MURDER

Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

—Rev. 9:21

3737 Murder In The U. S.

According to Stanford University psychiatrist Donald T. Lunde, the United States is in the midst of a record-breaking murder epidemic. In a mere 10 years since 1965, the murder rate has doubled and is now the highest in history.

American youths are the most frequent victims—and perpetuators—of murder. Death violence was the sole cause of a 19% increase in the death rate of young adults between 15 to 24 years old, this past 10 years.

There are at least 50 million guns in the hands of American civilians, with some estimates running as high as 200 million. And two-thirds of all US murders are committed with guns, almost all with handguns. Dr. Lunde said: “We have more guns per capita than any country in the world.”

3738 More Murders Than War Deaths

The murder rate in the United States is roughly 10,000 per year—more than one per hour every day in the year. In all the wars in the nations’ history, 530,000 United States combatants have been killed; but since 1900, deaths from guns alone in the U. S. have totalled more than 800,000.

3739 Same Risk As Under Combat

A study finds that a baby born in one of America’s fifty largest cities has almost a 2 percent chance of being murdered in his lifetime.

Dr. Arnold Barnett, an instructor in applied mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that his study showed that a baby born in 1970s was more likely to be murdered than an American soldier in World War II was to die in combat.

3740 Blame Now On Others

Instead of holding themselves responsible for misfortune, more Americans now blame others.

In past economic depressions, murder rates went down and suicides went up because Americans—trained in the puritan ethic of self-reliance and internal restraint—blamed themselves for personal economic failure.

Now when people reach a breaking point in frustration, they lash out at others.

3741 Pious Platitudes About Genocide

In the shock and horror that followed the revelation of Nazi extermination policies in World War II, the fledgling United Nations Organization passed a resolution on genocide, 55–0.

President Truman sent it to the United States Senate for ratification in 1949, but the Senate has never been willing to vote on it.

Most recently, supporters of the bill failed to muster the two-thirds majority necessary to throttle further debate—which has now degenerated into an anti-resolution filibuster—and bring the matter to a vote. Outraged were the treaty’s supporters, including representatives of the American Jewish Conference, the American Baptist Convention, and the National Catholic Conference. Satisfaction was voiced by the non-partisan American Bar Association as well as by several right-wing groups vehemently opposed to the treaty.

—Christianity Today

3742 Girl With Most Murders

Countess Erszebet Bathory (1560–1614) of Hungary was accused in court of killing 610 young girls. That is the most persons anyone has ever been officially charged with murdering. The names of the victims were on a list in her own handwriting.

—Bible Expositor

3743 Butcher Of The Ages

Chang Hsien-Chung, a bandit leader who gained control of the Chinese province of Szechuan, killed 40 million people during his reign of five years (1643–1648). He ranks with the most murderous butchers in history.

His government policy consisted of condemning to death everybody within reach. Their extermination is euphemistically called “His Reforms.” Chang slaughtered:

32,310 students

2,000 soldiers

3,000 harem attendants

27,000 Buddhist priests

600,000 inhabitants of Chengtu (his capital)

280 of Chang’s wives

400,000 wives, daughters and sisters of his soldiers

Then, tiring of listing his victims by categories, Chang lumped the entire 38 million inhabitants of the province of Szechuan in a single hideous holocaust. The culminating horror which cost the life of 38 million people is ascribed to Chang’s irritation when he sat down upon a prickly plant, native to the province.

When the butcher was overthrown and killed in battle by the victorious Manchus, Szechuan, the largest of China’s provinces, was a howling wilderness—without a single survivor, with not a house left standing or anything inflammable spared from incineration. For eighty years it remained a desolate shambles before the Chinese government could induce foreign settlers to begin populating the province again.

3744 Man With Extra Chromosome Excused

Daniel Hugon, a Frenchman, was adjudged guilty of murder. He was given only a seven-year sentence because of an extenuating circumstance: he had one chromosome too many!

During the trial, exhaustive and involved testimony was given by researchers and professors on whether an extra Y chromosome makes men “born killers.”

The experts attested that they did not but agree that its presence precipitated troubles of comportment and honor.

The jurors concluded that a man thus unbalanced from birth should not be severely punished for his crime.

3745 Thanks To Supreme Court

In Brooklyn, N. Y., the wife and five small children of Jose Suarez, 23-years-old, were found butchered in their Brooklyn apartment. Suarez was arrested, but he denied even knowing the mother and her children. He was discharged but re-arrested on the same day.

That night he confessed to the six murders. An assistant district attorney was present when he confessed, but the confessed murderer was not told before he was questioned of his right to have an attorney present. Suarez appeared before State Supreme Court Justice Michael Kern. According to the ruling of Earl Warren’s Supreme Court, there was nothing that the judge could do but turn the murderer loose—to go his own free way and to do whatever his depraved mind prompted him to do. Here is what the judge said:

“Even an animal such as this one—and I think it would be insulting the animal kingdom—must be clothed with all these safeguards. This is a very sad thing. It is repulsive. It makes any human being’s blood run cold and his stomach turn to let a thing like this out on the streets.”

—Baptist Tribune

3746 Stopping The Indemnity From Murderer

Confessed rapist-murderer Robert Eugene Watson deserved to be executed, said Maryland Judge George B. Rasin. But since such a sentence has become virtually unenforceable, Rasin gave the defendant a life term—and then tacked on an extraordinary proviso. Watson will be eligible for parole in 15 years, but whenever he is released, said the judge, he must pay 40% of his income for the rest of his life to the two sons of the housewife he killed.

Strenuous objections however to Judge Rasin’s reparations have already been heard from an unexpected source: the victim’s husband. The payments, Benjamin Blum said emotionally, would only serve to remind his sons of their mother’s murder, and might even put them in physical danger from Watson or his friends. “It’s society’s duty to take care of the crime,” contends Blum. “Why should society throw it back to me?” If the court does not change its ruling, Blum says, he is “going to be forced” into the distasteful position of hiring a lawyer to try to have the payment of reparations removed from the sentence of his wife’s killer.

—Selected

3747 Victim Had Died Beforehand

An aged physician was found dead in his bed with fingermarks around his throat and a knife wound in his chest; his house had been plundered. Soon after, an upholsterer in a neighboring town was arrested with some of the stolen property in his possession. He made a full confession, telling how he had killed the aged physician in his sleep.

The case seemed perfectly clear, but at the trial, the doctors who made the autopsy testified that the physician died that night of apoplexy and must have been dead for some time before the burglar broke into the house.

Therefore, in spite of his murderous intention and attempt, the burglar could be punished only for burglary.

—J. H. Bomberger

3748 That Surprise Gift Of Turkey

Nov. 23, 1849, something happened at Harvard University. That day, renowned professor of medicine Dr. Parkman was walking towards Harvard Medical College when he disappeared. No one knew where he went. Boston police looked all over, $3000 reward (dead or alive) was offered and almost all Boston was looking. But no clue.

Inside the Harvard Medical College was a janitor who began to suspect one of the professors, Dr. Webster. Reason? A few days after Dr. Parkman’s disappearance, Webster gave the janitor a very big turkey—the first gift he ever received from him in 7 years’ work. The janitor went to work.

With saw and hammer, he dug a tunnel to Dr. Webster’s laboratory. While eating the turkey at home, he drilled on; and on thanksgiving night, under the lights of a candle, he saw two legs in the laboratory. The police arrested Mr. Webster and the janitor was the principal witness.

Mr. Webster finally admitted his guilt, saying the victim was unintentionally murdered. When they were arguing and he hit him, he was surprised he died. Webster was found guilty and hanged.

3749 He Felt No Conscience

In the spring of 1953 the nation was horrified by the story of an 18-year-old boy murdering five people. Fred McManus was considered a nice boy in his home town of Valley Stream, New York. Tall, handsome, polite, of a respected and well-to-do family, Fred could not be considered criminal material.

Nevertheless, on leave from the Marines he had joined after high school graduation, young Fred picked up a 16-year-old girl and started across country, determined to be married in Minnesota where they had been incorrectly informed that minors could be married. They thumbed a ride with a 19-year-old student and murdered him. They robbed a store, shooting in cold blood the owner and his wife. While robbing a restaurant in Spring Valley, Minnesota, Fred shot a waitress and the owner’s wife.

When asked the reason for his crimes, he stated:

“I was in love and I needed the money.”

But the reason he had revealed to his intended wife. After the first murder he told her:

“It doesn’t bother me if I don’t know the people. There is no such thing as conscience. It’s just a feeling of fear that people have.”

—Arthur Tonne

3750 Ten Commandments Remains

Four men held up a grocery store in Louisville, Kentucky, and in the process shot and killed two policemen. When the men were brought to trial, their lawyer noticed a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall near the jury box.

“Judge Hayes,” said the attorney, “that framed reproduction of the Commandments is detrimental to this trial. I request that it be removed lest it adversely influence this jury.” Some people present observed that among the Commandments were these: “Thou shalt not steal”; “Thou shalt not kill.”

The judge said he did not believe the document would prejudice the trial and refused to have the Decalogue removed from the courtroom.

The Commandments remained in the courtroom.

3751 Cannibalism

A ship carrying 317 Chinese coolies in 1858 was wrecked on a reef in the South Pacific. The island appeared to be uninhabited, yet plentiful with food. Having no other choice, the crew put the coolies ashore and set out for help in a small boat. When they returned in a rescue vessel five months later, only one Chinese was still alive and all that was left of the other 316 was a pile of bones and pigtails. They had been eaten by cannibals.

—Selected

See also: Fierce ; Sins ; Violent Times ; Jas. 5:6.