Cole's case is notable partly for what it reveals about the limits of mid-twentieth-century psychiatric intervention — he was evaluated, diagnosed, and released multiple times despite documented homicidal ideation, and continued killing across several states over roughly a decade. He claimed his victims reminded him of his mother, and investigators believed his actual count far exceeded the murders to which he was formally convicted. That he was ultimately caught not through investigative work but through his own confession, while a suspect in a killing police were ready to attribute to natural causes, underscores how long he operated without detection.

A trained nurse who turned her professional knowledge toward identifying which prisoners were too weakened to be of further use, Bösel occupied a position at Ravensbrück that placed her directly in the machinery of selection — the process that determined who would be gassed. Her recorded remark about prisoners who could no longer work captures the administrative coldness with which she approached her role. She was among the female guards tried at the first Ravensbrück Trial and was found guilty of maltreatment, murder, and participation in selections.

Operating along the hippie trail of the 1970s, Sobhraj preyed on young Western travelers seeking adventure, using charm, disguise, and drugging to gain their trust before robbing and killing them. His ability to evade justice across multiple jurisdictions — India, Thailand, Nepal — for decades made him one of the more studied cases of serial criminality in South and Southeast Asia. He cultivated a public persona that attracted media attention even while wanted, and his legal maneuvering prolonged his freedom long after his crimes were known.