© Getty Images

Jephthah -

This biblical figure from the Book of Judges sacrificed his daughter to Yahweh (God of the Israelites) after winning a battle.

© Getty Images

Lucius Junius Brutus -

In 509 BCE, the founder of the Roman Republic murdered his sons Titus and Tiberius because they supported the monarchy.

© Getty Images

Aulus Postumius Tubertus -

The Roman military leader-turned-dictator murdered his son in 431 BCE because he quit a post assigned to him by his father.

© Public Domain

Titus Manlius Imperiosus Torquatus -

The Roman general executed his son in 340 BCE after he left his post. He did so to attack a group of Latins, but his father was clearly not happy about his son's audacious move.

© Public Domain

Herod the Great -

Herod the Great had his sons Alexander I and Aristobulus IV killed because he feared they would usurp him. Not only that, but he ordered all male children aged two and under in the vicinity of Bethlehem to be killed. This event became known as the Massacre of the Innocents.

© Getty Images

Antonia Minor -

Antonia Minor's daughter, Claudia Livia, was accused of poisoning Drusus Julius Caesar in the year 31 CE. Livia was locked up in a room by her mother and starved to death.

© Getty Images

Vitellius -

Roman Emperor Aulus Vitellius is said to have killed his son, Aulus Vitellius Petronianus, in order to claim the inheritance of his son's maternal grandparents.

© Getty Images

Liu Chen (Shu Han) -

In December 263 CE, Liu Chen, the Prince of Beidi, China, took his own life and that of his family's after the fall of the Shu Han empire.

© Getty Images

Constantine the Great -

Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had his son Crispus executed in 326 CE. The reason for the execution remains unclear.

© Getty Images

Irene of Athens -

The Byzantine empress had her son Constantine VI killed, so that she could rule the whole empire unchallenged.

© Getty Images

Murad I -

Circa 1373, the Ottoman Sultan's son, Savcı Bey, rebelled against him and tried to seize power. The move backfired and Murad I had his son killed.

© Getty Images

Suleiman I -

Suleiman the Magnificent is yet another parent who murdered his child in the Ottoman Empire. He was led to believe his son, Şehzade Mustafa, was conspiring against him, so he had him killed in 1553.

© Getty Images

Ivan the Terrible -

The story goes that, in November 1581, Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich (aka Ivan the Terrible) physically assaulted his son's pregnant wife, Yelena Sheremeteva, causing a miscarriage. When his son confronted him, Ivan hit his son on the head with a scepter, and he later died of the injuries.

© Getty Images

Abbas I -

In 1615, Abbas the Great, the 5th Safavid Shah (king) of Iran, had his son Mohammad Baqer Mirza killed over suspicions of usurpation. The story goes that Abbas I immediately regretted his decision.

© Getty Images

Peter the Great -

Peter I, aka Peter the Great, got rid of his son Alexei Petrovich, after he plotted to overthrow him in 1718. Petrovich was tortured into confessing, and died of the injuries.

© Getty Images

Mary Cowan -

Mary A. Cowan, also known as "The Borgia of Maine," was an American serial killer active between 1884 and 1894. Cowan murdered three of her children and a stepson.

© Public Domain

Francisca Rojas -

Francisca Rojas, from Argentina, murdered her two children in 1892. Rojas is believed to be the first ever criminal to be convicted through fingerprint evidence.

© Public Domain

Victor Pot -

On December 31, 1913, British musician Harry Fragson (pictured) found his mentally-ill father Victor Pot at home in Paris about to take his own life. Victor fatally shoot his son following an argument. Pot eventually died a few weeks later in an asylum.

© Public Domain

Joseph and Magda Goebbels -

Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife, Magda Goebbels, who was also a prominent member of the Nazi Party, had six children together.

© Getty Images

Joseph and Magda Goebbels -

On May 1, 1945, in order to avoid surrendering to the Red Army, the couple injected their five daughters and their son with morphine, and then took their own lives with cyanide.

© Getty Images

Jeffrey MacDonald -

On February 17, 1970, US Army physician Jeffrey MacDonald's pregnant wife and two children were murdered at home. MacDonald claimed that intruders did it. The story was not true, however, and Jeffrey MacDonald was charged with the murders in 1979.

© Getty Images

John List -

On November 9, 1971, an American man named John List murdered his mother, wife, and three children, and then vanished. The mass murderer was not captured until June 1989.

© Getty Images

Diane Downs -

On May 19, 1983, American criminal Diane Downs shot her three children (one of them fatally) and then took them to the hospital, claiming they had been victims of an attempted carjacking. She was sentenced to life in prison.

© Public Domain

Marvin Gay Sr. -

Perhaps one of the most infamous cases of filicide is that of singer-songwriter Marvin Gaye, who was murdered by his father, Marvin Gay Sr., during an argument on April 1, 1984.

© Getty Images

Claus Luthe -

In 1990, the German car designer, who was working for BMW at the time, stabbed his 33-year-old son to death following an argument.

© Getty Images

Robert Fisher -

On April 10, 2001, Robert Fisher blew up his house. The bodies of his wife Mary Fisher and their two children, 12-year-old Brittney and 10-year-old Robert Jr., were then found inside.

© Public Domain

Robert Fisher -

It turns out it was not the explosion that killed them. There was evidence that the children's throats had been slit and that Fisher's wife had been shot in the head. Robert Fisher is one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives.

© Public Domain

Andrea Yates -

On June 20, 2001, an American woman named Andrea Yates drowned her five children in a bathtub. Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity and sent to a mental facility.

© Getty Images

Dena Schlosser -

On November 22, 2002, Dena Schlosser, from Plano, Texas, amputated the arms of her 11-month-old daughter, Margaret. The child died as a result. Schlosser suffers from severe mental health problems. Dena Schlosser was committed to North Texas State Hospital, where she shared a room and became friends with Andrea Yates.

© Getty Images

Chris Benoit -

On June 22, 2007, the Canadian pro wrestler murdered his wife Nancy Benoit and their seven-year-old son, Daniel, before taking his own life.

Sources: (The Crime Wire) 

See also: The most mysterious murders of all time

© Getty Images