Thursday, Oct. 20, 2011
Saddam Hussein
It's been said that when Saddam Hussein was in power, he rarely spent more than 10 hours straight in any one place. So when Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003, he wasn't waiting around in his palace for a Tony Montana–style showdown — he was already on the run. Despite reported sightings all over the country, the Ace of Spades in the Iraqi most-wanted deck was nowhere to be found. The allied forces found themselves increasingly desperate — no WMD, no Saddam, bad p.r. — but nine months later, they finally tracked him down outside Tikrit in a foxhole for one, supplied with an AK-47, some chocolate and $750,000 in cash. He was hanged three years later, on Dec. 30, 2006. The manhunt for WMD has been quietly discontinued.