A spree killer is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."[1]
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According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the general definition of spree murder is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders, without a cooling-off period; the lack of a cooling-off period marking the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder. The category has, however, been found to be of no real value to law enforcement, because of definitional problems relating to the concept of a "cooling-off period".[2] Serial killers are different in that the murders are clearly separate events, happening at different times, while the attacks of mass murderers are defined by one incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders.[2]
Another term, rampage killer, has sometimes been used to describe spree killers, but it does not differentiate between mass murderers and spree killers.
Incident | Location | Year | Killer | Victims killed | Notes |
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Wagner killings | Germany | 1913 | Ernst August Wagner | 14 | Wagner killed his wife and four children before launching a gun and arson attack in Mühlhausen an der Enz which killed nine. He was sent to an asylum and died in 1938.[3] |
Tsuyama massacre | Japan | 1938 | Mutsuo Toi | 30 | Using a shotgun and swords, Toi killed 30 in an hour and a half before killing himself.[4] |
The Walk of Death | United States | 1949 | Howard Unruh | 13 | 28-year-old Unruh killed 13 people in Camden, New Jersey with a Luger P08 pistol, the worst mass murder in the United States at the time. Unruh was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was detained without trial until his death in 2009.[5] |
Cook killings | United States | 1951 | Billy Cook | 6 | Cook murdered six people between Missouri and California on a 22-day rampage before being arrested in Mexico. He was executed at San Quentin State Prison on 22 December 1952.[6] |
Starkweather/Fugate murders | United States | 1958 | Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate | 11 | Starkweather and his adolescent girlfriend Fugate murdered 10 people over the course of eight days before being apprehended by police. Starkweather was executed at Nebraska State Penitentiary in 1959. Fugate was imprisoned until 1976. |
University of Texas at Austin massacre | United States | 1966 | Charles Whitman | 14 | Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, killed 14 people and wounded 31 others as part of a shooting spree from the observation deck of the University's 32-story administrative building. He did this shortly after murdering his wife and his mother. He was eventually shot and killed by an Austin police officer. |
Colorado Springs killings | United States | 1975 | Freddie Lee Glenn | 5 | Along with accomplice Michael Corbett, Glenn was convicted of murdering three people in 1975; combined, the pair were responsible for a total of five deaths in and around Colorado Springs:[7]
Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook, Winfred Proffitt, 19, a soldier, and Karen Grammer who was an 18-year-old who worked at Red Lobster and was the younger sister of actor Kelsey Grammer. |
Coastal Road massacre | Israel | 1978 | Eleven Palestinian assailants | 38 | Attack involving the hijacking of a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway in which 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, were killed, and 71 were wounded. |
Uiryeong massacre | South Korea | 1982 | Woo Bum-kon | 57 | Woo, a 27-year-old disgruntled police officer, killed 57 and wounded 35 people using two M2 carbines and hand grenades in an eight-hour rampage before committing suicide. |
Massacre at bar 't Koetsiertje | Netherlands | 1983 | Cevdet Yılmaz | 6 | The Dutch-Turkish Cevdet Yilmaz (nicknamed Ted the Turk) shot and killed 6 patrons of the bar 't Koetsiertje in Delft after one of the patrons insulted him because of his ethnic background. Yilmaz was the first gun-wielding Dutch spree killer. |
Edmond United States Post Office massacre | United States | 1986 | Patrick Sherrill | 14 | Patrick Sherrill, a United States Postal Service employee, shot and killed 14 people at his workplace in Edmond, Oklahoma after being reprimanded by his supervisors before killing himself.[8] |
Pozzetto Massacre | Colombia | 1986 | Campo Elías Delgado | 30 | Campo Elías Delgado, a Colombian Vietnam War veteran, killed 21 people with a .32 revolver at the restaurant "Pozzeto" before being shot and killed by the Colombian police. Hours before the murder, he killed nine people in his apartment block, including his mother. |
Hoddle Street massacre | Australia | 1987 | Julian Knight | 7 | Knight murdered 7 people and injured 19 during a shooting spree in Clifton Hill, Victoria. |
Hungerford massacre | United Kingdom | 1987 | Michael Robert Ryan | 16 | Using two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, Ryan killed 16 people and wounded 15 others in a space of 7 hours before shooting himself. |
Dover massacre | United States | 1987 | Ronald Gene Simmons | 16 | Simmons murdered 14 family members over a week long period in December 1987 before driving to his workplace in Russellville, Arkansas and fatally shooting two co-workers. He was executed by in 1990.[9] |
Luxiol shooting spree | France | 1989 | Christian Dornier | 14 | Dornier shot dead his sister and mother, and killed 12 others in Luxiol, France. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to a psychiatric hospital.[10] |
Standard Gravure shooting | United States | 1989 | Joseph Wesbecker | 8 | On September 14, 1989, Wesbecker, a pressman at Standard Gravure in Louisville, Kentucky who was under treatment for depression, entered his former workplace armed with a rifle and four pistols, killed eight people and injured 12 others before killing himself.[11] |
Aramoana massacre | New Zealand | 1990 | David Gray | 12 | Gray ran riot with a rifle through the Otago seaside village of Aramoana, shooting helpless individuals. He was shot dead by the Special Tactics Group around 34 hours after the incident began. |
Luby's massacre | United States | 1991 | George Hennard | 23 | Hennard, 35, was described as angry and withdrawn with a dislike of women. He drove his pickup truck through the window of Luby's Cafeteria and proceeded to fatally shoot 23 people before turning the gun on himself as police arrived. |
Falun killings | Sweden | 1994 | Mattias Flink | 7 | Flink, a fänrik in the Swedish Army, shot and killed seven people, including five fellow female soldiers, with his AK5 assault rifle, in a park in Downtown Falun, near his regiment. An eighth victim was also shot, but survived. Flink was sentenced to life imprisonment. |
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre | Hebron, West Bank | 1994 | Baruch Goldstein | 29 | Goldstein used an IMI Galil assault rifle to kill 29 Palestinians at a place of worship in Hebron. He was beaten to death after being overpowered by a crowd.[12] |
Tian Mingjian incident | China | 1994 | Tian Mingjian | 23 | Using a Type 81 rifle, Tian killed 23 people near Jianguomen on 20 September, including an Iranian diplomat and his son. He was finally shot dead by a police sniper. |
Cuers shooting spree | France | 1995 | Eric Borel | 12 | After murdering his mother, stepfather and half-brother the previous day, 16-year-old Borel went on a shooting spree in Cuers shooting dead an additional 12 people before he killed himself. |
Dunblane massacre | United Kingdom | 1996 | Thomas Hamilton | 17 | The Dunblane school massacre resulted in many deaths in a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland and resulted in a handgun ban in the United Kingdom. |
Port Arthur massacre | Australia | 1996 | Martin Bryant | 35 | Using an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR, Bryant killed 35 and injured 21 in five hours before being arrested by the Special Operations Group of the Tasmanian Police. |
Columbine High School massacre | United States | 1999 | Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold | 13 | Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, both armed with shotguns and semi-automatic weapons, arrived at Columbine High School on the afternoon of April 20, 1999 and fatally shot twelve classmates and one teacher before committing suicide. |
Zug massacre | Switzerland | 2001 | Friedrich Leibacher | 15 | Friedrich Leibacher shot and killed 14 people at the Parliament in Zug before killing himself. |
Bat Mitzvah massacre | Israel | 2002 | Abdel Salam Hassouna | 6 | A Palestinian gunman killed six people and wounded 33 at a Bat Mitzvah celebration in Hadera, before being killed. |
Mdantsane massacre | South Africa | 2002 | Bulelani Vukwana | 11 | Vukwana, 29, killed 11 people and injured 6 in the South African township of Mdantsane after an argument with his girlfriend. |
Matzuva attack | Israel | 2002 | Two Palestinian militants | 6 | Two Islamic Jihad terrorists whom infiltrated to Israel from Lebanon fired small arms and threw hand grenades at vehicles traveling on the Shlomi-Matzuva road, killing six Israelis and injuring one. |
Erfurt school shooting | Germany | 2002 | Robert Steinhäuser | 16 | Robert Steinhäuser, 19, used a Glock 17 with 31-rounds extension-magazines to kill 16 people at Gutenberg secondary school half a year after being expelled from there without graduation and then shot himself. He also carried a Mossberg 590 shotgun which was however not used during the attacks. [13] |
Itamar attack | Itamar, West Bank | 2002 | Two Palestinian militants | 5 | Palestinian militants broke into a civilian house in the Israeli settlement of Itamar, killing the Shabo family, murdering a mother and her three sons, while injuring two children. Later on the militants also killed the commander of the rescue squad during his attempt to free civilians trapped in the house. |
Beltway sniper attacks | United States | 2002 | John Allen Muhammad & Lee Boyd Malvo | 10 | Muhammad and 17-year old Malvo killed 10 and injured several others over the course of three weeks. Muhammad, who was 41, was executed 10 November 2009. Malvo is currently serving six consecutive life sentences. |
Beit She'an attack | Israel | 2002 | Two Palestinian militants | 6 | Shooting carried out by a squad of Palestinian militants on the Israeli city of Beit She'an. During the attack the Palestinian militants opened fire and threw grenades at the Likud polling station in the city, where party members were casting their votes in the Likud primary. |
Red Lake massacre | United States | 2005 | Jeff Weise | 9 | Weise shot and killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend, both police officers. He then proceeded to a local high school and shot and killed a security guard. Once inside the school, Weise fatally shot five students and a teacher before committing suicide. Weise killed 9 and injured 15. |
Virginia Tech massacre | United States | 2007 | Seung-Hui Cho | 32 | Cho, using two pistols, killed 32 in two separate events and then himself in the course of about three hours. |
Jokela school shooting | Finland | 2007 | Pekka-Eric Auvinen | 8 | Auvinen, a 18-year-old high school student, killed eight people with a semi-automatic pistol before shooting himself in the head. |
Mercaz HaRav massacre | Israel | 2008 | Alaa Abu Dhein | 8 | A lone Palestinian gunman shot multiple students at the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, a religious school in Jerusalem, after which the gunman himself was shot dead. |
Kauhajoki school shooting | Finland | 2008 | Matti Juhani Saari | 10 | Saari, a 22-year-old culinary arts student, killed ten people with a semi-automatic pistol before shooting himself in the head. |
Geneva County massacre | United States | 2009 | Michael McLendon | 10 | McLendon, a 28-year-old unemployed man, used an SKS rifle, a Bushmaster AR-15 and a .38-caliber handgun to kill 10 people before shooting himself. |
Winnenden school shooting | Germany | 2009 | Tim Kretschmer | 15 | Kretschmer, a 17-year-old former student, used a Beretta 92FS to kill 15 people in two separate locations before shooting himself. |
2009 attack on the Dutch Royal Family | Netherlands | 2009 | Karst Tates | 8 | A 38-year-old man drove his car at high speed into a parade which included Queen Beatrix, Prince Willem-Alexander and other members of the Dutch Royal Family, killing 7 spectators and participants as well as himself. |
Fort Hood shooting | United States | 2009 | Nidal Malik Hasan | 14 | Fourteen people killed and 29 wounded in a mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. The shooter, a U.S. Army major Nidal Malik Hasan was carrying an FN Five-seven along with a .357 Magnum revolver, he was shot and injured by a police officer. |
Sello mall shooting | Finland | 2009 | Ibrahim Shkupolli | 5 | On 31 December 2009, 43-year-old Ibrahim Shkupolli, a Kosovar Albanian immigrant with a history of violence and criminal activity, stabbed and killed his ex-girlfriend in her Espoo apartment before moving on to the Sello mall, where her new boyfriend worked. He shot and killed four people at the mall with a stolen handgun, injuring none. His ex-girlfriends new lover was believed to be among the victims. Later that day, Shkupolli was found dead in his nearly-empty apartment of an apparent suicide. |
2010 Appomattox shootings | United States | 2010 | Christopher Speight | 8 | Speight killed eight people in three locations in Appomattox, Virginia with a high-powered rifle over the course of several hours before surrendering to police. |
Cumbria shootings | United Kingdom | 2010 | Derrick Bird | 12 | Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, shot dead 12 people in several towns and villages in west Cumbria. He also injured 11 others in a four-hour rampage. Bird took his life with his own gun. |
2010 Bratislava shooting | Slovakia | 2010 | Ľubomír Harman | 8 | Eight people (including the perpetrator) died and 17 were injured after a gunman opened fire armed with a Vz. 58 assault rifle in a suburb of Bratislava, Slovakia. Harman is the first gun-wielding Slovak spree killer. |
2011 Alphen aan den Rijn shopping mall shooting | Netherlands | 2011 | Tristan van der Vlis | 7 | Six people were killed by a gunman who then committed suicide and 17 were injured in a shopping mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands. |
2011 Grand Rapids, Michigan shooting | United States | 2011 | Rodrick Dantzler | 8 | Seven people killed in two separate homes and two persons injured by firearms, suspect later killed himself after holding three people hostage in a home. |
2011 Norway attacks | Norway | 2011 | Anders Behring Breivik | 77 | On July 22, 2011, Breivik, a right-wing terrorist with extremist views, killed eight people with a car bomb he had planted outside of a government building in Oslo. Two hours later, dressed in a police uniform, he opened fire at a summer camp operated by the youth division of the Norwegian Labour Party on the island of Utøya, killing 69 people, most of whom were teenagers. When police arrived on the island, Brevik surrendered without resistance. |
2011 Copley Township, Ohio shooting | United States | 2011 | Michael Hance | 7 | Armed with a Hi-Point .45 ACP and a .357 magnum revolver, Hance went on a shooting spree. He first wounded his girlfriend , then he killed seven people before being shot and killed by police.[14] |
Homicide |
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Murder |
Note: Varies by jurisdiction |
Assassination · Child murder Consensual homicide Contract killing · Felony murder rule Honor killing · Human sacrifice (Child) Lust murder · Lynching Mass murder · Murder–suicide Proxy murder · Lonely hearts killer Serial killer · Spree killer Torture murder · Feticide Double murder · Misdemeanor murder Crime of passion · Internet homicide Depraved-heart murder |
Manslaughter |
in English law Negligent homicide Vehicular homicide |
Non-criminal homicide |
Note: Varies by jurisdiction |
Justifiable homicide Capital punishment Human sacrifice Feticide Medicide |
By victim or victims |
Suicide |
Family |
Other |