History’s 50 Most Awesome Badasses You Should Know About – Part 3

Walter R. Walsh was a Former FBI Agent, Olympian and Marine Corps Sniper. During his 10 years with the Bureau, Mr. Walsh shot and killed 11 known criminals. He was a natural left-hander, but he blazed away at moving targets with a pistol in each hand in 1937 to apprehend three criminals. At one point during WWII, with his unit pinned down, he killed an enemy sniper 80 yards away with one pistol shot.

Eugene Francois Vidocq deserted the French army twice, impersonated as an officer, a nobleman and a nun, escaped from prison several times (once assisting another convict) and was sentenced to death, all before he became the “father” of modern criminology.

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was a general in the Imperial German Army and in some battles though his men were outnumbered as much as 20 to 1, he held off the British in East Africa for 4 years. He was a national hero after the war and in 1935 when he was offered the ambassadorship to Great Britain, he reportedly told Hitler to go fuck himself.

Tibor Rubin was a Holocaust survivor and fought for the USA during the Korean War. He survived multiple suicide missions assigned by his anti-Semitic sergeant. Once he held off an enemy assault for 24 hours alone. Then he was captured and taken to a Chinese POW camp. He risked certain death by stealing food from his captors almost every night for nearly two years. He gave medical aid to his fellow prisoners and saved over 40 lives from hunger and medical negligence. He was nominated for various military awards but was overlooked by his sergeant. He received his Medal of Honor in 2005.

Despite being on hard times, one of USA's most decorated war veterans repeatedly turned down offers to appear in Alcohol and Tobacco commercials because he knew it would be a bad role model for young people. The soldier, Audie Murphy, had won every single US Army Award for combat during World War 2.

Mariya Oktyabrskaya on learning that her husband was killed fighting in WW2, sold all of her possessions to donate a tank for the Red Army, the only requirement being that she would be allowed to drive it. When her tank was hit by gunfire, she would often disregard the orders and would leap out of her tank to repair it, amidst the heavy fire. She ended up becoming the 1st female tanker to be awarded the “Hero of the Soviet Union.”

During WWII, the Gestapo's most wanted person was New Zealand born and Allied agent Nancy Wake who earned the Legion of Honour from France. She once led 7,000 men against the Nazis. Among her numerous exploits, she killed an SS soldier with her bare hands, to prevent him from raising the alarm during an undercover raid and she also saved hundreds of Allied parachuters within enemy territory. She was the Second World War's most decorated woman.

Noted astronomer Tycho Brahe once had most of his nose chopped off by a broadsword during a duel with a rival mathematician. He lived on his own private island in a massive castle complete with trap doors, an army of astronomer henchmen, and a dungeon where he could extrajudicially imprison anyone who pissed him off whenever he wanted. He had a pet moose that got drunk at parties (so much so that one night the moose was so drunk it fell down stairs to its death). He was best friends with a psychic dwarf who lived under his dining room table. Brahe accurately predicted the cosmic trajectories of over 700 stars despite the fact that he was performing his observations with his naked eye because he was working before the invention of the telescope.

Desmond Doss was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor for his numerous acts of valor as a medic in the Pacific theater of World War 2. He refused to carry a weapon into battle, not a rifle, not a knife, nothing. One time a grenade severely wounded his legs and Doss dressed the wounds himself en route to the hospital, gave up his stretcher and told his bearers to carry another wounded. He received the Medal of Honor without killing anyone.

Larry Thorne was a Finnish Army Captain who led an infantry company in the Finnish winter and Continuation Wars. During WW2, he joined a German unit to fight against Russians near Schwerin, Germany and eventually surrendered to British troops. He then served in U.S. Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War. He received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, a 2nd class Iron Cross and a Mannerheim cross (1 out of 197).