Murder by Pop Culture

The Catcher in the Rye

and the assassination of John Lennon

The main character of the book Holden Caulfield states throughout the book that he is depressed. He also exhibits symptoms of depression, such as an inability to concentrate and a lack of interest in everything. The story is of his attempt to come to terms with growing up. His handling of it is not ideal, as he drinks excessively, runs away from boarding school, famously fantasizes about saving kids from falling off “the cliff at the rye field”, and eventually ends up in a mental institution. He is Hamlet and Peter Pan rolled into one, and has spoken to many people who have interpreted the book in many ways.

One man who interpreted the book in a very scary way was Mark David Chapman who had the book in his jacket pocket when he shot John Lennon, in which he had written "This is my statement", signing it Holden Caulfield. After shooting him four times in the back, Chapman sat down on the curb and read the book until the police came to arrest him. Later he even went so far as to quote the book at his murder trial, during which he decided to plead guilty, despite more than ten mental health professionals recommending he plead insanity, and was sentenced to life in prison.

American Psycho

and the student who took the protagonist's lead

In this 1991 book by Bret Easton Ellis a successful Wall Street tycoon, Patrick Bateman spends his nights as a serial killer. Mary Harron turned the much-praised book into a movie starring Christian Bale in 2000. The film was a financial success and received generally positive reviews, but the graphic use of violence was criticized. Many have argued though, that the nature of the plot makes the gore unavoidable. Bateman is impulsive and obsessive. He is a psychopath in the truest sense of the word and the murders he commits are deeply disturbing.

Michael Hernandez was 14 when he slit his classmate, Jamie Gough’s throat inside a Palmetto Bay Florida middle-school bathroom. In 2016, 12 years after the murder, Hernandez got another life sentence. Hernandez claimed that he was mimicking the protagonist of Patrick Bateman with permission from God.

Rage

and the school hostage crises it influenced

This psychological thriller by Stephen King was originally published in 1977, under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It is the story of expelled high schooler, Charlie Decker, who kills his teacher and takes his classmates hostage. As his fellow students start identifying with him, he unwittingly turns his class into a sort of psychotherapy group, causing his schoolmates to semi-voluntarily tell embarrassing secrets regarding themselves and each other. Interspersed throughout the story are flashbacks to Charlie's troubled childhood.

The book has been associated with many actual school shooting incidents in the 1980s and 1990s. These included Jeffrey Lyne Cox who ordered his teacher out of the room and then held his classmates hostage until other students knocked him to the ground and saved themselves without any loss of life; Dustin Pierce who took his algebra class hostage for nine hours after reading the book; Barry Loukaitis who used a rifle and handguns to take his class hostage and then killed three while quoting the book; and Michael Carneal who had a copy of the book in his locker when killed three and wounded five members of a prayer group at his high school. In response, King had the novel stop being printed in 1999, and in 2013 he published an anti-firearms violence essay titled "Guns".

Taxi Driver

and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan

This is a 1976 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in New York City following the Vietnam War, the film tells the story of a lonely veteran, Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, working as a taxi driver, who falls for a presidential campaign worker, played by Cybill Shepherd, and befriends an underage prostitute, played by Jodie Foster. He is driven insane by the perceived corruption that surrounds him, and plots to assassinate the presidential candidate that Cybill Shepherd’s character works for, and Jodie Foster’s character’s pimp, in the hope of becoming a savior to them and the city.

In 1981, 26-year-old John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. He wounded Reagan, police officer Thomas Delahanty, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and Press Secretary James Brady, who died from complications of his injuries 33 years later. Hinckley had been fixated on Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in Taxi Driver. When she entered Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven, Connecticut, to stalk her. He slipped poems and messages under her door, and repeatedly called her. Having failed to develop any meaningful contact with the actress, Hinckley decided to assassinate the president, just as Travis Bickle attempted to do, to impress her. He trailed President Jimmy Carter for a time, but when Reagan was elected in 1981 he decided to kill him.

A Clockwork Orange

and the copycat droog

This is a crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. The central character, is a charismatic, antisocial delinquent named Alex whose interests include classical music, committing rape, and what is termed "ultra-violence". He leads a small gang of thugs whom he calls his droogs. The film chronicles the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via an experimental psychological conditioning technique. It comments on psychiatry, juvenile delinquency, youth gangs, and other social, political, and economic subjects through extreme violence.

In 1973, two incidents were reported that involved 16-year-old boys who attempted to enact characters from the novel. One beat and trampled someone to death. The second dressed as a droog, stabbed a younger boy. In another incident, a man named John Ricketts dressed as a droog and assaulted a woman because she was taking up too much space on the dance floor.

These examples of real-life tragedies that were perpetrated by men with mental illnesses, who were inspired by literary characters with mental illnesses, show how pop culture’s portrayal of mental illness has affected society for the worse.