8. The Evil French Doctor of World War II
Unlike others in this list who committed evil on behalf of their governments, French doctor Marcel Andre Henri Felix Petiot (1897 – 1946) turned to evil on his own hook for his own gratification. It is unclear just what exactly caused Petiot to turn into an evil homicidal psychopath, but the signs were there from early on – if somebody had bothered to look. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to look. Petiot was an out-and-out delinquent at an early age. When he was eleven years old, he propositioned a girl for sex in school, and took his father’s firearm to class and discharged it.
In his teens, Petiot robbed a postbox, and was arrested and charged with theft and destruction of public property. The charges were dismissed when a psychiatric evaluation revealed mental instability, and a judge deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial. Despite such an unpromising background, Petiot actually managed to finish medical school and become a doctor. However, instead of ending his days as a respected retired MD, Petiot ended his days face down on the guillotine, after he was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering dozens of people.