Over a century between 1900 and 2000, there were 909 (reported) victims of mass murder (defined as at least four killings in a period of 24-hour) in the United States.
More than half of those occurred within immediate families. Cases of familicide, in which someone kills close family members in rapid succession, are rare; it is the most common form of mass killing.
Even rarer still is familicide, which involves the perpetrator committing suicide after the murders. The presence of a gun in the family increases the risk factor.
“Rare” does sound good, but it also means such a case has happened more than once before.
In late July 1988, Jozsef Barsi killed his wife (Maria) and daughter (Judith) before setting their home on fire and taking his own life in the garage. Jozsef was an abusive father all along, and he had been making threats to kill them for at least five years.
Judith Barsi was a young actress who had appeared in dozens of TV commercials, in addition to such popular titles as Fatal Vision and Jaws: The Revenge.
10 /10 I Will Cut Your Throat
When Judith was about to go to the Bahamas in 1987 for the filming of Jaws: The Revenge, her father pulled a knife and threatened to cut his daughter’s throat is she decided not to come back. Judith returned about two months later to their home in San Fernando Valley, but the anger in his father didn’t seem to subside at all.
She developed a peculiar habit of plucking her eyelashes as the distressful situation at home piled up. Judith did not realize that her father’s rage was getting very close to the edge.
9 /10 Little One
Peter Kivlen, a friend of Jozsef, said that the man had mentioned killing his wife probably 500 times before. Each time the threat came up, Peter would try to calm him down.
To talk him out of the unfortunate intention, Peter asked what would happen to the little one – Jozsef’s pet name for Judith – if he killed Maria. Jozsef replied that he would kill Judith too.
He talked about it hundreds of times before, and each time nothing happened. Peter probably thought this time would be no different; he was wrong.