"Do you honestly know what your father did? I once saw him murder a young woman and her two children. She clung to his knees, begging for mercy. She begged him to spare her children. So he shot the children first, while she watched. He is a monster, who kills innocent people."
— Dr. Leo Krebs on Hans Kozak, "Victims of Circumstance"
In Miami through the years, James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs faced many criminals of various types. Some of them are particularly horrific.
All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
Multiple Episodes
- "Back in the World" & "Stone's War": William Maynard is a so-called "patriot" and a former US Army colonel who smuggled heroin in the body bags of his own deceased countrymen. Fully aware that his heroin has been contaminated by the wood alcohol used to preserve the bodies but wanting to make a profit before it rots, Maynard starts a poison heroin epidemic in his first episode. After Ira Stone, a reporter who used to serve under Maynard, attempts to expose this atrocity, Maynard has Stone's wife murdered and tosses him the wedding ring just to mock him. In his next appearance, Maynard attempts to fund a bloody war in Nicaragua with his own paramilitary organization, and when video evidence of his soldiers murdering innocent people surfaces, Maynard once again begins murdering and torturing anyone else who would expose him, ultimately leading to Ira Stone's death.
Season 1
- "No Exit": Tony Amato is a wealthy international Arms Dealer who provides munitions all the way down America, to whoever lines his pockets the most. Having absconded with a cache of stolen Stinger missiles, Tony intends to sell them to clients he knows will use them on densely populated commercial airliners, going so far as to stage a demonstration for his client and educate him on how he can make these plane crashes look like accidents. Not only a consummate merchant of death, Tony Amato is the worst spousal abuser in the show, beating and tormenting his wife Rita to the point she almost hires a hitman on him just to be free. When she attempted to escape via a legal divorce, Tony had the divorce lawyer's wife raped and threatened that his daughter would be next if he didn't mind his own business.
- "Golden Triangle" two-parter: General Lao Li is a drug lord from Lt. Castillo's past. Former owner of one of the largest suppliers of opium and heroin in Southeast Asia, Li massacred Castillo's men when they attempted to raid his base. Retiring to Miami with his family, Li has two men who tried to steal his travel visa killed and mutilated to serve as a lesson to those who wish to betray him. Using Castillo's long-lost wife and her husband as leverage over his opponent, Li attempts to have his two grandsons killed when they try and fail to get into the drug dealing market, all because they brought shame to his family name.
- "Rites of Passage": David Traynor is a wealthy "talent agent" who trafficks ignorant and desperate young women to work as call girls. Presenting it as a high-party lifestyle, Traynor ensures numerous women remain enslaved and uses violence and coercion at any sign of disloyalty or hesitation. When one of his girls proves a problem, Traynor has her murdered via overdose.
Season 2
- "Junk Love": Juan Carlos Silva is a crime lord with a Dark Secret that sets him apart from others like him in the show. Obsessed with a young woman named Rosella, Silva has killed so many people within his own organization that law enforcement suspects an internal purge; in truth, Silva is murdering anyone and everyone to whom Rosella tries to escape to, even a pimp when Rosella becomes desperate enough to turn to prostitution. Silva's horrible secret is revealed in the last few minutes: Rosella is his daughter, and Silva has been raping her for years, enough so that she finally snaps and kills him.
- "Bought and Paid For": Nico Arroyo is the pampered son of a Bolivian general who is a danger to every woman he meets. Nico has a history of raping maids in his home as well as women he meets out clubbing. Having raped a maid named Odette who left the household, Nico later finds her and rapes her again in Gina Calabrese's apartment. When Odette accepts a payoff from Nico's father for the sake of her elderly mother, Nico declares she "owns" Odette, tormenting her to suicide. Nico later attempts to rape Gina as well at knifepoint, stopped only by Gina luring him into a trap to shoot him dead.
Season 3
- "When Irish Eyes Are Crying": Sean Carroon is an IRA terrorist so vicious and brutal that the Provos are willing to have him killed to stop his widespread attacks out of fear for the attention he'll bring. Sean has a history of people close to him ending up dead along with bombings and once in Miami, he seduces Gina Calabrese and purchases missiles from an Arms Dealer. Intending on attacking the Miami airport and destroying the British Concorde jet, Sean tries to murder Gina when she attempts to stop him.
- "Baby Blues": Howard Famiglia is a wealthy, well-respected adoption lawyer who secretly runs a baby trafficking operation. Having Colombian babies stolen from their mothers and shipped to Miami, Howard illegally sells the babies to hundreds of adoptive families. Uncaring if some of the babies die on the way to America, when his operation looks to be exposed by Crockett and Tubbs, Howard has his criminal associates killed, even attempting to kill one of the Colombian mothers himself to tie up loose ends.
- "Duty and Honor": The Savage, real name Frank, an assassin who was emasculated by a prostitute he abused and then murdered, retains a violent misogyny that he indulges on during his political assassinations. In every city he finds himself in, the Savage tracks down women with dark hair and brutally stabs them to death, writing obscenities in their blood after, with dozens of victims across the world. Upon his handler growing discontent with his thirst for blood, the Savage threatens him, sneering that nobody cares about "dead hookers" before attempting to kill more.
Season 5
- "Bad Timing": Cruz is a born sociopath who treats even his old friends as disposable assets. Cruz thanks the man who broke him out by shooting him dead and tracks down his old associates in a one-million-dollar robbery, before terrorizing everyone he comes across. Cruz guns down multiple cops, threatens to burn a harmless old gas attendant to death—and then attempts to set her alight even after she gives up the money—and attempts to rape the waitress he's taken hostage. When he kidnaps Sonny Crockett, Cruz viciously tortures him and has to be talked against killing him so he has a hostage. When his old partner Doc Jerry reveals he's screwed Cruz out of the money, Cruz mows him down in a fury and again tries to rape the waitress he's kidnapped just to let off some steam.
- "Asian Cut": H.G. Halliwell is an apparently friendly professor, but hides a secret love for the most creative methods of torture. Having attempted to implement his methods into the military years ago, Halliwell reacts to the lack of "recognition" for his work by taking to the streets to kidnap and torture young women to death, often carving into their bodies to finish them off. Brutally murdering a local reporter for discovering Halliwell's crimes, Halliwell then tries to continue his "art" by torturing undercover cop Trudy.
- "Victims of Circumstance": Hans Kozak is a former Nazi official who oversaw a death camp, abusing and sending countless people to their demises with smug glee. In one of his crowning moments of evil, when Kozak was begged by a mother to spare her two young children, Kozak responded by killing the kids in front of the mother, before murdering her as well. Though having escaped justice for his crimes years ago, when Kozak learns of a group of Holocaust survivors who hope to testify against Kozak and see him punished, Kozak orders his brainwashed daughter Helen Jackson to go on a killing spree of the Holocaust witnesses for him, resulting in the deaths of several innocents.
- "Freefall": General Manuel Borbon is the dictator of Costa Morada who allows the Medellin Cartel to run rampant across his nation. Distributing drugs, brutalizing people, and helping to keep his pockets filled, Borbon slaughters thousands of political prisoners in turn and starves his people while he lives in luxury. Upon planning to flee the country, Borbon murders his finance minister when the man realizes Borbon's intent before trying to fool the Vice squad and flee himself.
