Real-Life Bad Santas That Put Billy Bob To Shame

By Editorial Staff in Holidays On 3rd December 2016

Billy Bob Thornton is known for playing the conman disguised as Santa in the films, Bad Santa, along with his drunken elf. But there are some real Bad Santa's out there, even worse than those two knuckleheads. What is terrifying to parents, or anyone really, is that children trust these mall Santas, or any Santa-lookalike, often without question. But there are so many pedophiles, child molesters, gang members, and thieves who have played Father Christmas, that it's hard to pinpoint the absolute creepiest of all. Billy Bob and his partner in crime have nothing on these guys you're about to learn have played Santa Claus.

#1 Motorcycle Kidnapping Santa

In 2006, a man who played Santa Clause stopped by a South Carolina gas station to fill up his motorcycle with gas when he lured three women over to take a look at hi stuffed Rudolph in the sidecar. John Barton grabbed the oldest sister and took off with her, in the sidecar after the other girls were holding the stuffed toy. The girl's father took off after Barton and hit speeds of over 80mph before the drunken 55-year-old kidnapper let the girl off the bike and went to hide out at a nearby bar. It as later learned that Barton had been dressing as Santa for several weeks and had given other young girls rides on his motorcycle as well.

#2 German Date-Rape Santa

This Santa was behaving very badly in Berlin, Germany at a Christmas Market in 2011. Now some may have liked the fact that this Santa was offering tired female shoppers free shots to help endure the crowds, but he took it a little further than that. He was targeting women holiday shoppers, offering them free shots of alcohol in paper cups, and telling them that he was celebrating becoming a father for the first time. He told them he had mulled wine and Schnapp's. Well over a dozen women fell for the lie, including one 15-year-old girl who immediately upon drinking from the cup began throwing up, and was rushed to the hospital. It was determined that the wine was laced with liquid ecstasy, or GHB, which is a common date-rape drug. Sixteen women got sick from his concoction and had memory loss. However, he got a short sentence because he had no plans to rape these women, and quickly disappeared each time he gave one a drink. What his plans were have not been established, but he is a Bad Santa!

#3 Drunk (Sleigh) Driving Santa

A Santa nad his female helper wound up in the hospital in Poland, in 2013, with concussions after the horses pulling their sleigh became erratic. The pair were playing Santa and his elf at an outdoor market and had real horses pulling their sleigh around. However, on this particular day, they were inebriated beyond belief and were driving the sleigh in and out of traffic. People then began honking their car horns as a few accidents were avoided, when a horse was spooked and went crazy. After a few honks, the horses actually reared up and sent Santa and his helper flying onto the street. The crowd was shocked and the children were devastated.

#4 Cradle-Robbing Santa

In 2013, a man who was then 49 years old, was playing Santa at local Oklahoma schools when he was arrested. Wiley Gene Davis, of Warr Acres, was arrested for trying to have sex with minors while pretending to be Santa. He chatted with a 15-year-old girl he met on Craigslist and made obscene suggestions and calling himself Santa. He arranged to meet up with the girl for sex at a convenience store but was promptly arrested for lewd acts and proposals to a child under 16, a violation of the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act, and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Aside from being a school Santa, Davis was a married man and a co-ed baseball coach for kids six years old and younger in the Oklahoma City Metro area.

#5 Bank-Robbing Santa/Leprechaun

Just outside of Nashville, in one of Americas wealthiest communities, Brentwood, Tennesee, a man dressed as Santa robbed a bank in 2009. David Cotton pulled a gun on the stunned bank tellers and told them that Santa needed to pay his elves. Then he robbed them, carrying away an undisclosed amount of cash in his red Santa sack. He actually got away with the robbery, until Santa switched up the holidays and went rogue. He attempted another robbery in early 2010, this time on Saint Patrick's Day. And yes, you guessed it; he was dressed as a Leprechaun. Cotton was chased down by Metro police and was eventually stopped in a field where he shot himself in the head.

#6 Murderous Mall Santa

Atlanta mall Santa Elkin Clarke, 49 at the time, is serving life in prison for murder. In December of 2004, he fatally attacked an elderly woman with a block of wood for allegedly stealing the candy he was selling. He claimed she took $145 worth of Hershey's chocolates that belonged to him, but witnesses say Clarke was completely unprovoked. He lost his temper and savagely beat the 74-year-old woman with a two-by-four in the head. He continued to hit her even after she was lying motionless on the ground, according to witnesses. She died in the hospital over a month later due to the injuries she sustained by his hand. Clarke was convicted of murder, and also with the simple assault of a Georgia State University student who tried helping the woman. Now that is one really bad

#7 Troublesome Twin Santa

Police were called to a Fort Wayne McDonald's last Christmas because there was a man dressed as Santa disturbing the peace and causing a ruckus with customers. However, when the cops got to the MsDonald's they found not one, but two Santas. One was hired by the restaurant and the other was "inviting children to sit on his lap, just like the other one." The two Santa's began fighting when it was discovered that the second was a creepy imposter who was trying to fondle the kids. It is actually scary to think how easy that would probably be to simply dress the part and go hang around a place you know has hired a Santa, and no one would ever know the difference, unless you're too obvious about it, like this guy. He told police when asked that his name was Santa Claus.

#8 Helicopter-Hijacking Santa

Now here is something you don't hear of every day. In a completely new kind of act for bad Santas, one man forced his helicopter pilot to divert the craft to a rural farm, and then proceeded to tie him up with the help of an accomplice. Then they flew away. This very bad Santa had rented the helicopter from an air taxi service at Campo Marte airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil in November of 2015. He told the pilot he wanted to participate in a Black Friday "surprise", but his evil plan was revealed mid-flight. Upon landing, they were met with his accomplice, who helped tie him up. The pilot was eventually able to free himself of the ropes after a few hours of struggling and inform police of what had happened, but by this point Santa was nowhere to be found of course, and a huge manhunt ensued.

#9 Bad Santa & Accomplice Elf

A 22-year-old woman living in Quinton, Alabama in 2011 was punched in the face by a very bad Santa when she answered his knock at the door. Initially he claimed to be collecting donations for a charity, but she did not want to contribute, so he punched her in the face and went inside, along with an accomplice wearing a track suit who had been hiding out nearby. The robbers assaulted her (no more details were provided), then demanded gold. The young woman's father arrived home a little while later and the criminals punched him in the face too, before fleeing the scene. This incredibly bad Santa and his evil little elf sound very dangerous, and were obviously willing to lie to and hurt people they didn't even know for money, so although little is known about what happened after they fled, at the very least they deserve to be on a list of bad Santas.

#10 Santa Violated Young Boys

Santa Lee Jones, aka, Leander Dewey Jones, a 65-year-old mall Santa in Raleigh, North Carolina, received 30 years in federal prison earlier this year for producing child "entertainment" with two children who were in his care. In 2015, he was arrested for multiple child images on his personal computer. He had brought his computer in for repairs, and it was the computer technician who found the images, all in a labeled folder. The FBI found a small pen camera in Jones' bathroom, and approximately 5,000 images on his computer and external hard drives of young children under the age of 10 who were thought to be his relatives. The lewd photographs depicted adult men sexually assaulting the kids, and the kids having sex with each other. Jones played Santa Claus at a mall, as well as playing a magician and a pirate at children's birthday parties. He was sentenced to three decades behind bars on August 1st of this year.

#11 Sandy Hook Santa

Wendy Kennett of Abingdon, England, and her three children ages 10, seven, and six, went to the mall one day to visit the Santa there. But things did not go as planned. The Santa told them that there are bad people in the world and that bad things happen, like what happened to those children in America. He went into some detail about the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults had died at the hands of a gunman. The children's father interrupted when he kept on talking, but the Santa was not finished just yet. He then asked for a "word" with the 10-year-old, and explained that he was a fake and that his parents were really the ones supplying the presents. In an interview Wendy said she was furious, and that all three of her children were in tears. Not surprisingly, this big-mouthed Santa was sacked.

#12 Self-Defense Santa

A 28-year-old Santa Claus from Detroit, Michigan shot two men at a gas station just four days before Christmas in 2014. Marcus Wheldon was licensed to carry a firearm, and claimed that it was self-defense. Prior to the shooting that day, Wheldon had been working for a production company at a holiday party being thrown at the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit, being paid to dress as Santa Claus. After the party, he and a female coworker stopped at the Speedway gas station to fill her tire because it had an air leak. Omar Pady was there at the same time, and allegedly intoxicated, he began to hit on the coworker, believing she was alone, and he even pushed her. When Wheldon made himself known, Pady dashed for his car and pulled out a handgun and the two men exchanged fire. Pady missed, but Wheldon hit both Pady and his friend, Salah Rifai. In court, the jury acquitted Wheldon. So why does he belong on this list of bad Santas? Well, he did shoot two people, and even though he was cleared of any crime, he was dressed as Santa Claus while carrying a gun, which just seems kind of wrong.

#13 Santa Commits Foul Crime

This Santa is one of the worst of them all. The scene was Grapevine, Texas in 2011. A suburb of Dallas, Grapevine was known as the "Christmas Capital of Texas", but that year it became known for something much more sinister. Aziz Yanzdanpanah was a divorced father of two who was not shy about the fact that he was upset his ex-wife was doing well on her own. His ex-wife and 19-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son were staying at an apartment with his ex's sister, her husband, and their daughter. Christmas Eve for the six victims was spent at an annual holiday party Aziz was not invited to. Christmas morning, Aziz showed up at the apartment, just minutes after his niece Sara, 22, had texted a friend saying that her uncle was dressed as Santa Claus. Santa shot all six of his family members as they sat around the Christmas tree opening presents. Then he called 911, and shot himself, too.

#14 Schizophrenic Santa

In Parma, Ohio in 2009, a 12-year-old girl was walking to school one day when Anthony Russo emerged from some shrubbery and tried to entice her with a bag of candy canes. The bipolar and delusional man was ignored by the little girl, who he then followed and grabbed, all while toting a unicycle. She got away and went into a store, where she told the owner what had happened, and he called the police. They arrested Russo where they found him on a city bus in Cleveland, still wearing his Santa suit (including the pillow stuffed in his belly) and holding his sack of candy canes and unicycle. Then 46, Russo was called a "good man who would never harm anyone" by his mother. She also said he still talks to his deceased father, who told him to pass out the candy canes, and that her son sometimes stayed in homeless shelters or on top of buildings.

#15 Worst Santa Ever

There is one Santa Claus out there who was the absolute worst, and his name was Bruce Jeffrey Pardo. He had marital problems and his divorce became final in 2008 just one week before Christmas. It was on Christmas Eve that year when he went berzerk and 10 people lost their lives, including him. Bruce showed up to a party that night dressed as Santa, carrying a homemade flamethrower and four semi-automatic handguns. The nine victims ranged in age from 17 to 80 and died from either gunshot wounds or the fire that started with the flamethrower. Three other victims were aged eight, 16, and 20, but they survived, along with about a dozen others from the party. He then drove to a nearby parking garage and shot himself in the head. Authorities found a "virtual bomb factory" in his apartment, along with several unopened Christmas gifts.

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