Mass Murders, Murderers Quotes



This is the earliest version of this idea which was made famous with a statistical reference by Stalin speaking to Churchill {616657}. Also a French diplomat preceded Stalin {627488} .


Though a breach was made in the wall by means of engines, nevertheless the capture of the place did not immediately follow even then. On the contrary, the defenders killed great numbers [of Romans] who tried to crowd through the opening and they also set fire to some of the buildings nearby, hoping thus to check the further progress of the Romans. Nevertheless, the soldiers, because of their superstition, did not immediately rush in but at last, under compulsion from Titus, they made their way inside. Then the Jews defended themselves much more vigorously than before, as if they had discovered a piece of rare good fortune in being able to fight near the Temple and fall in its defense.” The populace was stationed below in the court and the elders on the steps and the priests in the Sanctuary itself. And though they were but a handful fighting against a far superior force, they were not conquered until part of the Temple was set on fire. Then they met their death willingly, some throwing themselves on the swords of the Romans, some slaying one another, others taking their own lives and still others leaping into the flames. And it seemed to everybody and especially to them that so far from being destruction, it was victory and salvation and happiness to them that they perished along with the Temple. While the holy house (The Temple) was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand, and ten thousand of those that were caught were slain; nor was there a commiseration of any age…but children and old men…and priests, were all slain in the same manner….The flame was also carried a long way, and made an echo, together with the groans of those who were slain…one would have thought the whole city would have been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything greater and more terrible than this noise.


Describing the conquest and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 AD.


This quotation is typical of the anti-government intense feeling, paranoia, and hyperbole of the early 21st century. While a minority of the American population identify with the Tea Party, the Center for a Stateless Society, and other anti-government groups. However, the orthodox members of both of the major political parties tended to avoid publicly criticizing these individuals and organizations lest they end up with an opponent in their next primary election which did not succeed in the majority of cases, but in all cases, it cost the politician a great deal of money, time, and energy to run a primary campaign which often weakens them for the general election that follows.


Charles Dickens himself, a true nineteenth-century liberal, lent his weight to the campaign to abolish public executions. After seeing the execution of Maria and Frederick Mannings for murdering Maria’s lover, Patrick O’Connor, in Horsemonger Lane, outside the Surrey County Gaol on 13 November 1849, he wrote this to the Times. Public hangings were abolished in 1868. The last one took place outside Newgate Prison on 26 May of that same year. The man hanged was an Irish terrorist called Michael Barratt who had blown up the Clerkenwell House of Detention killing six people. A drunken crowd stayed up all night to witness the execution. They cheered wildly when the scaffold was brought out at dawn. More people – mainly young women and children – began to arrive. By the time a bell was sounded at eight o’clock in the morning to announce the arrival of the condemned man, the crowd stretched back as far as Smithfield.


Saloth Sar Pol Pot. He exterminated over 1 million of his own people who were obstacles to his idea that all people should live in villages. Victims included people who were city residents, intellectuals which meant anyone with an education, and even people who wore glasses were killed.


In 1936, Fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in an effort to obtain an African colony like other European Countries had. Over 50 nations had promised aid to Ethiopia if attacked but then the Italian attacks came, it was not just soldiers with some small artillery and vehicles. Instead it was a full modern army with not only heavy artillery and tanks, but extensive use of air power against villages and towns which generally hardly had rifles. The airplane carnage of civilian populations was a shock to the world. However, the tactics were studied by the Italian German Fascist allies who further developed air power use against unarmed towns and cities in the Spanish Civil war. The aid promised to Christian Ethiopia never materialized because there was a worldwide depression and the great powers would have had to commit to major war—not just send some arms and ammunition. The Ethiopians mostly fought with spears and knives. The Fascists were thus emboldened for the invasion of Europe a few years later.