14. The Napoleon Fan Boy
Bokassa was not just an admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte, but an outright worshipper of the French emperor. So he emulated his idol by crowning himself Emperor of Central Africa. In the process, Bokassa bankrupted his impoverished country with a lavish coronation that cost about 80 million dollars, including a diamond-encrusted crown that cost 20 million.
His rule was marked by a reign of terror in which Bokassa personally supervised the judicial beating of criminal suspects, decreeing that thieves were to lose an ear for the first two offenses, and a hand for the third. He also oversaw the torture of suspected political opponents, then fed their corpses to crocodiles and lions he kept in a private zoo. There were also widespread accusations of cannibalism, triggered by photographs in Paris-Match magazine which showed a fridge containing the bodies of children.