Mariticide

Mariticide(fromLatinmaritus"husband" +-cide,fromcaedere"to cut, to kill" ) literally means the killing of one's ownhusband.It can refer to the act itself or the person who carries it out. It can also be used in the context of the killing of one's ownboyfriend.In current common law terminology, it is used as a gender-neutral term for killing one's own spouse orsignificant otherof either sex. Conversely, the killing of a wife or girlfriend is calleduxoricide.

Prevalence

According toCenters for Disease Control and Prevention,mariticide made up 30% of the total spouse murders in the United States, data not including proxy murders conducted on behalf of the wife.^[1]FBI data from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s found that for every 100 husbands who killed their wives in the United States, about 75 women killed their husbands indicating a 3:4 ratio of mariticide touxoricide.^[2]

English common law

UnderEnglishcommon law it was apetty treason until 1828,and until it was altered under theTreason Act 1790the punishment was to be strangled andburnt at the stake.^[3]

Notable instances

Historical

Laodice Iallegedly poisoned her husbandAntiochus II Theosof theSeleuciddynasty around 246 BC.
Livilla,along with her loverSejanus,probably poisoned her husbandDrusus the Younger.
The Roman emperorClaudiuswas allegedly poisoned by his wifeAgrippina the Youngerto ensure the succession of her sonNero.
Jean Kincaid(1579–1600) was a Scottish woman who was convicted of mariticide. Her youth and beauty were dwelt upon in numerous popular ballads, which are to be found in Jamieson's, Kinloch's, and Buchan's collections.^[4]
Mary Hobry(1688), decapitated her abusive husband in London.^[5]
Mary Channing(1706), a Dorset woman who poisoned her husband to be with her lover.^[6]
Marie-Josephte Corriveau,1763,New France
TheBlack Widows of Liverpool,Catherine Flannigan (1829–1884) and Margaret Higgins (1843–1884) were Scottish sisters who were hanged at Kirkdale Gaol inLiverpool,for the murder of Thomas Higgins, Margaret's husband.
Rebecca Copin(1796–1881) attempted to murder her husband in Virginia by putting arsenic in his coffee. While the jury agreed that she attempted mariticide in 1835, they did not grant her husband a divorce.
Florence Maybrick(1862–1941) spent fourteen years in prison in England after being convicted of murdering her considerably older English husband, James Maybrick, in 1889.
Tillie Klimekclaimed to have psychic powers by predicting her husbands' deaths in Chicago, but was proven after the attempted murder of her fifth husband that she was poisoning them with arsenic.
Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaterswere executed in 1923 for the murder of Thompson's husband Percy in London.
Annie Walshbecame the last woman to beexecutedin Ireland, in 1925, having murdered her husband.
Betty Broderickshot and killed her ex-husband, Daniel, and his new wife, Linda, in 1989 while they were sleeping in their home in the United States.
Heather Oslanddrugged and had her son kill her husband in 1991, creating a test case for thebattered woman syndromedefense in Australia.^[7]
Katherine Knight(b. 1955) murdered herde factohusband in October 2001 in Australia by stabbing him, then skinned him and attempted to feed pieces of his body to his children.^[8]She was sentenced to life in prison without parole: her appeal against this sentence as too harsh was rejected.^[9]
Sheila Garvie, convicted in 1968 of themurder of Maxwell Garvie,her husband, in Scotland.
In 1983, musicianFelix Pappalardiwas shot and killed by his wifeGail Collins Pappalardiin the United States.
In 1991,Pamela Smarthad her husband murdered by a student of hers in New Hampshire. Though the student committed the murder, the courts ruled that Smart had been guilty of mariticide due to her influence on the young man and her convincing manner to get him to carry out the act.
In 1998, entertainerPhil Hartmanwas killed by his wifeBrynn Hartman,who thenkilled herselfin Los Angeles.
In 1999,Celeste Beardkilled her husband, Steven, by her lover.
In 2000, Denise Williams conspired with her lover, Brian Winchester, to kill her husband,Mike Williams.She collected a $2 million insurance payment Winchester had arranged for the couple and then later married him. After they divorced several years later, Winchester, following his arrest after an incident where he sneaked into her car and held her at gunpoint, told police where the body had been buried; the information led to Williams' conviction in 2018.
In 2002,David Lynn Harriswas run over multiple times by a car. The perpetrator was his wife, Clara.
In 2003,Susan Wrighttied her husband, Jeff, to a bed and stabbed him multiple times with two different knives in Texas.
In 2004,Jamila M'Barekpaid her brother to murder her husband,Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 10th Earl of Shaftesbury.
In 2004,Melanie McGuiremurdered her husband, William, then desecrated his body.
Mary Winkler(born 1973) was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting of her husband,Matthew Winkler(1974–2006), a minister, in Tennessee.
Travis Alexander(1977–2008) was an Americansalesmanwho was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias (born 1980), in his house inMesa, Arizona.Arias wasconvictedoffirst-degree murderin 2013 and was sentenced tolife in prisonwithout the possibility ofparolein 2015.
In 2008, Chilean architectMaría del Pilar Pérezhired a hitman to kill her husband along with two other people. She was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2009,Dale Harrellwas murdered by his wife Marissa-Suzanne DeVault in Arizona. She was sentenced to life in prison.
In 2018,Daniel Brophywas killed by his wife Nancy Crampton-Brophy in Portland, Oregon; she was later sentenced to life in prison.

Mythological

InGreek mythology

Clytemnestramurders her husbandAgamemnonas an act of vengeance for the sacrifice of their daughterIphigeneia,and to retain power after his return from Troy. InAeschylus'Oresteia,theErinyesconsiderOrestes' matricide a greater crime thanClytemnestra's mariticide, since the killing of a spouse does not shed familial blood, but the opposite view is espoused by Aeschylus'sAthena.
TheDanaïdeswere 50 sisters who were forced into marriage. All but one murdered their husbands on their wedding night.

References

^"Understanding Intimate Partner Violence"(PDF).cdc.gov. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 10 May 2019.Retrieved6 March2016.
^"Wilson & Daley:Who kills whom in spouse killings". Wiley.doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01102.x.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
^^a ^bBurgess, Samuel Walter (1825),Historical illustrations of the origin and progress of the passions, and their influence on the conduct of mankind,Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, pp. 134–135
^Stronach, George (1892)."Kincaid, Jean".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 123.
^Bicks, Caroline (2017).Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England.Taylor & Francis. p. 106.ISBN 978-1-351-91766-7.
^Durston, Gregory J. (2014).Wicked Ladies: Provincial Women, Crime and the Eighteenth-Century English Justice System.Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 143.ISBN 978-1-4438-6599-9.
^Stateline Victoria
^"HTML Document: Regina v Knight [2001] NSWSC 1011 revised – 29 January 2002".Archived fromthe originalon 3 March 2016.
^Knight loses appeal for skinning partner – Breaking News – National – Breaking News

[1]

[1] "Understanding Intimate Partner Violence"(PDF).cdc.gov. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 10 May 2019.Retrieved6 March2016.

[2] "Wilson & Daley:Who kills whom in spouse killings". Wiley.doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.1992.tb01102.x.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help)

[burgess-3] Burgess, Samuel Walter (1825),Historical illustrations of the origin and progress of the passions, and their influence on the conduct of mankind,Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, pp. 134–135

[4] Stronach, George (1892)."Kincaid, Jean".InLee, Sidney(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 123.

[Bicks2017-5] Bicks, Caroline (2017).Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare's England.Taylor & Francis. p. 106.ISBN 978-1-351-91766-7.

[Durston2014-6] Durston, Gregory J. (2014).Wicked Ladies: Provincial Women, Crime and the Eighteenth-Century English Justice System.Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 143.ISBN 978-1-4438-6599-9.

[7] Stateline Victoria

[8] "HTML Document: Regina v Knight [2001] NSWSC 1011 revised – 29 January 2002".Archived fromthe originalon 3 March 2016.

[9] Knight loses appeal for skinning partner – Breaking News – National – Breaking News

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