Born in 1910 to a wealthy and prominent Georgia family, Harsh, a medical student, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1929 for the self-confessed thrill killing of a grocer.

"Most thrill killing is up close and personal," Mr. Katzenbach said.

In 1974, four teenagers shot and killed a Thai ice cream vendor in what was called a "thrill killing" while children were waiting for ice cream.

Some thrill killings have variously been described as execution-style murders.

A 20-year-old New Jersey man was convicted of murdering two pizza deliverymen he lured to an abandoned cabin in what the authorities called "thrill killings."

There's thrill killing, for instance, and it's made a media star of Charles Manson.

Maybe a thrill killing, if he was high enough.

Hutchinson murdered for pure sport, what may be described as a thrill killing, as passers-by from all races, shapes, sizes, and incomes were fair game.

Journalist James Phelan said Garrison told him that the assassination was a "homosexual thrill killing."

He had been convicted of firing four shots into the head of 18-year-old Anna Olesiewicz in what prosecutors called a "thrill killing."