Butcher or The Butcher is used as an epithet or nickname for several people and fictional characters:
Contents
People known by the epithet
Butcher of Amritsar: Reginald Dyer (1864–1927), British Indian Army officer responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar
Butcher of Baghdad: Saddam Hussein (1937–2006), President of Iraq until deposed in 2003
Butcher of the Balkans (disambiguation), several people
Butcher of Balochistan and Butcher of Bengal: Tikka Khan (1915–2002), Pakistan Army four-star general and first Chief of Staff
Butcher of Bangui: Jean-Bédel Bokassa (1921-1996), Central African politician, military officer, and Emperor of the Central African Empire
Butcher of Bega: Graeme Stephen Reeves (born 1949), Australian deregistered gynecologist and obstetrician
Butcher of Beijing: Li Peng (李鹏; 1928–2019) top level Chinese Communist Party official known for supporting the use of violence against the Tiananmen Square Protests
Butcher of Beirut: Ariel Sharon (1928–2014), Israeli Prime Minister and general
Butcher of Beslan: Shamil Basayev (1965–2006), Chechen militant Islamist and rebel leader
Butcher of Bosnia:
Ratko Mladić (1943-2026), Bosnian Serb former general and Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska
Radovan Karadžić (born 1945), Bosnian Serb former politician and President of Republika Srpska
Butcher of Brentwood: O.J. Simpson (1947-2024), American football player, actor, media personality, and accused murderer
Butcher of Bucha: Azatbek Omurbekov (born 1983), Russian military officer
Butcher of Budapest: Yuri Andropov (1914-1984), Chairman of the KGB, and leader of the Soviet Union
Butcher of La Cabaña: Che Guevara (1928–1967), Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist
Butcher of Cesena: Antipope Clement VII (1342–1394)
Butcher of Congo: King Leopold II of Belgium
Bucther of Damascus: Bashar al-Assad (born 1965), President of Syria until deposed in 2024
Butcher of Drogheda: Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), Commonwealth military and political leader
Butcher of Eastern Visayas: Jovito Palparan (born 1950), Filipino fugitive, politician and former army general
Butcher of England: John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester (1427-1470), English nobleman
Butcher of Genoa: Friedrich Engel (1909–2006)
Butcher of Hama: Rifaat al-Assad (1937-2026), Syrian military officer and politician
Butcher of Hanover: Fritz Haarmann (1879–1925), German serial killer
Butcher of Kentucky: Stephen G. Burbridge (1831–1894), Union major general during the American Civil War
Butcher of Kurdistan: Ali Hassan al-Majid (1941–2010), Iraqi Defense Minister, Interior Minister, military commander and chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, better known as "Chemical Ali"
Butcher of Lyon: Klaus Barbie (1913–1991), World War II SS-Hauptsturmführer and Gestapo member
Butcher of Mirpur: Abdul Quader Molla (1948–2013), Bangladeshi Islamist leader and politician
Butcher of Plainfield: Ed Gein (1906–1984), American murderer
Butcher of Prague: Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942), German World War II Nazi official and one of the main architects of the Holocaust
Butcher of Rangoon: Sein Lwin (1923–2004), Burmese brigadier general and briefly President of Myanmar (Burma)
Butcher of Riga: Eduard Roschmann (1908–1977), Austrian SS officer and commandant of the Riga ghetto during 1943
Butcher of Rostov: Andrei Chikatilo (1936–1994), Soviet serial killer
Butcher of Samar: Littleton Waller (1856–1926), US Marine Corps officer
Butcher of the Somme: Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861–1928), British First World War field marshal
Butcher of the Syria: Aleksandr Dvornikov (born 1961), Russian army general
Butcher of Uganda: Idi Amin (c. 1925–2003), President of Uganda and major general
Butcher of Warsaw:
Josef Albert Meisinger (1899–1947), German SS officer
Heinz Reinefarth (1903–1979), German SS officer
The Butcher Brothers, alter-egos of American film directors Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores
People with the nickname
Imre Arakas, Estonian criminal known as "The Butcher"
Prince William, Duke of Cumberland (1721–1765), son of King George II of Great Britain and general known to his political enemies as "Butcher" Cumberland
John Ronald Brown (1922–2010), American surgeon convicted of second-degree murder after operating without a license
Edward Cummiskey (died 1976), New York City mobster known as "The Butcher"
Robert Hansen (died 2014), an American serial killer, nicknamed the Butcher Baker
Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet (1892–1984), Marshal of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War
Lisandro Martínez (born 1998), Argentine footballer, "The Butcher" or "Butcher of Amsterdam" when playing for Ajax Amsterdam
Andrew Mrotek (born 1983), "the Butcher", American drummer for the band The Academy Is...
William Poole (1821–1855), leader of the New York City gang the Bowery Boys, bare-knuckle boxer, and a leader of the Know Nothing political movement, known as "Bill the Butcher"
Ivan Serov (1905–1990), Soviet intelligence officer and first chairman of the KGB, called "The Butcher" by British media.
Archie Skym (1906–1970), Welsh rugby union footballer
Valeriano Weyler, 1st Duke of Rubí (1838–1930), Spanish general and Governor General of the Philippines and Cuba
Wrestlers with the ring name
The Butcher (Brutus Beefcake, born 1957), ring name of professional wrestler Edward Leslie
Abdullah the Butcher, ring name of professional wrestler Larry Shreve (born 1941)
"Butcher", a ring name of former professional wrestler Paul Vachon (1938-2024)
The Butcher, ring name of professional wrestler Andy Williams (born 1977)
Necro Butcher, ring name of American professional wrestler Dylan Keith Summers (born 1973)
Fictional characters
Butcher of Arlav: Biff Simpson (Hunters)
Butcher of Bakersfield: Benjamin "Ben" Richards (The Running Man)
Butcher of Blaviken: Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher)
Butcher of Bogon: Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)
Butcher of Skull Moon: The Doctor (Doctor Who)
Butcher of Stilwater: The Protagonist/The Boss/"Playa" (Saints Row)
Butcher of Torfan: Commander Shepard (Mass Effect)
Butcher of White Orchard: Geralt of Rivia (The Witcher)
The Butcher (American Horror Story), from the TV series American Horror Story: Roanoke
The Butcher, a monster in the video game Silent Hill: Origins
The Butcher, a physical embodiment of "rage" that powers the Red Lantern Corps in the DC Comics universe