#5 Mark Twitchell
In 2011, Mark Twitchell was arrested for the abduction, torture, and murder of another man. His motives? He sought to be like his favorite television icon, Dexter Morgan of the TV series Dexter.
In the series, the character is a serial killer vigilante who satiates his own bloodlust by killing heinous criminals who fall through the cracks of the legal system. Plots of the series often focused on the highly intelligent Dexter trying to balance his identity as a normal citizen with his identity as a secret psychopathic killer.
Twitchell identified strongly with the character. Just as Dexter is a police consultant by day and a serial killer by night, Twitchell was an aspiring filmmaker by day and an aspiring serial killer by night. But it wasn’t only Dexter’s dual identities that resonated with Twitchell.
“Every city needs somebody like Dexter,” Twitchell had told a friend. In private writings he would also praise the character’s brilliance meanwhile discussing his own psychopathic tendencies. He also seemed to regard himself as unusually intelligent – being able to hide his inner psychopath from an unknowing general public.
For the murder, Twitchell used a fake dating profile to lure a man to his garage. Once inside he subdued the man and confined him to a metal table just as Dexter would do in the TV series. Twitchell then tortured, killed, and dismembered the man.
Fortunately, Twitchell was not as clever as his television counterpart and his career as a serial killer was ended after just one killing. However, that didn’t end his love for Dexter. Reportedly, Twitchell had a flatscreen television installed in his prison cell so that he could get caught up on the episodes of Dexter which he missed during his trial, and he went on to praise the writing of the series.
#4 Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser
In 2014, two 12 year old girls were arrested after attempting to murder their friend. Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser had lured their friend out into the woods where they stabbed her 19 times and left her for dead. Upon police interrogations it was found that Weier and Geyser stabbed their friend in an attempt to appease “Slender Man”.
Slender Man is a fictional horror character who gained popularity on the internet in the early 2010s, and can be thought as a sort of modern day boogeyman. The character is often portrayed as a ghostly monster that preys on children, threatening to harm them in some way unless they commit heinous acts as a sort of sacrifice for him. Unlike monsters such as Bigfoot or Aliens, Slender Man was originally written as a purely fictional character – though his meteoric rise in popularity with young audiences may have left confusion for some impressionable young minds.
During their interrogations Weier and Geyser claimed that they had committed the stabbing as a sacrifice to Slender Man though it wasn’t exactly clear why. Some statements made it seem as though they thought their families were being targeted by Slender Man and that they were unwillingly committed the stabbing, but other evidence such as the many drawings of the character all over their notebook made it seem as though they admired the character and may have committed the stabbing to gain favor with him. Another possibility is that they already resented their friend, and they used Slender Man as an excuse to try to kill her.
What was clear, however, was that both girls suffered with severe mental disorders and delusions. During their interrogations they seemed hardly shaken by their crime and very detached from the whole situation. The one girl even casually sang and danced while waiting in the interrogation room. This evident detachment from reality has led many to believe that the girls may have truly believed in Slender Man. Both ultimately pled guilty to the murder charges and were given sentences of 25 and 40 years in psychiatric hospitals.
#3 Mark David Chapman
Mark David Chapman is one of the most infamous criminals in history for his killing of worldwide music icon John Lennon. In explaining his motives to an investigator, Chapman wrote, “it’s all in The Catcher in the Rye.”
The 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye, along with its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, was an absolute obsession for Chapman. In his killing of Lennon he claimed to be carrying out the ideology of the novel, and stated that Holden Caulfield would have killed Lennon. Furthermore, he was so committed to the novel that after shooting Lennon he didn’t bother trying to evade arrest but rather sat reading the novel while waiting for police. Inside the front of the book, he even had a quote written, which he signed not with his name but with “Holden Caulfield”.
In particular, Chapman claimed to identify with Holden Caulfield’s hatred of “phoniness” as the character often criticizes others for not “being real enough” or putting on a false pretense. Chapman described Lennon as “a phony of highest degree” saying that despite statements about helping the poor and trying to bring about peace Lennon did very little to actually help his causes.
From the murder in 1980 to the present day Chapman has changed the story of his reasoning for killing Lennon leaving his true motive unclear. On various accounts he’s claimed that God was telling him to do it, or that the devil was in his ear, or that (in contrast with his claims about wanting to rid the world of phonies) he wanted to gain the fame of John Lennon by killing him, and the list goes on.
What is clear, is that Chapman has been consistent about is love for The Catcher in the Rye. In a 1992 interview, he affirmed that it wasn’t the character that motivated him to murder but rather that Holden Caulfield represented the good in him in opposition to his murderous side. He even went so far as to write a letter apologizing to the novel’s author for the bad press.
#2 Sandy Charles
In 1996, a 14 year old boy was arrested for the murder and mutilation of a 7 year old. The fourteen year old murderer, named Sandy Charles, had lured his victim out into the woods where he stabbed him repeatedly and smashed his head with a rock. He then proceeded to remove slices of flesh from the child’s skin. What could have provoked such a brutal and grotesque crime in a young boy? Apparently, it was an obsession with the 1991 film Warlock.
The relatively forgotten film features a male witch (or warlock) who is transported into the future with a mission from Satan to bring about the end of the world. He is eventually stopped and destroyed by the film’s heroes but not before he engages in a few gruesome rituals and killings. The film has generally been seen as being corny, over-the-top, and fantastical, but to Charles it was very serious.
Charles had watched the film over ten times prior to the murder and sought to become a powerful minion of Satan like the film’s villain. In the film, the warlock character kills a young boy, cuts off his fat, and boils and consumes the fat which gives him the ability to fly. Like so, Charles had removed slices of his victim’s flesh, which were later found preserved in a can in Charles’s basement.
As the seriousness with which he took the film would indicate, Charles was found to have a deeply distorted mental state. He was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity and has spent his imprisonment in mental facilities.
#1 Jeffrey Dahmer
Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most infamous serial killers in history. Having committed 17 murders from 1978 to his arrest in 1991, Dahmer was perhaps elevated to such a level of infamy due to his depraved actions with his murder victims and their corpses from sexual acts, to keeping the remains, and to his gruesome methods of disposal.
In imagining what kind of fictional characters might have been an inspiration for Dahmer it’s easy to come up with characters from crime films or monsters from horror movies. Such was the case with one of Dahmer’s favorites, the demonic entity from The Exorcist III, but what about a character from the popular action/adventure film series Star Wars?
The main villain from the 3rd Star Wars film, The Emperor, was cited as an inspiration by Dahmer. He strongly identified with the power which the character had over others. In the film The Emperor wields power in the political realm as the leader of the evil empire and also as a dark sorcerer of sorts with the ability to torture people through lightening fired from his hands.
Prior to hunting for victims, Dahmer would watch scenes from films such as Return of the Jedi which would work up his power fantasy. He would also sometimes watch such films with his captured victims. He even identified with the character so strongly that in public he wore yellow contacts to appear more like him.
Another possible inspiration was the psychological power which the Emperor holds over the other villain of the film, Darth Vader. Dahmer stated that his motivation in killing was not the actual act of murder but rather that he wished to have a sexual partner who could not abandon him. In the film, Darth Vader is mentally enslaved to The Emperor – someone who Vader hates but is unconditionally loyal to regardless.
In the discussion of how media inspires criminal acts, it’s remarkable to see how a depraved individual such as Dahmer can find influence even in a film so ungraphic and family friendly as Star Wars.
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