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Victims profile: His wife
Turan, 37,
and their six children,
ages 4 to 17
Method of murder: Fire
(torching their apartment)
Location: Glendale, California, USA
Status:
Sentenced to life imprisonment on July 1,
1999. Suicide by hanging from a bedsheet in the prison infirmary
on May 14, 2005
Jorjik Avanesian (7)
On February 6, 1996, this 40-year-old Iranian
immigrant, killed his wife and six children by torching their Glendale,
California apartment. Jorjik, after years of anger at his wife, set the
lethal fire out of jealousy because "his wife was involved with drugs
and had been with another man." The lethal familicide fled the one-room
inferno with burns on his hands and headed to the offices of Asre Emrooz,
a Farsi-newspaper in Encino, to tell his side of the story. Jorjik,
unaware of having charred his wife and six children, ages 4 to 17, said
that he burnt down their home to scare his wife. He was hoping to get a
divorce and get her deported.
However, as news came that the whole family was dead,
Houshiar Nejad, the publisher, called the cops. Later, his sister Maro
Ovanesyan told authorities that he had been arrested in Iran for trying
to stab his wife. He was also arrested in the United States for using
excessive force disciplining one of his children. His wife complained to
police that he threw a chair at one fo the children and brandished a
knife. He served no jail time but received counseling.
Fire officials could not explain why the Avanesians
where trapped in their one-bedroom apartment and could not escape the
fire. Three bodies were found in the bathtub and another on the bathroom
floor. The bodies of two small children and a teenager were found in the
bedroom.
Mayhem.net
Jorjik Avanesian
Around May, 1995, the Avanesian family, from Iran,
immigrated to the United States via Turkey.
Nine months later, on February 6, 1996, Jorjik
Avanesian, 43, poured gasoline on a towel, lit it and tossed it into a
room where his six children and wife slept.
His wife, Turan, 37, and their children, ages 4 to 17,
died of smoke inhalation in their one-bedroom apartment.
"Another boring family massacre," I hear you
moan. Please stick with this one.
The reasons are pretty amusing.
When arrested Jorjik Avanesian told investigators he
killed his family because he believed his wife and two older daughters
shamed the family by taking drugs that made them promiscuous. Pretty
good drugs, I reckon.
During Jorjik's trial his lawyer took this further and
said that Jorjik feared that his wife and daughters were tainted by
drugs and were making pornographic movies. Their was no proof whatsoever
that this was the case. So maybe it was Jorjik that was using drugs?
Also during his trial the prosecution showed videotape
in which Avanesian told police he waited for a sign from God telling him
not to set the fire, but the sign never came. "I wanted us all to
die," Avanesian told police on the tape.
On Thursday, July 1, 1999, jurors took only 75 minutes
to find Jorjik Avanesian guilty on seven counts of first-degree murder
and one count of arson.
Unfortunately I have been unable to find out what the
penalty was in this case, although I am quite certain that a jury that
would find someone guilty this quickly would rule in favour of the death
penalty.
Following his guilty
verdict Jorjik's only request was to see the coroners photos of his dead
family.
The Wacky World of Murder
Jorjik Avanesian
June 8, 1999
The trial of Jorjik Avanesian, a 43-year-old
Armenian immigrant accused of killing his wife and six children by
setting the family apartment ablaze, is set to begin in Los Angeles.
Defense
lawyers contend that Jorjik ill. Prosecutors say he is a mass murderer
and want the death penalty. Avanesian was arrested Feb. 6, 1996, just
hours after the bodies of his family were found in their smoldering
apartment in suburban Glendale.
Jorjik
Avanesian
June 30, 1999
Family annihilator Jorjik Avanesian, 43, was convicted of
seven counts of first-degree murder for setting a fire that killed his
wife and his six children. Angry that his wife would not grant him a
divorce, the lethal arsonist poured gasoline on a towel, lit it and
tossed it into a room where his children ages 4 to 17, and 37-year-old
wife slept. Defense lawyers argued their client was "delusional"
and feared his family was tainted by drugs. The family of immigrants
from Iran moved to Glendale about nine months before the fire.
Mass killer found dead
Prison hanging likely suicide
By Charles F. Bostwick
-
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
June 15, 2005
LANCASTER -- A prison
inmate convicted of murdering his wife and six children nine
years ago in Glendale's worst mass murder was found dead
Tuesday, hanging from a bedsheet in the prison infirmary,
officials said.
The 49-year-old inmate, an Iranian
refugee serving a life sentence without possibility of
parole, had been in state prisons since his 2000 conviction
and had been at the Lancaster prison since April, officials
said.
"Preliminary reports have suggested that
the inmate committed suicide," California State Prison-Los
Angeles County spokesman Lt.
Ken Lewis said in a written statement.
"As a result, an investigation has been initiated by prison
officials to determine events leading up to the death."
Prison officials did not release the
man's name because they could not locate his next of kin to
inform them of his death.
But coroner's officials confirmed he was
Jorjik Avanesian, who was convicted of dousing his family's
one-bedroom apartment in Glendale with gasoline and setting
it on fire in 1996, four months after the Avanesians came to
America as religious refugees.
Psychiatrists testified that Avanesian
was delusional, but he denied he was insane. His trial was
delayed for more than two years while he was treated in a
state mental hospital.
Prosecutors said bystanders heard his
family screaming from inside the burning apartment, but
Avanesian refused to unlock the apartment-complex gate so
they could be rescued. Three bodies were found in the
bedroom and four in the bathroom.
Avanesian later told police that he
killed his family because he believed his wife and oldest
daughter were involved in pornography.
Three months before the fire, he
brandished a knife at his 17-year-old daughter, and he
slapped and threw a stool at his 8-year-old son. He was told
to get counseling at an Armenian charity but never showed
up.
The Pasadena Superior Court jury that
convicted Avanesian deadlocked on whether to recommend the
death penalty, so prosecutors settled on a sentence of life
in prison without possibility of parole.
Los Angeles County coroner's officials
said a full autopsy will be conducted, which is the standard
policy for deaths that occur in jails or prisons.
A correctional officer found the inmate
hanging from a sheet attached to a ceiling air vent in the
prison's infirmary about 11:10 p.m.
Monday, officials said. Prison medical
staff and paramedics performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation
on him, but could not revive him.
He had been in the prison infirmary for
what prison officials characterized only as medical reasons.
