Why Do People Murder

Doing research for my new book.

I’m working on my fifth book now, Murder in the Corn Maze. Although I’ve created numerous murderers, including those in my short stories, I put more into developing the character for my book murderers. For those murderers I want to know more about what brings him/her to feeling they need to murder the victim.

Even though I’ve read thousands of mysteries over the year and read and hear about killing daily through the news, I decided to see what experts have to say about this.

According to Dr. K. Sohail, author, humanist, speaker and therapist, there are seven reasons why

people kill; personal revenge, serial killers, social violence of gangs, mental illness, political/national violence, violence of religious fundamentalists and international violence.

 

My son willingly posing as a body for the cover of book one.

In “Everyday Psychology” Paul G. Mattiuzzi, PH.D, says there are the chronically aggressive individuals, who are easily frustrated, resent authority, often express passive-aggressive behavior, believe violence and/or aggression are legitimate responses to various problems, and although they won’t admit it, derive pleasure from their aggressive behavior. Often they are stimulus seekers. Usually, the violence occurs during a fight or disagreement.

Then there are the over-controlled hostility types,who rarely displays or expresses anger. They’re rigid and inflexible and very strict about interpreting rules, morally righteous and upstanding and see themselves as “good people.” They’re often judgmental, and could also be a non-assertive or passive type who allows other to take advantage of them, and their anger builds up like in a pressure cooker before they explode. These are the ones in which people say they never expected it.

There are also the hurt and resentful, who feel people walk on them and they’re never treated fairly. They always find other people to blame when things don’t go well for them. They do not accept criticism well, and in response to reprimands, they develop grudges, that are often deeply held. Often they’re whiners and complainers, and sometime wallow in their victimization and are impotent in being able to handle their anger in other ways before their anger erupts into violence.

There are those who have been traumatized by someone and as a victim seek revenge for what their abuser did to them.

The obsessive personality is immature and narcissistic. They crave attention and affection and like a baby, cannot stand to be deprived of what they desire. They’re the ones who make numerous phone calls and often become stalkers, and sometimes may resort to murder if they can’t have the object of their obsession.

There are the paranoid who believe their lover is cheating on them, or think people are out to get them. Sometimes their paranoia escalates to insanity.

A few are actually insane whose delusional beliefs make them incapable of rational behavior.

And there are the just plain bad and angry; a combination of most of the above except insanity. They’re angry, hostile, jealous, resentful, impotent and disturbed individuals, who are socially isolated, socially inadequate, who feel worthless. They may be seeking attention or seeking revenge.

Most of the above I already knew, and I’m sure you did, too. The above descriptions have been abbreviated because of space limits, but it is something to ponder when you create the murderers in your books or stories.

 I don’t create murderers who are psychopaths or mentally ill nor do they fit anything except sometimes the first one on Dr. K. Sohail’s list. My murderers are the ones in real life, who shock people into saying things like, “He was such a nice guy, always helpful and friendly, etc.” Or “I would never have guessed someone like her would murder (whoever they murdered).” I think there are attributes of some of the personality types in Dr. Mattiuzzi’s list of personality types, however.

Although I personally can’t imagine harming someone or something other than a fly or mosquito, etc., I’m sure if it came to protecting myself or someone I love, I could probably do so. Since I don’t own a gun, nor want to, I don’t know how I would do that. I don’t think a fly swatter would work. I imagine I’d all too easily be disarmed if I tried using a knife.  Poison is something I use often in my books or short stories, but that would take premeditation and that I wouldn’t do.

In developing my murderer, I have to give the person a strong motive for murdering their victim. So far I know who my murderer is in this book as well as the victim, but I’m working on developing my murderer’s bio a little more to make him/her a more realistic and believable murderer for me as well as the reader. As for the victim, it’s rare that I have a victim anyone would grieve for. Maybe a family member to a certain extent, but no one the reader would care that much about. In fact, they’re usually not a very nice person so the reader sees their death coming.

Unlike many books, I don’t have the murder happen anywhere near the beginning, although with the title, the reader knows there will be a murder and where it happens. I want to introduce the murderer, the victim, and all the suspects before the murder. And I want to include a few red herrings before and after the murder.  For me, I want to keep the reader guessing as long as possible who the murderer really is. It’s what I like in the mysteries I read, too.

How do you create your murderers if you write mysteries?

Do you prefer psychopaths, mentally ill murderers or the guy next door kind of murderer?

Can you imagine actually killing someone? Why or why not?