I'm never sure why people bring out the flamethrower to light a candle. I have a little rant on "please stop using kill -9" that I post to
comp.unix.questions when I see postings
like this. Basically, -9 is harmful because it doesn't give the process a chance
to clean up. Try a 2, a 1, and a 15, waiting 1 second each time. If all those
fail, then a 9.
Also, -9 is "kill 9 to everyone in the process group". You want +9, certainly!