Mass Murderers, Serial Killers, & Brutal Dictators

Exploring The Fascination With History’s Most Notorious Evildoers

As a child, I had a somewhat “perverse” fascination with television shows about evil tyrants, mass murderers, serial killers, and other diabolical figures. Growing up in the 1980s and 90s, I often watched A&E and the History Channel air biographical accounts of monstrous men (and, on rare occasions, women) who committed heinous, unspeakable crimes.

Whether it was Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Joseph Stalin, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, or another evildoer, I enjoyed gaining insight into their personal lives. What was their upbringing like? What habits or influences drove them to commit their crimes? What “justice” did their victims or corresponding loved ones receive? How did their lives end?

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In most cases, common threads emerge. A troubled childhood. Sexual and/or physical abuse. A traumatic experience or series of experiences (such as persistent bullying). Loneliness. Isolation. A feeling of overwhelming inferiority (or superiority). A desire to overcompensate for something that was apparently absent (such as a parent’s love) at one point in their lives.

Since the fall of man, and especially following the murder of Abel by his brother Cain, the human heart has been corrupted by evil, revealing a rejection of God’s holiness. Instead, humanity has decided that to settle a perceived wrong, he or she will take matters into his or her own hands. It is this mindset that ultimately defines all acts of evil.

Strangely, these ultimate doers of evil merely demonstrate how corrupt the unrighteous heart is in comparison to God’s unattainable (in our own efforts) standard of perfection. People often ask how someone like Adolf Hitler or Jeffrey Dahmer could do what they did. It is a fair question to ask. However, in our sins, we are all capable of committing the worst acts imaginable.

In Jeremiah 17:9, the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us of the following:

“The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked beyond cure: who can understand it?”

If you are a believer, always remember that we are called to trust in God in all matters of life and not to lean on our own hearts (or on our understanding of a situation, no matter how little or great). See Proverbs 3:5–6. God’s ways and thoughts regarding every aspect of our lives are higher (far beyond human comprehension) than our own. See Isaiah 55:9.

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