Shoko Asahara, Death Toll: 32, at least. Shoko Asahara is the leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan, which became infamous for a series of poison-gas attacks. He is nearly blind from childhood glaucoma, but thanks to Japanese superstition this actually gained him some cachet as a traditional Asian healer, which was his early career. He expanded from this to create a cult based on a weird mix of Tibetan Buddhism, Indian Tantra, and Christianity. He claimed that he could purify his followers of negative karma; he also preached that the world was secretly controlled by an evil conspiracy consisting of Jews, Freemasons, the British Royal Family, and (for some reason) the Dutch. He later expanded this enemies' list to include rival Japanese sects and mainstream Japanese religions. He claimed that a Nuclear War was going to happen soon and that only his followers would be spared. He made his followers practice a very extreme kind of self-made "Yoga" that included shock therapy. Shoko began to engage in attempted killings of critics of his sect. This quickly evolved into the plan to cause the sarin gas attacks, which he justified as an act that would bring back 'balance' to the world. There were eventually three different attacks that killed 28 people and injured about 1600 more. His group also killed or injured several enemies of the sect before or shortly after the attacks; by poison, stabbing or shooting, but in one particularly horrific case by cooking their victim in a giant microwave oven. Asahara and several members of his sect were imprisoned in 1995. His trial went on until 2004 when he was sentenced to death, but the execution has been delayed multiple times and as of this writing he remains in prison.