Lust murder, also called sexual homicide, is a homicide which occurs in tandem with either an overt sexual assault or sexually-symbolic behavior. ''Lust murder'' is associated with the paraphilic term erotophonophilia, which is sexual arousal or gratification contingent on the death of a human being. The term ''lust killing'' stems from the original work of

Richard von Krafft-Ebing Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (full name Richard Fridolin Joseph Freiherr Krafft von Festenberg auf Frohnberg, genannt von Ebing; 14 August 1840 – 22 December 1902) was a German psychiatrist and author of the foundational work '' Psychopath ...

in his 1898 discussion of sadistic homicides. Commonly, this type of crime is manifested either by murder during

sexual activity Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) ...

, by

mutilating Mutilation or maiming (from the Latin: ''mutilus'') refers to severe damage to the body that has a ruinous effect on an individual's quality of life. It can also refer to alterations that render something inferior, ugly, dysfunctional, or impe ...

the

sexual organ A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, ...

s or areas of the victim's body, or by murder and mutilation. The mutilation of the victim may include

evisceration Evisceration (pronunciation: /ɪvɪsəˈreɪʃən/) is disembowelment, i.e., the removal of viscera (internal organs, especially those in the abdominal cavity). The term may also refer to: * Evisceration (autotomy), ejection of viscera as a defen ...

, displacement of the sexual organs, or both. The mutilation usually takes place postmortem. Although the killing sequence may include an act of sexual intercourse, sexual intercourse does not always occur, and other types of sexual acts may be part of the homicide. In 2019, ''

Current Psychiatry Reports ''Current Psychiatry Reports'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal A medical journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that communicates medical information to physicians, other health professionals. Journals that cover many medical ...

'' published a

review A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...

of the recent findings on sexual homicide research and concluded that sexually-oriented murderers should be viewed as a specific offender with distinct traits which requires an international reporting system. Earlier, the authors of the review reported on comparisons of offenders in the French national police database with the same conclusion.

Characteristics

Lust murder sometimes includes activities such as removing clothing from the body, posing and propping of the body in different positions (generally sexual ones), insertion of objects into bodily orifices,

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

and

necrophilia Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction towards or a sexual act involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its ' ...

. Most cases of lust murder involve male perpetrators, although accounts of female lust murderers do exist. In general, lust murder is a phenomenon most common among

serial killers A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

. These offenders have made a connection between murder and sexual gratification. When this type of offender chooses a victim there must be something about that victim that the offender finds sexually attractive. This attractive trait might be common among all of the offender's victims and is called the offender's Ideal Victim Type (IVT). There might be many potential targets that an offender passes by because they do not meet their ideal victim. Once the offender has found a victim who is ideal, they might engage in stalking or other predatory behaviors before acting out their fantasy on their victim. Fantasies are a key component in lust murders and can never be completely fulfilled. The lust killer will have a fantasy that continues to evolve over time and becomes increasingly violent as they struggle to fulfill it. The most critical component in the psychological development of a serial killer is violent fantasy, especially in the lust murderer. Fantasies accompany "intrusive thoughts about killing someone that are associated with other distressing

psychopathological Psychopathology is the study of abnormal cognition, behaviour, and experiences which differs according to social norms and rests upon a number of constructs that are deemed to be the social norm at any particular era. Biological psychopatholo ...

processes". Fantasies can never be completely fulfilled; sometimes the experience of killing can generate new fantasies of violence, creating a repetitive cycle. The purpose of fantasy is total control of the victim, whereas a

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, whi ...

can be used as a vehicle for control. Sexual

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

becomes a tool to degrade, humiliate, and subjugate the victim. Often the killer selects victims to stand as a proxy, resulting from childhood trauma. Fantasies may be fueled by pornography and facilitated by alcohol or other causes. Typically, fantasies involve one or several forms of

paraphilia Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything o ...

. The term ''lust murder'' is also used in a related, but slightly different sense, to refer to an individual who gains '' sexual arousal'' from the act of committing murder, or has persistent ''

sexual fantasies A sexual fantasy or erotic fantasy is a mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual fantasy can be created by the person's imagination or memory, and may be triggered auto ...

'' of committing murder, even if the murder itself does not involve

genital mutilation The terms genital modification and genital mutilation can refer to permanent or temporary changes to human sex organs. Some forms of genital alteration are performed on adults with their informed consent at their own behest, usually for aesthetic ...

or other aforementioned characteristics. As such, it is a type of

. Although the dynamic of violent fantasy in lust murders is understood, an individual's violence fantasy alone is not enough to determine if an individual has or has not engaged in lust murder. Moreover, to conclude that an individual is a violent

psychopath Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been u ...

because they have drawn multitudes of violent images is overreaching.

Examples of lust murderers

* Rodney Alcala * Terry Blair * William Bonin *

Ian Brady The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around Manchester, England. The victims were five children—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward E ...

Jerry Brudos Jerome Henry "Jerry" Brudos (January 31, 1939 – March 28, 2006) was an American serial killer and necrophile who murdered at least four women in Oregon between 1968 and 1969. Early life Jerry Brudos was born in Webster, South Dakota, as ...

* Doug Clark & Carol M. Bundy *

Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy (Name change, born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more th ...

Kenneth Bianchi Kenneth Alessio Bianchi (born May 22, 1951) is an American serial killer, kidnapper, and rapist. He is known for the Hillside Strangler murders committed with his cousin Angelo Buono Jr. in Los Angeles, California, as well as for murdering two m ...

& Angelo Buono Jr. *

Andrei Chikatilo Andrei Romanovich Chikatilo (russian: Андре́й Рома́нович Чикати́ло, translit=Andréy Románovich Chikatílo; uk, Андрій Романович Чикатило, translit=Andriy Romanovych Chykatylo; 16 October 1936 ...

* John Christie * Dean Corll * Joseph James DeAngelo * Westley Allan Dodd *

Peter Dupas Peter Norris Dupas (born 6 July 1953) is an Australian convicted serial killer, currently serving three life sentences without parole for murder and primarily for being a serious habitual offender. He has a very significant criminal history inv ...

Mack Ray Edwards Mack Ray Edwards (October 17, 1918 – October 30, 1971) was an American child sex abuser and serial killer who molested and murdered at least six children in Los Angeles County, California, between 1953 and 1970. Sentenced to death, he died b ...

Albert Fish Hamilton Howard "Albert" Fish (May 19, 1870 – January 16, 1936) was an American serial killer, rapist, child molester, and cannibal who committed at least three child murders from July 1924 to June 1928. He was also known as the Gray Man ...

John Wayne Gacy John Wayne Gacy (March 17, 1942 – May 10, 1994) was an American serial killer and sex offender who raped, tortured, and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as ...

Donald Henry Gaskins Donald Henry "Pee Wee" Gaskins Jr. (born Donald Henry Parrott Jr.; March 13, 1933 – September 6, 1991) was an American serial killer and rapist from South Carolina who stabbed, shot, drowned, and poisoned more than a dozen people. Before his c ...

* Sean Vincent Gillis * Harvey Glatman *

Sergey Golovkin Sergey Aleksandrovich Golovkin (russian: Серге́й Александрович Головкин; 26 November 1959 — 2 August 1996) was a Soviet-Russian serial killer, rapist and necrophile, convicted for the killing of 11 boys between the ...

* Charles Ray Hatcher * Gary M. Heidnik *

H. H. Holmes Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 – May 7, 1896), better known as Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or H. H. Holmes, was an American con artist and serial killer, the subject of more than 50 lawsuits in Chicago alone. Until his execution in 1896, he ...

Paul Bernardo Paul Kenneth Bernardo (born August 27, 1964), also known as The Scarborough Rapist and The Schoolgirl Killer, is a Canadian serial killer and serial rapist. He is known for initially committing a series of rapes in Scarborough, Ontario, a sub ...

Karla Homolka Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais, is a Canadian serial killer who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the actual rapes and murde ...

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer ...

* Patrick Kearney *

Edmund Kemper Edmund Emil Kemper III (born December 18, 1948) is an American serial killer who murdered a total of 10 people, including a 15-year-old girl, as well as his own mother and her best friend, from May 1972 to April 1973, following his parole for ...

Paul John Knowles Paul John Knowles (April 25, 1946 – December 18, 1974), also known as The Casanova Killer, was an American serial killer tied to the deaths of 18 people in 1974, though he claimed to have murdered 35. Early life Paul Knowles was born in O ...

* Timothy Krajcir * Randy Kraft * Lam Kor-wan * Peter Kürten * Hiroshi Maeue * Luka Magnotta *

Armin Meiwes Armin Meiwes (; born 1 December 1961) is a German former computer repair technician who received international attention for murdering and eating a voluntary victim in 2001, whom he had found via the Internet. After Meiwes and the victim jointl ...

Tsutomu Miyazaki was a Japanese serial killer who murdered four young girls in Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture between August 1988 and June 1989. He abducted and killed the girls, aged from 4 to 7, in his car before dismembering them and molesting their corpses. ...

Dennis Nilsen Dennis Andrew Nilsen (23 November 1945 – 12 May 2018) was a Scottish serial killer and Necrophilia, necrophile who murdered at least twelve young men and boys between 1978 and 1983 in London. Convicted at the Old Bailey of six counts of murde ...

* Gordon Stewart Northcott *

Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker (September 27, 1940 December 13, 2019) and Roy Lewis Norris (February 5, 1948 February 24, 2020), also known as the Tool Box Killers, were two American serial killers and rapists who committed the kidnapping, rape, ...

* Robert Pickton *

Dennis Rader Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Park ...

Richard Ramirez Ricardo "Richard" Leyva Muñoz Ramirez (; February 29, 1960 – June 7, 2013), dubbed the Night Stalker, the Valley Intruder (as his attacks were first clustered in the San Gabriel Valley), and the Walk-in Killer was an American serial kill ...

* David Parker Ray *

Melvin Rees Melvin David Rees (1928 – October 26, 1995) was an American serial killer who committed five murders in Virginia and Maryland between 1957 and 1959. He murdered and sexually assaulted ( in that order) Margaret Harold, the girlfriend of US Army ...

Gary Ridgway Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), also known as the Green River Killer, is an American serial killer and sex offender. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, bri ...

* Harvey Miguel Robinson *

Issei Sagawa also known as Pang or The Kobe Cannibal, was a Japanese murderer, cannibal, and necrophiliac known for the killing of Renée Hartevelt in Paris in 1981. Sagawa murdered Hartevelt then mutilated, cannibalized, and performed necrophilia on her c ...

Moses Sithole Moses Sithole (born 17 November 1964) is a South African serial killer and rapist who committed the ABC Murders, so named because they began in Atteridgeville, continued in Boksburg and finished in Cleveland, a suburb of Johannesburg. Sit ...

Henry Lee Lucas Henry Lee Lucas (August 23, 1936 – March 12, 2001) was an American convicted serial killer. Lucas was convicted of murdering his mother in 1960 and two others in 1983. He rose to infamy while incarcerated for these crimes when he falsely c ...

& Ottis Toole * Jane Toppan *

Karla Faye Tucker Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was an American woman sentenced to death for killing two people with a pickaxe during a burglary. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since Velma Barfield in 198 ...

Chester Turner Chester Dewayne Turner (born November 5, 1966) is an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death for sexually assaulting and murdering fourteen women in Los Angeles between 1987 and 1998. Turner spent much of his adult l ...

Fred West Frederick Walter Stephen West (29 September 1941 – 1 January 1995) was an English serial killer, who committed at least twelve murders between 1967 and 1987 in Gloucestershire, most of them with his second wife, Rose West. All the vict ...

Rosemary West Rosemary Pauline West (née Letts; born 29 November 1953) is an English serial killer who collaborated with her husband, Fred West, in the torture and murder of at least nine young women between 1973 and 1987;

Christopher Wilder Christopher Bernard Wilder (March 13, 1945 – April 13, 1984), also known as the Beauty Queen Killer, was an Australian-American serial killer who abducted and raped at least twelve young women and girls, torturing some, and killing at ...

Russell Williams Russell Williams may refer to: Sportspeople * Russell Williams (footballer) (born 1974), former Australian rules footballer * Russell Williams (cyclist) (born 1961), English former road and track cyclist Politicians * Russell Williams (politician ...

* Yang Xinhai *

Bruce McArthur The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

Richard Benjamin Speck Richard Benjamin Speck (December 6, 1941 – December 5, 1991) was an American mass murderer who killed eight student nurses in their South Deering, Chicago, residence via stabbing, strangling, slashing their throats, or a combination of the th ...

* Peter Gerard Scully * Gordon Frederick Cummins *

Wayne Couzens Wayne may refer to: People with the given name and surname * Wayne (given name) * Wayne (surname) Geographical Places with name ''Wayne'' may take their name from a person with that surname; the most famous such person was Gen. "Mad" Antho ...

Levi Bellfield Levi Bellfield (born Levi Rabbetts; 17 May 1968) is an English serial killer, sex offender, rapist, kidnapper, and burglar. He was found guilty on 25 February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted mu ...

Russell Bishop Russell Bishop may refer to: * Russell Bishop (academic), New Zealand professor of Māori Education at the University of Waikato * Russell Bishop (murderer) (1966–2022), British convicted child murderer and sex offender {{hndis, name=Bishop, Ru ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lust Murder Murder Paraphilias Killings by type

Characteristics

Examples of lust murderers

See also

References