What are some historical real world examples of a objectively good end justifying a terrible means? For "historical," we should probably look back to pre-WWII history.
Bullgrit
I know of a case of a woman who was abused by her husband. Over time, he got into kiddie porn, Nazi memoribilia, and ultra-faschist websites.
She finally reached her breaking point and was contemplating suicide, weapon in hand. But then wondered who would protect her daughter. So she sent her kid next door to the neighbors, and after that, shot her husband and called the cops, confessing.
The police, during the sweep, found not only the kiddie porn and Nazi stuff, but a nearly completed dirty bomb (radiological) and a travel itinerary for his impending trip to Washington for Obama's initial presidential inauguration.
She was tried, convicted of murder, and given an 8 year probated sentence.
If her husband was into kiddie porn, then she had legal ammunition to just call the cops, and she would have achieved the same outcome without committing murder herself.
Though I'm a fan of civilians shooting bad guys early and often, I still generally feel that the situation needs to be one where the cops would be unable to help before resorting to shooting bad guys. At least she basically got off. I applaud the part of the justice system recognizing her situation.
One could argue also that allowing civilians and soldiers to die in order to keep the Nazis from realizing we had broken their codes until it was too late is another example.
Oh, I agree that calling the cops may have yielded similar results. I am foggy, however, on the details of the case in the sense of timing. As in, I don't know if the police would have arrived in time to prevent her husband's bombing plan.
And that's assuming she had knowledge of the kiddie porn in the first place.