Reason
for murder I
*****
Insanity
Reginald Sidney
Buckfield
Edward Ball
Charles Whitman
Margaret Allen
Frederick Bayley
Deeming
Insanity - Frederick Bayley Deeming
Frederick Bayley Deeming was a mass murderer who killed those closest to
him. He was at the time living in Australia and the police became interested
in him when neighbours complained of a nauseating smell coming from the
house. The police soon discovered the cause of the smell. He had beaten
his wife to death and then cemented her body under the heath, but it was
obviously not airtight. Deeming was arrested and as he was known to have
come from England enquries were made about his life there.
As they looked deeper into his background they were concerned about
the disapearance of his wife and four children. They located the house
he had rented in Liverpool and a search was made of the premises. Cemented
beneath the fireplace in the kitchen they found the bodies of Maria Deeming
and all four children. He was charged and found guilty of murder and sentenced
to death. He was hanged while a crowd of 10,000 stood outside the prison
on 23 May 1892. The strange thing about the murders was that he never seemed
to gain in any way from his crimes. At his trial he had pleaded insanity
but this was rejected, no other reason for the murders was suggested though.
Insanity - Margaret Allen
Margaret Allen was a 42 year old lesbian, her mother died in 1943 and she
took this very badly. She smoked heavily and did not eat properly. In 1945
she recieved medical treatment for attacks of dizziness and became mentally
depressed. When asked by the police why she had murdered she replied 'I
was In one of me funny moods and the old woman got on me nerves'. Had she
not made this statement she may have been able to plead insanity which
was almost certainly the case. Her defence failed and she was hung.
Insanity - Charles Whitman
Charles Whitman seemed to first become unstable when his mother left home.
Whitmans father had ill treated her and this had affected Whitman. he complained
of headaches and would often fly into a rage. Before going out on his rampage
of death he typed a note which stated 'I am prepared to die. After my death
I wish an autopsy on me to be performed to see if there is any mental disorder.
After his death an autopsy was carried out which showed that Whitman had
a tumour in the Hypothalamus region of the brain, but doctors doubted whether
had anything to do with his recent acts of murderRitual_Murder
Insanity - Edward Ball
Nineteen year old Edward Ball murdered his mother. He was found guilty
but insane. It would appear that his mother had been suffering from dementia
and this had been too much for a young man to put up with.
Insanity - Reginald Sidney Buckfield
Reginald Sidney Buckfield had written a story of the murderRitual_Murder
which he told the police was pure fiction but it would seem that Buckfield
had difficulty separating fact from fiction. He was found to be insane
which saved him from the death sentence.
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For more information contact:
Gregg Manning
