Motives for Murder

[Kimster]

If we document some of the motives that people have murdered, perhaps it can help us figure out our unsolved cases.

Money
Revenge
Jealousy
Control

What else have you seen as a motive in crime cases? Why do kids murder their parents? Why do parents murder their children?

This thread is for motive discussions.

 

[marycarney]

To cover something else up.

 

[Trident]

Well, the case that always numbs my skull is the one where the lady came home to find 4 dead men in her abode. The first two had been working on alterations when she left. Apparently she didn't know the other 2.

It seems her ex-hubby, LOL, ex-hubby,how obvious, didn't care to share his money with his ex-wife and hired someone to murder her. The hired help passed the job along to someone else, who may have hired someone else, all I remember is $500 being the final price. At any rate, the obviously not-too-bright "hitman" went to the home and killed the two workmen. Then he waited for his targeted victim. Methinks he should have asked for more money at that point, but, like I said, I don't believe he was the brightest light on the tree.

Then, while waiting for said ex-wife to come home someone else showed up at the door. Oh, dear, what to do? Kill him - which hitman promptly did. Oh, God, someone else showed up at the door. Is this a public thoroughfare? Well, hitman isn't going to quit now, so down goes victim #4.

The only person who survived this carnage was the intended victim, the ex-wife. The idiotic hitman got caught, he ratted out the guy who hired him who, in turn, ratted out..and so on until ex-hubby was caught.

So, I believe it goes to show sometimes there just isn't any way in 'ell anyone can really understand what happened right off the bat, no clear motive; it takes digging and digging, to find out why. Yes, we can say the motive was money, but if the other bodies were looked at, there really wasn't a motive.

Can you imagine coming home to 4 dead men in your house?

 

[gngr~snap]

IMO- it all boils down to CONTROL.
jealousy is inability to control someone elses
heart
Money is not having acess to or enough of it. Unable to have control of it.
Anger IMO those who anger you control you. so to speak. kill them thus the anger is gone and control is regained....

Even the moisy wife that kills her abusive hubby... somewhere along the line she lost control, allowed herseld to be controlled... cam control him, how he abuses her or children.
Self defense.... is just that right? motive is a moot point.
MOO

 

[Skully]

What a great topic and thread! Thank you Kimster.

Revenge comes to mind, as does just prejudice against a class, race, or gender.

Greed, ambition, lust, jealousy, and of course, mental or emotional problems.

 

[DreamyEye]

While it's sometimes just an excuse, I do think that sometimes mental illness is at the root of it. 'the voices made me do it.'

Northwest serial killers Gary Ridgeway (Green River) and Robert Yates (Spokane) both claimed to have killed prostitutes simply so they didn't have to pay for the sex that had been provided. What would you call that? judgement? contempt? entitlement?

 

[passionflower]

I looked this up........interesting
- jealousy
- anger
- feeling incompetent
- fear (justified or not)
- betrayal (doesn't necessarily have to lead to anger, think for example about criminal organisations, one doesn't need anger to find it necessary to eliminate someone for having betrayed the organisation)
- money
- panic
- power
- lust (sexual sadism)
- revenge/feeling of justice
- religious madness (not only think about terrorists or war, also think of serial killers who think they kill for god, or cults who kill for religious reasons)
- honor (to save for example one's family from shame, also used in criminal organisations)
- mercy (in one's mind, sometimes taking a life can seem like an act of mercy, for instance when someone is very ill)
- lonelyness (think for example of killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen.. they killed for company)

fantasy, shut someone up, plain old fun, entertainment JMOO
Read more: What are some motives for murder? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2062695#ixzz1DQAEE9Ms

 

[DreamyEye]

I looked this up........interesting
- jealousy
- anger
- feeling incompetent
- fear (justified or not)
- betrayal (doesn't necessarily have to lead to anger, think for example about criminal organisations, one doesn't need anger to find it necessary to eliminate someone for having betrayed the organisation)
- money
- panic
- power
- lust (sexual sadism)
- revenge/feeling of justice
- religious madness (not only think about terrorists or war, also think of serial killers who think they kill for god, or cults who kill for religious reasons)
- honor (to save for example one's family from shame, also used in criminal organisations)
- mercy (in one's mind, sometimes taking a life can seem like an act of mercy, for instance when someone is very ill)
- lonelyness (think for example of killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen.. they killed for company)

fantasy, shut someone up, plain old fun, entertainment JMOO
Read more: What are some motives for murder? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2062695#ixzz1DQAEE9Ms

Wow, that's pretty comprehensive!

 

[LiveLaughLuv]

Killed for insurance money
Not only is it a horrific crime, it's insurance fraud. And not being convicted (or even charged) in a death does not necessarily mean a beneficiary can collect.


It's a timeworn plot twist in movies: A wealthy family patriarch is killed and the killer turns out to be the spouse, offspring or business partner -- who just happens to be the beneficiary of the departed's enormous life insurance policy!

And if you watch true-crime TV shows, you know this scheme plays out in real life. Consider:

•An Indiana vacuum cleaner salesman was killed by a gunshot to the head in 2003 and his wife, the beneficiary of two life insurance policies worth a total of $1 million, was convicted in 2009 in connection with his death.

•In 2010, a Missouri woman went to prison after hiring two men to kill her husband so she could collect his life insurance benefits.

•In Washington state, a man was found guilty in 2010 of second-degree murder in the 2003 drowning death of his 3-year-old stepdaughter in what authorities said was an effort to collect a $200,000 life insurance benefit he had taken out on the girl.

Although murder-for-life-insurance plots in movies typically end with the culprit being marched off to prison, real-life incidents are not often black and white. Life insurance beneficiaries can remain suspects in killings for years without collecting death benefits, and life insurance companies, left wondering who should get the payout, often wind up seeking answers in court.

more
http://money.msn.com/health-and-life-insurance/killed-for-insurance-money-insure.aspx?GT1=33004

 

[tlcya]

Thrill Killing

This one seems to be coming up more recently or maybe we just hear about it more now in the instant news world we live in.

Example the case of Elizabeth Olten, murdered by her neighbor who was her little friend's older sister. The reason - She wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. It was preplanned, the disposal site prepicked.

 

[OldSteve]

A bit off topic since this is more of a red-flag than a motive, but it seems every time I see a crime or missing person show in which the husband is about to be divorced and he is going to fight for custody of the children, then it turns out that he is guilty of doing his wife in...
So the combination of divorce + husband fighting for custody is a big red flag against the husband. IMO.

 

[MechaFlynn]

How about joy killings? They kill people just because they enjoy it? I think that's the worst type of motive out there.

 

[OldSteve]

Criminally insane, including stalkers – watching the “Stalking” series on ID channel, and of how nuts stalkers are – they seem unable to be rehabilitated. .

 

[MLE]

One guy, I think it may have been Richard Kuklinski, killed a total stranger with a crossbow just to test out his new crossbow.

I read on crimelibrary.com or somewhere about one guy who would abduct women and fly them up to Alaska in his private aircraft, and then hunt them down for sport just as casually as Sarah Palin might would hunt a caribou up there.

This wouldn't apply to murders in the USA these days, but I read a book about the Siege of Leningrad, where over a million Russians starved to death, mostly in the first few months after the Germans cut off the city from the rest of the world in September 1941. Even by November 1941, the food situation was so dire that it was unsafe for parents to allow their children out alone because they would get abducted and cannibalized. Strong groups would overpower the weak and eat them or sell their meat at the markets. People murdered other people for their ration cards since the normal rations were too low for most people already.

 

[Bensgal]

Richard Kuklinski was a hired hitman for the mafia. I read his biography. He murdered people using various grotesque methods.

The method of killing for the man in Alaska was based upon the short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." My older daughter was assigned that story to read in her high school Literature class. I thought this was very inappropriate for that age group but my complaint fell on deaf ears.

 

[Bluegrass]

Self-defense.

Although it could be argued that that is not murder, per se.

 

[Silkprint]

Sex?
I know sometimes rapes turn into homicide .
This is an awesome thread .
I know women commit murders ...but it's only something like 11% of homicides

Does anyone think testosterone has something to do with it?

 

[yllek]

Narcissism and selfishness seem to motivate many of the murderers who kill their own family members. These murderers don't necessarily have a financial motive, not necessarily driven by hate or jealousy, no sexual component. These are the ones that disturb me the most. People who just off a spouse and/or child because the victim is simply (and often unknowingly) in the murderer's way of being free, single, able to pursue someone/something else. Just a few examples, imo:

Scott Peterson
Dianne Downs
Susan Smith
Casey Anthony (not yet proven guilty)
Billie Dunn (not yet named a suspect)
Matt Baker

 

[JBounds]

Freedom - Casey Anthony(not convicted yet) and Scott Peterson.

For the love of another person - Susan Smith. Her motive was so she could be with another man and he didn't want kids. Pretty darn sick and sadistic. i'm sure there are other's that have done for this reason too.

 

[HMSHood]

I looked this up........interesting
- jealousy
- anger
- feeling incompetent
- fear (justified or not)
- betrayal (doesn't necessarily have to lead to anger, think for example about criminal organisations, one doesn't need anger to find it necessary to eliminate someone for having betrayed the organisation)
- money
- panic
- power
- lust (sexual sadism)
- revenge/feeling of justice
- religious madness (not only think about terrorists or war, also think of serial killers who think they kill for god, or cults who kill for religious reasons)
- honor (to save for example one's family from shame, also used in criminal organisations)
- mercy (in one's mind, sometimes taking a life can seem like an act of mercy, for instance when someone is very ill)
- lonelyness (think for example of killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen.. they killed for company)

fantasy, shut someone up, plain old fun, entertainment JMOO
Read more: What are some motives for murder? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2062695#ixzz1DQAEE9Ms

Amen to that! Here are examples of them. If you don't mind. There are some overlaps.

Jealousy-Gertrude Baniszewski, Lori Drew, South Hadley 6
Anger-Betty Broderick, Seung-Hui Cho, Colin Ferguson
Feeling incompetent-Lori Drew, Wanda Holloway, Gertrude Baniszewski, South Hadley 6, Seung-Hui Cho, Donald "Pee Wee" Gaskins
Fear-Charles Whitman, Lori Drew
Betrayal-Betty Broderick
Money-Betty Broderick
Panic-?
Power-Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, Seung-Hui Cho, South Hadley 6, Osama bin Laden, Jim Jones
Lust (sexual sadism)-Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Ng and Leonard Lake
Revenge/Feeling of Justice-Lori Drew, Colin Ferguson, Seung-Hui Cho, Timothy McVeigh, Osama bin Laden, Anders Breivik
Religious Madness-Osama bin Laden, Gertrude Baniszewski, Charles Manson, Jim Jones, Angel Maturino Reséndiz
Honor-Richard Kuklinski, Giuseppe Greco
Mercy-Kristen Gilbert, Beverley Allitt
Loneliness-Jeffrey Dahmer, Dennis Nilsen
Freedom-Casey Anthony, Scott Peterson, Diane Downs, Susan Smith