21 Fictional Characters Blamed For Real Life Crimes

14. Alex Murphy

Serial killer Nathaniel White was responsible for the deaths of six women in the Hudson Valley region of New York in the early nineties. Of his first murder White said "The first girl I killed was from a 'RoboCop' movie... I seen him cut somebody€™s throat then take the knife and slit down the chest to the stomach and left the body in a certain position. With the first person I killed I did exactly what I saw in the movie." White clearly wasn't blaming Robocop, but he did point to the film as some kind of instruction manual, thus ensuring the glare of the spotlight would once again be placed on violence in film.

13. Ghostface

Ghostface has inspired all manner of grisly crimes in his name, ranging from stabbings to rape and murder. One of the most notorious crimes connected to him involved a 24 year old Belgian lorry driver Thierry Jaradin, who was visited by his 15 year old neighbour Alisson Cambier and mistook her friendliness for amorousness. When the girl rejected his advances Jaradin went into the other room and came back dressed in Scream mask and costume, carrying two large kitchen knives, and murdered Cambier by stabbing her 30 times. The fact that Jaradin had no criminal record, or any history of psychiatric problems has for some acted as justification for the edict that "horror movies inspire people to kill". What seems to have been discounted is that the problem lies with the disturbed individual's reception and response to the material, rather than the film itself.