Spree killer

A spree killer is someone who embarks on a murderous assault on two or more victims in a short time in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders."

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) the general definition of spree murder is two or more murders committed by an offender or offenders, without a cooling-off period; the lack of a cooling-off period marking the difference between a spree murder and a serial murder. The category has, however, been found to be of no real value to law enforcement, because of definitional problems relating to the concept of a "cooling-off period". Serial killers are different in that the murders are clearly separate events, happening at different times, while the attacks of mass murderers are defined by one incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders.

Another term, rampage killer, has sometimes been used to describe spree killers, but it does not differentiate between mass murderers and spree killers.

List of spree killings

Incident	Location	Year	Killer	Victims Killed	Notes
Bath School Disaster	United States	1927	Andrew Kehoe	44	Over the course of a year, school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe secretly planted 1 ton of pyrotol inside the Bath Consolidated School. On May 18, 1927, after murdering his wife, he detonated the explosives. As residents were attempting to rescue the dying children and teachers, Kehoe arrived on the scene and detonated his dynamite laden pickup truck.
Tsuyama massacre	Japan	1938	Mutsuo Toi	30	Using a shotgun and swords, Toi killed 30 in an hour and a half before killing himself.
Cook killings	United States	1951	Billy Cook	6	Cook murdered six people between Missouri and California on a 22-day rampage before being arrested in Mexico. He was executed at San Quentin prison gas chamber on December 22, 1952.
Starkweather/Fugate murders	United States	1958	Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate	11	Starkweather and his adolescent girlfriend Fugate murdered 10 people over the course of eight days before being apprehended by police. Starkweather was executed in the electric chair at Nebraska State Penitentiary in 1959. Fugate was imprisoned until 1976.
University of Texas at Austin massacre	United States	1966	Charles Whitman	14	Whitman, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, killed 14 people and wounded 31 others as part of a shooting rampage from the observation deck of the University's 32-story administrative building. He did this shortly after murdering his wife and mother. He was eventually shot and killed by an Austin police officer.
Colorado Springs killings	United States	1975	Freddie Lee Glenn	5	Along with accomplice Michael Corbett, Glenn was convicted of murdering three people in 1975; combined, the pair were responsible for a total of five deaths in and around Colorado Springs: Daniel Van Lone, a 29-year-old cook, Winfred Proffitt, 19, a soldier, and Karen Grammer, an 18-year-old who worked at Red Lobster and the younger sister of actor Kelsey Grammer.
Uireyeong massacre	South Korea	1982	Woo Bum-kon	57	Woo, a 27-year-old disgruntled police officer, killed 57 and wounded 35 people using two M2 carbines and hand grenades in an eight-hour rampage before committing suicide.
The Pozzeto Massacre	Colombia	1986	Campo Elías Delgado	36	Campo Elías Delgado, a Colombian Vietnam war veteran, killed 30 people with a .32 revolver at the restaurant "Pozzeto", then shot and killed by the Colombian police. Hours before the murder, he killed 6 people in his apartment, including his mother.
Hoddle Street Massacre	Australia	1987	Julian Knight	7	Knight murdered 7 people and injured 19 during a shooting spree in Clifton Hill, Victoria.
Hungerford massacre	United Kingdom	1987	Michael Robert Ryan	16	Using two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, Ryan killed 16 people and wounded 15 others in a space of 7 hours before shooting himself.
Tian Mingjian incident	China	1994	Tian Mingjian	23	Using a Type 81 rifle, Tian killed 23 people near Tiananmen Square on September 20, including an Iranian diplomat and his son. He was finally shot dead by a police sniper.
Cuers shooting spree	France	1995	Eric Borel	12	After murdering his mother, stepfather and half-brother the previous day, 16-year-old Borel went on a shooting spree in Cuers shooting dead an additional 12 people before he killed himself.
Port Arthur massacre	Australia	1996	Martin Bryant	35	Using an AR-15 and an L1A1 SLR, Bryant killed 35 and injured 21 in five hours before being arrested by the Special Operations Group of the Tasmanian Police.
Mdantsane massacre	South Africa	2002	Bulelani Vukwana	11	Vukwana, 29, killed 11 people and injured 6 in the South African township of Mdantsane after an argument with his girlfriend.
Beltway sniper attacks	United States	2002	John Allen Muhammad & Lee Boyd Malvo	10	Muhammad and 17-year old Malvo killed 10 and injured several others over the course of three weeks. Muhammad, who was 41, was executed November 10, 2009. Malvo is currently serving six consecutive life sentences.
Red Lake massacre	United States	2005	Jeff Weise	9	Weise shot and killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend, both police officers. He then proceeded to a local high school and shot and killed a security guard. Once inside the school Weise shot and killed five students and a teacher before committing suicide. Weise killed 9 and injured 15.
Virginia Tech massacre	United States	2007	Seung-Hui Cho	32	Cho, using two pistols, killed 32 in two separate events and then himself in the course of about three hours.
Geneva County massacre	United States	2009	Michael McLendon	10	McLendon, a 28-year-old unemployed man, used an SKS rifle, a Bushmaster AR-15 and a .38-caliber handgun to kill 10 people before shooting himself.
Winnenden school shooting	Germany	2009	Tim Kretschmer	15	Kretschmer, a 17-year-old former student, used a Beretta 92FS to kill 15 people in two separate locations before shooting himself.
2010 Appomattox shootings	United States	2010	Christopher Speight	8	Speight killed eight people in three locations in Appomattox, Virginia with a high-powered rifle over the course of several hours before surrendering to police.
Cumbria shootings	United Kingdom	2010	Derrick Bird	12	Bird, a 52-year-old taxi driver, shot dead 12 people in several towns and villages in west Cumbria. He also injured 11 others in a four-hour rampage. Bird took his life with his own gun.
2010 Bratislava shootings	Slovakia	2010	Ľubomír Harman	8	Eight people (including the perpetrator) died and 17 were injured after a gunman opened fire armed with a Vz. 58 assault rifle in a suburb of Bratislava, Slovakia. Harman is the first gun-wielding Slovak spree killer.
Alphen aan den Rijn shopping mall shooting	Netherlands	2011	Tristan van der Vlis	7	Seven people (including the perpetrator) died and 17 were injured after a gunman opened fire in a shopping mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands.
Tuscon, Arizona	United States	2011	Jared Lee Loughner	6	Six people died and 19 were injured after a gunman opened fire Tuscon Arizona outside at a table. Shooting first U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords.
2012 Toronto Massacre	Canada	2012	Chevvelin Gjurdeff	378	A disgruntled college student originally from Vancouver, hijacks a semi truck and blocks the Gardiner Expressway, shoots the tank, setting it off, creating a major traffic chaos. He then proceeded to shoot as many motorists as possible, using an AK-47, two M-16s, a Colt 45, and three Heckler & Koch MP5s while throwing handgrenades at the streets below and other cars on the freeway. The rampage lasted for 4 hours, and was eventually killed by the Toronto Police. This has been the worst killing spree in history.

See also

• Mass murder
• Going postal
• Running amok
• Thrill killing
• Active shooter
• List of spree killers by number of victims

Further reading

• Pantziarka, Pan (2000). Lone Wolf: True Stories of Spree Killers. Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0437-5.