It struck me it was about time to collect together a few occult murder stories and where better to start than in Russia:

A gang of Satan worshippers murdered four teenagers by stabbing each of them 666 times, police believe.

The number of wounds is the same as that revered by followers of the devil.

The three girls and one boy, all described as Goths and aged 16 and 17, were allegedly forced to drink alcohol by the gang before they were attacked.

The killers then allegedly lit a bonfire under a tree near their cottage in Russia's Yaroslavl region, 300 miles north-east of Moscow, where they cooked and ate their victims' body parts.

The remains of Anya Gorokhova, Olga Pukhova, Varya Kuzmina and Andrei Sorokin, who went missing from their homes in June, were discovered last month.

The body of a small rodent crucified on an upside-down cross was also found.

There reasoning is pretty shallow too (compare this with the reasons behind the albino murders) as well as revealing other unpleasant details:

One of those arrested is alleged to have told police: 'Satan will help me to avoid responsibility, I made lots of sacrifices to him.' Another, Alexander Voronovic, claimed the gang had previously dug up a grave and eaten the heart of the girl buried there.

One of the gang, when asked what made him do it, is claimed to have said: 'I tried
to turn to God, but it didn't bring me any money.

'I prayed to Satan, and things improved.'

Source

Now over to the Democratic Republic of Congo where an attempt to use witchcraft to win a game had disastrous results:

Nyuki club was losing to local rivals Socozaki on Sunday when Nyuki's goalkeeper advanced up the pitch and tried to use "fetishist" spells to turn the tide of the match, Okapi said, without giving more details.

When a police commander tried to break up an ensuing brawl between rival players, members of the crowd pelted him with rocks, the radio added. Police fired teargas in response, causing a stampede to the exits in which 11 people were killed and several injured, Okapi said.

Source

As we have seen a number of itch killings over the years it is interesting/worrying to see the link with economics:

[W]hen the trial and execution of suspected witches surged in the mid-16th century and throughout the 17th, it was a cross-cultural phenomenon. Trials took place in many countries and were conducted by both Protestants and Catholics, and in both secular and religious courts. Perhaps a million women were killed across Europe after being accused of witchcraft, and most of them died during this period. Why?

The historian Wolfgang Behringer has one possible explanation: temperatures dropped sharply around the time that the trials gained in popularity. The "little ice age", in which average temperatures fell by about 1°C, was enough to freeze the Thames on many occasions.

Emily Oster, an economist at the University of Chicago, has tried to gather systematic data on the link between witch trials and the weather. The results look striking: between 1520 and 1770, colder decades go hand-in-hand with more trials. The link may be simply that witches were often blamed for bad weather. Or there may be a less direct link: people tend to lash out in tough times. There is some evidence, for instance, that lynching was more common in the American south when land prices and cotton prices were depressed.

This also seems to apply today:

Edward Miguel, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of Economic Gangsters, a book about the economics of crime, corruption and war, has studied the Tanzanian situation. He argues that there is a direct economic motive for the attacks. Tough times in a Tanzanian household may well result in starvation, and the elderly - especially women - are at risk of being sacrificed to free resources.

As evidence, Miguel points out that victims of witch attacks in Meatu district - almost all old women - tend to be from the poorest households. The murders are much more common during years of drought or flood.

This suggests a simple solution:

If the problem truly is an economic one, the solution might be, too. One possibility is to give the elderly generous pensions. Witch-killings all but stopped in South Africa's North Province after such a pension scheme was introduced in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, such pensions are probably too expensive for Tanzania.

A grass-roots alternative has emerged in another Tanzanian district, Ulanga, where traditional healers "cure" elderly women of witchcraft by shaving their bodies and smearing their pates with "anti-witchcraft paste". Miguel does not think it's a coincidence that the healers also provide the women with food and shelter during famines, in expectation of payments from their families in better times. Spiritual ceremony meets social insurance: it is a solution, of sorts.

Source

Hat tip