comment: >
  
  What is honor killing?
context: This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
  (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  My great great grandfather killed his wife with an axe and then hung himself. Didn’t hear about this story until my grandparents were moving out of their house, I found an old ass photograph of them and asked who’s that? >
  
  Holy fuck dude. At least they had kids first 😯 >
  
  As opposed to having kids after? >
  
  Now I'm laughing in the bus, people are looking, I should just show them your comment >
  
  I'm hoping you showed them the comment >
  
  I did my family tree and found a very distant cousin (not a direct ancestor) who was a serial killer. He’s the guy they wrote about in Devil in the White City. (Corrected to say distant cousin, not distinct.) >
  
  Almost enough to dox yourself.  Here's hoping your history is clean. >
  
  He said very distant cousin. So they could be one of hundreds of people. >
  
  Technically we are all distant cousins. The most recent individual common ancestor of almost all humans is probably only from 2000-4000 years ago (of course not in the sense that we branched out in the main since then, but that due to the exponentially increasing number of ancestors as we go back each generation to ~10^24 only 2000 years back, people moving around, and incidental mixing, the most recent person who ‘happens’ to be in the ancestry of almost all of us, including most of Africa, Europe, Asia and the New World today is almost certainly more recent than we’d naively expect). That’d be maybe 100-200 generations, making almost all of us at most 100-200th cousins - for just a particular pair of two random humans, the most recent common ancestor is very probably even more recent.
  The only people likely excluded are in those small long-isolated pockets like North Sentinel Island, and even then they may have been isolated recently enough not to be an exception. >
  
  Dont be fucking your 100th cousin >
  
  I don't, I stay within the first 3 to keep the bloodline pure but not too pure >
  
  Get him milk to drink! >
  
  Come in, Ryan and I just got out of the shower >
  
  Here in Germany, it's mostly even in the last 4 generations due to WW2. Almost everyone has some ancestor that fought back then. >
  
  We ugh, we just going to ignore the elephant in the room? >
  
  Of course they were all nazi bastards. Many Germans want to forget that they have Nazis in their family tree but denying won't change it. They were Nazis and they deserved to die. >
  
  Wasn’t there forced conscription in ww2? Innocent men who were forced to follow orders do not deserve to die >
  
  After World War 2, they made it so "following orders" isn't a valid excuse anymore. They always tell us in the US military to not follow any orders that are illegal, immoral, or unethical, even if a General is giving them to you. You can be tried if you carry out an illegal order >
  
  Iirc they had the choice to go into the fight or getting shot at the spot... Nice and important change of the legal matter but if your general gives you that choice I don't think you would start arguing about the legality of it >
  
  Strangely appropriate timing... my best friend has been researching my family tree and showed me yesterday my extensive tree. Turns out great-granny ended up in prison for neglecting and killing three babies. It explains a lot about granny's toxic nature. >
  
  Damn!! What the fuck >
  
  My grandfather was a parachute instructor for the 101st during WWII. He didn’t kill anyone himself, but taught hundreds of guys to do just that >
  
  My grandad was born in 1941, so he wasn't in the army for obvious reasons, but one of his brothers was in the army and fought in Italy, and another was in the RAF, apparently he was a gunner on a Lancaster bomber, need to find a way to confirm that one.
  Also said his dad was in WW I, seems very likely, but again, I've not been able to confirm that. >
  
  Killing an enemy during war is not murder. >
  
  War is literally nothing but state-sanctioned mass-murder. >
  
  Which by definition means it's not murder since murder is defined as "premeditated unlawful killing of a human being by another." >
  
  The Holocaust was lawful.  
  Are you suggesting that butchering millions of people doesn't qualify as mass-murder because the government says it's okay? >
  
  I think the lawfulness of the act is less important than the word "enemy". In a war, if you don't shoot the other guy, chances are he will shoot you. 
  The Jews weren't enemies. They weren't (for the most part) shooting anyone. It was genocide, and I personally like to think of it as an event separate from World War 2. It happened at the same time, but the poor people who died during those events don't qualify as "war induced casualties" in my book. They had nothing to do with the war. 
  The events are just talked about together because they happened at the same time and had the same root. >
  
  Don’t have to go that far back….my father was a murderer at 14. >
  
  Sorry, dude. That must be hard. >
  
  Nah he never did any time. It was an honor killing in a rural part of the mid east. I think it’s vile but he never faced any repercussions. >
  
  What is honor killing? >
  
  A Muslim practice where a male family member (usually the father) kills a female family member ( usually his daughter) for "dishonorable" conduct. Like dating, kissing someone or being raped.
  It's a pretty sick and disgusting practice. >
  
  It's not a Muslim practice, it's an ignorant practice that's much more cultural. Unfortunately it happens in places with poor education, it happens commonly across equatorial countries but also African and Chinese regions.
  That being said, there's no honor in killing, and I hope God punishes those who do 'honor killings'. >
  
  I feel like it’s a little more complicated than “God punishing those who do honor killings”. I’m pretty sure OP’s father didn’t just wake up one day and say “oh yeah, I want to spend my day killing relatives”. He was 14 and probably was pressured/ forced to do it (maybe like his elders before). I would argue that he could have been a different type of victim in this scenario. >
  
  My mother's side last name literally means "proficient at killing" after our ancestor killed a bunch of English people. 
  It was all the hype in 1400, not sure you'd get praise if you tried to copycat his success story. >
  
  A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Killian! >
  
  I bloody hope so. I am not doing all the work in the family name. >
  
  My grandpa was a helicopter pilot and gunner. He was in WWII, Korean War, and ultimately died in Vietnam. My grandma was a Nazi Regime survivor so I'm sure her side of the family, I would hope, fought back and killed some Nazis. >
  
  Well, a great-uncle of mine was collaborating with the Nazis in WW2...
  Near the end of the war, he was speeching in Antwerp in public about how glorious the SS was. A week later the city was liberated. 
  When he passed away early 1950s, people showed up at his funeral just to be sure it was him who was buried. >
  
  Was he buried in Germany or had he immigrated? My grandma was the only member of her family that immigrated. So wild to think that they went through that only a generation back >
  
  He was Belgian, and as far as I know he was buried in Belgium. Probably not anywhere near anyone else in the family. >
  
  Googled my own name and found I have the same name as a murderer and they lived about 40 miles away from where I live, they currently in jail. >
  
  So the wrong one went to jail? And you're out here free with us? >
  
  My grandfather murdered his mistress and their unborn child by blasting them with a shotgun. He died in prison 2 years ago, thankfully. >
  
  Oh, damn! You win 🏆 >
  
  My father was a ww2 vet. My grandfather a WW1 vet. I'm the first in three generations that hasn't killed anyone. >
  
  Well, get out there and continue the legacy Jesus! >
  
  I don't think Jesus was big on murder; he was a more forgiving fellow >
  
  As a German I can say that with a high likelihood it’s probably not a very distant ancestor.. >
  
  Glad my family left Germany before then.
  I still have a rocking chair from Germany when my (mother’s side) immigrated over >
  
  I don’t think it’s so distant for me. I’m confident my parents have done so. More reasons I pretend my parents are dead and remain estranged >
  
  Whaaaat >
  
  My father is a big drug dealer and my mom launders drug money. They have always been separated and are murders separately too. I say I’m confident because I don’t truly know, it’s based off of memories I have and stories I’ve been told. My mom almost went to prison in her late teens for home invasion. Her and a group of friends killed everyone in the home they invaded, children included. She never served time because they couldnt prove she was in the house but her friends got life in prison. She was forced to move states after. I believe my dads list is longer but the one that stands out is when I caught him and his friend burning their clothes in the back yard. The next day we moved to some nowhere town in a different state again. Wasn’t until I was older and started asking why we moved around a lot that I found out him and his friend had killed a group of guys that night. 
  What’s really sad is I dont think these were the only times. My mom especially.
  Edit: spelling >
  
  Weirdest story I’ve heard is that my grandpa’s cousin (who’s allegedly a murderer) escaped jail. And while escaping, he got in a fight with someone and got his stomach slashed open. He ran while carrying his insides on one hand. He was able to live after that. >
  
  My cousin just committed murder-suicide this year so yeah... We grew up very close too. :/ >
  
  That is rough. >
  
  Distant. Um haha. My mothers side of the trees family has several branches that have multiple members who've unalived people.  They are a combo of rednecks and ghetto. They have ther own file cabinet at the police station. Lol. >
  
  Username checks out. >
  
  LMAO... You don't have to go far down my family tree for that. Both my uncle and grandfather are murderers. >
  
  My grandmother worked at a post office and brought her gun to work and threatened the postmaster sometime in the 1960s as the story goes. >
  
  Is she the one that made “going postal” a thing ? >
  
  I doubt it, but my mom likes to think so. Apparently, she was certifiably insane and I've heard some pretty far-out stories about her doing other bizarre things. >
  
  Not to far in mine really. My grandfather killed the man who raped his daughter, my mom. >
  
  Justified homicide >
  
  My great grandfather killed the guy who was actually in love with my great grandmother, cause my great grandfather was like… betrothed medieval-style to her. >
  
  Not that distant of a relative,great gramps killed at least 7 people. For the longest time no one knew his motivations until they found a journal of his. They were all people who had wronged him one way or the other... >
  
  Yup. Me grandfather did.
  ​
  ​
  He killed a bunch of nazi's when they invaded the Netherlands. He was part of the resistance. >
  
  well, technically, every single murderer who ever lived is in everyone's family tree >
  
  Not necessarily in a living person's family tree though... >
  
  teechnicaaaly we are all one big family, all humans had one common ancestor about 200 thousand years ago, mitochondrial eva >
  
  With Vikings as ancestors there was a lot of rape and pillaging going on as well >
  
  Yeah, most of my family tree is British Isles but when I did Ancestry there was a significant amount of Scandinavian. We never had any family settlements in Scandinavia… >
  
  And rapist and all the crap you could imagine.
  We don’t choose our blood but we can choose our destiny and this is not my path. >
  
  From what I've been told, my late grandfather killed a german soldier to protect my grandmother during WWII so not that distant lol >
  
  One of my sisters is the family genealogist.  She found out a relation back around the time of the Civil War cut a guy's head off.  Family on both sides were hillbillies going back a couple hundred years.  Lots of hard asses in the back woods. >
  
  Not murdered but one of my brothers killed someone back in the early 80s. >
  
  I mean perfectly reasonable people can become murderers given circumstance >
  
  There are moments that make murderers of us all. All it takes is a good reason and a bad day. Everyone is a murderer, you just have to meet the right person. 
  Paraphrased from the TV series Inside man. >
  
  Is the series any good? >
  
  From what I've watched so far, definitely. >
  
  My grandma’s uncle was an executioner (John Ellis) and killed 203 people. >
  
  Poor guy died too soon. RIP >
  
  My  great grandfather tried poisoning my  great grandmother because she was got pregnant, divorce wasn’t an option and abortions weren’t either. And they couldn’t feed the 4 kids they already had. >
  
  Some not so distant... humans have a dark history, and a lot of it is not as far back as we pretend it is. >
  
  Ugh part of my family lineage helped kill an entire tribe of indigenous americans in the 1600s. I'd wager a good portion of my colonial ancestors have murdered. I denounce their actions. >
  
  Maybe not so distant.
  My great great grandfather shot a man in the face at a poker table. The way my family tells it is that her was caught cheating, but I'd be interested to hear how the other guy's family tells it. Too long ago, and way too rural for any records of the truth, but rumor has it that this was the event that cut the acreage of his ranch down to the size that my cousins farm today. Apparently, gramps got off for murder, and his jurors all got their own tracts if land. 
  I have no idea if any of this is true. It's the story that my great grandmother (his daughter) told me. I do know that he immigrated to the US wealthy, and land records show that his ranch was the size of a county, but there are no preserved records of any of it being sold off. >
  
  Maybe an unpopular opinion... I think the OP ment Murder, not justifiable killing in a World War. >
  
  Murder is any intentional homicide. Even if it’s justified it’s still murder. >
  
  Still I don't think that's what the OP ment >
  
  I'm German, my "great" grandfather participated in 6000 murders in the Holocaust >
  
  Yikes >
  
  Yea my great-grandfather, he shot and killed a man over a hand of poker >
  
  I know for a fact that my Grandpa killed two nazis with a tire iron. They were captured and the tire in the truck they had them in got a flat. They made my grandpa fix because he had a broken leg. So they gave him a tire iron to fix it. He whacked the Nazis with it. Then the drove in the opposite direction. One of the fun reasons I am alive. There are so many other times he easily could have died. You probably have some lucky ancestors due to all the war that happens >
  
  My grandfather killed two men that raped my aunt. Never was caught for it. >
  
  Considering the number of relatives you have increase exponentially as you go back… yes, there’s a good chance one of my 1 billion 28th great grandparents murdered someone (obviously a little less than this as some distant relatives may have married… I’m not aware of any siblings that got married, but that might explain a few things…) >
  
  Sadly my moms dad had to kill people. Such a sweet man. War is terrible. >
  
  This happened loooong time ago. Two brothers had a farm together and one of them was going to get married so the other brother have to move out. He did not like this and decided to murder his brother by shooting him. Not sure if he murdered his brothers future wife too. I don't have any information abt the punishment he got. >
  
  Being half norwegian and half english i like to think my family was probably killing each other during the dane invasions of england and im the product of sappy romeo and Juliet story >
  
  Well.. If we give birth to a new generation every 30 years, and we go back like 300 years.. That's about 2^10 = 1024 (ideally) of your ancestors were born around the year 1700. I guess many of them killed even own family members.
  Plus, better don't worry about some your ancestors reproduced within their own family, because they definitely did. Having 1024 ancestors being born around 1700 means, there were more than 1 million (2^20) born around 1400. Again, ideally. Most likely many of them have more than just one connection in the family tree to you. Then go back another 300 years to the year 1100 and use 2^30, that's more than a billion ancestors of you were born around 1100. That's actually a lot more than the world population was at that time.
  So yes, your ancestors were bloody killers. >
  
  Not so distant for me; my grandfather killed his wife(my grandmother), in front of their young children, then killed himself…. >
  
  We're pretty sure my 3 greats grandpa killed my 2 greats grandpa. He was tried and found not guilty, but from the court records and other information we found, were pretty sure he was guilty. 
  He had a young daughter, Annie, who ended up pregnant out of wedlock, presumably by the son of the man who had the next farm over (he was mid 20s, she was mid teens). We assume that he was the father because in the first census after baby was born, she was listed with his last name. The baby daddy turned up missing around the time she got pregnant, last seen riding past her farm. Her dad was seen about that time digging a hole in the middle of his field for no apparent reason. We're pretty sure a jury of men (this was around  1900) heard the evidence, thought that they would have done the same thing if someone knocked up their daughter, and declared him not guilty. >
  
  Not that I know of in my family but my best friend when I was 15 ended up killing off his family shortly after I moved. I don’t think they’re correlated at all but he wasn’t right to begin with so it was only a matter of time before he visited a jail >
  
  Did an ancestry years ago and found out that a very distant great uncle of mine murdered and mutilated a whole family for unknown reasons, most likely out of impulse back in the early 1900s. Come to find out most of my elderly family already knew about this but they’ve been trying to bury this so they keep it to themselves. But they say he was known to have severe anger issues and was a strange man. Crazy. >
  
  What the actual fuckkk dude… how’d you found out? I kept it vague. >
  
  I just DMed you. >
  
  My Great, Great Aunt hit her husband on the head with a cast iron pan in self defence. >
  
  Depending on how involved your ancestors were with settling the U.S., yup. And maybe worse. >
  
  “At least one”? We’re descendants of gatherers/hunters/cave men… I’d say most of our ancestors have murdered somebody. >
  
  Quite the contrary, at least some of my distant ancestors have been murdered because of the major wars in the last century >
  
  My grandfather was a drunk. When he was diagnosed with terminal cilicosis he, no surprise,  got drunk.  When he got home he was met by his wife and three of his daughters. He put two .32 caliber slugs in his wife, shot one daughter, skipped one, and shot the third. The one he skipped was my mother. She was 16. >
  
  I mean one from the early 20th century killed filippinos so this ain't surprising. >
  
  Probably not that far up for anyone whose parents/grandparents fought in the war... >
  
  Only four generations back for me. Great-great-Grandpappy Neckbeard murdered his wife and got married 2 months later. His friends on the jury didn’t convict him. >
  
  My great-grandfather was executed via electric chair in the state of Georgia for the alleged murder of a man and his ten year old son. He was accused alongside two other men he had worked with. I don't remember specifics as to why they supposedly did it, but my great grandfather maintained his innocence all the way to the chair. We as his family have reason to believe he may have been present but didn't actually partake in the murder, but we aren't sure of course. My grandmother, his daughter, doesn't like to talk about it. She was really young when it happened. >
  
  My not so distant uncle tried to slit his wife's throat. She survived but always wore a scarf around her neck to hide the scar >
  
  I’m a distant cousin to George Washington on my mom’s side. Does that count? I mean with war and everything. >
  
  Considering my family tree contains William the Conqueror and Rollo Lothbrok of Normandy, I would say it's a certainty that they have killed people. >
  
  Wow, how can you trace your ancestors back that far? Are you royalty or some such thing? I am intrigued >
  
  Great grandfather was machine gunner in WW1. Never talked about how many people he killed, but if you know anything about trench warfare you can imagine... >
  
  Don’t even have to go too far back, Jesse James was my great great grandmas cousin or something along those lines. >
  
  My great uncle avenged his father. He was four when they killed his dad. Took him 15 years to find out two had died and one was still living. Tailed him through the mountains of Sinaloa and confronted the guy. Wrestled him to the ground, tied him up, explained who he was and proceeded to stab him as many times they did his father. >
  
  One of my distant ancestors/relatives was the first person to be hanged for murder in America (as in United States of America).
  edit: oh, I almost forgot! My great-granddad’s brother was murdered by his wife. She tried to poison him with blood thinners, and when that didn’t work she hit him over the head with a gallon pickle jar while he was eating dinner and he bled out. Then she and his brother drove him three states away and buried him in a hillside. When the body was discovered she was convicted and was in prison for 3 years, and was murdered the day she was released in front of the halfway house she was sent to, and the family rumor is my great-grandad was in the mafia and put out a hit on her. This has never been verified but from what I can tell it’s a strong possibility. >
  
  And if you're male, the chance that you're directly related to Genghis Khan is about 1 in 200, so there's a 1 in 200 chance you're directly related to a man responsible for about 40 million deaths >
  
  I just found mine recently. 1880 - Son killed father point blank in front of witnesses then fled. They caught and hanged him. Years later his mother admitted to dressing as her son and killing her husband. It reminds me that my family has a lot of cold blooded bitches. >
  
  Yes. Some did it for Uncle Sam, and I suspect one did it to rid herself of her abusive first husband. >
  
  My great great grandfather was hung for killing a bank teller. >
  
  My paternal grandfather killed a 4 year old little girl when he hit her with his car while driving drunk. Not technically murder but still fucked >
  
  My grandad killed a lot of people during WW2. He was in the navy on a destroyer and they would go island hopping. He said it was basically hand to hand combat on the beach, all the Japanese soldiers had swords and they (Americans) had bayonets attached to the end of their rifles. After a while he became a sniper, it’s a wonder he survived up to that point. 
  He was 100% insane and drank heavily his whole life, he was totally messed up from experiencing all that at 18 years old. He said the only reason he lived was because he was 6 feet tall, 200+ pounds and the Japanese soldiers were much smaller. If it had been a “fair” fight, he said he would have not made it. 
  After they took an island, they would make several piles. A pile of Japanese bodies, a pile of swords, a pile of guns, and a pile of other valuables. They wouldn’t pile up the dead Americans, they would try to lay them out side by side and identify them. On the destroyer, he said it was so hot and cramped below deck, often three bunks hanging by chains on top of each other, that guys would pass out. They would try to sneak above deck to sleep. It was so humid that you could hang a towel up to dry and days later, it would still be wet. Using the toilet was a huge fiasco, and it was just unbelievably nasty living quarters. And they would cook food in these huge cauldrons, my grandad said he actually liked when it was his turn to cook. 
  If you go back far enough, everyone just about has an ancestor who was a soldier or who, locally during tribal times, took somebody else’s life. Doesn’t mean we’re all descended from serial killers. >
  
  I don’t know bout that but I know both my grandfathers narrowly avoided being killed several times lol so it’s kind of a fluke my family exists at all I guess. Or if not a fluke, then it’s destiny lmao. >
  
  If you come from a shitty enough family, you don’t have to look very far in your family tree, lol. Guess how I know. >
  
  A person with the same first name and the same EXTREMELY rare last name as me tried to rob a gas station like 20 minutes from me and is in jail…
  Guess who pops up first when you Google my name 😭 >
  
  My fourth cousin, six times removed (pretty sure), was General George Custer. His great grandfather was my 8 times? great grandfather. So there's that. 
  On my mother's side, my aunt is the family genealogist, and she might have mentioned Ivan Boesky. This was several years ago, so I could be wrong. >
  
  My grandfather was an admiral in the Portuguese navy. He didn't ever see action in wars but defended our shores in small skirmishes. >
  
  I'm white and I have ancestors that came on the mayflower. It would be an unbelievable miracle if I don't have ancestors who killed people, if not far worse. >
  
  Barely 4 generations back, I had a grandfather fighting the US government. My dad killed someone in prison in an assault he himself barely survived so… >
  
  If we’re counting war as murder pretty much everybody in the US has one within a generation or two >
  
  Yeah, killed his whole family, except his eldest son who'd just joined the Army, and buried them in the front garden. 
  The house is still there, and a local tv channel did an episode on him for a tv program called something like Headstones. >
  
  Yep. A maternal uncle shot and killed a paternal uncle in a duel over a woman. >
  
  Poland has been in some sort of wars for the past century so not very shocking. >
  
  I know of a family in my tree that got murdered. A native American, Sam Mohawk, who happened to be an alcoholic murdered the wife and children of my ancestor. Wigton family massacre. Pretty interesting to say the least. >
  
  Yes, my 12th ancestor is the most well known mass murderer from Iceland >
  
  My 3x great grandpa murdered his father-in-law and pretty much dropped off the face of the earth after that. It was 1863, and I guess he was home for a bit. His father-in-law was a local preacher. From what my grandpa remembered his grandfather telling him, my 3x great grandpa was struggling with what was likely ptsd and his father-in-law preached a sermon that called him out for not praying/being godly enough to avoid ptsd behaviors. My 3x great grandpa was not the only soldier struggling in the congregation, and a few of them went out drinking, which led to confronting the father-in-law and torturing him to death. This is happened in the middle of nowhere in southwestern VA and was bad/sensational enough published in the Richmond paper a few days later.
  It was so bad my 3x great grandma reverted to her maiden name and changed the last name of their one year old son as well hiding his middle name that was shared with my 3x great grandpa. My 2x great grandpa discovered his real name in the family Bible as a teenager and started using it again. 
  He eventually became a doctor who ran a "den of sin" on the side. He also liked the ladies and shot two of the husbands who had a problem with that. 
  He also signed his own death certificate just prior to his death. From what I was told, he was worried his senility was advancing too quickly, and gave himself an overdose  morphine. He listed his cause of death as diabetes mellitus. >
  
  Well, if we're talking about family trees, then there's so many branches and a huge possibility that some ancestor, not only one, was a murderer. >
  
  Distant? I know several fairly close in my family tree that have. >
  
  My great grandfather for sure had, he was forced to serve in tsar's army. >
  
  I know one of my great grandfathers that have been involved into homicide. They were drinking until one time he had a heated argument with someone which quickly turned violent. He was a farmer and brought a machete with him. His rival on the other hand had nothing but barehands. He bashed his machete into his rival's neck and died on the spot. (Inexperienced English speaker) >
  
  If you’re into the Bible thing, if you go back far enough you’ll probably run into (n times) great-uncle Cain. >
  
  Yup, my great uncle killed his cheating wife in a passionate rage, he was sent to prison ,came out and lived a long life until his passed away in his sleep peacefully >
  
  What if you were a lab grown baby? Or does it not work that way? >
  
  Grampa killed gramma and the guy she cheated on him with, then went to ground in the peace river wilderness for 6 months until the RCMP set up an ambush and tagged him in the skull leaving him a functional vegetable until he died in Riverview in the early 70s. The aristocrats. >
  
  One of my distant cousins is currently serving a life sentence for killing his stepfather, and according to my mum and nan my grandad loaded his works van with weapons (pickaxes, hammers, knives, the lot) and attempted to drive to his work to commit a mass murder. Luckily my nan stopped him and nothing ended up happening. >
  
  Not that distant, had a fair few family members in wars over the past century. I'm fairly certain most of them took a life. >
  
  One of my great-great-grandfathers was killed by his brother-in-law.  Real estate dispute, I think. >
  
  My great grandfather spent a shit ton of time in prison and getting in bar brawls and street fights. I'm fairly confident he killed somebody at some point. >
  
  My great-great uncle was hanged in Arkansas for helping bust someone out of jail, a marshall was killed in the process…
  Family legend has it that the sheriff showed up with the dog, sheriff said whoever the dog smelled would be hung, dog ran up to my uncle and he was hung in Fort Smith. >
  
  Does it count if my ancestors sold their titanic tickets for an earlier boat? I have no proof those people died though. >
  
  At least one? When they got here on the Mayflower there was like 100mm native people and now there’s what, like 5? Not great people. >
  
  Bro i think you severly underestimate how common murder was in the past. MOST of your ancestors were murderers by todays laws and moral standards.
  My great grandfather shot 5 british soilders during the Irish war for independence and thats only about 100 years ago. If you go back further id reckon you would find many more killers for much less. >
  
  Grandfather had a few kills in ww2. Never spoke about it or wanted to. I get it. >
  
  My cousin murdered a guy in a drug related incident in Vegas >
  
  I don’t know about murder, but I have an ancestor who was elected to Congress while in prison on charges of sedition. 
  He was a political enemy of John Adams, and the Alien and Sedition Act was one of Adams’ favorite weapons to use against his enemies. >
  
  Not only that but the benefited from it. Straight up murderous privilege. Check your privilege >
  
  My 1st cousin is Richard Speck.  Thank god know one in my life is aware of this. >
  
  I mean. I've shot and killed people! So I guess its me. Sorry future generations. >
  
  My cousin is in prison for murdering someone, don’t have to look too far! >
  
  Got off with self-defense when I was 19 and a guy tried to mug me. >
  
  I know exactly who mine is. Rene Fonck. WW1 French Ace pilot. He has just about 4 less kills than the red baron. >
  
  One of my ancestors was in the Battle of Birmingham during the British Civil war. They appeared to have survived with wealth, despite being royalists, (though later ancestors lost all the money… wankers) so I reckon they did some shady shit! >
  
  One of my 1st cousins murdered her husband, pretty damn close. >
  
  I'm probably going to get so many down votes for this, but... Alec Baldwin is my distant cousin... take what you like from this and the question... >
  
  I mean,a lot of people fought in the first and second World War >
  
  Well my grandfather was in the Vietnam war so he probably murdered 1 or 2 people >
  
  My great-grandpa served in WW2. It's safe to assume he probably did. And considering it's only been about 80 years, this is probably true for a lot of people. >
  
  My maternal side great grandfather was a German general and co-conspirator of operation Valkyrie, my maternal side grandfather was a us marine, and my father was a militia guerilla who would never have met my mom if he hadn't launched an RPG at some Israeli soldiers during the Lebanese civil war. I was told his dad was also involved in a conquest of Beirut during the collapse of the ottoman empire. I didn't have to look that far back at all. >
  
  Around the turn of the 20th century, my father told me about my great great grandfather got in a shootout with a few white boys. He put down two of them before he went down himself. His crime?  He was black in Alabama and did not want to be the strange fruit that seem to be hanging around those days.  I don't know the full story and he neither does he, but it makes me feel good to know that we fought back. >
  
  I mean I had a 16th great grand father who was an English knight/lord protector  in the 16th century, so yeah he likely killed for sure.  Other for sure ancestors with body counts, all but one male ancestor fought the British in the American Revolution, and that was because he was 90 at the time, his sons and grand sons did, one died at Trenton.  more modern ancestors, my grandpa was the 2nd wave into the battle of the Philippines on the US side he was wounded 3 times, the last wound got him evacuated and he lived.  he brought home war trophies with the proper paperwork for it. >
  
  No murderers as far as I know but my Great Granny was jailed for being drunk in the Street. >
  
  My dad killed a guy, whether he killed more, I don't know
  I have zero proof that my two uncles from my mom's side has done things like this but I just have a very strong sense that there is darkness there >
  
  Back in the 70s, my great grandfather killed his 11 year old daughter and shot himself right after. >
  
  My great great uncles worked on Titanic, they weren't in the movie but helped a lot on set >
  
  My great great grandfather left from Norway to go to USA in 1860. Fought in the civil war and came back to Norway in 1866. Chances are that he killed someone >
  
  My great great grandfather was released from prison after serving time for sexual assault, came home that same day and killed my great great grandmother, my great grandmother's mother-in-law and himself. >
  
  Sometimes I think everyone caused the death of at least one person somehow , indirectly >
  
  My grandma’s aunt was on trial in the 30’s for allegedly killing her husband.  She was acquitted.   Also, I am Aussie and the descendant of convicts. I’d be more surprised if there wasn’t. >
  
  You really don't have to go far in my family tree.  Like... the next branch over. Literally. 
  Go a few limbs up and there's a few more.  Yes, a few. 
  I come from a line of... questionable people. >
  
  My grandmother used to brag about one of our ancestors that came across the pond. She had some crazy old journals that described from two different accounts from family members that their father/husband straight up tossed someone overboard in the middle of the ocean.
  Apparently the tossee was a violent dick and was causing issues onboard, and my ancestor got fed up. He (ancestor) was praised by the people onboard for it. 
  Still murder, though >
  
  We have a family chart dating back 15 generations. All we’re vegetarians but appears they’ve murdered a lot of plants >
  
  My grandpa! Maybe not specifically him but he were part of a gang that attacked madurese after dayak women were assaulted. And i know he has a bone from a japanese invader. Not to mention standard headhunting for the area, his dad had taken heads in normal headhunting wars. >
  
  If an ancestor fought in a war and survived it's highly likely they killed multiple people. You don't have to go back very far to meet the murderer, they might still be alive. >
  
  Also, rapists.  
  Go back a few generations, and most of us would not exist if not for rape.  
  Geez that got dark fast. >
  
  I mean one of my ancestors was an admiral so of course he killed someone >
  
  my great great grandfather on my grandfather's side got irritated with his son and smacked him in the back of the head with a 2x4, killing him.
  my great grandfather attempted to kill my grandmother by giving her rubbing alcohol when she was about 3. she refused and he ended up drinking it instead out of frustration (and being a drunk) and it killed him ┐⁠(⁠‘⁠～⁠`⁠;⁠)⁠┌ >
  
  My dad and grandpa did so not really hard to find (for clarification they’re both Ex military/ resistance movement during the Nazi occupation) >
  
  “Now Grog. I told you what would happen last time you touched my favorite rock.” >
  
  Not so distant. I know that my granddad killed at least one man outside wartime. Not much info about it besides that he beat him to death. Gramps wasn’t charged for it though as they lived in the middle of nowhere and gramps was the closest thing to a lawman they had. No one questioned his judgement apparently. >
  
  My dad did---he was a WW2 veteran. He wasn't holding hands with them Nazis. >
  
  I have an ancestor who bragged about how many Indians he scalped. >
  
  There was an ancestor of mine who killed a couple of people like 200 years ago. >
  
  I don't have to look in my ancestry I have 2 family members who have already done this unfortunately >
  
  Somewhere in your family tree, at least one distant ancestor has posted this. >
  
  fr. I have a really uncommon last name and the most well-known person with that last name committed a brutal murder after running someone over. He was sentenced to death. >
  
  Very true. My cousin murdered her step mother when she was a teen because "the bitch told her to clean her room".   My other cousin on other hand was murdered after he stole millions from people and had also made a ton of money making mass quantities of meth in am abandoned missile silo. On the other side so many of our families have service members who went to wars and had no choice. 
  Psa- I have never met either of said cousins just ķnow the stories from my parents etc. >
  
  I have their murder weapons in my closet right now. One is a musket from the War of 1812, the other is a knife from WW1. 
  For WW1 at least, my great grandfather was one of the people that would go into no man's land at night. I have no doubt that the knife killed German soldiers. My mom tells stories of him screaming through every single night when she was a kid.
  Edit: maybe that was my great great grandfather in WW1, my family also fought in WW2 and that may have been my great grandfather. I don't think my grandfather fought in WW2. >
  
  one of my great relatives killed his wife… they had gotten married right out of high school and he was apparently a major hot head and was know for brawling and getting into trouble. Anyways, she was seeing other men behind his back and one night she decided to throw it in his face in argument. He went to the bedroom, grabbed his shotgun and shot her from accross the room… she died instantly and he called the police and confessed to what he’d done. So wild because most of those stories end with a murder suicide, not the person calling to confess to what they had done. >
  
  I have an aunt that killed someone, it isn't something I like to share! >
  
  Once upon a time it would have been not just normal but expected to kill someone.
  Being a male without being blooded would be looked upon similarly to being a virgin >
  
  There's a branch of my family that came to America between WWI and WWII from Germany... and there's a branch that stayed behind and joined the Nazi party. I don't know the extent of their involvement,  but it must not have been good because it is not to be talked about... ever. >
  
  My dad and grandpa and great grandpa and so on were all military men…pretty much a guarantee >
  
  Not too far back for me, I have either a great uncle or great great uncle who did 30 years for killing someone >
  
  My grandfather murdered a man for making a pass at my grandmother while they were migrating from Europe. Apparently, he threw old boy off the boat... I always wondered if it was act of noblism or jealous rage. >
  
  Damn I never thought about this 🤔 I hope it was for a good reason i.e. war, fighting off invaders, something honorable >
  
  My family (from my mother's side), has a family chronicle, and there is a murder in it. It was accidental, though >
  
  My grandfather and his brother owned land which held a silver mine. They regularly had to shoot would-be thieves and looters back in the day. >
  
  And that person, is m- mmm- mmme lawyers have advised that i do not finish this joke. >
  
  My mom told me a story oh how my grandma managed to sharped a flat piece of board to where it was sword like a proceeded to hack some poor woman over a man
  Don’t believe wood can possibly get that sharp? 
  There’s vids on YouTube >
  
  My Dad was in Vietnam, I don't have to go too far back. War is War. I don't blame him or hold any ill thoughts towards him. But murder is also murder. It is what it is. He's a good dude but Vietnam broke my Dad for a very, very long time. >
  
  Just one murder? Rookie numbers. 
  My great grandfather was a literal Nazi Soldier. >
  
  Of course I know him, he's me!
  ..jk of Course.
  My family tree does seem to be disproportionately made of Police people in Northern Russia tho. Can't imagine that they're all innocent.. >
  
  Grandpa's dad ran away from his country because of some undisclosed incident involving a kick in the chin of some other boy. >
  
  My grandpa was acquitted for murder after he shot a guy who tried killing his coworker. So I don’t really have to go too far back on the family tree >
  
  Yeah, uncle Ivan, everyone knows about him, he’s really famous. >
  
  pretty sure king alexander the something killed a lot of people... >
  
  Any Polynesian its within 3 generations MAX. You have been warned :-) >
  
  My mom's side is part of the korean royal line. Based on their tree, my line came from Taejong's 4th brother(I think) Yi Bang Gan. Considering there was a rebellion about who will become the next king, I'm sure blood was spilled all over the place, including relatives. >
  
  my dad’s healthy sister “died in her sleep, never woke up” as a teenager. I don’t have any leg to stand on for theories but always wondered if anything different happened >
  
  I have ancestors who were pirates, so I'm gonna take a wild guess and say they're the ones who did it. >
  
  Yes, but also someone has saved a life.  Things were different >
  
  Oh I know on my moms side they did. A lot of them were part of the original 13 colonies ^gulp >
  
  My 3rd Great-grandfather (born in 1823) lived rural Georgia. He was a Unionist (against the secession of the Southern States).  He helped escaping Union soldiers and runaway slaves. A neighbor came looking for his runaway slave and my grandfather shot and killed him. A posse of local Confederate supporters came looking for him and took his family hostage. They told his son ( my 2nd great grandfather) that if he didn’t turn his father in they would punish his family. My 3rd g grandfather was found and hanged from a tree after a sham trial, on his own property. >
  
  One of my ancestors was a county sheriff in Wisconsin in the 1920s. He got into a shootout with Al Capone’s gang and killed a few. They were bootlegging between Canada and Chicago.
  Is that murder? >
  
  And if they didn't, you've got the rest of your life to fix that! >
  
  To anyone who knows about the six degrees of separation, it serves to believe that one out of the thousands of “fourth cousins” everyone has, one of em is probably a murderer.
  So someone alive, that is very loosely related to you, is probably a murderer >
  
  My grandma's grandpa (or her great grandpa) was part of the rural elite i  a brazilian village near the bolivian border (apart from alligator infested swamps, there was nothing out there and today isnt that different). At the time, being part of the rural elite, usually called "colonels" (since many were associated with the National Guard), meant u kind of had a certain influence on regions or people there, official or not.
  He was with whatever was the law out there, probably some police and they captured a guy (my aunt says he was a native) for stealing horses. This ancestor of mine told the officers to release the dude, and so they did. But what they also did was folow the guy, until he met with his band, and then they all shot the gang. As the "legend" goes, before dying that one thief cursed my lineage
  Fuck you, horse thief >
  
  My dad’s side of the family was involved with the Italian mafia during prohibition… so yeah, I probably don’t have to go THAT far back LOL >
  
  My father, grandfather, great grandfather, and great-great grandfather all served in war. 
  Been a lot of murder in my family. >
  
  Nah man, 3 of my close relations have murdered people in the past decade. >
  
  For real my grandmother was super into genealogy. I never read the book she had made. But she told me that somewhere in the past the man they believe was the historical figure of Black Beard the Pirate is in my family tree. >
  
  My entire family are murderers. That's how we reproduce. We have a gene malfunction that doesn't allow us to make souls in our sex cells so we have to kill someone and use part of their souls or else our babies are born dead. >
  
  Yep, it was my great grandfather. Killed a man in a bar fight in Georgia, then moved to Alabama to avoid the law >
  
  My grandpa killed a fuck load of North Koreans. He was in a heavy weapons squad in the Korean War. Had 5 bronze stars too. Never told anyone shit about his service except me. Technically not murder but whatevs. >
  
  My great-great grandfather was suspected of murdering his wife. His wife "fell down the cellar stairs" and he married his housekeeper very shortly after. >
  
  I have two ancestors who owned breweries, so by chance somebody got drunk and died.
  My biological gramps was in WW2, so probably shot someone.
  My step-grandpa and his friends burnt some serial killer fucker's house down. (The house contained "trophies" so already dead.) >
  
  My older brother killed two people in the late 1990s and only got 11 years >
  
  Not so distant for me. My first cousin murdered someone. He's already out of prison. >
  
  surely we are all the relult on non-consensual sex somewhere way back in that tree >
  
  Do wars count? Because I have quite a few ancestors who have fought in the numerous civil wars/revolutions of Mexico >
  
  Grandfather supposedly executed a prisoner upon orders during the banana wars in Niguraugua in the 1920's.  Third great grandfather's triplet brother shot and killed the guy who was having an affair with his wife (1820). >
  
  The past 3 generations of my family has had at least one murderer >
  
  My great great great grandfather was a sharpshooter in the Union Army. >
  
  My great great whatever grandfather started the "Lost Cause" movement so yeah, he murdered a lot of people >
  
  My grandparents side of the family is related to Abraham Lincoln. One of my married in uncle's is related to Abraham's killer so yes ...this statement is definitely true for me 😂 >
  
  My grandfather who was dead before I was born  was supposed to in the mafia in Detroit. Story goes it was a retaliation for a hit he did. 
  No way to confirm cuz everyone is dead now >
  
  Pretty sure anyone who is Hispanic or Filipino has a family member that rhymes with graped somebody. >
  
  My great grandfather threw a granade in to a German bellbox in WW1 and killed 4 German soldiers, wounding another 2. >
  
  Well in biblical lore, everyone in the world is related to Abel, who murdered his brother Cain, so I'll just go with that >
  
  My granpa's older brother ( eladio ) killed a man.
  They're doing beer shots, suddenly eladio's friend has given him ( eladio ) water ,instead of beer And that triggered him...so he slashed his friend with a big ass knife on the stomach. Momma says that they can all see the man's intestines. It was long ago. >
  
  Have a distant cousin (so not an ancestor) who killed a guy for his horse. >
  
  This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
  (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, please read this page.)
  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  My great great grandfather killed his wife with an axe and then hung himself. Didn’t hear about this story until my grandparents were moving out of their house, I found an old ass photograph of them and asked who’s that? >
  
  Holy fuck dude. At least they had kids first 😯 >
  
  As opposed to having kids after? >
  
  Now I'm laughing in the bus, people are looking, I should just show them your comment >
  
  I'm hoping you showed them the comment >
  
  I did my family tree and found a very distant cousin (not a direct ancestor) who was a serial killer. He’s the guy they wrote about in Devil in the White City. (Corrected to say distant cousin, not distinct.) >
  
  Almost enough to dox yourself.  Here's hoping your history is clean. >
  
  He said very distant cousin. So they could be one of hundreds of people. >
  
  Technically we are all distant cousins. The most recent individual common ancestor of almost all humans is probably only from 2000-4000 years ago (of course not in the sense that we branched out in the main since then, but that due to the exponentially increasing number of ancestors as we go back each generation to ~10^24 only 2000 years back, people moving around, and incidental mixing, the most recent person who ‘happens’ to be in the ancestry of almost all of us, including most of Africa, Europe, Asia and the New World today is almost certainly more recent than we’d naively expect). That’d be maybe 100-200 generations, making almost all of us at most 100-200th cousins - for just a particular pair of two random humans, the most recent common ancestor is very probably even more recent.
  The only people likely excluded are in those small long-isolated pockets like North Sentinel Island, and even then they may have been isolated recently enough not to be an exception. >
  
  Dont be fucking your 100th cousin >
  
  I don't, I stay within the first 3 to keep the bloodline pure but not too pure >
  
  Get him milk to drink! >
  
  Come in, Ryan and I just got out of the shower >
  
  Here in Germany, it's mostly even in the last 4 generations due to WW2. Almost everyone has some ancestor that fought back then. >
  
  We ugh, we just going to ignore the elephant in the room? >
  
  Of course they were all nazi bastards. Many Germans want to forget that they have Nazis in their family tree but denying won't change it. They were Nazis and they deserved to die. >
  
  Wasn’t there forced conscription in ww2? Innocent men who were forced to follow orders do not deserve to die >
  
  After World War 2, they made it so "following orders" isn't a valid excuse anymore. They always tell us in the US military to not follow any orders that are illegal, immoral, or unethical, even if a General is giving them to you. You can be tried if you carry out an illegal order >
  
  Iirc they had the choice to go into the fight or getting shot at the spot... Nice and important change of the legal matter but if your general gives you that choice I don't think you would start arguing about the legality of it >
  
  Strangely appropriate timing... my best friend has been researching my family tree and showed me yesterday my extensive tree. Turns out great-granny ended up in prison for neglecting and killing three babies. It explains a lot about granny's toxic nature. >
  
  Damn!! What the fuck >
  
  My grandfather was a parachute instructor for the 101st during WWII. He didn’t kill anyone himself, but taught hundreds of guys to do just that >
  
  My grandad was born in 1941, so he wasn't in the army for obvious reasons, but one of his brothers was in the army and fought in Italy, and another was in the RAF, apparently he was a gunner on a Lancaster bomber, need to find a way to confirm that one.
  Also said his dad was in WW I, seems very likely, but again, I've not been able to confirm that. >
  
  Killing an enemy during war is not murder. >
  
  War is literally nothing but state-sanctioned mass-murder. >
  
  Which by definition means it's not murder since murder is defined as "premeditated unlawful killing of a human being by another." >
  
  The Holocaust was lawful.  
  Are you suggesting that butchering millions of people doesn't qualify as mass-murder because the government says it's okay? >
  
  I think the lawfulness of the act is less important than the word "enemy". In a war, if you don't shoot the other guy, chances are he will shoot you. 
  The Jews weren't enemies. They weren't (for the most part) shooting anyone. It was genocide, and I personally like to think of it as an event separate from World War 2. It happened at the same time, but the poor people who died during those events don't qualify as "war induced casualties" in my book. They had nothing to do with the war. 
  The events are just talked about together because they happened at the same time and had the same root. >
  
  Don’t have to go that far back….my father was a murderer at 14. >
  
  Sorry, dude. That must be hard. >
  
  Nah he never did any time. It was an honor killing in a rural part of the mid east. I think it’s vile but he never faced any repercussions.