Most Evil is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 forensics

Forensics

Forensic science is the application of a broad spectrum of sciences to answer questions of interest to a legal system. This may be in relation to a crime or a civil action...

 television program on Investigation Discovery presented by forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone of Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. On the show, Stone rates murderers on a scale of evil

Evil

Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...

 that he has developed. The show features profiles

Offender profiling

Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...

 on various murderers, serial killers, mass murderers

Mass murder

Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...

 and psychopaths.

Season 1

>

#	Title	Original air date

Season 2

>

#	Title	Original air date

Season 3

>

#	Title	Original air date

Scale and criminals

Stone researched hundreds of killers and their methods and motives to develop his hierarchy of "evil". The scale ranges from Category 1, those who kill in self-defense, to the Category 22, serial torture

Torture

Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

r-murderers. Neurologists

Neurology

Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

, psychologists

Forensic psychology

Forensic psychology is the intersection between psychology and the criminal justice system. It involves understanding criminal law in the relevant jurisdictions in order to be able to interact appropriately with judges, attorneys and other legal professionals...

, and other forensic psychiatrists

Forensic psychiatry

Forensic psychiatry is a sub-speciality of psychiatry and an auxiliar science of criminology. It encompasses the interface between law and psychiatry...

 are interviewed on the show in an attempt to examine and profile

Offender profiling

Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is a behavioral and investigative tool that is intended to help investigators to profile unknown criminal subjects or offenders. Offender profiling is also known as criminal profiling, criminal personality profiling, criminological profiling,...

 the minds of notorious killers. Partial re-enactments are shown along with news footage, evidence

Evidence

Evidence in its broadest sense includes everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Giving or procuring evidence is the process of using those things that are either presumed to be true, or were themselves proven via evidence, to demonstrate an assertion's truth...

, and reports from locals. Neurological, environmental, and gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

tic factors are examined to help determine what drives a person to kill. Background history and pre-meditation are considered when placing an individual on the scale of evil. The show indirectly deals with the concepts of morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

 and ethics

Ethics

Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...

.

Category	Criteria	People
01	Those who have killed in self-defense, and who do not show traces of psychopathy.
02	Jealous lovers who committed murder; although egocentric or immature, they are not psychopaths.
03	Willing companions of killers: aberrant personality, impulse-ridden, with some antisocial traits.	Leslie Van Houten Leslie Van Houten Leslie Louise Van Houten is a former member of Charles Manson's "Family" who was convicted of the murders of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.-Life with Manson:...
04	Those who have killed in self-defense, but had been extremely provocative toward the victim for that to happen.
05	Traumatized, desperate persons who killed abusive relatives or other people, but who show remorse for their crime and are not psychopaths.	Martha Ann Johnson Martha Ann Johnson Martha Ann Johnson is an American serial killer from Georgia convicted of smothering to death three of her children between 1977 and 1982.- Murders :...
06	Impetuous, hotheaded murderers, yet without marked psychopathic traits.	Robert John Bardo Robert John Bardo Robert John Bardo is an American man serving life imprisonment without parole after being convicted in October 1991 for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer on July 18, 1989, whom he had stalked for several years beforehand.... , Billy Wayne Sinclair
07	Highly narcissistic, but not distinctly psychopathic persons—some with a psychotic core—who kill persons next to them, with jealousy as an underlying motive.	Marybeth Tinning Marybeth Tinning Marybeth Tinning is an American serial killer currently serving a 20 years to life sentence after being convicted of the murder of one of her children. Her case is held to be one of the most extreme cases of Münchausen syndrome by proxy.-Early life:Marybeth Roe was born in Duanesburg, a small town... , Mark David Chapman Mark David Chapman Mark David Chapman is an American prison inmate who murdered former Beatles member John Lennon on December 8, 1980. He committed the crime as Lennon and Yoko Ono were outside of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman aimed five shots at Lennon, hitting him four times in his back... , Armin Meiwes Armin Meiwes Armin Meiwes is a German man who achieved international notoriety for killing and eating a voluntary victim whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointly attempted to eat the victim's severed penis, Meiwes killed his victim and proceeded to eat a large amount of his flesh... , Diana Dial, Susan Smith Susan Smith Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith is an American woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her children. Born in Union, South Carolina, and a former student of the University of South Carolina Union, she was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith, born...
08	Non-psychopathic persons with smoldering rage, and who kill when the rage is ignited.	Charles Whitman Charles Whitman Charles Joseph Whitman was a student at the University of Texas at Austin and a former Marine who killed 16 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the university's campus on August 1, 1966.... , Keith Jesperson
09	Jealous lovers with marked psychopathic features.	Betty Broderick Betty Broderick Elisabeth Anne "Betty" Broderick is a former American socialite convicted of the November 5, 1989 murder of her former husband Dan Broderick and his second wife, Linda Kolkena...
10	Killers of people "in the way", such as witnesses. Extremely egocentric, but not distinctly psychopathic.	Rod Ferrell Rod Ferrell Roderick Justin Ferrell was a member of a loose-knit gang of teenagers from Murray, Kentucky, known as the "Vampire Clan". In 1998, Ferrell pled guilty to the double slaying of a couple from Eustis, Florida, becoming the youngest person in the United States on Death Row...
11	Psychopathic killers of people "in the way", such as close friends or even family members.	Richard Kuklinski Richard Kuklinski Richard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was an American contract killer. The 6'5" , 300 pound Kuklinski worked for Newark's DeCavalcante crime family and New York City's Five Families. He claimed to have murdered over 250 men between 1948 and 1986...
12	Power-hungry psychopaths who kill when they are "cornered".	Ervil LeBaron Ervil LeBaron Ervil Morrell LeBaron was the leader of a polygamous Mormon fundamentalist group who ordered the killings of many of his opponents, using the religious doctrine of blood atonement to justify the murders...
13	Psychopathic murderers with inadequate, rageful personalities, rage being the reason of their killings.	Ed Gein Ed Gein Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein - July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes... , Herbert Mullin Herbert Mullin Herbert Williams Mullin is a serial killer who committed 13 murders in California in the early 1970s.- Childhood and youth :... , Martin Bryant Martin Bryant Martin Bryant is an Australian who has been convicted of murdering 35 people and injuring 21 others in the Port Arthur massacre, a shooting spree in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia, in 1996. He is currently serving 35 life sentences plus 1,035 years without parole in the psychiatric wing of... , Karla Faye Tucker Karla Faye Tucker Karla Faye Tucker was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and put to death in 1998. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863...  Peter Lundin Peter Lundin Bjarne Skounborg , born Peter Kenneth Bostrøm Lundin, and more commonly known as Peter Lundin, is a Danish convicted serial killer.- Early life :...
14	Ruthlessly self-centered psychopathic schemers who kill to benefit themselves.	Richard Farley Richard Farley Richard Wade Farley is an American convicted mass murderer. A former employee of Electromagnetic Systems Labs in Sunnyvale, California, he stalked co-worker Laura Black for four years beginning in 1984... , Diane Downs Diane Downs Elizabeth Diane Frederickson Downs is an American convicted murderer. She shot her three children, killing one, and then told police a stranger had attempted to carjack her and had shot the children. After her conviction in 1984, she was sentenced to life in prison.Downs briefly escaped in 1987... , John List John List John Emil List was an American murderer. On November 9, 1971, he murdered his wife, mother, and three children in Westfield, New Jersey, and then disappeared. He had planned everything so meticulously that nearly a month passed before anyone noticed that anything was amiss...
15	Psychopathic cold-blooded spree killers or multiple murderers.	Andal Ampatuan, Jr. Andal Ampatuan, Jr. Andal Ampatuan, Jr. is the former mayor of Datu Unsay, Maguindanao. He is the son of patriarch Andal Ampatuan Sr., and his family continues to represent a powerful force in Mindanao politics... , Andrew Cunanan Andrew Cunanan Andrew Phillip Cunanan was an American serial killer who murdered at least five people, including fashion designer Gianni Versace, during a three-month period in 1997, ending with Cunanan's suicide, at age 27... , Charles Manson Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction... , Charles Starkweather Charles Starkweather Charles Raymond Starkweather was an American teenaged spree killer who murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming during a two-month road trip with his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate. The couple was captured on January 29, 1958... , Susan Atkins Susan Atkins Susan Denise Atkins was a convicted American murderer who was a member of the "Manson family", led by Charles Manson. Manson and his followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in California, over a period of five weeks in the summer of 1969... , Charles "Tex" Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel Patricia Krenwinkel Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel is an American convicted killer and a former member of Charles Manson's murderous commune, known as "the Family". During her time with Manson's group, she was known by various aliases such as "Big Patty", "Yellow", and "Mary Ann Scott", but to The Family she was most... , Colin Ferguson, Michael McDermott Wakefield massacre The Wakefield massacre occurred on Tuesday, December 26, 2000, at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, Massachusetts, United States, during which the gunman, Michael "Mucko" McDermott, an application support employee, shot and killed seven co-workers.... , Dorothea Puente Dorothea Puente Dorothea Helen Puente was a convicted American serial killer. In the 1980s, Puente ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and cashed the Social Security checks of her elderly and mentally disabled boarders... , Aileen Wuornos Aileen Wuornos Aileen Carol Wuornos was an American serial killer who killed seven men in Florida in 1989 and 1990, claiming they raped or attempted to rape her while she was working as a prostitute...
16	Psychopaths committing multiple vicious acts, with repeated acts of extreme violence.	Gwendolyn Graham Gwendolyn Graham Gwendolyn Graham and Cathy Wood are American serial killers who killed five elderly women in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the 1980s... , Cathy Wood, Karla Homolka Karla Homolka Karla Leanne Homolka, also known as Karla Leanne Teale , is a Canadian serial killer. She attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter following a plea bargain in the 1991 and 1992 rape-murders of two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as... , Myra Hindley, Terry Driver Terry Driver Terry Driver, aka the Abbotsford killer is a convicted Canadian murderer who attacked two teenage girls with a baseball bat, killed one, then taunted police with letters and phone calls.... , Theodore Kaczynski Theodore Kaczynski Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski , also known as the "Unabomber" , is an American mathematician, social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite who engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.Kaczynski was born in Chicago, Illinois,... , Shoko Asahara Shoko Asahara , born on March 2, 1955, is a founder of the controversial Japanese new religious group Aum Shinrikyo. He was convicted of masterminding the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway and several other crimes, for which he was sentenced to death... , Michael Swango Michael Swango Joseph Michael Swango is an American serial killer and former licensed physician. It is estimated that Swango has been involved in as many as 60 fatal poisonings of patients and colleagues, though he admitted to only causing four deaths...
17	Sexually perverse serial murderers: Rape is the primary motive and the victim is killed to hide evidence.	Ted Bundy Ted Bundy Theodore Robert "Ted" Bundy was an American serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, and necrophile who assaulted and murdered numerous young women during the 1970s, and possibly earlier... , Arthur Shawcross Arthur Shawcross Arthur John Shawcross was an American serial killer, also known as The Genesee River Killer in Rochester, New York... , David Berkowitz David Berkowitz David Richard Berkowitz , also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer and arsonist whose crimes terrorized New York City from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977.Shortly after his arrest in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and... , Richard Chase Richard Chase Richard Trenton Chase was a United States serial killer who killed six people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California...
18	Psychopathic torture-murderers, where murder is the primary motive, and the victim is killed after a torture that was not prolonged.	Nathan Bar-Jonah, Gary Ridgway Gary Ridgway Gary Leon Ridgway is an American serial killer known as the Green River Killer. He murdered numerous women in Washington during the 1980s and 1990s, earning his nickname when the first five victims were found in the Green River. He strangled them, usually with his arm but sometimes using ligatures... , Jerry Brudos Jerry Brudos Jerome Henry "Jerry" Brudos was an American serial killer and necrophiliac, also known as "The Lust Killer" and "The Shoe Fetish Slayer".-Early life:... , William Heirens William Heirens William George Heirens is a convicted American serial killer who confessed to three murders in 1946. Heirens has been called The Lipstick Killer due to a notorious message scrawled in lipstick at a crime scene... , Keith Jesperson
19	Psychopaths driven to terrorism, subjugation, intimidation, and rape, but who are short of murder.
20	Psychopathic torture-murderers, where torture is the primary motive, but in persons with distinct psychoses (such as schizophrenia).	Joseph Kallinger Joseph Kallinger Joseph Kallinger was an American serial killer who murdered three people and tortured four families. He committed these crimes with his 13-year-old son Michael.- Early life :...
21	Psychopaths who do not kill their victims, but do subject them to extreme torture.
22	Psychopathic torture-murderers, where torture is the primary motive. In most cases, the crime has a sexual motivating factor.	Tommy Lynn Sells Tommy Lynn Sells -Early life:Sells and his twin sister, Tammy Jean, contracted meningitis when they were 18 months old. While Sells suffered a high fever, he survived. His sister, however, died from the inflammation. Shortly thereafter, Sells was sent to live with his aunt Bonnie Woodall in Holcomb, Missouri... , John Wayne Gacy John Wayne Gacy John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was an American serial killer, rapist and clown who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home, buried three others elsewhere on his property, and discarded the... , Dennis Rader Dennis Rader Dennis Lynn Rader is an American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County , between 1974 and 1991.... , Theresa Knorr Theresa Knorr Theresa Knorr is an American woman convicted of torturing and murdering two of her children while using the others to facilitate and cover up her crimes.- Early life :... , Charles Ng Charles Ng Charles Chi-Tat Ng is a serial killer. With Leonard Lake, he is suspected of murdering between 11 and 25 victims at Lake's ranch in Calaveras County, California, United States.... , Leonard Lake Leonard Lake Leonard Lake was an American serial killer. He often used the alias Leonard Hill. The crimes he committed with Charles Ng became known when Lake committed suicide by taking a cyanide pill shortly after being arrested for a firearms offense.-Life:Lake was born in San Francisco, California... , Paul Bernardo Paul Bernardo Paul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale , is a Canadian serial killer and rapist, known for the sexual assaults and murders he committed with his wife Karla Homolka and the serial rapes he committed in Scarborough.-Early life:Bernardo's mother, Marilyn, was the adopted daughter of a... , Ian Brady, Gary Heidnik, David Parker Ray David Parker Ray David Parker Ray was a suspected American serial killer and known torturer of women; though no bodies were found, he was accused by his accomplices of killing several people, and suspected by police to have murdered as many as 60 people in the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico... , Westley Allan Dodd Westley Allan Dodd Westley Allan Dodd was a convicted American serial killer and child molester. He has been called "one of the most evil killers in history." His execution on January 5, 1993, was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965.- His childhood years :Westley Allan Dodd was born in Richland,... , George Hodel, Jeffrey Lundgren Jeffrey Lundgren Jeffrey Don Lundgren was a self-proclaimed prophet, former leader of a cult group, and convicted mass murderer of five people... , Jim Jones Jim Jones James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in... , Edmund Kemper Edmund Kemper Edmund Emil "Big Ed" Kemper III , also known as "The Co-ed Killer", is an American serial killer who was active in California in the early 1970s. He started his criminal life by shooting both his grandparents when he was 15 years old. Kemper later killed and dismembered six female hitchhikers in... , H. H. Holmes H. H. Holmes Herman Webster Mudgett , better known under the alias of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, was one of the first documented American serial killers in the modern sense of the term... , Adolfo Constanzo Adolfo Constanzo Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo was an American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader. His nickname was El Padrino de Matamoros .- Early years :... , John Edward Robinson John Edward Robinson (serial killer) John Edward Robinson is a convicted serial killer, con man, embezzler, kidnapper, and forger who was found guilty in 2003 of three murders and received the death sentence for two of them... , Andrei Chikatilo Andrei Chikatilo Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo was a Ukrainian-born Soviet serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher of Rostov, The Red Ripper or The Rostov Ripper who murdered a minimum of 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990...

External links

• Dr. Stone featured on Real Law Radio with Bob DiCello Real Law Radio is a legal news talk radio program.
• Personality Disorders Institute
• Most Evil on the Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database
  Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
  
  
• Review by Ellen Dendy