Murder research paper - Grade: 100 PDF

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discusses all aspects of murder, including different types of killers, responses to murder, examples, etc...

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1 Running Head: Aspects of Murder

DiSabatino

Different Aspects of Murder Selena DiSabatino 5 December 2019 CCJ 3666

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Abstract This paper reviews all of the aspects of murder that were covered in regards to victimology. It discusses statistics of murder such as what percent of victims were male and female, percentages of different races that are involved in murder cases, as well as female victim statistics such as about thirty-three percent of female victims were killed by their husband or boyfriend, forty-two percent were murdered during arguments which were because of love triangles, and twenty three percent were killed after being raped, robbed, or in conjunction with another felony (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). This research paper also mentions the three factors that show victim participation in homicide and examples of each. These factors are as follows: The victim and the perpetrator have some sort of relationship, such as family members, lovers, or close acquaintances, the leadings up to the homicide involved a disagreement, argument or rivalry, and lastly, drugs or alcohol were involved when the killing took place (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). This paper also discusses some different types of homicides which include parricide, mass murder, spree murder, and serial murder. Serial murder typologies and grouping is also spoken about in this research paper. This includes groups to why serial killers kill their victims, as well as grouping into where they kill their victims. Lastly, vehicular homicide is briefly mentioned in this research paper, as well as how victims families react to the death of another from homicide.

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According to Wallace & Roberson (2015), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines murder, or homicide, as “the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another” (p. 103). Murder does not include accidents resulting in the death of another, suicide, negligence, justifiable homicide or attempted homicide. Wallace & Roberson (2015), state that there are about fourteen to fifteen thousand reported murder victims each year, and most of which are male at seventy-eight percent. Of those seventy-eight percent of victims, about fifty percent are black, forty-even percent are white, and the remaining percent are those of other races (p. 103). Many female victims have been murdered by someone they have had a romantic relationship with, whether that be there husband, boyfriend, or someone else they were romantically involved in. About thirty-three percent of female victims were killed by their husband or boyfriend, forty-two percent were murdered during arguments which were because of love triangles, and twenty three percent were killed after being raped, robbed, or in conjunction with another felony (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). In regards to murder offenders, about fifty-four percent were black, forty-four percent were white, and two percent were other races (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). Murder weapons can include anything that can kill another. About seventy-three percent of murders involved the use of firearms, and eighty-eight percent of homicides involved the use of handguns (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). These are extremely large statistics and proves that guns are the most often use of force when committing murder, but there are many other items that are used to kill others, such as ropes in cases of strangulation, knives in stabbings, and even poison. There are three factors that show victim participation in homicide. These factors include: the victim and the perpetrator have some sort of relationship, such as family members, lovers, or

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close acquaintances, the leadings up to the homicide involved a disagreement, argument or rivalry, and lastly, drugs or alcohol were involved when the killing took place (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). One case were the killer was related to her victims was the Andrea Yates case. Andrea Yates was born on July 2nd, 1964 in Houston, Texas and was raised here by parents Jutta Karin Koehler and Andrew Emmett Kennedy. Later in her life, Andrea attended the University of Houston to complete a two-year pre-nursing program, then later graduated from the University Of Texas School Of Nursing in Houston in 1986. After graduating from the University Of Texas School Of Nursing in Houston in 1986, Andrea then worked at the University Of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center from 1986 to 1994 as a registered nurse (Montaldo, 2019, para. 02). Andrea met Rusty Yates at an apartment complex in which they both lived at when they were both 25. Andrea had never dated anyone before the age of 23, and was first uninterested in Rusty. Andrea soon began to fall for Rusty, which eventually led to a relationship. After moving in together and living with one another for some time, they then got married on April 17th, 1993. Not even one year after their wedding anniversary, Andrea had her first child, Noah. Noah was born on February 26th, 1994. Following these years, Andrea went on to have four more children: John (December 15th, 1995), Paul (September 13th, 1997), Luke (February 15th, 1999), and Mary (November 30th, 2000). After Rusty had gotten a job offer in Seminole, Florida, the family left their hometown and traveled to their new home in the Sunshine State in 1996. While living in Seminole, Florida, the family lived in a 38 square foot travel trailer for a year. The Yates family moved back to Houston in 1997, which is when they met Michael Woroniecki. Michael was a traveling minister whose religious views influenced both Andrea and Rusty. Michael preached that “a woman's role

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was derived from the sin of Eve and that bad mothers who are bound for hell create bad children who also go to hell” (Montaldo, 2019, para. 08). Michael Woroniecki had such a strong influence on Andrea, which was the cause of many serious and violent events that took place in the future. Andrea was treated with postpartum depression and Psychosis in 1999, which ran in Andreas’ family. After the birth of her fifth child, Mary, and the death of her father who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, Andrea went into a severe depression and was forcefully admitted to Devereux-Texas Treatment Network and prescribed a series of psychotropic drugs by Mohammed Saeed. Andrea was later sent back home to live with her five children and husband later that year, where she committed a terrible crime. On June 20th, 2001, Andrea had drowned and murdered her five children in their home bathtub while Rusty was at work. Andrea filled the bathtub with water and begin to drown each child, then laid each child on her bed after they had passed. She first began the drownings with Paul, and then continued to kill the next two youngest boys. She then drowned Mary, who she left floating face down in the tub. The only child left was Noah, her firstborn. He asked his mother what was wrong with Mary, and then tried to run but Andrea caught him. Andrea then drowned and murdered Noah right next to his dead sister, who was still in the bathtub. After murdering Noah, Andrea then laid Mary with her three other deceased brothers on the bed, and left Noah in the tub floating face down (Andrea Yates Documentary, 2018). Andrea called both her mother and rusty to come home, saying she had done something terrible. Andrea then notified authorities to report and confess to the homicide of her five children. When questioned, Andrea confessed to the murder of her five children and explained that she was a bad mother, her children were not developing correctly and that she needed to be punished for her actions (Montaldo, 2019, para. 17). Andrea also stated in her interrogation “If I

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didn’t kill them, they would continue stumbling and end up in hell” (Andrea Yates Documentary, 2018). Andreas’ trial lasted three weeks, and she was later found guilty for capital murder. Rather than being sentenced to the death penalty, Andrea was sentenced to life in prison. In January of 2005, a new trial was requested by psychiatrist Dr. Park Dietz. Dr Park Dietz stated that at the time of the murders, Andrea was in a psychotic state but knew right from wrong. This meant that she was not insane under Texas definition of legal insanity. On July 26th, 2006, Andrea Yates was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. Andrea now lives the rest of her life in Kerrville State Hospital in Kerrville, Texas. An example of a murder that took place after disagreements and rivalrys would be many cases involving the murderer Al Capone. Al “Scarface” Capone, the fourth of nine children, was born on January 17th 1899 within an immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York. Capone quit school in the sixth grade after striking one of his teachers. Al Capone worked a variety of different jobs such as working as a candy store clerk, a bowling alley pin-boy, a laborer in an ammunition plant, and a cutter in a book bindery (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Brittannica, para. 01). While working these jobs, Capone was part of two different “kid gangs”, which include the South Brooklyn Snipers and Forty Thieves Juniors. After working at those variety of different jobs, Capone went on to live the rest of his life involved in organized crime such as a well-known street gang member, as well as a member of the Mafia. In about 1920, Capone became an influential lieutenant in the Colosimo Mob. Capone was involved in many different forms of crime throughout his life, which include violent behavior towards others, murder, and tax evasion. One of Capone’s first murders was the murder of Joe Howard in 1924. Al Capone killed Howard after he assaulted one of Capone’s friends. Capone was never arrested or charged for this incident.

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Al Capone’s most well-known crime was his involvement in the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre which occurred on February 14th, 1929. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was the mass murder of a group of unarmed bootlegging gang members in Chicago. Al Capone and some of his other members disguised themselves as policemen in a garage at 2122 North Clark Street and shot these other bootlegging gang members in cold blood. According to Britannica (2019), the victims included Adam Heyer, Frank Gusenburg, Pete Gusenburg, John May, Al Weinshank, and James Clark. Another victim who was not involved in the gang that was killed included Dr. Reinhardt H. Schwimmer (para. 01). In 1931, Al Capone was arrested on twenty-two counts of tax evasion, which totaled to about $200,000. Capone was then arrested on October 17th, 1931 and then sentenced to eleven years in prison (Public Enemy 01, 2019, para. 15). Three years later, Capone was then moved from a prison in Atlanta to the infamous Alcatraz for seven years before his health declined rapidly. Al Capone later died from Pneumonia and a stroke on January 25th 1947 with his loving wife Mae by his side in their Palm Harbor, Florida home. Lastly, an example where alcohol was consumed by victims before being killed would be all of Gilbert Paul Jordan’s murders. Gilbert Paul Jordan was a serial killer in the late sixties to eighties. Known as the “Boozing Barber”, Gilbert would pay his victims to consume alcohol with them, and when his victims would pass out, Gilbert would continue to poor alcohol down their throats until they died. According to Murderpedia (2019), Gilbert was also the first Canadian to use alcohol as a murder weapon (para. 01). Gilbert was born in Vancouver, Canada on December 12th, 1931. By the age of sixteen, Gilbert had dropped out of high school and was a alcoholic, and by 1952, Gilbert had a criminal record that included theft, assault, car theft and heroin possession (Murderpedia, 2019, para. 21).

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Gilbert would drink over fifty ounces of vodka per day, and had a strong passion for drunken sex. Not surprisingly, many of Gilbert’s lovers were alcoholics themselves. “Sober people wouldn’t go out with me, so I didn’t have much of an option” stated Gilbert himself (Murderpedia, 2019, para. 22). Gilbert also stated that he had sex with an average of over twohundred women per year, and that he sought out prostitutes in the slums and dive bars in Vancouver (Murderpedia, 2019, para. 22). The “Boozing Barber” committed his first murder in 1965. His first victims name was Ivy Rose (Doreen) Oswald. Her death was first determined accidental, but Gilbert later confessed to her killing. As the years went on, Gilbert had a total of eight to ten victims, all of which were killed by the consumption of alcohol. Gilbert Paul Jordan was charged for many other crimes such as rape, assault, many DUI’s, and theft. Gilbert Paul Jorden later died on July 7th, 2006 in Victoria, British Columbia. There are multiple different types of homicide, one of them being significant partner homicide. According to Wallace & Roberson (2015), significant partner homicide involves the killing of one’s significant partner (p. 103). This includes spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends. A similar concept to significant partner homicide is spousal homicide, but this does not include same sex partnerships. In fact, this type of homicide is very common and occurs more than people think. As stated before, about thirty-three percent of female victims were killed by their husband or boyfriend, forty-two percent were murdered during arguments which were because of love triangles, and twenty three percent were killed after being raped, robbed, or in conjunction with another felony (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 103). Another type of homicide that is often difficult for many to understand is parricide, which is the killing of one’s parents (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 104). One very well-known murder

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case was the case of the Menendez Brothers. These two brothers killed their parents while in their home in Beverly Hills, California. According to statistics, about two percent of all murder victims in the United States were killed by their own children (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 104). Parricide often occurs from a series of manifestation such as many arguments and unresolved conflicts that cause built up anger, which then leads to homicide. Many cases of Parricide have come from a history of family violence, and the children feel as though that is their only way to escape. This was also the case with one of the Menendez brothers who was sexually abused by their father. Mass murder is another type of homicide that includes the killing of multiple people at one time in the same location (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 104). Mass murderers are considered some of the most violent criminals. One of the most famous mass murderers is James O. Huberty, who committed one of the worst one-day massacres in the United States to this day. Huberty was an unemployed security guard who told his friends that he would kill others if he did not find a job to support his family (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 104). Huberty walked into a McDonalds on July 18th, 1984 and open-fired, killing twenty one people and wounding twenty others. The Oklahoma City Bombing was another very well-known mass murder that was committed by Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh killed 168 people and injured over 800 by placing bomb in a truck in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. A variation on a mass murderer is a spree murderer, which is described as an individual who kills several persons at two or more locations with a very little, if any, time break between the killings (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 105). One very well-known spree killer is Charles Whitman, who was a former Eagle Scout Leader and college honor student. Whitman murdered his wife and his own mother, and then went on to kill sixteen people and wound another thirty

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more while he was on the top of a tower at the University of Texas. Before Whitman could injure or kill any others, police shot and killed him while he was in the tower. A very well-known type of murderer is a serial killer, which is one who kills several people over a period of time. This period of time could range from several weeks to even years. There have been many notorious serial killers throughout the years, some including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and Charles Manson. Jack the Ripper was also a serial killer, who killed several women in London over a period of time in the 1800’s. Jack the Ripper was actually never caught and charged with these murders, but is still talked about to this day. Another serial murderer is the Green River Killer, who is thought to have killed more than fifty female hitchhikers, transients, and an aura of protection for members of a Mexican drug smuggling ring (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 105). There are several typologies of serial murderers to classify them into categories. Holmes ad Deburger identified four types of serial killers, which include visionary type, mission-oriented type, hedonistic type, and power/control-oriented type. Visionary type serial killers are serial killers that murder in response to commands or directions from a voice or vision (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 105). It is common for these types of serial killers to suffer from some form of psychosis while committing there murders. Mission-oriented type serial killers believe that it is their mission to get rid of society or it is their goal in life. These serial killers may target certain types of groups, such as prostitutes, the LGBT community, or certain religious groups. Hedonistic type serial killers, according to Wallace & Roberson (2015), are perhaps the most chilling of the lot (p. 106). These serial killers seek a thrill when killing their victims, such

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as sexual arousal. They may become sexually involved with their victims before or after killing them, or even both. They may also engage in sexual mutilation of their victims according to Wallace & Roberson (2015, p. 106). Lastly, power/control-oriented type serial killers seek power over their victims. They often report that they enjoy watching their victims plead, beg, and cower before them (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 106). This has been a noted trait throughout many serial killers throughout the years. There are several other classifications for serial killers, such as mental disorders like narcissism, histrionic disorder, and anti-social personality disorder. Oher serial killers have been separated by past abuse, or bad family life growing up. Eric Hickey conducted several studies on different serial killers traits, and has classified serial killers into three different groups based on where they kill their victims. These three groups include traveling serial killers, local serial killers, and serial killers who never leave their residence or place of employment (Wallace & Roberson, 2015, p. 106). Traveling serial killers tend to travel to seek different victims to kill. One serial killer who is put into this category is Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy not only killed many girls all throughout Washington state, he also killed girls in Florida as well. There is a possibility Bundy killed others in different places as well, but these are the victims that were reported. All of Bundy’s known victims were female, but there is also a chance that some of his victims were male as well. Ted Bundy was charged with the murder of thirty individuals. Local serial killers only commit their crimes in one location, and also picks their victims from this one location as well, such as a park, certain woods, or a shopping center. One serial

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killer who is placed into this group is John Wayne Gacy, who buried all thirty of his victims around his home. All of Gacy’s known victims were young men and boys, but there is ...