When Writing Becomes Deadly

Crime, thriller and detective stories are one of the most popular and bought novels. Second only to romance stories, these genre of stories also stir up the emotions of people especially in the fear of the unknown. The unknown being what horrible things people do to other people.

By reading these kinds of stories the readers not only want to know the details of a crime but also to be prepared for it in case the same thing happens to them. For example victims of cybertheft would tend to read articles and stories about cybertheft in the hopes of being more prepared from such crimes.

These sort of stories deal with the evil people do with other people and writing one could have bad repercussions not only for you the author but also for your readers and even innocent people who just happened to get involved one way or another with your book.

But even science fiction, horror and other genres have the ability to inspire evil thoughts and not only crime or thriller stories. The birth of an idea can come from anywhere even in books that are considered pastimes for many.

One of the bad things that can happen is when the readers of your book get inspired to commit crimes or get crime ideas from it. You the author could by accident create criminals simply by the power of your writing skills.

You could say that this is a very remote possibility but there are several real life examples of novels that have inspired crimes. In many cases the criminals are known readers of the novels but at other times actual copies of the books have been found in the criminal’s possessions.

Here are some true to life examples:

1. The Foundation Novels (Trilogy)

Author: Isaac Asimov
Published: 1951 to 1953
The books in the trilogy are titled as follows: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.

The novels are set in the future when humans have colonized the galaxies. It is about a vast empire’s collapse and rejuvenation. These science fiction novels are all about a secret society that turns itself into a religion in order to survive.

This motivated the leaders of Aleph which is formerly Aum Shinrikyo. It is a doomsday cult or new religious group founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group was responsible for the deadly Tokyo subway attack of 1995 which killed thirteen people and injured 5,500.

The group planted Sarin gas on the Tokyo Subway. Sarin gas is a poisonous gas. It is an extremely toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound. Colorless and odorless liquid, it is used as a chemical weapon due to its extreme potency as a Nerve Agent.

Shoko Asahara was convinced upon reading the books that the ideas in the books were the only way to make people of Japan believe in him and his philosophy. His religious group that the apocalypse was coming and they were entrusted to rebuild the world.

Another article I found online stated that Al-Qaeda though more commonly known as “The Base” is also translated as “The Foundation.” There are also unsupported rumors that the now dead leader of Al-Qaeda who is Osama Bin Laden has an Arabic translation of the trilogy.

Asimov died in 1992. He died never knowing the evil people he accidentally inspired with his science fiction book. Though the setting of his book is in the future hence called science fiction it has traits of crime in it too.

2. The Secret Agent

Author: Joseph Conrad
Published: Weekly Installments from 1906 to 1907

The plot is all about the attempt to destroy with dynamite the Greenwich Observatory. The story describes the event in the life of Verloc. He is a secret agent for an unnamed country who lives in London in 1886.

He is ordered to carry out a bombing. The bombing’s goal is is hoped is to manipulate the British government.

Ted Kaczynski the criminal bomber who became famous as the ”Unabomber" was known to have read the stories repeatedly despite him being a wide-ranging reader.

The similarity between The Secret Agent story and the life of Ted Kaczynski is so pronounced that this prompted the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation of America) to contact scholars who are well versed with Conrad’s works.

They hope that by understanding Conrad’s works they can better understand the intricacies of the mind of Kaczynski and why he conducted his campaign of mail-bomb terror. Kaczynski is classified as a domestic terrorist and anarchist.

The FBI intends to build a profile of domestic terrorists and anarchists using these old stories from Conrad.

3. Stranger in a Strange Land

Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Published: 1961

The story is about a human raised on Mars by Martians who comes to Earth and challenges the customs relating to sex, death, religion, and money. In 2012 the American Library of Congress named it one of the books that shaped America.

The story is said to have inspired Charles Manson and his followers known as the “Family” to do their heinous crimes which involves multiple murders.

The Heinlein Society denies that the book has anything to do with the crimes of Manson. They claim that Manson denies reading the book. Articles from certain newspapers in San Francisco however reported the link between the book and Manson’s crime.

The news stories were picked up by the wire service UPI or United Press International as well as by Time Magazine in 1970. However the claims by these publications have never been substantiated.

4. The Catcher in the Rye

Author: Jerome David (J.D.) Salinger
Published: 1951

The story revolves around the protagonist of the story which is Holden Caulfield. He has become the epitome or symbol of teenage angst. As the story goes he is expelled from school from having poor grades.

Trying to find himself, he then embarks on a journey through New York City in which he became an observer of family, prostitutes, life as well as phonies. Many murderers have been found with copies of the book in their possession or have been known to publicly state that they were influenced by the book.

When Mark David Chapman was arrested by the police for fatally shooting John Lennon in 1980 the police found a copy of the book with him. He also later wrote to the New York times regarding the effect of the book to him.

He said that if people read the book it would help them to understand what happened regarding the crime. Chapman claimed in 2000 that the book did not inspire him to shoot John Lennon. The book however made him identify too much with the protagonist Holden Caulfield.

He identified with him so much that he wanted to change his name to Holden Caulfield as well. During his arrest the book found with him carried a note saying “this is my statement” then signed the name of Holden Caulfield.

He also read a passage from the book during his court sentencing. He is evidently a man so taken with the ideas of the book.

He later wrote to the New York Times insisting that a reading of Salinger’s novel "will also help many to understand what has happened." In 2000 Chapman claimed the novel didn’t cause him to murder Lennon but that he went too far in identifying with its protagonist, Holden Caulfield.

Another criminal John Hinckley Junior who attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan was influenced by the book. They found a copy of the book in his hotel. He also admitted to being an admirer of Chapman.

Robert John Bardon who murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer was also carrying a copy of the book with him when he murdered her in her apartment in Hollywood on July 18, 1989.

Others Books That Have Inspired Crimes

There are still many other novels that have inspired crimes. In a separate article I would detail a few more of them. But if you cannot wait I have listed down a few more novels that might interest you:

1. Jack Sheppard by William Harrison Ainsworth
2. The Collector by John Fowles
3. Rage by Stephen King (Already withdrawn from circulation)
4. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
5. The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
6. The Turner Diaries by Andrew Macdonald
7. The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll
8. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
9. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
10. The Fashionable Adventures of Joshua Craig by David Graham Phillips 

Though it might seem insensitive to point out but the authors of these book benefited from the notoriety that followed after their books became associated with criminals. Though this website is about income generating opportunities I would advise against creating stories or of even using the notoriety of these books to sell more books.

When The Author is the Criminal Himself

It has been proven that authors and their words have the power to influence people in many ways including criminal ways. But could the author’s own words or thought influence them? This is true.

Chinese author Liu Yongbiao made a novel in 2010 title the Guilty Secret. The preface of his novel stated that he already has a follow-up novel about a female author who committed a series of gruesome murders but evaded capture. He even had a title in mind already.

He wanted to title it “The Beautiful Writer Who Killed.” In the end he never wrote the novel. It is more important to note however that he was convicted in 2018 for bludgeoning four people to death in a guesthouse.

These are the words in the opening paragraphs in the article titled “The murderer turned author who published clues to his crime” in BBC by Hephzibah Anderson to whom this information was taken.

According to Anderson the conviction of Yongbiao would not come as a surprise to his readers. After he was arrested he reportedly told Chinese TV station CCTV that he got some ideas for his books from the murders he committed 23 years ago.

These crimes included the murder of the 13 year old grandson of the guesthouse owners.

Following his arrest he reportedly told Chinese TV station CCTV that some of his works were indeed inspired by his thoughts about the murders whose victims included the guesthouse owners’ 13-year-old grandson.

The police were able to trick him into handing out his DNA which linked him to the crime two decades ago. He and a partner intended only to rob a guest but murdered the guest when their robbery attempt was found out. They killed the elderly guesthouse owners as well as the grandson to cover their tracks.

In this case the author used his own experiences of murdering people to have a relatively successful career as a crime novelist. His story though repulsive is an interesting read as we seldom find crime authors who are actual murderers.

Conclusion

I deviated a little from articles about incoming generating opportunities by creating writing products and services. In this article I discussed about the powerful effects of what writing products and services can do.

They have the power to sell products and also has the power to persuade people to act. One of the ideas readers can get from a story is to commit a crime. Writers should give a careful thought of what they are communicating to their readers. Sometimes a writer’s innocent thought can become deadly.