From the execution of Nazis during the Dachau reprisals to Marvin Heemeyer's customized "killdozer" that nearly destroyed a whole Colorado town, these stories take revenge to the next level.
Few kinds of tales are more dramatic than revenge stories — and history is chock full of them.
There’s the story of “Diana the Bus Driver Hunter,” who took matters into her own hands in response to the growing number of femicides in Mexico that went uninvestigated. Then there’s the mass execution of Nazi prison guards at Dachau concentration camp by American soldiers who liberated the camp in 1945. Or there’s the gruesome fate of Akku Yadav, who raped 200 women and was later beaten, stomped, and stabbed to death by a mob of his victims.
Explore these and other revenge stories from history below, and learn what happens when people refuse to let their suffering go unanswered.
Mariya Oktyabrskaya Plowed Through Nazis With A Tank To Avenge Her Husband
Wikimedia CommonsAfter her husband was killed by the Nazis, Maria Oktyabrskaya bought a tank to avenge him.
During World War II, an estimated 800,000 Russian women served in the Red Army and Mariya Oktyabrskaya was one of them. But more than a patriotic calling, Oktyabrskaya’s military service was the consequence of her husband’s death at the hands of Nazis.
Mariya Oktyabrskaya came from a Crimean peasant family, had a deep sense of loyalty to the USSR, and was a firm believer in communism. Her sense of duty arguably deepened after she married an army officer named Ilya Oktyabrskaya.
“Marry a serviceman, and you serve in the army,” she once declared. When her husband was killed fighting against the Nazis in Kiev, instead of giving in to her grief, Oktyabrskaya found another way to cope: revenge.
She sold all her belongings and bought a T-34 tank — which she christened “Fighting Girlfriend” — so she could kill the Nazi invaders. In order for her to make sure that she would be the one behind the wheel of the tank, Oktyabrskaya reportedly made her case to Joseph Stalin himself.
In a letter to the Russian leader, Oktyabrskaya wrote: “My husband was killed in action defending the motherland. I want revenge on the fascist dogs for his death and for the death of Soviet people tortured by the fascist barbarians.”
Wikimedia Commons/RIA Novosti Archive/Boris KudoyarovMariya Oktyabrskaya died while fighting in the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive.
Stalin — no doubt aware of the propaganda value of such a request — approved her plan and Oktyabrskaya underwent five months of training. Despite the support from Russia’s leader, Mariya Oktyabrskaya was still vastly outnumbered by her male compatriots who likely put little faith in her abilities.
It didn’t take long for her to prove herself, however. In her first tank battle in October 1943, Fighting Girlfriend was the first tank to breach enemy lines and Oktyabrskaya proceeded to wreak absolute havoc against German troops, crushing many under the treads of her T-34. A month later, she fearlessly jumped out of her tank to make needed repairs under heavy fire from the enemy, hopped back in, and got back into the fight.
For Mariya Oktyabrskaya, the horrors of war only strengthened her resolve.
“I’ve had my baptism by fire. I beat the bastards. Sometimes I’m so angry I can’t even breathe,” she wrote in an emotional letter to her sister.
Mariya Oktyabrskaya died fighting the Nazis a few months later in January 1944 during the Red Army’s Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive.
Joaquin Murrieta, The Mexican Robin Hood Who Inspired Zorro
Wikimedia CommonsAn illustration of Joaquin Murrieta, who formed a gang that robbed American miners.
If you’re familiar with the famous story of Zorro, the name Joaquin Murrieta might ring a bell. Indeed, Murrieta’s alter-ego might be more popular than the man himself but this true revenge story has certainly stood the test of time.
Joaquin Murrieta was born in northwestern Mexico in the state of Sonora around 1829. During the California Gold Rush, Murrieta and his wife set up a small home in the hills of California and Murrieta spent his days panning for gold.
By 1850, he was a successful prospector despite the competition from the growing number of Americans who had also traveled to the formerly Mexican territory. Inevitably, clashes soon erupted between the Mexican and American prospectors over the area’s gold deposits. During one particularly brutal conflict, Murrieta’s wife was raped and murdered right in front of him.
Even after the now-widowed Murrieta quit mining and settled into life as a card dealer, he continued to endure the often-violent racism of white men. When a mob accused him of stealing a horse that Murrieta had borrowed from his half-sibling, they lynched both Murrieta and Murrieta’s brother for the alleged offense.
The ordeal killed his brother but Joaquin Murrieta survived and the incident was the final straw that launched Joaquin Murrieta on the path of revenge. He hunted down his brother’s killers and murdered them one by one while recruiting other Mexican fighters to form a gang of vigilantes to protect the Mexican community from the violence perpetrated by the Americans.
Exhibitors Herald/Wikimedia CommonsJoaquin Murrieta’s revenge story inspired the creation of Zorro.
One of his recruits was a Mexican army veteran named “Three-Fingered Jack” who lost two fingers in a firefight during the Mexican-American War. Together, they targeted American miners, rounding them up like cattle before murdering them and plundering their gold.
Word soon got out that Murrieta’s gang were pillaging American miners and giving the loot to the Mexican families, and Joaquin Murrieta quickly became a local legend.
His bandits became so feared that the government finally put a bounty on Murrieta’s head. He was later killed in a gunfight between his gang and a group of California rangers led by military veteran Harry Love.
Nevertheless, Murrieta’s Robin Hood reputation lived on. His life story was picked up by pulp writer Johnston McCulley, who introduced the American public to the character Zorro, which was loosely based off Joaquin Murrieta. McCulley’s first Zorro book, The Curse of Capistrano, was widely successful and helped to solidified Murrieta’s tale of revenge.
