# Who is the Killer in the Richard Marx Song "Hazard" (1992) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [May 6, 2022, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074 "2022-05-06T17:07:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/21 "2022-05-07T18:19:15Z")
When it comes to a lot of the details, there are questions of what is literal truth, and what is/is not metaphor. We see several characters apparently standing on water - metaphor, ghost, or mental image all all possible. When it comes to the fire, I’m of many minds, because the singer’s mom and mother don’t seem to react in any way. Again, unreal? Metaphor for a house that is burning down in terms of relationships failing? Or did the singer kill/drug them and burn the whole thing down and get away with it? Certainly the last is the most extreme interpretation, but possible. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2022, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/22 "2022-05-07T18:23:11Z")
@MrDibble’s argument makes sense, the “if I can’t have her, nobody can have her!” trope. Que the mandatory ‘Beata Maria/Hellfire’ from Hunchback! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EAM718HVNMU/hqdefault.jpg "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame - Hellfire") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAM718HVNMU) Although honestly, this clip works really terrifyingly well with the theory in question. Complete with claims of innocence, lack of culpability, and victim blaming. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/23 "2022-05-10T02:14:55Z")
On a slightly different note… is that Robert Conrad playing the sheriff? I re-watched it this evening and the voice jumped out at me during the spoken word part, and it sure looks like him as an old man. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/24 "2022-05-10T02:56:48Z")
According to IMDB for the video, yes, the sheriff is Robert Conrad. > **[Richard Marx: Hazard (Music Video 1992) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6882252/)** > > Richard Marx: Hazard: Directed by Michael Haussman. With Richard Marx, Renee Parent, Robert Conrad, Jennifer O'Neill. An outcast in the small town of Hazard is blamed for the murder of a young woman. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/25 "2022-05-10T13:35:41Z")
Huh… I didn’t know videos were on IMDB. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2022, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/26 "2022-05-10T14:08:24Z")
This is the dope, chance to learn something new every day! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/27 "2022-05-11T14:38:55Z")
Indeed. In a semi-related note, I want to shake my virtual fist at @ParallelLines because I’ve had “Hazard” playing in my head for the better part of a week now. I even tried watching the video through like 3 times in a row in hopes that would satiate whatever part of my brain seems to want to hear it. No luck! At least it’s a good song and isn’t that baby shark song or something equally awful. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2022, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/28 "2022-05-11T20:34:13Z")
As you say, worse songs to have stuck in the head. And as I’ve gotten older, I find I have to have longer chains of repeats to break an earworm. Three would never cut it. Now, if you start lying abed at night pondering who the killer was, then I will take a metaphorical punch to the face with grace! ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2022, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074/29 "2022-05-12T20:53:43Z")
So anyway, one of the things that came up in this thread was the suicide pact that @GreysonCarlisle brought up. This had never occurred to me in my many ponderings, but certainly wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility. Two individuals too scared to give up by themselves, but feeling better doing it together. And it certainly fits the line “no one understood what I felt for Mary” line. I always wondered about that line, because, well, everyone can understand love, infatuation, dependency and the like, although most _teens_ think they’re the first ones to feel it that intensely. I always gave the line a questioning pass by the argument above, but it takes on a much more ominous note given the suicide pact theory. It brought up another line though “all of my rescues are gone”… each time I hear it, I ponder the seeming passiveness of our POV character. Both in the song and the video, they seem to take no active action, just the most passive denials, to the point that even in the very end they don’t stand up for themselves, or the loss of their home, and just leave. It does make me wonder if someone who is that passive could be our killer. But it would fit with being too scared to kill himself without the support of Mary - and it might also point to why Mary was with the unknown stranger - she’s been reaching out all this time for someone to save her as well, and the singer, in this interpretation, is too emotionally damaged to take action on their own. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-killer-in-the-richard-marx-song-hazard-1992/964074.md?page=1)