# Have You Ever Had Murderous Thoughts **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 27, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118 "2011-03-27T04:14:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/1 "2011-03-27T04:14:45Z")
Read the poll options CAREFULLY. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/2 "2011-03-27T04:34:35Z")
I am finding it hard to differentiate between your ‘Yes’ options. How far do you have to go before it counts as elaborately planned? Does thinking through a realistic scenario count or do you have to come up with a date and time + start buying supplies? ---
**Author:** ![FloatyGimpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/floatygimpy/32/7750_2.png) [@FloatyGimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FloatyGimpy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/3 "2011-03-27T04:34:50Z")
My father was very abusive. One time my brother and I watched a tv movie based on a true story about a teenage son who shot and killed his father to stop the abuse of him and his younger sister. There was a loaded gun in the house and we decided that my brother would hide in the bushes when my dad came home and shoot him. The boy in the movie was sentenced to one year and we decided that it would be worth going to jail for a year to be rid of our dad. We weren’t little kids either, he was 17 and I was 15. We decided that we would go ahead with the plan. While we were talking about it one evening, we got to talking about how it would be hard on our mom. We eventually decided not to kill him because it would be too hard on our mom. He has no idea how close he came to dieing. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/4 "2011-03-27T05:34:50Z")
I have a stalker. I want him to die painfully. I want to make him suffer and die. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/5 "2011-03-27T06:20:11Z")
I have murderous thoughts all the time, and always with the ‘Psycho’ shower scene soundtrack. I had never considered until now that they _are_ elaborately planned because I would need a violinist. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/6 "2011-03-27T06:33:35Z")
I put “Yes, but only as a possibility” but on second thought I often find myself thinking about how hard it would be to get away with a murder and exactly how I’d dispose of the body and such. I have no desire to do it, just curious about how I’d react if I had to try to cover a murder up. Does that count as elaborate planning? I don’t really plan out the murder itself, just the cover up. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/7 "2011-03-27T06:33:52Z")
I voted “No, not ever”. I’m weird, ever since I can remember, whenever I am enraged to the point of wanting revenge against someone, I think that dying is too good for them. My revenge fantasies are more along the lines of “how can this person’s life be made SO miserable that it will equal or surpass the wrong they’ve done”? ---
**Author:** ![ImNotPaulAvery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@ImNotPaulAvery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ImNotPaulAvery)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/8 "2011-03-27T07:22:55Z")
I’ve only thought about it logistically, like **AClockworkMelon** said. It is kind of interesting in an idle mind exercise kind of way, but I try to find something else to do if I’ve thought about it too much. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/9 "2011-03-27T07:43:12Z")
I’ve fantasied about it fairly often, but I wouldn’t say I’d planned it out. My fantasies tend more towards wishing I could summon down a lightning bolt on them or teleport them about a mile away straight up. > [@CanvasShoes](#): > > I’m weird, ever since I can remember, whenever I am enraged to the point of wanting revenge against someone, I think that dying is too good for them. My revenge fantasies are more along the lines of “how can this person’s life be made SO miserable that it will equal or surpass the wrong they’ve done”? IIRC you are female, and I understand that sort of desire isn’t all that rare among women. Even female murderers will often kill not the person they are out to get, but the people close to them to make the target suffer. [A well known example](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_Holloway), although in her case the motive was ambition-by-proxy rather than personal malice. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/10 "2011-03-27T08:05:19Z")
Sometimes… The part that always gets me is how do i dispose of them and any evidence that I’m at fault. But I do like what CanvasShoes wants which may very well be more satisfying and fun. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/11 "2011-03-27T09:54:44Z")
I marked ‘yes elaborately planned’, but don’t worry about it too much I’m plotting mystery novels to write. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/12 "2011-03-27T11:43:30Z")
Evcery time I read in the news of the general idiocy of my fellow Amurricans.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/13 "2011-03-27T12:04:52Z")
The closest is when I read accounts of botched executions, and think of how I’d have done a better job. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/14 "2011-03-27T14:00:33Z")
Yes, heavily fantisized. I was working at a horror-house of a factory, doing hard, back-breaking labor. We went seven months with having only 2 weekends off-the holidays that were required to leave us off. I have severe arthritis in my lower back and knees and was in sheer agony with NO chance to recover at all on weekends. The office personnel were a bunch of self-centered condescending pricks who put in zero overtime and always seemed to rub it in on Fridays, coming around to our machines and telling what their weekend plans were. I used to get thru the worst of the nights by fantisizing about coming into the office with a gun and just going postal. Of course in reality I never would, and don’t even own a gun, but sometimes the fantasy got me thru. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/15 "2011-03-27T14:27:16Z")
I’ve had murderous thought, but I usually just fantasize about inventing an empathy machine, that makes the other person feel exactly what I feel. That to me is the ultimate goal. I believe that, if you felt what you did to others, you would no longer be able to do it. And, as long as you don’t do whatever made me mad ever again, I’m fine with you going about your life. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/16 "2011-03-27T15:12:52Z")
Every weekday morning. I’ve often said that the reason I don’t carry a gun is that I would use it, and I know that eventually I’d be unable to resist the temptation to use it to clear the left lane of the escalator at Malden Station. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/17 "2011-03-27T15:47:48Z")
Why isn’t “Yes; followed through on it” an option? ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/18 "2011-03-27T15:56:59Z")
Because, **42fish** , it would be grammatically incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/19 "2011-03-27T18:02:47Z")
Only one person, only occasionally when the memories become too much to bear do I wish I could kill him myself, slowly. I don’t play out fantasies, it’s just a wish that I’d killed him when I had the chance. But then I recognize that his death wouldn’t take away the memories and honestly, I can’t even kill bugs much less my own father. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118/20 "2011-03-27T18:21:05Z")
I hope no one will be so foolish as to admit in the thread that they have planned a murder. I don’t ever intend to kill anyone unless it is in self-defense or defense of my family. That said, I can think of a couple of people who, if they were to die violently, suddenly, and mysteriously, I would not blame for police for immediately questioning me. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-had-murderous-thoughts/576118.md?page=2)