At the time of the events (pre grand exchange update), purple phats, were worth ~186 mil. This is the color of party hat we got on the occasion in question.

In our group, used to call them PK skulls and symbols, because the skull is a symbol of losing your items. Is that unheard of? To you it seems to be.

Not all of the revenue was from whips alone, it was just an example. People would wear drag meds, which was worth far more than it probably is now. People may have had hundreds of blood runes, death runes, ancient staffs, barrows armor, etc. Drag chains did exist at the time, although they were rare, and we never PKed one. When you struck someone in the wildy several years ago, they would strike back with auto-retaliate. It wouldn't immediately give them a skull, but if you walked several spaces away, the game would think you stopped attacking. If they continued striking you, they would become skulled. This can often happen to the victim by accident. There were other ways to get people PK symbols or "skulls." Sometimes we would convince them to strike another player in our group, or sometimes it even happened by accident, considering it was a single click attack at the time, not sure if it still is as I dont play RS anymore.

While you are quick to criticize, I am not lying.