Mariticide

Last updated

Mariticide (from Latin maritus "husband" + -cide, from caedere "to cut, to kill") literally means the killing of one's own husband. It can refer to the act itself or the person who carries it out. It can also be used in the context of the killing of one's own boyfriend. In current common law terminology, it is used as a gender-neutral term for killing one's own spouse or significant other of either sex. The killing of a wife or girlfriend is called uxoricide.

Contents

Prevalence

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mariticide made up 30% of the total spouse murders in the United States, data not including proxy murders conducted on behalf of the wife. [1] FBI data from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s found that for every 100 husbands who killed their wives in the United States, about 75 women killed their husbands indicating a 3:4 ratio of mariticide to uxoricide. [2]

English common law

Under English common law it was a petty treason until 1828, and until it was altered under the Treason Act 1790 the punishment was to be strangled and burnt at the stake. [3]

Notable instances

Historical

Anne Williams burned at the stake for mariticide in Gloucester, 1753 Anne Williams burned at the stake.JPG
Anne Williams burned at the stake for mariticide in Gloucester, 1753

Mythological

In Greek mythology

In fiction

Comics

Films

Literature

Television

Video games

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women</span> Prison in Bedford Hills, Westchester County, New York, US

Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, a women's prison in the town of Bedford, New York, is the largest New York State women's prison. The prison previously opened under the name Westfield State Farm in 1901. It lies just outside the hamlet and census-designated place Bedford Hills, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filicide</span> Deliberate act of a parent killing their own child

Filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing their own child. The word filicide is derived from the Latin words filius and filia and the suffix -cide, from the word caedere meaning 'to kill'. The word can refer to both the crime and perpetrator of the crime.

Parricide refers to the deliberate killing of one's own father and mother, spouse, children, and/or close relative. However, the term is sometimes used more generally to refer to the intentional killing of a near relative. It is an umbrella term that can be used to refer to acts of matricide and patricide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricide</span> Act of killing ones father

Patricide is the act of killing one's own father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater (father) and the suffix -cida. Patricide is a sub-form of parricide, which is defined as an act of killing a close relative. In many cultures and religions patricide was considered one of the worst sins. For example, according to Marcus Tullius Cicero, in the Roman Republic it was the only crime for which the civilian could be sentenced to death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Aylesbury</span> Prison in Aylesbury, England

His Majesty's Prison Aylesbury is a category C training prison situated in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the north side of the town centre, on Bierton Road and is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Maybrick</span> British merchant, murder victim, and Jack the Ripper suspect (1838–1889)

James Maybrick was a Liverpool cotton merchant. After his death, his wife, Florence Maybrick, was convicted of murdering him by poisoning in a sensational trial. The "Aigburth Poisoning" case was widely reported in the press on both sides of the Atlantic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matricide</span> Act of killing ones own mother

Matricide is the act of killing one's own mother.

Uxoricide is the killing of one's own wife. It can refer to the act itself or the person who carries it out. It can also be used in the context of the killing of one's own girlfriend. The killing of a husband or boyfriend is called mariticide.

Gail Delta Collins was an American songwriter, record producer, visual artist, and murderer.

Sororicide is the act of killing one's own sister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence Maybrick</span> Wrongfully convicted of murder in Britain

Florence Elizabeth Chandler Maybrick was an American woman convicted in the United Kingdom of murdering her husband, cotton merchant James Maybrick.

It is possible to convict someone of murder without the purported victim's body in evidence. However, cases of this type have historically been hard to prove, often forcing the prosecution to rely on circumstantial evidence, and in England there was for centuries a mistaken view that in the absence of a body a killer could not be tried for murder. Developments in forensic science in recent decades have made it more likely that a murder conviction can be obtained even if a body has not been found.

A familicide is a type of murder or murder-suicide in which an individual kills multiple close family members in quick succession, most often children, spouses, siblings, or parents. In half the cases, the killer lastly kills themselves in a murder-suicide. If only the parents are killed, the case may also be referred to as a parricide. Where all members of a family are killed, the crime may be referred to as family annihilation.

Avunculicide is the act of killing an uncle. The word can also refer to someone who commits such an act. The term is derived from the Latin words avunculus meaning "maternal uncle" and caedere meaning "to cut down" or "to kill". Edmunds suggests that in mythology avunculicide is a substitute for parricide. The killing of a nephew is a nepoticide.

Mark Alan Winger is a former nuclear power plant technician from Springfield, Illinois. He was convicted in 2002 of the 1995 murder of his wife, Donnah Winger, and Roger Harrington.

Susan Lucille Wright is an American convicted murderer from Houston, Texas, who made headlines in 2003 for stabbing her husband, Jeff Wright, 193 times in an act of mariticide and then burying his body in their backyard. She was convicted of murder in 2004, and was given a 20-year sentence at the Crain Unit in Gatesville, Texas. She was denied parole on June 12, 2014, and July 24, 2017. She was granted parole in July 2020 and released from prison on December 30, 2020.

The murder of Dale Harrell occurred after he was fatally attacked on January 14, 2009, by his wife Marissa-Suzanne "Reese" DeVault in Maricopa County, Arizona. Her trial made national and global headlines. The case was noted as being very similar to that of the murder of Travis Alexander by Jodi Arias, with whom DeVault was in contact and whose murder trial occurred in the same courthouse one year earlier. Though she faced the possibility of a death penalty for her crime, DeVault was sentenced to life in prison. She is imprisoned at Perryville within the Arizona Department of Corrections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock</span> Singaporean convicted murderer

Leslie Khoo Kwee Hock is a criminal from Singapore who was convicted for the murder of his Chinese girlfriend Cui Yajie, with whom he had an extra-marrital affair. Khoo, who had previously been criminally convicted for cheating and forgery, argued with his girlfriend in a car on 12 July 2016; the argument turned violent and Khoo strangled Cui in a moment of anger. Later, Khoo took Cui's corpse to a forest in Lim Chu Kang where he burned the body for three days before he was arrested on 20 July 2016.

Daniel Craig Brophy was an American chef and culinary instructor who was found murdered at the Oregon Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon. On May 25, 2022, his wife, Nancy Crampton-Brophy, was found guilty of second-degree murder for his death. She was sentenced to life imprisonment.

<i>The Wychford Poisoning Case</i> 1926 novel

The Wychford Poisoning Case is a 1926 a crime detective novel by Anthony Berkeley, published by W. Collins Sons & Co. It is the second published novel to feature the amateur detective Roger Sheringham, by profession a successful novelist. Like the first Roger Sheringham novel, The Layton Court Mystery (1925), it was published anonymously. The Wychford Poisoning Case was dedicated to fellow crime writer E. M. Delafield.

References

  1. "Understanding Intimate Partner Violence" (PDF). cdc.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 May 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  2. "Wilson & Daley:Who kills whom in spouse killings". Wiley. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01102.x.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. 1 2 Burgess, Samuel Walter (1825), Historical illustrations of the origin and progress of the passions, and their influence on the conduct of mankind, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, pp. 134–135
  4. Stronach, George (1892). "Kincaid, Jean"  . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 123.
  5. Bicks, Caroline (2017). Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England. Taylor & Francis. p. 106. ISBN   978-1-351-91766-7.
  6. Durston, Gregory J. (2014). Wicked Ladies: Provincial Women, Crime and the Eighteenth-Century English Justice System. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 143. ISBN   978-1-4438-6599-9.
  7. Stateline Victoria
  8. "HTML Document: Regina v Knight [2001] NSWSC 1011 revised – 29 January 2002". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  9. Knight loses appeal for skinning partner – Breaking News – National – Breaking News