Cut down in the cross-fire between loyalists and rebels, then flung in a truck and executed in front of a baying mob, Gaddafi’s final moments were as brutal as his crimes.
Covered in blood and dirt, he had pleaded for his life - the answer was a bullet to the temple.
So how does it compare to the grisly deaths of other ruthless dictators such as Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Nicolae Ceausescu and Rafael Trujillo? The circumstances varied, but the cold and bloody nature of their final seconds did not.
The end: Saddam Hussein was hanged by vengeful countrymen after overseeing a brutal regime - his death signalled by a loud crack of his neck
'Caught like a rat': Saddam Hussein after being tracked down by U.S. forces
The body of Saddam Hussein in an undated image obtained by the Associated Press from an Arab language web site. Seemingly shot on a camera phone, the image appears to show the former Iraqi leader's corpse, with a gaping neck wound
Charred remains: A soldier of the U.S occupation forces looks over Adolf Hitler's bed
Declared dead: Ceausescu's body is examined after he was executed by firing squad
Cold: An officer makes sure that Ion Antonescu and his fellow politicians are dead by firing into their heads with a pistol
Terminated: The car in which Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo was ambushed - it was riddled with about 60 bullet holes
Mown down: Ceaucescu and his wife Elena died in a hail of bullets
Paraded in front of the cameras: Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife were put on a show trial before their execution
Reviled: The bodies of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, centre, his mistress, Clara Petacci, right, and Achille Starace, former secretary of the Fascist Party, hang by their heels in Milan
Brutal: Antonescu lies dead after being shot by firing squad alongside key members of his regime
No mercy: The Ceausescus were led away to be shot as they screamed in protest
Bombed: The remains of Hitler's bunker, where the dictator was found dead
Suicide: Adolf Hitler is thought to have shot himself in the temple in his Berlin bunker
SADDAM HUSSEIN, December 30, 2006Seven coils and pre-boiled to take out any stretch. One thing the U.S. and Iraq do have in common is their style of hangman’s noose.
Saddam Hussein, deposed dictator of Iraq, would have had little time to dwell on such trivia as he stood on the gallows to finally face justice.
Like Muammar Gaddafi, he too had been found cowering in a grubby bolt-hole, in December 2003.
As one U.S. military commander said, he was ‘caught like a rat’.
Holed up in an underground chamber little bigger than a coffin, he surrendered without a fight when allied troops cornered him in a farm near Tikrit, his birthplace.
Bearded, thin and exhausted, he had been on the run for 250 days.
On November 5, 2006, he was finally found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. He was then sentenced to be hanged until dead.
Three months later in Baghdad - at 6am on December 30 – he was led to a platform in a concrete chamber by masked men.
Wearing a white shirt and dark overcoat, he refused a hood and shouted ‘God is great’.
Soldiers taunted him with insults until a judge demanded silence.
As he clutched a copy of the Koran, a noose was placed around his neck – nicely waxed to guarantee a clean slide of the knots.
The trapdoor was released and a loud crack was heard and his neck broke.
Left to swing for several minutes, a doctor was called to listen for a heartbeat.
Saddam was dead.
ADOLF HITLER, April 30, 1945Blood dripped onto the carpet and the smell of burnt almonds filled the air.
Hitler’s valet was the first on the scene after the sound of a single gunshot was heard coming from the Fuhrer’s study.
Holed up in a Berlin bunker, the date was April 30, 1945.
One of the leader’s most trusted commanders, Field Marshall Keitel, had just told him the soldiers protecting the city would run out of ammunition that night.
Two days earlier, Hitler had married Eva Braun – and she too would take her life as the Russians edged ever closer.
Knowing the end was near, he had meticulously prepared for death, even testing cyanide pills on a dog and her puppies to make sure they worked.
Before retiring to his study, he said farewell to his inner circle.
Then, at around 3.30 that afternoon, the man who had survived numerous assassination attempts took out his Walther PPK pistol and shot himself in the head.
He is said to have sat, sunken on a sofa, with blood oozing from his right temple. According to other accounts, his head was slumped on a table.
Braun chose cyanide (which produces a burned almond smell) and was discovered dead in the same room with her legs drawn up.
In accordance with Hitler’s instructions, SS officers took the corpses outside, poured petrol over them and set them alight.
Eyewitness claim it took two hours for the blaze to consume them.
Their remains were hidden under the soil in a bomb crater.
(Mystery shrouds the exact circumstances of Hitler’s death, with some claiming he in fact survived the battle for Berlin.)
NICOLAE CEAUSESCU, December 25, 1989So many soldiers volunteered to shoot Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and his wife Elena that a lottery was held to allocate places.
And on Christmas Day, 1989, after a brief show trial in Bucharest, the couple faced the firing squad of elite paratroopers.
With Communism crumbling around him, the self-proclaimed ‘Genius of the Carpathians’ realised that his days as ruler of a brutally oppressive regime were over.
He had attempted to flee the country with his wife but they were soon captured by rebel soldiers.
Their trial was held in a bare room, where they were treated with cold contempt.
Accused of crimes ranging from illegal gathering of wealth to genocide, he stood frightened in the dock.
Within 90 minutes, he and Elena were sentenced to death.
At first, they were told they would be shot separately, but they begged to die together – and their final wish was granted.
After the trial they had their hands tied behind their backs with rope, with such force that Elena complained that her arms were breaking.
The soldiers took no pity on them. ‘Nobody will help you now,’ one said.
They were led outside, shouting ‘shame, shame’.
The firing squad were ordered to set their guns to automatic fire.
One paratrooper describes how the first bullets hit Nicolae in the knees, then in his chest, with the next thumping into Elena.
Within seconds they lay dead on the floor, blood flowing along the ground from Elena’s head.
BENITO MUSSOLINI, April 28, 1945Mussolini made a desperate bid to escape to Switzerland with his mistress Clara Petacci and his fascist entourage, numbering about 15, on April 27, 1945.
But he was stopped by Communist officials and soldiers, despite trying to disguise himself in a German military uniform.
He was shot the following day in the village of Giulino di Mezzegra, along with those travelling with him.
Defiant to the last, the deluded leader screamed at the soldier sent to execute him: ‘Shoot me in the chest!’
The soldier wasted no time in firing.
It's believed Mussolini slumped to the floor in agony, still breathing, so the soldier strode up to him and shot him in the chest again.
His body, along with that of his wife and other executed fascists, was taken to Milan and dumped unceremoniously on the ground outside a petrol station in the middle of the night.
There Italians, reviled by the former leader’s regime, took the opportunity to vent their anger on him.
Even in death, they had no respect for him at all.
For hours they spat on him, kicked him, stoned him and battered his body with whatever they could lay their hands on.
The attack was so violent that the dictator’s head was left misshapen.
Bloodied, dishevelled, and bearing agonised grimaces, Mussolini, Clara and other executed fascist were then hung upside down with meat hooks.
Had they been innocents, Italians would have been horrified by what they saw – but this sight was met with jubilation.
They’d lived a life of luxury and wielded enormous power – now their honour was mercilessly torn away from them.
ION ANTONESCU, June 1, 1946It’s often said that dictators are deluded, tinged with madness – Ion Antonescu then, was perhaps no different, because even while staring down the barrel of a gun, he held his hat aloft.
He had been Romania’s war-time leader and was said to be responsible for the deaths of 400,000 people.
But justice was eventually served in 1946 when he was prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against the peace, and treason.
The sentence was death, and he was dispatched ruthlessly in a field along with three members of his hated regime.
They were dressed in suits and hats but there was nothing respectful about their deaths.
The firing squad unleashed their shots and the four men crumpled in a split second.
To make sure they were dead an officer steps up to each corpse and shoots it several times.
Cold and brutal, just like Antonescu himself.
RAFAEL TRUJILLO, May 30, 1961Like a scene from a Chicago gangster film, Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo was gunned down as his chauffeur drove him along a dark road.
The first shot didn’t kill him though - he fought back. But the seven men, assigned to take him out on the orders of the nation’s wealthy elite, were determined and quickly overwhelmed him.
Trujillo, also known as El Jefe (The Boss), had presided over a murderous regime for 30 years between 1930 and 1961.
His political weapons were torture and murder.
Several thousand Haitians, for instance, were massacred in 1937 on his say so.
But as history shows, there is only so much the people will take.
His killers blocked his car with theirs and a fierce gun battle ensued.
The armed chauffeur let loose with a volley of shots and Trujillo, despite being hit, carried on firing back.
They were eventually overpowered - the car was left with 60 bullet holes in it - and left lying dead on the road.
AND THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY...JOSEPH STALINThe Russian ruler died in his bed at home near Moscow on March 5, 1953, at the age of 74. He suffered a stroke and had spent four days bedridden before passing away.
Through purges, famine and gulags he is estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of over 20million. Some historians have suggested he could be responsible for over 60million deaths.
The reality - with so few records kept - is no one knows how much damage this dictator truly inflicted on his people.
It is thought that around 14.5million needlessly starved to death and 9.5million were executed in cold blood for opposing his politics.
Stalin was such a ruthless dictator that all of his enemies were murdered. Throughout the 1930s the 'enemies of the people' were murdered - with thousands executed. The purges weakened the army heading into World War II.
The murder of Sergey Kirov, Stalin's rival, in 1934 was the pretext for the fierce repression of Stalin's enemies.
As he grew old, Stalin became increasingly paranoid but he was never himself the victim of the tough 'justice' he meted out.
