DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: Look, taking a human life is justified only in the most extreme cases of self-defense. No one “deserves” to die unless… well, you get the idea.
DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: I’m not asking about the legal definition of murder here, as it is nuanced and varies by jurisdiction. But when I say “murder” you know what I mean.
With this in mind, can you think of anyone who was killed by another human being and, well, the number of people who are going to miss them is going to be quite small.
I can think of three:
Ken McElroy, a bully who terrorized a Missouri town for years. Shot in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses, none of whom saw a thing.
Mickey Hughes, serial wife-abuser whose wife burned him alive after raping her in 1977. This act toes the line between murder, self-defense, and justifiable homicide, but it’s clear that Mickey wasn’t exactly a swell guy.
Jeffrey Dahmer, a serial killer who ate his victims. Killed in prison.
Nobody missed Lee Harvey Oswald after he was shot on live TV. His testimony, maybe, but not him.
Albert DiSalvo aka the Boston Strangler, and Richard Loeb of Leopold and Loeb didn’t have many mourners after being killed in prison. (Loeb’s killer claimed it was self-defense.)
Here in San Diego, there was a neighborhood terrorizer. He got put in jail for driving over people’s lawns, threatening them, stealing, assault and battery, etc. The day he got out of jail, he went out and drove right over someone’s lawn. They shot him dead.
There were lots of people at his trial speaking out in the shooter’s defense.
“He needed killing” is not a valid legal defense (any more) but it can still have some social truth.
John Wesley Hardin shot Charles Couger for snoring. Trivial as this might sound, there have been nights where I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the jury in a case like that.
In my life, I have known two stone cold sociopaths - men who seriously could not give a damn if anyone but them lived or died. My ex-wife dated another such person before she met me.
Of these three men, one is in prison for murder right now.
I’ll go with Rasputin and Caesar. Neither brought the political situation back to where it should have been, but the aims and hopes were for the best of everyone.
I recently watched the HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, about a daughter that had an internet boyfriend murder her mother.
The mother basically was the one of the worst cases of Munchausen by Proxy ever. She made her daughter believe she suffered from just about every kind of disease imaginable, including forcing her into a wheelchair claiming that she couldn’t walk (she could), making her pretend to be younger, pretend to be chronically ill, etc, all while subjecting her to unnecessary surgery, taking unnecessary medication, and controlling her through physical and psychological abuse. All while hoovering up the adoration and sympathy of everyone, and getting tons of donations, a free Habitat for Humanity house, free trips to Disneyland, free Make-A-Wish stuff and on and on.
The total failure of everyone and everything that could have stopped this had they maybe paid some attention was staggering.
She got 10 years, and I’m not so sure she deserved any time in prison at all.
Roman Emperor Commodus comes to mind. If your royal obituary is, “Drowned in the palace bathtub by your wrestling coach” you might have taken a wrong turn with your life.
**Who Are Some Murder Victims Who Deserved To Die?
**Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth. Ha-ha! Only kidding! I believe that no one who has ever been murdered- ever, mind you, deserved to die before they were going to naturally die anyway.
The famous case of the Bully of Skidmore, Missouri, who died in a hail of gunfire in the town streets, and there were mysteriously no witnesses. Ken McElroy, 1981,
I think you could pretty much add most organised criminals to the list,
One famous case in the UK was that of the ‘Essex boys’. These were a trio of violent drug dealing bullies who were pretty much disliked by everyone around them, they also had large ideas about themselves and their status.
Pat Tate, Tony Tucker, Craig Rolfe.
Its unlikely they are missed, and definitely not by the people who shot them
In 1973 in South Carolina, one Virgil Preston Vinson murdered 12-year-old Tammy Denise Haynes.
14 years later, he was the recipient of 26 perforations by another prisoner. Vinson had the misfortune of having one of Haynes’s cousins incarcerated in the same facility.
During and after Stalin’s purges each leader of the secret police was executed by his successors - Yagoda, Yezhov, and Beria. Some Nazis such as mass murderer Arthur Nebe and several concentration camp commanders were killed by the Nazi regime. I would classify these show trials and summary executions as murder, although the OP doesn’t specify.
