Torture murder is a loosely defined term to describe a murder where death has been preceded by the torture of the victim. In many legal jurisdictions a murder involving "exceptional brutality or cruelty" will attract harsher sentences.
One of the criteria for a judgement of "murder in the first degree" in the laws of the State of New York is that:
...the defendant acted in an especially cruel and wanton manner pursuant to a course of conduct intended to inflict and inflicting torture upon the victim prior to the victim's death. As used in this subparagraph, "torture" means the intentional and depraved infliction of extreme physical pain; "depraved" means the defendant relished the infliction of extreme physical pain upon the victim evidencing debasement or perversion or that the defendant evidenced a sense of pleasure in the infliction of extreme physical pain...
Similar positions are taken in the laws of Italy, Germany and Norway and others (see, Country-specific murder law).
In many U.S. states, the fact that a murder is "especially heinous, cruel, or depraved" is an aggravating factor making it punishable by the death penalty. This was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Walton v. Arizona (1990), provided that the factor receives a narrow definition such as "involving some kind of torture or physical abuse".
Some notable perpetrators and victims include the following. The dates indicate the time of the crime or crimes. This list includes those in positions of power.
Empress Lü Zhi (China, 202 BC to 180 BC)
Gilles de Rais (France, 1435 to 1440)
Vlad III the Impaler (Wallachia, 1448; 1456–1462; 1476)
Elizabeth Báthory (Kingdom of Hungary, 1602 to 1610)
Delphine LaLaurie (New Orleans, Louisiana, 1775 to 1842) (alleged)
H. H. Holmes (Chicago, Illinois 1893 to 1895)
Albert Fish (New York City, New York 1910 to 1936)
"Mad" Sam DeStefano (Chicago, Illinois, 1950s to 1970s)
David Parker Ray (Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 1950s to 1999)
Richard Kuklinski (Metropolitan New York, United States, 1960s to 1980s)
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (Moors murders) (Greater Manchester, England, 1963 to 1965)
Gertrude Baniszewski (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1965)
Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Bobby Beausoleil (Los Angeles, California, 1969)
Dean Corll, Wayne Henley and David Brooks (Houston, Texas, 1970 to 1973)
Randy Steven Kraft (California, Michigan, Oregon, 1970s to early 1980s)
John Wayne Gacy (Chicago, Illinois, 1972 to 1978)
Lenny and John Murphy, William Moore, Robert Bates and Sam McAllister (The Shankill Butchers) (Belfast, 1972 to 1982)
Rosemary and Fred West (Gloucester, England, 1973 to 1979)
Dennis Rader (Wichita, Kansas, 1974 to 1991)
Hamida Djandoubi (Marseille, France, 1974)
Hillside Strangler (Los Angeles, California, 1977 to 1978)
Andrei Chikatilo (Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, 1978 to 1990)
Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris (Metropolitan Los Angeles, California 1979)
Robin Gecht, Edward Spreitzer and Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis (Ripper Crew) (Chicago, Illinois, 1981 to 1982)
Paul Luckman and Robin Reid (Kingscliff, New South Wales, Australia, 1982)
Theresa Knorr (Sacramento, California, 1982, 1983)
Christopher Wilder (United States, 1982 to 1984)
Adolfo Constanzo (Mexico, 1983 to 1989)
Robert Berdella (Kansas City, Missouri, 1984 to 1987)
Gary Heidnik (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986 to 1987)
"Er Canaro" Pietro De Negri (Rome, Italy, 1988)
Westley Dodd (Vancouver, Washington, United States, 1989)
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 1990 to 1992)
Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence (Madison, Indiana, 1992)
John Bunting and Robert Wagner (Snowtown murders) (Adelaide, South Australia, 1992 to 1999)
Christa Pike (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1995)
Junko Ogata and Futoshi Matsunaga (Japan, 1996 to 1998)
Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk (The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs) (Metropolitan Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, 2007)
Sambhaji (Tulapur, 1689)
Aurore Gagnon (Quebec, 1920)
Black Dahlia (Los Angeles, 1947)
Emmett Till (Mississippi, 1955)
William "Action" Jackson (Chicago, 1961)
Sylvia Likens (Indianapolis, 1965)
Rubens Paiva (Brazil, 1971)
Vladimir Herzog (São Paulo, 1975)
Enrique Camarena (Mexico, 1985)
Junko Furuta (Tokyo, 1989)
Shanda Sharer (Madison, Indiana, 1992)
Suzanne Capper (Manchester, 1992)
Kelly Anne Bates (Manchester, 1996)
Pai Hsiao-yen (Taipei, Taiwan, 1997)
James Byrd, Jr. (Texas, 1998)
Matthew Shepard (Wyoming, 1998)
Saurabh Kalia (Kargil, 1999)
Jesse Dirkhising (Rogers, Arkansas, 1999)
Fan Man-yee (Hong Kong, 1999)
Kriss Donald (Glasgow, 2004)
Ilan Halimi (Paris, 2006)
Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom (Knoxville, Tennessee, 2007)
Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel, and Tilmann Geske (Malatya, Turkey, 2007)
Jennifer Daugherty (Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 2010)
Hamza Al-Khateeb (Daraa, Syria, 2011)
Skylar Neese (Star City, West Virginia, 2012)
Giulio Regeni (Egypt, 2016)
