spree killer

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A spree killer, also known as a rampage killer, is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on his or her victims (two or more) in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."^[1] According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the general definition of spree murder is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders, without a cooling-off period; the lack of a cooling-off period marking the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder. The category has however been found to be of no real value to law enforcement, because of definitional problems relating to the concept of a "cooling-off period".^[2] Serial killers are different in that the murders are clearly separate events, happening at different times, while the attacks of mass murderers are defined by one incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders.^[2]

Notably large spree killings

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. (October 2009)

Notably large spree killings in history include:

• Tsuyama massacre (Japan, 1938): Mutsuo Toi, using a shotgun and swords, killed 30^[3] and then himself in an hour and a half.

• Camden massacre (United States, 1949): Howard Unruh, a World War II veteran, murdered 13 people in Camden, New Jersey, with a German Luger before surrendering to police.

• Starkweather/Fugate rampage (United States, 1958): Charles Starkweather and his adolescent girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate murdered eleven people over the course of eight days before being apprehended by police. Starkweather was executed and Fugate was imprisoned until 1976.

• Cologne school massacre (Germany, 1964): On the day of his 42nd birthday, Walter Seifert entered a primary school in Volkhoven, Cologne armed with a flamethrower, lance, and homemade mace. After murdering 11 people and injuring twice as many, Seifert was taken into police custody where he died the next morning from a poisonous insecticide ingested after the killings^[4].

• University of Texas at Austin massacre (United States, 1966): Charles Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin killed 14 people and wounded 31 others as part of a shooting rampage from the observation deck of the University's 32-story administrative building. He did this shortly after murdering his wife and mother. He was eventually shot and killed by an Austin police officer.

• Uireyeong massacre (South Korea, 1982): Woo Bum-kon, a disgruntled police officer, killed 57 and then himself in eight hours, using two M2 carbines and hand grenades. 35 people were also wounded.

• San Ysidro McDonald's massacre (United States, 1984): James Oliver Huberty entered a McDonald's in San Ysidro, California armed with an Uzi, a Browning Hi-Power, and a pump-action shotgun and took the lives of 21 people before being slain by a SWAT sniper.

• Edmond Post Office massacre (United States, 1986): Former U.S. Postal Service employee Patrick Sherrill, using two 45. caliber pistols, murdered 14 people before taking his own life.

• Hungerford massacre (United Kingdom, 1987): Michael Robert Ryan, using two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, killed 16 people and wounded 15 others in a space of 7 hours before shooting himself.

• École Polytechnique massacre (Canada, 1989): Twenty-five year-old Marc Lépine, armed with a legally obtained semi-automatic Ruger Mini 14 rifle and a hunting knife, shot twenty-eight people before killing himself, killing fourteen.

• Aramoana massacre (New Zealand, 1990): David Gray, using a Norinco Type 56-1S .223 semi-automatic rifle killed 13 people on 13 November. He was shot and killed by police the following day after a 22-hour standoff.

• Luby's massacre (United States, 1991): George Jo Hennard drove his pickup truck into a Luby's in Killeen, Texas, opening fire on customers with a Glock 17 and a Ruger P89 before committing suicide. 23 people including the perpetrator died, making it the worst shooting spree by a single individual in the United States until the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

• Tian Mingjian incident (China, 1994): Tian Mingjian, using a Type 81 rifle killed 23 people near Tiananmen Square on September 20, including an Iranian diplomat and his son. He was finally shot dead by a police sniper.

• Dunblane massacre (United Kingdom, 1996): Thomas Hamilton, a pedophile active in scouting, stormed into Dunblane Primary School wielding two .357 revolvers and two .45 caliber semi-automatics and killed 17 people before turning a gun on himself.

• Port Arthur massacre (Australia, 1996): Martin Bryant, using an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR, killed 35 and injured 19 in five hours before being arrested by the Special Operations Group of the Tasmanian Police.

• Erfurt massacre (Germany, 2002): Robert Steinhäuser changed into a ninja outfit and armed with 9mm Glock 17 pistol and a pump action shotgun, went to the school from which he'd recently been expelled, killed sixteen people; comprising 13 faculty members, 2 students, and one police officer, before committing suicide.

• Red Lake massacre (United States, 2005): Jeff Weise shot and killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend, both police officers. He then proceeded to a local high school and shot and killed a security guard. Once inside the school Weise shot and killed five students and a teacher before committing suicide. Weise killed 9 and injured 15.

• Virginia Tech massacre (United States, 2007): Seung-Hui Cho, using two pistols, killed 32 in two separate events and then himself in the course of about three hours.

• Dnepropetrovsk maniacs (Ukraine, 2007): An unusual group murder spree. Viktor Sayenko, Alexander Hanzha and Igor Suprunyuck, all 19, went on several murder sprees, claiming 21 victims in one month and videotaping most murders. Two victims were murdered within minutes of each other on June 25; two more on July 1, three on July 7, and two each on the 14th, 15 and 16 July, 2007.

• Jokela school shooting (Finland, 2007): 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen, fatally shot eight people with a semi-automatic pistol, before shooting himself in the head. The morning of the incident, Auvinen posted a video on YouTube announcing the massacre at the school.

• Mercaz HaRav massacre (Israel, 2008): Alaa Abu Dhein, 26, fired 500-600 rounds from an AK-47, killing 8 people before being shot dead.

• Akihabara massacre (Japan, 2008): Tomohiro Kato hit five pedestrians with a truck, then stabbed twelve people. Kato killed 7 and injured 10.

• Kauhajoki school massacre (Finland, 2008): 22-year-old culinary arts student Matti Juhani Saari, shot and killed 10 people with a semi-automatic pistol, before shooting himself in the head. The incident was the second school shooting in less than a year in Finland. Before that, only one other school shooting had taken place in the country's history.

• Geneva County massacre (United States, 2009): Michael McLendon using SKS rifle, Bushmaster AR-15, and .38-caliber handgun killed 10 on 10 March and before shooting himself.

• Winnenden school massacre (Germany, 2009): 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer using a handgun killed 15 on March 11 before shooting himself.

See also

• Mass murder
• Going postal
• Running amok
• Thrill killing
• Active shooter
• List of mass murderers and spree killers by number of victims

References

Further reading

• Pan Pantziarka 2000, Lone Wolf: True Stories of Spree Killers , Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0437-5.
• WhyFiles.org - 2009 feature on rampage murder informed by interviews with multiple psychologists and criminologists.