Warren 8
Elizabeth Warren
Professor P. Golder
English 1A, (Section 42616)
16 April 2018
Mass Murder is Ferocious Not Fascinating (revision)
The topic of mass murder is reported frequently in the news and is debated from high school students to the president of this country. Mass murders are a danger to society. The heinous and shocking nature of these atrocities impels criminologists to search for answers with this in mind the types of mass murders are categorized as organized and unorganized. Unorganized are divided into the following subgroups: family annihilators who kill family members in quick succession, spree killers who kill in multiple locations and disgruntled employees who take out their wrath in the work place. In contrast, organized murders are further divided: into disciple killers who kill due to a belief, set and run killers who flee the scene, and the well-armed pseudo commando. Likewise, common traits can be divided into: physical, psychological, social, sexual, and emotional. Motives range from money, obtaining fame, power and control, politics, and terrorism. In addition, methods for murders are not just guns. Other methods include bombs, knives, chemicals, poison, airplanes, and starvation. Each category is a piece in a mosaic that gives a descriptive image of a mass murderer. As a result of their crime, murderers who go through the justice system are punished either by execution, commitment to a state mental institution, or punished for life without the possibility of parole. Although mass murderers are dangerous to society, capital punishment and commitment often adds to their image. For this reason, imprisonment for life, with a group of perpetrators like themselves, serves justice better.
The types of mass murderers are dependent on factors surrounding the event and characteristics exhibited by the perpetrator. Some mass murders are classified as organized because they carefully planned the attack and others are grouped as disorganized. An organized disciple mass murderer follows the commands of a charismatic leader like the followers of Charles Manson. Another type of organized murderer is the set and run killer; their true intent is not suicide or getting caught but to carry out their plan then flee the scene. An additional type of organized murderer is the pseudo commando murderer who usually has a stockpile of weapons and has a half crazed desire to lash out against the world. An example is Howard Unruh, World War II veteran, who killed 13 people in 1948 in his Brooklyn New York neighborhood. Newspapers labeled the attack as the “Walk of Death.” (Sauer) Due to the fact that he walked through his neighborhood killing some indiscriminately and others he targeted-neighbors he had feuded with. Unorganized murders tend to be spontaneous and the perpetrator tends to be more unstable. The first type is the family annihilator; an example is Phu Lam who killed eight of his relatives including ...
