Mass Killings May Be Copycats

Sept. 11 -- Nikolay Soltys triggered an epidemic when took the lives of seven relatives, including his pregnant wife and 3-year-old son, last month: the four other mass killings since then have left 18 people, including nine children, dead.

While the killings occurred under different circumstances, experts believe they may have been copycat slayings fueled in part by the media attention multiple homicides command.

"It's kind of like what's been going on with the shark attacks, there's so few [generally] but when a lot of them happen at once, it attracts attention," said Frankie Bailey, assistant professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York at the University at Albany. "Mass killings can be fairly dramatic — manhunts, police pursuit, families holed up — or at least more dramatic than your 'routine' kind of killing. … People have learned they're going to get a lot of attention, get the greatest boom, if you get the media involved."

Joseph Ferguson, the suspended Sacramento security guard who was suspected of killing five people in a 24-hour weekend rampage before killing himself, knew this well. Sacramento County police said Ferguson was angered by a breakup with his girlfriend, an employee of the security company he worked for, and suspension that followed after he allegedly vandalized her car.

In a videotape police uncovered after he apparently killed himself during a police shootout, Ferguson said he wanted to make a point in his killing spree — and predicted the media was going to help him.

"I giveth and I taketh away … that's how it goes in [expletive] life," he said. "I put on a hell of a show. I've taken four victims, this should be good enough to last about a week on the news. It's time to feed the news media."

Ferguson's use of videotape, experts say, was just another way for him to give a final statement, not unlike others who have orchestrated mass slayings and then killed themselves.

"Mass murder is [itself] a statement," said James Alan Fox, professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University and author of the recently released The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder. "Usually it's a well-planned execution. They usually leave behind physical evidence such a letters where they usually lash out at a spouse, a boss, or at the world. He's [Ferguson] not the only mass killer who's done this. … There still is a copycat operative that's notable here."