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Exposing Some of the Meanest and Pettiest Men in History

Khalid Elhassan January 20, 2021 32 min

Jane Greer - Out of the Past — Jane Greer with Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past. Associated Press

26. Steven Steinberg: The Jerk Who Got Away With Killing His Wife

Howard Hughes’ jerk move was epic, but at least nobody died. Not so with some of the other jerk moves below. One such was that of Steven Steinberg of Scottsdale, Arizona. He was accused in 1981 of murdering his wife, Elena, by stabbing her twenty-six times with a kitchen knife as she cried out for her children. Steinberg initially blamed it on burglars and a home invasion gone wrong, but after police investigators debunked that possibility, he confessed to killing her.

However, he claimed to have done it while sleepwalking, a condition caused by excessive stress from his wife’s constant nagging for money. In the ensuing trial, the prosecutors put all their eggs in one basket by making a case for premeditated murder, without bringing any other charges. Steinberg’s lawyer made a case for not guilty by reason of insanity. Steinberg testified that he was unaware of the killing when it happened, that he was sleeping at the time, so it must have occurred while he was sleepwalking.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.