10 Most Blamed People In History

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were looking at some of the biggest scapegoats in human history. For this list, were looking at specific historical figures, not mythological ones like Pandora.

Marie Antoinette (1755-93)

She never actually said Let them eat cake, but that doesn't really matter to an angry mob. Or to pop history. As France starved and revolution brewed, Marie Antoinette became the face of elite indifference. Foreign, fashionable, and famously out of touch, she was blamed for everything from empty bread shelves to collapsing royal coffers. Never mind that her spending was a drop in the bucket compared to Frances war debts. When the guillotine came down, it was less about justice and more about symbolism. She didnt cause the Revolution, but history made her the scapegoat in a powdered wig.

Andrés Escobar (1967-94)

In Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, a slow ground ball slipped between Bill Buckners legs. That error ultimately cost the Sox the series. Buckner was booed, harassed, and basically exiled from Boston for years. Now imagine that - but with bullets. At the 1994 World Cup, Colombian defender Andrés Escobar accidentally scored an own goal against the U.S. A few days later, he was gunned down outside a Medellín nightclub. He was a victim of cartel-linked gamblers furious over their losses. One slip turned him into a scapegoat for a nations humiliation. Unlike Buckner, Escobar never got a second chance.

Alger Hiss (1904-96)

He helped shape the postwar order. Then he got accused of being a traitor in a tailored suit. Alger Hiss was a Harvard-educated golden boy, a key figure at Yalta and the founding of the United Nations. But in 1948, ex-communist Whittaker Chambers named him as a Soviet spy. Hiss denied it. Washington lit up. There were typewriters, secret microfilm, even pumpkin patches hiding documents. Hiss was eventually convicted - not of spying, but of perjury. That didnt matter. To millions, he was proof the enemy was already inside the gates. He became a Cold War boogeyman. Hiss was both the spark that lit Nixons rise and McCarthys witch hunts. He was blamed, buried, and weaponized - more myth than man by the time it was over.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-67)

He built the bomb that ended a war, then got cast as the man who opened Pandoras box. J. Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project, ushering in the atomic age with the blast at Trinity. But victory turned sour, almost overnight. As the U.S. stockpiled nukes, Oppenheimer spoke out. He opposed the creation of a hydrogen bomb. Warning against an arms race, he eventually questioned the morality of the monster he helped unleash. The government turned on him. In 1954, his security clearance was revoked after a brutal hearing laced with Cold War paranoia. He wasnt a traitor. He wasnt a spy. But he became the face of American guilt - blamed not just for building the bomb, but for daring to regret it.

Rudolf Hess (1894-1987)

Even the Nazis didnt know what to do with Rudolf Hess. In 1941, Hitlers longtime deputy flew solo to Scotland on a bizarre, unauthorized peace mission. He was promptly captured, denounced by Hitler as mentally ill, and disowned by the Nazi regime. After the war, Hess stood trial at Nuremberg, despite playing no role in the Holocaust or front-line strategy. He was sentenced to life in prison. For over 40 years, Hess rotted in Spandau Prison. To Germans, he was a symbol of guilt desperately forgotten. To the Allies, he was a war criminal who deserved his fate. But to many, Hess may have been involved but he wasnt a mastermind; he was a fall guy.

Yoko Ono (1933-)

She didnt actually break up the Beatles, but millions of fans still act like Yoko Ono personally unplugged the amps. Ono was an avant-garde artist, activist, and John Lennons creative partner. But when the worlds most famous band imploded, she got the blame. Never mind the clashing egos, business tensions, and growing creative rifts - Yoko became the easy target. She was too weird. Too loud. Too visible. To some, she wasnt Johns partner, but a witch who ensorcelled him. She was a wedge, they said. Decades later, the narrative is slowly shifting. But for years, Yoko Ono carried the weight of a breakup she didnt cause, just because she was there when it happened.

William Tyndale (1494-1536)

William Tyndale gave English speakers the word "scapegoat" - then himself was literally scapegoated to death. In reality, all Tyndale ever did was translate part of the Bible into English so regular people could actually read it. But the Church wasnt having it. He was branded a heretic, hunted across Europe, and finally betrayed by a supposed friend. They strangled him and burned his body at the stake. He was blamed for stirring rebellion. He was blamed for undermining authority. Tyndale paid the ultimate price for spreading ideas that terrified the powerful. The ultimate twist? The very word used to describe historys fall guys is a gift from one of its earliest.

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

Leon Trotsky was Lenins right-hand man. Like his friend, his name has long been synonymous with the Communist Revolution. He was the architect of the Red Army and one of the brightest minds of early Soviet power. But after Lenins death, Stalin needed an enemy to consolidate his own rule. Trotsky, with his intellect and independence, made the perfect foil. He was expelled, exiled, and turned into the ultimate scapegoat for everything that went wrong in Stalins USSR. Grain shortages? Trotskys fault. Dissent? Take a look at that Trotsky guy. In 1940, even exile couldnt save him. Stalins assassin found him in Mexico City and took him out for good.

Sacco & Vanzetti (1891-1927; 1888-1927)

Two immigrants walked into a courtroom and never breathed the free air again. In 1920, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were arrested for robbery and murder outside Boston. The evidence was thin but the atmosphere was thick with fear. They were Italian immigrants, they were radicals, and in post-World War I America, that was enough. Their trial was a circus of bias, bigotry, and political paranoia. Despite global protests and serious doubts about their guilt, both men were executed by electric chair in 1927. Sacco and Vanzetti didnt just die for a crime. They died for being immigrants at the wrong time. A century later, its a reminder: when fear runs the show, scapegoats are never in short supply.

Fake Out #1: Mrs. O'Leary's Cow (1871)

A hoof kicked over a lantern, and poof - Chicago goes up in flames. Thats the myth, anyway. The truth? A reporter made it up. The cow was innocent, so well stop milking this one.

Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935)

Captain Alfred Dreyfus didnt betray France, yet that didnt stop France from betraying him. In 1894, Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army, was wrongfully convicted of passing secrets to Germany. The real evidence was flimsy. The forged evidence was worse. But Dreyfus checked all the wrong boxes for a nation boiling over with antisemitism and fear. He was publicly stripped of his rank and exiled to Devils Island. His reputation was savaged by the press; Dreyfus became a national punching bag. Even after the truth emerged, it took years of protests and political chaos to claw back his name. The Dreyfus Affair didnt just tarnish one man. It cracked open divides that haunted France - and the world - for generations.

Who do you think got the rawest deal in history? Drop your pick in the comments below!