10 Strange Facts About Famous Historical Villains

By Editorial Staff in Facts On 2nd July 2015

Many times, history only allows certain facts about people to be remembered. This is quite common for villains and criminals because of their heinous acts. But often, whether it was habits in their personal lives or things they created, they did much more than that for which they are remembered.

#1 Osama bin Laden Had an Extensive Collection of Pornography

After the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, books and computer filesincluding some containing pornographywere discovered in the compound where he had been hiding. This was a surprise considering bin Laden had long denounced the West for its obsession with sexuality.

#2 Custer Had a Love Child With a Cheyenne Mistress

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer will always be remembered for his defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. But research by historians has shown that he may have had a relationship with a Cheyenne woman, resulting in an illegitimate son, despite his being married. This fact escaped history but was recently unearthed by researchers who were looking into his life. In 1869, Custer made peace with the Cheyenne Indians. He left Meotzi but promised to return. However, Custer and his men were killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Custer was spared the mutilation of his men because he was recognized by the Cheyenne Indians as the husband of one of their own.

#3 Al Capone Started One Of The First Soup Kitchens

During the Great Depression and before the New Deal programs established by President Franklin Roosevelt, many unemployed citizens of America had nowhere to go when they were starving. However, churches, the wealthy, and other organizations established soup kitchens to help out. In Chicago, Al Capone established one such soup kitchen.During Prohibition and the Great Depression, many people hated the government. However, public opinion of bootleggers like Capone was high. His donations to charity and his establishment of a soup kitchen only made him more popular.

#4 Jeffrey Dahmer May Have Been a Born-Again Christian

Jeffrey Dahmer was one of the most infamous serial killers in American history, but his story took a strange turn after he went to prison. In the months before he was killed in 1994, Dahmer became increasingly interested in the idea of salvation. We'll never know whether his intentions were sincere. After his baptism, Dahmer received more Bible courses, which he distributed to other inmates, from minister David Hartman. During his correspondence with Hartman, Dahmer ominously mentioned a July 1994 attack on his life. The letter foreshadowed his murder in November of that year.

#5 Billy The Kid Was Almost Pardoned

At just 19 years old, William Henry McCarty Jr., aka "Billy the Kid," had already achieved national infamy as one of the most well-known outlaws of the day. But by 1878, tired of his life of crime, he wrote to the newly appointed governor of New Mexico, Lew Wallace, that he was tired of fighting. In response, Wallace suggested that he would pardon Billy if he would testify before a grand jury about the Lincoln County War, a frontier conflict between two factions of New Mexico. Billy turned himself in, testifying as promised, but Wallace refused to pardon him. None of those who came forward were given amnesty. In fact, Billy's testimony helped over 50 men get charged. Billy escaped from confinement, embarking on his famous crime spree and prompting Wallace to offer a $500 reward for Billy's capture. While being chased by the authorities, Billy murdered more people. In April 1881, he was finally captured, tried, and sentenced to hang. Billy made a daring escape, killing two guards as he fled. He was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in July 1881. Interestingly, in 2002, newly elected Governor Bill Richardson announced that he was looking into a posthumous pardon for Billy, 129 years after his death, but he didn't grant it.

#6 Fidel Castro Trafficked in Cocaine During The 1980s

Although Fidel Castro may have talked like he was against drugs in his country, he knew that they made an astronomical amount of money. During the 1980s, many of the Soviet countries that supported Cuba were struggling. As his country could barely stay afloat under these conditions, Castro allowed Cuba to be used to funnel drugs into the US.

#7 Saddam Hussein was a Novelist

Saddam Hussein may have been one of the most brutal dictators in history, but he was also a man of letters. In 2000, Zabibah and the King was published in Iraq, becoming an instant best seller. Hussein published two more novels before he was forced to go into hiding. Even when he had clearly lost control of Iraq, he wrote another novel and some poetry. He continued like this until his execution in 2004.

#8 Kim Jong Il was an Opera Impresario

Kim Jong Il was trained in theater, music, and film. He focused on North Korea's film industry while his father was dictator. After successfully managing films, Kim Jong Il moved on to opera, staging Sea of Blood. He went on to produce and stage Dream of the Red Chamber and Eugene Onegin. It seems odd that an artsy type like Kim Jong Il would simultaneously starve and enslave his people while staging spectacular musical productions.

#9 Richard III Was Not A Hunchback

In nearly every portrayal of the famed King Richard III, he is shown to be severely deformed in his back. However, in 2012, the skeleton of Richard III was discovered buried beneath a Leicester parking lot. When the body was uncovered, Richard's spine was examined. It was indeed very bent. He suffered from a particularly severe form of scoliosis, a disease which causes the spine to curve.

#10 Ted Kaczynski Wanted a Sex Change

Kaczynski had been experiencing issues with gender identity. Compounded with his other mental issues, that must have made him a very unstable man. When he lost the nerve to tell his psychiatrist about his problems, he decided to isolate himself from society. From there, he began to work on his twisted ideology, ultimately deciding that he would have to bomb buildings to get his message out. He began an 18-year crime spree to bomb and attack society until people would listen to his demands.

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