Hey now. In all seriousness, Tesla rocked. The guy had a whole slew of inventions that no one really saw the value of until more than fifty years after he died (and in some cases, close to 100 years after they were invented) - not the least of which were AC induction motors (which lead to modern day power generators), precursors to the X-ray machine, radio communication devices, remote control systems, wireless electrical transmission (Which modern science is only now figuring out how to duplicate) and, probably most importantly to the everyday person, rechargeable batteries. Plus, he was nuts enough to not only design a death ray, but _call_ the damn thing a death ray.
Mad scientist? Yes, have some.