15 Famous Psychopaths And Which Celeb Should Play Them
Have you ever heard the phrase “crimes against humanity” and wondered just how deep that classification goes? How evil and deranged does one have to be to commit a true crime against humanity, so shocking that it sends shockwaves through all sectors of our daily lives, giving us, whether we want it or not, true glimpses into just what those crimes are. Surely, the cause of these crimes can only be at the hands of the most feared biological anomaly: a true born psychopath.
What does it mean to be a psychopath? Textbook definitions tell us they are removed from emotions, completely devoid of them, experiencing insatiable violent urges completely disinhibited from normal human behavior. In the list below we'll take you through all the perpetrators who surely fit the bill, but in a twist not only will be taking them on a quick tour through their legacy, but also casting stars/starlets for their own Hollywood biopic and who deserves to play these enigmatic characters. Stay tuned and we'll tell you why Angelina Jolie would play a good Jodi Arias, or how Evan Peters can dive into much eviler deeds than those on American Horror Story.
15 "This is the Zodiac Speaking" - Ryan Gosling
Another killer who got away with murder is the Zodiac Killer, operating in the bay area from the 60's to the 70's collecting bodies along the way, all while sending letters to the police and news stations making sure he got his front page recognition. The narcissistic spree killer claimed as many as 37 victims, the actual death count is a number even law enforcement is still scratching their heads about. However, the zodiac killings would be one of legend, abruptly stopping just as soon as they had begun. In one of zodiac's most famous letters he writes to police in code “I like killing because it is so fun”, and if that doesn't give you the chills zodiac claimed his killings were meant to be a way of him gaining their souls as slaves in the afterlife. Some profilers think the rapid halt of his killings coupled with no evidence of him resurfacing means he died, perhaps to join the afterlife he claimed to be working so hard for. However, when looking at the composite sketch we picture on screen chameleon Ryan Gosling. The zodiac had big rimmed black frame glasses, a sheepish appearance until he pulled out a handgun, a contradiction we can see Ryan Gosling nailing.
14 Jared Leto Plays Another Famous Psycho… This Time it's Charles Manson
The murders ordered by Charles Manson would be a dark cloud on the otherwise effervescent and lively movement of the 1960's. Manson would order his brainwashed, strung out hippie cult followers to murder everyone in the house on Cielo drive that was previously occupied by sworn Manson enemy Terry Melcher. However, by the time Manson and his followers pulled up to the French style cottage in Beverly Hills in 1969, it was no longer occupied by Terry Melcher, but by Valley of the Dolls actress Sharon Tate, also the young wife and expectant mother of Roman Polanski's child. In her home with her that night were some friends she had invited to stay with her as she neared the end of her pregnancy, including Abigail Folger and Jay Sebring. The Manson family stabbed to death everyone in the home and before leaving wrote “pig” on the door in Tate's blood. It's hard to picture anyone crazier than Charles Manson… besides maybe the Joker, and since Jared Leto did such a fantastic job playing that psychopath we have no doubt he would do the role of Charles Manson it's twisted justice.
13 Psycho Reboot Starring Johnny Depp
Ed Gein terrorized the mid-west in the late 50's to early 60's when papers deemed him The Butcher of Plainfield, guilty of multiple counts of grave robbing and some serial murders here and there. The story goes that Ed Gein's mother was abusive emotionally, mentally, physically and some say even sexually, the abuse was so severe that it actually stunted young Ed's mental growth, not allowing him to meet full adult mental capacity. Tragedy struck when Ed's mother died and he was left alone in her home with all her things, with an absence of abuse and parenting Ed began to have delusions, telling those on the case that his dead mother was telling him to murder women, because they were the devil. Ed did what he was told as always, and turned the home he had shared with his mother in to a little shop of horrors fashioned with garments made out of human flesh and bowls made out of human skulls. Hollywood has already loosely based films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, but if the story of Ed Gein could be made into a full-fledged Biopic, our pick would be Johnny Depp to play the 50's psycho.
12 Jack Nicholson Plays Fearsome Clown… Again
Most don't know the name John Wayne Gacy or the terrible horrors attached to his name, but we're about to dive right in to the man Chicago called The Killer Clown. This station wagon driving, regular old mid-western dad had a dark secret, under his basement lay the bodies of thirty-three young boys that all died at the hand of Gacy. So how did he earn his disturbing moniker? Chillingly enough, Gacy had offered his services for community fundraising events and birthday parties by dressing up as a clown to entertain the children, most think this is how Gacy picked and groomed his victim. With that being said we can't think of anyone better to play the community chameleon, then Jack Nicholson. Possibly one of the most legendary actors of our day, Nicholson is known for his variety. Going from playing the Joker (a clown himself), to Jack Torrance in The Shining, all the way to an Irish mobster in The Departed, we think Nicholson's method acting for playing Gacy would be a combination of all three, effortlessly able to balance the double life of being a monster and a family man.
11 Aileen Wuornos and Margot Robbie Dressed to Kill
Aileen Worms has been the subject of Biopics before, most notably when she was played by Charlize Theron in Monster. The movie chronicled Wuornos because she is one of America's only known cases of a female serial killer, killing seven men in just a one-year span lasting from 1989 to 1990. Wuornos was a prostitute and drug user, drifting like a paper bag in the wind, still carrying her lifelong abuse with her no matter where she went. Wuornos has testified that she had been sexually and physically abused a majority of her life from various father figures and boyfriends, she said it spawned a fear and hatred for men. So, when Wuornos signed up for the oldest profession, prostitution, her killing spree began. Wuornos claimed that all the men she killed either raped her or tried to, causing her to fire fatal rounds into all of them. The perfect damaged blonde for the role on a Wuornos Biopic revamp? Suicide Squad actress Margot Robbie, she's convinced us she can play a deranged prostitute on a killing spree after her iconic role as Harley Quinn.
10 Jim Carrey Finally Gets to Show His Crazy, Playing The Boston Strangler
The twisted case of The Boston Strangler ended up being the work of Massachusetts local Albert DeSalvo. In the early 60's over the span of two years a madman was seemingly hunting women with no preference to age, location, class or physical appearance, his victims ranging from 19 all the way to 85. At first, the police were dumbfounded and had yet to even connect the cases together, until they noticed that there was no forced entry suggesting the women let in the attacker, who would later assault and strangle all of them. The police finally decided the Boston Strangler had to be posing as a maintenance man, or someone who would be let into the women's apartments without suspicion. However, it wasn't until a woman reported that a man posing as a detective had tied her to her bed and assaulted her, but before killing her said “I'm sorry” and fled. Her composite led to the subsequent arrest and conviction of Albert DeSalvo, who would be played best by Jim Carrey. Though it may seem like a stretch Stanley Kubrick once said that when casting Jack Torrance for The Shining he considered both Jim Carrey and Robin Williams, but said they were both too crazy.
9 We're Dying to See Angelina Jolie Play Another Deranged Psycho… Especially if It's Jodi Arias
The infamous name Jodi Arias was splashed across headlines in 2008 when she was indicted for the murder of her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander. The femme fatale engaged in complete overkill of her formal lover, stabbing him, slitting his throat and shooting him all the while taking pictures on her digital camera. Jodi's motive? Travis had allegedly treated Jodi like his dirty little secret after their breakup, stirring up a homicidal rage that eventually boiled over on June 4th, 2008. It didn't take long for detectives to zero in on Jodi, however, even though we knew she was guilty, the image of her crying on the stand looking like a librarian was jarring. How could she be this monster and the fragile witness at the same time. A psychiatrist diagnosed Jodi with Borderline Personality Disorder, a common personality disorder amongst revenge killers. For this one, Jodi Arias is giving us Angelina Jolie in Girl, Interrupted vibes. Though the mysterious vixen might be giving Jodi a little too much credit, Jolie has a knack for playing the scorned mentally ill.
8 Tommy Lee Jones Plays the Iceman
Richard Kuklinski may be a name most of us are unfamiliar with, but by the end of this paragraph you'll feel like you've known “the Iceman” for years. Kuklinski was a loyal foot soldier of the New York mafia, residing in nearby New Jersey. Kuklinski was given his name because of his method of freezing his victims assigned to him by the crime families he worked for, in order to slow decomposition, masking the time of death. The mafia regarded him as one of the most modern and savage contract killers that decade had ever seen, he was often called by his associates “the one-man army” and “the devil himself”, yikes! Following rumors of Kuklinski's wave of terror, the police set up an undercover investigation that spanned over a year and a half before they would finally have enough to indict Kuklinski. Though he was only convicted for five, Kuklinski is rumored to be the man behind dozens of mob murders. Saddle up, because we can't see anyone but urban cowboy Tommy Lee Jones playing Kuklinski for his Biopic. Something tells us Tommy Lee Jones would nail Kuklinski's ruthless attitude and calculating cover-ups.
7 The Night Stalker
Richard Ramirez terrorized the Los Angeles area in the 80's for his spree killings all deemed under the name The Night Stalker. The Night Stalker was a man of opportunity, only committing crimes of convenience, which meant if you were the unlucky winner for that night, Ramirez would set his sights, zero in and then kill. His range of victims was almost as wide as his range of motives, sexually assaulting some victims and burglarizing others, it was a wonder the police were able to detect the pattern. To the seemingly unorganized chaos that was the crimes of Richard Ramirez, the lack of consistency between motive and victim led us all to the confirmation of our worst fears that some of us are innately evil, with an insatiable itch to do harm. Ramirez was an avowed Satanist, who showed absolutely no remorse for his crimes. In his insane Biopic we would like to see Boo Boo Stewart, who has the same almost haunting face show us his acting chops and play The Night Stalker. Though he's usually involved in teen movies like Twilight something tells us he would nail it.
6 John Travolta Goes from Defense Attorney to Mob Boss When Playing John A. Gotti
John Gotti Jr. was the son of notorious mobster John Gotti Sr. and ruled the Gambino crime family of New York with an iron fist just like his dad. The Gambino family was said to be the most vicious of the five New York crime families, who was responsible for a large part of violent crime in the east coast until war was declared on them by New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani vowed to take down the New York mafia, but John Gotti Jr. would make his name first, and some say even succeed his father in brutality. Some say that Gotti liked to watch the men he ordered to be killed die, some saying that a few times he even did it himself. However, one truly twisted tale tells of John Gotti strapping a man to a chair only to have a rat below him subjected to the extreme heat of a lightbulb, with no exit, forcing the rat through eat through Gotti's victim's flesh. For this malicious mobster we see star studded John Travolta, who when recently playing Bob Shapiro in The People vs. O.J. Simpson he showed us he has no trouble playing a slippery character.
5 The Devil in the White City
H.H. Holmes is the devilish man known to be America's first real serial killer, becoming the epitome of 1940's pulp fiction magazines. The American version of Jack the Ripper confessed to over twenty different murders, only nine were able to be substantiated however. Residing in Chicago, he bought a multi-purpose warehouse style building where he carried out his dark experiments, using the Chicago World's Fair as his primary hunting ground. Unbeknownst to the attendees, a devil walked among them, looking for his next victim. We can't see anybody embodying this devilish con-artist charm more than Leonardo DiCaprio, think Jack from The Titanic with homicidal tendencies and a doctor's title. Lucky for us there is a rumor that this film is actually in the works and already starring Leonardo DiCaprio, said to be directed by Martin Scorsese, called The Devil in the White City, how fitting.
4 Joaquin Phoenix Plays Son of Sam
The Son of Sam was a serial killer from the New York area who killed six people with a .44 caliber handgun, for seemingly no reason at all. The man was later identified to be David Berkowitz, who was apprehended after investigators noticed he had been ticketed for parking by nearly every crime scene. However, before his capture he evaded a huge manhunt for months, leaving the NYPD a note after every senseless murder taunting them and promising more crimes. When Berkowitz stood trial he claimed he was obeying the orders of a demon that possessed his neighbor Sam's dog, thus deeming him the Son of Sam, the disciple of an apparent deranged dog. For this psychopath we see Joaquin Phoenix killing the role, no pun intended. Phoenix has an air of mystery to him that would complement the Son of Sam biopic perfectly, giving us an eerie peek into the mind of a spree killer who not only doesn't fear the police, but communicates with them.
3 Jack the Ripper Juxtaposed by Ben Affleck
One of the most notorious unsolved serial killings in history is that of the notorious UK killings, assumed by the madman we called Jack the Ripper. The late 1800's was stolen by a man who had been notoriously slitting the throats of local prostitutes in impoverished east end London. However, the killer didn't stop there, he then went on to mutilate their bodies, often cutting out and taking with him some of their organs. Though the ripper never physically assaulted his victims, he did leave them on display to be found contorted in all sorts of sexually degrading positions, with their disembowelments being the star of the show. To some investigators his precision and knowledge meant the ripper had some sort of surgical training, but the case still went unsolved to this very day. So, who would play the affluent doctor offing hookers any better other than the king of juxtaposition: Ben Affleck. His air of importance compliments that of the tale of Jack the Ripper… besides we kind of want him to do a British accent.
2 Evan Peters Plays a Real American Horror Story
Jeffrey Dahmer tops our list at number two for the sheer evil of his crimes, the Milwaukee Cannibal would be the new name bestowed upon Jeffrey Dahmer. For decades he was able to avoid detection as he would solicit young gay men from gay bars back to his apartment where he would kill them, his later victims were preserved and then later eaten by Dahmer. Dahmer would kill nearly twenty young men before being detected, and those are just the ones we know about. His horrible secret was discovered on a warm July night in 1991 when his next victim escaped from Dahmer's apartment, Dahmer let police in even though he had human body parts in his fridge, bodies decomposing in cylindrical drums and polaroids of his various victims in different stages of mutilation. But really though, why hasn't American Horror Story done an episode on this? Anyway, for this disturbed individual we cast Evan Peters… for playing Tate Langdon so well of course.
1 Jake Gyllenhaal Plays Ted Bundy
The life and crimes of Ted Bundy was said to be the loose depiction of Patrick Bateman, the famous killer in American Psycho. However, the real tale of Ted Bundy is much more sinister, claiming over twenty women as his victims. Bundy was another serial killer who didn't seem picky about his victims, the youngest being just 12, he would get them to a private place and then strike. On the surface however, Bundy was a normal and flourishing individual. Unlike most serial killers he was handsome, successful, educated, not socially awkward and very well liked, giving us a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in true human form. Though it has been rumored that Zac Efron will be the star in Bundy's biopic, we beg of thee to consider Jake Gyllenhaal. We see Bundy as more of a grown up refined Donnie Darko. We've seen Jake Gyllenhaal give us remorseless, cold psychopath several times, most recently in Nightcrawler, you heard it here first Gyllenhaal is the man for the job.