Sole Survivor: Children Who Murder Their Parents

by Elliott Leyton

Book by Elliott Leyton

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction, Psychology

294 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Elliott Leyton is a Canadian social-anthropologist, educator and author who is amongst the most widely consulted experts on serial homicide worldwide. He has also served as president of the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association.

Leyton earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of British Columbia then went on to obtain his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1972. During his ensuing career, he dedicated himself to the analysis and research of social ills such as juvenile delinquency and the psychology behind perpetrators of serial killings. Leyton's achieved level of expertise has led to his giving lectures at the College of Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa.

Professor Leyton has held faculty positions at Queen's University of Belfast in Ireland (where he is a research Fellow), and at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel; and at Memorial University of Newfoundland where he currently is Professor Emeritus of anthropology.

Reviews

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The back cover of this book made it seem like one of those trashy, tabloidesque true crime books I don't care for, and I hesitated to read it. I'm glad I did anyway, because Sole Survivor turned out to be much more serious and sober in tone than I expected. The author presents a series of case studies, mainly from the 1970s, of children who murdered their whole families (or almost their whole families; sometimes there were survivors). Besides covering the homicides themselves and their immediate aftermath, he delves into a social history of each family. His argument is that these familiacides (his term) occur because the family, often struggling to rise in socioeconomic status, puts unbearable pressure on the child until his/her entire identity is lost, and by killing the family the child is simply trying to assert themselves as an individual.

I'm still not sure what I think of Leyton's theory, but I found this book to be quite interesting and thought-provoking. My copy is from 1992; I wonder if later editions include more recent examples.

(Oh, I should note here that the title means "children" in the sense of "offspring." Only one of the murderers in this book was actually a minor child at the time of the killing; all the others were young adults.)

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent, excellent book uses a variety of case examples to explain why some kids in middle-class families decide that their best option is to kill everyone in the house. I know a family this happened to, and it describes the dynamics perfectly.

[Kaitlin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly waste of time it's not that great.

[Russ Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

an excellent read, looking at case histories of recent familicides to explain why an individual would want to murder their own families. The conclusion?; essentially, the families discussed were dysfunctional to such an extent that the murder is more or less inevitable, the murderers brought to a point, usually by either one or both parent, that murder is seen as the only way out, & the other family members are seen only as allies of the hated parent.

[Jordan Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief look into the psychological & sociological factors that had an influence on families. Very interesting, not a light read, but very informative.

[Michele J · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but I found it extremely dry. It reminded me of a textbook.