The Worst Crime Ever Committed In NCIS History

Naturally, for a show that has the word "criminal" right in the title, the team on CBS' hit crime procedural "NCIS" ("Naval Criminal Investigative Services") has witnessed some truly heinous acts in their capacity as investigators. Many of the crimes they've worked on are murders, while others are full-scale acts of terrorism by groups or even individuals acting alone. Some are motivated by greed or love (or both), while other lawbreakers want to further a political agenda. Ultimately, if the crime involves the Navy and Marine Corps, the "NCIS" squad will be at the scene to work out what happened.

With so many crimes big and small to choose from (to date, the series has aired over 400 episodes), it's difficult to pick the most dastardly case anyone on "NCIS" has had to solve or thwart. But this Season 9 episode, which also served as the season finale, features what is truly the worst crime anyone has perpetrated on the series to date.

A successful CEO and venture capitalist turned vengeful terrorist, Harper Dearing (Richard Schiff) acted against the United States Navy and NCIS after his son was killed in the line of duty. Harper first attacks several Navy ships, and then gets Navy psychologist Dr. Samantha Ryan's (Jamie Lee Curtis) violent ex-husband early parole so she'd go into hiding. Then he blows a cargo that ship Agent DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) is on, almost killing him. However, Dearing saves his best — or, in this case, the worst — for last.

In the Season 9 finale, "Till Death Do Us Part," Dearing uses the abduction of Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll) as a distraction to set up his real plan: blowing up the NCIS headquarters. He detonates the explosive with Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and his team still inside. This kills numerous bystanders, injures McGee (Sean Murray), and causes Ducky (David McCallum) to have a non-fatal heart attack in a final blow to the team.

Gibbs finally kills Reading in self-defense in the Season 10 premiere, ending his reign of terror. But by that point, the damage had been done. There have been some nasty villains on "NCIS," like Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin) or arms dealer René Benoit (Armand Assante), but no one ever pursued the total destruction of the Navy as ruthlessly as Harper Dearing.