Reasons to commit murder, ranked
- It’s nothing personal, you’re just an amoral hitman
- Mercy killing someone about to be burned at the stake
- Provoking a third party into taking rash action as part of a complicated revenge scheme
- Aliens are threatening to blow up the planet unless you kill an innocent person as part of some philosophy thought experiment brought to life
- Feud between musicians (black metal)
- Taking revenge for some minor insult many years ago
- To take their stuff for the sake of your own survival in a post-apocalyptic hellscape
- Hunting humans for sport
- Just to see if you can get away with it
- Ottoman sultan having all his brothers killed to eliminate any rival claimants to the throne
- Feud between musicians (rap)
- Killing a co-conspirator to make sure they don’t rat you out to the police and/or to take their share of the loot
- To propitiate the Aztec gods
- To test the sharpness of your blade
- Non-sexual thrill
- PCP
- Targeted campaign of political assassinations to bring down a government
- Obviously doomed attempt to avoid an ancient Greek prophecy
- You’re a solipsist
- Cannibalism
- As part of a longstanding blood feud between your two tribes
- Horrible boss
- Sexual thrill
- Just to watch them die
- Brainwashed into doing a cult leader’s bidding
- Gang initiation
- Headhunting (literal)
- A supercomputer calculated that it would be the utilitarian thing to do
- Delusional/hearing voices
- Executing a prisoner to send a message to your enemies
- To cash in on an insurance policy you filed recently enough that it’s extremely suspicious
- God liked his offerings more than yours
- Shooting the messenger (literal)
- It would cost your company more money not to kill someone
- Jealous rage
- To bathe in the blood of virgins
- Bar fight which escalated
- Ordered by your commanding officer
- Accidentally killing a bystander while committing what was supposed to be a non-homicidal crime