While I like Speedmaster's suggestions, I think Richard Cantillon most deserves a place on the list. He arguably founded economics 40 years before Adam Smith with his Essai sur la Nature du Commerce(Smith even quotes his treatise in the Wealth of Nations). Cantillon made millions working as an advisor for the French government and speculating on the Mississippi Company. He is also the only well-known economist to be murdered. His disgruntled cook organized 5 other servants to kill and rob him, and then lit his London mansion on fire.