ABSTRACT
Holmes and Holmes (1998) define multicide as the killing of at least three people by a single offender. They outline three categories of multicide: mass murder, spree murder and serial murder. Mass murder is the killing of three or more people at one time and in one place (Holmes & Holmes, 1998). A classic example of a mass murderer is Charles Whitman, the man who climbed the bell tower on the Univer sity of Texas campus in 1966 with a high-powered rifle and proceeded to kill 16 people before turning the gun on himself (Hickey, 2005). Spree murder involves the killing of at least three people within a 30-day period that is accompanied by the commission of an additional felony (Holmes & Holmes, 1998). John Muhammad and Lee Malvo, the sniper killers who killed 10 and injured three others during their 2002 rampage in the Wash ington D.C. area, can be classified as spree murderers. Finally, serial mur der, as defined by Holmes and Holmes (1998), is the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cool ing off period between killings. This definition is significant because it denotes a minimum number of murders (three) within a large win dow of time (more than 30 days) with a break between the murders (a cooling-off period). Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Albert DeSalvo, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Dennis Rader all typify this defi nition. In this chapter we focus on serial murder.
