e173 The Tragic Tale of a Father and Son: an Unusual Patricide The Tragic Tale of a Father and Son: an Unusual Patricide G. Divella 1 , I. Grattagliano 3 , M. C. Romanelli 2 , J.B. Duval 4 , R. Catanesi 3 1 Section of Legal Medicine, Department of Public Health and Pediatric, University of Turin; 2 Section of Legal Medicine, Interdisci- plinary Department of Medicine, University of Bari; 3 Section of Criminology and Forensic Psychyatric, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, University of Bari, Italy; 4 Indiana, US Case report Clin Ter 2017; 168 (3):e173-177. doi: 10.7417/T.2017.2000 Correspondence: Ignazio Grattagliano, Section of Criminology and Forensic Psychyatric, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, University of Bari, Italy. Bari, Italy. Tel: +39 080 5478364; Fax: +39- 080 5478248. E-mail: ignazio.grattagliano@uniba.it Copyright © Società Editrice Universo (SEU) ISSN 1972-6007 Introduction Parricide (1-2),is the killing of one’s own biological or adoptive parent. Parricide is subdivided into patricide (the killing of one’s father), matricide (the killing of one’s mo- ther), and “double parricide” (the killing of both parents). Statistically, parricide is the rarest of all categories of vo- luntary manslaughter. In Europe and North America, it is estimated that parricide accounts for 2-4% of all homicides there, with patricides outnumbering matricides. In Europe parricides are more numerous in Eastern Europe, Russia first of all ( 3-4). In Italy, parricide accounts for less than 3% of all homicides, with matricides outnumbering patricides. The 40.1% of the cases concerns the North, 28.4% took place in the South, the16.1% in the central belt of Italy, 15.4% in the islands (5). This kind of homicide most often occurs in homes where the aggressor and victim cohabitate, and happens most frequently after an altercation, (6). Parricide is often perpetrated in a violent and bloody manner, at times comparable to that of overkilling, and often with the use of a common household object found inside the home, (7), Patricide is mostly carried out by males (8), and there Abstract Parricide is a category of homicide in which the victims are the parents, and the killers, their children. The authors report a case of a 45-year-old man who killed his 73-year-old widowed father in an extremely violent manner: he struck the father in the head with a wooden wash board, stabbed him with a pair of scissors and several times with a screwdriver. Afterwards, he kicked the victim in the face and jumped up and down on his body, thereby crushing the father’s chest with his weight. The case reported here may be classified as an “unusual patricide” when one considers the age of the aggressor, the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders, that the victim was the father, and that the murder was committed in an extremely violent manner. Clin Ter 2017; 168(3):e173-177. doi: 10.7417/CT.2017.2000 Key words: patricide, violence, forensic pathology, overkilling, forensic psychiatry are a variety of motives that induce adolescents or adults to commit it (9). When adolescents commit parricide, it is often a violent reaction to physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by the father on his children, or on their mother, over a protracted period of time ( 10-11). However, when parricide is carried out by adults between 30 and 40 years of age, it most often involves serious psychiatric pathologies - mostly psychotic. When the murder is the result of dysfunctional family relationships(12-13), it is most often the mother who is the victim. In the various cases examined, the perpetrators of these crimes are typically unmarried, unemployed, or work part- time, and they usually live with the victim. In one study carried out on a sample of 12 men with an average age of 31 years old, six subjects had tried to kill both parents, and the other six had killed one parent. In this case record, drug and alcohol abuse, which are considered to be precipitating factors, was present in 41.7% of cases. In addition, serious recurring problems concerning mental health issues and the inability to live autonomou- sly were also reported. All of these factors compelled the subjects to live with their families (14). Other authors have also (15), revealed a predominance of males, combined with other factors such as living with the parents, financial dependence on the family, and limited relationships or other activities that take place outside of the home. The subjects experience this as a sense of being “trapped”, which contributes to strife in the parent/child relationship. Globally, the predominance of males in the commission parricide is correlated to their propensity for committing violent acts, and is not influenced by the ethnic group to which they belong. Case report The perpetrator of this homicide is a 45-year-old man with a low level of education (elementary school) who had worked in the construction industry, but who had been unemployed for an extended period of time. He was the only male of six children. This man, reserved and introverted by