The concept of mens rea or the guilty mind is significant in law; it is important for deciding culpability and criminal liability. However, in many cases, mens rea may be difficult to establish simply because the motive for a crime – particularly some murders – appears to be so bizarre! Some reasons for committing murders are so strange as to be downright stupid!
In the instance of the Charles Manson murders, the ‘Manson Family’ turned up at an address only to find that the intended victims no longer lived there. They still went ahead and killed the residents since they had taken the trouble to go there; and because they did not want to ‘waste gas money’.
This is the story of the Craiglist Cannibal. Armin Meiwes found an ad posted by Bernd Brandes. He posted an ad on The Cannibal Café that he was "looking for a well-built 18 to 30-year-old to be slaughtered and then consumed." Apparently, Meiwes obliged by killing and then eating Brandes.
Yes, you read that right, a fart. One of the two girls supposedly farted, the other made fun of her and punches were thrown. Things spiraled out of control and Shakiraa Dorsey died – in a fight over a fart.
Richard Angelo, a serial murderer is also known as the Angel of Death. As a nurse, he would inject his patients with a paralyzing drug and then wait until they went into cardiac arrest. He would then ‘save’ them. He poisoned at least 35 people and caused at least ten deaths.
Robert Lyons wanted to go to an Avril Lavigne concert and wanted his mother Linda Bolek to buy him the ticket. She would not do so however and paid for it with her life. He bashed in her head with a cognac bottle and stabbed her nine times before pouring chemicals and insecticides all over her.
Tonda Ansley shot her landlady in the face. She was convinced that she was trapped in a computer simulation and that her landlady was trying to brainwash and murder her.
Stanley Neace killed his wife because he did not like the way she made his eggs. He not only killed his own wife, he killed four other people and then himself as well.
Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire with a .22 rifle in a Cleveland elementary school. She killed the principal and custodian. She also wounded eight children and a policeperson. “I don’t like Mondays” she famously said when she was asked about the motive for the shootings. “It was a lot of fun seeing children shot,” she also said apparently.
A Tennessee couple was apparently murdered after unfriending a woman. Jenelle Potter was the daughter of one of the suspects. When she was unfriended, two men – Jamie Curd and Marvin Potter – shot Billy Clay and Billie Jean Hayworth in the head and killed them.
Roger Wilkes apparently died over a bag of Cheetos. David Scott was arguing with him over a bag of cheese puffs, things got out of hand and Scott ended up stabbing Wilkes in the chest.
Insanity must have featured in at least some of these bizarre instances but in several of these, it was simply a matter of a person being unable to control their anger! It is pretty scary to think that one can become so helpless when caught in the toils of their own emotions.
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