In this gripping episode of Horrible Humans in History we uncover the full, astonishing life of Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan — the ordinary Austrian woman who became one of the most feared Nazi concentration camp guards, known as the "Stomping Mare" of Majdanek. From her humble Catholic upbringing in 1920s Vienna and frustrated dreams of becoming a nurse, to her voluntary service at Ravensbrück and Majdanek where she earned a reputation for savage brutality, selections, and stomping prisoners with her steel-studded boots, the story traces her path through the horrors of the Holocaust. We follow her postwar reinvention: a light Austrian prison sentence, marriage to an American GI, emigration to the United States, and decades as a friendly, fastidious housewife in quiet Queens, New York — until Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and a New York Times reporter knocked on her door in 1964. The episode explores her dramatic extradition, the marathon Majdanek trial in Germany, her 1981 life sentence, later medical release, and death in 1999, while examining the deeper questions of ordinary evil, denial, delayed justice, and how her case helped create America’s Nazi-hunting Office of Special Investigations. A sobering, unforgettable portrait of how history can hide in plain sight.

Herod the Great was one of the most powerful and feared rulers of the ancient world. Rising from an outsider family with strong Roman connections, Herod fought his way to the throne through war, political alliances, and ruthless violence. Best known from the biblical story surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ, Herod became infamous for his paranoia, executions, and alleged order to kill the children of Bethlehem in the Massacre of the Innocents. Yet he was also a brilliant builder who transformed Judea with massive projects like the expansion of the Temple in Jerusalem and the fortress of Masada. This episode explores Herod’s turbulent rise to power, his brutal reign, his conquest of Jerusalem, the murders of his own family members, and the lasting legacy of a king remembered as both a political genius and a terrifying tyrant.

Pedro Rodrigues Filho, known as Pedrinho Matador, was one of Brazil’s most notorious serial killers, claiming over 100 victims throughout his life. Born into a violent home, he committed his first murders at just 14 years old and went on to target criminals, gang members, and even his own father. Much of his killing took place inside prison, where he claimed to be delivering justice. Despite being sentenced to hundreds of years, he was eventually released due to Brazilian law. Later becoming a public figure, his life ended in 2023 when he was assassinated — closing the chapter on one of the most disturbing and complex figures in true crime history.

Once again join Angela and her special guest, her husband, Tony for our two year anniversary show! In this episode we rank the most horrible humans from all of the episodes from the second year of the Horrible Humans in History podcast and reveal our choice for the most horrible human that we have covered during our first two years.

Helene Jegado was a 19th-century French domestic servant who used her role as a cook to poison the people around her with arsenic. Operating in rural Brittany during a time of limited medical knowledge, she was able to evade suspicion for years as victims died from mysterious illnesses. Eventually, patterns of death led to investigation, exhumation, and arrest. Convicted of multiple murders, she was executed in 1852. Her case remains one of the most disturbing examples of a serial poisoner operating within trusted domestic spaces.

This episode traces the life of Charles Manson from a neglected and unstable childhood through years in reform schools and prison, where he learned manipulation, developed a fixation on control, and nurtured dreams of fame through music. After his release in 1967, he exploited the vulnerability of disillusioned young people in California’s counterculture to build the Manson Family, using charisma, drugs, and psychological domination to position himself as a prophetic authority. His apocalyptic “Helter Skelter” ideology ultimately drove followers to commit the shocking 1969 Tate and LaBianca murders, crimes Manson orchestrated despite not personally carrying out the killings. The episode explores how investigators uncovered the conspiracy, the sensational trial that followed, and Manson’s life sentence in prison, concluding with his death in 2017 and the enduring legacy of a man who sought power, fame, and meaning through manipulation and violence.

This episode explores the rise and reign of Gezo, the powerful and deeply controversial King of Dahomey, tracing his life from a violent royal childhood through a calculated coup and into decades of war, terror, and exploitation. It examines how Gezo modernized Dahomey’s military, broke free from foreign domination, and built a fear-based state funded largely by the Atlantic slave trade, while ordinary people paid the price through raids, enslavement, and ritualized execution. Through public sacrifice, political purges, and relentless warfare, Gezo ruled by spectacle and intimidation, leaving behind a legacy that blends military brilliance with profound human suffering and raises hard questions about power, violence, and the cost of empire.

In this episode of HHH, we explore the chilling rise of Irma Grese — one of the most infamous female perpetrators of the Holocaust. Born into poverty and emotional turmoil in rural Germany, Irma’s troubled childhood and early exposure to Nazi ideology helped shape her rapid transformation from farm girl to feared SS guard. We follow her teenage radicalization, her ambition-driven entry into the concentration camp system, her relationships with SS officers, and her ascent to power at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, where survivors described her brutal beatings, selections for the gas chambers, and sadistic treatment of prisoners. At just 22 years old, Grese became the youngest woman executed for war crimes, leaving behind a legacy that forces us to confront how ordinary people can become instruments of extraordinary evil.