Re: [Marxism] Father kills family and himself, despondent over financial losses

[Aaron Aarons <aaron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This guy was a capitalist bloodsucker who couldn't take being beaten at his own 
game. He was also, apparently, a super-patriarchal scumbag who thought he had 
the right to kill off his family because they were, after all, his to dispose 
of.

It would be great if thousands of people like him were to kill themselves, and 
only themselves. OTOH, they could do the world a favor by taking a few of their 
fellow capitalists with them.

 - Aaron

>Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 08:30:46 -0400
>From: "Sky Keyes-Vogt" <skeyesvogt@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>*The "invisible hand" of the market becomes oh-so visible:*
>
>Father kills family and himself, despondent over financial losses
>
>http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-porterranch7-2008oct07,0,7721919.story
>
>The 45-year-old Porter Ranch financial manager who once made more than $1.2
>million in a London-based venture fund had lost his job. His luck playing
>the stock market ran out.
>
> On Sept. 16, he bought a gun. He wrote two suicide notes and a last will
>and testament. And then, sometime between Saturday night and Monday morning,
>he killed his wife, mother-in-law and three sons, and took his own life.
>
>"This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been
>destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole,
>if you will, of absolute despair, somehow working his way into believing
>this to be an acceptable exit," said LAPD Deputy Chief Michel Moore. "It is
>critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times."
>
>In a letter addressed to police, Rajaram blamed his actions on economic
>hardships. A second letter, labeled "personal and confidential," was
>addressed to family friends; the third contained a last will and testament,
>Moore said.
>
>
>The letter to police voiced two options: taking his own life, or killing
>himself and his entire family. "He talked himself into the second strategy,"
>Moore said. "That that would be the honorable thing to do."
>
>Authorities believe Rajaram killed his family and himself after seeing his
>finances wiped out by the stock market collapse, according to a source
>familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the
>investigation is ongoing.

[SNIP]

>When police entered the home in the gated, Spanish-style community, they
>first found the gunman's mother-in-law, Indra Ramasesham, 69, dead in a
>downstairs bedroom. His wife and three sons -- Krishna, 19, a sophomore at
>UCLA majoring in business economics; Ganesha, 12; and Arjuna, 7, all named
>after Indian gods and warriors -- were discovered in various upstairs
>bedrooms, all shot in the head, some with multiple gunshot wounds.

[SNIP]

>But Karthik Rajaram, who held an MBA from UCLA, was a hard-driving
>businessman. He was involved in several financial ventures. Between his home
>sale and another lucrative investment, he should have had a pile of cash.
>
>A 2001 article in The Daily Telegraph of London, under the headline "Bust,
>but big bucks for the big boys," called Rajaram a "winner" in a deal for
>NanoUniverse, a Los Angeles- and London-based venture fund taken public on
>the London Stock Exchange.
>
>For a 12,500-pound investment, Rajaram, one of the company's founders,
>received 875,000 pounds -- or about $1.2 million in 2001 dollars -- after a
>voluntary liquidation, the newspaper reported.
>
>He also sold his house in 2006, a calculated decision even though his wife,
>a bookkeeper at a pharmacy, did not want to move, their former neighbors
>said.
>
>He sold the house for $750,000, making a sizable profit on a home the couple
>purchased in 1997 for $274,000.
>
>"The market was going down and he wanted to get out before the bottom
>dropped out," Karns said. "I talked to him last December and he said, 'I
>feel I did a good thing by selling when I did.' "
>
>It is unclear how Rajaram invested the cash since then and how he lost it.


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