April ushers in 'the killing season,' mass murder researchers say
Mass-murder researchers and terrorism experts do not like turning their calendars to April. For them, it marks the beginning of what one calls "the killing season."
Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people at Columbine High School in April 1999. Seung Hui Cho killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in April 2007.
Waco. The Boston Marathon bombing. A mass stabbing in Pennsylvania.
Over the past two decades, April's significance has become a source of concern for those who monitor hate groups and fascination for academics who study the seasonality of violence.
Aggravated assaults spike in summer -- people are outside more and the heat agitates. Burglars take the winter off because people hibernate in their homes. But why would April, with its cheerful tulips and spring sunshine, trigger so much extreme violence?
"It's a question we talk about all the time," said Heidi Beirich, a domestic terrorism expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of two groups that have issued April-related violence alerts. "It's a really strange phenomenon. We sometimes refer to April as the beginning of killing season."
Full story at site.
Mass-murder researchers and terrorism experts do not like turning their calendars to April. For them, it marks the beginning of what one calls "the killing season."
Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people at Columbine High School in April 1999. Seung Hui Cho killed 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech in April 2007.
Waco. The Boston Marathon bombing. A mass stabbing in Pennsylvania.
Over the past two decades, April's significance has become a source of concern for those who monitor hate groups and fascination for academics who study the seasonality of violence.
Aggravated assaults spike in summer -- people are outside more and the heat agitates. Burglars take the winter off because people hibernate in their homes. But why would April, with its cheerful tulips and spring sunshine, trigger so much extreme violence?
"It's a question we talk about all the time," said Heidi Beirich, a domestic terrorism expert at the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of two groups that have issued April-related violence alerts. "It's a really strange phenomenon. We sometimes refer to April as the beginning of killing season."
Full story at site.