One of the quieter and more durable figures in twentieth-century organized crime, he built a reputation for influence that extended well beyond his northeastern Pennsylvania base, operating through networks of labor, commerce, and underworld diplomacy for decades. His longevity at the top — presiding over his family from 1959 until his death — reflected an operational discipline rare even among his peers. His connection to the Jimmy Hoffa circle, through his cousin Bill Bufalino, places him at the intersection of labor corruption and mob politics that defined an era of American organized crime.

Lake operated under a carefully constructed survivalist ideology that gave ideological cover to systematic abduction and prolonged captivity, with the remote Wilseyville property serving as the physical infrastructure for crimes that lasted nearly two years. The videotaped record he and Ng left behind became the primary evidentiary basis for the case — documentation of the crimes created by the perpetrators themselves. Lake died by his own hand within days of arrest, leaving Ng to face trial alone nearly fifteen years later.

Barfield operated within the intimate sphere of caregiving and family, poisoning those who depended on or trusted her — a pattern that went undetected across multiple victims before her eventual conviction. Her case drew sustained attention not only for the number of deaths attributed to her but for the method and relationships involved, and her 1984 execution marked a significant legal milestone in the history of American capital punishment.

Hickey moved through positions of community trust — YMCA official, Freemason, church member, plant supervisor — while carrying out killings that spanned nearly three decades. His victims included children, and in at least one case the murder involved sexual violence against a seven-year-old. The postcards he sent to police during the investigation into his final murder revealed a calculated awareness of his own notoriety, complicating any simple account of motive or mental state.

Few figures did more to smooth Adolf Hitler's path to power while harboring the self-serving illusion that he could be managed and contained. As Chancellor in 1932, von Papen bypassed democratic institutions through presidential decree and helped dismantle the last significant left-wing bulwark in Germany with the Preußenschlag coup against Prussia's Social Democratic government. His subsequent role as Vice-Chancellor was premised on the belief that conservatives like himself would hold real authority — a miscalculation with consequences that reshaped the century. His earlier career had already shown a capacity for operating outside sanctioned limits, having organized sabotage operations on neutral American soil during the First World War.