Parricide

Parricide (Latin: parricida, killer of parents or another close relative) is defined as:

The act of killing one's father (patricide),^[1] or less usually mother (matricide) or other close relative, but usually not children (infanticide).
The act of killing a person (such as the ruler of one's country) who stands in a relationship resembling that of a father^[2]
A person who commits such an act^[3]
A related adjective ("parricide treason", "parricide brothers")^[4]

Historical cases

Tullia, along with her husband, arranged the murder and overthrow of her father, securing the throne for her husband.
Lucius Hostius reportedly was the first patricide in Rome, sometime after the Second Punic War.
Mary Blandy (1720–1752) poisoned her father, Francis Blandy, with arsenic in England in 1751.
Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) was an American woman accused and acquitted of murdering her father and stepmother.
The Criminal Code of Japan once determined that patricide brought capital punishment or life imprisonment. However, the law was abolished because of the trial of the Tochigi patricide case in which a woman killed her father in 1968 after she was sexually abused by him and bore their children.

Known cases and suspected cases

Ronald DeFeo, Jr. was convicted for the 1974 murders of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters.
Murder of Diane and Alan Scott Johnson
Lyle and Erik Menendez
Kip Kinkel murdered his parents on May 20, 1998, a day before the Thurston High School shooting.
Murder of Glory Chau and Moon Siu
Christopher Porco murdered his father and attempted to murder his mother with an ax on November 15, 2004.
Murder of Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley
Trey Sesler fatally shot his parents and brother on March 20, 2012.

Legal definition in Roman times

In the sixth century CE collection of earlier juristical sayings, the Digest, a precise enumeration of the victims' possible relations to the parricide is given by the 3rd century CE lawyer Modestinus:

By the lex Pompeia on parricides it is laid down that if anyone kills his father, his mother, his grandfather, his grandmother, his brother, his sister, first cousin on his father's side, first cousin on his mother's side, paternal or maternal uncle, paternal (or maternal) aunt, first cousin (male or female) by mother's sister, wife, husband, father-in-law, son-in-law, mother-in-law, (daughter-in-law), stepfather, stepson, stepdaughter, patron, or patroness, or with malicious intent brings this about, shall be liable to the same penalty as that of the lex Cornelia on murderers. And a mother who kills her son or daughter suffers the penalty of the same statute, as does a grandfather who kills a grandson; and in addition, a person who buys poison to give to his father, even though he is unable to administer it.^[5]

In film and television

In the 1993 film Addams Family Values, Deborah "Debbie" Jellinsky admits to the Addams family that during her 10th birthday celebration she was disappointed with a birthday present that her parents Dave Jellinsky and Sharon Jellinsky gave her and killed them when she set her childhood home on fire.
In the 1998 film "Star Trek: Insurrection", Captain Picard points out that "...Ru'afo need for revenge has now escalated into parricide."

Gallery

Tullia drives over the corpse of her Father
Parricide, capital punishment in Jersey

References

^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide: ... killing a near relative (now usually a father)
^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide: ... fig.: the action or crime of killing the ruler of or betraying one's country
^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide 1: A person who kills a near relative; parricide 2: The action or crime of killing a near relative
^ examples from Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.
^ Watson, Alan (ed.); Robinson, Olivia (tr.) (1998). The Digest of Justinian, Volume 4, Book 48. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-8122-2036-0. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)

External links

[1] Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide: ... killing a near relative (now usually a father)

[2] Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide: ... fig.: the action or crime of killing the ruler of or betraying one's country

[3] Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.: parricide 1: A person who kills a near relative; parricide 2: The action or crime of killing a near relative

[4] xamples from Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd. ed.

[5] Watson, Alan (ed.); Robinson, Olivia (tr.) (1998). The Digest of Justinian, Volume 4, Book 48. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-8122-2036-0. {{cite book}}: |first1= has generic name (help)

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