The Killer's Murder Weapon

What Does Weapon Choice Tell Us About a Killer's Psyche?

When a murder occurs, one of the most chilling - and revealing - details is the murder weapon used. Why does one serial killer gun down strangers on the street while another lures sex workers into a web of torture, rape, and stabbing? Why does one strangler use his bare hands while another prefers a ligature? The weapon often tells us a lot about the killer's psychology and motives.

Forensic psychologists and their research have identified several factors that determine how killers select their tools of death. While opportunity and availability play a key role, the weapon often matches the murderer's personality and violent fantasies. The murder weapon is a window into a warped mind, reflecting their deepest desires, whether it’s for revenge, money, control, ritual, or sexual release.

Strangulation: Intimate and Controlling

Strangulation remains a leading technique among serial killers and sexual sadists. Between 1980 and 2008, over 16% of U.S. homicides involved manual strangulation. Killers use their hands, ropes, belts, and other ligatures to choke the life out of victims.

The psychology of strangulation centers on control. Constricting the airway with their bare hands allows murderers intimacy and authority over the victim. They can direct exactly when and how death occurs while looking into their victim’s eyes and observing their terror. Gary Ridgway, the infamous Green River Killer, explained he preferred strangulation as he "wanted to feel their last bit of air, their last words." Unlike guns or knives, strangulation satisfies a killer's god complex.

For sexually motivated homicide offenders, the sexual connotations of choking and breath play also come into play. Serial killer and rapist Ted Bundy derived sexual arousal from choking victims with a ligature while assaulting them. For such murderers, strangulation carries erotic overtones that lethal weapons lack. They twist this act into a perverse fantasy.

On October 19. 2023, David Tronnes was found guilty of strangling his wife, Shanti Cooper-Tronnes, after she refused to go on a reality TV show.

But you don’t have to be a serial killer to have a penchant for strangulation. Domestic violence researchers will tell you a history of strangulation is one of the strongest predictors of intimate partner violence turning into intimate partner homicide. A man who is willing to strangle you is willing to kill you.

Stabbing: Violent, Yet Personal

We all have multiple knives in our homes, so it’s no surprise that they are one of the most accessible and common murder weapons. According to the FBI, in 2019, knife deaths accounted for 1,476 homicides or 10.6% of all homicides nationwide. In countries with strict gun laws, knives become an even more prevalent homicide tool. Without access to firearms, killers turn to these household weapons. Cuba, Azerbaijan, and Bhutan are the countries where knives are used the most.

Stabbings reflect high physicality and unchecked emotion. Plunging a blade into flesh requires proximity and exertion, unlike the detachment of firing a gun. The penetrating violence bears a certain intimacy. Accordingly, stabbing frequently occurs within personal relationships. It is not uncommon for the specific victim to be targeted even if the crime was impulsive. Domestic abusers grab kitchen knives in a heated moment. Jealous lovers attack in a frenzy of emotion. The stabbing often reflects rage boiling over, not a preplanned agenda.

Joseph Csuba stabbed two of his tenants, a young Palestinian woman and her six-year-old son, in what appears to have been a hate crime.

Of course, not all knife murders are impulsive. Bryan Kohberger is currently charged with the premeditated murder of four University of Idaho students. One of the most damming pieces of evidence the prosecution claims they have is a knife sheath at the scene of the crime with his DNA on it. Premeditated or spur-of-the-moment, using a knife to kill someone requires overpowering a victim physically and offers the perpetrator the “opportunity” to witness their victim’s agony.

Shooting: Quick, Distant, and Fatal

Nothing embodies the American epidemic of gun violence more than firearm homicides. Guns caused over 10,000 U.S. murders in 2020 alone. Far more than other weapons, firearms offer the advantage of distance and semi-automatic firing. One pull of a trigger can fatally injure someone who is feet away.

This enables a cold, removed style of killing. American mass murderer James Holmes infamously opened fire into a crowded Aurora movie theater in 2012, killing 12 and wounding 70. His indiscriminate shooting reflected complete emotional detachment and lack of empathy. Guns allow murderers to kill efficiently, without physical exertion, as if taking down anonymous targets.

Of course, many killers do elect to shoot victims at point-blank range, indicating some desire for intimacy and control. Yet guns remain the most emotionally disconnected weapon overall. For killers with specific victim targets, firearms serve to quickly and fatally wound them before they can react. Guns enable precision hits and mass casualties from a distance - an undeniably lethal advantage.

Serial killer Wesley Brownlee appears to have hunted randomly hunted and shot strangers while cruising Stockton neighborhoods in his car.

Bludgeoning: Personal, Hands-On Violence

The official definition of bludgeoned is “to hit someone repeatedly with a heavy object.” Bashing victims with blunt objects constitutes a deeply intimate and hands-on method of homicide that requires sheer physical force to inflict damage. The blows often reflect explosive rage or hatred toward victims. I have also often observed a pre-existing undercurrent of resentment and frustration before one person in the relationship attempts to physically annihilate the other.

There is something primitive about bludgeoning; it speaks of raw emotions, uncontrolled impulses, blind rage. Perhaps for this reason, it was initially included as a sign of disorganization when separating serial murderers into organized versus disorganized killers. Back in the day, the theory went that the way a serial killer operated with his victims was a reflection of how he was in his daily life; the chaotic crime scene mirrored an offender who was socially inadequate and low functioning in his everyday life. This dichotomy has been called into serious question in recent years.

Sydney Powell, 23, was convicted last week of murdering her mother with a steak knife and frying pan in Akron, Ohio, on March 20, 2020. (Summit County Sheriff's Office | Akron Children's Hospital)

It is more likely that bludgeoning tells us about the intensity of the emotion at the scene rather than the personality of the perpetrator. I have noticed that individuals suffering from psychosis at the time of a crime are more likely to bludgeon their victims, suggesting to me the possibility of psychological deterioration rather than characteristic disorganization. We know that persons from all walks of life have lashed out with bowling pins, golf clubs, bricks, liquor bottles, or whatever makeshift weapon was at hand to end someone’s life.

Poisoning: Calculating, Covertly Lethal

While most methods of homicide are overtly violent, poisoning occurs through premeditation and subterfuge. Poisoners employ toxic substances - arsenic, cyanide, opioids - to quietly murder their victims. These are cold-hearted killers, secretly researching untraceable poisons over coffee or treating their victims as human guinea pigs while they try to hit on a lethal dose. Victims often mistake their symptoms as signs of a natural illness, not recognizing the calculating assailant secretly spiking their food or drink.

The choice of poison as a murder weapon also correlates with medical knowledge. Doctors, nurses, dentists, vets, and other assorted healthcare workers comprise around forty percent of poison killers; they have access to lethal substances and know how to use them. Poisoning also reflects patience; killers must bide their time as they wait for their murder weapon’s insidious effects. Some derive satisfaction from secretly orchestrating a drawn-out death.

Mother-daughter serial poisoners Rachel and Diane Staudte murdered two family members and tried to kill another before their penchant for spiking drinks with antifreeze was discovered.

We don’t know a lot about the personality of poisoners although we can draw some tentative hypotheses. In their everyday lives, most poisoners tend to be nonconfrontational, sensitive to criticism, and cunning. While they have a strong need for control, as a group, they are more likely to seek it indirectly - by manipulating others through a virtuous self-presentation or assuming a servant leader persona. Yet their choice of a murder weapon suggests deep-seated hostility and revenge fantasies beneath the surface. Cold, distant, and treacherous - poisons attract intelligent killers who wish to evade capture and watch victims die gradually. The poisoning both disguises and fulfills their homicidal intent.

The Bottom Line

The weapons murderers use tell us much about the person using them. While availability plays a key role, violent offenders also select tools that match their psychology and desired level of intimacy. Strangulation and stabbing allow personal brutality and control. Guns enable remote, rapid carnage; it is a practical weapon that can do a lot of damage while allowing psychological distance. Bludgeoning shows unrestrained fury. Poisoning manifests covert, patient harm. The choice of a murder weapon ultimately reflects the murderer's violent fantasies and mental state as they act on their lethal impulses.

But murder doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is a product of avarice, greed, hate, revenge, perhaps even fear. It is these unchecked emotions and desires that create the pond into which the murderer throws his stone, creating a rippling effect that can last for generations.