In 2001, Dr Michael Stone, a forensic psychologist at Columbia University created a scale to categorise ‘evil’.
The scale is divided into sections, which escalate in the severity of the crime/evil, culminating in those believed to be the most evil killers ever documented.
Many people believe that the scale loosely mirrors the Circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.
This is now used by many law enforcements agencies around the world as a tool the psychological profiling of a suspect or defendant.
Below is a copy of the scale, and several examples of the case studies used for each category.
01 Those who have killed in self-defense, and who do not show traces of psychopathy.
02 Jealous lovers who committed murder; although egocentric or immature, they are not psychopaths.
03 Willing companions of killers: aberrant personality, impulse-ridden, with some antisocial traits.
Leslie Van Houten
04 Those who have killed in self-defense, but had been extremely provocative toward the victim for that to happen.
05 Traumatized, desperate persons who killed abusive relatives or other people, but who show remorse for their crime and are not psychopaths.
06 Impetuous, hotheaded murderers, yet without marked psychopathic traits.
Robert John Bardo, Billy Wayne Sinclair
07 Highly narcissistic, but not distinctly psychopathic persons—some with a psychotic core—who kill persons next to them, with jealousy as an underlying motive.
Marybeth Tinning, Mark David Chapman, Armin Meiwes, Diana Dial
08 Non-psychopathic persons with smoldering rage, and who kill when the rage is ignited.
Charles Whitman, Keith Jesperson
09 Jealous lovers with marked psychopathic features.
Betty Broderick
10 Killers of people “in the way”, such as witnesses. Extremely egocentric, but not distinctly psychopathic.
Rod Ferrell, Susan Smith
11 Psychopathic killers of people “in the way”, such as close friends or even family members.
12 Power-hungry psychopaths who kill when they are “cornered”.
Ervil LeBaron
13 Psychopathic murderers with inadequate, rageful personalities, rage being the reason of their killings.
Ed Gein, Herbert Mullin, Martin Bryant, Karla Faye Tucker Peter Lundin, Latasha Pulliam
14 Ruthlessly self-centered psychopathic schemers who kill to benefit themselves.
Richard Farley, Diane Downs, John List
15 Psychopathic cold-blooded spree killers or multiple murderers.
Andal Ampatuan, Jr., Andrew Cunanan, Charles Manson, Charles Starkweather, Susan Atkins, Charles “Tex” Watson, Patricia Krenwinkel, Colin Ferguson, Michael McDermott, Dorothea Puente
16 Psychopaths committing multiple vicious acts, with repeated acts of extreme violence.
Gwendolyn Graham, Cathy Wood, Karla Homolka, Myra Hindley, Terry Driver, Theodore Kaczynski, Shoko Asahara, Michael Swango
17 Sexually perverse serial murderers: Rape is the primary motive and the victim is killed to hide evidence.
Ted Bundy, Arthur Shawcross, David Berkowitz, Richard Chase, Aileen Wuornos
18 Psychopathic torture-murderers, where murder is the primary motive, and the victim is killed after a torture that was not prolonged.
Nathan Bar-Jonah, Gary Ridgway, Jerry Brudos, William Heirens, Keith Jesperson
19 Psychopaths driven to terrorism, subjugation, intimidation, and rape, but who are short of murder.
20 Psychopathic torture-murderers, where torture is the primary motive, but in persons with distinct psychoses (such as schizophrenia).
Joseph Kallinger
21 Psychopaths who do not kill their victims, but do subject them to extreme torture.
22 Psychopathic torture-murderers, where torture is the primary motive. In most cases, the crime has a sexual motivating factor.
Tommy Lynn Sells, John Wayne Gacy, Dennis Rader, Theresa Knorr, Charles Ng, Leonard Lake, Paul Bernardo, Ian Brady, Gary Heidnik, David Parker Ray, Westley Allan Dodd, George Hodel, Jeffrey Lundgren, Jim Jones, Edmund Kemper, H. H. Holmes, Adolfo Constanzo, John Edward Robinson, Andrei Chikatilo, Jeffrey Dahmer.
Below is a film in which Dr Michael Stone explains his views on what makes a person evil.
Red Ink Letters 