Not just uncaught murderers, there are a lot of people who have killed without legally being considered murderers.
People who killed people in accidents such as driving accidents or hunting accidents
People who killed in self defense
Soldiers who killed enemy soldiers
Executioners
Police officers who have killed on duty
Doctors and nurses who have made mistakes that accidentally killed patients
I killed someone. It’s a called a dead name for a reason.
I once gave a friend of a friend a condescending chewing-out after they did something hurtful.
Some time later our mutual friend informed me that they had died, but declined to tell me the cause of death.
Much later I discovered it was self-caused.
… Were my words too much? We spend our lives trying to be more effective communicators. What if we’re too effective when it matters most?
I wonder how many people who have themselves unknowingly caused a death, though some thoughtless or innocuous action. E.g. a discarded banana peel causes another person to later slip and fall with a fatal result.
the number of people who fall into this category through their use of stock LED headlights is non-zero
There’s an early Robot Chicken bit where he dies and asks silly questions to a book that can give him an answer like how many times did I listen to this song, or how much of a wall could my poop make. This question sounds like an interesting one to ask that book though. Actually I’d probably prefer not to know the chaotic randomness that is our lives but guess the lives part would be redundant at that point anyways.
I frequently have this thought, but take it one step further. Like, what if something I did, intentionally or not, greatly angers or pisses off someone that they get riled up, and it leads to them having a heart attack or lashing out in a way that causes them mortal harm?
Am I wholly responsible? No. But am I somewhat indirectly involved in their demise? Debatable. Yes, it gets very convoluted quickly, but it’s something that pops up in my head whenever I’ve got some idle time.
You are not responsible. Even if you argued with someone, you couldn’t have known what the outcome would be. Heart attack or they spent a bunch of time pissed and got in a fistfight later that resulted in someone’s death. You cannot control what they choose to do as long as your actions weren’t intentionally leading the other person to make those choices.
I have. I used to drink with someone who later killed someone while drinking.
Carl can fuck right off.
My ex-brother-in-law killed a family of four while DUI. The cops really screwed up the investigation so he was able to get the charges down to a minor moving violation. He never saw the inside of a jail.
When I was in high school a friend of a friend that I knew and had hung out with at a couple of times was a serial killer/rapist. He was one of the last people executed by that state.
Edit: My grandfather killed some Nazis in WW2. Several former coworkers killed people in the line of duty as soldiers. And, I worked as a records clerk at a nursing home, so I knew several doctors and nurses that had taken people off life support.
It is quite likely that someone I knew either killed a person, or had them killed.
Said potential murderer is dead for a few years now and tbh I don’t think anyone wants to uncover this mystery anymore. Since the whole thing was very long ago, it’s easier to just ignore it instead of ruining everyone’s memory of a person. The other person who could’ve done it has been dead for a decade or 2 too.
Ok, storytime please
Let’s just say some people I know lost their mother at a very early age and when one of them finally asked the father about it 30 years later, his explanation was “well person X was at work that night, ask him”. Person X being a business partner of his, somewhat of a low-end organized crime guy. Dead for like 10-15 years at that point.
When I say lost, I mean she hasn’t been found decades later. Not even a body.
Early 90s were a crazy ass time here in Estonia.
There’s more details I know, but honestly if I go too into detail and the story makes its way out of our tiny community here, people who know about the whole thing will instantly figure out who I am and who I’m talking about and I don’t want that. Not because I’m in any danger from anyone - just because I don’t want it to happen.
When I was 18/19 in college, I met a guy through my brother’s work that was in his mid 40’s. We hung out with him and his girlfriend a lot and he was pretty good friends with my brother. He even met my mom and family, helped her with some construction projects she needed done (dad died when I was 15, so she didn’t have that extra help), and was invited to her wedding to my step dad.
Now we knew that this guy was an ex-con (the restaurant my brother worked at hired a lot of ex-cons), but we never really judged or pried into what happened. Honestly, this guy was always just chill, giving, funny, helpful, and respectful. I never got creeped out by him, and i never felt like he was inappropriate with me. We found out through a mutual friend later that this guy used to get paid to bleach the bodies of girls/women that had been raped and killed by others. To this mutual friend’s knowledge, our friend hadn’t actually done any raping/killing, but I was really struggling to feel much comfort in the fact that he “only” helped guys get away with it. Especially because I was a young, petite college girl at the time.
Anyways, I dont directly know of anybody ive met that has killed someone, but the fact that I know of somebody that did this horrible thing makes me think that you’re correct.
I work in healthcare, I’ve removed… so many people from life support. I often wonder if that’s, not the same, but…
I took a flight back from Europe with a colleague years ago, we talked for hours. A year later he was found guilty of killing his wife with cyanide.
People do a great job of hiding their demons in a professional setting.
Yup, can confirm, have a convicted offender colleague.
Two people, in fact. First was a Hell’s Angels enforcer. Had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with him and a few other people from my former Kung Fu school. Apparently he was a former student and credibly accused of murdering a rival biker gang member, but the jury was hung and couldn’t convict.
Second was none other than Shrimp Boy, after he got released from prison for the murders he committed but before he got locked up again for the racketeering charges. Met in in Chinatown literally a few days before the feds closed in on him. Shared a cup of tea with him without knowing his identity and didn’t find out until someone present told me who he was days later.
Used to work with the criminally insane. I’ve also met a LOT of pedophiles. Not many because they actually were crazy but because they were trying to get declared as such to not get fucked up in prison. Most of them aren’t even actually attracted to children they just wanna victimize someone and children are smaller / weaker and less able to advocate for themselves. The one thing pretty much all of them have in common is a pitiful combination of sadism and cowardice.
I knew a guy who got imprisoned for murder, really nice guy, the way he described it was an armed robbery where the armed person got spooked and fired off a shot. They were arrested on the road while taking the victim to the hospital (they weren’t trying to hurt anyone) and ended up getting booked for murder and kidnapping.
I met him a few years after he got out on probation.
Edit: fixed a typo
If you want to test this, start up conversations with the combat vets around you. You might not like the answers. That’s the vast majority of killers I’ve known (that I’ve known).
Met a guy after he got out of prison for drunk driving and killing someone. I don’t know the details but he wouldn’t go anywhere near alcohol, so at least he’s trying to be better.
Also I have met quite a few War Veterans over the years.
As far as i know, i have met only one person like this.
A guy i knew in “highschool” (kinda equilevant) killed his friend a few years later while both were drunk and had just come out of sauna. He thought that his girlfriend had cheated on him with the other guy and woops, axe to the back.
