List of manifestos of mass killers

This is a list of manifestos written by mass killers and attempted mass killers, explaining their motives for their actions.

Analysis

The term "targeted violence manifesto" was coined by Julia Kupper and J. Reid Meloy to describe publications that are "intended to justify an act of violence against a specific target by articulating self-identified grievances, homicidal intentions, and/or extreme ideologies for committing an attack." They identified such publications as largely being written by a single creator prior to the attack, and that they often "express beliefs and ideas to violently promote political, religious, or social changes." Manifestos are often written to influence like-minded individuals to commit copycat attacks.

A 2017 analysis found the following themes in the manifestos of mass murderers: ego survival and revenge; pseudocommando mindset: persecution, obliteration; envy; nihilism; entitlement; and heroic revenge fantasy. Authors of terrorist manifestos, particularly ones that are "violent self-sacrificial" manifestos, often use language displaying identity fusion, where the identity as part of the group defines one's sense of self. The FBI conducted a study of 52 lone terrorists in 2019, which found that 96% produced either writings or videos intended to explain their beliefs to others; they found that in 88% of cases, perpetrators published their manifestos before the attack occurred, or "leakage," which is a valuable opportunity for intervention. Many manifestos contain calls for violence against the identified "out-group".

A 2023 analysis of the language typologies of lone actor manifestos divided the studied manifestos into three typologies: instigator, planner, and conspiracy, of which about 90% could be identified as belonging to one category.

• "Instigator" manifestos largely contained hateful language on a racial or religious basis; such manifestos feature prominent themes of revenge and often cite real world events as catalysts. These attackers, who tend to be younger, are likely to target places related to the group they are against, such as government or religious buildings, or educational facilities. Killers in this group tended to be younger. Examples of the authors of such manifestos include Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, Brenton Tarrant, and Charles Bishop.
• "Conspiracy" manifestos are written by perpetrators whose ideologies are based around and who believe in conspiracy theories. Such conspiracies can be personal or related to wider world events. Environmental conspiracies are especially prevalent in this category; attackers tend to target locations directly tied to the relevant conspiracy, and have a higher rate of explosive use. Examples of this category were given as Patrick Crusius, Ted Kaczynski, Lucas Helder, Anson Chi, and James Von Brunn.
• "Planner" manifestos are more focused on violence and the attack itself, with more focus on the specific details, explaining how the attack was conducted, and justifying it. Manifestos largely focused on preparations for the attack. Killers in this category were likely to identify themselves by their real name in their manifesto, which is an aspect that can aid crime investigators. Examples of this group were Elliot Rodger and Jim Adkisson.

List

References

Further reading