26. Francisco Franco (Spain)

From the years 1936 to 1975, Francisco Franco successfully held on to his power as dictator, and helped fascism gain a complete hold over Spain for 36 years. His government was notorious for the various human rights abuses. He established concentration camps, rounded up people considered to be enemies of the state and sent them to forced labor and executions. All this claimed the lives of between 200,000 to 400,000 people. In 1975, his rule ended when he fell into a coma and finally had to be weaned off of life-support.

27. Vlad III

Vlad III was ruler of Romania from 1448 to 1477. He was notorious for his cruel way of dealing with his enemies. His passion for violence and gore earned him the nickname “Vlad the Impaler.” Vlad was known to have impaled his opponents on stakes erected in the ground and left them there to die. Some accounts even described how Vlad bathed in the blood of his enemies, an account which may have been the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”