Fans looking for good people in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto will have a tough time finding them. The series' heroes are all murderers and thieves, and the villains run the gambit from the comic to the downright sadistic. Even many of the non-violent NPCs have delusions of grandeur and quick tempers, and many of the victims of the characters' crimes are as unsympathetic as the perpetrators.

Some of the villains which stick most with the fans, however, are the truly vile Grand Theft Auto villains. Here are some of the most evil characters in the Grand Theft Auto games, and what makes them smell particularly rotten in a sea of bad eggs.

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Frank Tenpenny

Amoral criminals is one thing, but evil characters on the side of the law can be far more chilling, and far more likely to get away with their crimes. Samuel L. Jackson brings corrupt cop Frank Tenpenny to life in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the result is one of the series' most despicable antagonists. Secretly tied to the Ballas gang, Tenpenny and the other members of the CRASH unit (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) exploit their position of power to make a profit in the neighborhoods they're supposed to be protecting.

Frank even kills one of CRASH's other members. When Ralph Pendelbury attempts to cooperate with internal affairs, Frank pushes a young officer into killing Ralph to cover his tracks. Even when Tenpenny is finally charged with corruption, racketeering, and multiple sexual assaults among other crimes, he is acquitted. His acquittal sparks a riot leading to a car chase that eventually ends in his death. His final, angry claim that "fifty" Frank Tenpennys would have saved San Andreas only reveals just how warped his self-image has become by the end of the line.

Dimitri Rascalov

dimitri rascalov gta 4

The mob may be a dangerous business, but across the mob story genre, the silver lining has always been the loyalty the characters initially have to one another, even if that loyalty is strained to a breaking point by the end. Players will find no such loyalty in Grand Theft Auto 4's Dimitri Rascalov, who betrays just about everybody he works with throughout the game. Using a loophole in an immigration treaty to flee from Russia to the United States, Dimitri quickly finds his place in the criminal underworld of Liberty City.

Dimitri doesn't just betray his own closest ally, Mikhail Faustin. Demitri later betrays GTA 4's protagonist Niko Bellic as well, and depending on the player's decisions may even be responsible for the death of Niko's cousin Roman at his own wedding. There may be no honor among thieves, but Dimitri Rascalov may be the least honorable of them all.

Steve Haines

gta 5 steve haines

Steve Haines takes Frank Tenpenny's role as a corrupt cop further up the chain. Haines is an FIB agent — the GTA universe's version of the FBI. Once a highly decorated agent, Haines quickly let the attention to get to his head. He became the host of reality TV show The Underbelly of Paradise. More rich and powerful than Tenpenny ever became, Steve Haines egoism makes him a particularly vile villain.

Throughout the game, Haines forces Grand Theft Auto 5's three protagonists to perform a series of crimes with the aim of sabotaging rival agencies, increasing the FIB's funding, and advancing his own career. These crimes include kidnapping, torture, and even assassination. When Haines eventually tries to have Franklin kill Trevor, the player has the option of teaming back up with their old friends to take down Haines. Even then, Haines is remembered as decorated agent who "died a hero, doing what he loved." While Frank Tenpenny dies in disgrace, Steve Haines either gets away with it all, or is remembered as a hero despite his corruption.

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Devin Weston

Grand Theft Auto 5 Devin Weston Face

One of GTA 5's other major villains, Devin Weston takes Steve Haines power and prestige to the next level. A billionaire venture capitalist with a hand in many Los Santos businesses, he even has his own private military contracting company that he uses to carry out his dirty work.

Ending many of his lines with an ironic "namaste," he isn't beyond having entire families killed to get what he wants. If the player kills Devin Weston in the end, his stocks are snatched up by "war mongering" magnate Don Percival, a reminder that while revenge might be taken, true justice is unlikely to ever be done.

Big Smoke

Big Smoke in promotional artwork for San Andreas

Tenpenny, Haines, and Weston are all hypocritical villains who exploit their position of power. Dimitri Rascalov is a habitual backstabber, and it's relatively easy to see his betrayal coming. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Big Smoke, however, betrays the main character CJ to side with a rival gang, the Ballas. There are already a few hints that Smoke may be working for the other side — he claims he can't fire his gun during one shoot-out with the Ballas — but Big Smoke's betrayal hits far harder than Dimitri's.

Big Smoke's main motivation for the betrayal is his own power, wealth, and glory. Even when CJ finally catches up to Smoke and takes revenge, Big Smoke uses his final breath to glorify himself: "I had no choice... I had to do it... I just see the opportunity. When I'm gone, everyone gonna remember my name... Big Smoke!"

Big Smoke's descent from one of the protagonist's close allies into a paranoid man who shuts himself up in his own drug manufacturing plant to get high on his own supply makes his betrayal one of the more tragic in a Grand Theft Auto game. However, the fact that even then Big Smoke can't help but make excuses and aggrandize himself in his final moments shows just how wretched he is, and what his true motivations were the entire time.

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