20 Worst Traitors in History

#20: Robert Ford (1861-92)

You know youve earned your spot on a list like this when history literally calls you a coward. Robert Ford wasnt only a member of Jesse James gang: he was one of the infamous bank robber's friends. But when Missouris governor offered a reward for Jesses capture, Ford saw an opportunity. One morning in 1882, while Jesse was dusting a picture frame in his own home, Ford drew his pistol and shot him in the back of the head. He expected fame, glory, acclaim. Instead, he became one of the most infamous figures in the west. Even the press turned on him, branding him the coward. The moniker stuck until Ford, too, was eventually bushwhacked and killed.

#19: Jonathan Pollard (1954-)

In the spy game, its not just enemies you have to worry about; sometimes your allies spy on you, too. Jonathan Pollard was a U.S. Navy intelligence analyst with access to highly classified information. In the mid-1980s, he passed enormous amounts of classified material to Israel, an American ally. When the scheme was uncovered, it sent shockwaves through the intelligence community. While some in Israel hailed him as a hero, American officials called him a traitor who compromised national security for a paycheck and ideology. Israel confirmed a decade later that he was officially on their payroll. Pollards actions severely strained U.S.-Israel relations, and he was sentenced to life in prison. In 2015, he was released and in 2020 relocated to Jerusalem.

#18: George Plantagenet, First Duke of Clarence (1449-78)

When your brother is the King of England, loyalty may lose out to jealousy. At least, that was the case for George Plantagenet. During the Wars of the Roses, he betrayed his brother King Edward IV by siding with a rebellion. When that effort started going south, old George flipped sides again. Edward forgave him, but just once. George kept scheming, though, spreading rumors about the queen and plotting behind the throne. Eventually, even his royal blood couldnt save him. Charged with treason, George was executed in the bougiest way imaginable: he was allegedly drowned in a barrel of wine. Whether fact or fiction, its a fitting end for a man who drank deeply from the cup of betrayal.

#17: Adolf Tolkachev (1927-86)

In the shadowy world of Cold War espionage, few spies allegedly did more damage to their own side than Adolf Tolkachev. A Soviet radar engineer, Tolkachev secretly passed loads of military intel to the CIA between 1979 and 1985. Tolkachev was a key source of U.S. intel on Soviet aircraft and missile systems. His intelligence was so vital he was later dubbed the billion dollar spy. To the USSR, he was a traitor of the highest order. Eventually betrayed by a double agent, Tolkachev was arrested, executed, and erased from official memory. Some called him a hero of freedom. Others, a man who sold out his country. Today, his legacy sits in a gray zone between sabotage, sacrifice, and Cold War mythmaking.

#16: Pedro Paterno (1857-1911)

Pedro Paterno made a career out of playing every side at once, making sure to profit at every opportunity. He first gained notoriety by brokering the Pact of Biak-na-Bato in 1897. There, he helped end the first phase of the Philippine Revolution by convincing Filipino rebels to accept exile and payoffs from the Spanish. Later, under Aguinaldos government, he served as Prime Minister. But when war broke out between the Philippines and the United States, Paterno switched gears again. He advocated for peace and pushed for the country to become a U.S. protectorate. After the fighting stopped, he joined the colonial government. To many, Paterno was the embodiment of an opportunist. In Filipino political slang, Paterno was the original balimbing- or turncoat.

#15: Kim Philby (1912-88)

Kim Philby wasnt just any spy - he was the spy. A high-ranking officer in British intelligence, Philby was also a communist. As a member of the notorious Cambridge Five, Philby was an agent of the Soviet Union. He fed Moscow critical information for decades. Philby betrayed colleagues, missions, and entire networks without a second thought. His intel reportedly led to the deaths of dozens of Western agents. Charismatic, charming, and utterly duplicitous, Philby rose to the top of MI6 while quietly dismantling it from within. Even after fellow members of the Cambridge ring were exposed, Philby managed to avoid suspicion. With the walls closing in, he finally defected to the USSR in 1963. He spent the rest of his life in Moscow, unrepentant.

#14: Ana Montes (1957-)

Ana Montes was that quiet, reliable co-worker you could always trust to help. She was also Cuba's top spy in Washington for the better part of two decades. Recruited in the 1980s, Montes rose through the ranks of the Defense Intelligence Agency. There, she became one of the government's top analysts on Cuba. What her colleagues didn't know was that she was quietly feeding Havana a steady stream of classified secrets. Montes was no mercenary, though. She believed with her whole heart that U.S. policy toward Cuba was unjust; she acted accordingly. When she was finally arrested in 2001, officials were stunned by the scale of the breach. Her work earned her the title, "the most dangerous spy you've never heard of."

#13: Robert Hanssen (1944-2023)

It doesnt really get much worse than having a spyhunter being a spy himself. Robert Hanssen was a senior FBI agent tasked with rooting out spies. America's problem was that he was one. For over twenty years, Hanssen fed classified intel to the Soviet Union. Even after the Soviet Union fell, Hanssen kept up the gig, working for Russia. He compromised operations and exposed U.S. assets, directly leading to the deaths of American operatives and their allies. He worked undetected from within the FBIs own counterintelligence unit, all while living a quiet suburban life. When he was finally arrested in 2001, the FBI called it the worst breach in its history.

#12: Qin Hui (1091-1155)

In over a thousand years of Chinese history, few names draw more contempt than Qin Hui. A powerful official during the Southern Song dynasty, Qin is most infamous for orchestrating the execution of Yue Fei. Yue was a beloved general and a national hero who led resistance efforts against the invading Jin dynasty. While Yue fought to defend the nation, Qin pushed for capitulation; he saw the loyal general as his chief obstacle. Through fabricated charges and political maneuvering, he had Yue imprisoned and ultimately executed. The betrayal outraged the public back then, and it still resonates today. Statues of Qin and his wife kneeling in shame still stand outside Yue Feis tomb, where generations of visitors have spat on them in disgust.

#11: Stella Goldschlag (1922-94)

One of the sadder parts of the Holocaust is that some people did anything to survive. Stella Goldschlag was the most horrifying example. A German Jew with striking looks, she didnt hide or flee - she became an agent for the Gestapo. After being arrested and tortured, she agreed to work as a catcher, helping hunt down fellow Jews in hiding. Its estimated she informed on hundreds, many of whom were later deported to concentration camps. Some argue she was coerced. Others point to the zeal with which she carried out her task, even after her own parents were deported. Her story is a chilling reminder of how fear, survival, and cruelty can become inseparable in historys darkest hours.

#10: Wang Jingwei (1883-1944)

Today, he is viewed by some as the most destructive traitor in Chinas history. Originally a politician and a member of the leftist Kuomintang party, he began to repeal his support after he failed to secure leadership of the party after the death of Sun Yat-sen. When a bloody war between China and Japan finally erupted in 1937, Wang backed Japans plans for an armistice and quickly switched sides to ally with the Japanese. He went on to become the puppet leader of the government that Japan set up in Nanjing, Eastern China.

#9: Philippe Pétain (1856-1951)

Philippe Pétain was once hailed as the savior of France. During World War I, he led French forces to a hard-won victory at Verdun, becoming a national hero. But decades later, his legacy collapsed in spectacular fashion. When Nazi Germany conquered France in World War II, Pétain - famous for fighting the Germans a generation earlier- collaborated. Installed as head of the Vichy regime, he worked with the occupiers. He enforced Nazi policies and aided in the deportation of Jews. To many, his was the ultimate betrayal: a revered general siding with the enemy against his own people. After the war, he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. Charles de Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, where Pétain died in disgrace.

#8: Pierre Laval (1883-1945)

If Pétain was the figurehead of Vichy France, Pierre Laval was the engine that made it run. Once a prominent French politician, Laval embraced Nazi collaboration and servility with chilling enthusiasm. As prime minister under the Vichy regime, he didn't just go along German demands - he went above and beyond. Laval actively organized the deportation of French Jews to Nazi death camps and publicly declared his desire for a German victory. He thought the Nazis would win and wanted to be on the winning team. He bet wrong. After the war, he was arrested, tried for treason, and executed by firing squad. His name is reviled by history, remembered as a man who didnt just serve the occupiers but eagerly tightened their noose.

#7: Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945)

A Norwegian politician who rose from being a successful military man to becoming the Minister of Defence, Quislings power had all but faded by the time the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940. As a strong admirer of Adolf Hitler and Fascism, he met with the German dictator to betray information about Norwegian military strategy. Then, as the occupation of Norway took place, Quisling overthrew the government with Nazi backing and established himself as the Minister-President. In 1945, the Nazi-supporter was charged with embezzlement, murder, and high treason and subsequently executed.

#6: Guy Fawkes (1570-1606)

Born in York and raised an Anglican, Fawkes converted to Catholicism relatively early in life and developed anti-Protestant sympathies. It wasnt long before he found a like-minded group of conspirators looking to assassinate King James I and restore Catholicism as the religion of the land. He became a key figure in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which sought to blow up English Parliament. Fawkes was charged with safeguarding the explosives which had been amassed in the cellar beneath the House of Lords. However, he was captured and tortured, eventually dying on January 31st the following year. Every November 5, England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day with a bonfire and a burning in effigy of the notorious traitor.

#5: Benedict Arnold (1741-1801)

During the American Revolutionary War, Arnold established himself as a soldier of intellect and courage, so much so that he was promoted to the rank of general for the Americans. However, discontent with his status in the military and with the political decisions of the U.S., he began negotiating secretly with the British and decided that he would turn over the fort at West Point that was under his command to British troops. The plot was discovered and foiled, and Arnold narrowly escaped arrest. Publicly switching loyalty, he continued to fight against the Americans during the rest of the war.

#4: Mir Jafar (1691-1765)

In Indian history, few figures are more reviled than Mir Jafar. As commander of the Bengal army, he was entrusted with defending the region against British expansion. But in 1757, at the Battle of Plassey, he struck a secret deal with the British East India Company. In exchange for power and a promise to be installed as Nawab, Jafar held his troops back at the decisive moment. His move handed the British a victory on a silver platter. The Battle was a key piece in cementing nearly two centuries of British rule in India. Jafar got his throne, and his nation got centuries of colonization. His name became a curse, still used in South Asia to mean traitor.

#3: Ephialtes of Trachis (5th Century B.C.E.)

The Battle of Thermopylae is one of historys most famous last stands. Ephialtes is the reason it ended in tragedy instead of victory. A Greek from the region of Malis, Ephialtes knew the mountain paths around the Hot Gates well. When King Xerxes of Persia needed a way around the Spartan phalanx, Ephialtes gave him one. He led the Persians through a hidden pass. They flanked King Leonidas, overwhelming his forces. The last stand inspired the rest of Greece to unite and turn Xerxes back. But Ephialtes's betrayal was never forgotten. His name became so reviled in Greek culture, it eventually came to mean nightmare.

#2: Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger (c. 85-42 B.C.E.)

This senator in the ancient Roman Republic was one of only three people in Dantes epic poem Inferno considered so evil that he was to be chewed in the mouth of Satan in the center of Hell forever. Brutus initially warred against the Roman general and Consul Julius Caesar; however, he was pardoned and later appointed as Praetor and governor of Gaul by the man who came to be his friend. Fearing Caesars rise to power, he joined several other conspirators who shared his concerns. In one of the most famous betrayals in history, they stabbed the dictator to death in the Senate on the Ides of March in 44 BC.

#1: Judas Iscariot (? B.C.E - c. 30 AD)

Dante considered him historys most notorious traitor, choosing to ensnare him in the jaws of Satans central head in the Inferno. Iscariot was one of Jesus of Nazareths 12 Apostles, confidantes with a special relationship to the charismatic religious figure. Despite the bond of trust that existed between Jesus and the Apostles, Judas collaborated with those who considered Jesus dangerous. Judas delivered him into the hands of his enemies, identifying him with a kiss and leading to his subsequent execution by direct order of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. To this day, the name Judas is synonymous with the idea of a traitor in popular culture and all, apparently, for 30 pieces of silver.

Let us know who broke your heart the hardest in the comments below.