People do bad things all the time. It's part of being human, and it certainly comes with the territory. As you go through life, knowingly or unknowingly, you've likely met people who have done incredibly sinister things, including taking a life. This naturally raises a lot of questions: the how, the why, sometimes the when, and what happened after.
An AskReddit community thread explored some of these sensitive questions, and we thought it would be interesting to share some of the chilling responses people shared as they told their stories.
My great-great grandmother murdered my great-great grandfather. My great grandmother,Gigi, told me the story.
When Gigi was 16 she was about to get married. On the fateful day, her father came in from the field for lunch and calmly told her mother he was bringing another woman home for dinner and that she was to be served dinner before he would take her upstairs to do the thing. When dinner came, he brought a 12 yo girl to the table. Gigis mother served the girl, let her husband take her upstairs, and followed a few minutes later with a loaded shot gun. When she opened the door, he had just dropped his pants, so she shot at his groin. She sat and watched him bleed to death as the young girl said thanks and left.
I am proud of the bad-a*s women in my bloodline.One of the most intelligent men I knew, my former boss ("R"), passed away of old age last year. When he was 16, which would have been in the 1940s?, his mostly absentee, degenerate, doper father showed up, took R's younger sister in the garage, and beat her amost bloody with a belt. R arrived just in time to roll up the garage door and told the old man, "You ever touch her again, I'll kill you." The next day after school, he comes home to hear his sister screaming in the garage. He goes in the house, grabs dad's shotgun, rolls up the door, tells sis to run, and shoots and kills the sumb***h. R was taken to juvie till trial. Sister was sent to live with an aunt. At trial, the local Baptist pastor told the small town judge he and his wife would legally adopt R. Judge declared the killing justified, and R grew up safe and loved, and got a degree in psychology. He told me the adoptive parents were his "real" parents.My great grandma shot and killed her first husband. He was beating her while she was pregnant. She was tried but got off on self defense.I met a lady one time who told me her husband had abused her for years before she got away from him. She had a restraining order and kept a weapon on her due to being scared of not in a position to defend herself.
One day she was at the gas station and he pulled up to the pump right on the other side of her. He came at her and she bent down and pulled the knife out of the holster. When she came up, she stabbed him in the heart from under his ribs.
He died and she walked free.Yes.
He was sexually abused by his father. He made advances towards the younger siblings and he snapped. Killed his Dad to protect his siblings from also being sexually abused. He was 14. His parole ends in December. I’m so proud of him and his progress despite being a convicted felon, he’s made his way in life. One of the best people I’ve ever had the pleasure to call my friend.my daughter shot and killed her abusive ex boyfriend in front of me. She had come to stay with us to get safe from him. Every day we caught him in the yard. every day we called the cops. every day they did nothing. when he showed up and tried to force his way into the house, daughter grabbed a gun. Told the cops she had a gun the cops are 2 miles away. they never show. twenty minutes later he gets sick of waiting on her to give up and charges her. she shoots him at close range. i tell the police, she has shot him and he is on the ground. 15 minutes later, one lone patrolman shows up, sees him on the ground and says "whats the matter with him". No ambulance ever showed up even though he was alive for awhile after he was shot. They had a restraining order on him we had called daily for a week they STILL arrested her for killing him. You know how a grand jury meets once a month to decide if they will proceed with prosecution? They didnt decide for TWO YEARS. Then they let her go as a good shoot. They could have told us that before we spent $20,000 on a defense attorney and no we didnt get the money back even though he never had to defend her.My best friend in high school had a boyfriend who creeped me the f**k out. I had been slowly removing myself from our friendship because of his influence when I got a call from her telling me that he was on his way to pick her up and that he’d murdered his parents. I told her to hang up and call 911. (His mom survived multiple gunshots, sadly his dad did not.)Something like 40 years ago my grandfather on my mother’s side killed two people and got away with it. My aunt had been [SA'd] by two men, a father and son duo. When she came home and told my gpa he grabbed a gun and went out hunting. He was never caught but he passed away 20ish years ago. He was a really cool guy. Very nice and surprisingly tolerant and open minded for his age, into new age spiritual stuff. My mom was shocked he was even able to go that far.I know a guy who ran over his girlfriend's head with his car, twice, because he thought she was cheating on him.
He's serving a life sentence now. While in prison, a much, much older woman who worked in the kitchen fell in love with him and they married. She doesn't work there anymore. He then converted to islam and now whenever she visits, she has to be fully covered from head to toe.
Wackos, both of them.So I was newly pregnant and meeting the rest of my family-in-laws during a holiday gathering, I met the aunt who used to be a rising star in LA as a model featured in magazines. If I recall correctly, she spent 17 years in prison because she was a [substance] mule transporting [substances] during her modeling gigs. Anyway, I also met her boyfriend. He was charming and my six year old son loved him, heck even I was swooned by his charisma. When I left the family dinner, I was informed he was recently out of prison because he murdered two men and placed them into barrels before dumping them into the sea. ? Maybe he’s a changed man? Err… A year later, I realized I haven’t heard about this man in a while. When I asked the in-laws, there was a sudden silence. That’s when I found out he murdered another man and tried dumping the body with the same method. You’d think he would have learned his lesson by now :/ Awkward part is, he left behind a barrel in the house where I’m staying at. It took me two years before I pried it open out of curiosity. It was camping gear, thank you baby jesusI said this a few times, was offered a podcast spot on here. Amandeep Atwal. Y'all can search it up, her dad stabbed her over 30 times for dating white dude. (If the name doesn't point to her ethnicity, she was Punjabi) The community was stunned, but not surprised. The dad was always a bit weird, but harsh. He was ingrained in family culture, and self image. How did I know her? She was my babysitter, and even if I was 5, my first crush. Her dad offered to drive her back to PG, because she had moved out, and she had spent time with her family in Vancouver and he had offered to drive her back. He then proceeded to stab her 30 times, and claim it was her [taking her own life]. She was barely entering her adult years, and he took her life to preserve his family image. He was granted day parole a few years back and was denied full parole because he hasn't shown that he has changed and that who is to say he won't integrate back into the same society/characters who he based his f****d up belief in.Guy across the hall was a cool guy. Super laid back. Worked a restaurant and always brought us leftover food which was cool cause we were all poor college students. Used to go over there and play retro video games and drink beers. He'd always tell us about his girlfriend who was so busy with school he hardly saw her. Never thought much about it. Turns out she dumped him a while back and he'd been stalking her. Ended up going to her house one night and very brutally murdering her while she was on the phone with her parents. Sentenced to life in prison.Hung out a bunch of times with my friend and his co-worker who lived in a pretty sketchy neighborhood. At some point it came up that several years before he was walking home and a guy tried to rob him at knifepoint. It turned into a scuffle and the co-worker turned the knife and drove it into the robber with what turned out to be a fatal stab wound.
The cops obviously got involved. The co-worker had never been arrested while the robber had a long criminal history including violent acts and so there were never any charges. He didn't like to talk about it though, kinda f****d him up for a good while even though he was in the right.He was an a*****e in school. Never gave a s**t about doing the right thing, always purposely pissing the teachers off. But his older brother was the opposite. Loved by everyone, an all around goofy person, worked with little kids in his free time and after graduation.
He went into his older brother’s room, held a gun to his head and asked “are you feeling lucky?” And pulled the trigger.
It was a huge loss to our community and school district. I believe the younger brother was released early from prison due to the downsizing during COVID. No idea where he is now.I know three.
One was a manlaughter charge. He was driving drunk and hit a woman. He drove away from the scene because he didn't realize he had hit anyone and by the time he was arrested he was sober, so they couldn't prove he was drunk. Otherwise he would have gone to jail for MUCH longer. He's now out, sober, and has really turned his life around. I'm proud of him.
The second guy was legitimately insane. I'm not sure about his specific diagnosis, but he was a genuinely dangerous person. He decided to go off his meds without telling anyone and when his therapist did a home call on him, he murdered her. He's in a state mental hospital for the rest of his life.
The third guy was an ultra-christian who didn't believe in divorce. He started cheating on his wife and decided he didn't want to be married anymore. But divorce is a sin, so somehow it made sense to murder her instead? Anyway, he got a first degree charge and will never walk free again, thank God.He was d**k. He was the kind of bully that liked to stir up drama so he could instigate a fight.
When a kid (Mikey) from our neighborhood was killed in a house party. He seized his opportunity. He riled up a few dumb wanna gangster from our neighborhood and went to go shoot the guy that did it.
They got in a car and shot into a house. It turned out they had the wrong house. They killed an old vet who was just watching TV. His poor wife found him slumped over on the couch.
He wasn't even friends with Mikey. He was d**k to him I think he just wanted to kill somebody.My uncle went on trial for murder after he shot and killed a guy. Tldr: guy came at him with the gun, he got it away from him and killed him. He was found not guilty due to evidence he was fired upon first. Story: He had a [substance] dealer friend, was at his house and a deal went bad. His friend was high off his gourd and ended up blaming my uncle for his misfortunes. He said he would kill him then beat my uncle bloody. There was another guy there but he was too scared to do anything. The dealer sat my uncle in a chair and aimed a revolver at him. He closed his eyes and turned away from the gun, bracing himself to be shot and the dealer fired two rounds that hit the chair. They didn’t hit my uncle because he was curled away, basically half off the chair. The dealer calmed down a bit and told him to go clean himself up. He went to the bathroom and stayed in there just wondering what he should do(this was back before cell phones so he couldn’t call for help). After a while he heard the dealer tell the other guy he was going to kill my uncle and could hear him coming. My uncle decided to fight him and positioned himself where he would be behind the door when it opened. The guy came in, my uncle fought the gun away from him and shot him dead. The thing that saved my uncle during the trial was the chair(witness could not be found). They said he couldn’t have been shot at while he was in the chair because he was so large and covered the whole back. So defense brought the chair in, had him sit in it and reenact how he curled up and turned away to show the chair’s back was uncovered by this action. Even though he was found innocent, he was still very traumatized by the events and became a shut in for years. He eventually recovered but for a long time it was rough.My grandfather whom i’ve never met beat the s**t out of a gay man, in a bar, with an ashtray. The guy didn’t make it and my grandfather died a few years later at age 40 of a heart attack. He would hate to know how many queer grandkids he has now, lmfaoMy late mothers boyfriend at the time. He randomly attacked and killed a woman walking her dog with his bare hands. He was caught inside of a couple days but what really stuck with me was how he came home with his hands beat up saying that he fell while on a hike. Obviously it was right after the murder but we could not have known that at the time. He was completely chill in every respect while my mom helped clean him up. In retrospect it was a bit of a stretch to say it was from a hiking accident but he sold it well and I was young and my mom would not have any reason to expect murder of all things.
I’m getting ready for school and a couple cops show up to the house asking about my moms boyfriend. He did not come home the night prior and as this was back before the days of cell phones, she was concerned. I went to school but was pulled out early by my uncle where he told me my mom was going to let me know what was happening. I get to my aunts house and she tells me what happened. My mom was devastated. We would see the story on the news that night and the showed his prior convictions - he was arrested several times for SA and violent crimes. We had no idea. We even met his extended family, they never said a word about his past.
I don’t know that we were ever in danger but my mom and him dated for 3 years lived together for 2 years. He thankfully was caught, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison.My brother in law is in prison for life for killing his ex friend with benefits who was married. It was really hard on the family but he had a history of being mentally unstable and stalking women. For whatever reason, a local police department still hired him. When he got hired I called the chief of chiefs in the area who was a personal friend, told him about the stalking and erratic behavior and that he could not be trusted with a gun. No lie, three months later, right before Christmas, same guy calls to tell us that my brother in law had just confessed to murder. I haven’t spoken to that friend since. He could have literally prevented this from happening, but he did nothing. Still makes me so sick to think about.I knew a man years ago, who killed a man in a bar fight. He hit the person in the head with a pool ball. He was tried and convicted of negligent homicide and served 18 months in prison. I knew him 15 years later and he had never been arrested for anything since and freely admitted he was wrong. It was a heat of the moment thing. He said he never thought it would have killed someone.A patient. When they were a minor they had a mental break and killed their entire household save for 2 younger siblings in retaliation for SA. They had been institutionalized for their entire life thereafter. But when I knew them much later in their life they were a heck of a nice person especially when I was brand new, would tell me where supplies and whatnot were kept. Would also look out for other patients on the unit and would give me a heads up if one was out of sorts.My ex boyfriends dad was bipolar. His gf was trying to leave the house and he was upset and waving a gun around (I truly do believe he was just trying ro scare her). Gfs niece had moved in a few months earlier because she was a troubled kid she went down to see what was happening and be shot her in the neck, proceeded to shoot him self when he realized she would probably die. Ex bf and I were locked upstairs in the bathroom on the phone with the cops. He wasn’t a bad man he was a sick man, we were 16/17, the niece was 15.I graduated High School in 2001. A guy in the class of 1998 was a wrestler and overall a popular guy. He was huge and even in 2019, still held the school deadlift record for his weight class. We will call him Frank. Well I was working as a corrections officer in 2004 and one day, in the early evening, Frank was brought into booking by the Sheriff's Dept. The charge was Second Degree Murder. He claimed that he got into a fight with an undocumented immigrant and shot him in self defense. However, the evidence showed the victim was hit three times with a blunt object and shot in the back of the head, apparently from the kneeling position. This all taking place in an abandoned farmhouse that neither had any association with. Frank being much bigger and stronger than the victim, his story didn't convince a jury and he was found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. I was also working that day and they had to carry him back to the jail. He was sobbing uncontrollably. Normally an inmate sentenced to state prison is transported within a week. They took Frank 3 hours later. I guess due to his prolific case or maybe because of his size and [risk of taking his own life]. I saw a lot of people I knew pass through that jail during the 5 years I worked there, but I will never forget Frank.A guy I used to work with killed his wife then himself. She had cancer and he didn’t want her to suffer. Shocking to everyone who knew them.TWO clients at the vet clinic I work at have been charged with murder. One was charged with second degree murder for killing her son. She was convicted of a lesser charge of manslaughter. She claims it was accidental. I kinda believe it. Her son was not ok, terrible addiction/mental health problems and he was abusive to her. She will be sentenced this month. The other has been charged with first degree murder of her mother. Both of her cats were surrendered to the shelter (we work closely with the shelter) prior to the murder...so obviously we're speculating that either her mother surrendered the cats (due to mental health issues on the daughters part ?♀️) and pissed the daughter off or the daughter surrendered them knowing she was planning this and would be getting locked up. Obviously we have no idea if either is true...but we can't help but speculate.
The first lady I've interacted with multiple times. She seems very nice, if maybe a bit troubled.
I don't live in a high crime area, so it's a bit weird that it's two (although the first one took place far from here)A guy I went to school with from prek-12th grade in a small town. He murdered his girlfriend and dumped her body in a shallow grave. She found out (supposedly) that he was sleeping with his male best friend. I taught alongside a woman who would walk with her son to school every morning. He would walk with her and then go on to his campus- we worked at the middle school, and he attended high school. He was a pretty good kid, it seemed; at the very least, he was always polite to me.
She was found murdered that summer. It was pretty brutal. A bunch of us teachers went to her service and her son (almost 18) gave the eulogy. We all hugged and comforted him afterward.
It was announced some time later that the son had been arrested for the crime. He was convicted and is now serving life (don’t remember if there’s a chance of parole).I went out with a guy twice when I was senior in high school. A year after I graduated he killed 3 of my former classmates while on dates. He was only convicted of 2 though.I knew two. One was my neighbor. His wife was going to leave him and then just vanished one day. They found her car out in the desert, her purse and belongings all inside. No trace of her. He did have a mysterious barrel of acid in his garage though.Second was an ex of mine. He was married to a former I think [adult movie] star or nude model, not exactly sure what she did within the adult industry, but I think her stage name was Danica. SUPPOSEDLY she committed [took her own life] by shooting herself in the head in their driveway. But he was at the very least a strong suspect. He stays pretty much to himself these days.Family member was asleep at a party, woke up to their other half trying to remove a body. Had stabbed the guy 200+ times, mutilated him. No clear reason.
Forced my family member to drive the car into the city WITH THE BODY IN THE BACK to try and hide it somewhere. My family member went to their parents and convinced him that they were going to receive help. Went inside with him, got the family members mum to ring cops right away soon as murderer other half had gone upstairs to change.
He's now doing 30+ years for murder and has had a few holes poked in him too for good measure. Family member was charged with drink driving as they were still hungover from the party. They did nothing wrong but panic and make the situation progress to a safe apprehension of a murderer.My next door neighbor shot and killed his father when I was maybe 10 years old. I think he was a junior or senior in highschool at the time and always getting into trouble, and I mean always. It was a school day and before school he got into an argument with his father and didn’t want to go to school. They kept arguing then he went and got his father’s gun and shot him. He then ran across the street to our other neighbor where my mother just happened to be there talking to her friend.
He was out of breath and told them “I’ve done something terrible, I just shot my father”. My mother and her friend called the police and ran over there to find him laying on his back with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. My mother had some medical training so she’s trying to help him the best she can.
Ambulance and at least ten cop cars show up and take over. He didn’t run off and was arrested on the spot. I don’t remember how many years he got but I never saw him again. His mother continued to live in the house for a few years but couldn’t take the memories anymore and moved to live with her family.Not exactly a murder, but when I was very young my stepfather hung himself in our barn. My mother saw him, loaded us kids in the car, drove us to my grandparents house, then went back and called 911. I can’t prove it, but I think she was hoping to kill time so that he would die. He didn’t.my old barber murdered someone when he was 17 and served somewhere around 12-13 years. i was pretty young when he did it but we knew each other back then.
we got really cool when he started cutting my hair after he got out but he def had a negative 'tick' to him. you could tell when he was having a bad day. we talked about anything that was going on around us but i never asked or mentioned anything about what he did..never talked about it at all.I was back visiting the family in the former Yugoslavia in 2005, and i was walking up a hill to go back to the village where my grandmother and her family were rebuilding their home. A guy pulls over and gives me a lift (very common in villages across the region).He dropped me off infront of the house that was getting rebuilt and drove back to his house. Everyone looked at me and asked, why did you get in the car with him?, I go why? He was apart of the group of soldiers that came into the village in 93, that killed and torched the whole village. He still lives in the neighbouring village (unless he's died since) . 37 people died in the massacreI went to school with one of the perpetrators in He was always a mean bully, so if anyone I knew was going to do something like this, it doesn't surprise me that it would be him.Richard Allen. The Delphi, Indiana murders. I don’t want to use the word know. But I will say I have interacted with him numerous times while working at an amusement park and at a Walmart. It’s honestly disgusting to think about.Friend was camping, he and another guy got into it. Other guy leaves, comes back with a screwdriver, attempts to stab friend.
In the tussle, friend manages to take screwdriver from other guy, stabs him with it and runs away. Friend drives his truck down the logging road until he gets service calls the cops, and an ambulance.
Friend gets arrested, guy dies in hospital, goes to jail, and does 5 years.
Canada has no self defense laws.My twin brother just killed his girlfriend after Christmas. He had been drunk for days. They argued. He stabbed her. She died on the way to the hospital.One of my cousins apparently. I think his GF or wife cheated on him, so he beat the guy she cheated with to death with a baseball bat. I tried getting more details from my parents, but they were not forthcoming. I don't know any of my very large, extended family well enough to ask them.I *used to* know a guy who committed murder. I say "used to" because he [took his own life] right after. Killed his ex-girlfriend, whom I also used to know, and then himself. I could have forgiven him for killing himself, especially because he had cystic fibrosis and likely didn't have long to live anyway, but I will never, ever forgive him for killing her.When I was 13 I was walking around the neighborhood, showing up for some neighborhood cuties. Saw this fish shaped mailbox, so I popped that sucker open. Suddenly, this middle aged man comes running outside yelling like he was going to kill me.
Like a month later my buddy says he has to babysit his niece. I come over, it's the same house. I have to meet this guy again. I was wearing sunglasses, and he asks me to take them off so he can see me. I took them off, but he doesn't say anything.
Later that same school year, the guy's girlfriend cheated on him, so he snuck over and murdered her and her boyfriend, and then he shot himself.I worked with one of the Irish scissor sisters. They got drunk and high one night with their mam and her boyfriend, boyfriend came on to one of them so with encouragement from the mam they killed him then chopped his body up in the bathroom with a bread knife.There was a dude from Mesa back in the 80's who did time, charged as an adult. The asshat brought a pistol, loaded with blanks, to school and pointed it at a teacher and pulled the trigger.
The teacher had a heart-attack and died
The dude was an absolute d**k. After he got out, he would bully teenagers. I'm pretty sure he didn't fare well when he was locked up, so he took it out on other people after he got out.
I never kept up with him, but I'm pretty sure he got in more trouble. Likely ended up on a sex-offender registry.
I also knew a dude from TX, who was a hitter for an MC.
One of the most frightening people I've met.Close family friend. We still don't know who to believe in . But he gave me his tools when he got sentenced and that got me started as a carpenter.One of my classmates fatally stabbed his girlfriend when she broke up with him during our junior year of high school. She also went to our school but was new to the area so I didn’t know her. He came to take the SATs under police escort. If I remember correctly he received sentencing as a juvenile and went on to college and a ‘normal’ life after serving a couple years.
One of the little girls I drove to school every day in my son’s pre-k/kindergarten carpool went on to kill her boyfriend a few years ago. There was a Dateline episode about it; the jury found she acted in self-defense but the whole thing was very sketchy.
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