The biggest wars in terms of the number of victims. The worst disasters in the world

For hundreds of years of sailing on various ships, sailboats and barges across the expanses of the seas and oceans, there have been many kinds of accidents and shipwrecks. Films have even been made about some of them, the most popular of which, of course, is the Titanic. But which shipwrecks were the largest in terms of the size of the ship and the number of victims? In this ranking, we answer this question by presenting the biggest maritime disasters.

11

The rating opens with a British passenger liner that was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915, in a zone designated by the Kaiser government as a zone of submarine warfare. The ship, sailing with a painted over name and not raising any flag above it, sank in 18 minutes, 13 kilometers from the coast of Ireland. 1198 people died out of 1959 who were on board. The destruction of this ship set public opinion in many countries against Germany and contributed to the entry of the United States into the First world war two years later.

10

Single-screw steamer, had a capacity of 7142 register tons, a length of 132 meters, a beam of 17 meters, a maximum speed of 11 knots. On April 12, 1944, a steamship with explosives with a total mass of more than 1,500 tons stood up for unloading at the pier of the port of Bombay. There were other cargoes on board - 8,700 tons of cotton, 128 ingots of gold, sulfur, wood, engine oil, etc. The ship was loaded in violation of safety regulations. At about 2 p.m. a fire broke out on board, and no actions contributed to its elimination. At 16:06 there was an explosion, which generated a tidal wave of such force that the Jalampada ship, with a displacement of almost 4,000 tons, ended up on the roof of a 17-meter warehouse. After 34 min. there was a second explosion.

Burning cotton scattered within a radius of 900 meters from the epicenter and set fire to everything: ships, warehouses, houses. A strong wind from the sea drove a wall of fire to the city. The fires were extinguished only after 2 weeks. It took about 7 months to restore the port. Official statistics announced 1376 deaths, 2408 people were admitted to hospitals. The fire destroyed 55,000 tons of grain, thousands of tons of seeds, oil, oil; a huge amount of military equipment and almost one square mile of city blocks. 6 thousand firms went bankrupt, 50 thousand people lost their jobs. Many small and 4 large ships, dozens were destroyed.

9

It was with this ship that the most famous disaster on the water occurred. The British White Star Line steamer was the second of three Olympic-class twin steamers and the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of construction. Gross tonnage 46,328 register tons, displacement 66,000 tons. The ship is 269 meters long, 28 meters wide and 52 meters high. The engine room had 29 boilers and 159 coal fireboxes. Maximum speed 25 knots. On its maiden voyage on April 14, 1912, it collided with an iceberg and sank 2 hours and 40 minutes later. There were 2224 people on board. Of these, 711 people were saved, 1513 died. The Titanic disaster became legendary, several feature films were shot based on its plot.

8

In the harbor of the Canadian city of Halifax on December 6, 1917, the French military cargo ship Mont Blanc, which was fully loaded with one explosive - TNT, pyroxylin and picric acid, collided with the Norwegian ship Imo. As a result of the strongest explosion, the port and a significant part of the city were completely destroyed. About 2,000 people died as a result of an explosion under the rubble of buildings and because of the fires that arose after the explosion. Approximately 9,000 people were injured, 400 people lost their sight. The explosion in Halifax is one of the strongest explosions arranged by mankind, this explosion is considered the most powerful explosion of the pre-nuclear era.

7

This French auxiliary cruiser served as a flagship and participated in the neutralization of the Greek fleet. Displacement - 25,000 tons, length - 166 meters, width - 27 meters, power - 29,000 horsepower, speed - 20 knots, cruising range - 4,700 miles at 10 knots. She sank in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece on February 26, 1916 after a torpedo attack by the German submarine U-35. Of the 4,000 people on board, 3,130 died, 870 escaped.

6

After 1944, this German passenger ocean liner was converted into a floating hospital, participated in the evacuation of mostly wounded soldiers and refugees from East Prussia from the advancing Red Army. The liner left the port of Pillau on February 9, 1945 and headed for Kiel, there were more than 4,000 people on board - wounded military personnel, soldiers, refugees, medical staff and crew members. On the night of February 10 at 00:55, the Soviet submarine S-13 torpedoed the liner with two torpedoes. The ship sank 15 minutes later, killing 3,608 and saving 659 people. When the liner was torpedoed, the submarine commander was convinced that in front of him was not a passenger liner, but a military cruiser.

5

The passenger ferry Dona Paz, registered in the Philippines, sank on December 20, 1987 at about 10 p.m. near the island of Marinduque after a collision with the tanker Vector. Approximately 4,375 people died in the process, making this the largest maritime disaster in peacetime.

4

This passenger-cargo ship of the "Adzharia" type was built at the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad in 1928, and on November 7, 1941, it was sunk by the Germans near the Crimean coast. The death toll was, according to various estimates, from 3,000 to 4,500 people. On the ship were several thousand wounded soldiers and evacuated citizens, including the staff of 23 military and civilian hospitals, the leadership of the pioneer camp and part of the party leadership of the Crimea. The loading of the evacuees was in a hurry, and their exact number is not known. There is a version that the cause of this maritime disaster was the criminal mistakes of the Black Sea Fleet command. The crowded motor ship, instead of making the transition to the Caucasian, was sent by the command to Yalta.

3

A cargo ship built in Oslo, Norway, launched on 4 April 1940. It was confiscated by the Germans after Norway was occupied by Germany. At first it was used as a conditional target for training the crews of German submarines. Later, the ship took part in the evacuation of people by sea from the advancing Red Army. It was armed with cannons. This ship managed to make four trips, in which 19,785 people were evacuated. On the night of April 16, 1945, the ship making the fifth trip was torpedoed by the Soviet submarine L-3, after which the Goya sank in the Baltic Sea. More than 6,900 people died in the disaster.

2

On May 3, 1945, a tragedy occurred in the Baltic Sea, the victims of which were approximately 8,000 people. The German liner "Cap Arkona" and the cargo ship "Tilbek", transporting prisoners from the evacuating concentration camps, were fired upon by British aircraft. As a result, more than 5,000 people died on the Cap Arkon, and about 2,800 on the Tilbeck. According to one version, this raid was a mistake on the part of the British Air Force, who believed that German troops were on the ships, according to another, the pilots were ordered to destroy everything enemy ships in the area.

1

The most on the water happened with this German passenger liner, which since 1940 has been converted into a floating hospital. During the Second World War, it was used as an infirmary, a hostel for the 2nd training brigade of submariners. The death of the ship, torpedoed on January 30, 1945 by the Soviet submarine S-13 under the command of A. I. Marinesko, is considered the largest disaster in maritime history - according to a number of historians, real losses could be more than 9,000 people.

At 21:16 the first torpedo hit the bow of the ship, later the second blew up the empty pool where the women of the naval auxiliary battalion were, and the last one hit the engine room. By the joint efforts of the crew and passengers, some lifeboats were launched, and yet in ice water turned out to be a lot of people. From the strong roll of the ship, an anti-aircraft gun came off the deck and crushed one of the boats full of people. About an hour after the attack, the Wilhelm Gustloff completely sank.

Every year there are many catastrophes in the world. different nature due to natural phenomena, technical problems, errors of specialists and many other unfavorable factors. All of them often lead to tragic consequences.
They will forever remain in the memory of those people who lost their loved ones. In memory of those who provided any assistance in the center of events, and all those who could not help, but were worried about the fate of people in trouble. This article lists the worst disasters that have ever happened in history: on water, in the air, and on land.

In 1931, China experienced the worst flood in history. The Yangtze River ranks third among major rivers, with about 700 different rivers flowing into it. Every year, during the rains, it overflowed and caused damage.

In August 1931, the Yangtze River and the neighboring Yellow River burst their banks, merging into one powerful stream, destroyed the dams. This led to a global flood. They, destroying everything in their path, flooded 16 Chinese provinces, which is about 300,000 hectares of land.


More than 40 million people were affected, left without shelter, clothing and food. The water did not come down for about 4 months. As a result of prolonged famine and disease, the death toll exceeded 3.5 million people. To prevent such a tragedy, two protective dams were later built and two reservoirs created.

fertilizer plant

In 1984, in the Indian city of Bhopal, there was a major ecological catastrophy in history. On the night of December 3, one of the tanks with the poisonous gas methyl isocyanate exploded at a chemical plant producing fertilizers. The tank volume was 40 tons.

Presumably, the cause of this accident was a safety violation. In the tank with methyl isocyanate, heating has occurred, which has reached a critical temperature. As a result, the emergency valve burst in it, and the gas escaped from the tank.


because of strong wind the gas cloud quickly spread over 40 square kilometers. Unsuspecting, sleeping people were eating away at their eyes and lungs. Over the first week, more than 3000 thousand people. In subsequent years, 15,000 people died from diseases. And about 100,000 people needed treatment.
The uncleaned area of ​​the chemical plant is still infecting people. Thousands of people suffer from toxic contamination, many children are born with abnormalities.

Chernobyl tragedy

One of the worst nuclear accidents occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. The accident had a hazard level of 7 on the scale of nuclear events.

The nuclear power plant was located near the city of Pripyat, which was built specifically for the workers of the station. At that time, more than 47,000 people lived in it. In the early morning of April 26, there was a powerful explosion of a nuclear reactor in the building of the fourth power unit.


The ill-conceived and erroneous actions of the station engineers during the tests of the turbogenerator led to this. As a result of the accident, the nuclear reactor was completely destroyed, and a fire started in the building of the power unit, which was extinguished for more than a week. 600 firefighters died while extinguishing it, having received the largest dose of radiation.

The consequences of the accident were frightening, thousands of people lived their calm, measured lives just a few kilometers from the accident and did not know what had happened. Information about the accident was not disseminated for the first day, but when the release of radioactive substances reached a critical level, they began to evacuate Pripyat and nearby settlements.

About 800,000 people participated in the liquidation of the accident. According to unofficial data, half of the liquidators received a lethal dose of radiation.

Boat trip

In 1987 there was the largest disaster on the water. On December 20, the Philippine ferry Dona Paz, carrying passengers, collided with the tanker Vector, which was carrying more than 8,000 thousand barrels of oil.

As a result of the impact, the steam broke in half, and oil poured from the holes in the tanker. A fire started almost instantly, both ships and the surface of the water burned. Fleeing, people jumped into the water, where fire and sharks were waiting for them.

Rescuers arrived only after 8 hours, only 26 people survived. The death toll has exceeded 4200 people. The exact cause of the accident has not been established.

deadly tsunami

On December 26, 2004, the most powerful tsunami in history occurred in the Indian Ocean. Due to a strong underwater earthquake with a magnitude of 9 points, at a depth of 30 kilometers, a rock shift occurred, which gave rise to this devastating tsunami. At that time, there was no system in the Indian Ocean that would detect tsunamis, so this tragedy could not be prevented.

In a few hours, waves up to 20 meters high reached the coast, crushing everything in their path. Within hours, the waves brought incredible destruction to Thailand, India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

In total, the tsunami reached the coasts of 18 countries. It took more life 300,000 thousand people, 15,000 people went missing and about 1.5 million people were left homeless. Restoration work lasted about five years, houses, schools and resort areas were rebuilt. After the tragedy, an evacuation system was organized and a tsunami warning system was created.

Cyclone named after a flower

The devastating cyclone Nargis passed through Myanmar on May 3, 2008. The wind speed reached 240 km/h. The tropical cyclone destroyed many small towns. And almost completely destroyed Big City Yangon. The population was left without shelter and electricity.


As a result of the terrible natural disaster, the death toll amounted to 90,000 thousand people. More than 55,000 people were never found. In total, more than 1.5 million people were affected. Many countries came to the rescue of Myanmar by providing material and humanitarian assistance.

Cruelty of nature

A powerful earthquake destroyed part of the island of Haiti in 2010, the magnitude of which was 7 points. The first shocks were registered on January 12, 20 kilometers from the capital of Haiti. A number of strong shocks continued shocks with a magnitude of 5.9 points.
After a terrible shaking, more than 3 million people were left without a home. 60% of residential premises were destroyed and many public buildings such as schools, hospitals, cathedrals.


The death toll during the natural disaster and under the rubble was 222,570 thousand people, wounded 311,000 thousand people, and about 1,000 people who were never found.

Not a cheap flight

The crash of a Japanese Boeing 747 in 1985 is recognized as the worst air crash in the air. And it ranks second in the number of deaths. On August 12, in connection with the Japanese holiday, there were 524 people on board along with the crew.

The cause of the disaster was poor-quality repair of the aircraft. At the 12th minute of the flight, the keel of the aircraft comes off, the control system fails, and at an altitude of 1500 meters the aircraft crashes into a mountain.


Due to a strong fire at the crash site, the rescue operation did not begin until 14 hours later. Many of the wounded never received help. Rescuers found notes from passengers with appeals to their families. dead 520 people only 4 survivors.

This article describes only a small part of the disasters that are recorded in world history. Here are collected the most massive and tragic of them. All of them claimed the lives of millions of children, adults, old people of different nationalities and religions. After all, trouble is indifferent to gender, age and race.

TASS-DOSIER. On November 17, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, said that the A321 crash over Sinai, where more than 220 people died, was a terrorist attack. According to him, traces of a foreign-made explosive were found on the wreckage of the plane and things.

Less than two weeks after the events in Egypt, terrorists launched a series of attacks in Paris. 129 people died, over 350 were injured. This is the second largest terrorist attack in Europe after Madrid, when 190 people were killed in train station bombings in 2004.

The top 10 terrorist attacks in the world are listed below, excluding attacks that occurred in countries where there was a military conflict at that time. In eight cases, terrorist attacks were carried out by radical Islamist groups.

September 11 attacks in the United States. 2996 dead

On September 11, 2001, in the United States, suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda hijacked passenger planes and crashed them into two towers of the World shopping center(New York) and to the building of the Pentagon - the headquarters of the US Department of Defense (Arlington County, Virginia). The fourth hijacked liner crashed near Shanksville (Pennsylvania). As a result of this largest series of terrorist attacks in the world, 2,996 people were killed and more than 6,000 people were injured. The terrorist attack was organized by al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden.

Beslan. Russia. 335 dead

On September 1, 2004, in Beslan (North Ossetia-Alania), militants led by Ruslan Khuchbarov ("Rasul") captured more than 1,100 students of school number 1, their relatives and teachers. On September 2, after negotiations with the ex-president of the Republic of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, the bandits released 25 women and children. On September 3, shooting and explosions began at the school, which forced the assault to begin. Most of the hostages were released, 335 people died. Among the dead were 186 children, 17 teachers and school employees, 10 employees of the Russian Federal Security Service, and two employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The militants were destroyed, only one survived - Nurpashi Kulaev (in 2006 he was sentenced to death penalty, commuted to life imprisonment due to a moratorium on the execution of death sentences). Responsibility for the attack was taken by the international terrorist Shamil Basayev (liquidated in 2006).

Boeing 747 Air India. 329 dead

On June 23, 1985, a Boeing 747 passenger aircraft of Air India, flying AI182 on the route Montreal (Canada) - London - Delhi, crashed in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland. The cause of the disaster was the explosion of a bomb planted in luggage by Indian Sikh extremists. The crash killed all 329 people on board (307 passengers and 22 crew members). Canadian citizen Inderjit Singh Reyat was sentenced to 5 years in prison on charges of participating in the preparation of a terrorist attack in 2003. Prior to that, he served a 10-year prison sentence for preparing an explosion at Narita Airport (Japan), which occurred on the same day as the VT-EFO disaster. Reyat was later charged with perjury and was sentenced in 2011 to 9 years in prison.

Boko Haram attack in Nigeria. Over 300 dead

On May 5-6, 2014, as a result of a night attack on the city of Gambora, Borno state, over 300 residents were killed by militants. The survivors fled to neighboring Cameroon. Most of the city was destroyed.

Attack on Lockerbie. 270 dead

On December 21, 1988, a Boeing 747 passenger plane of Pan Am (USA), performing regular flight 103 on the route Frankfurt am Main - London - New York - Detroit, crashed in the air over Lockerbie (Scotland). A bomb placed in luggage exploded on board. All 243 passengers and 16 crew members on board, as well as 11 people on the ground, were killed. In 1991, two Libyan citizens were accused of organizing the explosion. In 1999, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi agreed to hand over both suspects to a Dutch court. One of them, Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi, was found guilty on January 31, 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment (released in 2009 due to a fatal illness diagnosed in him, died in 2012). In 2003, the Libyan authorities admitted responsibility for the attack and paid compensation in overall size 2.7 billion US dollars - 10 million dollars for each dead.

Attacks in Bombay. India. 257 dead

On March 12, 1993, in crowded places in Bombay (now Mumbai), 13 explosive devices planted in cars were simultaneously activated. The victims of the terrorist attack were 257 people, more than 700 were injured. The investigation found that the organizers of the explosions were Islamic terrorists. The attack was a response to previous clashes between Muslims and Hindus in the city. One of the organizers, Yakub Memon, was sentenced to death, which was carried out on July 30, 2015. Two of his accomplices are on the wanted list.

Aircraft A321 "Kogalymavia". 224 dead

On October 31, 2015, an Airbus A321-231 passenger plane (registration number EI-ETJ) of the Russian airline Metrojet (Kogalymavia), flying flight 9268 from Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) to St. Petersburg, crashed 100 km from El-Arish city in the north of the Sinai Peninsula. There were 224 people on board - 217 passengers and seven crew members, all of whom died.

Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that the perpetrators and those involved in the terrorist attack with the plane would be found and punished. "We must do this without a statute of limitations, know them all by name. We will look for them wherever they hide. We will find them anywhere in the world and punish them," Putin assured.

Undermining the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 224 dead

On August 7, 1998, two terrorist attacks simultaneously took place in Nairobi (the capital of Kenya) and Dar es Salaam (the former capital of Tanzania), targeting the US embassies in these countries. Near the embassies, parked trucks filled with explosives exploded. A total of 224 people died, of which 12 were US citizens, the rest were local residents. Al-Qaeda was the organizer of the explosions.

Attacks in Mumbai. India. 209 dead

On July 11, 2006, Islamic terrorists detonated explosive devices hidden in pressure cookers planted in the carriages of seven suburban trains in the suburbs of Mumbai (Khar Road, Bandra, Jogeshwari, Mahim, Borivli, Matunga and Mira Road). The attack took place during the evening rush hour. 209 people died, more than 700 were injured. At the end of the investigation of the crime, the court sentenced 12 people to various prison terms, 5 of them were sentenced to death.

Attack in Bali. Indonesia. 202 dead

On October 12, 2002, a suicide bombing and car bomb attack near nightclubs in the resort town of Kuta (Bali) killed 202 people, 164 of them foreign tourists. 209 people were injured. About 30 people were arrested in connection with the attack. In 2003, an Indonesian court recognized a number of members of the Jamaa Islamiya organization as the organizers of the attack. In 2008, three of them - Abdul Aziz, also known as Imam Samudra, Amrozi bin Nurhasim and Ali (Muklas) Gurfon - were shot by a court. Muklas' brother, Ali Imron, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Al-Qaeda, mentioned in the material, is included in the United federal list organizations recognized under the law Russian Federation terrorist. Their activity on the territory of the Russian Federation is prohibited.

These are global disasters that, unfortunately, sometimes occur. There are probably no right words to describe them, and God forbid to be in such situations. We present to your attention the largest disasters in the world.

The worst plane crash ever

The rating of "The worst plane crashes" is headed by collision in Tenerife. The fatal collision of 2 Boeing-747 aircraft belonging to different companies (Boeing-747-206B - the brainchild of KLM, operated the next flight KL4805 and Boeing-747 - the property of Pan American, operated flight 1736, happened on March 27, 1977 on the island of the Canary Islands, Tenerife, on the runway of Los Rodeos Airport.Many people died - 583 people who were on these two planes.What exactly caused such a devastating accident?The paradox is that the superimposition of adverse circumstances on each other played a cruel joke.

On that ill-fated Sunday spring day, Los Rodeos airport was very congested. Both aircraft were maneuvering on a narrow runway, including complex 135-180-degree turns. Interference in radio communication with the controller and between pilots, poor weather conditions and visibility, misinterpretation of commands by the air traffic controller, the strong Spanish accent of the controller - all this inevitably led to disaster. The Boeing KLM commander did not understand the dispatcher's command to abort the takeoff, at a time when the commander of the second Boeing reported that their huge aircraft was still moving along the runway. Fourteen seconds later, the inevitable collision occurred, the fuselage of the Pan American Boeing was badly damaged, gaps formed in some places, and some passengers escaped through them. A Boeing KLM without a tail and with damaged wings fell onto the runway 150 meters from the point of impact and drove along the runway for another 300 meters. Both affected aircraft caught fire. All 248 people from the Boeing KLM aircraft died. The second aircraft killed 326 passengers and 9 crew members.

The American star of Playboy magazine, actress and model Eve Meyer, also died in this plane crash. This disaster remains the largest in terms of the number of victims in the history of civil aviation.

The largest man-made disaster

The worst disaster in the history of oil production was the explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform, built in 1976. It happened on 07/06/1988. According to experts, this terrible accident cost 3.4 billion US dollars and claimed the lives of 167 people.

Piper Alpha is the only burnt oil platform on Earth, owned by the American oil company Occidental Petroleum. There was a huge gas leak and, as a result, a colossal explosion. This happened as a result of the ill-considered actions of the maintenance personnel - the pipelines from the platform fed the general oil pipeline network, the supply of oil products was not stopped immediately after the disaster, waiting for the command of the higher authorities. Therefore, the fire continued due to the burning of gas and oil in the pipes, the fire even engulfed residential complexes. And those who were able to survive after the first explosion were surrounded by flames. Those who jumped into the water were saved.

The biggest disaster on the water

If you remember the biggest disasters on the water, then you immediately remember the pictures from the movie "Titanic", which is based on real events in 1912. But the sinking of the Titanic is not the biggest disaster.

The greatest maritime disaster was the sinking of the German ship "Wilhelm Gustloff" by a Soviet military submarine on 01/30/1945. There were almost 9,000 people on board the ship: 3,700 of them had completed elite training for military submariners, 3-4,000 representatives of the military elite who had been evacuated from Danzig.

The tourist sightseeing ship was built in 1938. It was, as it seemed, an unsinkable 9-deck ocean liner, designed according to the latest technologies of that time. Dance floors, 2 theatres, swimming pools, church, gym, restaurants, cafes winter garden and climate control, comfortable cabins and personal apartments of Hitler himself. With a length of 208 meters, he could go half the world without refueling. He could not sink a priori. But fate decreed otherwise.

Under the command of A. I. Marinesko, the crew of the Soviet submarine S-13 conducted a military operation to destroy an enemy ship. Three torpedoes fired pierced the Wilhelm Gustloff. It immediately sank in the Baltic Sea. Until now, no one in the whole world can forget the most terrible catastrophe.

The most terrible catastrophe from the ecological point of view of ecology is considered the death of the Aral Sea, which, before the start of drying up, scientists called the fourth largest lake. Although the sea is located on the territory former USSR, the catastrophe affected the whole world. Water was taken from it in uncontrolled volumes for irrigation of fields and gardens in order to ensure the fulfillment of political ambitions and unreasonable plans of Soviet leaders. Over time, the coastline moved so deep into the lake that many species of fish and animals died, more than 60,000 people lost their jobs, shipping stopped, the climate changed - droughts became more frequent.

A huge number of people are exposed to nuclear disasters. So in April 1986, one of the power units of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. Radioactive substances released into the atmosphere settled on nearby villages and cities.

This accident is one of the most devastating of its kind. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in the liquidation of the accident. Several hundred people died or were injured. A thirty-kilometer exclusion zone has been formed around the nuclear power plant. So far, the scale of the disaster has not been clarified.

Why do people kill each other? The reasons can be explained in terms of natural selection or cruel necessity - when we are talking about the struggle for resources or about self-defense (ultimately, both there and there it is about survival). Another thing is that millennia of civilization development have led humanity to the conclusion that killing is bad, immoral and destructive.

Why does the program sometimes break down and a person starts killing for the sake of killing? Where do cruel people obsessed with death come from? Let's try to tell you about the ten most cruel maniacs in history.

John Wayne Gacy

This man is known as the "killer clown" (it was his story that prompted Stephen King to create one of the most terrible horror films - "It"). His life was, so to speak, quite typical for a maniac - as a child, Gacy survived a rape, his father was an alcoholic who abused his family.

For the first time, John Wayne Gacy went to jail at the age of 26 - for the rape of a teenage boy. Instead of 10 years, he served a year and a half: he was released for good behavior. The mistake of the penitentiary system cost America dearly. Once at large, Gacy bought a Pogo clown costume and began to earn extra money at city holidays in the suburbs of Chicago.

From 1972 to 1978, he raped and killed more than 30 people. These were young guys whom Gacy brought to his home, tortured and killed. They arrested him in 1978. The remains of 29 victims were found in the basement of his house. The jury sentenced John Wayne Gacy to 12 deaths, the only one of which was carried out on May 10, 1994.

Jeffrey Dahmer

Cannibal and murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was also sexually abused and bullied as a child. However, for the time being, he was an ordinary teenager - until he developed a strange habit of collecting animal corpses, which he placed in jars of formaldehyde.

For the first time, Dahmer killed at the age of 18 - a young man, a casual acquaintance, became his victim. The killer stunned him with dumbbells, strangled him, and then cut the body into pieces and buried them under the house. After that, life went on as usual, as if nothing had happened. Dahmer married, studied, was expelled for drunkenness, served in the army, worked ...

In 1987 he killed again and could no longer stop. In four years, he raped and killed 17 people. Once he brought home another victim, but a young man named Tracy Edwards managed to get out and call the police. Later, during a search in Dahmer's house, photographs of corpses, the bodies themselves and parts of the bodies with which the refrigerator was stuffed, were found. There was a skeleton in the closet, and three male torsos in the barrel of acid.

Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to fifteen life terms, but lived in prison for only three years - in 1994 he was beaten to death by a cellmate.

Ted Bundy

Theodore Bundy showed great promise - he was smart and talented, studied well and was in good standing with professors. It is unknown what went wrong. But in 1974, at the height of the academic year at the university, Bundy began to skip classes and was soon expelled. Around the same time, women began to disappear without a trace on the West Coast.

The exact number of victims of Ted Bundy is unknown. During the investigation, he confessed to 30 murders of women, but there could be more. Bundy met young girls, smiled charmingly and asked for help - he often used the trick with fake plaster to pretend that he was not able to cope on his own. The girl willingly helped him, for example, to carry the suitcase to the car, got into it to continue the acquaintance - and after that she was already doomed. Bundy was arrested in 1975 after an attempted kidnapping of Carol DaRonch. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison. At that time, Bundy managed to escape. He could not lead a normal life for a long time and in January 1978 - two weeks after his escape - he broke into a women's hostel and killed two women there in 20 minutes and badly maimed another one.

Ted Bundy was arrested almost by accident, but the police quickly realized that they were facing the most terrible man in America. He was charged with the murders - the court sentenced Bundy to death. Over the next few years, he told the FBI more and more details about the brutal crimes he committed, hoping that the execution would be postponed for some more time. He was eventually executed in 1989 in the electric chair.

Gary Ridgway

It is noteworthy that Ted Bundy, already sentenced to death, in a conversation with an FBI agent, made a fairly clear psychological portrait of the alleged maniac who operated in the early 80s in the United States. The editors of the site notes that according to this description, it was possible to catch Ridgway even then, but Bundy did not listen, and Ridgway was at large for another 17 years.

Gary Ridgway, nicknamed the “Green River Killer,” killed at least 70 women in two decades and is considered one of the bloodiest and most brutal maniacs in the world. He was arrested after one of the victims managed to break free and flee. Ridgway began to confess to the murders, and the number of his victims rose from 42 (of which the police knew) to 71. In 2003, he was sentenced to 48 life terms without parole.

Andrey Chikatilo

An inconspicuous engineer named Chikatilo lived in the city of Shakhty and did not attract the attention of the police for years. It never occurred to anyone that this little man could be guilty of the brutal murders of young women and children. From 1978 to 1984, 32 people disappeared or were found brutally murdered in the Rostov region.

The first time Chikatilo was arrested in 1984 - he molested young girls at the bus station in Rostov. At the same time, a completely different person, a certain Anatoly Kravchenko, who in 1983 slandered himself under torture in the police, had already been executed for the murder of one of his victims.

The first arrest ended in nothing for Andrei Chikatilo - due to a mismatch in blood types and sperm, there was no evidence against him. Maniac stayed at large for another six years and was arrested in 1990. On the tenth day, he began to give confessions and spoke about dozens of tortured victims. On the conscience of Chikatilo at least 52 murders. He was shot on February 14, 1994.

Pedro Alonso Lopez - the most brutal maniac in history

This man has been “flaunting” in the Guinness Book of Records for several decades as the most cruel maniac in the world. The editors of the site find out.rf sincerely hope that no one else will take this place.

It is believed that this man is responsible for more than three hundred murders that were committed in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Pedro Alonso Lopez, who is called the "monster of the Andes", lived as a child with an overage pervert who sheltered him - after the boy was thrown into the street by his own prostitute mother. Pedro Alonso Lopez reveals where he hid the bodies of his victims

The police in the poor countries of Latin America do not have much influence. According to rumors, Lopez was ordered to get out of the country by a Peruvian crime boss. The killer left the country but continued his atrocities in neighboring Ecuador. One day, the girl he grabbed broke free and ran away, and Lopez was detained. The authorities could not believe their ears when the maniac began to paint his crimes in colors.

Psychopath and murderer Pedro Lopez decided to prove to the police that he really killed a lot of people. He showed the burial place of his victims - an inspection showed that there were the remains of at least fifty girls and women. Lopez was sentenced to 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence in Ecuador. According to rumors, he was either transferred to compulsory treatment, or even released at all.

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