- 11/19/2023
These are history's most twisted minds. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re having a look at the most notorious psychopaths in history.
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00:00 You know, if I wanted to kill somebody,
00:02 I'd take this book and beat you to death with it,
00:04 and I wouldn't feel a thing.
00:05 -Welcome to "WatchMojo," and today,
00:07 we're having a look at the most notorious psychopaths
00:10 in history.
00:11 -Because as we've been talking,
00:13 there are forces at loose in this country.
00:18 -Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker.
00:21 Richard Ramirez brought terror to California in the 1980s.
00:25 His M.O. was home invasion, followed by heinous crimes.
00:29 -The dreadful and indiscriminate crimes caused a wave of fear.
00:34 -Everybody was scared.
00:37 Everybody in the county of Los Angeles
00:40 and Southern California was scared to death.
00:44 -He boasted about 15 victims, yet there are probably more.
00:48 Ramirez came from a troubled childhood,
00:50 as his father was violent and had alcohol-use disorder.
00:53 This likely contributed to his psyche,
00:56 as did physical brain trauma from the events.
00:58 -25-year-old Ramirez had begun worshipping Satan
01:02 in his late teens
01:04 and would often leave pentagrams at the scene of his crimes.
01:07 -As well, his cousin Mike was a wartime Green Beret
01:11 and would sometimes share gruesome photographs
01:13 with Richard, who claimed he was fascinated
01:15 rather than offended by the images.
01:17 In addition to a traumatic childhood,
01:19 Ramirez showed impulsiveness,
01:21 criminal versatility, and lack of remorse,
01:23 all traits on the Hare psychopathy checklist.
01:26 -Such is his reputation that extra security
01:28 was set up outside the courtroom
01:30 and many spectators crowded around
01:32 for a glimpse of an accused serial killer.
01:35 -Albert Fish, aka the Gray Man.
01:38 -Fish could have easily passed for someone's grandfather,
01:41 but this was not your average grandfather.
01:43 -Albert Fish was born in 1870
01:46 and was once placed into an orphanage for about five years.
01:49 In the orphanage, he suffered harsh physical punishments,
01:52 at which point Fish noticed
01:54 that such violence caused him pleasure.
01:56 -Fish is regarded by many aficionados of crime
01:59 as the scariest and most deranged
02:02 of all American serial killers.
02:04 Partly, I think it was because he was so --
02:06 he seemed so benign.
02:08 -He found himself fascinated with mutilation
02:10 after seeing anatomical bisections at a museum.
02:13 Fish would also attack himself,
02:15 displaying the tendencies often seen in psychopaths.
02:18 Fish would capture young people and claimed numerous victims.
02:22 On the psychopath checklist,
02:23 Fish would tick off lack of empathy and remorse,
02:26 as well as impulsivity, among many others.
02:29 -Those psychiatrists who testified for the prosecution
02:32 that he was saying were correct,
02:34 and I think that they were able to support their findings
02:39 with Fish's own behavior that shows preplanning,
02:43 clarity of thinking, and a real awareness
02:46 that this was something that was illegal and wrong.
02:50 -Albert DeSalvo, aka the Boston Strangler.
02:54 Albert DeSalvo took the lives of over a dozen women
02:57 between 1962 and 1964,
03:00 in most cases by entering their apartments.
03:02 -As the number of victims grew,
03:04 police became more and more frustrated.
03:06 No woman felt safe.
03:08 -DeSalvo was initially convicted in late 1964
03:11 for a series of crimes dubbed the Green Man Attacks.
03:14 -He invented a routine to con gullible young women,
03:17 relying heavily on his ability to charm.
03:20 -In custody, he confessed to many crimes.
03:23 Much like others on this list,
03:25 DeSalvo grew up in a problematic home.
03:27 His father tormented his wife in front of their children.
03:30 DeSalvo began to mistreat animals at age 12.
03:34 Forensic psychologist J.
03:35 Reid Molloy points out that psychopaths
03:37 tend to devalue their victims.
03:39 DeSalvo would put neckties on his victims
03:41 and position their bodies in horrible ways,
03:44 a form of posthumous devaluation
03:46 in turning them into displayed objects.
03:49 -He wanted to be world-renowned.
03:51 And, of course, if you confess to the worst serial murder
03:54 since Jack the Ripper,
03:56 you're going to be famous, infamous.
03:58 -Dennis Rader, aka the BTK Killer.
04:02 Dennis Rader was convicted of 10 killings
04:04 that took place between 1974 and 1991.
04:07 Rader, like numerous others on this list,
04:10 also displayed typically brutal animal mistreatment in his youth,
04:13 capturing and killing them.
04:15 His main motivation was realizing his twisted fantasies,
04:19 hence the nickname he gave himself, BTK.
04:21 -In my mind, there was two people in that body.
04:24 One of them was a husband and father, the Boy Scout leader.
04:29 The other one was an absolute animal.
04:31 -He is an unconventional psychopath to some experts,
04:34 as one of the key traits is lack of acknowledging responsibility
04:37 for one's actions.
04:39 Rader sent taunting letters to media outlets
04:41 and law enforcement, boasting about his crimes.
04:44 -BTK began today's letter with a question.
04:47 "How many do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper
04:50 or some national attention?"
04:52 Though he ticks the grandiose sense-of-self-worth box,
04:55 boasting about responsibility
04:57 separates him from some textbook psychopaths.
05:00 -He remains in solitary confinement,
05:02 where he will stay for the rest of his life.
05:05 Elizabeth Bathory, aka the Blood Countess.
05:09 Though her guilt is actually still debated by historians,
05:12 Hungarian Elizabeth Bathory was a countess
05:14 who lived between 1560 and 1614
05:18 and allegedly took the lives of around 600 young women.
05:21 -Elizabeth Bathory had a terrible temper
05:24 and she enjoyed torturing people.
05:26 She enjoyed humiliating them.
05:28 Many of her victims were sent to her by their families
05:30 in order to learn proper etiquette,
05:32 a typical practice at the time.
05:34 She is said to have bathed in blood
05:36 in order to maintain her youthful appearance,
05:39 but this is also highly debatable.
05:41 Her sadistic reputation was beginning to strike fear
05:44 into the hearts of all who heard her name.
05:48 -You must imagine these people
05:49 cowering outside the walls of her castle,
05:52 never knowing what exactly is going on in there,
05:54 but knowing at the same time
05:55 that they are absolutely subject to this person's power,
05:58 to this person's whim.
06:00 -Bathory reportedly displayed mental health issues
06:02 from the age of five
06:04 and was exposed to executions
06:05 and the beatings of servants from a young age.
06:08 She also displayed obvious disturbed public behaviors
06:11 in her adult life,
06:12 watching others suffer for pleasure
06:14 or harming them herself.
06:16 -She was allowed to live.
06:17 She was imprisoned in her castle.
06:19 That's, you know, what we've been led to believe,
06:21 and that no one was allowed to talk about her
06:23 or say her name for 100 years
06:25 meant that they almost just wrote it out of history.
06:28 -Vlad the Impaler, aka Vlad III, aka Vlad Dracula.
06:32 -The story goes that Romania's bottomless well
06:35 of tyranny, catastrophe, and overall human misery
06:38 can all be traced back to one terrifying ruler
06:41 and his supernatural evil.
06:43 -Vlad III was born somewhere between 1428 and 1431,
06:48 second son to eventual leader of Wallachia, Vlad Dracul.
06:51 Recognize that?
06:52 -And what's the connection between the historical story
06:55 of Vlad the Impaler
06:56 and the story that Bram Stoker gave us of Count Dracula?
07:00 -He's decided to write a book about vampires,
07:03 so he picked up a guidebook on Transylvania,
07:06 and he found this name, Dracula,
07:09 and it just sounded so evocative.
07:11 -Dracul was a member of the Order of the Dragon,
07:13 a society that opposed the Ottoman conquest of Europe.
07:16 As a result of this, little Vlad and his brother Radu
07:19 were taken hostage by Ottoman Sultan Murad II
07:22 in an attempt to gain Dracul's loyalty.
07:25 After this ordeal, Vlad's father and older brother were killed.
07:28 When in power, Vlad had a particular penchant
07:31 for impaling his enemies and leaving them to die.
07:34 -To this day, he's still referred to as Vlad Tepes,
07:39 Vlad the Impaler,
07:41 in memory of his favorite method of killing.
07:44 -He was responsible for an estimated 80,000 deaths.
07:47 Some psychological researchers claimed Vlad fit
07:50 the dark triad mold,
07:51 which consists of Machiavellianism,
07:53 narcissism, and psychopathy.
07:56 -With Vlad, we have a man who didn't care
07:58 how much blood he spilt.
08:00 Finally, we have the name Dracula.
08:02 Today, it has a deadly sound to it.
08:06 It means "son of the devil."
08:08 The devil, of course, a horrific, vengeful,
08:12 impossible-to-stop creature.
08:15 And that is exactly the image that we have
08:18 from the real Vlad Dracula.
08:20 -H.H. Holmes.
08:22 Dr. Herman Webster Mudgett, better known as H.H.
08:25 Holmes, was a career criminal guilty of a number of crimes,
08:28 including forgery, illegal marriage, and causing deaths.
08:32 -He was apparently very handsome
08:34 and had an incredible personality,
08:37 and women were drawn to him in large numbers.
08:41 -He is best known as the proprietor of the Murder Castle,
08:44 which was subject to so many sensationalized stories
08:47 that it's impossible to give an actual account
08:49 of its layout or events.
08:51 Holmes' childhood was harsh,
08:53 as is the case with most of the others on this list.
08:55 -The middle child of a stern postmaster
08:58 and devoutly religious mother, he grew up a mummy's boy.
09:02 He took to science and found confidence
09:04 designing scarecrows and perpetual motion machines.
09:07 -His father had alcohol-use issues,
09:09 and he was treated badly by his schoolmates
09:11 due to his academic proficiencies.
09:13 Holmes became obsessed with anatomy and dissection,
09:16 performing the latter on animals.
09:19 He was convicted of causing only one death
09:21 but is presumed to have committed four more
09:24 and is suspected of nine.
09:26 -You are cleansed and delivered.
09:29 May God have mercy on your soul.
09:33 -As Holmes waits for his life to come to an end,
09:35 he remains cool and composed.
09:37 -Ed Gein, aka the Butcher of Plainfield.
09:41 Ed Gein was a killer and body-snatcher,
09:44 exhuming and stealing human remains from cemeteries.
09:47 Gein was born to a militantly religious mother, Augusta.
09:51 Augusta would forbid her children from making friends,
09:54 contributing to Ed's poor social skills.
09:56 The family farm went to Edward
09:58 upon the deaths of his family members.
10:00 He reportedly boarded up all rooms used by his mother,
10:03 leaving them spotless compared to the rooms in which he lived.
10:07 -The house became unimaginably filthy
10:09 with layer upon layer of waste, slop, and unidentifiable clutter.
10:14 -Gein was eventually discovered to have fashioned
10:16 a long list of objects from human body parts,
10:19 for example, skull bowls and a skin lampshade.
10:22 -They found all types of things that belonged to people
10:26 that were no longer people.
10:27 -Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia
10:29 and also psychopathy.
10:31 -There's no way in the world that anyone could ever decipher
10:34 completely or even intelligently
10:38 what Ed was thinking or doing.
10:41 -Charles Manson.
10:42 -Tell me in a sentence who you are.
10:45 -Nobody.
10:53 -Charles Manson was understandably evaluated
10:55 a number of times while imprisoned,
10:57 resulting in various diagnoses such as schizophrenia
11:00 and personality disorders.
11:02 After Manson's death, his initial evaluations
11:05 by psychologist Todd Roy were publicly released,
11:07 giving other professionals the chance to weigh in.
11:10 -What we learned from Manson is how somebody can be affected
11:14 to a point of having psychiatric problems
11:17 and still be charismatic and manipulative enough
11:21 and have enough going on upstairs
11:24 to plan and organize two massacres.
11:29 -More modern researchers claimed Manson
11:31 was more on the bipolar spectrum,
11:33 displaying psychopathic, narcissistic,
11:35 and antisocial behaviors.
11:37 -Are you mad?
11:38 Do you feel like [indistinct]
11:47 -Manson attracted followers easily,
11:49 a sign of grandiose self-worth as seen on the hair checklist.
11:53 His Rorschach test answers were apparently consistent
11:56 with under 1% of comparable results.
11:58 He also came from a troubled childhood
12:00 with a neglectful mother, unstable father figures,
12:03 and time spent in a boys' school
12:05 where he was beaten for the smallest infractions.
12:08 -There was no reason to say that Charlie's early life
12:11 as a child was ideal.
12:12 Having your mother in prison never is.
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12:31 Ted Bundy.
12:32 -He was sharp.
12:33 You couldn't put anything over on him.
12:35 He liked to play games where he'd make us look like fools,
12:38 like he was dealing with inferiors,
12:41 just simple, low-life, country-bunking deputies.
12:44 -The infamous Ted Bundy confessed to dozens of horrific crimes
12:47 between 1974 and 1978.
12:50 Bundy confessed to all eight Seattle killings
12:53 and 15 more in Oregon, Utah, and Colorado.
12:56 He gave police information on dozens of other unsolved cases.
13:00 -Though recollections of his childhood are scattered,
13:02 with differing stories from different people,
13:04 including Bundy himself, it is seemingly the case
13:07 that he never had a clear father figure.
13:09 He was made to believe his grandparents
13:11 were his actual parents and his mother his sister.
13:14 -From an early age, Ted sensed he was living a lie.
13:18 The truth clearly marked him in some way.
13:21 Bundy was initially diagnosed a psychopath
13:23 by prominent psychiatrist Hervey Cleckley in the late 1970s,
13:26 yet has subsequently also received
13:28 many other psychiatric diagnoses and designations.
13:31 Bundy had a successful mask of sanity.
13:34 He could easily charm his victims into trusting him.
13:37 -He graduated in June of '72 from the University of Washington
13:42 with a degree in psychology.
13:43 -Why does he get a degree in psychology?
13:45 From my view, he does that because he wants to be able
13:48 to continue to manipulate people.
13:50 -Is there a psychopath in history that should be on this list?
13:53 Let us know in the comments.
13:55 -Did you like feeling evil?
13:57 -No. No, I didn't.
13:59 But I tried to overcome the thoughts,
14:04 and it worked for a while, but eventually I gave in.
14:10 -Check out these other clips from "WatchMojo,"
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