Olympic and Paralympic hero Oscar Pistorius was arrested and charged with the murder of his girlfriend model Reeva Steenkamp on Thursday. The ‘Blade Runner’ would join a surprisingly long list of sporting killers, if he is convicted.
Jovan Belcher (American Football)
In December 2012, the 22-year old linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs shot his girlfriend Kasandra Perkins nine times, before turning the gun on himself in front of team-mates at the Chiefs’ stadium.
Carlos Monzon (Boxing)
The Argentine was undisputed World Middleweight Champion for seven years but is better remembered for the violence in his personal life. Monzon threw his wife Alicia Muniz off a balcony and was convicted for her murder, later dying in prison.
Hiroshi Ogawa (Baseball)
A player and assistant coach for the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan’s Pacific League, Ogawa killed a 67-year-old woman to steal $20,000. Kazuko Nishiuchi was thrown in the pitcher’s car boot and drowned in a lake.
Leslie Hylton (Cricket)
The West Indian fast bowler is the only Test cricketer to have been executed. Hylton was hanged in 1955 for shooting his wife dead after discovering that she was having an affair.
Robert Rozier (American football)
Played for the St. Louis Cardinals before joining a black supremacist cult. In 1986, he admitted to killing seven white people on cult orders. Rozier was released in 1996 but then re-arrested for financial crimes.
And finally…
OJ Simpson (American football)
The famous running back and sometime actor was the most high profile sportsmen to be accused of murder, of his wife and her friend, but was controversially acquitted. A civil court later awarded against him for their wrongful deaths, and SImpson is currently serving a jail sentence for armed robbery and kidnapping.
