Category:Karma Houdini

A "karma houdini" is someone who isn't adequately punished for their villainous actions, and escapes justice by "pulling a Houdini" (disappearing) from karma. This villain is the opposite of a scapegoat.

A karma houdini, in this context, can have one of the following scenarios to qualify:

• The person simply died; in a ruler's case, while still in power. Examples include Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il, Francisco Franco, Leopold II of Belgium, Emperor Hirohito, Vladimir Lenin, Hồ Chí Minh, François Duvalier, Ruhollah Khomeini, Josip Broz Tito, and Augustin Bizimana.
• The person was deposed or put in a vulnerable position, but he/she escaped prosecution. Examples include Idi Amin, Josef Mengele, Fidel Castro, Augusto Pinochet, Mobutu Sese Seko, Robert Mugabe, Richard Nixon, Suharto, Alfredo Stroessner, Pol Pot, Wilhelm II and Fulgencio Batista.
• The person never got caught and simply vanished and presumably died of natural causes. Examples include Jack the Ripper, Pedro López, Víctor Manuel Gerena, Bradford Bishop, the Zodiac Killer, El Psicópata, Blue Tuxedo Man, Robert William Fisher, Alexis Flores, D. B. Cooper, Protais Mpiranya, Delphine LaLaurie, Masanobu Tsuji, Mr Cruel, The Monster With 21 Faces, the person who killed JonBenét Ramsey and the Axeman of New Orleans.
• The person is still alive today, and is either in an invulnerable position or on the run. Examples include Joseph Kony, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, Mengistu Haile Mariam, Henry Kissinger, David Duke, Issei Sagawa, Dawood Ibrahim, Yahya Jammeh, Yakubu Gowon, Desi Bouterse, and Ismael Zambada García.
  • In a similar case, the person is not only alive but still in power. Examples include Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi, Bashar al-Assad, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Alexander Lukashenko and Jair Bolsonaro.
• The person is protected by juvenile laws. Examples include Junko Furuta's Murderers, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, Daniel Petry, Matias Oyarzo (despite being terminated in late September 2020), Bailey O'Neill's Murderers (despite being minorly punished) and Laurie Tackett.
• The person is generally not considered a villain and thus many don't see the need to punish them. Examples include Charlemagne, James VI and I, Christopher Columbus, Andrew Jackson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, J. Edgar Hoover and Menachem Begin.
• The person cannot be convicted or punished by law due to insufficient evidence, or lack thereof. Examples include O.J. Simpson, Casey Anthony and Lori Drew.
• The person was caught for their actions, but received a minor or even no punishment (also known as a "slap on the wrist"). Examples include Brock Turner, David Becker, Jacob Walter Anderson and John Bowen-Colthurst.

For organizations, they must have the following requirements:

• Organizations that are still active and in an invulnerable position. Examples include People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Westboro Baptist Church, Communist Party of China, Antifa, Fidesz and The Islamic State.
• Organizations that dissolved, but that most or all of its members did not suffer any punishment, or merged with another organization. Examples include Việt Cộng, Fatherland and Liberty Nationalist Front, KGB, 26th of July Movement, Aitarak and Project MK-Ultra.

In the case of events, you need the following requirement:

• Events in which the vast majority or all of the perpetrators were not tried. Examples include Armenian Genocide, Expulsion of the Chagossians and The Holodomor.

NOTE: People who died in prison, were executed for their crimes, got exiled to another place, redeemed themselves, took their own lives, are currently in jail or were released from prison cannot count as karma houdinis.