The level of hatred a villain can achieve is entirely reliant upon the writer who created them.
It's difficult to create a character that is hated, namely because most of the time the author relies on the hatred of the main character to reflect on the reader. Getting a reader to hate a character means the author would have to have the villain do something that emotionally affects said reader, which is nearly impossible given the wide range of morals and how severe people react to them. For instance, I read murder mystery novels at a rather frightening rate. This means that I really don't care how the serial killer guts his victims, I'm in it for the "whodunnit?"
This is because I place very little value in imaginary murder. Now, you show me a scene of a guy strangling an imaginary kitten, and I'll howl for imaginary blood. It's all about what affects the reader.
One thing that I would recommend is having them kill a character the audience has come to love. That is the easiest way to get the audience to hate your villain. However, that is another set of problems entirely.
Be careful with this tactic, however. I have actually thrown books away because the author killed off my favorite character. To this day, I refuse to read anything by Karin Slaughter because of the mailbox incident in Skin Privilege/Beyond Reach.
... Just remembering that makes me angry. So, yeah, have the villain kill off an audience favorite, and (s)he'll be hated. I have to go sulk.