1. All Of The Above With A Homicidal Cherry On Top
Then theres the stalkers whose delusions escalate into attempts at horrifying violence whose inability to distinguish between reality and their fantasy leads them to psychotic episodes focused on the object of their obsession. Not all of the most famous stalker stories are actually about stalkers, though. Everyone knows about how Mark David Chapman murdered John Lennon what isnt as well known is that Chapman wasnt specifically a Lennon stalker, but a disturbed man with a severe dissociation from reality who could very easily have picked anyone. He claimed to have picked Lennon from a shortlist of people whod angered him purely because he thought hed be easiest to get to. Equally, Latin singing sensation Selena was murdered by the president of her fan club, Yolanda Saldívar: however, Saldívar wasnt a stalker but an embezzler struggling to avoid prison, whod shot Selena in panic while fearing exposure. Dawnette Knight, claiming to be in love with actor Michael Douglas, was most certainly the real deal, however. She stalked his wife Catherine Zeta Jones, threatening to slice her up like meat on a bone and feed her to the dogs. Thomas Brodnicki discussed his plans to murder pop star Selena Gomez with both his therapist and God, and travelled to LA three times to try and find her before she was able to take a restraining order out on him. Its not always quiet loners or real life bunny boilers, though. The Reverend David Ajemian, a priest in the Archdiocese of Boston, was arrested on charges of stalking late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien while trying to enter a taping session of his show. Hed been writing OBrien threatening notes for some time, and on parish letterhead, referring to himself as your priest stalker (so, they were pretty sure it was actually him) and claiming to be his most dangerous fan. The disturbed Ricardo Lopez became a fan of Icelandic pixie songstress Bjork in 1993, and by all accounts was reasonably peaceful about it until she started seeing pioneering DJ and electronic music artist Goldie a few years later. Apparently Lopez couldnt cope with the object of his affections going out with a black gentleman: despite Bjork being about a decade older than him, he saw himself as a father figure to her. Lopez, all kinds of screwed up, filmed himself semi-naked ranting and raving while constructing a letter bomb which would spray sulphuric acid at the opener. Lopez mailed the bomb to Bjork and shot himself on camera shortly afterwards. His body was found along with the eighteen hours of video footage, and Florida police contacted the authorities in London, who were able to intercept the bomb before it was delivered to its intended target. Lopez intended himself to be the one person who changed her life the most. However, Robert John Bardo actually managed to murder his idol, actress Rebecca Schaeffer, in July 1989 when he arrived at her doorstep and shot her head. Bardo was incensed that Schaeffer, in an effort to move on from her teen starlet phase, had filmed a sex scene in her most recent film Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverley Hills, and had obtained her home address from the California Department Of Motor Vehicles. Since then, US federal law has changed, prohibiting this information from being given out by state DMVs. Heard a scary story about fan obsession? Tell us all about it in the comments...
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
