Mass Killings May Be Copycats
Sept. 11, 2001 -- 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."
Killings in Clusters
Fox also noted that the rash of mass killings or shootings is not unprecedented and that they tend to occur in clusters. In July and August 1999, there were four fatal mass shootings during a six-week period:
On July 4, reputed white supremacist Benjamin Nathaniel Smith went on a rampage in Illinois and Indiana that left a black man and a South Korean man dead before he killed himself.
On July 29, Mark O. Barton, a frustrated investor killed nine people and wounded 13 in Atlanta before killing himself
On Aug. 5, Alabama Alan Eugene Miller gunned down three co-workers in rampage
Buford Furrow wounded five at a Los Angeles Jewish Center and killed a postal worker when he went on a shooting rampage on Aug. 10
Profile of a Mass Killing
Experts say it is difficult to profile mass killers because they motivated by unique circumstances. It is still unclear why Nikolay Soltys allegedly killed seven members of his family. Authorities in Iowa have not revealed why they believe 23-year-old Adam Moss killed his girlfriend, her five children and another man during a killing spree on Aug. 30. Simi Valley police said Reynaldo Herrera Rodriguez mistakenly believed his ex-girlfriend gave him a disease and was looking for her when he opened fire on her family and killed her daughter, brother and grandmother Sept. 6.
However, most mass killings are motivated by domestic or job-related problems.
"Obviously, it's safe to say that most are deeply disturbed, going through some kind of family stress, spousal stress," said Bailey. "They believe that this [a mass killing] is my way of getting revenge."
According to the latest statistics from the Justice Department, very few homicides in the United States are mass killings. In 1999, 4 percent of all homicides nationwide involved two victims; 1 percent involved 5 or more victims. Alan Fox said there are about one or two mass homicides a month, but warned that that could increase, especially with more people experiencing layoffs during these unstable economic times.
"There's a potential for more [killings] and several factors are contributing to this," Fox said. "There's more and more damage being done to the middle-aged — according to demographics most mass killers are middle-aged men — and baby boomers are not doing as well as they once were. … There will be more people fearing for their jobs, fearing that there will won't be anymore opportunities for positions or at least not the ones they once had. And how many opportunities do you have when you're 45-50 years old and suddenly out of work, outside of flipping burgers? Not very many."