An easy association for the case of Elyett and Miranda Barbour is that of the movie, "Natural Born Killers."
The 1994 film directed by Oliver Stone is about two victims of traumatic childhoods who became lovers and mass murderers.
That, of course, is a movie. The death of Troy LaFerrara, while just one death, was all too real.
The Barbours are charged in the gruesome killing, in which police said Elyett sprung from under a blanket in the back seat of his wife's 2001 Honda CRV and wrapped a cord around LaFerrara's neck while his wife stabbed him 20 times. They would dump his body near an alley in a residential neighborhood of Sunbury, steal his wallet, clean his blood from the car and - according to a criminal complaint - go out for dinner.
Such horrifying details of crimes by couples have, unfortunately, been told before.
- ListVerse.com tells of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, who were found responsible for three murders in Canada. Six months before their wedding in 1991, Karla decided to present her sister's virginity to Paul as a "present." She knew Paul was upset she hadn't been a virgin when they met, so on Christmas Eve, 1990, she used a combination of alcohol and halothane to render her 15 year-old sister, Tammy, unconscious. Paul and Karla then proceeded to videotape themselves raping the girl. Because of the combination of drugs used on her, sometime during the night, Tammy choked to death on her own vomit. Her death was not ruled a homicide, leaving Karla and Paul open to videotaping themselves raping and killing two more young girls.
- Fred and Rosemary West are described by fearnet.com in a story by Alyse Wax as "two of the most notorious killers in modern history." The British husband and wife team were linked to and convicted of 12 sexually motivated murders, and suspected of at least 20 more. Both came from severely dysfunctional families, and their upbringing turned Rose and Fred into sexual sadists. Even before meeting each other, Fred was raping women and girls as young as 13 and Rose was a prostitute with a temper. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the pair lured young girls back to their house where they kept their victims bound in the cellar to rape and torture them until they grew bored with them - then they were killed, dismembered and buried within the house. Among the Wests' victims were Fred's first wife and her daughter, and Fred and Rose's own daughter, Heather. Fred was eventually charged with 12 sexually motivated murders, but he hanged himself in prison before he could stand trial. He did admit that there were at least 20 other victims "whose bodies will never be found."
- ListVerse.com also tells of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, responsible for at least five murders in England from 1963 to 1965. Known as the Moors Murderers, their first known victim was 16 year-old Pauline Reade. Myra talked her in to getting into her van, under the guise of helping her find a missing glove she lost on Saddleworth Moor. Upon arrival at the moor, Ian attacked and raped her, while Myra stood by and watched. When he was finished, he smashed her in the head with a shovel, and slit her throat. She was then buried on the moor. This was the pattern followed by Ian and Myra during the murders of at least five children, ages 10 - 17. Their last victim was 17 year-old Edward Evans. He was lured away from a train station to Ian and Myra's home. Ian smashed his head with an axe in front of Myra's 18 year-old brother-in-law, David Smith. David helped Ian hide the body, then went home to his wife, Myra's sister, to whom he related the events. He then contacted the police.
- Then, of course, there's Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Chestnut Barrow, criminals who traveled the central United States with their gang during the Great Depression. Their exploits captured the attention of the American public, and their gang is believed to have killed at least nine police officers and committed several civilian murders. The couple themselves were eventually ambushed and killed in North Louisiana by law officers on May 23, 1934.