The fictional universe of The Vampire Diaries is a very dog-eat-dog world where survival is the main objective, so it's no surprise that most of the characters on the show have at least one or two corpses that they've left in their wake over the course of the series. But obviously, there is a spectrum, from the characters who have done the least damage to those who have done the most, and Damon Salvatore is undoubtedly one of the major players who has wreaked the most havoc.
Damon is arguably the most violent and unpredictable member of the Mystic Falls gang, and he seems to be doing something unforgivably horrible every other episode. But of course, there are things that he has done that stick out as the worst of the worst.
Updated December 19, 2021 by Hilary Elizabeth: Although The Vampire Diaries has come to an end, unfortunately, the laundry list of Damon's crimes is pretty long, from abusive behavior to his many, many murders.
Covering For Vampires In 1864
Clearly, Damon would have done anything for Katherine's sake, and there is something admirable in the intensity of his love. But the fact that he concealed Mystic Falls' infestation of vampires in 1864 was ultimately pretty questionable.
Yes, no one deserves to die purely because they're a vampire, but these vampires posed an enormous threat to the human population, and many of them had no problem with killing people whenever they wanted to. Damon keeping their secret resulted in a lot of violence and suffering.
Turning Bonnie's Mom
When Klaus Mikaelson arrived in town it's safe to say that everyone in the Mystic Falls gang was stuck under his thumb — which makes Damon's choice to turn Abby Bennett into a vampire in order to break the Bennett witch bloodline understandable, even if it's not acceptable.
Bonnie has always shown herself to be a team player when it comes to protecting her friends, so it's incredibly unfair that she always seems to be getting the short end of the stick. And while Bonnie and Abby weren't close, this wasn't a burden that Bonnie or her mom really should have had to bear.
Attacking Bonnie
Bonnie and Damon actually wound up becoming one of the best friendships in The Vampire Diaries, but it was quite a rocky road for the two of them to evolve into anything other than enemies.
There were plenty of instances where Damon treated Bonnie terribly, but in one particularly cruel moment, he attacked her for something she ultimately had no control over. Emily possessed Bonnie's body in season 1 of the series, and when Emily relinquished her possession, Damon nearly killed Bonnie in retaliation despite the fact that Bonnie had nothing to do with what had just happened.
Snapping Jeremy's Neck
This could have been a catastrophically bad incident, but the very fact that Jeremy survived meant that Damon got somewhat of a pass on something that should have ended his relationship with Elena and the rest of the Mystic Falls squad for good.
It's normal that Damon took it badly when the two doppelganger women he was obsessed with rejected him. But possibly turning Jeremy into a vampire, or even worse, actually killing him for good, is an absolutely unacceptable reaction to rejection. Damon has always been problematic when it comes to romantic relationships, but killing Jeremy in front of Elena because she made him upset is so far beyond crossing the line.
Killing Bree
In fairness to Damon, Bree did initially betray him and tip off Lexi's brokenhearted boyfriend Lee that Damon had come to her bar, so the vampire's response to that duplicity wasn't entirely surprising.
However, the fact that Damon killed his ex-girlfriend so emotionlessly was shocking, and it was especially off-putting because Elena had just begged for Damon's life to be spared. Lee's decision to be kind in Lexi's honor was repaid by Damon ruthlessly ripping Bree's heart out, reminding everyone just how villainous he truly was.
Ignoring Elena's Choices
Elena is clearly Damon's epic love, but because he's incapable of coping with his emotional ups and downs in a remotely reasonable way, he doesn't handle any bumps in the road of their relationship very well. And it's understandable that Damon is very attached to Elena and wants to make sure she gets what he thinks she deserves, but it's not okay that he ignores or goes against her choices so often.
As an example, when she was preparing to die in Klaus' sacrifice, he really had no right to force his blood on her and ensure her survival without even accepting her input into the situation and without considering whether or not she wanted to be a vampire.
Killing Maggie
In Damon's defense, he had absolutely no idea who Maggie was, let alone that she was the great love of Enzo's life (until he met Bonnie, anyway). And given that Maggie believed Damon had let Enzo die while Damon had an ax to grind with anyone connected to the Augustines, their meeting was bound to go badly.
But that doesn't negate the fact that in the end, Damon very brutally killed the woman that Enzo loved.
Abusing Caroline
In the early seasons of The Vampire Diaries, Damon was unequivocally the villain of the story. But obviously, that doesn't excuse or explain any of his abhorrent behaviors. And one of his absolute worst and grossest moves was compelling Caroline to basically be his slave. He used and abused her for whatever he needed, and he couldn't even be bothered to treat her with some basic human decency.
And of course, after it was all over, he never even acknowledged how monstrous he'd been towards her. Although Caroline more than proved her strength he hardly ever showed her even a shred of the respect that she deserved.
"Dating" Andie Star
Damon's manipulation of Caroline was repulsive enough, but to add insult to injury, he did essentially the same thing to Andie Star just a little while later.
Although Andie wasn't quite as terrified of Damon as Caroline was, and despite the fact that Damon didn't treat her quite as terribly, the fact remains that Damon was basically forcing Andie into a relationship for his own convenience. Fans grew to love Damon because of how he treated the people that he loved, but Andie was a stark reminder of how cruel he could be towards those he didn't care about.
Killing Uncle Zach
Damon obviously has a tendency to treat everyone around him terribly at one time or another, but Zach Salvatore really didn't deserve even one percent of the torment that Damon subjected him to. Their history is dark, but Damon ultimately killed his "uncle" because he saw him as a minor inconvenience.
Zach was one of the few humans in Mystic Falls who had the courage to stand up to Damon, but he actually seemed willing to live and let live so long as Damon didn't start hurting people. However, Damon was clearly unwilling to comply.
Killing A Pregnant Woman
A few years before Damon came back and set up house in Mystic Falls for good, he made a return visit. Zach Salvatore had a girlfriend who was pregnant with their daughter at the time, and because Damon is Damon, he killed Zach's girlfriend and nearly killed their unborn child (but Stefan intervened and managed to save the baby).
Stefan compelled away Zach's memories of his girlfriend and child, but the very fact that Damon could do such a thing to anyone, let alone someone in his family, is absolutely horrifying.
Killing Aaron Whitmore
Any time his relationships with Elena or Katherine are on the rocks, Damon lets go of his pesky humanity, and there are always at least one or two dead bodies left in his wake as a result. And it's not that shocking that Damon decided to shore up his relationship with Enzo by tag-teaming Aaron Whitmore's death, but it's gross that he used Elena's rejection as an excuse to be a monster again.
Despite his relation to the Whitmore family, Aaron was an innocent bystander to all of the Augustine shenanigans, and Damon solely killed him because he knew that it would hurt Elena.
Killing Vicki
Damon's on-screen body count is high enough that it's difficult to keep track of now, but Vicki Donovan was unforgettably his first major on-screen kill.
Granted he only turned her into a vampire (which is still terrible, but relative to Damon's typical behavior it's not the worst thing he's ever done), but it ultimately resulted in her death and was just the first in a long line of Damon-induced deaths that wounded Elena and the rest of the Mystic Falls gang. And he turned Vicki because he thought her human life was pathetic and because he was bored, which obviously aren't reasonable excuses.
Killing Lexi
Damon and Stefan have both been absolutely monstrous towards each other at different times on The Vampire Diaries, but Damon always manages to cut Stefan just a little bit deeper than the other way around. And the saddest, cruelest thing that Damon ever did to Stefan was undoubtedly murdering his best friend Lexi.
Damon tries to reason away his actions by saying that killing Lexi was the easiest way to throw the Founder's Council off the scent of Stefan and Damon, but it was clearly a personal move. Robbing Stefan of one of the people he loved most seemed to give him the kind of brutal thrill that only someone like Damon would enjoy.
Leaving Enzo
Damon Salvatore has undoubtedly done hundreds of terrible things in his lifetime, and he could at least take some small comfort in the fact that Enzo wound up surviving, but his worst and the most unconscionable move was leaving Enzo to die in the fire that consumed the rest of the Augustines.
Stefan and Elena were always the most important people in Damon's life, but Enzo was probably close to being on their level, so leaving him to die so he could save himself is a moral and personal transgression that even someone as casually evil as Damon would see as unforgivable.