People have been sharing ‘bad guys in history who weren’t bad guys’ – 13 leading nominations

A little while back we wrote about bad guys in stories who were actually 100% right.

And we mention it because this is like a real-life version of that after jamespeech111 asked this over on Reddit.

‘Who is a bad guy in history who actually wasn’t a bad guy?’

And it prompted lots of interesting and occasionally eye-opening replies. Here are our favourites.

1.

‘Richard Jewell. Security guard at the Atlanta Olympic who was blamed for the bombing.’
VancouverBram

‘Initially lauded as a hero and a brave man who ran towards the bomb to help…
then the FBI and media turned on him and accused him of doing the bombing himself … because;

‘He was actually just as fucking outlandishly brave and ran toward the bomb to help people.

‘They took his truck for evidence, he had to go into hiding… made a villain by incompetent people… For YEARS… finally exonerated and dies shortly afterward.’
wagwa2001l

2.

‘In the film Titanic the character Murdoch killed someone, took bribes and generally came across as a right shit.

‘He was a real life person who was actually a hero and saved many lives. His living relatives were so disgusted that the VP of Fox travelled to Dalbeattie to personally apologise and presented a £5000 donation to Dalbeattie High School to boost the school’s William Murdoch Memorial Prize.’
cooshed

3.

‘That woman who spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap.’
PresentationNice7043

‘Received 3rd degree burns in her pelvic area. She was hospitalized for 8 days and required a couple years of rehabilitation. The media jumped on the story making it a poster case for frivolous lawsuits.’
The-loon

4.

‘A dingo really ate her baby.’
B3atrixK1ddo

‘This one is so awful. Her baby was brutally killed and EATEN. Imagine knowing that about your child. Then she was accused of murder. And finally the entire world made a joke out of it. Even Elaine on Seinfeld.

‘These poor people suffered through their lives so damn hard because people thought the death of their baby was FUNNY.

‘I can’t even imagine their heartache.’
Miniatures-r-life

5.

‘In Braveheart, William Wallace gets betrayed by Robert the Bruce which never happened, he was loyal to the end.’
Paskyc

‘That movie made me so angry. I grew up on it, and loved it for what I assumed was a historically accurate portrayal.

‘Not only is the movie absurdly inaccurate, the real history is arguably more interesting that the movie! There was no need for “artistic restructuring”. They could have just dramatized the actual events and it would have been a great movie.’
Youbettereatthatshit

6.

‘Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli didn’t invent the idea of lying or ruthlessness. He made an observation about what worked and tried to get a new gig. Now his name is synonymous with “heartless manipulator”.’
Sphinxofblackkwarts

‘One of the most honest dudes in history, and his name is instead synonymous with villainy.’
paultrashpanderson