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A study of homicide in Western Nigeria between 1963 and 1966 involved 53 cases personally interviewed by the author. Thirty, or 57 per cent, were found by the court to be mentally ill. The diagnostic categories are schizophrenia (21) with the paranoid type predominating, schizo-affective (1), depression (1), acute distress and depression (1), psychomotor epilepsy (3), and three of undetermined diagnosis. There was no appreciable difference found between the psychiatric cases and the others in their circumstances and in the execution of their crime. There is a strong indication that many of those condemned and executed committed the offence when their mental state was disturbed; this means that the machinery for distinguishing the category of the sane and the mentally ill in relation to homicide is very faulty. Alcohol was not recorded to be associated with any of the cases, and only one case, involving three murderers, was associated with other crimes. There appears to be a positive correlation between homicide and suicide geographically. The study substantiates the finding that murder tends to be committed by members of the lower classes rather than by those of higher status.