Torture murder
Encyclopedia
Torture murder is a loosely defined term to describe a murder
where death has been preceded by the torture
of the victim. In many legal jurisdictions a murder involving "exceptional brutality or cruelty" will involve a harsher sentence.
is that:
Similar positions are taken in the laws of Italy, Germany and Norway and others (see, Country-specific murder law).
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
where death has been preceded by the torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
of the victim. In many legal jurisdictions a murder involving "exceptional brutality or cruelty" will involve a harsher sentence.
Punishment
One of the criteria for a judgement of "murder in the first degree" in the laws of the state of New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
is that:
Similar positions are taken in the laws of Italy, Germany and Norway and others (see, Country-specific murder law).
List of torture murders
Some notable perpetrators and victims include the following. The dates indicate the time of the crime or crimes. This list includes those in positions of power.Torture murderers
- Empress Lü ZhiEmpress Lü ZhiEmpress Lü Zhi , commonly known as Empress Dowager Lü or formally as Empress Gao , courtesy name Exu , was the wife and empress of Emperor Gaozu of Han, founder of the Han Dynasty. They had two known children—the eventual Emperor Hui and Princess Luyuan...
(China, 202 BC to 180 BC) - Gilles de RaisGilles de RaisGilles de Montmorency-Laval , Baron de Rais, was a Breton knight, a leader in the French army and a companion-in-arms of Joan of Arc. He is best known as a prolific serial killer of children...
(France, 1435 to 1440) - Vlad III the ImpalerVlad III the ImpalerVlad III, Prince of Wallachia , also known by his patronymic Dracula , and posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler , was a three-time Voivode of Wallachia, ruling mainly from 1456 to 1462, the period of the incipient Ottoman conquest of the Balkans...
(WallachiaWallachiaWallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
, 1448; 1456–1462; 1476) - Elizabeth BáthoryElizabeth BáthoryCountess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...
(Kingdom of HungaryKingdom of HungaryThe Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, 1602 to 1610) - Delphine LaLaurieDelphine LaLaurieMarie Delphine LaLaurie , more commonly known as Madame LaLaurie, was a Louisiana-born socialite, known for her involvement in the torture of black slaves....
(New Orleans, 1775 to 1842) (alleged) - H. H. HolmesH. H. HolmesHerman Webster Mudgett , better known under the alias of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, was one of the first documented American serial killers in the modern sense of the term...
(Chicago, 1893 to 1895) - Albert FishAlbert FishHamilton Howard "Albert" Fish was an American serial killer. He was also known as the Gray Man, the Werewolf of Wysteria, the Brooklyn Vampire, the Moon Maniac and The Boogey Man. A child rapist and cannibal, he boasted that he "had children in every state," and at one time put the figure at...
(New York City, 1910 to 1936) - "Mad" Sam DeStefanoSam DeStefanoSam "Mad Sam" DeStefano was an Italian-American gangster who became one of the Chicago Outfit's most notorious loan sharks and sociopathic killers. Chicago-based Federal Bureau of Investigation agents such as William F. Roemer, Jr., considered DeStefano to be the worst torture-murderer in the...
(Chicago, 1950s to 1970s) - David Parker RayDavid Parker RayDavid Parker Ray was a suspected American serial killer and known torturer of women; though no bodies were found, he was accused by his accomplices of killing several people, and suspected by police to have murdered as many as 60 people in the town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico...
(United States, 1950s to 1999) - Richard KuklinskiRichard KuklinskiRichard Leonard "The Iceman" Kuklinski was an American contract killer. The 6'5" , 300 pound Kuklinski worked for Newark's DeCavalcante crime family and New York City's Five Families. He claimed to have murdered over 250 men between 1948 and 1986...
(United States, 1960s to 1980s) - Geza de Kaplany (California, 1962)
- Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (Moors murdersMoors murdersThe Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...
) (England, 1963 to 1965) - Gertrude BaniszewskiGertrude BaniszewskiGertrude Nadine Baniszewski , also known as Gertrude Wright and Nadine van Fossan, was an Indiana divorcée who, with the aid of most of her own children and neighborhood children, such as Ricky Hobbs and Coy Hubbard, oversaw and facilitated the prolonged torture, mutilation, and eventual murder of...
(Indiana, 1965) - Sérgio Paranhos FleurySérgio Paranhos FleurySérgio Fernando Paranhos Fleury was a Brazilian police deputy during the military dictatorship. He was chief of DOPS, a repression group also known as death squad, and is famous for his cruel torture methods...
(Brazil, 1968 to 1977) - Dean CorllDean CorllDean Arnold Corll was an American serial killer, also known as the "Candy Man", who, together with two youthful accomplices named David Brooks and Elmer Wayne Henley, abducted, raped, tortured and murdered a minimum of 28 boys in a series of killings spanning from 1970 to 1973 in Houston, Texas...
(Houston, 1970 to 1973) - Randy Steven KraftRandy Steven KraftRandy Steven Kraft is an American serial killer. He was convicted of 16 murders and is strongly suspected of committing at least 51 others.-Early life:...
(California, 1970s to early 1980s) - John Wayne GacyJohn Wayne GacyJohn Wayne Gacy, Jr. was an American serial killer, rapist and clown who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Gacy buried 26 of his victims in the crawlspace of his home, buried three others elsewhere on his property, and discarded the...
(Chicago, 1972 to 1978) - RosemaryRosemary WestRosemary Pauline "Rose" West is a British serial killer, now an inmate at HMP Low Newton, Brasside, Durham, after being convicted of 10 murders in 1995...
and Fred WestFred WestFrederick Walter Stephen West , was a British serial killer. Between 1967 and 1987, he alone, and later, he and his wife Rosemary, tortured, raped and murdered at least 11 young women and girls, many at the couple's homes. The majority of the murders occurred between May 1973 and September 1979 at...
(England, 1973 to 1979) - Dennis RaderDennis RaderDennis Lynn Rader is an American serial killer who murdered ten people in Sedgwick County , between 1974 and 1991....
(Wichita, KansasWichita, KansasWichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, 1974 to 1991) - Hamida DjandoubiHamida DjandoubiHamida Djandoubi was the last person to be guillotined in France, at Baumettes Prison in Marseille. He was a Tunisian immigrant who had been convicted of the torture and murder of 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, his former girlfriend, in Marseille...
(France, 1974) - Hillside StranglerHillside StranglerThe Hillside Strangler is the media epithet for two men, cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, who were convicted of kidnapping, raping, torturing, and killing girls and women ranging in age from 12 to 28 years old during a four-month period from late 1977 to early 1978...
(Los Angeles, 1977 to 1978) - Paul Luckman and Robin ReidRobin Reid (criminal)Robin Reid is an Australian criminal currently serving a life sentence at Goulburn Correctional Centre for the sexual assault, torture and murder of 13-year-old Brisbane schoolboy, Peter Aston in 1982....
(AustraliaAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, 1982) - Theresa KnorrTheresa KnorrTheresa Knorr is an American woman convicted of torturing and murdering two of her children while using the others to facilitate and cover up her crimes.- Early life :...
(California, 1982, 1983) - Christopher WilderChristopher WilderChristopher Bernard Wilder was a serial killer who abducted and raped at least ten women and killed at least eight of them during a spree across the United States in early 1984...
(United States, 1982 to 1984) - Adolfo ConstanzoAdolfo ConstanzoAdolfo de Jesús Constanzo was an American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader. His nickname was El Padrino de Matamoros .- Early years :...
(Mexico, 1983 to 1989) - Robert BerdellaRobert BerdellaRobert Andrew "Bob" Berdella was an American serial killer in Kansas City, Missouri who raped, tortured and killed at least six men between 1984 and 1987.-Early life:...
(Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, 1984 to 1987) - Daniel Wayne Cook (Arizona, 1987)
- Gary HeidnikGary M. HeidnikGary Michael Heidnik was an American murderer who kidnapped, tortured and raped six women and kept them prisoner in his Philadelphia, Pennsylvania basement.-Childhood:...
(Philadelphia, 1986 to 1987) - Westley Allan DoddWestley Allan DoddWestley Allan Dodd was a convicted American serial killer and child molester. He has been called "one of the most evil killers in history." His execution on January 5, 1993, was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965.- His childhood years :Westley Allan Dodd was born in Richland,...
(United States, 1989) - Karla HomolkaKarla HomolkaKarla Leanne Homolka, also known as Karla Leanne Teale , is a Canadian serial killer. She attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter following a plea bargain in the 1991 and 1992 rape-murders of two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as...
and Paul BernardoPaul BernardoPaul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale , is a Canadian serial killer and rapist, known for the sexual assaults and murders he committed with his wife Karla Homolka and the serial rapes he committed in Scarborough.-Early life:Bernardo's mother, Marilyn, was the adopted daughter of a...
(Canada, 1990 to 1992) - Christa PikeChrista PikeChrista Gail Pike , is the youngest woman to be sentenced to death in the United States during the post-Furman period. She was 20 when convicted for a torture and murder she committed at age 18....
(United States, 1995) - Junko OgataJunko Ogatais a Japanese woman who acted as an accomplice to serial killer Futoshi Matsunaga.-Early life and murders:Ogata was born on Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, and grew up in a wealthy family. She was Matsunaga's schoolmate in high school, but she did not know him very well, and he transferred to another...
and Futoshi MatsunagaFutoshi Matsunagais a Japanese serial killer who both defrauded and tortured his victims. He was convicted of six murders and one manslaughter, including two children, between the years 1996 and 1998. He murdered his victims with an accomplice, Junko Ogata....
(Japan, 1996 to 1998) - John Justin Bunting, Robert Joe Wagner and James VlassakisJames VlassakisJames Spyridon Vlassakis is an Australian serial killer currently serving four consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 26 years for his role in the Snowtown murders...
(Australia, 1992 to 1999) - Dnepropetrovsk ManiacsDnepropetrovsk maniacsThe Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs is the media epithet for the killers responsible for a string of brutal murders in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine in June and July 2007. The case gained additional notoriety because the killers made video recordings of some of the murders, with one of the videos leaking to the...
(Ukraine, 2007)
Torture murder victims
- Aurore GagnonAurore GagnonAurore Gagnon , was a victim of child abuse. She died of exhaustion and blood poisoning from some 52 wounds inflicted by her stepmother, Marie-Anne Houde, and her father, Télesphore Gagnon...
(QuebecQuebecQuebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, 1920) - Emmett TillEmmett TillEmmett Louis "Bobo" Till was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married...
(MississippiMississippiMississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, 1955) - William "Action" JacksonWilliam Jackson (gangster)William Jackson a.k.a. "Action Jackson" was an enforcer and loan collector for the Chicago Outfit. He was tortured to death by his fellow gangsters on suspicion he had become an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Death:William Jackson was a big man, weighing over...
(ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, 1961) - Sylvia LikensSylvia LikensSylvia Marie Likens was an American murder victim from Indiana. She was tortured to death by Gertrude Baniszewski , Gertrude's children, and other young people from their neighborhood...
(IndianapolisIndianapolisIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, 1965) - Rubens PaivaRubens PaivaRubens Paiva was a Brazilian civil engineer and politician who became a victim of torture and forced disappearance during the military dictatorship in Brazil.-Early life:...
(BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, 1971) - Vladimir HerzogVladimir HerzogVladimir Herzog nicknamed Vlado, was a Brazilian journalist, university professor and playwright of Yugoslavian origin. He also developed a taste for photography, because of his film projects...
(São PauloSão PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
, 1975) - Junko FurutaMurder of Junko Furutawas a 1988–89 murder in which a Japanese girl, 17-year-old Junko Furuta , was murdered.-Crime:On November 25, 1988, four boys, including a 17-year-old whose personal name was Jō and would be later given the surname Kamisaku, abducted and held Furuta, a third-year high school student from Misato,...
(TokyoTokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, 1989) - Shanda SharerMurder of Shanda SharerThe murder of Shanda Renee Sharer involved a 12-year-old girl who was tortured and burned to death in Madison, Indiana by four teenage girls...
(Madison, IndianaMadison, IndianaAs of the census of 2000, there were 12,004 people, 5,092 households, and 3,085 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,402.9 people per square mile . There were 5,597 housing units at an average density of 654.1 per square mile...
, 1992) - Suzanne CapperMurder of Suzanne CapperThe murder of Suzanne Capper was committed in Greater Manchester, England in December 1992. Sixteen-year-old Suzanne Jane Capper died in Withington Community Hospital on 18 December 1992, from multiple organ failure arising from eighty per cent burns after she was deliberately set on fire on 14...
(ManchesterManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, 1992) - Kelly Anne BatesMurder of Kelly Anne BatesKelly Anne Bates was an English teenager who was murdered in Manchester on 16 April 1996 when aged 17. Bates was tortured over a period of four weeks, including having her eyes gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before her death, by her partner James Patterson Smith before being drowned...
(Manchester, 1996) - Pai Hsiao-yen (TaipeiTaipeiTaipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
, TaiwanTaiwanTaiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, 1997) - Matthew ShepardMatthew ShepardMatthew Wayne Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered near Laramie, Wyoming, in October 1998...
(WyomingWyomingWyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
, 1998) - Jesse Dirkhising (Rogers, ArkansasRogers, ArkansasRogers is a suburban city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 55,964. The city is located in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area, in the northwest corner of the state.-History:...
, 1999) - Fan Man-yeeHello Kitty murderThe Hello Kitty Murder in Hong Kong refers to the case of a night club hostess who was kidnapped and tortured in an apartment in Tsim Sha Tsui in 1999. She eventually died over a month later, either by drug overdose or at the hands of the abductors...
(Hong KongHong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, 1999) - Kriss Donald (GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, 2004) - Ilan HalimiIlan HalimiIlan Halimi was a young French Jewish man kidnapped on 21 January 2006 by a gang called "the Gang of Barbarians" and subsequently tortured, over a period of three weeks, resulting in his death...
(ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, 2006) - Channon Gail Christian (Knoxville, TennesseeKnoxville, TennesseeFounded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, 2007) - Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel, and Tilmann GeskeBible publishing firm murders in Malatya, TurkeyThe Bible publishing firm murders in Malatya took place on April 18, 2007 in Zirve Publishing House, Malatya, Turkey. Three employees of the Bible publishing house were attacked, tortured and murdered by five Muslim assailants.- The attack :...
(MalatyaMalatyaMalatya ) is a city in southeastern Turkey and the capital of its eponymous province.-Overview:The city site has been occupied for thousands of years. The Assyrians called the city Meliddu. Following Roman expansion into the east, the city was renamed in Latin as Melitene...
, TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, 2007) - Jennifer DaughertyMurder of Jennifer DaughertyJennifer Lee Daugherty was murdered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in February 2010. Daugherty, who was mentally disabled, was tortured and murdered before being wrapped in Christmas decorations, put inside a garbage can and dumped in the parking lot of Greensburg Salem Middle School.During torture...
(Greensburg, PennsylvaniaGreensburg, PennsylvaniaGreensburg is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. The city is named after Nathanael Greene, a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War...
, 2010) - Hamza Al-KhateebDeath of Hamza Ali Al-KhateebHamza Ali Al-Khateeb was a 13-year-old Syrian boy who died while in the custody of the Syrian government in Daraa during the 2011 Syrian uprising. On April 29, 2011, he was detained during a protest...
(Daraa, Syria, 2011)
See also
- Antisocial personality disorderAntisocial personality disorderAntisocial personality disorder is described by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, fourth edition , as an Axis II personality disorder characterized by "...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood...
- Most EvilMost EvilMost Evil is an American forensics television program on Investigation Discovery presented by forensic psychiatrist Michael Stone of Columbia University. On the show, Stone rates murderers on a scale of evil that he has developed...
- PsychopathyPsychopathyPsychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
- Sadistic personality disorderSadistic personality disorderSadistic personality disorder is a diagnosis which appeared only in an appendix of the revised third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . The current version of the DSM does not include it, so it is no longer considered a valid...