A former nurse working in German hospital intensive care units, Högel exploited the institutional trust placed in medical professionals to carry out killings that went undetected for years, in part because the deaths occurred in clinical settings where mortality was already expected. The scale of what investigators eventually uncovered — spanning multiple facilities and possibly reaching 300 victims — reflects both the duration of his access and the systemic failures that allowed him to continue. His case prompted significant reforms to oversight practices in German healthcare and remains a reference point in discussions of how professional environments can inadvertently shield sustained harm.

Bodein's case is notable for the sustained institutional failure it represents — a cycling between psychiatric care and incarceration across several decades that did not prevent repeated violent crimes. His record includes multiple murders and violent rapes, with authorities repeatedly misjudging or unable to contain the risk he posed. The nickname attached to him by the French press reflects a public reckoning with how the system handled, and mishandled, his case over time.

As Japan's wartime prime minister, Tojo concentrated military and political authority to an unusual degree, overseeing an empire whose conduct across occupied Asia — forced labor, mass killings, and systematic brutality toward prisoners of war and civilians alike — would be adjudicated at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. His rise through the Imperial Army coincided with the ascendancy of an expansionist ideology he did not merely accept but actively advanced, from the invasion of China to the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was executed by hanging in 1948 after being convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.