List of patricides

Patricide is (i) the act of killing one's father, or (ii) a person who kills his or her father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater (father) and the Latin suffix -cida (cutter or killer). Patricide is a sub-form of parricide, which is defined as an act of killing a close relative.^[1]

Patricides in myths and religions

Patricide is a common archetype that is prevalent throughout many religions and cultures, and particularly in the mythology and religion of Greek culture. Some key examples of patricide from various cultures are included as follows:

• Apsu, in the Babylonian creation epic the Enûma Elish, was killed by his son Ea in the struggle for supremacy among the gods.
• In the mythology of the neighboring Mesopotamian Hurrian people the storm god Teshub kills his father Kumarbi, sometimes jointly with his grandfather Anu in reciprocity for an attempted patricide by Kumarbi.
• In the Greek creation epic, first recorded in Hesiod's Theogony, Cronus was jealous of his father Uranus' power as ruler of the universe. Cronus thus killed or castrated his father. Cronus, in turn, was overthrown by his own son, Zeus.
• Oedipus was fated to kill his father, a king, and marry his mother. His parents attempted to prevent this by leaving him on the side of a mountain as an infant. He was found and raised by a shepherd. Once grown, Oedipus meets his father while his father is travelling, but not knowing who he is, ends up killing him. He then unknowingly marries his mother to become king, ultimately fulfilling the prophecy.
• Pelias was killed by his daughters, who were deceived by Medea into thinking he could be resurrected.
• In the Hindu epic Mahabharata, Babruvahana killed his father Arjun, but Arjun was brought back to life by his wife, the snake goddess Uloopi.
• In Chinese belief, people who commit patricide (or matricide) will be killed by a lightning strike as a punishment from filial and warrior deity Erlang Shen.
• In Norse mythology, Fafnir murdered his father Hreidmar to gain the cursed golden ring of Andvari that he had obtained. Some versions say that his brother Regin helped him.

Known or suspected historical patricides

• Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. 1243–1207 BC), Assyrian king, was killed by his own son after sacking Babylon.
• Sennacherib (r. 704–681 BC), Assyrian king, was killed by two of his sons for his desecration of Babylon.
• Bimbisara (r. 543–491 BC), king of Magadha, was executed by his own son, Ajatashatru.
• Ajatashatru (r. 492–c. 460 BC), king of Magadha, was killed by his own son, Udayabhadra.
• King Kassapa I (AD 473-495) creator of the Sigiriya citadel of ancient Sri Lanka killed his father king Dhatusena for the throne.
• Emperor Zhu Yougui (AD 888?-913) of China killed his father Zhu Wen (AD 852–912).
• Emperor Yang of Sui (AD 569–618) in Chinese history allegedly killed his father, Emperor Wen of Sui (AD 541-604).
• Samvel killed his father Vahan, who converted to Christianity and joined the Zoroastrian Persian Empire.
• Rana Kumbha (r.1438–1468), the King of Mewar Kingdom, in India was killed by his son Udai who then succeeded him becoming Rana Udai Singh I of Mewar. Udai was killed 5 years later by his younger brother Raimal who wanted to take revenge for his father's death.
• Jagaddeva (r. 1150), the Chahamana king of India, killed his father Arnoraja.
• Beatrice Cenci (1577–1599), Italian noblewoman who killed her father after he imprisoned and raped her. She was condemned and beheaded for the crime along with her brother and her stepmother in 1599.
• Iyasus I of Ethiopia (1682–1706), one of the great warrior emperors of Ethiopia, was deposed by his son Tekle Haymanot in 1706 and subsequently assassinated.
• Ajit Singh of Marwar (1679-1724) was murdered by his sons Bakht Singh and Abhai Singh in 1724 after the two plotted to take his place as Maharaja of Marwar.

• Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) allegedly killed her father and her stepmother with a hatchet in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. She was acquitted, but her innocence is still disputed.
• Richard Dadd (1817-1886), the English artist, murdered his father in 1843 following the onset of psychiatric illness.
• Chiyo Aizawa murdered her father who had been raping her for fifteen years, on October 5, 1968, in Japan. The incident changed the Criminal Code of Japan regarding parricide.
• Toru Sakai (age 22) murdered his 54-year-old father Takashi (Glenn) Sakai on April 20, 1987, in Beverly Hills, California. Toru Sakai was never captured and remains wanted for the crime by the Los Angeles Police Department.
• Dianna Lewis killed her father and stepmother with a pistol on September 22, 1995.
• Kip Kinkel (1982- ), an Oregon boy who was convicted of killing his parents at home and two fellow students at school on May 20, 1998.
• Sarah Marie Johnson (1987- ), an Idaho girl who was convicted of killing both parents on the morning of September 2, 2003.
• Dipendra of Nepal (1971–2001) reportedly massacred much of his family at a royal dinner on June 1, 2001, including his father King Birendra, mother, brother, and sister.
• Christopher Porco (1983- ), was convicted on August 10, 2006, of the murder of his father and attempted murder of his mother with an axe.
• The Menendez Brothers were convicted during a highly publicized second trial in July 1996 for the shotgun killings of their parents in 1989.
• Karađorđe Petrović (1768–1817), the leader of the Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire, and eventual leader of independent Serbia, killed his father Petar around 1786 while the family was fleeing Serbia to the safety of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after Petar threatened to return to Serbia and betray the family to the Turks.
• Australian Rules Football former player and then-Adelaide Crows Senior Coach Phil Walsh was murdered in the early hours of 3 July 2015, by his 26-year-old son, Cy.

Contemporary statistics

Breakdown of known homicides involving children killing a father between 1980 and 2008. Sons committed patricide far more frequently than daughters.^[2]

Rates of individual homicide involving family members in the United States between 1980 and 2010.^[2]

In the United States between 1980 and 2010 fathers were more likely than mothers to be killed by their children and teenage sons (16 to 19 years-old) were most often the perpetrators in parental killings.^[2]

In fiction

See also

References