Dictators and the local criminals anecdote

When I was chatting with my friend Dragonoyd in Discord a while a go, I remarked about a thing the newspaper Diario de Pernambuco said about Biu do Olho Verde (thief and murderer from Olinda in the 1970s) to him that the aforementioned newspaper called Biu a "dictator" and mentioned that Biu himself wanted to kill one hundred people. He then said to me that this anecdote I remarked to him made him think that because local criminals, with the significant fear and the oppression they cause to local residents of a city, they can be considered somewhat of a "dictator" (this is what we called those criminals in that anedoctal chat.)

Take the stories of Ken Rex McElroy and Pablo Escobar for example:

McElroy had an such reputation of impunity from his crimes (such as escaping conviction 20 times, even for shooting a man), and also stalking residents with letters threats that he caused moderate fear and oppression in the residents of Skidmore, until he was killed when they were full of his things.

About Pablo Escobar (who wasn't a typical local criminal), I don't need to say much about him. This dude was one of the most powerful druglords in the world, put respect around every man under his work, caused much fear, etc. I don't know if that is an exaggeration to say that, but I and my friend (Dragonoyd) said that he pratically ruled Colombia with this absurd spree of crimes.

Note: I and my friend know that using the word "Dictator" is very much a exaggeration by describing those local criminals, but it was the anecdotical way of describing the infamous reputation of their crimes.

Asides that, what's your opinion on that anecdote? What criminals do you consider caused much horror in citizens and brutalized them in such manner that they could be considered "dictators"?

Greetings

I'm not sure if it perfectly applies here, but Gabriel Wortman (perpetrator of the Nova Scotia spree shootings) seemed to be a real handful for almost everybody he came across.

He was physically abusive to his spouse, had a prior conviction for assault, financially tricked and manipulated people, had a reputation for despising law enforcement and was said by some to have been involved with gun-running and drug smuggling into Canada from the U.S.

Decemberxp wrote:

I'm not sure if it perfectly applies here, but Gabriel Wortman (perpetrator of the Nova Scotia spree shootings) seemed to be a real handful for almost everybody he came across.

He was physically abusive to his spouse, had a prior conviction for assault, financially tricked and manipulated people, had a reputation for despising law enforcement and was said by some to have been involved with gun-running and drug smuggling into Canada from the U.S.

Thanks for the reply. Wortman certainly fits here. I didn't know that he financially tricked people and also manipulated them, it shows you the example I and my friend was talking about, which was oppressing people. One other example from Wortman was the fear he generated.

One other mass murderer who I could consider having the feats of a dictator was Kalinga Boli, who, in 1937, killed 13 people but, not only by himself, but with a group of followers! He vowed to kill 24 people, which his group apparently didn't hesitate to agree and followed him. In retaliation to these murders relatives of his victims killed seven of his kinsmen, including three children, while Boli went to Kabugao, where he killed two people before fleeing. Note that Boli began his rampage on May 25 and only ended it on June 6! Boli's gang was joined by his brother after he had wounded two soldiers and killed a number of dogs, and hid in the mountains near Nagan. From time to time they left their hideout and raided villages for food, while Boli added new victims to his tally. At one point he killed three rice planters near Abulug, and on June 6 he slew two playing children in the village of Futtul.

Boli was eventually found and trapped in a cave by a detachment of eight constabulary soldiers, whereupon four additional constabulary detachments were sent to their aid. On June 10 Boli, who had been deserted by his followers by then, was asked to surrender by constabulary sergeant Pio Pilit, the brother of his wife, however, he refused and began to shoot arrows at Pilit without hitting him. When he ran out of arrows he came out of the cave and charged at Pilit with his axe, who then struck him down with his rifle butt. Boli was arrested, taken to prison in Kabugo, and later transferred to Tuguegarao where he was put on trial.

Source: Kalinga Boli in Amok Wiki

With details given from Wortman and Boli, I can say that they fit the criteria of the anecdote I and my friend suggested. I would argue that Boli however was more powerful, even though we don't having details on how he recruited those people, and worse, recruited them to murder other people! Surely one strange case in history of mass murders.

Thanks for the reply Decemberxp!

My knowledge on mass shooters and spree killers starts to become patchy, pre-1960s.