Listening to the news this afternoon, I was confronted by a word that I have never heard before and provokes an eerie sense of curiosity: ‘Family Annihilation’. There is no dichotomy from case to case, but the vast majority seem to be split down the middle. Let me provide you with the first kind, there are occasions when angry or jealous husbands feel that the best way to punish a cheating or estranged wife/partner is to murder the children. As I quote a psychologist:
“No thought for the children as humans is given whatsoever — they are mere instrumentalities in a bigger scheme to extract revenge.”
These horrendous actions, with many examples, appear to have the marks of a psychopath. The husband’s hate and victimhood causes him to go beyond what any loving father would think of doing and murder his own, all to punish their partner. A horrendous tragedy to any community.
The other side is perhaps more complex. The scenario when a husband kills his whole family to protect themselves. There are several stories in recent years to highlight such cases. Firstly, Chris Foster, a wealthy self-made millionaire who shot his wife and daughter, before killing himself and setting fire to his house. Also today, a coroner published the results for the death of 48 year-old Hugh Mc Fall, who killed his wife and daughter before taking his own life. Both these high-profile cases involved men, who were in financial trouble yet loving husbands and fathers. Their crimes were not through anger or revenge; but to prevent their families from being stigmatised by their shame, to protect them from their own suffering. Something they weren’t willing to accept.
These deaths aren’t romantic and ultimately there are many innocent victims. We just have to think, particularly in the second cases, can we call these men mad or evil? If they had robbed banks instead would we have accepted it? Or was their crime that they loved too much? Trauma and desperation are things right-thinking people cannot fathom, we can only conclude that desperate men can do desperate things.
“No thought for the children as humans is given whatsoever — they are mere instrumentalities in a bigger scheme to extract revenge.”
These horrendous actions, with many examples, appear to have the marks of a psychopath. The husband’s hate and victimhood causes him to go beyond what any loving father would think of doing and murder his own, all to punish their partner. A horrendous tragedy to any community.
The other side is perhaps more complex. The scenario when a husband kills his whole family to protect themselves. There are several stories in recent years to highlight such cases. Firstly, Chris Foster, a wealthy self-made millionaire who shot his wife and daughter, before killing himself and setting fire to his house. Also today, a coroner published the results for the death of 48 year-old Hugh Mc Fall, who killed his wife and daughter before taking his own life. Both these high-profile cases involved men, who were in financial trouble yet loving husbands and fathers. Their crimes were not through anger or revenge; but to prevent their families from being stigmatised by their shame, to protect them from their own suffering. Something they weren’t willing to accept.
These deaths aren’t romantic and ultimately there are many innocent victims. We just have to think, particularly in the second cases, can we call these men mad or evil? If they had robbed banks instead would we have accepted it? Or was their crime that they loved too much? Trauma and desperation are things right-thinking people cannot fathom, we can only conclude that desperate men can do desperate things.
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