Episodes (97)

Osama bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda, orchestrating the September 11 attacks and leading a global terrorist campaign against the United States and its allies until he was killed by U.S. forces in 2011.

Danny Rolling, known as the "Gainesville Ripper," was an American serial killer who murdered five college students in Florida in August 1990 and was executed in 2006.

Charles Whitman was an American engineering student and former U.S. Marine who became infamous for committing a mass shooting at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966, an act preceded by the murder of his wife and mother.

Ted Kaczynski was an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor who carried out a nearly 20-year bombing campaign against people associated with modern technology to protest the industrial-technological system.

Robert Hansen, known as the "Butcher Baker," was an Alaskan serial killer who abducted women, flew them into the remote wilderness, and hunted them like wild game before his arrest in 1983.

Donald Harvey was a prolific American serial killer and hospital orderly who murdered dozens of patients under his care by posing as a "mercy killer," though many of his crimes were driven by malice and a desire for control.

Edward Teach, better known as the notorious pirate Blackbeard, remains an enduring figure of maritime history, famed for cultivating a terrifying persona with his smoldering beard and tactical ruthlessness to strike fear into his enemies.

Charles Ray Hatcher was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering 16 people between 1969 and 1982 before dying by suicide in prison.

Dean Corll, infamously known as the "Candy Man," was an American serial killer who abducted, tortured, and murdered at least 29 teenage boys and young men in the Houston, Texas, area between 1970 and 1973.

Shoko Asahara was the blind, charismatic founder of the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo who transformed a yoga and spiritual group into a violent, apocalyptic movement, ultimately masterminding the deadly 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system.

Kenneth Lay, the founder and former CEO of Enron, became one of the most infamous figures in American corporate history after orchestrating a massive, multi-billion-dollar accounting fraud that led to the company's catastrophic collapse and his subsequent conviction on multiple criminal charges.

Mickey Cohen was a charismatic and ruthless Hollywood mobster who dominated the mid-twentieth-century Los Angeles underworld as the flamboyant West Coast lieutenant to Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel.

Known as the "Bandit Queen," Belle Starr was a notorious American outlaw who associated with famous desperadoes and became a legendary, stylized figure of the Wild West after her unsolved murder in 1889.

Joe Profaci was a ruthless, deeply religious American La Cosa Nostra boss who ruled his Brooklyn crime family for over three decades, but his extreme greed and heavy taxation of his own men ultimately triggered a bloody, fractured rebellion within his ranks.

H.H. Holmes, widely regarded as one of America's first documented serial killers, infamously constructed a custom-built "Murder Castle" in Chicago to lure, torture, and execute victims during the 1893 World's Fair.

Known as the "Teflon Don" for his uncanny ability to repeatedly evade criminal conviction, John Gotti ruled New York’s powerful Gambino crime family in the late 1980s with a flamboyant, media-savvy style before finally being convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992.

John Wesley Hardin was one of the Old West’s deadliest outlaws, a notorious Texas gunslinger who claimed to have killed over 40 men before ultimately being shot in the back.

Pol Pot was the brutal dictator of the Khmer Rouge whose radical communist regime orchestrated the Cambodian genocide, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1.5 to 2 million people through forced labor, starvation, and mass executions.

Joe Bonanno was a powerful American mafia boss who led the Bonanno crime family for over three decades, famously operating with a corporate-style approach to organized crime and becoming one of the longest-surviving, original members of the Commission.

Morton Sobell was an American engineer who was convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage in 1951 for his role as a Soviet spy alongside Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a crime he finally admitted to in 2008.

Known as the "Highway Killer," Larry Eyler was a prolific American serial killer who stalked the Midwestern Interstate system between 1982 and 1984, brutally murdering a minimum of 21 teenage boys and young men.

Juan Corona was an infamous California labor contractor with a history of schizophrenia who was convicted in 1973 for the brutal machete murders and secret orchard burials of 25 transient farm workers.

Known as the "Hell's Belle" of midwestern serial killers, Belle Gunness lured dozens of wealthy suitors and husbands to her Indiana farm in the early 1900s, only for them to vanish alongside their fortunes.

Felipe Espinosa was a 19th-century Mexican-American outlaw who waged a brutal, religiously motivated guerrilla war across Colorado, murdering over thirty Anglo settlers before being tracked down and killed by legendary scout Tom Tobin.

Henry Debosnys was a 19th-century intellectual, linguist, and suspected serial killer who was hanged for the brutal murder of his third wife, leaving behind a series of uncrackable, cryptic cryptograms and sketches that continue to mystify historians.

Ed Gein was an American murderer and body snatcher whose gruesome crimes in 1950s Wisconsin horrified the nation and served as the primary inspiration for infamous fictional villains like Norman Bates, Leatherface, and Buffalo Bill.

Known as "Deacon Jim" for his pious, churchgoing persona, James Brown Miller was one of the Old West’s most prolific and ruthless contract killers, who used a shotgun as his signature weapon before ultimately being lynched by an angry mob in 1909.

Carroll Edward Cole was an American serial killer who confessed to murdering at least 14 women and was executed in Nevada in 1985 after famously waiving his right to appeal and requesting the death penalty.

Captain William Kidd was a Scottish privateer turned pirate who was executed in 1701 for piracy and the murder of a gunner, cementing his legacy as one of history's most infamous maritime figures.

Bill Doolin was a notorious American outlaw who transitioned from the Dalton Gang to founding his own "Wild Bunch," a ruthless group that terrorized the Oklahoma and Indian Territories with a string of high-profile bank, train, and stagecoach robberies during the mid-1890s.

Ted Bundy was a prolific and manipulative American serial killer who confessed to murdering dozens of young women across the United States during the 1970s while often exploiting his deceptive, charismatic persona to evade capture.

Paul Castellano, the corporate-minded "Boss of Bosses" who led the Gambino crime family, favored white-collar racketeering over street violence until his extravagant lifestyle and isolation prompted his infamous assassination outside Sparks Steak House in 1985.

Carl Eugene "Coral" Watts was a prolific American serial killer, often referred to as the "Sunday Morning Slasher," who is suspected of murdering dozens—possibly over 100—women and girls between 1974 and 1982.

William Bonin, known as the "Freeway Killer," was an American serial killer who murdered at least 14 young men and boys in Southern California between 1979 and 1980.

Benedict Arnold was a distinguished American Revolutionary War general whose pivotal contributions to the cause are irrevocably overshadowed by his infamous decision to defect to the British in 1780, forever cementing his name as the quintessential American traitor.

Tokyo Rose was the collective nickname given by Allied troops to various English-speaking female broadcasters, most notably Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who were coerced into beaming Japanese propaganda to demoralize American soldiers during World War II.

Karl Marx was a 19th-century German philosopher and economist whose radical critiques of capitalism and co-authorship of The Communist Manifesto laid the ideological groundwork for modern socialism and communism, reshaping global politics and history.

Samuel Little was an American serial killer who, according to the FBI is the most prolific in U.S. history, having confessed to 93 murders committed between 1970 and 2005.

Anthony LaRette Jr. was an American serial killer and rapist who confessed to dozens of murders across the United States before being executed by the state of Missouri in 1995

Lee Harvey Oswald was a deeply disillusioned former Marine and Marxist defector who fundamentally altered American history by assassinating President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

A football superstar turned pop-culture icon, O.J. Simpson became globally infamous when his 1995 trial for the brutal murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman transfixed the world, leaving a complex legacy defined by racial division, celebrity obsession, and enduring controversy.

Henry Hill was a notorious Lucchese crime family associate turned FBI informant whose life of high-stakes heist operations and subsequent betrayal of the mob inspired the classic film Goodfellas.

Robert Franklin Stroud, known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz," was a brutally violent double-murderer who became a self-taught ornithologist and author during his 54 years of near-total solitary confinement.

James "Whitey" Bulger was a ruthless Boston crime boss and long-term FBI informant who built a violent criminal empire in South Boston while systematically manipulating law enforcement to eliminate his rivals.

Butch Cassidy was a charismatic and clever American outlaw who led the "Wild Bunch" gang in a legendary series of bank and train robberies across the American West and eventually South America.

Charles Manson was a manipulative cult leader who orchestrated a series of brutal murders in 1969, forever cementing his status as one of America's most notorious criminal figures.

David Koresh was the self-proclaimed messianic leader of the Branch Davidians, a religious sect whose stockpiling of weapons and controversial practices led to a fatal 51-day siege by federal authorities near Waco, Texas, in 1993.

Adolf Hitler was the German dictator responsible for the outbreak of World War II and the Holocaust, the state-sponsored genocide that resulted in the systematic murder of six million Jews and millions of others.

Thomas "Two-Gun Tommy" DeSimone was a volatile and notoriously violent associate of the Lucchese crime family whose erratic brutality—most notably the unsanctioned murder of a Gambino "made man"—eventually led to his own disappearance and death.

Sam Bass was an American Old West outlaw and train robber who led a notorious gang before being mortally wounded in a shootout with Texas Rangers at the age of 27.

Known as the "Night Stalker," Richard Ramirez was a demonic-serial killer and rapist who terrorized the Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas during the mid-1980s through a brutal, random spree of home-invasion murders.

A fierce and independent Irish-born pirate, Anne Bonny broke 18th-century social norms by disguising herself as a man to plunder the Caribbean alongside Calico Jack Rackham.

Harold Shipman was a British general practitioner who became one of the most prolific serial killers in modern history, murdering an estimated 250 of his patients over the course of his medical career.

Robert Hanssen

Robert Hanssen was a veteran FBI counterintelligence agent who systematically betrayed his country by selling highly classified American secrets to Soviet and Russian intelligence over a span of two decades, committing what has been described as arguably the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.

Alvin "Creepy" Karpis was a ruthless Depression-era gangster who, as the mastermind of the Barker–Karpis gang, became the last person to hold the FBI's title of "Public Enemy #1" before his capture in 1936.

An elusive figure of the Wild West, Etta Place was the mysterious companion to outlaws Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, charting a brief, infamous path through history before vanishing without a trace.

Saddam Hussein was a ruthless dictator who ruled Iraq with an iron fist for over two decades, brutalizing his own people and triggering devastating regional wars before being overthrown by a US-led coalition and executed.

Jack Ruby was an American nightclub owner who achieved notoriety by fatally shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassinated President John F. Kennedy's accused assassin, on live television on November 24, 1963.

Samuel Mason was an American Revolutionary War captain who later transformed into a ruthless river pirate and highwayman, terrorizing travelers along the Ohio River and the Natchez Trace during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Alfredo Ballí Treviño was a Mexican surgeon and convicted murderer whose chilling intelligence and demeanor served as the real-life inspiration for the literary and cinematic villain Hannibal Lecter.

The Sundance Kid was a notorious American outlaw and expert gunman who achieved legendary status as a key member of Butch Cassidy’s "Wild Bunch" gang, ultimately dying in a shootout in Bolivia after a long pursuit by law enforcement.

Vidkun Quisling was a Norwegian politician who infamously collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II, serving as the puppet leader of Norway and becoming the namesake for the term "quisling," a synonym for a traitor or collaborator.

Earle Nelson, known as "The Gorilla Man," was a notorious 1920s serial killer who traveled across North America, posing as a prospective tenant to prey upon and murder landladies in their own home

Timothy McVeigh was an American domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history, driven by an extreme anti-government ideology.

Johnny Ringo was a notorious Old West outlaw and gunfighter associated with the Cochise County Cowboys, best remembered for his bitter rivalry with Doc Holliday and his mysterious, fatal gunshot wound in 1882.

Joseph Di Mambro was the manipulative co-founder of the Order of the Solar Temple, a notorious cult whose apocalyptic beliefs culminated in the orchestrated mass suicides and murders of over 70 members across Switzerland, Canada, and France in the mid-1990s.

John Dillinger was a notorious American gangster and bank robber who captured the public's imagination during the Great Depression by daringly evading the FBI until he was ultimately betrayed and gunned down in 1934.

John Wilkes Booth was a prominent 19th-century American stage actor and Confederate sympathizer who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in 1865.

An infamous, hot-tempered card dealer and outlaw associate in Tombstone, Johnny Tyler is best remembered for getting thoroughly humiliated and slapped out of the Oriental Saloon by a completely unarmed Wyatt Earp.

"Machine Gun" Kelly was a notorious Prohibition-era American gangster known for his role in high-profile kidnappings, most notably the 1933 abduction of oil tycoon Charles Urschel, which ultimately led to his life imprisonment at Alcatraz.

Ezra Pound was a brilliant and influential modernist poet whose profound impact on 20th-century literature is inextricably shadowed by his fervent support for Italian Fascism and his virulent antisemitic broadcasts during World War II.

Joseph Stalin was the brutal dictator of the Soviet Union who transformed the nation into a major industrial and military superpower while orchestrating the deaths of millions of his own citizens through forced labor, artificial famines, and political purges.

A notorious American frontier outlaw, Billy the Kid killed several men before being guned down at age 21, cementing his legacy as a legendary yet ruthless symbol of the Wild West.

James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke was a brutal and calculating Lucchese crime family associate, best known as the mastermind behind the 1978 Lufthansa heist and for his ruthless tendency to eliminate anyone who could link him to his crimes

Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, known as the "Railroad Killer," was a notorious serial killer who terrorized the United States in the late 1990s by murdering victims in or near their homes after traveling across the country via freight trains.

Napoleon Bonaparte’s insatiable ambition transformed him from a brilliant defender of the French Revolution into an infamous, power-hungry autocrat whose relentless pursuit of empire plunged Europe into decades of devastating warfare.

Marshall Applewhite was the deeply deluded co-founder of the Heaven's Gate cult who convinced 38 of his followers to commit mass suicide in 1997, believing their souls would ascend to an alien spacecraft trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.

Jimmy Hoffa was a powerful and controversial labor union leader whose immense influence over the Teamsters and notorious ties to organized crime culminated in his mysterious 1975 disappearance, which remains one of America's most famous unsolved riddles.

The Harpe brothers, Micajah "Big" Harpe and Wiley "Little" Harpe, were America's first documented serial killers, operating as brutal highwaymen who murdered dozens of men, women, and children across the frontier in the late 18th century.

Jesse James was an American outlaw and train robber who parlayed his brutal, confederate-aligned guerrilla violence into a mythicized, Robin Hood-style legend of anti-government rebellion.

Dubbed "Mother Rasputin" by the press, Mariam Soulakiotis was a Greek Old Calendarist abbess who used her convent as a front to systematically torture, defraud, and murder dozens of wealthy followers and vulnerable patients between 1939 and 1950.

Gerald Stano was an American serial killer executed in 1998 who was convicted of nine murders, though he controversially confessed to killing 41 girls and young women across Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Bernie Madoff was the architect of the largest Ponzi scheme in history, defrauding thousands of investors out of tens of billions of dollars over decades under the guise of a highly successful wealth management firm.

Born Paul Rubenfeld, Paul Reubens was an eccentric comedic actor and writer who achieved cultural icon status as the high-pitched, gray-suited character Pee-wee Herman, before a 1991 public scandal temporarily derailed his career.

Benito Mussolini rose to power as a charismatic fascist dictator who dismantled Italy's democracy, allied with Adolf Hitler during World War II, and ultimately brought his nation to ruin before his violent execution by his own people.

Luc Jouret was a Belgian religious leader and homeopath who co-founded the Order of the Solar Temple, a notorious cult that culminated in the mass murder-suicides of over seventy followers across Switzerland, Canada, and France in the mid-1990s.

Known as the "Milwaukee Cannibal," Jeffrey Dahmer was an infamous American serial killer who murdered, dismembered, and cannibalized 17 young men and boys between 1978 and 1991.

Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd was a notorious Depression-era American bank robber and folk hero who gained notoriety for his violent clashes with law enforcement and his reputed tendency to destroy mortgage documents during bank heists, endearing him to many struggling rural citizens.

Frank Morris was a brilliant and elusive criminal who orchestrated and successfully executed the legendary June 1962 escape from Alcatraz, vanishing into history as one of America's most infamous missing fugitives.

Al Capone was the most infamous American gangster of the Prohibition era, who rose to power as the ruthless boss of the Chicago Outfit before his eventual downfall on charges of tax evasion.

Paul John Knowles, known as the "Casanova Killer," was an American serial killer who went on a brutal, cross-country crime spree in 1974, claiming at least 18 lives before being shot and killed by law enforcement while attempting to escape custody.

Bartholomew Roberts, famously known as "Black Bart," was a highly disciplined and effective Welsh pirate who commanded fleets with strict order and religious fervor, becoming one of the most successful and feared raiders of the Golden Age of Piracy before his death in 1722.

"Crazy Joe" Vallo was a colorful and volatile figure in the mid-20th-century American underworld, known for his unpredictable temper and shifting criminal alliances.

John Wayne Gacy was an infamous American serial killer and rapist who murdered at least 33 young men and boys in the 1970s, famously burying most of his victims beneath his Chicago-area home while maintaining a public persona as a community volunteer and children's party clown.

Jim Jones was the notorious American cult leader who founded the Peoples Temple and orchestrated the 1978 mass murder-suicide of 918 of his followers via cyanide-laced punch in Jonestown, Guyana.

Aileen Wuornos, one of America's most infamous serial killers, shot and killed seven men in Florida between 1989 and 1990 while working as a highway prostitute, claiming the murders were committed in self-defense against sexual assault.

Israel Keyes was a meticulous and chillingly systematic American serial killer who hid "kill caches" across the country years in advance to deliberately evade detection and cross-jurisdictional tracking.