Family Annihilator

A "family annihilator" is a term used to refer to someone who commits familicide, the act of killing one's own family, usually immediate members, but instances of the perpetrator targeting other relatives, such as in-laws, are not unheard of. Reasons for familicide vary, and can include:


 * Spite or revenge (for example, a spouse killing their partner and the children due to custody issues)
 * A twisted act of mercy
 * Mental illness or instability, such as severe depression caused by multiple real or imagined failures

Out of all forms of mass murder, familicide is regarded as the most common, and often end with the perpetrator (who is almost always male) committing suicide.

On Criminal Minds, the term family annihilator is applied to both those who commit familicide (such as Norman Hill) and to multiple murderers who specifically target families (such as Karl Arnold).

Criminal Minds

 * Karl Arnold ("The Fox" and "Outfoxed"): A psychiatrist who targeted families he viewed as dysfunctional. Would stalk them for some time, then hold them captive while they were supposed to be on vacation, murdering them after a few days of acting as the head of the household (children and mothers were stabbed, while fathers were shot).
 * Vincent Stiles ("Ashes and Dust"): A serial arsonist who targeted businessmen he envied, and who he saw as successful versions of himself. Killed them and their families with kerosene fires, usually after trapping them in their homes.
 * Gary and Ervin Robles ("Children of the Dark"): Team killers, who were heavily abused by their foster family. Gary would kill the parents, usually via bludgeoning with an incidental object, while Ervin would "euthanize" the children (who were forced to witness the deaths of their parents) with a chemical injection.
 * Norman Hill ("Normal"): Hours after committing his first drive-by shooting, he, in a state of severe psychosis, murdered his wife and two teenaged daughters with a shotgun while they slept.
 * Miranda Jakar ("Outfoxed"): Committed a number of murders in several countries, and began specifically targeting the families (killing mothers and sons through shooting, and daughters through oxygen deprivation) of soldiers stationed overseas after fleeing to Virginia, where military maneuvers caused her to experience posttraumatic stress disorder-induced psychotic episodes.
 * Jeremy Sayer ("Safe Haven"): After being abandoned by his mother over state lines, he killed two (nearly three) families while making his way back to her. The mothers were the objects of his rage, and he would force them watch as he killed their children (via strangulation) and husband (via stabbing) before murdering them (via bludgeoning) as well.
 * While training Jordan Todd, her temporary replacement, JJ presents her with two cases, one them an apparent familicide involving a man who murdered his wife and twin daughters. Jordan correctly guesses that the familicide would have priority over the other case (a suspected serial killer) since the perpetrator may go on a spree, and target other relatives.

Real World

 * Ronald Defeo, Jr.: With no discernible motive, he shot his father, mother, two brothers, and two sisters to death while they slept in their home, 112 Ocean Avenue, which later became infamous as the site of an apparent haunting dubbed "the Amityville Horror".
 * John List: Shot his mother, wife, two sons, and daughter to death, claiming to have done so because he wanted to spare them "the shame" of having to live with a man who failed to support them in his role as patriarch (List had been recently fired, and been incurring massive debt).
 * Ronald Simmons: Spree killer who began his rampage by wiping out fourteen members of his family through various means around Christmas. The victims included his wife, eight children, three grandchildren, a daughter in-law, and a son in-law.