I began my research with a domestic murder mindset. During my research I found the domestic cases a lot more appealing than murders that resulted from riots or race. For class last week, we read “I loved Joe, but I had to Shoot Him” which definitely confirmed my interest in the topic. During class, however, we discussed how the motive of a wife murdering her husband was different based on their race. This thought led me to want to study a compare and contrast of a woman's race and murder motive. Then, I thought about returning to the case of “1912 Husband Set on Fire,” but found that “1889: Murder- Suicide” was the better choice.
I would like to research different domestic murders that resulted in the murderer killing themselves or attempting
In Richard Wunderli’s Book Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen, Wunderli presents idea of “Enchanted Time.” The idea of “Enchanted Time” centers on Holy Days such as Advent, Carnival, Lent, Easter, and Walpurgisnacht where men and women could worship and celebrate their religion, as well as, feel closer to God, the angels, and the saints who resided in the “powerful realm.” Hand Behem and all other Europeans believed in this separation of realms, and in Peasant Fires Behem and the other peasants used these enchanted times to “make an appeal to supernatural forces to find justice for their discontent and meaning for their misery.” (Wunderli) Through the dissection and summation of Lent and Walpurgisnacht the concept of “Enchanted Time”
On May 7th 2000, fifteen year old Brenton Butler was accused of the murder of Mary Ann Stephens, who had been fatally shot in the head while walking down a breezeway of a hotel with her husband. Two and a half hours later, Butler is seen walking a mile away from where the incident occurred, and is picked up by the police because he fit the description of the individual who shot Mary Ann Stephens. However, the only characteristic of the description that Butler featured was the color of his skin. Police then brought Butler to the scene of the crime in order for Mary Ann Stephens’s husband, James Stephens, to confirm whether or not Butler was the individual who had shot his wife. Almost immediately, Stephens identifies Butler as his wife’s killer.
Four black sharecroppers (Roger Malcom, Dorothy Malcom, George Dorsey and Mae Murray Dorsey) are brutally murdered by a group of white people. The murders attracted national attention, but the community was not willing to get involved. The community was not fazed by these brutal murders but, by the fact that this incident got national attention. They were even more astounded that the rest of the nation even cared. In this book Laura Wexler shows just how deep racism goes. After reading the book I discovered that Fire in a Canebrake has three major themes involving racism. The first is that racism obstructs progression. The second is history repeats itself. The last theme is that racism can obscure the truth. This lynching, in particular, marks a turning point in the history of race relations and the governments’ involvement in civil rights. In the end this case still remains unsolved. No concept of the
Bowers, W, Pierce, G., and McDevitt, J.(1984), Legal Homicide: Death as Punishment in America, 1964-1982, 333
These two men, both coming from different backgrounds, joined together and carried out a terrible choice that rendered consequences far worse than they imagined. Living under abuse, Perry Smith never obtained the necessary integrity to be able to pause and consider how his actions might affect other people. He matured into a man who acts before he thinks, all due to the suffering he endured as a child. Exposed to a violent father who did not instill basic teachings of life, Smith knew nothing but anger and misconduct as a means of responding to the world. He knew no other life. Without exposure to proper behavior or responsible conduct, he turned into a monster capable of killing an entire family without a blink of remorse. In the heat of the moment, Perry Smith slaughtered the Clutter family and barely stopped to take a breath. What could drive a man to do this in such cold blood? The answer lies within his upbringing, and how his childhood experiences shaped him to become the murderer of a small family in Holcomb, Kansas. ¨The hypothesis of unconscious motivation explains why the murderers perceived innocuous and relatively unknown victims as provocative and thereby suitable targets for aggression.¨ (Capote 191). ¨But it is Dr. Statten´s contention that only the first murder matters psychologically, and that when
The books Stuart: A Life Backwards and Once in a House on Fire have many similarities both of the books are non-fiction and they share similar themes such as poverty and abuse which I have choose to look at closely with a focus on how these themes are narrated. The narration in the two books are completely different, Stuart: A Life Backwards has a third person narration which is done by Alexander Masters and all the memories are recalled by Stuart Shorter, while Once in a House on Fire is first person narration where Andrea Ashworth recalls her own memories of her life. However, there are differences between the two books for example the language used to tell the stories.
In 1989 there was an appalling(or shocking) case where a man and a woman had both been killed. The man had been shot in the back of the head, and in several other places, including the kneecap, the woman was shot in the leg, the arm several times and the kneecaps as well to make it seem as if it were an organized crime. Later the
242) due to the fact that females can kill without anyone being aware of their activities and therefore without anyone stopping them (Schurman, 2000, p. 13).Therefore, we should still have a considerable bulk of research directed toward these women in order for the criminal justice system to effectively catch these offenders, rehabilitate, and prevent increasing numbers of female serial killers. So why has there been a lack of research on female serial killers when there has been enough of them throughout history to justify inquiry and analysis? This is because woman’s tactics and victim choices often effectively conceal their crime to look like natural or accidental death, while society is simultaneously mislead to think women cannot be serial killers because of culturally defined gender
Macleod, M. "Killer Couples." Gerald & Charlene Gallego — Crime Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 27
McCrary, G. (2014, April 13). Profiling JonBenét Ramsey's Murder. Crime library. Retrieved , from http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/jonbenet_profiled/16.html
Davies, K. (2008). The Murder Book: Examining Homicide. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Racism Review: Scholarship and activism toward racial justice. (2010). Race and the Death Penatly 2: Black defendants, White Victims . Retrieved from Racism Review: Scholarship and activism toward racial justice : http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2010/04/17/race-and-the-death-penalty-ii-black-defendants-white-victims/
Throughout recorded history, fires have been known to cause great loss of life, property, and knowledge. The Great Fire of London was easily one of the worst fires mankind has ever seen causing large scale destruction and terror. Samuel Pepys described the fire as “A most malicious bloody flame, as one entire arch of fire of above a mile long… the churches, houses and all on fire and flaming at once, and a horrid noise the flames made.” (Britain Express 1).
The topic I chose for my research paper is serial killers. More specifically, are serial killers born or made? I believe serial killers are made. A serial killer is a person who commits a series of murders, often with no apparent motive and typically following a characteristic, predictable behavior pattern. Most cases of serial killers are form those who were born in a domestic abuse situation. However, there are plenty of cases of serial killers who lived in a healthy, loving, and stable home.
Most are committed by man and are in the community of domestic violence cases. It could be the case of a husband who kills his wife, or girlfriend or lover. Suicides in the other hand are a smaller fraction of homicides over all. In any case they differ in signifficant ways from domestic crimes. In such cases depresion seams to play a signifficant role, 17 out of 18 perpetrators meat the diagnostic for a major depresion or some form of mental illnes. Some studies have shown that a mojority of killers abused alchohol or drugs. This murders can be saied that most of the times are impulsive, and they are commited in a stage of rage or jealousy mostly enable by the presence of a fire arm close by. In contrast to this massmurders plan thei crimes carfully they wait for the right oportunity to straik or act. In wich case they involbe a lot of inocent pople in their