Revenge

Warren Mallard

Warren Mallard is a private investigator and says he sees a large number of cases driven by revenge. He says he’s been threatened with death, had his car torched, tyres punctured, and windows smashed as payback for cases he’s worked on. He believes revenge most hurts the person who enacts it.

Paul Gyulavary

Paul Gyulavary lost his twin brother and only sibling, Peter, in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. Paul confessed to a sense of jubilation after hearing of death of Osama bin Laden, but then he wondered whether his reaction was appropriate. He says neither revenge nor forgiveness are factors for him.

Mike McCullough

Mike McCullough is an evolutionary psychologist from the University of Miami and author of Beyond Revenge – the Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct. He says revenge and happiness both stem from the same area of the brain and that, in evolutionary terms, revenge was ‘created’ because of its value in deterring harm.

Pauline Clayton

Pauline Clayton says she racked up $20,000 on her husband’s credit cards after he left her for another woman. She also threw her husband’s beloved golf clubs in the swimming pool and cut the backs out of dozens of his Yves St Laurent shirts.

Niromi de Soyza

Niromi de Soyza says she joined the Tamil Tigers at age 17 to avenge the government sanctioned atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka. After a year of guerrilla warfare and witnessing the violent deaths of many close friends, Niromi says she came to believe that violence and revenge are not the answer.

Dave Carroll

After United Airlines damaged his beloved guitar, Dave Carroll recorded a song “United Breaks Guitars” which went viral on YouTube. The song notched up 10 million hits on the video-sharing site and became a public relations headache for the airline. But Carroll doesn’t view his actions as revenge.