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if it's not video games music movies or
television
it's books welcome to watchmojo.com and
today we're counting down our picks for
the top 10 books that inspired horrific
real-life crimes two women were missing
and presumed dead at his hands
a third had barely escaped with her life
after her kidnapping and rape
for this list we're looking at various
books both fiction and non-fiction alike
that have inspired or
directly caused acts of violence we'll
only be including books themselves
so violence inspired by a book's movie
adaptation will not be included
but i didn't want rage to be one of
those accelerants so i pulled the book
number 10 mein kampf adolf hitler this
one seems pretty obvious doesn't it
mein kampf translated to my struggle is
adolf hitler's autobiography
in which he details his descent into
anti-semitism
and the superiority of the aryan race
all while planting the seeds of his
genocide
the book was an enormous success in
1930s germany and it continues to be
printed in the united states
through educational publisher houghton
mifflin harcourt
obviously this work and the themes and
beliefs therein have caused a lot of
hardship in the world
these are the philosophies that resulted
in the holocaust and
many extremists remain inspired by
hitler's ideologies to this day
number 9. the anarchist cookbook william
powell
the anarchist cookbook was author
william powell's malicious contribution
to the counterculture movement
the book contains among other things
instructions on how to make homemade
explosives
and lsd however inaccurate they are and
was meant as a protest against america's
involvement in vietnam
while both powell himself and real
anarchists have denounced the book
it's nevertheless been linked to many
infamous crimes
including the oklahoma city bombing the
columbine massacre
and the 7-7 bombings in london while the
book is obviously not the sole reason
for those atrocities
officials still believe that it played a
role to varying degrees of significance
number 8 the satanic verses salman
rushdie
the satanic verses is a novel by british
indian author salman rushdie
that was inspired by the life of
muhammad the book was immediately lamb
basted by various muslims
who accused it of blasphemy and it
resulted in a slew of violence
the supreme leader of iran issued a call
for the deaths of rushdie and those
associated with the novel
and the novel's japanese translator was
subsequently killed in a stabbing
the italian translator and norwegian
publisher also became the subjects of
assassination attempts
it may have even resulted in the sivas
massacre a hotel fire that killed 35
people
as the novel's turkish translator was in
attendance
number 7. jack shepherd william harrison
ainsworth
jack shepherd was a novel by william
harrison ainsworth originally published
in serialized form in the literary
magazine
bentley's miscellany it chronicled the
adventures and crimes of real-life
thief and burglar jack shepherd the
novel was an immense success
even outselling oliver twist lisa
i want some more but it was also highly
controversial due to its supposed
glorification
of crime the lord chamberlain even
banned plays with jack shepard in the
title to prevent
youthful imitators this controversy was
further heightened upon the murder of
parliament's lord william russell
his valet francois corvoisier had slit
his throat in his sleep
and he'd written in his confession that
jack shepard had inspired him to murder
russell
number 6. the turner diaries william
luther pierce
the turner diaries is undeniably one of
the most controversial pieces of
literature in modern history
the novel was written by white
supremacist william luther pierce under
a pseudonym
and it depicts a revolution that ends in
a race war and the subsequent
extermination of people of color
among others you know how the war gets
started
the hero drives a truck bomb into a
federal building
timothy mcveigh was reenacting that
scene from the turner diaries
he was carrying the book with him when
he was arrested the anti-defamation
league has said that
quote many extremists have cited it as
the inspiration
behind their terrorist activity and that
certainly seems to be the case
numerous violent acts have been
attributed to the turner diaries
including the orders murder of three
people and attempted provocation of a
race war
the oklahoma city bombing and neo-nazi
david copeland's london bombing spree
number five the collector john fowles
the collector is a horror novel about a
lonely man who kidnaps a woman named
miranda
and keeps her in his cellar where she
eventually grows sick
and dies it's certainly a troubling tale
but it's no less twisted than a myriad
of other horror novels and stories
however for whatever reason this
specific novel spoke to a large amount
of serial killers
who claimed that the collector was
relatable and inspirational
the infamous leonard lake adored the
novel and named his kidnapping and sex
slave operation
after miranda serial killer kidnapper
and rapist christopher wilder
also reportedly had a copy of the book
when he was killed by the police
number four the secret agent a simple
tale
joseph conrad joseph conrad's the secret
agent certainly has a colorful history
the story details secret agent adolf
verlock's work in espionage within
anarchist organizations
because of its links to revolutionary
ideology it was scrutinized by the media
immediately after september 11th but
that isn't why it's on this list
the secret agent was an enormous
influence on the unabomber as he
strongly identified with the character
of the professor
an anarchist who carries explosives and
wishes to exterminate the weak
members of society the professor
reportedly served as a major influence
on the unabomber's bombings
ted kaczynski later revealed to the fbi
that he was
a huge fan of conrad's novel number
three the foundation series
isaac asimov these are novels written by
isaac asimov about a mathematician who
sets up the titular foundation
to rebuild society once it collapses
it's actually much more complicated than
that but we'd be here all day if we
described it in detail
unfortunately the novels influenced the
japanese cult
om shinrikyo the cult behind the tokyo
sarin attack of 1995
that killed 12 and injured over 4 000.
ohm's chief scientist hideo morai
admitted that the cult was using the
series concept as a blueprint for their
doomsday prophecies
they would cause the end of the world
and the surviving members of om
shinrikyo would then
rebuild civilization number two
rage stephen king rage was written by
stephen king
under the pseudonym richard bachman and
it follows the story of charlie decker a
troubled high school senior who commits
a school shooting
as you can imagine this story has
seemingly influenced many school
shooters throughout the years
including jeffrey cox scott pennington
and michael carneal
all of whom had connections to the novel
the michael carneal shooting resulted in
king
asking for the novel to be taken out of
print a request
that his publisher granted stand-alone
copies of rage are no longer available
and the story was eventually removed
from the collected edition of the
bachmann books
in the uk i felt that it was a part
of that became a part of a fantasy
scenario with these people
and i didn't want it to happen with
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number one the catcher in the rye j.d
salinger
jd salinger's the catcher in the rye is
an american classic
and protagonist holden caulfield has
since become a symbol for teenage
rebellion
however it's also been associated with
far darker and more malevolent crimes
i sort of closed one eye like i was
taking aim at it
this is a people shooting hat i shoot
people
in this hat the novel has been linked to
many famous shootings
including the assassination attempt on
ronald reagan but perhaps the most
famous death linked to the novel
is that of john lennon lennon's murderer
was arrested with a novel in his
possession
and had written a note within that read
quote
to holden caulfield from holden
caulfield
and wrote underneath that this is my
statement
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