Crime: Death in the Families

The demon that drives people to mass parricide is a favorite subject of classical tragedians—and modern psychiatrists. Last week in the U.S.:

¶John Sargent, 33, a Korean War marine veteran of New London, N.H., called his minister to his home to report the killing of his wife and four children. Police found Mrs. Janet Sargent, 30, bludgeoned and shot to death; the children, aged three to nine, had been shot. Sargent, variously described as "the nicest guy in the world," "morose," and one who "just couldn't make his way in life," was...