A former U.S. Marine, Urdiales carried out killings across two states over more than a decade, operating in Illinois and California before separate convictions brought the full scope of his crimes into focus. The geographic spread of his actions and the length of time before he faced justice for all eight murders reflect the difficulties that long complicated multi-jurisdictional investigations into serial violence. He died by suicide at San Quentin in 2018 while awaiting execution.

His ten-day rampage in early 2013 targeted law enforcement personnel and their families across four Southern California counties, killing four people and wounding three others before ending in a standoff at a Big Bear cabin. Dorner framed the attacks as a response to his dismissal from the LAPD, which he claimed was retribution for reporting a colleague's use of excessive force — grievances he laid out in a lengthy manifesto published online. The case drew wide attention both for the scale of the police response and for the complicated public reaction to a shooter who had embedded his violence within a narrative of institutional wrongdoing.

His reign witnessed the American Revolution, the loss of the thirteen colonies, and the protracted wars of the Napoleonic era — making him a figure of significant historical controversy despite his longevity on the throne. To American colonists, his rule represented the embodiment of tyranny, a charge immortalized in the Declaration of Independence, which listed his governance as justification for separation. Whether as architect or symbol of imperial overreach, his name carries particular weight in the history of resistance to concentrated monarchical authority.