Move over, Underwear Bomber: Top 5 worst nicknames of all time

GlobalPost

The Underwear Bomber, AKA Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, received a life sentence on Thursday for trying to blow up a plane with a bomb that was sewn into his underwear. He also has one of the worst criminal nicknames of all time. 

More from GlobalPost: 'Underwear bomber,' Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab gets life sentence (VIDEO)

But Abdulmutallab is not the first news maker to be stuck with an embarrassing moniker. Here, we rounded up some of the worst nicknames ever given to news-making criminals and politicians. Did they deserve them? 

5. Barefoot Bandit 

Colton Harris-Moore, the 20-year-old serial burglar who escaped from a juvenile detention facility and went on a two-year spree of stealing cars, boats and planes across nine states, got his nickname from often being spotted shoeless, Reuters reported. The teenage runaway is currently serving 6.5 years in prison.  

4. Sneezing Sex Bandit 

In 2009, an elderly man from Hopkins County, Texas, was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault after he allegedly attacked a female store clerk by "blowing a powdery substance in her face in an attempt to become aroused," the Herald Banner reported. Naturally, "Sneezing Sex Bandit" was the only reasonable thing to call him. 

3. Paddy Pantsdown

When Britain's Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown had an affair with a secretary in 1992, The Sun coined this nickname in their splashy headlines, and the name stuck, according to the Huffington Post UK (who have put together an impressive round-up of other hilarious political nicknames, in addition to Ashdown's). Though "Paddy Pantsdown" does have a certain alliterative ring to it. 

2. Unabomber

For over 17 years, an elusive criminal killed three people and injured 23 more by setting off homemade bombs. The FBI called Theodore Kaczynski the “Unabomber” as shorthand for his early targets, universities and airlines, according to the Newseum. He was arrested in the woods of Montana in 1996. 

1. Turd Blossom  

Former President George W. Bush was a notorious nicknamer, and called his chief political advisor Karl Rove "Turd Blossom" on his bad days, The Guardian reported in an early profile of Rove. He did also earn the nickname "Boy Genius" from Bush, which is a nice trade-off. The name is a Texan expression for a flower which blooms out of a pile of cow dung.

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