● They say two wrongs don’t make a right, but that doesn’t stop some people from exacting
some pretty brutal retribution on those who have wronged them.
Is vengeance ever justified?
How far can a person go to get justice?
Here are some extreme ways people got their revenge.
15 - Pigs on a police car ● If you need something done, why not get
a load of prisoners to do it for you?
Inmates provide a cheap source of labour, so the Vermont state police thought they’d
take advantage and get the prisoners to create and print the decals for the side of their
squad cars.
But in a clever act of defiance, one cunning convict snuck the image of a pig onto the
logo, as payback for his capture.
14 - Pierre Picaud ● In the early 19th Century, a shoemaker
named Pierre Picaud lived in Nimes, France.
Engaged to marry a wealthy lady, Picaud was accused of being a spy by three jealous friends
and he was imprisoned for seven years in a fortress in Italy.
When Picaud finally got out, he adopted a new name, rose up through Parisian society
and hunted down those three who had betrayed him, killing them and destroying their families’
lives.
His story was the inspiration for the famous novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
13 - Siberian Tiger ● Vladimir Markov was a Russian beekeeper
who engaged in tiger poaching for the high prices they would fetch on the black market.
One day, he picked the wrong tiger to mess with, wounding it with a unlicensed rifle
and stealing its prey.
The tiger sought out Markov’s cabin, destroyed everything in it and waited for over a day
for Markov to come back.
When the poacher returned, the furious feline tore him limb from limb.
12 - Marie Lupe Cooley ● Marie Lupe Cooley, an administrative assistant
working in Florida saw an ad placed in the local paper by her boss, offering a position
remarkably similar to hers.
So Marie, who worked at an architecture firm, decided to take revenge before she was fired.
She deleted 2.5 million dollars’ worth of blueprints and designs, erased from the computer
servers.
It turned out that the job ad wasn’t for her position, so she was never supposed to
lose her job - but she blew it anyway!
11 - George Lucas ● In 1978, Star Wars director George Lucas
moved to Marin County, California, where he built a property named ‘Skywalker Ranch’.
He had intended to add his own movie studio to the land, but the wealthy local residents
fiercely opposed his plans, worried that their idyllic neighbourhood might be spoiled.
So in 2015, he gave up and instead funded the construction of affordable housing for
low-income families.
Because what do rich people really hate?
Having poor neighbours!
10 - 200 Indian women ● For over a decade, thug, murderer and
rapist Akku Yadav terrorised the local community in the city of Nagpur, India.
Yadav had been bribing the local police to look the other way, but by 2004 the women
of the poor neighbourhood had had enough.
His house was burned down, and he fled to police custody.
At his hearing in the courtroom of Nagpur, Yadav was attacked by 200 women who stabbed,
beat and stoned him to death, as well as throwing chilli powder and cutting off his offending
organ.
9 - Boudica ● 2000 years ago, Britain was divided into
tribal areas that the Romans were attempting to maintain control over.
When the king of the Iceni tribe died, the Romans made a show of force, raping his two
daughters and publicly whipping his wife, Queen Boudica.
Rome probably realised they messed up big time, when Boudica led an army of vengeance,
killing 80,000 Romans, destroying the city of Colchester and nearly burning London to
the ground.
8 - Mark Bao ● When student and entrepreneur Mark Bao
had his laptop stolen, he remembered that he had installed software to access the laptop
even while it was missing.
While trying to recover his own files, Mark found a video of the thief dancing awkwardly
so he uploaded it to Youtube where it now has over 2 million views.
The thief turned himself into the police and begged Mark to take the video down.
The only thing worse than prison is being shamed on the internet.
7 - Hawley Harvey Crippen ● In 1910, Dr Hawley Crippen was hanged
in London for the murder of his wife, a music-hall performer named Cora.
He was arrested on a boat to America with his mistress after police found a mutilated
body beneath his basement.
Crippen professed his innocence, saying Cora wasn’t dead but that she had herself run
away to America.
Modern DNA evidence suggests that the body was male, meaning that Mrs Crippen pulled
off the greatest piece of revenge framing on her cheating husband.
6 - Genghis Khan ● In the early 13th century, the great unifying
Mongol leader Genghis Khan began conquest westwards across Asia.
When he reached the Khwarezm empire, he sent diplomatic missionaries to begin peaceful
trade talks with the Shah of Khwarezm.
The Shah killed all 500 men, as well as a second envoy.
“Two strikes and you’re out!”, said Genghis, who then invaded the land, destroyed
the cities, killed and enslaved the people and poured molten silver into the eyes of
the leaders.
5 - Alan Markovitz ● Alan Markovitz was a wealthy strip-club
owner in Detroit who split from his wife Lea after she cheated on him with another guy.
Lea moved into a large house with her new man, but soon enough, her ex-husband Markovitz
bought the house next door just for fun, so he could then spend another seven thousand
dollars on a 3.5 metre bronze statue of a middle finger facing his ex-wife’s house.
Classy move from a classy guy.
4 - Frank Eaton ● When Frank Eaton was eight, his father
was shot in cold blood by six confederate soldiers after the American Civil War had
finished.
His father’s friend told him he had a duty to avenge his father’s death, so young Frank
spent his childhood getting handy with a six-shooter, later joining the cavalry and earning the
nickname Pistol Pete.
After twenty years, Eaton got his vengeance, gunning down five men, and attending the funeral
of the sixth to make sure he was dead.
3 - Olga of Kiev ● Queen Olga of Kiev became ruler after
her husband was murdered for trying to collect taxes from the Drevlian tribe.
The leader of the Drevlians then proposed marriage to Queen Olga, and she accepted.
When the tribal leaders arrived in Kiev, they had a relaxing soak in the bathhouse, which
Olga then locked and set on fire.
With the leaders out of the way, she slaughtered the Drevlian soldiers and let loose a flaming
flock of birds to burn down their city.
2 - Buford Pusser ● At only 26 years old, ex-professional
wrestler Buford Pusser was one of the youngest police sheriffs ever to serve in Tennessee.
During his efforts to take down the infamous State Line Mob and the Dixie Mafia he was
shot, stabbed and beaten numerous times.
But it was when his wife was killed that Pusser went all out, exacting brutal revenge on the
perpetrators and even hiring a hitman to finish the job.
1 - Jeanne de Clisson ● During the Hundred Years’ War, wealthy
landowner Oliver de Clisson was beheaded by French king Philip the sixth for supposed
collusion with the English.
His wife Jeanne sold all the land to raise money for an army of men and a fleet of three
warships, which she painted black and named the flagship ‘my revenge’.
She spent over a decade as a ferocious pirate, attacking French vessels in the Channel and
slaughtering their crews.