Mass shootings, spree killings, and family homicide
appear to have reached alarming levels in the United States, if the national
news is any indication.
is the murder of four or more people at one time, occurs in the United States
every 2 weeks, and incidences of mass shootings appear to be on the increase, with
over 20 having made the national news during Obama's presidency alone.
It is both frightening and awful that strangers kill
strangers, who have done nothing to harm them; yet it is even more alarming to
see family kill family, in mass shootings, and targeting acts of murder that includes
children. The annihilation of one’s own family has become so commonplace, that
a term was coined in order to label it: ‘family annihilator’.
The coining of the term “family annihilator” which
has been used on television programs such as Criminal Minds has been credited to Park Dietz
Park Dietz the famed forensic psychiatrist who testified in high profile cases such as
that of Jeffrey Dahmer, The Unabomber and Andrea Yates; usually on the side of
the prosecution.
A man or woman, who chooses to commit mass murder,
serial murder, or spree murder, is usually a violent societal deviant; and in
the absence of mental illness, such people are extremely ego-centric and often
narcissistic individuals who expect the world to satisfy their needs.
Regardless of whether their particular ‘world’ is comprised of one person, or
includes groups and subgroups, these people feel entitled to wreak vengeance
upon the center of their world, if they are pushed far enough. They feel entitled
to commit murder as a final act of perverted vengeance, and they often do not
have the type family bonds that prevent them from doing harm to even the most
innocent of victims, their own children.
In domestic violence situations, sometimes a family annihilator steps
out of his or her own dark world and invades ours. The FBI definition of a mass
murder is the killing of four or more people (not counting the killer), and a
family annihilator kills close relatives, even his or her own children.
Two days after Christmas, this past year, on
December 27th, 2013, in Lockport, LA, Ben Freeman killed his newest
wife, then proceeds to his ex-wife’s parent’s home, where he kills his former
mother in law, shoots two other former in-laws, and proceeds to a third destination
and kills another person; bringing the total injured and killed to seven, by the end of his rampage:rampage
There have been many cases like Freeman’s, some much
worse, such as the family killing spree of James Rupert in 1975, in which he
killed 11 family members on Easter Sunday, the Easter Sunday Massacre
On Christmas Day, 2011, in Grapevine Texas, a man
dressed himself as Santa and killed six
of his family members during a Christmas party, before killing himself: Father Kills family dressed as Santa
It is most likely Freeman expected to kill his
former wife and his children, but they were not home. The individual, who can
murder family members and especially their own children, is a strange monster
in society; an aberration of a human so far removed from normal, that they
become fascinating in their deviance. People want to know why a person can do
such a horrible thing, and what type person can obtain educations, like normal
people, ambitiously pursue careers, like normal people, and impress their friends
and co-workers-once again-like normal people; yet be so far from normal.
The FBI identified traits that are common among serial murderers that also fit into Dr.
Robert Hare’s Psychopathy Check-List, revised (PCL-R), and those traits are
also held in common with many individuals with a pattern of extreme domestic
violence: charm, exaggerated sense of self-worth,
lack of true empathy, and resistance to the acceptance of blame ; among a
plethora of other traits.
These men or women are great actors, who manage to
take on the role of being a caring and giving person, a romantic, and a devoted
parent; when in fact, the deep love of others that gives such a role
legitimacy, is sadly missing. By the time the victims discover this
discrepancy, the abuser is heavily invested in the relationship and refuses to
let go. They tend to delude themselves into a feeling of being wronged by
others, and become obsessed with the idea of punishing those who have wronged
them, at all costs. Once men, or women like this reach the point of no return,
their own emotional ‘tipping point’, it is often too late, because they set out
to kill.
