Revenge is a dish best served brutal. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at history’s most personal and targeted revenge kills, rather than indiscriminate ones.
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00:00Why did the women of Nagpur feel the need to kill?
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at history's most personal and targeted revenge kills,
00:12rather than indiscriminate ones.
00:14How did I plan this moment?
00:17With pleasure.
00:20Trotsky.
00:22Leon Trotsky was a Russian revolutionary, and the right hand of Vladimir Lenin, the first dictator of the Soviet Union.
00:28It was inevitable that an ambitious and intelligent young socialist in Russia, as Trotsky was,
00:35would come into contact with the ideas and eventually the person of Lenin sooner or later.
00:40They were both famous for instigating a democratic revolution,
00:43turning it into a dictatorship when they lost the first election,
00:46letting the Germans invade Russia, and then failing to invade Poland.
00:50When Lenin died, he named Trotsky as his successor,
00:53but Stalin had already snuck himself into power, banishing him.
00:57Trotsky was the favored candidate because he was the best known.
01:01He was at Lenin's side at those key moments in the Civil War.
01:04Nobody was more important to the Soviet victory and support of Lenin than Trotsky.
01:10He began to oppose Stalin's regime from abroad, which ground his gears so much
01:14that in 1940 he sent an assassin to murder Trotsky in his home in Mexico.
01:19The agent used an ice pick as a weapon, went for the head, and Trotsky died in hospital a day later.
01:25Trotsky lives on as a martyr and a symbol of what might have been.
01:30This was the true son of the revolution, the true heir to Lenin, who was never given a chance.
01:36Leo V. Byzantine emperors often had bizarre and unusual deaths.
01:41As you approached the imperial throne of Byzantium,
01:46you fell as naked as a man on Judgment Day, utterly defenseless.
01:51Leo V. The Armenian, emperor from 813 to 820, was famous for how he died.
01:57During his reign, he divorced the sister-in-law of his commander, Michael,
02:01causing him to begin a revenge plot, seeking to assassinate Leo.
02:05Whispers reached Leo, and he imprisoned Michael on Christmas Eve, then attended service in a chapel.
02:11Michael's co-conspirators disguised themselves as a choir, surprising Leo.
02:16Poor lighting meant that they mistook the priest for the emperor, allowing Leo to grab a heavy cross.
02:21The assassins got the better of him, dumping his remains in the snow, along with Michael's key,
02:27meaning he was crowned emperor with the handcuffs still on.
02:31Andronicus I Komnemnos
02:34Andronicus ruled the Byzantine Empire for two years.
02:37He was one of the worst tyrants in Roman history, with his last action being an attempt to arrest the rebel Isaac Angelos.
02:44This failed, and Isaac took shelter in the Hagia Sophia, which was currently the center of public demonstration opposing Andronicus.
02:51They proclaimed Isaac emperor, and Andronicus attempted to flee but was captured and brought to Isaac, who handed him over to the people.
03:00They strung him up to a post and beat him for three days straight.
03:04He lost teeth, hair, and an eye in addition to having boiling water poured on him.
03:09They then hung him by his feet, where two soldiers had a competition to see whose sword could plunge deeper.
03:16Jeanne de Claisson
03:18Also known as the Lioness of Brittany, Jeanne was a French and Breton noblewoman whose husband was executed by the French King Philip VI in 1343.
03:28It's worth noting that Jeanne and her husband were powerful landholders in the region who may have posed a potential threat to the king's stability.
03:35This caused her to sell her land, raise an army, and begin to wreak havoc upon the French forces in Brittany.
03:42She attacked a castle and a garrison, then turned three merchant ships into war vessels.
03:47It was said that her three ships were painted black and topped with red sails, which would have been a dramatic sight during the years that she menaced the seas.
03:54She then turned to piracy and began decimating French commerce ships in the English Channel.
04:00She also attacked and burned coastal cities along Normandy.
04:03Some accounts even maintain that Jeanne was especially ruthless when encountering nobles, to the point that she beheaded any member of the French upper class who encountered her.
04:11Eventually, the French sunk her fleet, but she miraculously survived after floating for five days and continued piracy for another 13 years.
04:21Frank Eaton, a.k.a. Pistol Pete
04:25Frank Eaton, more famously known as Pistol Pete, was a gunslinger from the 19th century, whose tale is perfect for a Western plot.
04:33At the age of eight, his father was shot to death by former Confederates for his abolitionist opinions.
04:39My father was called to the door and shot down like a darn mad dog.
04:43There were six men responsible, who were part of a group called the Regulators.
04:47His father's friend told him, my boy, may an old man's curse rest upon you if you do not try to avenge your father, teaching him how to use a gun.
04:56When he was 15, he outshot a fort full of military soldiers.
05:00He became a master of the quick draw, out shooting all of the soldiers, earning himself the nickname Pistol Pete.
05:06He became a deputy at 17 and got revenge on his father's killers one by one, finishing them off by 1887.
05:15I learned how to use them guns. I can use them yet better than any man in the state, I think.
05:21Pierre Picard
05:22Pierre Picard was the real-life inspiration for the monumental work of literature, The Count of Monte Cristo.
05:28In 1807, he was engaged to a wealthy lady, but three of his friends got jealous and had him falsely imprisoned, claiming he was an English spy.
05:38And if you're thinking just now, why me, oh God? The answer is, God has nothing to do with it.
05:47During imprisonment, he befriended a wealthy Italian, who told him the location of his treasure in Milan.
05:53Picard was released in 1814, acquired the treasure, and then returned to Paris under a false name.
05:59How did I plan this moment?
06:02With pleasure.
06:05The following ten years were spent plotting revenge against his former friends.
06:10He finished them off one by one, and was eventually arrested by the police after his success.
06:21Ilyahu Itzkovic
06:23Ilyahu Itzkovic was a Jewish man from Romania whose family was killed in front of him inside a concentration camp in World War II.
06:31When this happened, he vowed to avenge his family, but was unable to find the murderer initially.
06:36He then joined the Israeli Defense Forces, where he learned his family's killer, a man named Stanescu, had joined the French Foreign Legion.
06:45He deserted the IDF, joined the Legion, and tracked down the killer in French Indochina.
06:51He joined the same battalion as Stanescu, and eventually got his revenge during a patrol.
06:57Itzkovic was court-martialed by the IDF for desertion, spent a year in prison, and then lived the rest of his life, dying in 2015.
07:05Olga of Kiev
07:07Looking at a picture of this saint, you could say her appearance captures a kind of timid tranquility, innocence, and beauty.
07:13Olga of Kiev is arguably the most brutal saint to ever exist.
07:17Her husband was killed by a nearby tribe called the Drevlians.
07:21They then tried to get Olga to marry her husband's killer, which she accepted.
07:27This was a ruse, as she then had the first messenger buried alive, the second burned, and then invited them to have a large feast where they killed her husband.
07:36The Drevlians became intoxicated, and she had 5,000 of them murdered.
07:41She wanted to rid the face of the earth of every last Drevlian man, woman, and child.
07:45Then she laid siege upon the city where her husband died, attached sulfur and cloth to birds, set them aflame, and then burned the entire city.
07:54Not one house was spared from the fires, and so each person fled from the city.
07:59One by one, they were caught and killed on the spot by Olga's army.
08:02She killed and enslaved most survivors, forcing the remaining to pay her tribute.
08:07Aku Yadav
08:09Why did the women of Nagpur feel the need to kill?
08:15Aku Yadav was many things, none of them nice.
08:18Coming from Nagpur in India, he ruled a crime syndicate which bribed the police to let him have free reign over the city.
08:25Amongst his many crimes were more than 40 cases of sexual assault.
08:30In 2004, he was arrested for his own protection, and the court was going to release him.
08:36Upon hearing this, hundreds of women stormed the courthouse, where Aku insulted a woman he had previously assaulted.
08:43This sparked outrage, causing 200-400 women to throw chili powder and stones in his face, and then stab him at least 70 times.
08:53It was an arranged, planned murder, which had something very fishy, which is still unexplored.
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09:18The 47 Ronin
09:20Asano Naganori was a Japanese daimyo who was forced to commit seppuku in 1701 for failing to kill a rival, Kira Yoshinaka, after he insulted Naganori.
09:31They also commanded the seizure of Asano's castle, the disbandment of his house, and the arrest of his younger brother.
09:38His loyal samurai, who in the absence of a master became Ronin, swore vengeance for his death.
09:44They spent two years plotting, eventually storming his castle and killing Kira.
09:49The Ronin then surrendered and were condemned for their murder,
09:52justifying their violence by saying they couldn't live under the same heaven as their lord's enemy.
09:58Due to popular support of the Ronin's loyal endeavor,
10:01they were forgiven execution and instead allowed to regain their honor through the act of seppuku.
10:06This story has been widely influential.
10:09Many pieces of media have adapted their heroic tale in the centuries since.
10:13Their story soon morphed into legend.
10:16Within weeks, it was dramatized for the stage, and soon after, scholars began debating the Ronin's actions.
10:22Were there any legendary tales of revenge you thought should be on this list?
10:26Let us know in the comments.
10:28Today, Lord Oishi and his followers are still celebrated as symbols of ultimate loyalty,
10:34and are honored as heroes in Japan.
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