Matricide

Not to be confused with Mariticide.

Orestes Pursued by the Furies by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. Orestes is tormented by the Furies for the murder of his mother Clytemnestra.

Matricide (or maternal homicide) is the act of killing one's own mother.

Known or suspected matricides

• Amastris, queen of Heraclea, was drowned by her two sons in 284 BC.
• Cleopatra III of Egypt was assassinated in 101 BC by order of her son, Ptolemy X, for her conspiracy.
• Ptolemy XI of Egypt had his wife, Berenice III, murdered shortly after their wedding in 80 BC. She was also his stepmother and half-sister.
• In AD 59, the Roman Emperor Nero is said to have ordered the murder of his mother Agrippina the Younger, supposedly because she was conspiring against him.
• Mary Anne Lamb, the mentally ill sister of essayist Charles Lamb, killed their invalid mother during an episode of mania in 1796.
• Sidney Harry Fox, a British man, hanged in 1930 for killing his mother to gain from her insurance.
• Battle of Okinawa, 1945: There are accounts in which Okinawan civilians killed their mothers to prevent them from being captured, raped, tortured, and/or killed by the invading American forces. ^[1]
• The Parker–Hulme murder case of 1954, in which 16-year-old Pauline Parker bludgeoned her mother Honorah to death with the assistance of Parker's 15-year-old friend Juliet Hulme. This case was dramatized in the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures .
• Jack Gilbert Graham killed his mother along with 43 people by planting a dynamite bomb in his mother's suitcase, which was subsequently loaded aboard United Airlines Flight 629 in 1955.
• Henry Lee Lucas killed his mother in 1960 by stabbing her in the neck.
• Charles Whitman killed his mother and wife before going on his killing spree at the University of Texas at Austin that killed 14 people and wounded 31 others, as part of a shooting rampage from the observation deck of the university's 32-story administrative building on August 1, 1966. He was eventually shot and killed by Austin police.
• John Emil List murdered his mother, wife and his three children on November 9, 1971, making List also guilty of filicide and uxoricide. He then evaded capture for 18 years until June 1, 1989, when he was apprehended after an episode of America's Most Wanted aired prompting his neighbor to call the police after recognizing him from the episode. On May 1, 1990, he was sentenced to five consecutive life terms in prison. ^[2]
• Antony Baekeland murdered his mother, Barbara Daly Baekeland, on November 11, 1972, at their luxurious London apartment. She had allegedly raped him in order to "cure" his homosexuality. Savage Grace is a book and a movie based on this event.
• Serial killer Edmund Kemper beat his mother to death in 1973, along with one of his mother's friends, before turning himself in to the police. He had previously committed six sex-murders. Kemper had been psychologically abused by his domineering mother in his youth.
• Ronald DeFeo, Jr. killed his parents and his four siblings in what would later become known as "The Amityville Horror House."
• Bradford Bishop allegedly bludgeoned his mother, spouse and three children to death in 1976. He was indicted for murders and remains at large.
• Jim Gordon, a session musician who played drums with Eric Clapton band Derek and the Dominos, bludgeoned his mother with a hammer and then stabbed her to death with a butcher's knife in 1983. In May 1984 he was sentenced to sixteen years to life in prison.
• Campo Elías Delgado killed his mother and 28 others in a killing spree that ended with his death in 1986.
• Susan Cabot, 1950s actress, was beaten to death in 1986 at her Hollywood home by her son Timothy Roman. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
• Michael Robert Ryan murdered his mother in 1987 before going on an armed rampage in Hungerford, England.
• David Brom murdered his mother with an ax in 1988, along with his father, younger brother, and sister.
• Peter Lundin murdered his mother in 1991 in North Carolina. After serving his prison sentence, he moved to Denmark, where he murdered his girlfriend and her two children.
• The Menéndez brothers were convicted during a highly publicized trial in July 1996 for the shotgun killings of their parents in 1989.
• Luke Woodham, Mississippi resident who killed his mother in June 1997 before killing two more and wounding seven others in the 1997 Pearl High School shooting. Currently serving a life sentence at the Mississippi State Penitentiary.
• Kip Kinkel (1982–), an Oregon boy who was convicted of killing both parents as well as killing two students at his school on May 20, 1998.
• Dr. I. Kathleen Hagen, a prominent urologist, killed her mother and her father in August 2000 and was acquitted on the grounds of insanity.
• Yukio Yamaji, a 16-year-old living in Japan, killed his mother in 2000. After his release, he raped and murdered a woman and her sister in 2005. He was executed by hanging in 2009.
• Dipendra of Nepal (1971–2001) is presumed to have massacred much of his family at a royal dinner on June 1, 2001, including his mother Queen Aiswarya, father, brother, and sister. Conspiracies and controversy surrounds this claim.
• Erika di Nardo killed her mother and brother in 2001.
• Sef Gonzales, an Australian man who killed his father, mother and sister in 2001.
• Sarah Marie Johnson (1987–), an Idaho girl who was convicted of killing both her parents on the morning of September 2, 2003.
• Daniel Petric fatally shot his mother in 2007.
• Erin Caffey organized the murder of her mother in 2008. ^[3]
• Michael Kenneth McLendon began the Geneva County shootings by killing his mother at their home in Alabama.
• Joanne Witt was murdered by her teenaged daughter Tylar and Tylar's boyfriend Steven Colver in June 2009
• Jasmiyah Kaneesha Whitehead (b. 1993) and Tasmiyah Janeesha Whitehead (b. 1993) are identical twins who were convicted in 2014 for the murder of Nikki Whitehead (their mother). ^[4]
• Jennifer Pan with four accomplices staged a home invasion that led to the November 8, 2010 murder of her mother, Bich Pan. She along with three of the four accomplices were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years. ^[5]
• Tyler Hadley, perpetrator of the murders of his parents, had killed his mother and father with a hammer in 2011. He was sentenced to life in prison.
• Trey Sesler fatally shot his mother, father and brother on March 20, 2012. He told investigators his plan was to commit a school shooting at a near-by high school. He wanted to kill his family so they wouldn't be ashamed. ^[6]
• Sujay Solomon Sutherson, who had a history of paranoid schizophrenia, killed his mother by stabbing and slitting her throat at their flat in Bukit Batok, Singapore on 27 May 2012. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter in 2015 and later died in prison in 2022
• Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother at their home before walking into Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and killing 20 children and 6 other adults and then himself on December 14, 2012. ^[7]
• David Rodenbarger murdered his mother Michelle Haskins and 6-year-old sister Jillian Haskins ^[8] in February 2013. Rodenbarger suffered from paranoid schizophrenia ^[9] and died of suicide while incarcerated. ^[10]
• Kvissel murder, October 2014: Danish 15-year-old Lisa Borch and her 29-year-old Iraqi boyfriend Bakhtiar Mohammed Abdullah were convicted of murdering her mother in her sleep.
• Ashlee Martinson killed her mother, Jennifer Ayers, after Ashlee killed her stepfather with a shotgun. She was sentenced to 23 years in prison. ^[11]
• The murder of Dee Dee Blanchard, June 2015: 23 year-old Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her 26 year-old boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn stabbed Gypsy's mother to death while she was sleeping. Dee Dee likely suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy. ^{[12] [13]}
• Robert and Michael Bever killed their mother and other members of their family in July 2015. ^[14]
• Jake Davison, August 2021: shot his mother, Maxine, aged 51, and four others including a three-year-old girl with a shotgun before killing himself. ^[15]
• Krešimir Pahoki killed his mother along with five other residents of a nursing home on July 22, 2024. ^[16]

See also

• Avunculicide, the killing of one's uncle
• Filicide, the killing of one's child
• Fratricide, the killing of one's brother
• Infanticide, the killing of an infant
• Mariticide, the killing of one's husband
• Nepoticide, the killing of one's nephew
• Parricide, the killing of one's parents or another close relative
• 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
• Suicide, the killing of oneself

References

1. Gibney, Frank (1995). Senso: The Japanese Remember the Pacific War: Letters to the Editor of Asahi Shimbun. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
2. "John List: Man Who Killed His Family Of 5, Then Vanished For 18 Years". www.ndtv.com. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
3. Worley, Will (4 May 2016). "Woman who planned the murder of most of her family reveals why she did it". The Independent . Archived from the original on 11 December 2024. Retrieved 23 December 2024.
4. "Update: Jarmecca "Nikki" Whitehead murder *Daughters, Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead, pled guilty, sentenced to 30 years in prison - Bonnie's Blog of Crime". Bonnie's Blog of Crime. 2 August 2014.
5. Janos, Adam. "Why Did Jennifer Pan Orchestrate a Plot to Murder Her Parents?". A&E. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
6. "Waller man who killed his family sentenced to life in prison without parole". Khou staff. khou.com. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
7. U.S. News (13 April 2015). "Elementary school massacre: 20 children among 28 killed in Connecticut slaughter". NBC News.
8. "Court document: Man admits to using pronged fork, knife to kill mom and half-sister". fox59.com. 5 February 2013. Retrieved 2023-12-26.
9. "The David Rodenbarger Aftermath". 20 May 2015.
10. "Pendleton inmate serving 80-year sentence found dead inside cell". 4 March 2020.
11. "Ashlee Martinson: Teen Blogger To Spend 23 Years In Prison After Killing Parents - Inquisitr News". 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
12. "The Story of Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and Her Mother". Biography. 2025-01-02. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
13. "Opinion | I teach the psychology of family murder. Here's what we can learn from Gypsy Rose". MSNBC.com. 2024-01-06. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
14. Smith, Alexander (July 23, 2015). "Five Found Dead in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma; Two Teen Relatives Detained". NBC News.
15. "Plymouth shooting: Gunman's family 'grappling to understand' what happened". 2023-01-17. Retrieved 2025-03-02.
16. "A gunman has killed 6 people including his mother at a nursing home in Croatia, officials say". AP News. 2024-07-22. Retrieved 2025-03-02.