3 Controversially Evil Scientists Disguised In Intellect

Real Stories Where Personal Motives defeated Nobel Causes. The smarter you get, the more wicked you become?

The Evil Scientist in Movies

The world of film has managed to show the role of an ‘Evil Scientist’ in an intricately unique way. From Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz plotting his evil moves against two kids to take over the entire Tri-State Area to Dr. Kurtis Conner and his delusions about curing mankind by turning it into lizards, evil scientists have always been shown on the reel with a messed-up mindset.

Often coming from a miserable background, these characters boast a self-made status, with extraordinary theories that throw off the common public and give them a huge amount of support.

Does this happen only in the movies?

The phrase “This happens only in the movies” does not quite accurately apply to the phenomenon of evil scientists. Back in the 1900s when the internet did not exist and word of mouth was relied on for information, evil scientists were very successful in laying out their plans and accomplishing them.

It was only when it was too late, that their destructive plans were revealed. The most famous evil scientist character so far has been Frankenstein. Written and constructed by the author Mary Shelley, Frankenstein is a scientist that aimed to build an artificial human being. While successful, his invention was rather wicked and immoral, leaving the readers shocked to their core.

Johann Konrad Dippel: The Real-Life Viktor Frankenstein

It will come as a shock to know that Frankenstein was based on a scientist that existed back in the 17th century. Johann Konrad Dippel was a German Pietist theologian, physician, alchemist, and occultist. During his studies, he gained a few disciples who followed and respected him for his work in alchemy. However, with time they seemed to understand the true nature of his work.

The Incompatible ‘Elixir Of Life’

One of his most infamous works is the elixir of life. Dippel, in fear of being hunted by his opponents, went back home and set up a lab where he manufactured oil that he claimed would cure medicinal diseases.

As philanthropic as his intention sounded, the effort behind it was absolutely misanthropic. The oil was made by distilling the bones of animal carcasses. This resulted in a highly destructive nitrogenous chemical with a foul smell.

This erupted in rumors spread by commoners about how Dippel was stealing dead bodies from a nearby graveyard and boiling their fat to produce his so-called ‘elixir-of-life’. He lived in a castle named Frankenstein and is hence considered to be the main inspiration behind the character Frankenstein in Mary Shelley’s book.

2- Trofim Lysenko

The Soviet Union is infamous for its undemocratic laws and vile dictatorship, but during the early years, the circumstances were deadly for the common public. A huge famine had broken out mainly due to political commotion and had become the cause of starvation amongst the people. To overcome the problem, the government relied on the rather uncanny scientific knowledge of Trofim Lysenko.

- Mixing up Science and Philosophy

Trofim Lysenko specialized in biology and botany and put forth the claim that plants could be taught to grow in winter by applying the socioeconomic analysis of Marxism to them.

Considering the Soviet Union’s constant struggle to be politically strong, it is only fair to assume that Lysenko was more of a political expert than a botanical.

- Claims That Gained Him Political Recognition

He was aware of the tactics he would need to use to gain the support of his political peers and form a cult that spread his learnings and experiments on the crops. With the admiration and support of powerful political officials such as Joseph Stalin, Lysenko started to appear in the public eye with the claims that he had devised ways to teach plants to yield more produce and was successful in doing so.

- Anger and Evil Science

This strong support also became assistance to Trofim Lysenko whenever someone denied his findings and declared them to be incompatible with actual science.

It was also revealed during such events that Lysenko had a short temper and having the acquaintance of someone as powerful as Joseph Stalin gave Lysenko the power to punish his opponents to death. One of his most notable adversaries was Nikolai Vavilov who stood up against Lysenko’s false science and was ultimately sentenced to death.

3- The Uncanny Cure Of Syphilis

Sexually transmitted diseases may have become quite common in the present era but the old times have seen worse events that started from identifying the disease to finding a cure, only to figure out that the inventor of the cure was a rather mad man in search of fame and validation.

Injecting Invaluable Prisoners

By this point, it will not come as surprising to you when I tell you that the first thing that John Charles did was inject humans with the disease and then experiment on them.

It is almost as if an evil scientist is way too much of a realist and strives to make his solutions as real as possible, only to fail in the end. The ‘lab rats’ for Cutler’s experiments were 241 prisoners from the Sing Sing prison and were paid a mere 100 dollars for their service.

Not Enough Lab Rats

Unfortunately, this amount of experimental resource was not enough for John Charles Cutler. The results seemed ineffective and the process started to become lengthy.

This led Cutler to head over to Guatemala where he injected the civilians with syphilis, this time without any consent or payment. These people were mostly either poor or uncontrollably ill, however, it is not known how many healthy people were also affected by the subjects.

Now one must assume that Cutler injected these subjects with the disease and treated them with penicillin immediately to see if they got better. This was not the case as Cutler was instead more curious about observing the deadly nature of syphilis.

Thousands of innocent human lives were lost as Cutler lived in secret with all his experiments and learnings to himself. Today, the children of some of the subjects of Cutler’s experiments still have hints of syphilis in their bodies.

‘Mad Genius’ or just ‘Mad’?

The stories tell the tales of evil scientists as mad geniuses. However, real-life evil scientists cannot be associated with the word, ‘genius’. Their intentions were purely mad, and they laid out plans without any prior knowledge in the field of science. Taking advantage of the gullible nature of the people of the 1900s, these false scientists managed to make a name while they were alive and only had their secrets revealed when they passed away.

Want to follow up more from me and other amazing writers on Medium?

Hop on the chance to join:

More From Author: