[OVERVIEW]
Most killers have reasons at to why they kill. Whether their motive is money, love, lust, or fame almost all killers kill for their own reason. Some killers have killed because there were bored and some have even weirder reasons that don't make sense to a lot of people. That's what we are going to look at today.
"Abnormal" reasons people have killed.
[MONDAYS]
Brenda Lee Spencer was 16 in 1979. She lived in San Diego, California and her house was across the street from Grover Cleveland Elementary School.
Brenda's home life was very unstable. Her parents were divorced, she lived with her father. They lived in poverty. They slept on a single mattress in the living room and her father was an alcoholic.
For Christmas of 1978 she wanted a radio. Instead her father gave her a Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle with a telescopic sight and 500 rounds of ammunition. When asked about why she thought he gave her that she replied "I felt like he wanted me to kill myself."
On the morning of Monday, January 29, 1979 she watched as kids at the elementary school gathered outside. That was when she grabbed the gun her father gave her and opened fire on little children.
She killed 2 adults, the principal Burton Wragg and a custodian Mike Suchar who were trying to get all the kids to safety.
She injured 9 others, 8 children and 1 police officer, but all of them lived.
She barricaded herself inside her home and was on the phone with a journalist. When the journalist asked why she did it she replied with,
"I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
Spencer was charges as an adult and pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
On April 4, 1980 she was sentenced for 25 years to life. In 1993 she could have hearings to see if she was suitable for parole. She has tried four times for parole but has been turned down each time.
[THE MATRIX DEFENSE]
The Matrix is a well known movie. The Mateix, for those who don't know, is basically saying that reality is a computer generation, that nothing in the world around us is actually real.
Many have used this movie as a defense. They believe we apart of the Matrix rather than in the real world.
Tonda Lynn Ansley of Hamilton, Ohio, was found not guilty by reason of insanity using this defense after shooting her landlady in the head in July 2002.
Vadim Mieseges of San Francisco offered a "Matrix" explanation to police after chopping up his landlady, and was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Joshua Cooke's lawyers were going to attempt this defense in 2003 in his trial for the murder of his adoptive parents, before he pleaded guilty.
The case of Lee Malvo also included references to The Matrix, mentioned in the writings taken from his jail cell; he reportedly shouted "Free yourself from the Matrix" from his cell after his arrest, and told FBI agents to watch the film if they wanted to understand him.
[PHOTOBOMBING]
Annie Hung Pham, also known as Kim Pham, was born in Vietnam in 1990 but she later moved to California.
In 2014 Kim was beaten to death outside a nightclub for unintentionally photobombing two girls photos.
A confrontation happened because the two girls were so angry that Kim photobombed them and witnesses say Kim took the first swing. From there Zavala and Brito beat her so senselessly while many people stood by watching or recording it with their phones.
Kim was announced brain dead and a few days later was taken off life support.
Both women were only given 6 years for the death of Kim.
[PARKING SPOT]
In April of 2011 Sian James confronted an off duty police officer, Brian Stevenson. James was angry over a parking spot that Brian took.
While Brian was walking away from the confrontation James took the opportunity to grab a fist size piece of concrete and hurled it at Brian's head, fracturing his skull and eventually killing him just two hours before his birthday.
At this time James was out of jail on bail over a separate incident where he tried to rape an ex girlfriend.
James attorney said that James was acting in self defense because he thought Brian was drunk and thought he was going to shoot him and his friends.
James was charged with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. A sentence that James had to do.
[UNFRIENDING]
Janelle Potter has trouble making friends when she moved to Tennessee in 2005. Because of her health problems she stayed most of her time in doors. She lived with her parents because she couldn't take care of herself.
Janelle's sister Christine, who has been estranged from the family for years, said their parents were the reason Janelle didn't make friends easily. She said instead of being herself their parents forced Janelle to act like someone else. She also said that social media became a type of life support for her as she didn't necessarily have to act like someone else.
While Janelle and her parents went out to get Janelles medication she ended up making a friend, the pharmacist Tracy Greenwell. Janelle started spending time with Tracy and some of her friends, including Tracy's brother, Bill. Tracy even introduced her to Jamie Curd, her cousin. Janelle and Jamie started dating but hid it from her parents.
Janelle than started to get bullied on Facebook. People would write on her walk about how she was a bad person and even threatened to rape her.
Janelle said one of her Facebook friends Billie Jean Hayworth was the one behind the bullying because she was jealous of Janelle. But Billie has always denied this claim and there was no proof she was.
Billie was dating to Bill and they had a 7 month old son together.
Janelle than started to post on Facebook about how she wished Billie, Bill and their child would die.
Billie and Bill than unfriended her on Facebook.
Both Billie and Bill were found dead, shot in the head, while their infant was in Billies arms, thankfully unharmed.
While the police questioned Janelles father, Marvin Potter, they got a search warrant for their home, including the family's computer. They also found 100 pages of shredded documents in Marvin's truck that were of emails.
After going through it all they found out the parents had come in contact with "Chris" who claimed he was CIA.
Chris told Barbara that Billie and Bill were threatening Janelles life as well as her and her husbands lives. Chris told them that he would watch when they went out because Billie and Bill would follow them and he wanted to make sure nothing happened.
And they analyzed the Potters computer they found out that Chris emails were being sent from the same IP address as the home of the Potters.
Police believed Janelle created Chris in order to trick her parents into believing their lives were in danger because she knew her father would end up killing Billie and Bill.
In 2013 Janelle and her mother were arrested. Marvin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to two life terms. Curd took a plea deal for 25 years because he knew about the murders and hid it from police.
In 2015 both women went in front of a jury for first degree murder.m and both were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
[RAP MUSIC]
On November 23, 2012 Michael Dunn, 45, pulled into a gas station in Florida when Jordan Davis, 17, and his friends pulled into the same station.
Jordan was playing rap music in his car and Michael felt it was too loud and causing a disturbance. He went up to the young boys where an argument ensured.
The argument ended with Dunn pulled out a Taurus PT 99 AF and shot into the car. Bullets hit Jordan's legs, lungs and aorta. The boys quickly drove away and parked at a nearby lot where Jordan was gasping for air.
At the time Michaels girlfriend, Rhonda Rouer, didn't think anyone had died and that Michael was doing it in self defense as that's what her husband told her. So they went back to their hotel room. The next day she saw on the news that the boy had died and that's when she realized her boyfriend had killed a young boy the previous night.
Dunn told police that even though he didn't call the police he did call a friend who worked for law enforcement. Phone records proved that the friend had actually called him and Rhonda testified that no shooting was even mentioned by Dunn during the phone call.
After his arrest Dunn claimed that Jordan got out and threatened him with a gun, something he said he told Rhonda about many time, but Rouer claimed that Dunn had never mentioned that to her before. Jordan's friends also said he never got out of the car and couldn't because the child lock was on.
On February 15, 2014 he was found guilty of three attempts of tempted murder and firing a gun in an occupied vehicle. The sentencing for these were delayed until after the murder trail but he was looking at up to 75 years; 20 years for each count of attempted murder and 15 for firing his weapon in an occupied car.
On October 1, 2014 Michael Dunn was found guilty of second degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 90 years.
His attorneys tried to appeal his conviction in 2016 but was denied.
[PHONE AT THE MOVIES]
Using your phone while in a movie theater is very rude. But when you use it dying the previews or before the movie has started most wont care.
Curtis Reeves, 75, apparently did however.
Chad Oulson, 43, and his wife were sitting in front of Curtis Reeves. Chad was texting their young daughter before the movie even began which enraged Curtis. He started a confrontation where he pulled at a gun and shot Chad in the chest, killing him.
This happened in 2014, it is currently 2019 and Curtis hasn't been found guilty or innocent yet.
That is because of the Stand Your Ground law that Florida has. Stand Your Ground and Self Defense are two different things.
Self Defense would be if i start beating you and you felt you had no other choice but to pull out a knife and stab me.
With Florida's Stand Your Ground I do not have to hit you in order for you to take action. If you feel you life is in immediate danger it can justify using deadly force. The "stand your ground" law says "a person" is justified in using deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm, or to prevent a forcible felony.
Curtis is using the Stand Your Ground claim, saying that Curtis felt threatened and that his life was in danger
The lawyer of the widow lashed out publicly because he felt it was painfully obvious they are using the SYG law in order to delay for one of two outcomes. The first outcome being that they will be offered a plea deal and the second outcome being waiting until he is too frail and sick to withstand trial.
[CHEETOS]
If you read my message board you've seen me talk about this one vaguely.
David Scott who was 51 in 2014 when this happened fatally stabbed 42 year old homeless man, Roger Wilkes.
Roger had bought him a bag of Cheetos and David wanted some, but Roger refused to share. So David took out a knife and stabbed him to death.
David than fled with the bag of Cheetos but was eventually caught. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.