Sondini's Gym Massacre

On August 4, 2009, George Sodini, age 48, entered a gym of the LA fitness branch in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with four handguns hidden inside a black dufflebag. He entered the gym and headed straight towards the dance aerobics class that was taking place that night. Once inside the room, he opened fire, striking and killing three females and injuring nine others. This included the dance aerobic instructor who was pregnant and the time and was left in critical condition. Sondini used three of the four handguns he brought with him. Under George Sodini’s name the police found an internet blog were Sondini was releasing his deepest and darkest feelings, including the plot of the gym massacre. In the blog, he stated that he hated all women because

he was constantly rejected by them and that he hasn’t had any physical intimacy in 20 years. He also stated that he attempted to shoot the gym up before but was unsuccessful purely because he got cold feet and could not do it. After murdering the women, Sodini turned the gun on himself and shot himself. In his blog he listed his date of death August 4, 2009, before the incident even occurred. His blog was formed over a period of nine months.

Social control theory relates to Sodini actions because he was not attached to his community. He didn’t have many relationships friends wise and didn’t have many intimate relationships. He stated in his online blog that he did not have an intimate partner for 20 years prior to committing his hideous crime. He didn’t know how to interact with people and this caused him to feel left out and rejected. After so many attempts of trying to build relationships and being shut out every time he tried, he finally lost control. Even his neighbors described him as a very antisocial man with not many ties to family and friends. As far as commitment goes, Sodini didn’t have success. In his blog he discusses that the fact that he could not acquire the goals he so desperately wanted to reach made him seem like a failure. He said that no matter how hard he tried to change his life, things would always stay the same. Sodini also didn’t have morality which influenced his actions. He didn’t have any morals or respect for women because he felt rejected by them. He felt ridiculed because females didn’t want to be in relationships with him. Sodini also was not involved in any community organizations or social clubs. He wasn’t apart of these types of events because he felt rejected from the world. He made so many attempts at building relationships that he realized that not even being involved in social events would help him.

On June 22nd, , John Sharpe killed his wife Anna who was five months pregnant with their soon to be son Francis and his twenty month old daughter Gracie, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Mornington.

Sharpe stuck his pregnant wife and daughter with a spear gun repeatedly and then continued to dismember his wife’s body parts and dump them into an empty land-fill. After claiming to the media and other sources that his wife was alive and well, that she simply left him for another man and moved in with him, police became suspicious. Sharpe was creating fake emails under Anna’s name and sending emails to her family reassuring her that she was alive and with her daughter. Anna’s parent’s became fully aware of foul-play because they knew it was unlike her to not call them on the phone and to sent emails instead. After being arrested for the murder of his wife and daughter, Sharpe admitted to his heinous acts. He said he did it because Anna was too needy and moody. He claimed that he wanted to end a “loveless” marriage. Sharpe had a fairly large family and that Anna stopped him from seeing them as often as he pleased. The prosecutor’s argument is that Shape murdered his pregnant wife and young daughter with a full state of mind. They believe he did it because he felt unloved by her which was not the case. They saw him as jealous of his daughter because the mother cared more for her than him. Meanwhile, the defense's argument is that Sharpe has social problems growing up. He never

realized how exactly to handle jealous and when he experienced it with his daughter, he lost control. Shape was the eldest son of six, and he was the most dependent on his parents and lacked psychological sources to handle stress. When Sharpe didn’t know how to handle the stress of his situation, he murdered his family because he didn’t know how to handle it otherwise. I overall agree with the prosecutor's argument. I believe this because Sharpe’s actions had nothing to do with mental illness. Articles state that Sharpe had planned this murder 9-months in advance. A mental ill person does not plan a murder and then have the capability to lie about it for 3 months. Three theories that attempt explain Sharpe’s behavior are the strain theory, social control theory, and the general strain theory. The strain theory relates to Sharpe’s behavior because the strain theory is the idea that crime is produced because people are unable to obtain their goals. This relates to Sharpe’s behavior because he was unable to meet his goal of the perfect family. He had high hopes to having the perfect loving family and when that failed for him he resulted in murder. As for the social control theory, it is the theory that everyone has the potential to be a criminal, yet people are controlled by the bonds they are held too in society. Sharpe held the bond of being a husband and father and when those bonds were broken he lashed out and murdered his family. He had expectations he wanted to meet and when he failed to meet them, it resulted to him spending his life in prison. Lastly, general strain theory relates to Sharpe’s behavior because this theory believes that people multiple sources of strain interact with a person’s emotions and that results in criminal behavior. This is very true in this case because Sharpe had many different things weighing on him such as losing his relationship with his wife and his daughter and he became so overwhelmed with stress that he snapped.

As for the second case, on July 15, 2008, Casey Anthony reported her two year old daughter, Caylee Anthony, missing.

In Orlando, Florida Caylee lived with her grandparents and her mom in her grandparent’s home. Caylee’s grandmother, Cindy, was the one who made the initial 9-1-1 call to report her missing after not seeing her granddaughter for an entire month. She then goes on to tell the 9-1-1 operator that her daughter Casey’s car smells as if a dead body had been inside the trunk. In October of 2008, Casey Anthony was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and six other charges which included manslaughter, lying to a detective, and child neglect, yet she pleaded not guilty. Cindy goes on to tell detectives that Casey told her many different stories to support Caylee’s whereabouts. One of the stories included that Caylee’s nanny had kidnapped her back in June and that Casey has been trying to get her back herself without involving the authorities. It was in December of 2008 that Caylee’s body was found, which was completely decomposed in skeleton form. The remains were found inside a black trash bag that had been duct taped and then wrapped in a blanket that was also duct taped in a wooded area by the grandparent’s home. Due to the decomposition of the body, the little girl’s death is considered unknown. The trial took place in May of 2011 and it was a six week trial. The prosecutor's argument is that Casey Anthony murdered her daughter by using chloroform and

using duct tape to suffocate the child. The defense's argument was that the little girl had drowned in the grandparent’s swimming pool by accident under the supervision of her grandfather. They then go on to say that George, Caylee’s grandfather, duct taped the little girl’s body and placed it in the woods to cover up her death. I agree with the prosecutor's argument in this case. I believe this because there was many forms of undeniable evidence that could have lead to Casey’s conviction. Her car reeked of a dead body and even had evidence of blood splatter in the trunk. There was also evidence of her going out and partying at nightclubs during the weeks of her daughter's disappearance and she still carried out this when she was under investigation. Three theories that attempt to explain Casey Anthony's behavior are the general strain theory, the social disorganization theory, and the cognitive theory. The general strain theory relates to this case because Casey Anthony was under stress of providing for her child and wanting to live the party life and she did not have the option to chose both. The social disorganization theory relates to this case because it’s the theory that crime happens in inner-city areas when bonds are broken such a family bonds and friends. This relates to the case because Casey Anthony didn’t want to lose her friends because she couldn’t go to the club with her friends anymore. So she got rid of her daughter with the means of going out and hanging out with her friends in the city. Lastly, cognitive theory relates to this case because it is the theory that focuses on the mental processes that a person perceive and represent the world around them and solve problems. This relates to this Casey’s case because she was peer-pressured into doing things she didn’t actually want to do. She didn’t want to psychologically kill her daughter but she wanted to do it so she can be free of any responsibility and live her life how she always wanted too.