Infamous Figures Who Drew The Wrath of a Nation

Many dream of becoming famous, whether through a sport they excel in, the performing arts, or even life in the public eye where they serve the community and are revered for it. To achieve a certain level of prominence that allows us to be celebrated for what we've accomplished can be inspiring. But not all rise to fame in a positive light. These infamous figures who drew the wrath of a nation are perfect examples.

Some of the most infamous figures in the world were those who once drew a certain admiration and respect and were all elected by the people in many instances. These officials made decisions that impacted the lives of millions of people, which is why it may come as no surprise that a genocidal dictator or corrupt ruler would go down in history as evil.

It isn't always heads of state that have shown their evil ways. Other politicians and military officers have also received very warranted negative press for the impacts of their decisions. The recent death of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has brought up a resurgence of accusations of war crimes for his involvement in the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War and other atrocities.

To determine infamous figures who drew the wrath of a nation, 24/7 Tempo referred to various news sources, both current and historical, as well as encyclopedias including Britannica, focusing on their legacies. It should be noted that although many controversial public figures are admired by some and reviled by others, the legacies they leave behind cannot be ignored.

We've also listed famous spies and traitors, assassins, fraudsters, and cult leaders. (Don't miss the people honored most by statues in America.)

Here are infamous figures who drew the wrath of a nation:

Benedict Arnold was a Continental Army General who fought in the American Revolution. He was severely wounded multiple times while fighting the British. Incensed at not receiving the promotions and recognition he felt he deserved, as well as in desperate need of money, he began spying for the British, sending them sensitive information, and eventually defected to their side.

Aaron Burr's most notable treachery wasn't his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton, which resulted in the death of Hamilton, but rather a plan of armed insurrection against the new Nation.

Acquitted for a lack of evidence, Burr was charged with treason for conspiring to take power over the western states and Louisiana Territory to establish an independent country. Although his alleged plan never panned out, his political career crashed and burned.

Touted by some as a populist hero who expedited westward expansion, the seventh president has come to be loathed by others for his racism and genocidal policies.

Jackson not only profited from his ownership of enslaved people – whom he treated abhorrently – but also signed the Indian Removal Act, which expropriated Native lands and led to the forced relocation of over 60,000 Native Americans, with tens of thousands dying in the process.

Remembered for leading Union troops through Georgia on a destructive "March to the Sea," General William Tecumseh Sherman ensured Union success in the Civil War by torching every possible element of Confederate war-making.

His troops destroyed not only military targets, but railroads, farms, cotton warehouses, and other civilian infrastructure, and his plan to demoralize the South worked. His legacy as a ruthless villain is alive and well in the areas he ravaged.

Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest commanded the troops responsible for the Fort Pillow Massacre, in which several hundred Union soldiers – most of them African American – were killed after surrendering.

His post-war career included becoming the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and he is regarded as a hero by many in his home state of Tennessee. Although he reportedly renounced his racist views later in life, his legacy as a symbol of racial hatred remains.

Chivington, a Methodist pastor and Army colonel in Colorado was eager to advance his career with an Army victory. Instead, he orchestrated one of the most atrocious acts in U.S. Military history – the Sand Creek Massacre. He ordered his men to fire on a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women, children, and the elderly.

His men killed about 230 innocent people, mutilating their bodies before declaring a victory against "hostiles." A subsequent investigation brought the truth to light, but Chivington escaped charges.

Railroad tycoon Jay Gould was known as a backstabber who would do anything to make a buck, including bribery, disregarding the law, and manipulating stocks, and became the poster child for greedy robber barons.

Although he sounds no different from many notorious business magnates, Gould earned extra ire for being reticent with the press, which left space for all manner of enduring rumors to fill the newspapers.

Booth was a Shakespearean actor and Confederate sympathizer, who believed, like many of his compatriots, that Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant and the worst thing that had ever happened to the people of the South.

After several plans to abduct the president failed, Booth finally succeeded in assassinating Lincoln in a theater. Although he thought he would be praised for the act, Booth found that newspapers from around the nation characterized him as an unstable villain.

Biologist Charles Davenport started the early American eugenics movement and sought to breed out "undesirable" traits in humans. He advocated for racist immigration policies and the sterilization of people deemed genetically inferior.

Due to sterilization laws passed in the early 1900s after lobbying by eugenicists, over 30,000 people were sterilized unknowingly or against their will between 1907 and 1939. Davenport also supported and influenced Nazi eugenics programs in Germany.

Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its predecessor for 48 years, Hoover was once celebrated as an anti-communist lawman. But his homophobic, racist, and anti-radical views began to clash with those of the general public in the '60s, and his current legacy is much more fraught.

The truth has since emerged of his use of illegal surveillance, blackmail, media manipulation, and other unwarranted tactics to control politicians and disrupt political groups.

Maine native Mildred Gillars moved to Germany in 1934 where she found success as a translator for the German film industry. In 1940 took a job as a radio announcer with German State Radio.

Her initial programs were apolitical, she eventually became the voice of a propaganda segment meant to demoralize American GIs by telling them their wives were cheating on them and that they'd be returning home maimed. She also spouted antisemitic vitriol and attacks on FDR and was captured and convicted of treason after the war.

During the Red Scare of the early Cold War years, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy rose to prominence with his fear-mongering tactics that put him in the spotlight. He accused prominent government officials, military members, and scores of civilians of having communist leanings.

His reputation was extinguished nearly overnight, however, when it became clear to the public that his outlandish claims were often supported by nothing but lies, and that he relied on bullying, blackmail, and intimidation to control his political opponents.

Richard Nixon's voluntary resignation came during the investigation of his involvement in the Watergate scandal, where he was accused of funneling up to $1 million in campaign funds to silence perpetrators of a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.

Secret recordings of Nixon and his staff surfaced at the time, proving his involvement in the break-in and the coverup, revealing to the public his paranoid and conniving personality, and all but ruining his reputation. He has gone down in history as the first U.S. president to resign.

Former United States Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger is at once a celebrated diplomat and a man responsible for the deaths of millions of people, leading many to consider him an unprosecuted war criminal.

He was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for helping to broker a ceasefire and U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Interestingly, he played a role in prolonging the Vietnam War, expanding it into Cambodia, facilitating genocides in several countries, and supporting coups and death squads in Latin America.

Founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, which is categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Phelps was a rabidly anti-gay preacher who stooped to despicable lows.

Some of these included picketing with "God hates fags" signs, holding demonstrations at the funerals of people who died from AIDS and LGBTQ-related hate crimes, and picketing at military funerals to proclaim that God kills soldiers to punish the country for its acceptance of homosexuality.

Jim Jones, founder of the Peoples Temple cult, was facing media exposés and fraud allegations in California, so he moved his followers to a Guyana commune dubbed Jonestown. Reports of child abuse and false imprisonment led California congressman Leo Ryan and an NBC news crew to investigate the commune.

After instructing armed members to murder Ryan and his delegation, Jones forced his followers – some at gunpoint – to ingest a cyanide-laced punch, resulting in 909 deaths, including around 300 children. He is infamous for inciting one of the largest mass murders/suicides in history.

Manson was a troubled youth and a failed musician who became the leader of "the family," a murderous group of people who shared the same ideals and lifestyle as he did. Aspiring to start an apocalyptic race war, Manson fed his followers LSD and instructed them to commit the sadistic Tate-LaBianca murders in LA in 1969 (it is believed he was targeting the former occupant of the home, music producer Terry Melcher who denied Manson a recording contact).

He was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in 1971 and lived the rest of his life in prison. Although he continued to intrigue the public during his incarceration, Manson's name has become synonymous with evil.

Navy communications officer John Anthony Walker, Jr. was experiencing financial troubles in 1967 when he began spying for the Soviets by selling them a radio cipher card, which would allow them to decode secret Naval communication.

Over the next 18 years, he handed over the locations of all U.S. nuclear submarines, Vietnam troop movements and strikes, and over a million decrypted messages. Some consider his actions the most damaging security breach of the Cold War.

Financier and asset manager Bernie Madoff orchestrated the largest accounting fraud scheme in American history when he defrauded clients of $65 billion through an elaborate Ponzi scheme over five decades.

His company collapsed in 2008, and when his sons turned him in, Madoff received a 150-year prison sentence and was ordered to forfeit $170 billion in assets.

The man who went down in history as JFK's assassin is still remembered as a disturbed extremist who took out a beloved American icon and plunged the nation into mourning to fulfill a misguided fantasy of being a political revolutionary. Although conspiracy theories still abound that place the blame on someone other than a lone gunman.

From 1979 until he was caught in 2001, FBI agent Robert Hanssen provided classified information to the KGB in exchange for over $1.4 million in diamonds, bank funds, and cash. He gave up the identities of U.S. operatives, details on nuclear operations, and the existence of an eavesdropping tunnel under the Soviet Embassy in D.C.

Hanssen is considered the most damaging spy in FBI history. He has been implicated in the deaths of at least three Soviet officers who were working for U.S. intelligence.

Rush Limbaugh was a highly polarizing right-wing political commentator and popular talk radio host who was loved by many but despised by most. His hateful rhetoric, racism, lies, and bullying gained him millions of listeners but also sowed divisions and normalized hate speech.

He was known for denigrating women, Black people, LGBTQ people, and people who died of AIDS. He even referred to a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton as the White House dog.

Epstein, a noted celebrity financier, is alleged to have organized a child sex trafficking ring that lured underage girls from numerous countries to his private island, where they were assaulted by his wealthy friends and clients.

In 2008, he was convicted of two sex trafficking crimes but continued to abuse girls in New York, Florida, and the Caribbean before his suspicious 2019 death in a prison cell while awaiting another sex trafficking trial.

In what has been marked as the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history, Timothy McVeigh orchestrated the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people – including 19 children in a daycare center – and injured over 600.

McVeigh was a decorated Army veteran turned anti-government extremist who was seeking retribution for the 1993 ATF/FBI siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. He was arrested shortly after the bombing, found guilty on all charges, and executed for the attack in 2001.