History Main / HistorysCrimeWave

History's Crime Wave is when historical criminals are used in a work of fiction. This may involve HistoricalVillainUpgrade. The villains don't have to be on Earth; they just have to be historical, though this can also extend to mythological villains.

** An earlier Halloween episode had Satan [[PlayingAgainstType (Flanders)]] put Homer on trial before his "Jury of the Damned": Benedict Arnold, Lizzie Borden, Richard Nixon [[note]] who, ironically, at the time [[FunnyAneurysmMoment would not die until several months later]] [[/note]], John Wilkes Booth, Blackbeard, John Dillinger...and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the starting lineup of the 1976 Philadelphia Fliers]].

* A TomeOfEldritchLore brings Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Albert Fish, the Zodiac Killer, and Jack the Ripper (or, more aptly, ''Jill'' the Ripper) back to life in ''The Butchers''.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "Meltdown" has the crew encounter a "wax-droid" museum planet, where the wax-droids have become self-aware, and the "Good" and "Bad" characters have gone to war. The "Bad" characters include Hitler, Caligula, UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk, Richard the III, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking jazz musician]] [[TakeThat James Last]].

* In ''Knight and Squire'' #3, UsefulNotes/RichardIII is resurrected and he proceeds to resurrect England's other 'bad' kings: [[TheHouseOfNormandy William II]], [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland John]], [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst Edward I]], and UsefulNotes/CharlesI. The monarchs are granted genetically enhanced superpowers and each leads a criminal army to take over a different part of the UK.

** Another episode offers an [[InvertedTrope Inversion]] in which another bunch of aliens create psychic images of the Earps and Doc Hollkiday, popularly remembered as the ''heroes'' of the OK Corral gunfight, and put Kirk and his landing party in the roles of the "villainous" Clantons and [=McLowrys=].

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* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has an odd InUniverse example when the Excalbians create duplicates of various criminals who are "historical monsters" from the perspective of the ''Enterprise'' crew, with Genghis Khan the only real-world historical "villain," and set them against a group of Historical Heroes, of whom the only real-world counterpart is Abe Lincoln.

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "Meltdown" has the crew encounter a "wax-droid" museum planet, where the wax-droids have become self-aware, and the "Good" and "Bad" characters have gone to war. The "Bad" characters include Hitler, Caligula, ''UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk'', Richard the III, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking jazz musician]] [[TakeThat James Last]].

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "Meltdown" has the crew encounter a "wax-droid" museum planet, where the wax-droids have become self-aware, and the "Good" and "Bad" characters have gone to war. The "Bad" characters include Hitler, Caligula, [[UsefulNotes/RasputinTheMadMonk]], Richard III, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking jazz musician]] [[TakeThat James Last]].

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "Meltdown" has the crew encounter a "wax-droid" museum planet, where the wax-droids have become self-aware, and the "Good" and "Bad" characters have gone to war. The "Bad" characters include Hitler, Caligula, Rasputin, Richard III, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking James]] [[TakeThat Last]].

** An earlier Halloween episode had Satan [[PlayingAgainstType (Flanders)]] put Homer on trial before his "Jury of the Damned": Benedict Arnold, Lizzie Borden, Richard Nixon [[note]] who, ironically, at the time [[FunnyAneurysmMoment would not die until several months later]] [[/note], John Wilkes Booth, Blackbeard, John Dillinger...and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the starting lineup of the 1976 Philadelphia Fliers]].

* In a way VandalSavage as he has been many historical characters, like Caesar, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper.

* ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes: In ''Adventure Comics'' #314, a villain called Alaktor recruits history's three greatest villains (UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler), and ... John Dillinger to take on the Legion. Apparently Alaktor considers bank robbery to be equal to mass genocide.
* In ''All-Select Comics'' #7, the sorcerer Terdu summons a group of villains from the past, whom he dubs the 'Men of Evil', to battle ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and Bucky. The Men of Evil were Captain Kidd, UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper, Frank and UsefulNotes/JesseJames, Literature/Bluebeard, Gyp-the-Blood, and three gangsters (names unrevealed) who had died in the electric chair decades earlier.

* In the 1960s ''{{Spider-Man}}'' series, a villain from an earlier episode, the Waxmaster Parafino, makes Wax Robots (?) of 'History's Greatest Villains. UsefulNotes/{{Blackbeard}}, UsefulNotes/JesseJames and 'the Executioner of Paris' (?) are used, though waxworks of a masked man with a dagger, and a rich-looking man are seen.

** One ''Treehouse of Horror'' had UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid leading a gang of historical villains, including the most evil German in history � Kaiser Wilhelm II!

* The "House of Villains" episode of Disney's ''HouseOfMouse'' could be considered this in-universe, since many of the Disney villains are either dead or presumed dead in their own continuities - unless, of course, you buy the AnimatedActors hypothesis.

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[[AC:Film]]
* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseumBattleOfTheSmithsonian'' - The fictional Kahmenrah forms an "Axis of Evil" with Ivan the Terrible, Napoléon Bonaparte, and Al Capone, while also rejecting [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] and [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]].

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* Possibly the oldest example is in ''Literature/TheOdyssey'' as Odysseus goes to the Underworld and sees mythological villains being punished for their crimes, like the trickster Sisyphus, the husband-murdering daughters of Danaë, and the cannibalistic Tantalus.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' has a much larger number in the Inferno section, some known to us only through the poem. Oddly, it also includes some scattered mythological villains, like Antaeus.
* ''Return to Groosham Grange'' has the waxworks of Hitler, a French Revolutionary and others brought to life from Madame Tussaud.

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[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

** One ''Treehouse of Horror'' had UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid leading a gang of historical villains, including the most evil German in history — Kaiser Wilhelm II!
** An earlier Halloween episode had Satan [[PlayingAgainstType (Flanders)]] put Homer on trial before his "Jury of the Damned": Benedict Arnold, Lizzie Borden, Richard Nixon [[note]] who, ironically, at the time [[FunnyAneurysmMoment would not die until several months later]] [[/note], John Wilkes Booth, Blackbeard, John Dillinger...and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the starting lineup of the 1976 Philadelphia Fliers]].

* ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes: In ''Adventure Comics'' #314, a villain called Alaktor recruits history's three greatest villains (UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, John Dillinger and UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler) to take on the Legion.

* * In ''Knight and Squire'' #3, UsefulNotes/RichardIII is resurrected and he proceeds to resurrect England's other 'bad' kings: [[TheHouseOfNormandy William II]], [[UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland John]], [[UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst Edward I]], and UsefulNotes/CharlesI. The monarchs are granted genetically enhanced superpowers and each leads a criminal army to take over a different part of the UK.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': One ''Treehouse of Horror'' had UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid leading a gang of historical villains, including the most evil German in history — Kaiser Wilhelm II!

* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum: Battle of the Smithsonian'' - The fictional Kahmenrah forms an "Axis of Evil" with Ivan the Terrible, Napoléon Bonaparte, and Al Capone, while also rejecting [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] and [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]].

* There is a comic by the Finnish comic artist Petri Hiltunen where a man brings a supply of weaponry to a group of outlaws who turn out to be the immortal revenants of various historical villains. Their leader plans to kill the man instead of paying, but the man tells him that's not going to work because he is Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus, and thus also immortal. As the man is leaving, one of the revenants runs up to his leader to inform him that the man was lying. How does he know? [[BecauseImJonesy Because ''he'' is Judas Iscariot]].

* In one ''TheMightyThor'' comic he goes to the demon Mephisto's realm and encounters a group of villains.

* The TropeNamer is in ''All-Star Comics'' #38 where the JusticeSocietyOfAmerica investigate Gotham City murders claimed to be performed by historical villains. Though they turn out to be the disguises of an insane wax museum guard, he succeeds in killing every member in the issue except ComicBook/WonderWoman, who has to use the purple ray to bring them back to life. The villains are UsefulNotes/{{Nero}}, Goliath, Captain Kidd, Cesare Borgia, UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan and UsefulNotes/AttilaTheHun.

* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum: Battle of the Smithsonian'': The fictional Kahmenrah forms an "Axis of Evil" with Ivan the Terrible, Napoléon Bonaparte, and Al Capone, while also rejecting [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] and [[Series/SesameStreet Oscar the Grouch]].

** Another episode offers an [[InvertedTrope Inversion]] in which another bunch of aliens create psychic images of the Earps and Doc Hollkiday, popularly remembered as the ''heroes'' of the OK Corral gunfight, and put Kirk and his landing party int he roles of the "villainous" Clantons and [=McLowrys=].