Matricide - Definition and Overview

Matricide is the act of killing one's mother. As for any type of unlawful killing, motives can vary a great deal.

Sometimes, as with Patricide, it may be because the killer has been subjected to physical, psychological or sexual abuse by his/her mother whilst it can also be a result of paranoid schizophrenia.

Real life cases

• In 59AD, the Roman Emperor Nero is said to have ordered the murder of his mother, supposedly because she was conspiring against him.

• Serial killer Edmund Kemper beat his mother to death in 1973, along with one of his mother's friends before turning himself in to the police. He had previously committed half-a-dozen sex-murders. Kemper had been psychologically abused by his domineering mother in his youth.

See also

• homicide
• Patricide
• Fratricide
• Filicide
• Infanticide