Though he received special attention as Joseph Stalin's son, Vasily Stalin also gained a reputation for being a spoiled drunk. He was just 40 years old when he died in obscurity.

After offering his criminal services to the Nazis in exchange for his freedom from jail, Eddie Chapman turned himself in to the British and became "Agent Zigzag."

For decades, the lives of Soviet citizens hung on the whims of Trofim Lysenko, a man who believed that plants could be taught to bloom in winter and that nature could be mastered by raw force.

In the 1950s and '60s, Asa Earl Carter was a violent white supremacist. But years later, he tried to cover up his racist past — by pretending to be a Native American author.

From 1933 until they were caught in 1942, the Red Orchestra group battled Nazi Germany behind the scenes.

In 1921, Mabel Walker Willebrandt became the highest-ranking woman in the U.S. federal government. Appointed as the assistant attorney general, she used her power to enforce Prohibition.

Between 1977 and 1983, at least 17 Japanese nationals were abducted by North Korean spies, though Japan claims it is likely that hundreds more were taken.

As Joseph Stalin's chief executioner of the NKVD, Vasily Blokhin is believed to have personally ended tens of thousands of lives.

An expert spymaster, Reinhard Gehlen surrendered to the Allies at the end of World War II in order to work with the CIA before founding Germany’s modern intelligence service with hundreds of former Nazis like him.

After John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln, Union soldier Thomas "Boston" Corbett was sent to Virginia with orders to capture Booth alive. He shot and killed him instead.