Parricide

Parricide (Latin: parricida, killer of parents or another close relative) is defined as:

• The act of killing one's father (patricide),^[1] or less usually mother (matricide) or other close relative, but usually not children (infanticide).
• The act of killing a person (such as the ruler of one's country) who stands in a relationship resembling that of a father^[2]
• A person who commits such an act^[3]
• A related adjective ("parricide treason", "parricide brothers")^[4]

Historical cases

• Tullia, along with her husband, arranged the murder and overthrow of her father, securing the throne for her husband.
• Lucius Hostius reportedly was the first patricide in Rome, sometime after the Second Punic War.
• Mary Blandy (1720–1752) poisoned her father, Francis Blandy, with arsenic in England in 1751.
• Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) was an American woman accused and acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother.
• The Criminal Code of Japan once determined that patricide brought capital punishment or life imprisonment. However, the law was abolished because of the trial of the Tochigi patricide case in which a woman killed her father in 1968 after she was sexually abused by him and bore their children.

Known cases and suspected cases

• Ronald DeFeo, Jr. was convicted for the 1974 murders of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters.
• Jasmiyah Kaneesha Whitehead (November 27, 1993 - ) and Tasmiyah Kaneesha Whitehead (November 27, 1993 -) are identical twins who brutally murdered their mother, Jarmecca Yvonne Whitehead also known by the nickname "Nikki" (b. April 18, 1975) on January 13, 2010. The crime occurred in the family residence in the Bridle Ridge Walk subdivision on Appaloosa Way in Conyers, Rockdale County, Georgia. They were arrested on May 21, 2010 and proclaimed their innocence. In 2014 both twins admitted their guilt and were sentenced to 30 years in prison. Jasmiyah is serving her sentence in Arrendale State Prison and Tasmiyah is serving her sentence in Pulaski State Prison. (See Murder of Nikki Whitehead)
• Adam Lanza murdered his mother on December 14, 2012, before fatally shooting 20 children and 6 adult staff members at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. (See Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.)
• Murder of Diane and Alan Scott Johnson
• Lyle and Erik Menendez
• Kip Kinkel murdered his parents on May 20, 1998, a day before the Thurston High School shooting.
• Murder of Glory Chau and Moon Siu
• Christopher Porco murdered his father and attempted to murder his mother with an ax on November 15, 2004.

Legal definition in Roman times

In the sixth century CE collection of earlier juristical sayings, the Digest, a precise enumeration of the victims' possible relations to the parricide is given by the 3rd century CE lawyer Modestinus:

By the lex Pompeia on parricides it is laid down that if anyone kills his father, his mother, his grandfather, his grandmother, his brother, his sister, first cousin on his father's side, first cousin on his mother's side, paternal or maternal uncle, paternal (or maternal) aunt, first cousin (male or female) by mother's sister, wife, husband, father-in-law, son-in-law, mother-in-law, (daughter-in-law), stepfather, stepson, stepdaughter, patron, or patroness, or with malicious intent brings this about, shall be liable to the same penalty as that of the lex Cornelia on murderers. And a mother who kills her son or daughter suffers the penalty of the same statute, as does a grandfather who kills a grandson; and in addition, a person who buys poison to give to his father, even though he is unable to administer it.^[5]

Gallery

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  Tullia drives over the corpse of her Father

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  Parricide, capital punishment in Jersey

See also

• Avunculicide, the killing of one's uncle
• Filicide, the killing of one's child
• Fratricide, the killing of one's brother
• Mariticide, the killing of one's husband
• Nepoticide, the killing of one's nephew
• Patricide, the killing of one's father
• Prolicide, the killing of one's offspring
• Sororicide, the killing of one's sister
• Uxoricide, the killing of one's wife

References

1. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide: ... killing a near relative (now usually a father)
2. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide: ... fig.: the action or crime of killing the ruler of or betraying one's country
3. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide 1: A person who kills a near relative; parricide 2: The action or crime of killing a near relative
4. examples from Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.
5. Watson, Alan (ed.); Robinson, Olivia (tr.) (1998). The Digest of Justinian, Volume 4, Book 48. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-8122-2036-0.

External links

• Dictionary.com entry for parricide
• Pendulum Foundation: Parricide Facts