For many people, crime is a darkly fascinating subject, whether they are dealing with true stories or fiction. The following are criminals by the standard of their day and ours.
Gilles de Rais
A Breton soldier who rose to the position of Marshal of France and fought alongside Joan of Arc, de Rais had probably carved a position in history before he was arrested, tried and convicted of the torture and murder of over a hundred children. Sceptics have suggested he might have been ruined by political enemies.Elizabeth Bathory
The story of Elizabeth Bathory is still shrouded in mystery, but a few facts are known: at the end of the sixteenth/start of the seventeenth century, she was responsible for the murder, and possibly torture, of young women. Discovered and found guilty, she was walled up as punishment. She has been remembered, probably erroneously, for bathing in the blood of victims; she is also an archetype of the modern vampire.Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes wasn’t the main man behind the Gunpowder Plot to destroy England’s Houses of Parliament and overthrow the English and Scottish crown in 1605, but he was the man caught at the scene with the barrels of gunpowder. Remembered ever since by the burning of effigies, Guy Fawkes was tortured and executed for his part in the affair.Burke and Hare
Burke and Hare surely weren’t the only people to murder and then sell their victims to Britain’s burgeoning medical community, who needed corpses to learn and practice upon, but they are the most famous. In 1827-8 they killed over fifteen people and sold them; the media’s reports of their actions helped prompt reforms of the cadaver supply industry.Jack the Ripper
In London, in the autumn of 1888, someone killed and mutilated five prostitutes (although some theorists say there were more), but their identity remains unknown. Dubbed Jack the Ripper, a nickname which stuck, he was the first serial killer widely adopted by the press, and his name remains well known. There is a thriving group of researchers discussing the details.Adolf Eichmann
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Eichmann was a high ranking member of the Nazi SS with a background in commerce when he was asked to organise the “Final Solution”, the mass executions of Jews now called the Holocaust. He applied his logistical skills to organise the rounding up, transport and killing of millions during World War 2. After the war he fled to Argentina, but was abducted by Israeli agents, tried and executed in 1962 for war crimes. Of course, he wasn't the only person responsible for the Holocaust.
