Impact Of Literary Works On Serial Killers
Robert Escarpit believed that the study of sociology was redirected towards literature. That there was a clear influence and co-relation between these two areas of study. A clear example of Escarpit’s beliefs are the influences that literary works have on serial killers. It is very interesting to see how relatable some characters can be, how obsessed people can become with a character from a novel; and how much power words have. In this very writing, 7 testimonies of literary influence on murderers will be presented and analyzed.
Influence of The Most Dangerous Game
Plot of the most dangerous game: A distinguished hunter, called Rainsford, falls from a yacht and ends up in a “haunted” island. He decided to follow the gunshots he had heard, and the footsteps that were in the sand. Eventually, he comes across general Zaroff, who is also a hunter. Zaroff invites him to his house and there he tells Rainsford about his passion for hunting, his hunting experiences, and that how hunting any animal has become easy for him. Zaroff tells Rainsford that he has found a cunning, intelligent animal on his island. It is inferred that this dangerous animal (referred to as “game”) are humans; Rainsford is forced to participate in one of Zaroff’s hunts, creating a challenge for Zaroff, due to his hunting instincts. Zaroff gets disappointed, as he believes Rainsford had died; but is shocked when he finds out Rainsford hadn’t died.
The Zodiac Killer
He was a serial killer in the 1960s and 70s, who was never caught and whose identity is still unknown. He sent numerous letters to the police, making fun of them, and eventually forced them to publish his letters in various newspapers. In his letters he called himself the Zodiac killer. The following letter is the reason why detectives believe he was inspired by The Most Dangerous Game. “I like killing people because it is so much fun it is more fun than killing wild game in the forest because man is the most dangerous animal of all to kill something gives me the most thrilling experience it is even better than getting your rocks off with a girl the best part of it is that when i die i will be reborn in paradise and all the i have killed will become my slaves i will not give you my name because you will try to slow down or stop my collecting of slaves for my afterlife” - The Zodiac Killer.
Influence of The Catcher in the Rye
Plot of the Catcher in the Rye
Holden, who is our protagonist, is expelled from his school, for failing most of his classes. He can’t go home, as his parents don’t know that he had been expelled, so he goes off to New York City. He rents a room in a hotel, where he sees sexual scenes, causing him to look for intimate interaction, as a consequence of his loneliness. He goes to two nightclubs, and propositions a sex worker to his room. While in New York, Holden goes on a date, meets new friends, goes skating; yet annoys and upsets the people he is around. His hostility and immaturity are creating antipathy within the people closest to him. Afterwards, Holden sneaks in his parents’ house, unable to face them. He finds his little sister, Phoebe, and tells her of his fantasy of being “The Catcher in the Rye”, who saved children from a cliff. Holden’s parents arrive, so he leaves and stays at Mr. Antolini’s, his old teacher, house. He interprets an action as a sexual advance, so he leaves. Holden goes to Phoebe’s school and tells her he wants to run away. He then takes Phoebe to a zoo, and watches her ride the carousel.
The novel closes with Holden saying that he has fallen sick, but will go to a new school in the fall. Holden admits that he misses his old classmates, implying that experiences will lead to missing those who shared it.
Influence it had on Mark David Chapman
On october 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, an American citizen, shot John Lennon, who was coming back to his house. Chapman pleaded guilty for second degree murder, and has been in jail since 1981. He, however, had an obsession with “The Catcher in the Rye”, as he believed that by killing Lennon, he would become Holden Caulfield. Chapman, just as Holden Caulfield, loved children, and his personal identification with the novel’s protagonist had grown so intense, that he even asked to change his name to Holden Caulfield.
Chapman was convinced that Caulfield would have killed John Lennon too. Actually, Caulfield planned to hold a copy of “The Catcher in the Rye”, while shouting: “I am Holden Caulfield, the catcher in the rye of the present generation. " Chapman was surprised to discover that he did not turn into Caulfield after shooting Lennon, so he justified his act as a way to draw attention to the novel.
Influence of The Foundation Series
Plot of the Foundation Series
The protagonist, Hari Seldon, who is a brilliant and visionary psychohistorian, predicts the doom of humanity, and its descent into barbarism. Instead of preventing this event, Seldon gathers the galaxy’s best scientists and scholars; and work to create an encyclopedia of all the accumulated knowledge of humankind. He names this gathering “The Foundation”, and it has the sole purpose of fighting ignorance, barbarism and warfare.
Influence on Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo is a japanese cult, whose leader was Shoko Asahara. The cult had the same essence as Seldon did in the novel: recruiting intelligent and ambitious scholars. Asahara, identified himself as something of a Seldon, thus prepared his people for humanity’s doom. Aum Shinrikyo, had ambitious plans, and there are rumors that they might have done big things. In 1994 an explosion rocked part of Australia near an Aum Shinrikyo property. Some claim that the cult detonated a nuke there, others claim that they created a working version of a resonator (earthquake machine). It doesn’t seem out of the question that such a science-fiction-oriented group would pursue such a thing. Aum Shinrikyo was caught by the authorities in 1995; Asahara was executed in 2018.
Influence of The Collector
Plot of the Collector
Frederick Clegg is a man in his mid-20s who collects butterflies and is obsessed with a teenager called Miranda Grey. Clegg wins a lot of money from betting and prepares himself to kidnap Miranda; although he had told himself he wouldn’t kidnap her. Clegg buys a house in the country and prepares a room in the basement as an inescapable cell. After preparations, he kidnaps Miranda by dragging her and locks her up. Clegg is convinced that Miranda will start loving him over time, but when she wakes up she is upset. Clegg promises to let her go in a month, without bothering her in any way. Miranda tries to escape many times, and even tries to kill him. When she attempts to kill him, she realizes that she would eventually lower herself to his level so she decides to do nothing. She eventually dies of illness and Clegg contemplates suicide. When he notices that she never loved him, he convinces himself that he isn’t responsible for her death, and buries her. The book ends with Clegg thinking of kidnapping another girl.
Influence on Christopher Wilder
Christopher Bernard Wilder, a. k. a. “The Beauty Killer”, was a killer from Australia, who abducted and raped about twelve women. He was killed in a struggle with the police on April 13, 1984, at the age of 39. He lived in Australia for the majority in his life, but he moved to the U. S. for six weeks and started abducting and raping women across the whole country, in states such as: Florida, California, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, Kansas and Utah. When the police was searching his personal belongings, they found a copy of The Collector, which allegedly was his inspiration for the murders.
Influence on Leonard Lake and Charles Ng
Lake and Charles had managed to build an elaborate underground dungeon next to a cabin. This zeller became the place where Lake and Ng would hold their victims while they tortured and raped them (sometimes for months on end). After they were done torturing their victims, they killed them. Their horrendous dungeon was filled with illegal weapons, dead bodies, video equipment and tapes with vicious torture and mutilation of women. In Lake’s diary, filled with sexual fantasies of sex slaves, he wrote:“God meant woman for cooking, cleaning house and sex. And when they are not in use, they should be locked up.” A room on this shelter had the words “The Miranda” written on one of its walls; this was set the name of Luke and Ng’s plan, “Operation Miranda”, which gained inspiration from The Collector. There is a clear connection, as there is a reference to Miranda’s kidnap in the novel.
Influence of American Psycho
Plot of American Psycho
American Psycho tells the story of Patrick Bateman, who is an average man that goes to nightclubs, takes drugs, and hangs out with his mother and his brother. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Bateman is mentally unstable and we learn that at night he starts killing people. He killed his co-worker and continues his spree in his apartment. After each killing, he starts raping and eating people. He also starts telling people that he kills, but the people around him don’t believe him. He kills people in public and the SWAT team are on him, which causes Bateman to run to an apartment where he left the dead bodies. He is confused when there are no bodies and calls his attorney about it. The attorney laughs, saying that he didn’t kill anyone. Bateman shakes his thoughts off, and meets with his friends again.
Influence on Paul Bernardo
This book caused controversy in Canada, because a killer called Paul Bernardo owned a copy of American Psycho, which he regarded as his Bible. However, it turned out that it was actually a book belonging to his wife and it was unlikely that he read it. There was also a report in the New York Times that stated that Paul Bernardo was already a killer, and that the book didn’t actually turn him into one.
Influence of Rage
Plot of Rage
The story begins with Charles Decker, who is a high school student, that had been suspended for attacking a teacher with a rage. Eventually, Decker gets expelled because of his impulses. After that event, Charles decides to take a gun out and shoots his teacher and kidnaps his classmates.
After the authorities arrive, Charlie is able to negotiate with them, because of Charles’ constant threats. Charlie manages to manipulate his classmates, and tells flashbacks about his disfuncional and troubled childhood, that led him into this state. He manages to get his classmates to identify with him. Charlie ends up releasing his classmates, and is captured, though he tries to commit suicide. He goes to court, but is found not guilty, because of his insanity; yet gets put into a psychiatric hospital.
Jeffrey Lyne Cox was a Californian high school student, who, in 1989, held a class of 60 persons hostage, with a rifle. He didn't shoot anyone, but when he get caught he said he was inspired on the Stephen King novel, and by the hijack of a plane.
Dustin Pierce
He came to class with two weapons and a shotgun, he kept a class hostage during 9 hours, but the police was successful in capturing him, and nobody died. The police, however, found a copy of Rage in his bedroom, and therefore concluded that he was influenced by the novel.
Michael Carneal
In 1997, he shot 8 of his classmates, killing 3 girls. After investigating him, authorities found in his locker a copy of Rage. This very event made Stephen King take the decision of allowing his book to go out of print. Barry Loukaitis: He was a middle school student, who took a rifle to school and killed 2 students, wounded another one, and killed his algebra teacher. He had taken his whole class hostage, and had planned to use a hostage to escape. He was, however, wrestled down, and had his weapon taken over by his gym teacher.
Influence of A Clockwork Orange
Plot Of A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange takes place in a futuristic city governed by an oppressive, totalitarian super-State. In this society, ordinary citizens have become very soft and have fallen into control from the government and become very passive and compliant, blinded to the increase of violent youth culture. The protagonist of the story is Alex, a fifteen-year-old boy. Alex leads a small gang of teenage criminals through the streets, robbing and beating men, and raping women. They do these crimes for fun, with no other objective than to take advantage of the weakness and conformity of their society. Alex is selected as the first candidate for an experimental treatment which tortures him into becoming a good person. After Alex is released, he becomes a harmless human being incapable of doing criminal acts or being violent. Soon, however, Alex finds he’s not only harmless but also defenseless, as his previous victims begin to take revenge on him.
After running into his old friend Pete, who is now married and living a normal life, Alex decides that such a life is what he wants for himself. A normal and peaceful one, with a family and a son.
Influence on the Clock Orange Gang
A gang of teen including three boys and a girl, did a series of attacks on the streets of their neighborhood, resulting on many injured and a deceased men. They recorded it all for their own entertainment. The gang killed a 38-year old man. They savagely beat him to death, by kicking him in the head and beating him. The man eventually died of injuries. Nick Scola, senior investigating officer, said: "The attacks were carried out so they could be filmed on mobile phones and later played for the attackers' pleasure - without thought or regard for the injuries and consequences for their victims."
Afterwards, experts came to the conclusion that the gang’s tactics and existence, mirrored the teenagers of A Clockwork Orange. The similarities went from the codwords they used, to the description of the people they killed, the frequency through which they killed, and the teenagers’ age. This gang carried out many more assaults, only to be sent to court.
