A few days ago, the news was about a shooting at a university in Prague — 14 or so were killed and more than 25 injured. Another mass murder. And last night I watched part of a program about a serial killer. Even though I’m pretty sure I knew the difference, I thought I’d do some checking on the distinction between serial killers and mass murderers. So here’s what a little extensive research revealed….
A mass murderer kills four or more people during a short period of time, usually in one location. (I’m not sure how they came up with the number four, but apparently if someone only kills three people, he or she is not a mass murderer.) But anyhow, in most cases, the murderer has a sudden mental collapse and goes on a rampage, going from murder to murder without a break. About half the time, these outbreaks end in suicides or fatal standoffs with the police.
School shootings, that are becoming more common, are instances of mass murder, as are famous cases of postal workers, that resulted in the phrase, “going postal.” Cases where someone murders his, or her, entire family is a mass murderer. Terrorists are also lumped into this category, but they also make up a group of their own.
A serial killer usually murders one person at a time — typically a stranger — with a “cooling off” period between each murder. Unlike mass murders, serial killers don’t suddenly snap one day — they have an ongoing compulsion (usually with a sexual component) that drives them to kill, often in very specific ways.
Serial killers may even maintain jobs and normal relationships while going to great lengths to conceal their deadly affliction or habit. They may resist the urge to kill for long periods, but the compulsion ultimately grows too strong to resist. After the third victim the killer graduates from plain ol’ murderer to a bona fide serial killer. (Again, not sure who came up with the magic fourth killing to qualify as a serial killer.)
It’s kind of interesting, or depressing, that in between these two groups, there are others known as the spree killer and the serial spree killer. A spree killer commits murder in multiple locations over the course of a few days. This is often part of a general crime wave. One example given is that an escaped convict may kill multiple people, steal cars and commit other offenses as he tries to escape the police. Like a mass murderer, a spree killer doesn’t plan each murder individually.
The serial spree killer, on the other hand, does plan and commit each murder separately — serial killer style. But he doesn’t take time off between murders or maintain a double life — it’s just killing, all the time. One example that most of us remember is the Washington D.C. area beltway snipers who killed ten people within three weeks in October of 2002.
Of course, if you encounter any of these type of killers it doesn’t matter what category they fit into. It’s just too bad there is so much killing that we have to categorize the culprits.
— 30 —