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A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more in a short time, often in multiple locations. There are different opinions about what durations of time a killing spree may take place in. The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics has spoken of "almost no time break between murders", but some academics consider that a killing spree may last weeks or months, e.g. the case of Andrew Cunanan, who murdered five people over three months, including fashion designer Gianni Versace.
How to distinguish a spree killer from a mass murderer, or a serial killer, is subject to considerable debate, and the terms are not consistently applied even within the academic literature.
The United States Bureau of Justice Statistics has defined a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders".
The Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment lists five different categories of spree killers and cites Mark O. Barton as an example of the second one.Levinson, David (ed.): Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Vol. 4; Berkshire Publishing Group, 2002. p. 1565 He is also noted alongside mass murderers, such as Patrick Sherrill, in the respective entry about mass murder.Levinson, p. 1038. In The Anatomy of Motive, John E. Douglas cites Charles Starkweather and Andrew Cunanan (who murdered five people over three months) as examples of spree killers,Douglas, John E. & Olshaker, Mark: The Anatomy of Motive; Simon and Schuster, 1999. while Jack Levin calls Starkweather a mass murderer and Cunanan a serial killer.Levin, Jack & Fox, James Alan: Mass Murder: America's Growing Menace, Berkley Books, 1991.Levin, Jack: Serial Killers and Sadistic Murderers, Prometheus Books, 2008. p. 49.
In Controversial Issues in Criminology, Fuller and Hickey write that "the element of time involved between murderous acts is primary in the differentiation of serial, mass, and spree murderers", later elaborating those spree killers "will engage in the killing acts for days or weeks" while the "methods of murder and types of victims vary". Andrew Cunanan is given as an example of spree killing, while Charles Whitman is mentioned in connection with mass murder and Jeffrey Dahmer with serial killing.Fuller, John R. & Hickey, Eric W.: Controversial Issues in Criminology; Allyn and Bacon, 1999. pp. 36.
In Serial Murder, Ronald M. Holmes and StephenT. Holmes defines spree murder as "the killing of three or more people within a 30-day period" and add that killing sprees are "usually accompanied by the commission of another felony."Holmes, R. M, & Holmes, S. T.: Serial Murder; SAGE Publications, 2010. pp. 35. They cite Charles Starkweather and the Beltway Snipers as examples of spree killers.Holmes, R. M, & Holmes, S. T.: Serial Murder; SAGE Publications, 2010. pp. 36. They define serial murder as "the killing of three or more people over a period of more than 30 days, with a significant cooling-off period between the killings."Holmes, R. M, & Holmes, S. T.: Serial Murder; SAGE Publications, 2010. pp. 6. Under this definition, Andrew Cunanan would be categorized as a serial killer and not a spree killer.
In Sexual Homicide, Ressler, Burgess and Douglas gave more emphasis to killings being at more than one location, and less precision about the time span, saying that a single event can last a short or long time, citing Christopher Wilder's seven-week "murder event" or "killing spree".
Douglas wrote that the identity of serial killers is generally unknown until they are caught, and a mass murderer's identity is learned only after they have committed the crime. The identity of the spree killer, on the other hand, usually becomes known by police while the spree is still in progress.Douglas, p. 192.
The term rampage killer has also been used sometimes to describe spree killers, especially when a single individual perpetrator:
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