A Visitor from another Planet: The Case of D. J.

Abstract

D. J., a white female, killed R. W., a black male, because of his race and because he was small—he was four years old. She was in favor of genocide, she said, and one “had to start somewhere” and with a victim weak enough to ensure success. The killer also was an advocate of cannibalism—whites the eaters, darker races the eatees. She believed she was the descendant, as were all whites, of extraterrestrial beings, and she hoped that the killing of the lesser creature would awaken her fellow humans to this forgotten truth. She had a documented history of paranoid schizophrenia. The article discusses the problems of mounting and combating a mental defense in the ensuing trial, where the defendant, but for her obvious craziness, appears to have committed an unforgivable crime.