- today
From cold-blooded assassinations to calculated betrayals, history is stained with the actions of those who turned against their nations, friends, and principles. Join us as we explore the darkest acts of treachery that have shaped our world! Which betrayal do you think had the most devastating impact on history? Let us know in the comments below!
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00:00A seeker of fame and glory, a hot-tempered military genius, and America's most notorious traitor.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the 20 worst backstabbers, turncoats, and renegades in human history.
00:14We'll only be considering those whose acts are proven, not in dispute.
00:18Vidkun Quisling, his name means traitor.
00:23Number 20, Robert Ford.
00:24You know you've earned your spot on a list like this when history literally calls you a coward.
00:28Robert Ford wasn't only a member of Jesse James' gang, he was one of the infamous bank robber's friends.
00:33I can't believe I woke up this morning wondering if my daddy would loan me his overcoat.
00:38And here it is just past midnight. I've already robbed a railroad train.
00:43I'm sitting in a rocking chair chatting with none other than Jesse James.
00:46But when Missouri's governor offered a reward for Jesse's capture, Ford saw an opportunity.
00:50One morning in 1882, while Jesse was dusting a picture frame in his own home,
00:54Ford drew his pistol and shot him in the back of the head.
00:58He expected fame, glory, acclaim.
01:06Instead, he became one of the most infamous figures in the West.
01:09Even the press turned on him, branding him the coward.
01:11The moniker stuck until Ford II was eventually bushwhacked and killed.
01:15Number 19, Jonathan Pollard.
01:17In the spy game, it's not just enemies you have to worry about.
01:20Sometimes your allies spy on you too.
01:21Jonathan Pollard was a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst with access to highly classified information.
01:26Pollard was a civilian analyst for U.S. naval intelligence with access to some of this country's most important secrets.
01:33In the mid-1980s, he passed enormous amounts of classified material to Israel, an American ally.
01:38When the scheme was uncovered, it sent shockwaves through the intelligence community.
01:42While some in Israel hailed him as a hero, American officials called him a traitor who compromised national security for a paycheck and ideology.
01:48In Israel, the issue has remained alive.
01:51In 1995, the Israeli government even granted Texas-born Mr. Pollard citizenship while he remained in an American prison.
01:58Israel confirmed a decade later that he was officially on their payroll.
02:01Pollard's actions severely strained U.S.-Israel relations, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
02:06In 2015, he was released and in 2020 relocated to Jerusalem.
02:10Number 18, George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence.
02:13When your brother is the king of England, loyalty may lose out to jealousy.
02:16At least that was the case for George Plantagenet.
02:18And richest and most powerful of all was Edward's middle brother, George, Duke of Clarence.
02:27The man Shakespeare described as false, fleeting, perjured Clarence.
02:33During the Wars of the Roses, he betrayed his brother, King Edward IV, by siding with a rebellion.
02:37When that effort started going south, old George flipped sides again.
02:41Edward forgave him, but just once.
02:42George kept scheming, though, spreading rumors about the queen and plotting behind the throne.
02:46Eventually, even his royal blood couldn't save him.
02:48Charged with treason, George was executed in the bougiest way imaginable.
02:52He was allegedly drowned in a barrel of wine.
02:54Wait!
02:55Wait, please.
02:57Please let me see my brother, the king.
03:00No!
03:00Ah!
03:03Whether fact or fiction, it's a fitting end for a man who drank deeply from the cup of betrayal.
03:07Number 17, Adolf Tulkachev.
03:09In the shadowy world of Cold War espionage, few spies allegedly did more damage to their own side than Adolf Tulkachev.
03:15As Soviet radar engineer, Tulkachev secretly passed loads of military intel to the CIA between 1979 and 1985.
03:23Adolf?
03:24Yes.
03:25This is Nikolai.
03:26Go towards the rear of the building, pass a metro on your right, and follow the main road.
03:32Tulkachev was a key source of U.S. intel on Soviet aircraft and missile systems.
03:37His intelligence was so vital, he was later dubbed the billion-dollar spy.
03:40To the USSR, he was a traitor of the highest order.
03:42Eventually betrayed by a double agent, Tulkachev was arrested, executed, and erased from official memory.
03:47Some called him a hero of freedom.
03:49He was an incredibly productive spy who helped the United States understand things about Soviet military technology, particularly radars, that had never, ever come through in espionage before.
04:01Others, a man who sold out his country.
04:02Today, his legacy sits in a gray zone between sabotage, sacrifice, and Cold War myth-making.
04:08Number 16, Pedro Paterno.
04:10Pedro Paterno made a career out of playing every side at once, making sure to profit at every opportunity.
04:16He first gained notoriety by brokering the Pact of Biak Nabato in 1897.
04:21There, he helped end the first phase of the Philippine Revolution by convincing Filipino rebels to accept exile and payoffs from the Spanish.
04:28Later, under Aguinaldo's government, he served as prime minister.
04:31But when war broke out between the Philippines and the United States, Paterno switched gears again.
04:35He advocated for peace and pushed for the country to become a U.S. protectorate.
04:38After the fighting stopped, he joined the colonial government.
04:41To many, Paterno was the embodiment of an opportunist.
04:44In Filipino political slang, Paterno was the original Bulimbing, or turncoat.
04:49Number 15, Kim Philby.
04:51Kim Philby wasn't just any spy, he was the spy.
04:54A high-ranking officer in British intelligence, Philby was also a communist.
04:57Western agents were betrayed by KGB spies, like the British intelligence officer Kim Philby.
05:03As a member of the notorious Cambridge Five, Philby was an agent of the Soviet Union.
05:07He fed Moscow critical information for decades.
05:10Philby betrayed colleagues, missions, and entire networks without a second thought.
05:14His intel reportedly led to the deaths of dozens of Western agents.
05:17Charismatic, charming, and utterly duplicitous, Philby rose to the top of MI6 while quietly dismantling it from within.
05:24Even after fellow members of the Cambridge ring were exposed, Philby managed to avoid suspicion.
05:28In terms of our own individual experiences, we know, or we knew, that the operations we were involved in had been betrayed by people like Kim Philby.
05:39With the walls closing in, he finally defected to the USSR in 1963.
05:44He spent the rest of his life in Moscow unrepentant.
05:46Number 14, Anna Montez.
05:48Anna Montez was that quiet, reliable co-worker you could always trust to help.
05:52She was also Cuba's top spy in Washington for the better part of two decades.
05:56I believe she does have blood on her hands.
05:58A very deadly woman.
06:00A very dangerous woman.
06:02She was truly a professional spy.
06:04She was serious about the business.
06:06Recruited in the 1980s, Montez rose through the ranks of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
06:11There, she became one of the government's top analysts on Cuba.
06:13What her colleagues didn't know is that she was quietly feeding Havana a steady stream of classified secrets.
06:19Montez was no mercenary, though.
06:20She believed with her whole heart that U.S. policy toward Cuba was unjust.
06:24She acted accordingly.
06:25She was working with the Cuban government who murdered American citizens in cold blood.
06:30So she didn't pull the trigger, but she was complicit after the fact.
06:36When she was finally arrested in 2001, officials were stunned by the scale of the breach.
06:40Her work earned her the title, The Most Dangerous Spy You've Never Heard Of.
06:44Number 13, Robert Hansen.
06:46It doesn't really get much worse than having a spy hunter being a spy himself.
06:49Robert Hansen was a senior FBI agent tasked with rooting out spies.
06:53America's problem was that he was one.
06:55Perhaps the most dangerous spy in U.S. history.
06:59His actions pitted the CIA against the FBI and triggered a mole hunt that brought the American intelligence services to their knees.
07:06For over 20 years, Hansen fed classified intel to the Soviet Union.
07:10Even after the Soviet Union fell, Hansen kept up the gig, working for Russia.
07:14He compromised operations and exposed U.S. assets, directly leading to the deaths of American operatives and their allies.
07:19He worked undetected from within the FBI's own counterintelligence unit, all while living a quiet suburban life.
07:25A trusted insider in the FBI who worked on counterintelligence, sophisticated spy detection, worked next to the best in America at spy detection, and went undiscovered for more than 20 years as the most damaging spy in FBI history.
07:41When he was finally arrested in 2001, the FBI called it the worst breach in its history.
07:46Number 12.
07:47Qin Hui
07:48In over a thousand years of Chinese history, few names draw more contempt than Qin Hui.
07:53A powerful official during the Southern Song Dynasty, Qin is the most infamous for orchestrating the execution of Yue Fei.
08:00Yue was a beloved general and a national hero who led resistance efforts against the invading Jin Dynasty.
08:06While Yue fought to defend the nation, Qin pushed for capitulation.
08:10He saw the loyal general as his chief obstacle.
08:12Through fabricated charges and political maneuvering, he had Yue imprisoned and ultimately executed.
08:17The betrayal outraged the public back then, and it still resonates today.
08:21Statues of Qin and his wife kneeling in shame still stand outside Yue Fei's tomb, where generations of visitors have spat on them in disgust.
08:28Number 11.
08:29Stella Goldschlag
08:30One of the sadder parts of the Holocaust is that some people did anything to survive.
08:34Stella Goldschlag was the most horrifying example.
08:36A German Jew with striking looks, she didn't hide or flee.
08:40She became an agent for the Gestapo.
08:41After being arrested and tortured, she agreed to work as a catcher, helping hunt down fellow Jews in hiding.
08:47It's estimated she informed on hundreds, many of whom were later deported to concentration camps.
08:51Some argue she was coerced.
08:53Others point to the zeal with which she carried out her task, even after her own parents were deported.
08:57Her story is a chilling reminder of how fear, survival, and cruelty can become inseparable in history's darkest hours.
09:03Number 10.
09:04Wang Jingwei
09:05Today, he's viewed by some as the most destructive traitor in China's history.
09:09Originally a politician and a member of the leftist Kuomintang Party, he began to repeal his support after he failed to secure leadership of the party after the death of Sun Yat-sen.
09:18When a bloody war between China and Japan finally erupted in 1937, Wang backed Japan's plan for an armistice and quickly switched sides to ally with the Japanese.
09:27He went on to become the puppet leader of the government that Japan set up in Nanjing, eastern China.
09:31Number 9.
09:33Philippe Pétain
09:33Philippe Pétain was once hailed as the savior of France.
09:36During World War I, he led French forces to a hard-won victory at Verdun, becoming a national hero.
09:41But decades later, his legacy collapsed in spectacular fashion.
09:45France placed its trust in Pétain.
09:47Most French citizens, reeling from their defeat, believed the armistice was a wise or at least a necessary choice.
09:56But what Pétain did next was neither wise nor necessary.
10:00When Nazi Germany conquered France in World War II, Pétain, famous for fighting the Germans a generation earlier, collaborated.
10:06Installed as head of the Vichy regime, he worked with the occupiers.
10:10He enforced Nazi policies and aided in the deportation of Jews.
10:13To many, his was the ultimate betrayal, a revered general siding with the enemy against his own people.
10:18After the war, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death.
10:21Charles de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, where Pétain died in disgrace.
10:25Imprisoned on an island off the coast of France, Pétain died unrepentant in 1951 at the age of 95.
10:34Number 8. Pierre Laval
10:35If Pétain was the figurehead of Vichy France, Pierre Laval was the engine that made it run.
10:40No man epitomized French collaboration more than Pierre Laval.
10:45His activities during the Second World War still divide the French today.
10:49Once a prominent French politician, Laval embraced Nazi collaboration and servility with chilling enthusiasm.
10:56As prime minister under the Vichy regime, he didn't just go along with German demands.
11:00He went above and beyond.
11:01Laval actively organized the deportation of French Jews to Nazi death camps and publicly declared his desire for a German victory.
11:08He thought the Nazis would win and wanted to be on the winning team.
11:11He bet wrong.
11:12After the war, he was arrested, tried for treason, and executed by firing squad.
11:15The key piece of evidence against him was the newspaper article from the 22nd of June 1942, where Laval had called for a German victory.
11:26He was sentenced to death.
11:28His name is reviled by history, remembered as a man who didn't just serve the occupiers, but eagerly tightened their noose.
11:35Number 7. Vidkun Quisling
11:37A Norwegian politician who rose from being a successful military man to becoming the minister of defense.
11:42Quisling's power had all but faded by the time the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940.
11:46As Hitler's Norwegian inside man, Vidkun Quisling betrayed his country and paved the way for Nazi invasion and occupation.
11:55As a strong admirer of Adolf Hitler and fascism, he met with the German dictator to betray information about Norwegian military strategy.
12:01Then, as the occupation of Norway took place, Quisling overthrew the government with Nazi backing and established himself as the minister president.
12:08In 1945, the Nazi supporter was charged with embezzlement, murder, and high treason, and subsequently executed.
12:15Right until the moment of death, Vidkun Quisling remained convinced he had done nothing wrong.
12:20Number 6. Guy Fawkes
12:22Born in New York and raised an Anglican, Fawkes converted to Catholicism relatively early in life and developed anti-Protestant sympathies.
12:29Surrounded by Catholicism from his youngest days, it is not surprising that by the age of 20, Fawkes was an ardent and committed Catholic.
12:37It wasn't long before he found a like-minded group of conspirators looking to assassinate King James I and restore Catholicism as the religion of the land.
12:44He became a key figure in the gunpowder plot of 1605, which sought to blow up English Parliament.
12:49Fawkes was charged with safeguarding the explosives which had been amassed in the cellar beneath the House of Lords.
12:54However, he was captured and tortured, eventually dying on January 31st the following year.
12:58Every November 5th, England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day with the bonfire and a burning and effigy of the notorious traitor.
13:04The way, of course, we've continued to celebrate the defeat of the gunpowder plot with bonfire night and burning of Guy Fawkes.
13:13Number 5. Benedict Arnold
13:14During the American Revolutionary War, Arnold established himself as a soldier of intellect and courage.
13:19So much so that he was promoted to the rank of general for the Americans.
13:22But before Arnold betrays his country, he is George Washington's favorite fighting general and a true American hero.
13:29Which makes his betrayal of his commander-in-chief both painful and personal.
13:34However, discontent with his status in the military and with the political decisions of the U.S.,
13:39he began negotiating secretly with the British and decided that he would turn over the fort at West Point.
13:43That was under his command to British troops.
13:45Before them are captured documents that reveal the most notorious act of treason in American history.
13:52A plot to sell out West Point in upstate New York, America's most important fort to the British.
14:00Stunningly, the plot was hatched by West Point's commander and the war's greatest hero, General Benedict Arnold.
14:09The plot was discovered and foiled and Arnold narrowly escaped arrest.
14:13Publicly switching loyalty, he continued to fight against the Americans during the rest of the war.
14:18Number 4. Mir Jaffer
14:19In Indian history, few figures are more reviled than Mir Jaffer.
14:23As commander of the Bengal Army, he was entrusted with defending the region against British expansion.
14:27But in 1757 at the Battle of Plossy, he struck a secret deal with the British East India Company.
14:33In exchange for power and a promise to be installed as Nawab, Jaffer held his troops back at the decisive moment.
14:38His move handed the British a victory on a silver platter.
14:41Battle was a key piece in cementing nearly two centuries of British rule in India.
14:45Jaffer got his throne, and his nation got centuries of colonization.
14:48His name became a curse, still used in South Asia to mean traitor.
14:52Number 3. Ephialtes of Trachys
14:54The Battle of Thermopylae is one of history's most famous last stands.
14:57Ephialtes is the reason it ended in tragedy instead of victory.
15:00Use your reason to kill you men!
15:06I beg you!
15:08Listen to your fellow Greek.
15:10He can attest to the Divine One's generosity.
15:14A Greek from the region of Malis, Ephialtes knew the mountain paths around the hot gates well.
15:18When King Xerxes of Persia needed a way around the Spartan phalanx, Ephialtes gave him one.
15:23He led the Persians through a hidden pass.
15:25They flanked King Leonidas, overwhelming his forces.
15:27The last stand inspired the rest of Greece to unite and turn Xerxes back.
15:31But Ephialtes' betrayal was never forgotten.
15:34You there, Ephialtes.
15:36May you live forever.
15:44His name became so reviled in Greek culture, it eventually came to mean nightmare.
15:50Number 2. Marcus Junius Brutus, the Younger
15:52This senator in the ancient Roman Republic was one of only three people in Dante's epic poem, Inferno, considered so evil that he was to be chewed in the mouth of Satan in the center of hell forever.
16:01Brutus initially warred against the Roman general and consul Julius Caesar.
16:05However, he was pardoned and later appointed as praetor and governor of Gaul by the man who came to be his friend.
16:11Fearing Caesar's rise to power, he joined several other conspirators who shared his concerns.
16:16In one of the most famous betrayals in history, they stabbed the dictator to death in the Senate on the Ides of March in 44 BC.
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16:38Number 1. Judas Iscariot
16:40Dante considered him history's most notorious traitor, choosing to ensnare him in the jaws of Satan's central head in the Inferno.
16:47Iscariot was one of Jesus of Nazareth's Twelve Apostles, confidants with a special relationship to the charismatic religious figure.
16:53This land is a man.
17:08Yehuda.
17:10Despite the bond of trust that existed between Jesus and the apostles, Judas collaborated with those who considered Jesus dangerous.
17:22Judas delivered him into the hands of his enemies, identifying him with a kiss and leading to his subsequent execution by direct order of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate.
17:30To this day, the name Judas is synonymous with the idea of a traitor in popular culture.
17:35And all, apparently, for 30 pieces of silver.
17:38Let us know who broke your heart the hardest in the comments below.
17:58I knew it was you, Fredo.
18:01You broke my heart.
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