Russel "Snake" Harmon What you say we recruit them Hazzard boys? ... We're looking for hot drivers.
Willie: What if they're working with Jude?
Snake: It'd be the perfect way to keep track of him. We let them think they joined the gang and if things get tough, we hold them as the insurance against Jude playing policeman.
— "Jude Emery"
Adoration of the "villains" is not an uncommon feeling for viewers of The Dukes of Hazzard, as the show has controversial heroes and an abundance of clever, daring, and affable villains.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
- "Swamp Molly": Swamp Molly is a moonshiner turned gunrunner who once saved Jesse Duke from the authorities and has remorselessly held that favor over his head for years to get his help with criminal pursuits for purposes like funding the education of her relatives. She gets Bo and Luke to drive a truck of her merchandise without telling them it’s firearms, and has her cousin take Jesse (who Molly would never really harm or hold prisoner) on a fishing trip so she can claim she is holding him hostage in case the Duke boys look into the truck and refuse to deliver the guns. Even after the Dukes do destroy her valuable shipment, she finds the incident Actually Pretty Funny and bakes her finest meal for Jesse as a peace offering.
- "Arrest Jesse Duke": Carla is the Affably Evil leader of four women who approach Boss Hogg with a scam to disable cars with an air rifle, strip them of valuable parts when the motorists leave to get help, and then use a discount auto parts shop to sell those parts back to the owners seeking to repair their cars. The gang are willing to use force against their enemies, capture Bo with a Distracted by the Sexy gambit, and can take their jeeps through terrain that even the Duke boys can't go. Weary of Boss's condescension and hoarding of their profits, Carla eventually robs him and strips his Cadillac and the only patrol car nearby of their working parts within minutes, in broad daylight, without being spotted, to cover her attempted escape.
- "Jude Emery" : Russell "Snake" Harmon is a hijacker and smuggler with a gang of former moonshine runners and rural street racers, including men wanted for murder. He sometimes puts his beloved pet rattlesnakes in the cars of his enemies, and makes his prisoners arm wrestle over a type of cacti that makes people feel like their arms are in fire for the rest of their lives. Texas Ranger Jude Emery has spent two years chasing Snake from one jurisdiction to another, unaware that Snake stays one step ahead of him by spying on local courthouses so that he will spot Jude whenever Jude arrives and contacts the local authorities. When Snake sees the Duke boys exiting a courthouse with Jude, he decides to recruit them for his gang so he can spy on Jude if they are in fact helping him. When Jude takes Snake prisoner while the Duke Boys are fighting Snake’s henchmen, Snake greets Jude pleasantly and chats with him about how the fight is going while also distracting Jude from the approach of another armed gang member. Even after his final defeat, he watches with a grin as Jude defeats Boss Hogg in a Jurisdiction Friction argument.
- "Duke vs. Duke": Ma Harper is a dry-witted, grandmotherly figure with a thriving business as a bookie and card shark and three Dumb Muscle sons who she educated in criminal skills. When the notoriously shifty Boss Hogg places a bet on a car race with her, she knows that Boss would only make such a bet if the race was fixed and uses this to make her own bets. She and her sons try to sabotage the other competitors to protect their investment and steal valuable race cars for themselves, with Ma proving to be a skilled actress. While Ma fails to defeat the Dukes, she collects her winnings from Boss and forces him to pay off the bets that she lost betting on the race with other bookies. While she is arrested for unrelated crimes shortly afterward, she remains calm and composed even while being escorted to jail.
- "New Deputy In Town": Linda Mae Barnes, the girlfriend of imprisoned gangster Rafe Logan, plots to break Rafe out of jail by posing as a deputy from a neighboring county. She presents Boss fake orders saying she has been assigned to provide extra security to the Hazzard County Jailhouse while Rafe is being kept there. She is a Badass Driver who can sometimes outdrive the Duke Boys. This, and her skill in selling her role as a By-the-Book Cop, cause Boss to demote Rosco and make Linda sheriff. Linda is apologetic to Rosco but is pleased by how it will help her plan. She comes across as a Punch-Clock Villain who is willing to hurt people but lets a hostage go at one point and finds the Duke boys antics' and Boss's Butt-Monkey luck amusing. She even succeeds in breaking Rafe out of jail, although they are recaptured before they can get out of Hazzard County.
- "Big Daddy": Big Daddy Hogg, Boss Hogg's father, is a Southern Gentleman who encourages his son to take better care of himself and has a reputation as an honest and charitable insurance salesman. However, he is really a conman who is just as avaricious as his son. He has no reservations about robbing Boss, although his love for his son does make him decide to steal less then he could have. He uses one of his oldest cons to trick Boss into opening his safe to put in some of Big Daddy's money for safekeeping. Big Daddy's chauffeur Ernie then pretends to rob both Hoggs, with Big Daddy doing a clever job of acting shocked and innocent. After he and Ernie are exposed, he gracefully surrenders rather than try to run, and bonds with Boss over the discovery that they are both crooks. Boss then lets his father go after taking back the money, only to discover that Big Daddy stole back $5,000 before leaving, something that Boss finds Actually Pretty Funny.
- "High Flyin' Dukes": Percy is a petty criminal who Boss hires to put lye in a crop duster so Boss can file a Frivolous Lawsuit against the pilot. Percy is a rare villain to not only know that Boss has a Chronic Back Stabbing Disorder but take steps against it. He records his meeting with Boss and uses that blackmail material and calm Plausible Deniability arguments to avoid being arrested for most of the episode. He and his partner Hector decide to steal the crop duster and use it to extort other farmers by threatening to dump plywood on their crops, doing demonstration runs with flour. Even when they are caught red-handed, Percy tricks Boss Hogg and Rosco into letting their guard down before he and Hector escape and are only recaptured because the Dukes have recovered the plane and it gives them an advantage in the ensuing chase.
- "Danger on the Hazard Express": Burke and Perry are train robbers who scheme to help Boss Hogg rob a train by using a car that Perry can steer remotely to ram the train and knock it off the tracks and then rob the baggage car. When the Duke boys interfere with their practice run and wreck the heist car, Burke scares them away with his rifle before they can inspect the wreck. The two men then steal the Dukes’ car, both to use it as their new heist car and to try to keep the Dukes from interfering with their future plans. Despite showing little regard for innocent life, the two men are cunning, good-humored, respectful to Boss, and have a Villainous Friendship with each other and their accomplice, Carney.
