The Sudden Murderer

"Killers are made, not born. . . . As long as things like this happen there's no such animal as an innocent bystander. And that includes you—and me." Wade Miller Modern society has been increasingly concerned with the discharge of hostile feelings through resort to violence, especially when such acting-out culminates in murder. Of particular interest has been the "sudden murderer," the person who, without having been involved in any previous serious aggressive antisocial acts, suddenly, unlawfully, and intentionally kills (or makes a serious attempt to kill) another human being. The meaning of the murderous act has been interpreted differently by various investigators. Menninger and Mayman,8for example, suggested that murderous behavior might be a kind of "episodic dyscontrol" which functions as a regulatory device to forestall more extensive personality disintegration; Reichard and Tillman9suggested that such violence might be a defense against impending psychotic ego