Types of Homicide Being Portrayed in Connection to Course Material

Throughout the podcast, it is stated that Matthew de Grood, the perpetrator of the Brentwood Five massacre, experienced paranoia and delusions prior to the murders of the five victims. At the time of the murder, de Grood was in a psychotic state and killed Joshua Hunter, Kaitlin Perras, Jordan Segura, Lawrence Hong, and Zackariah Rathwell with a kitchen knife after hearing voices that they were werewolves and the Illuminati. Under the circumstances that de Grood was suffering from schizophrenia, the type of homicide portrayed in the podcast aligns with the information expressed in Unit 6 on mass killers and mental illness. Jack Levin and James Alan Fox’s (2017) article Understanding Serial and Mass Murder discussed how criminologists have conducted studies on multiple homicides perpetrated by individuals that suffer from mental disorders. Levin and Fox (2017) state, “The more extreme the bloodshed and the more bizarre or senseless the motivation, the more apt we are to assume that the murderer is driven by compulsions symptomatic of some profound mental illness” (p. 261). Levin and Fox use control theory to contest this assumption as very few mass killers possess a mental illness comprising of paranoia and delusional thinking and are more likely to suffer from depression due to frequent frustration (Levin & Fox, 2017). The attack perpetrated by de Grood was revolting and horrific, however, it does not prove that he exhibits characteristics of a serial killer that commits murder out of frustration or for power and control. It does demonstrate, however, that de Grood committed the massacre to accomplish a means to an end result as the podcast stated that de Grood thought a war was emerging and he had no other option. Thus, de Grood could become a threat to society if he is discharged based on the paranoia and delusions he experiences without the regulated use of medication.