- 6 months ago
Some of the worst people in history managed to fool millions.
Welcome to WatchMojo.WORLD, where we’re counting down 10 horrible people who fooled the world, from notorious manipulators to con artists and criminals who hid their true nature behind lies and deception.
Which of these stories shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments!
Welcome to WatchMojo.WORLD, where we’re counting down 10 horrible people who fooled the world, from notorious manipulators to con artists and criminals who hid their true nature behind lies and deception.
Which of these stories shocked you the most? Let us know in the comments!
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Short filmTranscript
00:00He is the mass murderer, and you asked me before what I felt about Jim Jones, I think he's a monster.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the times people hid their true, darker sides from everyone.
00:10Bertie Madoff's fraud was not a complex fraud.
00:13It involved simply taking people's money, telling them he was going to invest their money, and he never did.
00:20Lou Perlman.
00:21He was the man behind some of the biggest boy bands ever, including two of the biggest juggernauts of all time.
00:28From running a blimp company to creating and managing a series of bands, including the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC,
00:34Perlman seemed like a figurehead for breaking entry barriers into the music industry.
00:38However, that turned out to be far from the whole story.
00:41Perlman was soon issued lawsuits by most of the talent under him.
00:45The Backstreet Boys struggled financially and had to split $300,000 between them, while their sixth member, Perlman, took millions.
00:53They said they began to feel like indentured servants.
00:55It was then discovered that his transcontinental company, which claimed to own an airline, restaurants, and more,
01:01was nothing but a Ponzi scheme that stole hundreds of millions.
01:04I think he became aware of his ability to have people trust him sort of in a haphazard way.
01:10Once he became aware of that, he wasn't afraid to use it further.
01:14In 2008, Perlman was sentenced to 25 years in jail and passed away in 2016.
01:20Jimmy Saville.
01:21Many people in Britain are questioning how his behavior went unchecked for so long,
01:25and the scandal is infecting his main employer, the BBC.
01:29For decades, he was one of the most famous presenters in the UK.
01:32Due to hosting Jim Will Fix It, which had children getting their wishes answered,
01:36and his passionate charity work, Saville was highly respected by fans, celebrities, politicians, and even royalty.
01:43This trust gave him access to schools and facilities where vulnerable people were.
01:47Instead of helping them in their time of need, Saville did the opposite.
01:50As he forged a reputation as a tireless fundraiser, as he was knighted by the Queen and the Pope,
01:57he was, it now seems, leading an appalling double life.
02:01In 2012, a year after his passing, allegations about Saville abusing many, many people came out,
02:07as well as an apparent cover-up by authority figures.
02:10This seemingly open secret was now exposed to the public.
02:13Operation Yew Tree was launched by the police,
02:15which discovered hundreds of victims of the disgraced presenter.
02:18We've now had 161 calls to our helpline.
02:22The police are now pursuing 340 separate lines of inquiry.
02:26Elizabeth Holmes.
02:27In 2015, she was named by Forbes as the youngest and wealthiest self-made billionaire woman in the US.
02:34Holmes had created the company Theranos, which claimed to have pioneered a less invasive method of testing blood.
02:39You founded this company 12 years ago, right?
02:41Tell them how old you were.
02:43I was 19.
02:44The college dropout was everywhere, and her passionate support of getting women into STEM occupations boosted her positive profile further.
02:52Shortly after the Forbes announcement, allegations about Theranos' methods were exposed.
02:57The biggest problem was going live with blood tests that didn't work, or that worked only part of the time.
03:03The group was accused of employing devices used by other companies for testing,
03:07as the accuracy of their Edison machine was questioned.
03:10Theranos had raised millions on the misinformation that their device was revolutionary.
03:14In 2023, Holmes was sentenced to more than 11 years in jail, and was fined $452 million for fraud.
03:22Today, she entered the minimum security federal women's prison camp located in Bryan, Texas,
03:27leaving behind two children, the youngest just three months.
03:31Pablo Picasso.
03:32He was a genius, and I rarely use that term, but he was also a total bastard.
03:36When an artist becomes as legendary as Picasso, many assume that they were a good person.
03:41On the surface, the Cubist movement co-founder seemed to fit the bill.
03:45Some who knew Picasso described him as a saint.
03:47However, others have far less complimentary descriptions.
03:51An artistic genius who revolutionized modern art,
03:54Picasso has also been described as violent, jealous, perverse, and destructive.
03:59Even his granddaughter, Marina Picasso, said that once he'd got what he wanted from women, he'd throw them away.
04:04Many partners and muses in Picasso's life have spoken about the abuse they sustained at his hands.
04:10One of his partners, Francois Gillot, wrote a book in 64, Vivre avec Picasso, which described him really like a monster.
04:21This included burning a cigarette on an ex's face in a jealous rage, having a relationship with a minor, and having affairs.
04:27His legacy now includes causing several partners and family members to suffer from mental health issues.
04:33Thomas Edison
04:34With his name attached to over 1,000 patents in the U.S.,
04:38Edison is considered one of the most prolific inventors and someone who helped modernize the world.
04:43He even started the first industrial research laboratory.
04:46But Edison seemingly took credit for work that may rightfully have been done by others.
04:50I'm Thomas Edison. I invented the light bulb. What to do?
04:53He also unsuccessfully sued black inventor Granville Woods for developing the induction telegraph, which Edison claimed he'd made.
05:00During the War of the Currents, Edison, who supported direct current, supported tests to electrocute animals with alternating current to show its dangers.
05:09This evil fascination led to his film studio recording the electrocution of Topsy the Elephant in 1903, so Edison could show the clip on his kinetoscopes.
05:18In addition to executing animals, Edison promoted the idea of an AC-powered electric chair to provoke fear about the dangers of Tesla's AC current.
05:28Bill Cosby
05:28After playing Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show, he was labeled America's dad, and everyone respected him.
05:34Dad, I have something to tell you.
05:36Is it important?
05:38Yes, Dad.
05:39How important is it?
05:40An ape.
05:41Is it a child's ape or an adult's ape?
05:43This, on top of his other comedy work, secured Cosby's place as one of the greatest comedians in the U.S.
05:48Then, 2014 happened.
05:51After years of rumors and allegations, Hannibal Buress publicly called Cosby out for assault during a stand-up set.
05:57This led to a domino effect, as many women began coming out with allegations of abuse they'd sustained from Cosby, destroying his wholesome persona.
06:05In 2018, he was found guilty and sentenced to three to ten years.
06:10In 2021, Cosby's conviction was overturned, and he was released.
06:14Just hours after the court's ruling, Cosby coming before cameras outside of his home, celebrating his release after serving more than two years of a three- to ten-year prison sentence.
06:23Regardless, his reputation is in tatters as he continues fighting further legal battles.
06:28I was really shocked.
06:30I was really shocked.
06:32Disappointed.
06:33What does it say about the American justice system?
06:36That it's flawed?
06:37P.T. Barnum
06:38It's everything you ever want
06:41It's everything you ever need
06:44And it's here and right in front of you
06:47This is where you want to be
06:51Back in the day, Barnum was admired by many.
06:54Beyond his entertainment work, he was a key figure in Connecticut politics,
06:57helping to transform the city of Bridgeport during a stint as mayor.
07:00While on the board of trustees at Tufts University, Barnum gave the facility a lot of money, resulting in the creation of the Barnum Museum of Natural History.
07:09When he passed in 1891, obituaries heavily focused on his philanthropic endeavors.
07:14While his entertainment empire did give work to those dismissed by society, he's also been accused of exploiting them, especially if they were black and mistreating animals.
07:22Barnum would often present people from non-white ethnic backgrounds as living curiosities, promoting racial othering in his museum.
07:29In a similar vein, he presented a black man named William Henry Johnson as a creature known as the What Is It?
07:34After his wife passed away, Barnum controversially married Nancy Fish, the daughter of his close friend, who was 40 years younger.
07:41Looking back now through a modern-day lens, the magic and spectacle that P.T. Barnum created would rather be seen as xenophobic, cruel to animals, racist, and hateful.
07:51Harold Shipman.
07:51Harold Shipman killed more people than anyone else in British peacetime history.
07:56He was convicted of 15 murders, but those were just the tip of the iceberg.
08:00This doctor was so respected that in the early 80s, World in Action interviewed him on his thoughts about how the mentally ill should be treated in society.
08:08For nearly three decades, the general practitioner was well-liked in his communities, so much so that many of Shipman's patients included him in their wills, even removing their family members for him.
08:18However, the authorities got suspicious due to the large number of patients dying in his care.
08:23In 2000, after finding evidence of will forgery, and that he'd been administering fatal doses of diamorphine, Dr. Death was sentenced to life.
08:31This is not a man who's hiding in the woodshed with an axe in his hand. This is a man who is pretending to be helpful and consoling and compassionate.
08:42He took his own life in 2004. The Shipman inquiry investigation concluded in 2005 that the doctor killed 284 people.
08:50Remember that Dr. Shipman has always denied committing any murder whatsoever. It's always vehemently denied that. However, for everybody, so that he dies a convicted person.
08:59Bernie Madoff.
09:01Bernie Madoff's fraud was not a complex fraud. It involved simply taking people's money, telling them he was going to invest their money, and he never did.
09:09Many billionaires dabble in philanthropy, but Madoff took it to another level.
09:13After making his fortune from his own stock brokerage company and an asset management firm, he began working on the boards of several non-profits and Yeshiva University.
09:22Madoff also donated cash to hospitals, foundations, theaters, and around $6 million to lymphoma research.
09:29He seemed like a good person. Then, in 2008, he was arrested after he confessed to his sons that his company was the largest Ponzi scheme in history, estimated at $65 billion.
09:40I just can't continue this charade any longer, and that's what caused me to acknowledge to my family.
09:50Not only did people lose their money due to Madoff, but so did charities. In 2009, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in jail.
09:57He passed away in jail in 2021.
10:00It was another big lie. People believed it. They lost their futures as a result of it. Enormous impact.
10:06Yep, and now he's gone.
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10:21Jim Jones
10:24Growing up in poverty and experiencing kindness from neighbors, Jones seemingly wanted to emulate that in his adulthood.
10:31He could rail. I mean, he could just light up. I mean, his whole body punctuated what he was saying.
10:36In 1955, he founded his own new religious movement, which would become the People's Temple, promoting racial equality and incorporating Christian and left-wing ideologies.
10:46After moving to San Francisco, California, the group worked with activists and charities.
10:51Yet, when accusations of abuse in the temple began to emerge, Jones relocated his movement to Guyana and created Jonestown.
10:58In 1978, while investigating dark claims about the commune, U.S. politician Leo Ryan and four others were fatally shot.
11:06Seeing his temple about to come crashing down, Jones ordered mass ingestion of a cyanide-laced drink among his followers, causing 918 people to perish.
11:15He is the mass murderer. And you asked me before what I felt about Jim Jones, I think he's a monster.
11:20What other infamous people who hid their darker selves did we miss? Let us know below.
11:24Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from WatchMojo, and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
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