Uxoricide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Uxoricide (from Latin uxor meaning "wife") is murder of one's wife. It can refer to the act itself or the man who carries it out. Uxoricide is often caused by the wife's attempt to leave her husband, or by real or suspected infidelity. Excessive force is reported to be common in these slayings, presumably reflecting the emotional state of the killer.
In many patriarchal cultures uxoricide is regarded less harshly than other forms of homicide, especially in cases of adultery. It may even be regarded as the correct, honourable thing to do. (See honor killing)
[edit] Uxoricide in fiction
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
- The titular character in William Shakespeare's play Othello murders his wife Desdemona, under the false belief that she had committed adultery.
- Uxoricide is a key event in the legendary horror/mystery film I Saw What You Did.
- In the Agatha Christie novel Death on the Nile, Simon Doyle and his former fiancée Jacqueline plot to murder his wife, the wealthy Linnet.
- In the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith, husband John and wife Jane are assassins hired to kill one another.
Spoilers end here.
[edit] Known or suspected uxoricides
- Cambyses II of Persia married two of his sisters and installed the younger as queen consort of Egypt. During his insanity, he murdered her for weeping for their brother Smerdis, whom Cambyses had murdered.
- Ptolemy XI of Egypt had his wife and stepmother, Berenice III, murdered nineteen days after their wedding in 80 BC. Afterwards, Ptolemy was lynched by the citizens of Alexandria, with whom Berenice was very popular.
- Roman Emperor Tiberius probably had his second wife, Julia, starved to death in 14 AD, while she was in exile on Pandataria. Their marriage was unhappy, and he had been publicly embarrassed by her adultery years earlier. Her alleged paramour, Sempronius Gracchus, was executed around the same time on Tiberius’s orders.
- Roman Emperor Nero ordered the death of his first wife, Octavia, soon after divorcing her in 62 AD. He also reportedly kicked his second wife, Poppaea Sabina, to death in 65 AD after an argument.
- John Emil List murdered his three children, mother and his wife on November 9, 1971. He was a fugitive for 18 years. He was apprehended on June 1, 1989 after an episode of "Americas Most Wanted" aired. On May 1, 1990 he was sentenced to 5 life terms in prison.
- In 1994, former football star and actor O.J. Simpson was charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman outside Brown-Simpson's Brentwood, CA condominium. In what the media dubbed "The Trial of the Century", Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of criminal first-degree murder, but was later convicted in a civil wrongful death suit brought by the Goldman family and ordered to pay over $30 million in damages.
- Actor Robert Blake was found not guilty of the 2001 murder of his wife Bonnie Lee Bakley, but was found liable for her wrongful death in a 2005 civil suit filed by her children from previous marriages.
- Scott Peterson murdered his pregnant wife Laci Peterson in 2002. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2005.
- Mark Hacking murdered his wife Lori Hacking in 2004. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2005.
- On October 10, 2006, Hans Reiser was arrested and subsequently charged with the murder of his wife, Nina Reiser.
