Buzz
The saying 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions' likely sounds familiar. It’s a reminder that sometimes even our most earnest efforts can go terribly wrong. Individuals who might be expected to do harm might still strive to do good, only for their well-meaning actions to backfire. Even the most well-thought-out plans can spiral into calamity and widespread death.
10. Walter Duranty
Walter Duranty served as the head of the New York Times Moscow bureau during the early 1930s. At the very least, Duranty was too lenient toward communism; at worst, he was a propagandist, intentionally ignoring and downplaying the horrific famine that claimed millions of lives.
Duranty was in Moscow during the tragic period of the Holodomor, when the Soviet Union deliberately caused the deaths of at least two million Ukrainians through starvation (with some estimates reaching as high as 12 million). In a November 1931 article, Duranty reported, “there is no famine or actual starvation nor is there likely to be.” By that time, over 500,000 Ukrainians had already been forced from their homes, and thousands had perished.
In 1933, when it was starkly clear that the famed “Soviet Bread Basket” of Ukraine was losing 30,000 lives per day, Duranty claimed, “there is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation, but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.” In a 1933 report, Duranty asserted there was no famine—just some mild, unavoidable hunger, concluding, “to put it brutally—you can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.” In 1932, Duranty was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his “excellent” coverage of life in the Soviet Union.
Had Duranty even remotely acknowledged the true extent of the famine, global outrage might have saved millions. The New York Times later admitted that Duranty’s reports were catastrophically incorrect, but the Pulitzer Prize committee chose not to revoke his award, concluding that Duranty had no intention of misleading his readers.
9. Mary Mallon
The name might not be immediately familiar, but her nickname certainly will. “Typhoid” Mary Mallon immigrated from Ireland in the 1880s and started working as a cook for affluent families in New York. Despite her reputation as a great cook, it seemed as though everyone she cooked for either fell ill or died.
It wasn’t until 1906, when she caused an outbreak at the Warren family’s summer home on Long Island, that the link between Mary and the illnesses became undeniable. Deadly cases of typhoid fever were traced back to her 1900 job in Westchester County, marking the start of the Typhoid Mary legend. Mary herself refused to accept responsibility, insisting she had never been ill. In a 1909 letter, written while she was quarantined on an island in the East River, she stated: “There is nobody on this island that has typhoid. There was never any effort by the Board authority to do anything for me excepting to cast me on the island and keep me a prisoner without being sick nor needing medical treatment.” Her denial was extreme—she even chased health officials away with a fork when they first questioned her and later jumped from a window to flee the health department.
In 1910, after somehow securing legal representation, the New York City Health Commissioner agreed to release Mary—on the condition that she never again work as a cook. Mary Mallon did indeed stop, but soon a woman named Mary Brown started infecting families across the city. Upon investigation, it was discovered that Brown was actually Mallon using a new name, leading to her re-quarantine in 1915. She remained isolated until her death in 1938.
An autopsy confirmed that Mary was indeed the dangerous carrier doctors had suspected—her gall bladder was filled with bacteria. Typhoid Mary infected over 50 people, causing at least three deaths. Mary herself never accepted that she was the source of the disease, claiming that since she had never been sick, she couldn’t possibly have carried it. In 2013, scientists discovered that certain strains of typhoid-causing salmonella can survive in a healthy individual, finally solving the mystery of Typhoid Mary.
8. Gaetan Dugas
Dugas may not be a household name, but his nickname has become more infamous than that of Typhoid Mary—he was labeled “Patient Zero” in And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts’s pioneering book on the early battle against HIV and AIDS. According to early reports, Dugas, a highly promiscuous Canadian flight attendant, was believed to be the initial source of the AIDS epidemic in the United States.
Recent research has thoroughly debunked this notion—AIDS likely existed long before Dugas was even born in 1953, with the first known American case dating back to the late 1960s. Even Shilts was aware that portraying Dugas as Patient Zero was dubious, and his editor had to persuade him to include it, arguing that the scandalous angle would draw attention to the epidemic. The widely circulated story in the book about Dugas confessing to having “Gay Cancer” after sleeping with a man is probably nothing more than fiction.
However, Dugas is not entirely blameless. He is known to have had sexual relations with at least 40 other people, all of whom contracted AIDS. While it’s clear he wasn’t the sole individual responsible for spreading the disease in America, it’s undeniable that Dugas, fully aware that he had “something,” continued to engage in sexual activity with up to 250 partners annually (his own estimate). He wasn’t the cause of the epidemic, but he did contribute by unknowingly transmitting the virus to other unsuspecting gay men.
7. Mao Zedong
As a brutal dictator, Mao caused the deaths of a shocking number of people. However, one of the darkest chapters of his rule was not intended to bring about death. In the late 1950s, Mao recognized the urgent need to modernize China’s economy. His efforts to bring China into the modern age, though, disastrously backfired—and ultimately led to millions of deaths.
To transition from an agrarian to an industrial society, the Chinese government forced farmers into collective farms, intending to eventually employ them in industries such as steel production. Homes were destroyed and repurposed as fuel for steel plants. In one of the more absurd moves, Mao decided to reorganize agriculture according to communist ideals. “Happy plants grow together,” Mao once said, leading to farmers being compelled to plant crops as dictated by the government. This resulted in a catastrophic famine, with as many as 35 million Chinese dying during the “Great Leap Forward.”
However, not all those who died were victims of starvation—millions were executed for resisting the government’s directives. By 1958, over 500,000 people had been executed, and this was only the beginning of the program. China has never officially recognized the famine or the atrocities that occurred during this time.
6. Kim Jong Il
When it comes to dictators, Kim Jong Il showed that he was just as inept at farming as Mao was. North Korea realized they were facing severe financial difficulties after the Soviet Union's collapse, so Kim Jong Il decided that an agricultural boom could revive the economy.
The trouble began in 1995 with massive flooding that wiped out large sections of farmland. In response, the North Korean government attempted to compensate by double-cropping fields, which caused the soil to deteriorate, and overused chemicals in an effort to shorten the growing season. This led to a catastrophe, and with only 20 percent of the land being arable and private farming illegal, regenerating the land was no simple feat. Although North Korea had a “two meals a day” policy since 1991, this soon turned into “two meals a month.”
Unlike China or the Soviet Union, North Korea at least acknowledged that its people were starving. The famine claimed the lives of between 250,000 and million people. The US, South Korea, and China provided assistance, but the repercussions remain, and the country still heavily depends on foreign aid to feed its population.
5. Unnamed Mechanics
In the early days of air travel, flights often included several stops along their route. In 1961, Northwest Orient Flight 706 departed from Milwaukee with planned stops in Chicago, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. Everything appeared normal as the plane began its second leg from Chicago. However, shortly after takeoff, the plane sharply veered right, hit power lines, and crashed, resulting in the deaths of 37 passengers.
The flight had been smooth during the first segment, so what went wrong? A few months earlier, the plane had passed a routine safety check. During maintenance on the left wing, the mechanics had replaced the hydraulic boost system controlling the plane’s ailerons. Unfortunately, they didn’t properly secure the connectors on the new system. Over time, the plane's vibrations caused the screws to loosen further. Eventually, the connectors detached, and the plane became uncontrollable. This mistake occurred between the maintenance crew's second and third shifts.
Although it wasn’t the first time a flight crashed due to maintenance issues, it was the first such incident that didn’t happen immediately after the work was completed. The individuals responsible were never publicly identified. As of 2007, approximately 12 percent of all airline crashes have been attributed to maintenance errors.
4. Lillie Colvin
In 1962, something unusual occurred at Binghamton General Hospital in upstate New York. Several newborns started falling ill. Despite feeding normally, seven babies died in rapid succession. The situation could have been far worse if a nurse named May Pier had not broken the hospital's rules and made herself a cup of coffee in the formula room. It only took one sip for Pier to realize the cause—someone had mistakenly swapped salt for the sugar meant for the baby formula. While adults typically reject overly salty food, newborns have no such defense. Salt dehydration may be rare, but it can be fatal.
Outrage spread across Binghamton. The hospital faced numerous threats, including a bomb scare that led to security guards being stationed at the entrance. How could such a tragic error happen? To save money, the hospital bought large canisters of salt and sugar, which were then transferred into smaller containers for use. Just before the series of deaths, Lillie Colvin, a pregnant Licensed Practical Nurse with three children of her own, went down to the basement to fill the smaller containers. The salt and sugar canisters were kept next to each other.
Colvin was never charged for the babies' deaths, and the hospital stood by her, calling her a “good employee.” Colvin continued to assert her innocence, claiming she had correctly filled the sugar container from the right canister. However, there was no evidence to suggest anyone other than Colvin had filled the containers. The hospital eventually reached a financial settlement with the families, each of whom received $7,000 in compensation for their child's death. Afterward, the incident faded from public memory.
3. Horace Lawson Hunley
How does someone who plans to kill end up as an accidental killer? Enter Horace Lawson Hunley, a lawyer and inventor with a passion for building submarines. During the US Civil War, Hunley joined the Confederate side and designed his first military submarine in New Orleans. However, the North seized the city, and his submarine was scuttled.
Unfazed, Hunley relocated to Charleston and constructed another submersible, the grandly named H.L. Hunley. This new submarine was meant to break the Union's naval blockade of the city. Hunley watched from the shore as a crew of nine men tested the vessel. But when the sub was lowered into Charleston Bay, water rushed through an unsecured hatch, drowning five of the crew. Just over a month later, in October 1863, Hunley took command of the sub himself during a second test. This time, the sub successfully submerged, but it never resurfaced. Hunley and seven other submariners perished.
Eventually, the Confederates recovered the sub from the bay, where it had become stuck nose-first in the silt, and prepared it for one final attempt. In 1864, the Hunley successfully launched an attack and sank the USS Housatonic, killing five Union sailors. However, the Hunley itself was only 6 meters (20 ft) from the Housatonic when it exploded, killing another eight Confederate sailors. In total, Hunley’s deathtrap claimed the lives of 21 Confederates and five Union soldiers—far from the widespread carnage he had intended.
2. Toyota
In 2013, Toyota sold over 1.2 million Corollas globally, making them the leading car manufacturer in the world. Much of Toyota's success is attributed to their strong reputation for reliability. However, a few years ago, a series of fatal acceleration incidents threatened to undermine the company's stability. In several Toyota models, the accelerator pedal, brake, and floor mat didn’t align properly, leading to the accelerator becoming caught under the mat.
While it would be unjust to blame one individual for the acceleration-related fatalities, someone in Toyota's floor mat division approved a dangerously flawed design. As many as 89 lives were lost and over 6200 complaints were filed. The first recall of five million vehicles did not fully resolve the issue, as some customers continued to report sudden acceleration, including one case that a Toyota dealership confirmed was unrelated to the floor mat. The aftermath proved expensive: Toyota was fined $1.2 billion and had to recall eight million vehicles.
1. Sigmund Freud
Before he became known as the father of modern psychoanalysis and a source of awkward conversational slips, Sigmund Freud was simply a doctor fascinated by the workings of the brain. During his time at Theodor Meynert’s Psychiatric Clinic, the young Freud became intrigued by cocaine.
Cocaine-based products were already freely available. In 1863, chemist Angelo Mariani created a concoction known as coca wine, which was exactly what its name suggests. However, it was Freud who took the lead in promoting cocaine as a miracle drug. He became the world’s foremost expert on the substance and prescribed it to his patients as a remedy for nearly everything—but particularly to enhance brain function. In 1884, Freud published his widely acclaimed paper Uber Coca, which praised the drug.
Cocaine’s popularity surged quickly. If anyone questioned its miraculous properties, they could point to Freud's own medical reports, where he claimed, “the toxic dose (of cocaine) is very high, and there seems to be no lethal dose.” Unfortunately, Freud was mistaken. One of his patients, Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, would later die due to the consequences of cocaine abuse. While it’s not fair to attribute every cocaine-related death from 1884 to the present to Freud, and von Fleischl-Marxow was the only one directly linked to him, Freud genuinely believed for a time that cocaine was a universal cure. Many addicts followed the doctor’s advice.
+Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson, a highly influential marine biologist, is best remembered for her groundbreaking 1962 book Silent Spring, which became a cornerstone of the environmental movement. In the book, she sharply criticized the widespread use of the insecticide DDT, which had been heavily relied upon to control mosquitoes and other pests. Upon its release, Silent Spring became an instant bestseller and played a key role in reshaping public opinion about DDT, which was soon banned in many parts of the world.
What many people don’t realize is that DDT had already saved tens of millions of lives by 1962—perhaps even hundreds of millions. Beginning in the late 1950s, the World Health Organization’s Global Malaria Eradication Program deployed thousands of tons of DDT as part of the largest mosquito eradication effort ever undertaken. The results were staggering. Before DDT, the battle against malaria seemed nearly hopeless. But after its introduction, the disease was eliminated in Taiwan, the West Indies, northern Australia, and large portions of North Africa. In India alone, where roughly 800,000 people died from malaria each year, the number of deaths dropped to zero by the early 1960s.
The case against DDT, however, wasn’t as conclusive as it may seem. Despite some claims, there is still no clear evidence linking DDT to cancer in humans. Entomologist J. Gordon Edwards, perhaps Carson’s most vocal critic, argued that: “The idea that DDT is lethally dangerous is completely unfounded. Human volunteers have consumed up to 35 milligrams of it a day for nearly two years without any harmful effects. Millions have been exposed to DDT during mosquito control programs and none have fallen ill as a result.” A professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has also stated: “There is no convincing evidence that DDT, when used indoors against malaria mosquitoes, has harmed humans.”
It would be unjust to blame Carson for every malaria death that followed Silent Spring. DDT’s effectiveness was already waning as mosquitoes developed genetic resistance to the chemical. New insecticides began to prove effective in combating the disease. Most countries banned DDT as an agricultural pesticide, but still allowed its use for public health purposes. The concerns regarding DDT’s use in agriculture were understandable—it required massive quantities of DDT to treat a cotton field, but only a small amount to eliminate deadly mosquitoes from homes.
However, after Carson’s book tarnished the chemical’s public image, tropical countries came under increasing pressure to halt its use in mosquito control programs. Much of this pressure came from affluent Western nations, where malaria was no longer a threat. In the 1990s, malaria rates surged across South America as aid organizations pushed developing countries to refrain from using DDT for any purpose. In Ecuador, where DDT was used to control the disease, malaria incidence dropped by 60 percent. Although there are genuine concerns about the safety of DDT, its effectiveness had already diminished since its peak in the 1950s and 60s, and there are now alternatives to fight mosquito-borne diseases. Still, it is likely that some people have died in part due to the campaign against the chemical sparked by Silent Spring.
