| This list contains names and relevant details of various atheistic murderers, including genocidal\/democidal dictators, mass shooters, serial killers, etc. It was composed to correct the notion that „atheists have never killed anyone” that some atheists have tried to argue and that all violence is somehow due to religion\/theism. It has often been observed that when atheists make such a claim and are shown evidence to the contrary, they modify their argument (in a manner of the „No True Scotsman” or „Moving the Goalposts” fallacy) by insisting they meant, „No one has ever killed in the name of atheism<\/i>,” as this still attempts to pin down something that makes atheism look morally superior to religion\/theism which supposedly cannot make the same claim. However, it could be argued that no one has actually killed in the name of mere „religion” or „theism” either but rather in the name of specific<\/i> religious and theistic ideologies. Likewise, many have also killed in the name of specific<\/i> atheistic ideologies, most famously, Marxism, which was the very reason why many murderers listed here committed their crimes (i.e. to rid the world of religion and of people seen to oppose „Communism”). Many non-Marxist atheists are listed here as well, diversely discrediting the absurd notion that all violence somehow springs from a belief in God (and thus gives credence to the idea that atheism does not necessarily inhibit humans from killing each other but may, as some of these examples could suggest, do the opposite).<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/center>Vladimir Lenin<\/b> (1870-1924) a.k.a. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Russia (and the Soviet Union), as well as founder of the Bolshevik party. After overthrowing the Russian King (known as the „tsar”) and murdering his entire family,<\/a> he institued a campaign of mass killings and torture called the „Red Terror,” which killed around 50,000 to 500,000 people.<\/a> He also executed 14,000 to 20,000 priests for their disagreements with Bolshevism.<\/a> Later, he seized food from peasants all over the country, which worsened the Russian Famine of 1921<\/a> that ended up killing 5 million people.<\/a> He explained that this was a good thing, saying, „Famine would also destroy faith not only in the tsar, but in God too.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLeon Czolgosz<\/b> (1873-1901)<\/span>
\nAtheist assassin who shot and killed the President of the United States, namely, WilliamMcKinley.<\/a> Notably, he claimed to be inspired by atheist philosopher Emma Goldman, who publically defended his actions.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFelix Dzerzhinsky<\/b> (1877-1926) a.k.a. „The Iron Felix”<\/span>
\nAtheist Director of the Cheka (the Bolshevik secret police), which executed 250,000 to 300,000 people during the Communist Revolution in Russia.<\/a> He said, „We stand for organised terror – this should be frankly admitted. Terror is an absolute necessity during times of revolution.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPlutarco El\u00edas Calles<\/b> (1877-1945)<\/span>
\nPresident of Mexico and Atheist<\/a> who forcibly shut down multiple religious schools, monasteries, and convents, as well as confiscated large amounts of Church property.<\/a>His policies ended up killing up to 4,000 priests,<\/a> depriving 17 Mexican states of priestsentirely.<\/a> (In reaction to his vehement anti-religious policies, the people of Mexico fought back in the „Cristero War,” which they eventually won)<\/p>\n
\nYemelyan Mikhailovich Yaroslavsky<\/b> (1878-1943)
\na.k.a. Minei Izrailevich Gubelman<\/span>
\nLeader of the „League of the Militant Atheists” (a.k.a. „The Society of the Godless”), which not only destroyed 6,000 historical buildings (mostly churches and monasteries) but aided the Soviet government in exterminating Christian clergy and other religious groups, reducing their number from about 50,000 to only 1,000 in Russia through executions and condemnation to Russia’s famous prison camps known as the „Gulags” (where they would overwhelmiongly die from starvation and disease).<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJoseph Stalin<\/b> (1878-1953)
\na.k.a. Jozef Vissarionovich Jughashvili<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Russia (and the Soviet Union) who murdered about 50 million people<\/a> by deliberately causing widespread famines,<\/a> ordering massive and arbitrary executions,<\/a> and sending large populations to the unlivable Gulag prisoncamps.<\/a> Before this, at the urging of his parents, he had attended an Eastern Orthodox seminary but, far from becoming a priest, ended up becoming an atheist,<\/a> rejecting Christianity and becoming perhaps the most influential promoter of the anti-religious, political theory of Marxism. Among his atrocities after assuming power in the government, he imposed state atheism, shut down several parishes, levelled numerous historic churches, and slaughtered tens of thousands of nuns, monks, and priests.<\/a> He is famed for being one of the most murderous dictators of all time.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGleb Bokii<\/b> (1879-1937)<\/span>
\nUkrainian Communist and a Soviet secret policeman who shot 1,300 people during the atheist government’s efforts to secure power.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLeon Trotsky<\/b> (1879-1940)<\/span>
\nMarxist revolutionary writer, Soviet politician, and atheist, who acted as Vladimir Lenin’s right hand man, executing 1,200 to 2,168 people in Krondstadt for their disagreements with Bolshevism.<\/a> Notably, he also founded the Red Army which would commit many of the Communist atrocities of the early Soviet era.<\/p>\n
\nVera Grebeniukova<\/b> (dates unknown) a.k.a. Dora<\/span>
\nMember of the Cheka (the Bolshevik secret police) and atheist who tortured and shot 700 prisoners during the early years of Communist Russia.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nManuel Aza\u00f1a<\/b> (1880-1940) a.k.a. Manuel Aza\u00f1a D\u00edaz<\/span>
\nAtheist Prime Minister of Spain,<\/a> under whose leadership Spain’s violently anti-religious Red Terror took place, which killed 38,000 to 72,344 people, among whom were members of the clergy.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nVladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko<\/b> (1883-1938)
\na.k.a. „The Bayonet” or „Nikita”<\/span>
\nBolshevik leader and atheist who was responsible for the brutal massacre of the Tambov Resistance, crushing peasants who resisted Communism, resulting 200,000 to 240,000 deaths (some of these being martial killings).<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBenito Mussolini<\/b> (1883-1945)
\na.k.a. Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini<\/span>
\nItalian dictator and founder of the political ideology known as „Fascism”<\/a> who caused the starvation of 40,000 people in Libya<\/a> and massacred 30,000 Ethiopians.<\/a> Despite receiving nominal membership in the Church in order to appeal to Catholics at one point, he was known to be an atheist, refering to himself as an „outright disbeliever” and that the Catholic Pope was a „malignant tumor” in Italy which must „be rooted out once and for all,” declaring that there was no room in Rome for both the Pope and himself.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNaftaly Frenkel<\/b> (1883-1960)<\/span>
\nMember of the Soviet secret police, atheist, and architect of the „gulag” system,<\/a> which ultimately killed around 1 million<\/a> to well over 10 million people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nHideki Tojo<\/b> (1884-1948)<\/span>
\nMilitary General and Prime Minister of Japan who was reponsible for the deaths of 5 million people<\/a> (in addition to all the martial deaths he caused during World War II, especially regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor, which he ordered). He practiced a form of Buddhism, which is often considered an atheistic religion.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPetru Groza<\/b> (1884-1958)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Romania, under whose leadership 60,000 people were executed and 100,000 others died under forced labor.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSergei Mironovich Kirov<\/b> (1886-1934) a.k.a. Kostrikov<\/span>
\nProminent Bolshevik leader (President of the Revolutionary Military Committee) and atheist who ordered „the merciless extermination” of prisoners „by any means possible.” Around 4,000 prisoners had stones tied around their necks and were thrown in a river todrown.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nRosalia Zemlyachka<\/b> (1876-1947)<\/span>
\nRussian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and atheist who murdered 50,000 soldiers in brutal manners in Crimea, despite having promised them safe passage.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nB\u00e9la Kun<\/b> (1886-1939) a.k.a. B\u00e9la Kohn<\/span>
\nMarxist revolutionary, atheist, and Soviet leader of Hungary who, when he had control of Crimea, carried out executions, resulting in the shooting of 60,000 and 70,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAdolf Hitler<\/b> (1889-1945)<\/span>
\nGerman Nazi dictator who is responsible for the Holocaust (a.k.a. The Shoah), a genocide that killed 11 million people,<\/a> notably killing 6 million Jews due to the Nazis’ particularly anti-semitic policies. While he would sometimes claim to be a Christian to the religious public, Hitler also declared, „Our epoch will certainly see the end of the disease ofChristianity,”<\/a> and claimed that „The Christian religion is nothing but a Jewish sect,”<\/a>and that, „One is either a Christian or a German. You cannot be both.”<\/a> Joseph Goebbels affirmed that Hitler was „completely anti-Christian” and said the best way for them to deter the churches from fighting the Nazi government was to „claim” to be Christian while gradually „strangle any attempt” of religion from interfering with the state.<\/a> Hitler said that he used the term „God” to refer to „the dominion of natural laws throughout the universe” (and said that he was opposed to „atheism” if it meant denying that). However, he was against any religious conception of God, saying that priests have exploited people’s feeling, and that „In the long run, National Socialism [a.k.a. Nazism] and religion will no longer be able to exist together.”<\/a> For such reasons, there have obviously been historians who have classified Hitler as an atheist.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nHo Chi Minh<\/b> (1890-1969)
\na.k.a. Nguy\u1ec5n Sinh Cun or Nguy\u1ec5n T\u1ea5t Th\u00e0nh<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Vietnam, responsible for killing 1.7 million Cambodians,<\/a> in addition to 2 million Vietnamese and 230,000 Laotians.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nCarl Panzram<\/b> (1891-1930) a.k.a. Jefferson Rhoades<\/span>
\nAmerican criminal and atheist who murdered 21 people, raped over 1,000 people, and committed multiple burglaries, robberies, larcenies, and arsons. He said, „I don’t believe in man, God nor Devil. I hate the whole damned human race, including myself… I preyed upon the weak, the harmless and the unsuspecting. This lesson I was taught by others: Might makes right.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGenrikh Yagoda<\/b> (1891-1838) a.k.a. Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda<\/span>
\nSoviet secret police official and atheist who is held responsible for the deaths of over 7 million Ukrainians during the „Holodomor” (a man-made famine in Ukraine engineered by the Soviet government). He was also one of the architects of the gulag system.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBoles\u0142aw Bierut<\/b> (1892-1956)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Poland and agent of the NKVD (a Soviet law enforcement agency) who executed 22,000 to 54,000 people of the Polish population, targeting Catholic priests especially as they who were considered dangerous to the Communistregime.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nM\u00e1ty\u00e1s R\u00e1kosi<\/b> (1892-1971) a.k.a. „Stalin’s Best Pupil”<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Hungary, under whose leadership, 150,000 people were imprisoned, 2,000 of which were excuted.<\/a> He also purged tens of thousands from the government, 5,000 of which were executed.<\/a> He coined the term „salami tactics,” when eliminating his non-Communist rivals, describing the process as „cutting them off like slices of salami.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJosip Broz Tito<\/b> (1892-1980) a.k.a. Josip Broz<\/span>
\nAtheist Dictator of Yugoslavia, directly responsible for the death of 570,000 to 1,170,000people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMao Zedung<\/b> (1893-1976) a.k.a. Mao Tse-tung<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of Communist China who killed 40 million<\/a> to around 80 million people,<\/a>through starvation, forced labor, and mass executions, famously making him the most murderous person in the history of the world.<\/p>\n
\nLazar Kaganovich<\/b> (1893-1991)<\/span>
\nSoviet politician who was instrumental in the atheist government’s „dekulakization” and engineered famines which killed 14.5 million people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNikolai Yezhov<\/b> (1895-1940)<\/span>
\nHead of the NKVD and atheist, where, under his leadership, 681,692 were executed and 140,000 who were arrested and eventually died in the Russian gulags from starvation.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKhorloogiin Choibalsan<\/b> (1895-1952)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Mongolia who executed around 35,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nVasily Blokhin<\/b> (1895-1955)<\/span>
\nSoviet Russian Major-General, atheist, and chief executioner for the NKVD who holds the Guinness World Record for „The Most Prolific Executioner,” having personally shot at least7,000 prisoners<\/a> to perhaps as much as 50,000 prisoners.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLazar Kogan<\/b> (1899-1939) a.k.a. Lazar Iosifovich Kogan<\/span>
\nHigh-ranking NKVD officer of the U.S.S.R.’s Communist party and atheist<\/a> who was in charge of the harsh slave labor force that worked on the White Sea Canal that ended up killing 25,000 workers.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLavrentiy Beria<\/b> (1899-1953)<\/span>
\nSoviet politician and atheist who executed 7,000 to 10,000 Georgians in response to a nationalist uprising,<\/a> which eventually got him promoted to Chief of the NKVD, where he was later responsible for the execution of 22,000 Polish captives.<\/a> He also known to have raped many women.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPaul Jaworski<\/b> (1900-1929) a.k.a. Paul Poluszynski<\/span>
\nPolish Atheist and gangster in Cleveland, Ohio, who killed up to 26 people. Before his execution, he was offered to see a chaplain but responded, „I preached atheism since the day I quit singing the choir. A man is yellow if he spends his life believing in nothing and then comes crawling to the church because he is afraid his death is near.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMartin Bormann<\/b> (1900-1945)<\/span>
\nNazi German who was the right-hand man of Adolf Hitler and a known atheist,<\/a> who signed the decree of 9 October 1942 prescribing that „the permanent elimination of the Jews from the territories of Greater Germany can no longer be carried out by emigration but by the use of ruthless force in the special camps of the East,”<\/a> thus playing a leading role in the Nazi Holocaust, which would murder 6 million Jews.<\/a> He also enthusiastically supported the Nazi campaign against the Church,<\/a> saying, „The Christian religion and National Socialist doctrines [a.k.a. Nazism] are not compatible,”<\/a> and banned clergy from the Nazi Party,<\/a> forbade crucifixes in classrooms,<\/a> and tried to get a leading Catholic bishop executed for his opposition to the Nazi’s non-voluntary euthanasia program.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej<\/b> (1901-1965)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Romania who judicially executed 137 people<\/a> and then killed some tens of thousands more in connection to country’s attempt at agriculturalcollectivization.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBogdan Kobulov<\/b> (1904-1953)<\/span>
\nOne of the main Soviet politicians and atheist police members who sentenced 22,000 people to death at the Katyn Massacre.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDeng Xiaoping<\/b> (1904-1997)<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of Communist China who ordered that a group of protesters who were demanding more democracy be gunned down in Tiananmen Square<\/a> resulting in 3,000 of them being slaughtered.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nW\u0142adys\u0142aw Gomu\u0142ka<\/b> (1905-1982)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of post-war Communist Poland, under whose leadership, Soviet terror killed 200,000 to 1 million people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLeonid Brezhnev<\/b> (1906-1982)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Russia (and the Soviet Union) whose genocide in Afghanistan killed 900,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBhagat Singh<\/b> (1907-1931) a.k.a. Shaheed Bhagat Singh<\/span>
\nIndian Marxist who opposed Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence and murdered a policeofficer<\/a> and threw bombs into a crowd, causing injuries but fortunately no deaths.<\/a> He wrote a work called „Why I am an Atheist,” saying, „Where is God? What is He doing? Is He getting a diseased pleasure out of it? A Nero! A Genghis Khan! Down with Him!”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLe Duan<\/b> (1907-1986) a.k.a. L\u00ea Du\u1ea9n<\/span>
\nAtheist politician of Communist Vietnam who extrajudicially executed more than 100,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTruong Chinh<\/b> (1907-1988)
\na.k.a. Tr\u01b0\u1eddng Chinh or \u0110\u1eb7ng Xu\u00e2n Khu<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Vietnam who executed 50,000 to 100,000 during his social reforms of Vietnam.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nEnver Hoxha<\/b> (1908-1985)<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of Communist Albania who killed more than 100,000 of his own citizens.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNe Win<\/b> (1910-2002)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Burma\/Myanmar who ruled with a Marxist-Buddhist ideology<\/a> and killed up to 10,000 protesters.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTodor Zhivkov<\/b> (1911-1998)<\/span>
\nAtheist head of State in Communist Bulgaria,<\/a> under whose leadership the country’s agricultural collectivization and political repression resulted in the deaths of 31,000<\/a> to100,000 people<\/a> (though some portion of these deaths happened under the few shorter-lived Marxist leaders before him, including Valko Chervenkov and Anton Yugov).<\/p>\n
\nKim Il-sung<\/b> (1912-1994)<\/span>
\nNorth Korean dictator who murdered as much as 3.5 million people<\/a> when he violently transformed North Korea to conform to the political ideology known as „Juche,” a culturally Korean version of Marxism-Leninism,<\/a> resulting in the country becoming an atheist state.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNur Muhammad Taraki<\/b> (1917-1979)<\/span>
\nMarxist President, Prime Minister, and General Secretary of Afghanistan who, despite having a Muslim background, promoted state atheism,<\/a> launching a violent campaign of repression that killed up to 27,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nNicolae Ceau\u0219escu<\/b> (1918-1989)<\/span>
\nAtheist and Communist Leader of Romania who murdered over 60,000 people in the revolution in Timi\u0219oara.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKaysone Phomvihane<\/b> (1920-1992)<\/span>
\nCommunist Prime Minister of Laos and atheist who murdered 100,000 (out of 400,000) in the Hmong Genocide.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nHua Guofeng<\/b> (1921-2008)<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of Communist China, under whose leadership the one-child policy was instituted, which forced families to have only one child (though sometimes two, if the first one was female).<\/a> This law stayed in effect until about 2015, having been enforced not only through contraception, but abortion (both voluntary and forced) andinfanticide.<\/a> The Chinese Health ministry reported that there have been over 336 million abortions performed on account of China’s one-child policy (they also estimated it as about 1,500 abortions an hour).<\/a><\/p>\n
\nPol Pot<\/b> (1925-1998) a.k.a. Saloth Sar<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of the violent revolutionary group known as the Khmer Rouge who became the leader of Cambodia, murdering 1 to 3 million of the country’s population.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTa Mok<\/b> (1926-2006) a.k.a. Chhit Choeun<\/span>
\nCambodian military chief of atheist Khmer Rouge who was blamed for the death of around 1.7 million people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFidel Castro<\/b> (1926-) a.k.a. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Cuba who killed 35,000 to 141,000 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJiang Zemin<\/b> (1926-)<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of China who ordered the torture and murder of 65,000 followers of the Falun Gong religion (which was considered dangerous to Communism), after which he then harvested their organs.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nChe Guevara<\/b> (1928-1967) a.k.a. Ernesto Guevara<\/span>
\nAtheist revolutionary leader who helped spread Marxism in Cuba. He wrote to his father about how he liked killing his first victim, seeing his brains pop out when he shot him in the head, and concluded, „Papa, I think I enjoy killing.”<\/a> He went on to execute 14,000 people in the name of atheistic Communism.<\/a> Notably, he also asked the Soviets to give him nuclear weapons in order to bring about a nuclear apocalypse, saying, „the people [of Cuba] you see today tell you that even if they should disappear from the face of the earth because an atomic war is unleashed in their names … they will feel completely happy and fulfilled.” In addition, he fanatically suported Communist regimes throughout the world that killed millions upon millions of other people.<\/a> He has been widely celebrated by atheists, including Christopher Hitchens who considered him „a rolemodel.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJack Kevorkian<\/b> (1928-2011) a.k.a. „Dr. Death”<\/span>
\nAmerican pathologist and promoter of euthanasia who performed over 130 physician-assisted suicides and was eventually arrested for it. When asked if he believed in a god, he quipped, „Bach. At least I didn’t make mine up.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nBabrak Karmal<\/b> (1929-1996) a.k.a. Sultan Hussein <\/span>
\nAfghan politician, under whose leadership, around 1.2 million were killed.<\/a> Though some say a Muslim, he was known to be an atheist, as he imposed state atheism onAfghanistan.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJim Jones<\/b> (1931-1978)<\/span>
\nAmerican Marxist<\/a> who transformed a group of church members into a Communist cult, wherein his fanatical followers would commit suicide on his command, resulting in a mass suicide of over 900 people (some of whom were forcibly killed, including children).<\/a> He said that he „took the church and used the church to bring people to atheism.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSamora Machel<\/b> (1933-1986)<\/span>
\nAtheist President of Mozambique, who ruled the country in a Marxist-Leninist tradition and set up „reeducation centers” that have been described as „infamous centers of torture and death,” where an estimated 30,000 people died.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThan Shwe<\/b> (1933-)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Burma\/Myanmar and Marxist intellectual<\/a> who murdered 282 people in the „May 30th Massacre”<\/a> as well as slaughtered some thousands of others.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAlvin Lee King III<\/b> (1935-1982)<\/span>
\nA former teacher at a Texas high school, where he was known to be an outspoken atheist, who burst into a church with a rifle and a pistol, murdering 5 Christians and wounding at least 10 others (later hanging himself in his jail cell).<\/a><\/p>\n
\nRichard Kuklinski<\/b> (1935-2006) a.k.a. „The Iceman”<\/span>
\nAmerican contract killer who murdered up to 250 people for the mob.<\/a> He admitted to being an atheist, saying the Church was a sham and that if God really existed, there would be no violence in the world.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nAndrei Chikatilo<\/b> (1936-1994) a.k.a. „The Red Ripper”<\/span>
\nSoviet serial killer who killed and cannibalized 53 people. He confessed that Communism had a negative effect on him and that his atheism inspired him with anxiety which caused his mind to „split.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMengistu Haile Mariam<\/b> (1937-)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist Ethiopia who killed 500,000 to 2 million.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLee Harvey Oswald<\/b> (1939-1963)<\/span>
\nAtheist assassin who shot and killed the President of the United States, namely, John F. Kennedy. He was a Marxist<\/a> and was also reported to have explicitly defendedatheism.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nSlobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107<\/b> (1941-2006)
\na.k.a. „Sloba” and „Butcher of the Balkans”<\/span>
\nAtheist Leader of Communist Serbia who slaughtered 250,000 people (some number of these being martial killings).<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKim Jong-il<\/b> (1941\/1942-2011)<\/span>
\nNorth Korean dictator who continued North Korea’s atheistic political ideology known as „Juche,” becoming responsible for a famine<\/a> that killed 2.8 million to 3.5 million people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJames Oliver Huberty<\/b> (1942-1984)<\/span>
\nAmerican mass shooter and atheist<\/a> who shot and killed 21 people, injuring 19 others, in the „San Ysidro McDonald’s massacre.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTed Kaczynski<\/b> (1942-) a.k.a. „The Unabomber”<\/span>
\nAmerican atheist and anarchist who killed 3 people and injured 23 others with a series of homemade bombs. His parents raised him as an „intellectual atheist,”<\/a> and he maintained, „I believe in nothing.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJos\u00e9 Eduardo dos Santos<\/b> (1942-)<\/span>
\nAtheist President of Angola and Marxist-Leninist,<\/a> under whose leadership 125,000 people were killed in democide<\/a> (some of these deaths possibly being on account of Angola’s preceding Marxist President, Agostinho Neto), though he became less Marxist and accordingly less democidal later in life.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nHu Jintao<\/b> (1942-)<\/span>
\nAtheist leader of Communist China, under whose leadership around 75,000 people wereexecuted.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGary Heidnick<\/b> (1943-1999) a.k.a. Gary Michael Heidnik<\/span>
\nCriminal from Pennsylvania who kidnapped, tortured, and raped 6 women, eventually murdering 2 of them, turning one into food and feeding her to the others.<\/a> Though he founded a mock „church” on the side to receive tax exemptions, he said he had always been an atheist.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLeonard Lake<\/b> (1945-1985)<\/span>
\nCalifornian serial-killer and atheist<\/a> who, along with his co-conspirator Charles Ng, murdered 11 to 25 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDennis Nilsen<\/b> (1945-)
\na.k.a. „The Muswell Hill Murderer” and „The Kindly Killer”<\/span>
\nBritish serial killer, homosexual necrophiliac, and atheist<\/a> who strangled 12 men todeath.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTed Bundy<\/b> (1946-1989) a.k.a. Theodore Robert Cowell<\/span>
\nAtheist serial killer who murdered 30 to over 100 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDavid Roland Waters<\/b> (1947-2003)<\/span>
\nAn atheist and office manager of the organization called „American Atheists” who murdered 4 people.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDavid Berkowitz<\/b> (1953-) a.k.a. „Son of Sam”<\/span>
\nAtheist serial killer who murdered 6 people and wounded 7 others. He claimed he was involved with a Satanic cult but also said he did not believe in God.<\/a><\/p>\n
\nVelupillai Prabhakaran<\/b> (1954-2009)
\na.k.a. Thiruvenkadam Velupillai Prabhakaran<\/span>
\nMilitary leader and founder of the „Tamil Tigers,” an atheist terrorist group based in Sri Lanka that sprang from Marxist-Leninst philosophy that vehemently rejected allreligion.<\/a> They assassinated many high-ranking political figures, including multiple world leaders (the only terrorist organization to have done so), additionally murdering over 4,000 people in only a few years through a variety of terrorist attacks, including suicidebombings.<\/a> They were also the leading instigators and most prolific users of suicide attacks in the modern world,<\/a> notably being the ones to invent exploding suicide vests<\/a>(even though the suicide vest is popularly attributed only to „religious extremists,” particularly radical Muslims, despite it actually being a product of anti-religious, atheistic terrorism).<\/p>\n
\nBrian Dugan<\/b> (1956-)<\/span>
\nSerial killer who murdered 3 people and sexually assaulted several women in Chicago. He described himself as atheist to reporters and said he did not believe in heaven or hell, good or evil, calling them all „mad-made constructions.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nJeffrey Dahmer<\/b> (1960-1994) a.k.a. „The Milwaukee Cannibal”<\/span>
\nAtheist serial killer who murdered 17 people. He tortured, raped, dismembered, and cannibalized several of his victims. He credited his atheism for being the reason why he killed people, saying, „If it all happens naturalistically, what’s the need for a god? Can’t I set my own rules? Who owns me? I own myself.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMarc L\u00e9pine<\/b> (1964-1989)<\/span>
\nCanadian Atheist who shot and murdered 14 women and wounded 14 others and then shot himself in the „Montreal Massacre.”<\/a> His mother reported that he was „a confirmed atheist all his life.”<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTimothy McVeigh<\/b> (1968-2001)<\/span>
\nAmerican terrorist who was convicted of the Oklahoma City Bombing, which killed 168 people and injured over 600 others (the deadliest terrorist attack prior to September 11, 2001). He informed the press that he did not believe in God.<\/a><\/p>\n
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