Jack Torrance in Stephen King’s The Shining (played by Jack Nicholson in the film) breaks his son’s arm, loses his job, and when evil forces at a haunted hotel in the Rockies unleash Jack’s violent streak, he goes AWOL and tries to murder his family. For the story of another (not quite as) bad dad, read The Great Stork Derby, based on an actual contest in which a husband pressures his wife to have babies for cash and, fifty years later, learns the true meaning of fatherhood. Read more about the book in NOVELS.
