When historical homicides were sorted by the time of the day at which they occurred, an interesting pattern emerged. In one sweeping study of homicides in New Spain (Mexico, California etc.) between 1747 and 1821, more than twice as many domestic murders were committed in the morning versus other types of homicides.
"Unlike homicides that required outside contact and were more likely to occur at other times of the day, domestic disputes could and did begin early, even before men and women began their day's work," explains historian Victor M. Uribe-Uran in Fatal love: spousal killers, law, and punishment in late colonial Spanish Atlantic (Stanford University Press, 2016). Otherwise, sorting by time of day does not reveal other patterns. The deadliest month, it seems, is October - perhaps because of the pressures of extra work around the harvest.
So we can make a note that if a murder takes place in the morning, all other things being equal, the statistics suggest a conjugal homicide is the more likely explanation.
Art: The Murderess by Edvard Munch (public domain)
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