over the world, had a film collection of 20,000 movies including Western films that were illegal for anyone else to own, f****d any woman he wanted, was infallible and worshiped by the very people he was oppressing.
That slimy little f**k enjoyed all of the luxuries imported from capitalist nations which were illegal for everybody else in the country.
DadManBlues 9 months ago
I think it's valid for all the Kim family and most of the other communist monsters like Castros, Ceausescu, Honecker, and all the Soviet leaders including Putin and others.
To learn more about some of these terrible historical figures, we reached out to Alan Bellows of Damn Interesting, a site dedicated to sharing fascinating information about science, history and psychology. Alan was kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and discuss some figures that he believes didn't get what they deserved.
"Most people will know the obvious examples—the ruthless dictators who relinquished mortality before justice apprehended them: Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Augusto Pinochet to name a few," he shared. "There are also controversial examples, such as Christopher Columbus, who enslaved, mutilated, and executed indigenous people after discovering the Americas. And Henry Kissinger, who engaged in 'statesmanship' mostly by instigating wars and overthrowing legitimate governments."
#4
Rupert Murdoch.
fractiousrhubarb:
No person has done more damage to Australia, the UK and the US than this despicable man… he’s done nothing but manufacture so hatred and division for 70 years.
keyboardtek 9 months ago
I wonder if MAGA members and the civil war mongering conservatives will ever realize all the hatred they have was manufactured by mostly lies from FOX news. And if they do, will they even have regrets for all the innocent people they ultimately will hurt?
#5
The answer is the Sacklers.
n0ahhhhh:
Did you read Empire of Pain too? That book was insane. I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in why the pharmaceutical industry is the way it is. The Sackler family essentially created the opioid crisis in America. It's honestly a pretty wild story.
#6
Mitch McConnell. He is one of the most corrupt, partisan politicians who ever held office. He's retiring at the end of this year and he will never be held to account for all of the harm his policies and actions have caused.
Regina Holt 9 months ago
He has created the most right-wing Supreme Court in history. Denied Obama his right to get someone onto the Supreme Court, then pushed 3 folks in under trump, going against his reasoning for denying Obama. and mcconnell said trump was dangerous, until the second trump was in office, then became best buds. Evil Evil man
Alan also named several lesser known evil historical figures. "Du Yuesheng, an orchestrator of the Shanghai massacre. On 12 April 1927, members of his Green Gang murdered as many as 5,000 political enemies. He was exiled, but lived the rest of his life in wealth and comfort," he shared.
"The American Liberty League, who attempted to recruit a World War I hero in a coup against the US government," Alan added. "The administrators of the Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, a study started in 1932 to monitor the progression of syphilis in a Black population. In the mid 1940s penicillin was discovered, and it was found to be an effective cure for syphilis, but the study administrators kept this a secret from the test subjects, and warned local doctors not to provide the medication. Even after the study was forced to shut down due to public outcry, none of the administrators were ever charged."
#7
The House of Saud.
Mtfdurian:
They destroyed an entire religion from the inside out with their extremist views. Now, almost a quarter of the world is lured into believing the more extreme views that they represent, destroying vernacular adaptations of Islam, that had more room for matriarchy, for gender diversity, and a lot of other concepts that salafism does barely leave any room for, if any.
#8
Josef Mengele. The head physician at Auschwitz who performed experimental surgeries. Nick named the angel of death and was never held accountable. In fact, he was mostly unknown to the public until the 80s when one of his survivors brought his crimes to light. He's one of the many examples of why I don't believe in Karma.
BarryCheckTheFuseBox:
The Nazi ‘Doctor of Death’ who escaped Germany to South America, started a family and despite being hunted by the US, German and Israeli governments for decades, didn’t even hide his identity by the end of his life. He drowned after having a stroke in 1979.
Reenzy Bennington 9 months ago
Pretty sure he inspired the Dr. Arthur Arden character in American Horror Story Asylum.
#9
Pol Pot got to die in his sleep in 1998. He deserved far worse.
Baboshinu:
Also important to note that he was interviewed a few times prior to his death. Whenever he was asked about any of his atrocities, he would play dumb about it and skirt the questions. He would say things like the classic denial technique of “oh come on it wasn’t that many people” and “okay but I didn’t kill babies. Just adults. I’m not a monster, you know”. He openly stated he had a clear conscience and had no remorse for the millions he killed all the way through to the end. He was a genuine monster.
Isa's left eye 9 months ago
We aren't omniscient, can we get a summary of what he did or something please?
Thankfully, however, some people who have committed atrocities did get their comeuppance. "One example that comes to mind is Thomas Midgley," Alan shared. "One of his inventions was leaded gasoline, which caused the whole planet to become polluted with neurotoxic lead."
"He knew about lead's ill effects, even suffering some of them himself due to his close contact with it. Nevertheless he deliberately misled the public about the danger. He later invented CFCs, the spraycan propellants that famously damaged the ozone layer," Alan continued.
"Midgley received nothing but praise for these inventions during his lifetime, the ill effects did not become evident until later. In his middle age, he was disabled by polio, so he invented a system of motorized pulleys to help him navigate his bed. He was later found strangled to death by a malfunction of his own invention," he added. "While he never faced true justice, one could argue that he did receive poetic justice."
#10
Jimmy Saville. One of his victims once escaped him, ran into the lobby and shouted that Saville was attempting to assault her. The people there simply laughed and mocked her.
Kleptorgazt:
Definitely one if the most sickening travesties and injustices in my opinion. So, so many people for decades knew, they just had to, yet the was allowed to continue being left alone with and abusing countless children because of his celebrity. F**king disgusting that he died happy, beloved, and without facing any repercussions for his abhorrent actions.
Shark Lady 9 months ago
The floodgates opened very soon after his death, so quickly that there had not been enough time for any investigation to have been completed. It just showed that too many people knew and did nothing. Anyone who spoke out during his lifetime was blacklisted from the BBC.
#11
I've haven't seen Nestlé.
Paul Macdonell 9 months ago
Like giving free baby formula to new mothers so their milk drys up and they have to depend on Nestle formula....that they can't afford ...
#12
Leopold the 2nd.
Reasonable-You8654:
He is one of the few people who truly make my blood boil with seething rage when I read and think about what he did, and that’s only to start with the fact that they held conferences preying on African countries with permission of absolutely nobody to go and treat human beings like animals.
He is one of the few people that I would’ve genuinely wished to dig out of his grave only to spit on him and throw him to some vultures. He will never have been able to suffer enough for the disgusting acts of horror he ordered and committed towards Congo, to this day in 2024 they haven’t recovered.
BTDubs 9 months ago (edited)
The West is only in it's current form as a result of the murder and theft it has committed in the global south and against indigenous peoples. And then some have the gall to say that the African continent has benefited from the genocide committed against them and that Africans should be grateful for the aid that western nations "give" them.
#13
The Catholic Church during the Inquisition, The Spaniards in Central and South America, destroying everything in their path through blood and disease, courtesy of the church, the Europeans that destroyed Indigenous culture in North and South America because of "God's will" , the Roman's, Marco Polo, etc.
#14
The guys that tortured Junko Furuta.
n0ahhhhh:
It’s terrible that just reading reading the name Junko Furuta immediately conjures the most gruesome upsetting and imagery in my mind. That poor girl, I can’t believe her killers are all walking free.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 9 months ago
Wow. Just read the Wikipedia article. That poor girl, I can’t imagine the mental torment and physical pain she was put through. Shocking that her torturers and murderers got such short sentences and horrifying that the parents in the house where she was held were complicit in it.
#15
Iranian theocrats. Almost half a century later still in power and causing a lot of trouble in the region, in addition to oppressing their own people.
#16
Stalin. Terrorised his way to controlling one of the largest empires of all time and wielded absolute, despotic power.
Sure, nature eventually got him but she gets us all. So I think he got away with it.
#17
Any politician that walked out of office with billions more than they had when they took office.
Couragetcd 9 months ago
And then turns around to schmooze their former colleagues as a lobbyist for the interests that paid them off while in office
#18
Reagan. Had the CIA sell crack to black neighborhoods to raise secret funds to give to Iran. Destroyed black neighborhoods and families, gave rise to the projects and has overshadowed U.S. black culture for decades to come. Also, helped get rid of insane asylum funding which flooded the streets with mentally ill homeless. Economic depression causing stock buy backs legal again, which is why we have a short term investor driven economy resulting in massive layoffs without any real notice.
#19
Goebbels, his propaganda still runs strong today, 90 years later.
#20
Joseph Smith. Died a "martyr" but that led to the creation of one of the largest and wealthiest cults in modern history that's filled with abuse of women and children, a long history of racism, and continues to profit off the poor and needy.
Bernd Herbert 9 months ago
If you want a history about the Mormons, check out Southpark's musical bit.
#21
Andrew Jackson basically orchestrated a genocide and a lot of folks sing his praises to this day.
MyHamburgerLovesMe:
Andrew Jackson - The Indian Removal Act
>The Removal Act paved the way for the forced expulsion of tens of thousands of American Indians from their land into the West in an event widely known as the "Trail of Tears,...
>
>In the 21st century, scholars have cited the act and subsequent removals as an early example of state sanctioned ethnic cleansing or genocide or settler colonialism
Manana Man 9 months ago
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 squeaked through Congress with the support of the Democratic Party against the opposition of the Whig (conservative) Party. Cherokee tribes and others fought it in the courts to no avail. The Seminoles and others fought it with weapons, also to no avail. Andrew Jackson's implementation represented the consensus of white settlers at the time, many of whom still believed Native Americans to be savages.
#22
Kissinger.
proscriptus:
The blood of countless millions is on his hands, and he remained an accepted and welcomed part of American politics until his death.
#23
In Germany we have Aribert Heim, the butcher of Mauthausen who was on a level with Mengele but never got prosecuted by the allies. Worked as a gynecologist after the war till 1962 when he got tipped off about police at his home so he fled to Egypt.
Bernd Herbert 9 months ago
I am ashamed of post-war Germany, when so many Nazi a******s just kept on living their normal lives.
#24
Augusto Pinochet. Died in 2006 under house arrest, in the lap of luxury, without being tried for multiple charges of human rights violations (including wrongful detention, physical torture, sexual abuse, psychological repression, and just plain murder) and illegal enrichment.
Anna Ekberg 9 months ago
He managed to pull this s**t off with the very help of Kissinger and the CIA. They should trial his whole family and take all that money they made through his dictatorship. Chile has their own 9/11 thanks to the USA. Downvote all you want but this is true.
#25
Steve Bannon and Roger Stone were both sentenced to prison for their federal crimes, but had their convictions pardoned by fellow criminal buddy Donnie Jon.
#26
Mao Zedong. Killed as many as 80 million people as a direct result of his policies. The communists still enshrine him as a great leader and national hero and idiots in the Western left take his writings seriously.
Kira Okah 9 months ago (edited)
He also tried to sell 2 million "excess" Chinese women to America, and had to be talked down by his officials from systematically killing another 50 million "excess" peasants. The Great Leap Forward led to such widespread famine that people resorted to cannibalism, and the Cultural Revolution cost priceless antiquities and lives.
#27
Daughters of the Confederacy… they pushed a revisionist view of the Civil War in the south and this idea that it was about states rights and not slavery… also took part in building statues of confederate soldiers and glorifying them. It’s why so many conservatives and people from the south have a positive outlook of the confederacy and that it’s a part of “southern heritage”.
Jeremy James 9 months ago
I grew up in the North, and even our High School American History textbooks had this revisionist nonsense about the Civil War being over States' Rights and "socio-economic differences." Google "The Cornerstone Speech," and you'll hear the real reason straight from the horse's a$$.
#28
A lot of these comments aren't people who won, but people who lost and just didn't get the punishment people thought they deserved. But a real evil winner? Try the Dole company and what they did with Hawaii.
ScreamingVoid14:
Pretty much any company found on the tropical fruits aisle or sugar aisle of your local supermarket.
Briards Are Best 9 months ago
This is why I love BP - makes me visit history and keep informed.... https://www.ranker.com/list/how-dole-stole-hawaii/melissa-sartore
#29
Mobutu Sese Seko, president of then-Zaire. He died in a luxurious exile in Morocco at age 79.
He would have meals flown in from Michelin-rated restaurants in Paris on chartered flights of the supersonic Concorde, because regular airliners weren't fast enough to deliver it fresh enough to his liking. He even spent millions to build a new airport, as none of the existing airports had the 3-kilometer long runway to handle the Concorde.
The average citizen under his rule had an annual salary of less than $150, roughly 50 cents a day.
A single passenger ticket on the Concorde is about $20,000 in today's dolars.
kansasmagic 9 months ago
Maybe he was making a satirical point about what Belgium first did to his country? Nah, probably not...
#30
The Marcos family.
This family plundered almost the entire Philippine treasury during Ferdinand Marcos’ two decade rule.
They were exiled to Hawaii for a few years, but they were able to go back to the Philippines nevertheless. They (Imelda (the wife of Ferdinand Marcos), Imee (the daughter of FM), and Bongbong (the son) were also able to run for politics again.
Despite the records being unequivocally clear that the Marcoses plundered the Philippine government, (Imelda was actually convicted, but was never jailed for “humanitarian reasons”) the Marcoses are now back.
Imee is a senator, and Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is now the president of the Philippines.
Imelda is also still convicted but has still not, and it looks like will never in her life, taste jail time.
Trillions of pesos and tens of thousands of lives lost.
Lydsylou (she/her) 9 months ago
To be fair Imee and Bongbong had nothing to do with it because they were kids. But Imelda Marcos left behind hundreds of pairs of unused tights and many shoes and clothes. They had everything
#32
General Francisco Franco, after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Through him, the country endured all manner of brutal unchallenged fascism (and over a decade of near total isolation from the rest of the world) until his peaceful death in 1975.
Laugh or not 9 months ago
His death wasn't peaceful, though. He never faced judgement, but because his succession wasn't clear, they kept him alive through multiple hospitalisations and operations for months. In my family (in part Spanish) we like to say he died by pieces and it was well deserved.
#33
Koch Brothers.
Who cares what I think, but... 9 months ago
All rich contributors to politics are evil - unless they are supporting your side.
#34
Dr. John Money's theory behind gender has reached mainstream acceptance in much of the civilized world, despite the unconscionable experiments he performed on innocent children. A truly evil man whom history does not vilify anywhere near enough.
Sky Render 9 months ago (edited)
As an intersex woman who was "altered" to be male under Money's crackpot theories, it sickens me that to this day there are firm advocates of his idea of forcing a sexual identity on a child through surgical alteration. To the point that it's considered standard practice to write loopholes in transphobic laws to allow the continued mutilation and gaslighting of intersex infants and children. The pain he caused is still ongoing, and heavily supported by conservatives in nearly every nation on the planet.
#35
Issei Sagawa.
A small, frail, and loner of a Japanese guy, with some demonic mind. Was obsessed with cannibalism, had a failed attempt at doing so, when he stalked a German woman in university and broke into her place with the intention of killing her to eat her buttocks.
Later he unfortunately succeeds during his stay in Sorbonne, France, when he murdered a Dutch woman whom he befriended (the only one who befriended him I might add) in his apartment after having invited her, performed necrophilia and cannibalism over the span of a few days.
He came from a wealthy family that afforded him an expensive lawyer and got off essentially scot-free on insanity plea. He returned home back to Japan where then he became a superstar. He wrote a bestselling book that detailed the murder and his experience, guest starred in many TV shows to further talk about it. Later died at 73, in 2022.
#36
Genghis Khan.
asterboy:
Was waiting for this. Few people in history, let alone this list, come close to the level of civilisational and cultural death and destruction this man caused. Not only did he get away with it, he died an emperor and spawned a dynasty.
Workin_Ostrich:
He would starve out entire cities because his army was so big, they would enslave or kill everyone and he would marry his daughters off to kings and whatnot then his daughters would kill them and take over the ruled lands to give to Kahns armies. Throughout his reign Kahn and his armies killed over 40 million people and enslaved twice that many.
Nearly 8 percent of the men living in the region of the former Mongol empire today carry y-chromosomes that are nearly identical to that of Genghis Kahn.
DadManBlues 9 months ago
The Mongols wiped out 40-50% of Hungary's population in the 13th century (1.5 million out of 3 million), with losses of up to 80% in some areas. They carried out horrific executions, e.g. archaeologists recently found an oven containing the skeletons of a mother and her two children.
#37
Casey Anthony.
BostonFigPudding:
Casey Anthony's crime says more about the American legal system than it does about her.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 9 months ago
Caylee Marie Anthony was an American toddler who lived in Orlando, Florida, with her mother, Casey Marie Anthony and her maternal grandparents, George and Cindy Anthony. On July 15, 2008, Caylee was reported missing by Cindy, who said she had not seen the child for thirty-one days. According to Cindy, Casey had given varied explanations as to Caylee's whereabouts before eventually saying she had not seen her daughter for weeks. Casey was charged with first-degree murder in October 2008 and pleaded not guilty. It was alleged Casey wished to free herself from parental responsibilities and murdered her daughter by administering chloroform and applying duct tape to her nose and mouth . The defense stated that Caylee had drowned accidentally in the family's swimming pool and that George had disposed of the body. Casey was found not guilty of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, and aggravated manslaughter of a child, but guilty of four misdemeanours. (Wikipedia)
#38
Wernher von Braun, engineer of the v2, opportunistic nazi, denied his involvement, awarded by Hitler twice in person, used Jewish slave labour denied he knew about it, however there were many accounts of him visiting and encouraging violence to slaves, feared execution at the end of the war, surrendered to the USA and then after the war was lauded and celebrated for getting America to the moon even meeting the president and later being awarded a medal.
#39
General Franz Halder, chief of staff of the German Army (Wehrmacht) from 1938-1942 reporting directly to Adolf Hitler. Halder oversaw the planning for the invasions of Poland, France and Russia (Operation Barbarossa). Among other abominations, he added language into the Barbarossa battle order giving German officers the right to destroy Russian villages and massacre their civilian inhabitants. Thus Halder sanctioned some of the most heinous atrocities committed in all of human history.
Despite Halder’s complicity in war crimes of the greatest magnitude, he wasn’t tried at Nuremberg and was instead allowed to join the U.S. Army as a historian. Recognizing an opportunity to rewrite history, he manipulated the official Army account of the war to elevate the Wehrmacht into a force fighting for a noble cause.
In 1961, the Army, on behalf of President Kennedy, awarded him the Meritorious Civilian Service Award. Halder died in his bed in 1972 at age 87.
#40
The terrorists definitely won when you realize they got our entire society to change because of what they did.
What do you think ?
David Paterson 9 months ago (edited)
I'm going to add J. Edgar Hoover to this list. Owner and curator of the world's largest collection of child pornography, and other illegal porn. Blackmail specialist, honey traps and all that. Numerous presidents wanted him gone but didn't dare move against him. Sacked the honest people in the FBI to turn it into a secret police force to rival Göring's Gestapo. And got away with it.
Kim McBain 9 months ago
I hope we never add Putin to this list - that is he needs to answer for his despicable crimes!
Briards Are Best 9 months ago
I didn't see the Taliban in this list....and it absolutely should be.....
David Paterson 9 months ago (edited)
I'm going to add J. Edgar Hoover to this list. Owner and curator of the world's largest collection of child pornography, and other illegal porn. Blackmail specialist, honey traps and all that. Numerous presidents wanted him gone but didn't dare move against him. Sacked the honest people in the FBI to turn it into a secret police force to rival Göring's Gestapo. And got away with it.
Kim McBain 9 months ago
I hope we never add Putin to this list - that is he needs to answer for his despicable crimes!
Briards Are Best 9 months ago
I didn't see the Taliban in this list....and it absolutely should be.....
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