14 Historical Figures Whose Charitable Works Masked Their Dark Secrets by Somapika Dutta

Please note that this may be about people in history, but it is still going on today. People who are thought highly of and considered wonderful people by the media while raising money for charitable organizations, are at times abusive to their families or others behind closed doors.

When you are privileged and you give to the needy, it is denoted as the ultimate act of kindness and selflessness. This is why so many big names that do charity work hold such a big space in people’s hearts. However, history has been a witness that not every charitable figure was truly the angelic face that they seemed to be.

Behind grand gestures of goodwill, a lot of people hide their scandals, corruption, and even crimes. In this article, we’ll uncover 14 historical figures whose charity masked their dark secrets.

1. Andrew Carnegie

The man built libraries and donated millions to education, but all of this was a farce to hide his brutal labor practices. The most infamous Homestead Strike of 1892 left many workers working under the Carnegie company dead and crushed, even after their union efforts. So even if his name is tied in philanthropy, his fortune his built on the exploitation of immigrant steelworkers.

2. John D. Rockefeller

Rockefeller’s charity was famous for its funding going to universities and medical research. However, before anyone is swayed by his contributions, one should remember that his Standard Oil empire was accused of monopolistic practices that involved ruthless takeovers and destroyed other small businesses. Often critics say that his charity was one way to buy back public approval.

3. Cecil Rhodes

The Rhodes Scholarship, given mainly at Oxford, is one of the most prestigious educational awards one could secure in this world. However, is it really Cecil Rhodes’ big heart that made him introduce this? His wealth, which was built on the brutal colonial expansion in Africa, which profited from mining and policies that dispossessed the local populations, is a far cry from it. His generosity towards third-world scholars might just be to mask his role in systemic exploitation.

4. Mother Teresa

Hot take, but Mother Teresa is far from the Nobel Peace Prize winner that the world perceives her to be. As a saint, she ran many missions for the poor in Calcutta, West Bengal, India. Over the years, this gimmick of a messiah for the needy has been broken by researchers who have pointed out that her Missionaries of Charity often lacked proper medical care, mistreating leprosy patients. Often in these institutions, people were also forced to convert from their practicing faiths to Christianity.

5. King Leopold II of Belgium

The King funded public works in Belgium and posed as a humanitarian. The reality was far from this, and it was orchestrated as one of history’s worst atrocities. In the Congo Free State, he would perform forced labor, mutilation, and mass killings. While he posed to do charitable projects in his home country, it masked the millions of African deaths that happened under his rule.

6. Pablo Escobar

The popular show Narcos has also fed into painting a glorified image of Escobar. He is said to have built housing for the poor, soccer fields, and even entire neighborhoods in Medellin, which made him so loved among the Colombians. His billion-dollar empire however, came from a violent drug empire that was built on the deaths of thousands. His philanthropy was less about kindness and more about buying loyalty and protection.

7. Joseph Stalin

Stalin is far from a philanthropist, but even he sponsored education, arts, and sometimes public festivals to promote his image as a benevolent leader. This was obviously a facade, however, because as history knows it, he was responsible for purges, gulags, and mass famine that claimed millions of lives. Hence, all his goodwill was only a tool of propaganda to mask the terror and authoritarianism he brought forward,

8. Al Capone

During the Great Depression, Al Capone came as an angel, opening soup kitchens to feed the hungry in Chicago, and trying to present himself as the man of the people. Yet it won’t eliminate the fact that he was the same gangster who runs one of the most violent crime syndicates in US history, one which is responsible for smuggling, racketeerin,g and murders like the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

9. Genghis Khan

The Mongol ruler is often remembered for distributing wealth and sharing spoils with his royal followers. However ,once again, as history bears the brunt, his generosity came with plunder, massacres, and conquests that wiped out entire populations.

10. Thomas Midgley Jr.

Often hailed for his scientific advancements that led to contributions in public health, Thomas was loved. But the reality is that his inventions were leaded gasoline and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that have now led to huge human damage and environemental loss.

11. Charles Keating

Keating was a visible figure of philanthropy funding Catholic charities. Yet he was at the center of the 1980s savings and loan scandal, which cost American taxpayers billions of dollars. Later it was exposed thar his doonations were a mere moral cover for financial corruption.

12. John Edwards

The former U.S. senator launched charities for poverty reduction and children’s healthcare. However, his reputation collapsed after it was revealed that he used campaign funds to cover up an extramarital affair while his wife was battling cancer. His philanthropic image masked deep personal hypocrisy.

13. Richard Nixon

Nixon is infamous for being one of the worst U.S. presidents in Amerian history. Yet, even this man has funded cancer research and expanded social programs that tried to paint him as the President who cared about American families. This was simply broken down after the Watergate Scandal and abuse of power he had.

14. Harvey Weinstein

Weinstein donated heavily to arts, education, and Democratic campaigns. He was once celebrated as a Hollywood philanthropist. But behind closed doors, he was guilty of decades of sexual harassment and assault, exposed in one of the most infamous scandals of the #MeToo era.

Final Thoughts

Some of these historical figures and their dark secrets might have come across as a shock, while for others it was a no brainer that their ‘nice-guy’ act was merely an publicity stunt. Sometimes these stories remind us of an important truth: Not all good deeds stem from moral good. Sometimes philanthropy may serve as shield to hide greater evil.

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