Porter Ranch financial manager kills himself and his family because of the economy

A Porter Ranch father of three, emotionally distraught over the economy murdered his family and then killed himself last weekend.  From the article posted today:

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.

Feel free to add your insight about this tragedy and/or the economy in the comments below.

-- Tony Pierce

photo by Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[GF-DENVER]

What a selfish horrible man. Money takes precedence over human lives - his family's lives at that. Our society places such value on ultimately worthless material items and posessions that our lives become secondary. It will be the ultimate undoing of life as we know it. My sympathy to the victims and their loved ones.

[DJ Kowalski]

Karthik Rajaram is a name that isn't "typical American." I think legal and illegal immigration is the real reason behind all the mayhem striking our shores. This selfish bum murders his family for his own self-aggrandizement.

[Kumar]

Who R legal and illigal immigrants Mr. Kowalski? It is so childish to blame everything on IMMIGRATION.

KOWALSKI - Name Meaning & Origin

Definition: One of the most common surnames in contemporary Poland, Kowalski is a derivative of the work "kowal," meaning blacksmith in Polish. Thus, this occupational surname and its derivatives are basically the Polish version of the English surname SMITH.

[karen]

Was he on any medication like Antidepressants???

[gary]

now if we could get the rest of the financial planners, stock brokers, real estate loan people, bank excecutives to put a bullet in their own heads and not their familes this would be a great start.

[Tina Thompson]

This situation should touch us all. It is not fair that the whole family had to suffer this one man's fate. There is a role in everything; everyone; we all must learn from this; try and help one another, if possible ...the desire to live, we must learn true love of self, true love of 'all things' in life, in the world to be adventuresome in many avenues, and now especially love; .... fierceness is needed to stretch to as many domains in life's enjoyments, ... to all, live, learn, and let us all try to be as helpful to everything, everyone as possible; it is needed, especially now; Peace, Tina.

[savita]

He was a selfish man. What was the need to kill his whole family? The brutal man killed his sons and wife who were nothing to do with his reckless financial decisions. In life money comes and money goes.. life is precious. If you are alive you can make money. If you loose money there is no end of the world.

[Simran Ahuja]

I am an immigrant(100% Legal). The way i looke at american life.. the people here are very hard working and good. But they likes to live in credit a lot. The people are becoming money minded but its not their fault. The economic system had made them so. A simple man cannot survive on simple salary here. Why is that so?? Why good education and medical is so costly? i failed to understand. I like this country. Looking at present bad financial scenario i am scared..how many people will going to suffer its effects?Many people has lost jobs and houses. What will they do?How their children survive? God give them strength and Hope to rebuild their life.Amen.

[Kay Holmen]

When we think of gun violence it is so easy to blame it on gangs, the inner city, or broken homes. This happened in a very upscale part of the Valley. Gun violence is an epidemic that has no borders, no color, no race and no religion. How did he get an assault weapon, which are banned in California? Why don't we ask ourselves why do so many people in our country look to guns to solve problems? What a tragedy.

[Kumar]

Life is more precious than color papers. You can earn back money but not the lost life. One must use wisdom before such an extreme step.

[B. Harry]

Mr. Kowalski, what in your mind is a typical American family/name? Don't you know that America is a nation of immigrants? You, yourself carry a Polish name, so what if a Native American accused you of bringing mayhem to our shores? Know your history/economy before throwing words of rancor.

I do agree with you that the man had no right to take the lives of his family for his own misguided reasons. Selfish, he definitely was.

[John Wagner]

I recall in 1958 Robert Young, Pres of Alleghany Corp that owned about half the US's Railroads committing suicide (sole) due to NY Central's cash problems. Same police cause and same reporting of cause of suicide. Young had $11 million in cash, securities that adjusted to today's US dollar is about $80 million.
Karen asks about anti-depressants wtih two answers -- yes or no. Autopsy will tell. If no, then OCD personality riddled with guilt and belief in re-incarnation may be a better callout than "Upset by finances".
If it's an understandable cause, it's usually not the cause. A strong case for education about mental illness including isolation/rejection induced paranoia. Every day connected physically or mentally with this wretched soul spiraling downward likely was a combination of sympathy and fear.

[Indian Guy]

This is a family with roots in India. It is astonishing that such and educated person/family would take such horrible step. With eastern values he might have inherited, he should have learned to let go of material things. But, these days, things are loved and people are used !

[roberto]

i knew Karthik Rajaram, i was his roomate back in 1986 while i was attending UCLA. At the time, he mentioned about his girlfrined who was 16 yars of age, but after graduating he would marry her. Showed me a picture of her. She looked very sweet. Karthik was motherless at the time, and his father was working for a bank in London and was calling almost everyday early in the morning local LA time and would wake me up..

What i remember of him was that he was very smart, he had highest GMAT score of his class. Something like 800 on math and 790s on verbal. He was normal decent human being. He was a bit tense and could say emotionally unstable but nothing out of the ordinary.

Later I heard that he did get his MBA, got marry to his girlfirned and has gotten a job, pay was somewhat lower than his classmates of similar satanding, which he attributed for being young (he was 23 then), having accent and may be due to his dark complexion.

I kew that he would be successful, and was expecting to hear about him as a new tycoon or something. I did not expect to hear about him this way, this very tragic way. It is very sad. The irresponsble and unethical sharks in New York wall street had ruined the life of a person and his family. Some dishonest and scums obviously made lots of money by engaging in unethical financial practices and now everybody has to pay a price, basically lower standard of living for ourselves and our chidlren. In case of Karthik, the price was too high.

Please be adivsed he was not a selfsih and horrible person. He was not illegal. He graduated from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) before coming to UCLA. He came with student visa and legalize the paper. He was brillant, to the point of being genius. America needs people like him. The horrible people are Wall Street and other New York financiers and scums who manipulated the market, misled people and engaged unethical financial practices that is creating this havoc in the market and claiming people's anxieties and lives.

[sp]

DJ Kowalski, who are you to write about immigrants like this? Think before you write. Put yourelf in that person's shoes before writing selfish etc. for him. What Rajaram did was completely wrong. Few very week moments come in the life and person takes a wrong decision in the life. Per my point of view, Rajaram did not kill his family because he was selfish but he thought about his family a lot. May be he did not want to keep his family alive after his own suicide to go through all these situations could have happen after his own death. May be he loved his family so dearly and took everyone with him so they do not have to suffer after him. Anyway, he did very wrong.

People who are in this type of situation need to learn a lesson from this. Talk to your family/friends and just get help from your loved ones. It is ok for you get into financial problem in the life. It is not good to be in that situation but also it is not the end of world. It is just money you have lost and you can get it any time sooner or later. Money can come and go in the life, but once your life is gone, nothing can work. So, relax, think, talk, or do whatever you need to do to take depression out from your heart and mind. Just let go off your EGO and ask for help.

[PRAKASH]

I pray for god be with those who lost those precious lives. I do not think this is a place for venting hatred towards immigrants or illegal immigrants. Please have some dignity in life.

[A. Cook]

DJ Kowalski, you should move to Poland because you don't have a "typical American" name either. America is a mixed country and that trend will only continue. If there are such things as "typical American" names, then they would be Anglo-Saxon (or at least from the British Isles) names; which makes me okay in that department.

[Raj]

I think Rajaram has taken an extreme and foolish step. We do not know the complete details of his trauma but I think there are 100s of better options. We should continue to live and serve and make this world a better place to live. At no point, money should become greater than life. Its gut wrenching to think of what the kids and family had gone through before death. My prayers are with the deceased family.

[Mani]

Thanks Roberto for your gentle comments. This is a very sad situation which we don't wish even for our worst enemies. We do not want tragic end for anyone, we all look forward to fun and peace in this world and this is not a solution for any situation. We can only pray God for their souls rest in peace.

[IITian]

I know Karthik Rajaram from High School in Chennai (then Madras), India. He was 2 years senior to me, and was in the same class (grade) as my elder brother.

My main recollection is that he was always in a hurry, darting around from place to place with a peculiar gait - he used to swivel on the ball of his feet. I also remember his disheveled, curly hair, pointed chin and intense gaze. Apart from his personal mannerisms, he was a perfectly normal guy, of well-above average intelligence.

Our paths crossed once again at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, from where he graduated in 1985. I joined in 1982, and was pleasantly surprised to find him there - with most of his mannerisms intact. He stood for election for one of the Student's Council positions, and was General Secretary for a year, if my memory serves me right. That would indicate that he was also popular amongst his peers, in addition to being smart. He did well in the GMAT (came pretty close to maxing out both sections) and went to UCLA for an MBA, which is the last I heard of him, prior to the latest tragic news.

My own hunch is that this is not an issue of money alone, but rather the loss of face in his family as a result of losing a great deal of the future financial wherewithal of the family. It seems from comments posted elsewhere that he loved his children immensely - maybe to the point of being a domineering control freak. I would guess that he himself was brought up under the control of a domineering father. The loss of patriarchal status in such a situation would be unbearable to people of that mindset.

He should certainly have got emotional counseling earlier in life, though I doubt it would have been of much use once things started going out of control as they did. He is the product of the totality of his upbringing and initial successes in achieving the American Dream - he could not have imagined that he could lose $2 million in a few years, after having earned it over two decades. Having lost the money, his sense of control would have eroded rapidly.

One other point: As has already been suggested, it's worthwhile to check for the use of prescription antidepressants like Zoloft. It removes the inhibitions from committing acts that the subject might only have fantasized about earlier, not acted upon. They should never be prescribed to potentially suicidal or homicidal people - it's a certain prescription for going postal.

[IIT-classmate]

I was Karthik's classmate at IIT Madras (Civil Engg) for 5 years. Yes, he gave one the impression of being vaguely absent-minded, but in a completely harmless sort of way, mind you. He was utterly guileless and devoid of malice towards others. I think it's fair to say he had no enemies.

Poor guy! I can still see his face before my eyes, his unruly mop of hair, his thin frame in a striped orange tshirt and shorts, shuffling his way along the hostel corridor in a pair of rubber slippers (flip-flops/thongs).

Ours was the last 5-year batch from IIT. The B.Tech. program was to be a four-year program from the next year. So our batch would have to compete for jobs, admissions to US universities and financial aid with an equal number of our juniors. How were we going to manage? Our "Year Rep" (Representative of our Batch of 1980 entrants) lobbied hard with the Institute's Director and the Dean of Academic Studies. Finally, officialdom relented. We were allowed to do one extra course every semester and complete the B.Tech. in 9 semesters (4 and a half years) instead of 10 semesters (5 years). So the conflict of batches was avoided, and our batch graduated neatly between our seniors and our juniors. My batchmates joined US universities for the Spring term rather than the Fall term. It was a win-win situation all around.

The Year Rep who lobbied so hard to engineer that win-win situation was Karthik Rajaram. Our entire batch of 250 students is indebted to him for that. It's such a tragedy that no one could engineer a win-win situation for him and his family.

I see a few comments here condemning Karthik for his 'selfishness' and for being such a 'horrible' or 'brutal' person. I pray that no one else has to suffer the psychological and emotional trauma that he must have had to go through. I don't know what he must have thought and felt in the days before he put his tragic plan into action, but I know that he must have loved his family very, very much. It's a twisted kind of logic, but to his mind at the time, it must have seemed preferable to either (1) breaking it to them that he had failed them as a husband and father on account of his financial failure, or (2) killing himself alone and leaving his loved ones to deal with a double tragedy, his own death and their sudden poverty. It was a lose-lose situation.

Karthik tried to make the best of a bad situation. We have the luxury of disagreeing with his decision. I wish there was something we could have done to help him. He did a lot for us. He was a good guy and a gentle soul. God rest all their souls in peace.

[sudhin]

I think this episode simply relates to American Dreams sometimes going awry. Coming from Indian background, it is a great psychological pressure if one does not make it big in america. This is a price Karthik Rajaram decided to pay

[dadr]

What a horrible and heart-rending story. I am pained for the family, the father included. Unfortunately, it is ultimately a selfish act, and I am not aware of an applicable Hindu religious or cultural bias that would condone such an action. Sure, he may have lost his job, but it sounds as if his wife was working in the meantime, which may have been emasculating, but it was likely only temporary. What seems different about this compared to other family murder-suicides is that the children were so much older -- one was in college? It is unspeakable to even think about how this crime may have unfolded, with three adults and two other children in the home.

[arun]

DJ Kowalski

Your comments are nothing short of offensive, and reek of ignorance. Who are you to dictate who's illegal and who's not? The fact that the name isn't one you recognize? In my books, anyone who enters here on a *valid* visa and retains his/her valid status is legal - Indian, Polish, Zambian, or whatever.

Anyway, coming back to this family: It's extremely tragic that such a thing happened, and that no one saw any signs of stress in Karthik's person.

[Sister Y]

Familicide - the killing of one's spouse and children - is far from uncommon. It is almost the exclusive province of males - women almost never do it, although women kill their children without killing their spouses at a rate much closer to parity with men. This suggests that familicide is an artifact of a sort of "proprietary" feeling toward the people who are killed.

From a paper by Daly & Wilson: "[W]hereas suicidal men not infrequently decide to take their wives and children with them, suicidal women almost never decide to “rescue” their husbands as well as their children. We hypothesize that this behavioral difference reflects a more general sex difference in proprietary constructions of the “family,” with men feeling proprietary primarily about their wives and secondarily their children, while women have strongly proprietary feelings about the children alone."

http://psych.mcmaster.ca/dalywilson/FamilicideSpouseChildren.pdf