The neo-Nazi terrorist in Wisconsin was known as Wade Michael Page. Other well-known examples include John Wilkes Booth (Lincoln), Lee Harvey Oswald (Kennedy), John Wayne Gacy (multiple), Jared Lee Loughner (Gabrielle Giffords), James Earl Ray (MLK), Mark David Chapman (John Lennon), and others.
A column at Slate ponders this question and concludes that it is a coincidence.
Addendum: see the link in the comment by Onna B. re the frequency of "Wayne" as a middle name of murderers.
In modern mass media society, I always took it to be a way to differentiate between all the people named, for instance, "James Ray" and the much fewer (unfortunate) people coincedentally named "James Earl Ray". Going forward, the number of later born/named exact namesakes is probably quite small as well.
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree with Anon above. I can't speak for any of the others but many years ago I worked at the same place as Gacy's mother. I met him once at the company Christmas party. He was introduced to me as John, not John Wayne.
ReplyDeleteIt has always seemed to me that the use of three names somewhat glorifies these criminals. The use of all three names is quite rare for anyone other than these murderers. I really wish the media would end this practice.
ReplyDeleteIt's a media thing. Their way of making the killer's name more emphatic, more distinct and thus more memorable. The more memorable, the more people subconsciously choose to check who said it that way first for updates. It's all about sales baby. I wish we'd stop encouraging them. --A.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good way to go about not getting sued for libel, strictly a CYA measure on the part of the news media. Adding the third name lessens the liability of naming an innocent John Gacy or Mark Chapman or Lee Oswald and causing the lawyers of such people who happen to NOT be the notorious villains (or whatever) from calling editors and publishers. Interesting how Bradley Manning and Julian Assange have only two names. So far. But then there's Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson, David Berkowitz.
ReplyDeleteThankfully, Giffords is still alive... but point taken. I, too, find the practice a bit odd.
ReplyDeleteI read somewhere...and have seen examples, that the middle name, "Wayne", is most common in murderers. Here's a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newsoftheweird.com/wayne.html
A very interesting link; I've added a mention in the post. Thank you, Onna B.
Delete"(4) Before anyone asks me, I will answer: No, I have no idea whether the number of middle-named Wayne murderers is statistically significant. "
DeleteThe list on its own doesn't really mean anything. They don't provide any comparative numbers to show if there is an unusual number of -Wayne- murderers.
Before theorizing about why murderers so often use middle names, it would make sense to find out if that is actually true. It would be irresponsible for a newspaper to report an assasination without using a middle name, since there are probably thousands of people named "Lee Oswald".
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school, I remember learning that newspapers used all three names for people with shorter names and switched to initials for people with names over a certain character count. It's about the physical typesetting. Hence JFK, FDR, MLK being common nicknames. There wasn't enough room in the headline space for the moveable type. I just assumed it was the same with celebrity murderers.
ReplyDelete