History's Biggest Villains

David Carrick (born 4 January 1975) is an English serial rapist and a former police officer who worked for the Metropolitan Police. He joined the police force in 2001 and worked as an armed police officer in the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection from 2009 until his initial suspension without pay and subsequent sacking from his position.  Carrick was arrested in 2021 and in 2022 pleaded guilty to multiple counts of rape between 2002 and 2021. In 2023, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Frank Davidson Fraser (13 December 1923 – 26 November 2014), better known as "Mad" Frankie Fraser, was an English gangster who spent 42 years in prison for numerous violent offenses.

Leopold II ( Léopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909 and the autocratic prime colonizer of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State was characterized by atrocities and systematic brutality, including forced labor, torture, murder, kidnapping, and the amputation of the hands of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. In 1890 and in one of the first uses of the term, George Washington Williams described the practices of Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State as "crimes against humanity". These and other facts were established during Leopold's rule by eyewitness testimony, by on-site inspection from an international commission of inquiry, by the investigative journalism and activism of E. D. Morel, and by the 1904 Casement Report. While it has proven difficult to accurately estimate the pre-colonial population and the amount by which it changed under the Congo Free State, estimates for the Congolese population decline during Leopold's rule range from 1 million to 15 million.

On February 12, 1993, 2-year-old James Bulger was abducted from the New Strand Shopping Center in Liverpool, England by two 10-year-old boys, Robert  Thompson and Jon Venables. His body was found near a railroad track by a group of children. Thompson and Venables were charged on 20 February 1993 with abduction and murder. They were found guilty on 24 November, making them the youngest convicted murderers in modern British history. They were sentenced to indefinite detention at Her Majesty's pleasure, and remained in custody until a Parole Board decision in June 2001 recommended their release on a lifelong licence aged 18.Venables was sent to prison in 2010 for breaching the terms of his licence, was released on parole again in 2013, and in November 2017 was again sent to prison for possessing child  abuse images on his computer.  The Bulger case has prompted widespread debate about how to handle young offenders when they are sentenced or released from custody.

Mary Ann Cotton (October 31,1832 – March 24,1873) was an English convicted murderer who was executed for poisoning her stepson. Despite her sole conviction for murder, she is believed to have been a serial killer who killed many others including 11 of her 13 children and three of her four husbands for their insurance policies. Her preferred method of killing was poisoning with arsenic.  Cotton's undoing came after she tried to have the son of her deceased husband sent to a workhouse. When that failed, five days later she told parish officials that Charles Edward Cotton had died. Investigations into her behavior soon showed a pattern of deaths. The body of the stepson was examined and found to contain arsenic. Cotton was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death. She was hanged at Durham Gaol. She did not die on the gallows from the breaking of her neck but died by strangulation because the rope was set too short, possibly deliberately.

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout ( born January, 13th 1967) is a Russian arms dealer. An entrepreneur and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the nicknames the Merchant of Death and Sanctions Buster after Peter Hain of the British Foreign Office read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes.  In a U.S. sting operation, Bout was arrested on 6 March 2008 in Thailand on terrorism charges by the Royal Thai Police in cooperation with American authorities and Interpol. The U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Eric G. John requested his extradition under the Extradition Act with Thailand, which was eventually mandated by the Thai High Court in August 2010. Bout was accused of intending to sell arms to a U.S. DEA informer pretending to represent the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for use against U.S. forces in Colombia, but denied the charges and predicted an acquittal.  On 2 November 2011, Bout was convicted by a jury in a Manhattan federal court of conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization, and was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years imprisonment because the crime was due to the sting operation. From June 2012 until December 2022, Bout was held at the United States Penitentiary, Marion, before being released in a prisoner exchange for U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner, who was arrested in February 2022 at a Moscow airport for smuggling vaporizer cartridges containing under a gram of hashish oil which is illegal in Russia.

On February 9th, 1983 at the Cranley Gardens apartments in London, Dyno-Rod employee Micheal Cattran was responding to plumbing complaints made by tenants. Opening a drain cover at the side of the house, Cattran discovered the drain was packed with a flesh-like substance and numerous small bones of unknown origin. Cattran reported his suspicions to his supervisor, Gary Wheeler. As Cattran had arrived at the property at dusk, he and Wheeler agreed to postpone further investigation into the blockage until the following morning. Prior to leaving the property, Nilsen and fellow tenant Jim Allcock convened with Cattran to discuss the source of the substance. Upon hearing Cattran exclaim how similar the substance was in appearance to human flesh, Nilsen replied: "It looks to me like someone has been flushing down their Kentucky Fried Chicken." This was the beginning of the end of the 5-year killing spree by Scotsman Dennis Nilsen (1945 - 2018), who killed at least 12 young men and boys from 1978-1983.

Jack the Ripper terrorized London in 1888, killing at least five women and mutilating their bodies in an unusual manner, indicating that the killer had a substantial knowledge of human anatomy. The culprit was never captured—or even identified—and Jack the Ripper remains one of England’s, and the world’s, most infamous criminals.  All five killings attributed to Jack the Ripper took place within a mile of each other, in or near the Whitechapel district of London’s East End, from August 7 to September 10, 1888. Several other murders occurring around that time period have also been investigated as the work of “Leather Apron” (another nickname given to the murderer).  A number of letters were allegedly sent by the killer to the London Metropolitan Police Service (often known as Scotland Yard), taunting officers about his gruesome activities and speculating on murders to come. The moniker “Jack the Ripper” originates from a letter—which may have been a hoax—published at the time of the attacks.  Despite countless investigations claiming definitive evidence of the brutal killer’s identity, his or her name and motive are still unknown.  Various theories about Jack the Ripper’s identity have been produced over the past several decades, which include claims accusing the famous Victorian painter Walter Sickert, a Polish migrant and even the grandson of Queen Victoria. Since 1888, more than 100 suspects have been named, contributing to widespread folklore and ghoulish entertainment surrounding the mystery

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile OBE KCSG  (October 31, 1926 – October 29, 2011) was an English DJ, television and radio personality who hosted BBC shows including Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. In obituaries, Savile was praised for his personal qualities and his work raising an estimated £40 million for charities. After his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender and possibly one of Britain's most prolific.

Ted Bundy (1946-1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade of denials, he confessed to 30 murders committed in seven states between 1974 and 1978. His true victim total is unknown and is likely significantly higher.