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Crime & Notoriety

Assassins, demagogues, gangsters and frauds. Influence is not the same as merit, and this corpus records both.

All Notorious Figures

Role: Any Criminal 18 Assassin 6 Financier 4 Fraudster 4 Intelligence Officer 4 Legislator 4

Order: Most notable By term A–Z Born earliest Born latest Longest lived Shortest lived

4 people

Joseph McCarthy 1908–1957Notorious FiguresSenator whose unsupported accusations and investigations gave “McCarthyism” its name and damaged civil liberties.

Jefferson Davis 1808–1889Notorious FiguresPresident of the Confederacy whose defense of slavery and secession made him central to the Civil War and its memory.

John C. Calhoun 1782–1850Notorious FiguresVice president and theorist of slavery and states’ rights whose doctrines intensified sectional conflict.

Bull Connor 1897–1973Notorious FiguresBirmingham commissioner of public safety who ordered dogs and fire hoses used on marching schoolchildren.