A thrill kill is premeditated or

random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no :wikt:order, order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Ind ...

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

that is motivated by the sheer excitement of the act. While there have been attempts to categorize multiple murders, such as identifying "thrill killing" as a type of "hedonistic mass killing", actual details of events frequently overlap category definitions making attempts at such distinctions problematic. Those identified as thrill killers are typically young males, but other profile characteristics may vary, according to Jack Levin, director of the Brudnick Center on Conflict and Violence at

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

. The major common denominator among those who commit thrill killings is that they usually feel inadequate and are driven by a need to feel powerful. "To a certain extent, they hrill killersmay make their victims suffer so that they can feel good," said Levin. "

Sadism Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...

is fairly common in thrill killings. The killer might torture, degrade, or rape his victim before he or she takes his or her life." They frequently have an "ideal victim type" who has certain physical characteristics. Thrill killers have been frequently romanticized in films.

Documented incidents

* May 21, 1924: University students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Leopold, aged 19 at the time, and Loeb, 18, believed themselves to be

Nietzschean Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) developed his philosophy during the late 19th century. He owed the awakening of his philosophical interest to reading Arthur Schopenhauer's ''Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung'' (''The World as Will and Represe ...

Übermensch The (; "Overhuman") is a concept in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. In his 1883 book ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra), Nietzsche has his character Zarathustra posit the as a goal for humanity to set for itse ...

en who could commit a "perfect crime" (in this case a kidnapping and murder). Both were sentenced to life imprisonment plus 99 years; Loeb was murdered in prison in 1936, while Leopold was paroled in 1958 after serving 33 years, and died in 1971 of natural causes. *September 13, 1931:

Szilveszter Matuska Szilveszter Matuska (29 January 1892 – disappeared c. 1945) was a Hungarian mass murderer and mechanical engineer who made two successful and at least two unsuccessful attempts to derail passenger trains in Hungary, Germany and Austria in 1 ...

, a clinically insane man had placed a high explosive charge on a railroad bridge near Biatorbágy,

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. The charge was set off under a passenger train headed from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, shortly after midnight, pushing the locomotive and six cars off the bridge. Matuska did not have specific plans to kill anyone, but just wanted to blow up any train that came next for his own amusement. In fact the Budapest–Vienna train involved in the attack was late, and it overtook a freight train which was supposed to reach the bridge before it: 22 people died and 17 were seriously injured. The police found a handwritten note at a disaster site with Communist slogans and threats, and it was assumed that Communists had perpetrated a terrorist attack: the government used this as a pretext to declare martial law, and initiated a police crackdown on the illegal

Communist Party of Hungary The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...

(KMP). Although Matuska was apprehended in Vienna in October 1931 and confessed to the bombing, martial law remained in effect, and two leading Communists were executed in 1932. This later fueled many conspiracy theories that the attack was a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...

operation orchestrated by the government. * December 18, 1968 – October 1969: The

Zodiac Killer The Zodiac Killer is the pseudonym of an unidentified serial killer who operated in Northern California in the late 1960s. The case has been described as the most famous unsolved murder case in American history. It became a fixture of popular c ...

terrorized the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

in northern

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. In cryptic letters he wrote to newspapers, he claimed killing people "is so much fun. It's even better than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal. To kill gives me the most thrilling experience. It's even better than getting your rocks off with a girl." * September 8, 1988: Twenty-year-old bank clerk Janine Balding was abducted from a railway station at

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

by five homeless youths with extensive criminal records, and driven to nearby Minchinbury where she was repeatedly raped by three of the male offenders before being bludgeoned, hog-tied and drowned in a reservoir. The ringleaders, 22-year-old Stephen Wayne 'Shorty' Jamieson, 16-year-old Matthew James Elliott, and 14-year-old Bronson Matthew Blessington, were arrested the next day and later sentenced to life imprisonment plus 25 years without the possibility of parole; Blessington and Elliott are the youngest offenders to receive this sentence in Australian history. * September 15, 1990: Debra Holt, the mother of future world champion boxer

Kendall Holt Kendall Holt (born June 14, 1981) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2013, and held the WBO junior welterweight title from 2008 to 2009. Early life Holt had a very tough upbringing in his native Paterson, New Je ...

, and also known as Debra Holts and "Cocoa Tan", and three men she met while staying at the Alexander Hamilton Hotel, were convicted of killing a homeless man during an evening of senseless violence and crime in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Andrew Peter Garforth murdered nine-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson at

Bargo Bargo is a town in the Macarthur Region, New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire. It is approximately 100 km south west of Sydney. It is situated between the township of Tahmoor (north) and the village of Yanderra (south) ...

, New South Wales, Australia. Garforth snatched Simpson as she walked home from school and threw her in the boot of his car, raped her repeatedly, bound her hands with speaker wire and weighted her schoolbag before throwing her into a dam where she drowned; he also joined the search for Simpson before being arrested. Garforth, who had 76 prior convictions, showed no remorse in court; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 30 years without the possibility of parole, with Justice Peter Newman calling the crime "chilling in the extreme". * February 12, 1993: Two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, abducted and murdered toddler James Bulger in Liverpool, England. Thompson and Venables did not know the child, but wished to kill someone. They were imprisoned for eight years.James Bulger murder
at www.guardian.co.uk (accessed 25 April 2005) * October 29, 1995: Handyman and mechanic and convicted sex offender Paul Stephen Osborne raped 10-year-old Leanne Oliver and nine-year-old Patricia Leedie before bashing them to death with a tree branch and a wheel jack at Warana Beach,

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, Australia. After drinking 12 beers and smoking marijuana at a barbecue, Osborne took the girls to the beach for a swim; Leanne Oliver's father, Alby Oliver, found Osborne's wallet and the girls' bodies in sand dunes the next morning, after which Osborne was arrested. When asked by police why he killed the girls, Osborne told police "I don't know. I don't know whether I blacked out or went crazy. They seemed pretty nice." Osborne pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment plus 36 years without the possibility of parole; in sentencing Osborne, Queensland Supreme Court Justice Glen Williams said that he was "beyond redemption". * April 19, 1997:

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

teens Thomas Koskovich and Jayson Vreeland ordered a pizza and ambushed two men who delivered it, Georgio Gallara and Jeremy Giordano, before going bowling. Koskovich and Vreeland told police they wanted to experience what it was like to commit murder. * July 17, 1997: Jesse McAllister and Bradley Price killed a man and a woman on a

Seaside, Oregon Seaside is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, Clatsop County, Oregon, United States, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. The name Seaside is derived from ''Seaside House'', a historic summer resort built in the 1870s by railroad magnate Ben Holladay ...

, beach only "to experience it urder" * September 30, 1997: 18-year-old Todd Rizzo bashed 13-year-old Stanley Edwards to death with a three-pound sledgehammer after he lured Edwards with a promise to hunt snakes in his backyard. Rizzo was convicted of the murder in 1999 and sentenced to death, being put on Connecticut's death row. Later Rizzo was re-sentenced to life imprisonment. * October 6, 1997:

Bega schoolgirl murders The Bega schoolgirl murders refer to the abduction, rape and murder of two Australian schoolgirls; 14-year-old Lauren Margaret Barry and 16-year-old Nichole Emma Collins of Bega, New South Wales, Australia on 6 October 1997.. They were abdu ...

: New Zealand-born career criminal Lindsay Hoani Beckett and Victorian prison escapee Leslie Alfred Camilleri murdered 14-year-old Lauren Barry and 16-year-old Nichole Collins at Fiddler's Green Creek,

Victoria, Australia Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state with a land area of , the second most populated state (after New South Wales) with a population of over 6.5 million, and the most densely populated state in Au ...

. After accepting an offer of a lift to a party, the girls were abducted, raped and tortured over the next 10½ hours before Beckett stabbed them on Camilleri's orders; Beckett and Camilleri then drove back to Yass and had breakfast. Beckett pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 35 years in exchange for testifying against Camilleri, who was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life imprisonment plus 155 years without the possibility of parole. In sentencing the men, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Frank Vincent told Beckett that "You represent the dark in which our women and children fearfully walk", and told Camilleri that "Through your own actions, you have forfeited your right ever to walk among us again". Camilleri was sentenced in 2013 to an additional and cumulative 28 years for the murder of 13-year-old Prue Bird in Glenroy, Victoria, on February 2, 1992. * May 25, 2002: In what was described as a "sick game", Benjamin Sifrit and his wife Erika lured 32-year-old Joshua Ford and his 51-year-old girlfriend Martha "Geney" Crutchley to their

Ocean City, Maryland Ocean City, officially the Town of Ocean City, is an Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic resort town in Worcester County, Maryland, Worcester County, Maryland along the East Coast of the United States. The population was 6,844 at the 2020 United States cens ...

, condo and ordered them to disrobe before shooting Ford three times and stabbing Crutchley several times in the abdomen. Their bodies were then dismembered and disposed of in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

. After separate trials, Benjamin Sifrit was sentenced to 38 years imprisonment and Erika Sifrit to life imprisonment plus 20 years. * March 29, 2005: James Patrick Roughan, nephew of convicted killer Katherine Knight, and his friend, Christopher Clark Jones, stabbed and bashed 17-year-old Morgan Jay Shepherd over 130 times before decapitating him with an axe in

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, Australia, after a lengthy drinking session; Shepherd's head was used as a puppet and bowling ball, according to witnesses. Both men were sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 27 years; three youths who cannot be named because of their age were sentenced to two years detention for helping dispose of the body. * May 2005-August 2006: Two men in

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

, Arizona (dubbed "

Serial Shooter 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 ...

" by the media),

Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman were a duo of serial killers, spree killers, arsonists and thrill killers who committed several drive-by shootings and arsons in Phoenix, Arizona, between May 2005 and August 2006. They targeted random pedestri ...

, went on a year-long random shooting spree. The murderous acts were called by the offenders themselves "Random recreational violence". Eight people were killed in the spree and 17 injured. Both men were found guilty. * June 18, 2006: Two 16-year-old girls, who cannot be named because of their age, strangled Eliza Jane Davis with electrical cable and buried her body under a vacant house in

Collie Collies form a distinctive type of herding dogs, including many related landraces and standardized breeds. The type originated in Scotland and Northern England. Collies are medium-sized, fairly lightly-built dogs, with pointed snouts. Man ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, Australia, after the three attended a party. The girls told police they knew it was wrong to kill but it "felt right", and they did not regret Davis' death. Both girls were sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 years. * December 17, 2006: Couple Jessica Ellen Stasinowsky, 20, and Valerie Paige Parashumti, 19, drugged, bashed and strangled their 16-year-old

flatmate A roommate is a person with whom one shares a living facility such as a room or dormitory ''except'' when being family or romantically involved. Similar terms include dormmate, suitemate, housemate, or flatmate ("flat": the usual term in Briti ...

, Stacey Mitchell, before disposing of her body in a

wheelie bin A waste container, also known as a dustbin, garbage can, and trash can is a type of container that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "rubbish", "basket" and "bin" are more common in British English usage; "trash" and "can" a ...

in Laithlain, Western Australia, Australia. Parashumti and Stasinowsky originally told police that Mitchell had moved to Queensland after an argument, but later confessed to the crime; they had discussed killing people on several occasions. Both women pleaded guilty and were sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 24 years, which was increased to 31 years on appeal under new legislation, at the time the longest non-parole period handed down to a woman in Australian history. Justice

Peter Blaxell Peter Donald Blaxell is a retired justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia. He was appointed to the Supreme Court bench on 2 February 2005 and retired on 25 February 2011. Before his appointment as a Supreme Court justice, Blaxell was a j ...

said that had the women been convicted by a jury, he would have sentenced them to life imprisonment without the possibility of release on parole. * June 25, 2007 – July 16, 2007: Two young men, Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuck, murdered 21 people from June 25, 2007, to July 16, 2007, in

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. There is no apparent motive for the murders. Many photographs and videos were taken by the killers as a "memory" of their brutal spree; one video leaked onto the Internet. Both were sentenced to life in prison. * Winnenden school shooting On the 11th of March, 2009 at 9.30am ex-student Tim Kretschmer killed 15, and injured 9, in his former hight school before he at 10:00

carjacked Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...

a first-generation Volkswagen Sharan at gun point from car mechanic Igor Wolf when asked by Wolf why he was doing it he responded "For fun, because it's fun," he went on to say "Do you think we can find another school?". * October 4, 2009,

Murder of Kimberly Cates The murder of Kimberly Cates was a thrill killing that attracted national attention in the United States due to the crime’s brutality, the randomness by which the home was chosen with intent to murder (the victims and perpetrators did not know e ...

: Teenagers Steven Spader and Christopher Gribble murdered Kimberly Cates and severely injured her daughter Jamie during a

home invasion A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching ...

Mont Vernon, New Hampshire Mont Vernon is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,584 at the 2020 census, up from 2,409 at the 2010 census. It is not clear why it is spelled differently from the many other towns in the United St ...

. Both were assaulted with a machete; 17-year-old Spader admitted hacking Kimberley Cates to death with 36 blows to the head and torso. Spader had formed a club he called "The Disciples of Destruction" shortly before the murder, to whom he recruited his confederates. Spader designed a logo with the initials D.O.D. Spader told his recruits that the home invasion was to be a rite of "initiation" for club members. Both Spader and Gribble were sentenced to life in prison, while three other accomplices are also serving prison time. Apparently content with his life sentence, Spader informed his attorneys during an April 2013 resentencing hearing that he did not want a reduction in sentence, describing himself as “the most sick and twisted person you’ll ever meet.” He did not appear at the hearing. * October 21, 2009: Fifteen-year-old Alyssa Bustamante stabbed and strangled her nine-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten. She later wrote in her diary: "I just fucking killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead. I don't know how to feel atm t the moment" adding "It was amazing. As soon as you get over the 'ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable." Bustamante had a history of depression and suicide attempts as well as a turbulent domestic situation. Her mother abandoned her as a child and her father spent much of her childhood in prison.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thrill Killing Serial killers

Documented incidents

See also

References