People Who Killed Out of Jealousy

Whether it's because of a friend, an ex, or a family member, we've all felt the familiar sting of jealousy. "Thou shalt not covet" might be a good rule and all, but jealousy is a human emotion that's often hard to turn on and off. The following people held so little control over their envious feelings they ended up killing because of them. In many cases, the jealousy started out small and grew to increasingly monopolize their every thought and action. This particular set of crimes demonstrates that getting bit by the green-eyed monster can sometimes end in horror. 

These jealous murderers targeted family members, lovers, and friends for their crimes of passion. And like a slew of other terrible crimes, these are real-life crimes that ended in a bloody and horrifying way. 

In one of the more disturbing murder cases ever, now infamous Gertrude Baniszewski, alongside her teenage children, viciously tortured and murdered 16-year-old Sylvia Liken in 1965. Liken and her sister were placed under Baniszewski's care by their parents, who worked in a carnival, for several months.

During this time, Baniszewski repeatedly "punished" Sylvia Liken for prostitution and pregnancy, though she was actually a virgin, while delivering bizarre sermons about the filthiness of women. She encouraged her children to torture Liken as well, including pushing her down the stairs and making her eat human feces, until Liken finally died of brain hemorrhage and shock.

Baniszewski later claimed she was on drugs the entire time, but it's been theorized she was jealous of Liken's beauty and youth, while Baniszewski herself had been marred by many troubled relationships in her past. She was let out on parole after just twenty years in prison. 

On April 4, 1989, Ramon Salcido had a busy day. On the verge of unemployment and divorce, he started drinking and using cocaine. In a delusional fit, he decided his wife was having an affair with his boss and that his children were illegitimate, so he set about murdering them all. He took his three daughters to a dump site and slashed their throats, killing two of them, went to his in-laws house and killed his mother-in-law and two sister-in-laws, returned home and killed his wife, and then went to the Sonoma winery where he worked and murdered his supervisor before fleeing to Mexico. There's no evidence of any affair or his children being illegitimate. Miraculously, the youngest daughter, Carmina, who was just 3-years-old at the time, survived the attack. Salcido is currently on death row. 

In the summer of 2009, 20-year-old Samantha "Shelley" Nance seemed to have everything going for her. She'd left her small hometown of Italy, TX, to attend the Art Institute of Dallas and she was dating her first boyfriend, Nathan Shuck. Despite the brevity and innocence of their relationship (the couple had held hands once), it was enough to send Shuck's roommate, Daniel Willyam, into a jealous spiral. Willyam, a former Navy pastry chef who was eight years older than Shuck, was obsessed with his roommate and became envious of the new woman in his life. So envious, in fact, he went to Nance's apartment when he knew she'd be home alone and stabbed her 42 times in her bed. He was sentenced to life in prison, and we're guessing his relationship with his roommate didn't work out.

When 60-year-old business woman Sadie Hartley got back together with her old boyfriend Ian Johnston, she had no idea the jealous rivalry she ignited. Sarah Williams, 35, had slept with Johnston while he was single and seemingly became obsessed. The pair continued to communicate through occasional sexting once he was back together with Hartley.

But Williams saw one roadblock, and that roadblock was Hartley. So she enlisted her longtime friend, Katrina "Kitt" Walsh, to plan the perfect murder. The two women spent a year plotting up ways to kill Hartley, which Walsh documented meticulously in her diary. In January 2016, after enacting a "dry run" of the crime with a fake flower delivery, Williams entered Hartley's home, used a stun gun on her, and stabbed her to death. Despite all their planning, the two were apprehended not long afterward, and both were found guilty of murder.

In 2013, Melanie Smith was convicted of five counts of murder and branded by headlines as "Britain's Most Evil Woman" after she set fire to her flat building, killing the upstairs residents. Smith had grown jealous and resentful of her upstairs neighbor Lee Anna Shiers and her happy relationship with partner Liam Timbrell, particularly because of Smith's tempestuous relationship with her own boyfriend who she often suspected of cheating.

After hearing Shiers and Timbrell having sex one night, Smith became increasingly angry and lit the pram Shiers often left in the hallway on fire. The ensuing blaze killed not only Shiers and Timbrell, but her young son, nephew, and niece, who were all staying with her that night. Smith was sentenced to 30 years. 

In 2007, Knoxville, TN, got a huge dose of scandal from the McLean family. Husband and family man Eric McLean discovered that his wife, Erin, a 30-year-old who worked as a student teacher, was having an affair with 18-year-old student Sean Powell. The most shocking part isn't that Powell ended up dead, but that McLean received probation for the killing.

McLean claimed he got a gun after learning of his wife's affair with the intention of committing suicide. On the night in question, Powell was parked in a car outside of the McLean residence. After McLean threatened Powell with a phone call to the police, the teen still wouldn't leave. So Eric threatened him with a gun. At this point he claims Powell tauntingly grabbed the barrel of the gun and it "accidentally" went off, "accidentally" killing his wife's lover. The only person who could corroborate this version of events is conveniently dead. 

Tiana Browne wasn't jealous of her cousin per se, but rather her cousin's sneakers. At least that's the reason family members believe she stabbed 16-year-old Shannon Braithwaite 49 times before ripping the shoes off of her feet. Browne, who had a troubled past with her immediate family, was taken in by her aunt, Marva Braithwaite. A mere two days later the teen killed Braithwaite's only daughter, stole the shoes and electronic gadgets belonging to the girl, and then immediately went to hang out with friends.

Her defense cited that she was raped by a classmate days before the murder, and that she suffered from a psychological disorder. The jury still found Browne guilty and the judge sentenced her to 15 years to life, partially due to her apparent lack of remorse during the trial. If the shoe fits... 

In 2005, Illinois high schooler Sarah Kolb invited her former friend, 16-year-old Adrianne Reynolds, to lunch at Taco Bell before beating and strangling her to death in the parking lot. After which, she dismembered and disposed of the body and then promptly ate some McDonald's.

Kolb, who was assisted in the murder by her friend Corey Gregory, was reportedly jealous of the attention Reynolds was receiving from boys at school. According to classmates, she expressed her desire to kill Reynolds multiple times, but was never taken seriously. In a note written by Reynolds to Kolb shortly before her death, even she acknowledges Kolb's apparent hatred for her, and hopes to make amends. She writes, "This kid I used to like a lot even asked me, and I told him no. I told him no because of you..." The note also implies that at one point the two girls may have been more than friends. Kolb was found guilty and sentenced to 53 years in 2006. 

Christine Paolilla had a rough childhood. Her father passed away when she was just two-years-old and her mother struggled with drug addiction. To top it all off, she suffered from alopecia, a hair-loss condition, leaving her to go through school bullied for wearing a wig.

However, in Paolilla's junior year at Houston's Clear Lake High School, she was taken under the wing of two "cool girls," Rachael Koloroutis and Tiffany Rowell. After receiving a makeover from the two girls,  Paolilla was even voted "Most Irresistible" by the student body. (Who knew that was a thing?) Despite their kindness, Koloroutis and Rowell were shot at point-blank range and killed in 2003, along with a cousin and boyfriend. It took three years to connect the murders to then 17-year-old Paolilla and her boyfriend Chris Snider, thanks to a tip.

Though Paolilla has since blamed her actions on Snider, who committed suicide, investigators believe she was severely jealous of the beautiful and popular young women who were supposed to be her best friends. While nothing ever came easy for Paolilla, her friends seemed to naturally possess the qualities she wanted most. She was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2012. 

In one of the craziest love triangles gone wrong, Belgian woman Els Clottermans murdered her skydiving partner and rival lover by the same name, Els Van Doren. Buckle up, this story gets a tad bit confusing: Clottermans and Van Doren both met and fell in love with the young and handsome Dutchman Marcel Somers at their parachute club in Zwartberg. Though the 38-year-old Van Doren was married, both she and Clottermans began sleeping with 25-year-old Somers according to a strict schedule: Clottermans had Fridays, Van Doren had Saturdays. What could go wrong?

About a week before the murder in 2006, Clottermans spent the night on Somers's couch, where she overheard Van Doren and Somers, well, not sleeping. Spying Van Doren's parachute within reach, she tampered with the release strings. When the trio all went on a sky-diving trip together the following week, Van Doren plummeted to her death. Clottermans is eligible for release after 10 years, but we're thinking she's lost her chances with the Flying Dutchman.