Thrill killing
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A thrill killing is a term used to describe a premeditated murder committed by a sane criminal who is motivated by the sheer excitement of the act.
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[edit] Documented incidents
- May 21, 1924: University students Leopold and Loeb murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks. Both imprisoned for life (one was eventually paroled).
- February 12, 1993: Robert Thompson and Jon Venables kill toddler James Bulger. Imprisoned for ten years.
- April 19, 1997: New Jersey teens Thomas Koskovich and Jayson Vreeland ordered a pizza and ambushed the two men who delivered it. After gunning down victims Georgio Gallara and Jeremy Giordano, the teens went bowling. Koskovich and Vreeland later admitted to police that they wanted to experience what it was like to commit murder.[1]
- March 29, 2005: James Patrick Roughan and his friend Christopher Clark Jones murdered Morgan Jay Shepherd, 17, in Dayboro, near Brisbane, Australia. The pair stabbed the teenager more than 133 times and sawed off his head, which was used as a puppet and bowling ball, according to witnesses. The alcohol-fueled murder was described as a "thrill kill."[2]
- November 7, 2007: Alexander James Letkemann, 18, and Jean Pierre Orlewicz, 17, of Westland, Michigan ambushed an adult acquaintance, Daniel Sorenson, 26, in a garage in Canton, Michigan. The victim was stabbed multiple times in the back and decapitated and the attackers burned his hands and feet with a blowtorch. The head was disposed of in the Rouge River. Letkemann testified against Orlewicz in exchange for a second degree murder plea deal that saw him get twenty to thirty years instead of life. Orlewicz was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.[3]
[edit] In film
- The Thrill Killers, 1965 film
- Murder by Numbers, 2002 film
- Mr. Brooks, 2007 film
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Dwyer, Kevin and Fiorillo, Juré. True Stories of Law & Order 2006: Berkley/Penguin. ISBN-10: 0425211908.
- ^ AAP (2008-07-16). "Man used teen's head as bowling ball, court told", Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
- ^ Associated Press (2007-11-12). "Teens charged with thrill killing", MSNBC. Retrieved on 2008-02-15.
