Most people are able to separate movies from reality, but sometimes they serve as terrifying inspirations for poisonings, murder sprees, and other violent fantasies.
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00:00Most people are able to separate movies from reality, but sometimes they serve as
00:04terrifying inspirations for poisonings, murder sprees, and other violent fantasies.
00:09On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in a
00:14misguided attempt to win the affection of Jodie Foster, after he saw her in the 1976 film Taxi
00:19Driver. The movie actually drew upon a real-life assassination plot that was itself inspired by
00:24another movie, as Arthur Bremmer shot and paralyzed Alabama Governor George Wallace
00:28after seeing a clockwork orange. Taxi Driver stars Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle, an unbalanced
00:33New York cab driver who attempts to rescue an underage sex worker, played by Foster,
00:37in a blood-soaked shootout. Hinckley reportedly watched the movie at least 15 times and eventually
00:42began to dress and act like Bickle. He also became obsessed with Foster and believed that
00:46shooting the president would draw them together. Hinckley fired six shots at Reagan, injuring two
00:51members of the president's entourage as well as a police officer. Only one bullet hit its intended
00:56target, narrowly missing Reagan's heart after ricocheting off his limo. He required lung surgery,
01:01but quickly recovered. A subsequent trial deemed Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity.
01:05He was released in 2022 and has since pursued a career as a musician.
01:10Ghostface from Scream is an iconic fictional villain who has inspired multiple real-life
01:14horrors. In 2006, 16-year-olds Brian Draper and Tori Adamchik were convicted of first-degree
01:20murder after stabbing their classmate Cassie Jo Stoddart. Draper and Adamchik initially told
01:25police that they only intended to scare Stoddart, but that the prank got out of hand. However,
01:29the discovery of a hidden videotape showed the two of them planning the crime in disturbing detail.
01:34We're sick psychopaths who take the pleasure of killing other people. It'd be just like Scream."
01:41Draper and Adamchik are now serving life sentences without parole.
01:44Five years earlier, Belgian truck driver Thierry Geridan donned Ghostface garb to
01:48kill his 15-year-old neighbor, Alison Cambier, in his home. When Cambier rejected Geridan's
01:54sexual advances, he dressed as Ghostface before stabbing her 30 times. He then placed her body on
01:59his bed with a rose in her hand and called her father to confess to the killing. Geridan was
02:03sentenced to life in prison without parole. In 2004, British citizens were shocked by a
02:09killing spree carried out by a man named Daniel Gonzalez, who killed four people and injured two
02:13others. When he confessed to the police, he claimed that he wanted to find out what it would
02:17be like to be Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street. However, a long history of mental
02:21illness may have been the real motivation. Gonzalez reportedly struggled with both
02:25substance abuse and schizophrenia. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity,
02:29though the jury rejected that defense and handed down six life sentences.
02:33In the end, they took only 50 minutes, certainly less than an hour, to come to their unanimous
02:38view that this was murder. While in custody, Gonzalez attempted to kill himself by biting
02:43his arm. He died in 2007 after cutting his wrist with a broken CD case. His mother later told BBC
02:49News that repeated efforts to get medical attention for her son were disregarded.
02:52A 2009 report by the National Health Service concluded that human error and lack of resources
02:57contributed to the lack of urgency given to Gonzalez's case by mental health workers.
03:02In the 2005 rom-com Wedding Crashers, Owen Wilson's character Jeremy inserts eye drops
03:07into the drink of Bradley Cooper's sack, which results in some debilitating stomach issues.
03:11The scene is played for laughs, but the reality is much, much worse.
03:15Most brands of eye drops for reducing redness contain a chemical called tetrahydrozoline,
03:20which, if ingested, can lead to decreased breathing, a slow heartbeat, and even coma.
03:24In 2009, sheriffs in Rowan County, North Carolina arrested Jamie Cruz after her fiancé reported that
03:30he saw her put eye drops in his beverage. He then locked himself in the bathroom along with
03:34their daughter and called 911. Cruz initially denied the accusation but later admitted that
03:39she was trying to sicken her fiancé in order to escape with their daughter,
03:42and that she got the idea after watching Wedding Crashers.
03:45Convicted Australian killer Martin Bryant was a big fan of Chucky from the Child's Play movies.
03:50He frequently spoke about the killer doll before he committed the deadliest mass murder in his
03:54country's history. As a former girlfriend of his recalled, he was particularly fond of repeating
03:58one line from Child's Play 3.
04:00Don't f---- with the Chuck!"
04:03Bryant reportedly struggled with violent impulses and an intellectual disability.
04:07On April 28, 1996, he used semi-automatic rifles to kill 35 people in the Tasmanian
04:13town of Port Arthur. He was captured by police the following day and given 35 life sentences
04:18without the possibility of parole. The aftermath prompted the Australian
04:21government to restrict private ownership of high-powered guns.
04:25The notorious 2004 horror film Saw inspired two very different real-life schemes.
04:30The first case involved a message left on the phone of Tennessee resident Beverly Dixon in 2007.
04:35It claimed that a friend of Dixon's was trapped inside her house,
04:38which would fill with toxic gas unless she freed her with a key.
04:41Dixon suffered a stroke after hearing the message. Police traced it to two 13-year-old
04:46girls who spent the previous night making prank calls. Both of them were charged with
04:50phone harassment. The other case, which occurred in 2009, involved a pair of teenage boys in Salt
04:54Lake City who planned to kidnap and then record the torture and murder of two female middle school
04:59students and a school police officer. The mother of one of the boys overheard their plans and
05:03contacted police. According to court documents, the boys confirmed to a detective that their
05:07plan was inspired by Saw, and that they were targeting people who had harmed others.
05:1219-year-old Indianapolis resident Jonathan Cruz received three consecutive life sentences
05:17following a four-day rampage in 2016 that he claimed was inspired by The Purge,
05:21a 2013 movie about a nationally sanctioned day of lawlessness. Cruz was charged with 17
05:27counts in total, including three for murder and two for robbery resulting in serious bodily injury.
05:32Police found a text message on Cruz's phone that read,
05:35"'I purge every night now. Since I'm dying, someone else has to.'"
05:38Cruz pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
05:42His accomplice, Elijah Brooks, who stole the car that was used during the spree,
05:46was sentenced to 20 years. Another co-conspirator, Stephen Clark,
05:49was sentenced to 16 years for his part in one of the robberies.
05:52"'The killings which have occurred here are beyond senseless.'"
05:56On February 22, 1980, police in Wichita Falls, Texas, received a phone call from a babysitter
06:02who claimed that the 4-year-old girl she had been hired to watch was dead.
06:05The girl, Conjie Wilson, was found in a car with seven stab wounds.
06:09Her heart had been removed and was discovered in the car wrapped in a washcloth. Police searched
06:13the home of her mother, Patricia Frazier, and found a blood-soaked mattress and the knife
06:17used in the murder. Frazier had a history of mental illness, and she told psychologist Dr.
06:21Leon Morris that she killed her daughter because she believed she was possessed by demons.
06:26He later testified that Frazier's actions were inspired in part by watching The Exorcist.
06:30When the case went to trial, Frazier's defense sought to declare their client
06:33innocent by reason of insanity. The jury was unable to reach a verdict, but a second trial
06:38in 1981 resulted in Frazier's acquittal due to her mental status. She was ultimately remanded
06:43into the custody of her mother. A Western Massachusetts community was
06:47rocked in 1988 by a murder seemingly inspired by Jason Voorhees, the masked killer in the
06:52Friday the 13th franchise. 19-year-old Mark Branch was the prime suspect in the brutal
06:56slaying of 18-year-old Sharon Gregory, who was found stabbed to death in her home in Greenfield
07:01on October 24. Police focused on Branch after interviews with Gregory's friends and neighbors
07:06yielded a wealth of disturbing information about him, including an apparent obsession
07:09with horror movies. Branch was reportedly the subject of a profile written by Gregory,
07:14who was a freshman psychology major. According to Greenfield Police Chief David McCarthy,
07:18retrieving the report was part of Branch's motive, but so was his need to live out his
07:22horror fantasy. As McCarthy claimed,
07:24He was so entrenched with Jason that he had to have the final chapter in his own feelings.
07:28He wanted to know what it felt like to live out the part of Jason.
07:31But by the time police intensified their search for Branch, he had disappeared.
07:34His car was found abandoned in a woodland area with traces of blood inside, but he was nowhere
07:39to be seen. Greenfield canceled its annual Halloween parade and asked parents to keep
07:43kids indoors after sundown. In November, Branch's body was found hanging in a wooded area.
07:48His death was ruled a suicide.
07:50According to the coroner, the body was there since day one,
07:54probably the same day that he killed the girl.
07:58In 1995, two Oklahoma teenagers went on a cross-state killing spree after watching the
08:021994 crime film Natural Born Killers. Sarah Edmondson and Benjamin Daris spent the evening
08:08of March 5th at Edmondson's family's cabin, taking LSD and watching the movie several times.
08:13On March 7th, they made it to Hernando, Mississippi, where Daris shot and killed
08:16cotton mill manager William Savage. They then traveled to Ponchatoula, Louisiana,
08:21where Edmondson shot convenience store clerk Patsy Byers, leaving her paralyzed.
08:25Edmondson and Daris were arrested in early June after returning to Oklahoma. Edmondson told
08:30authorities that she was afraid of Daris and that he was obsessed with recreating the murders in
08:34Natural Born Killers. She was charged with second-degree murder and armed robbery and
08:38served 11 years of a 30-year sentence, getting released on parole in 2010. Daris, meanwhile,
08:43was sentenced to life in prison without parole. A 2002 lawsuit by Byers alleged that Warner
08:48Brothers director Oliver Stone and other production entities were guilty of inciting violence,
08:53though that case was ultimately dismissed.
08:56In 1995, Saskatoon teenager Sandy Charles killed 7-year-old Jonathan Timpson after becoming
09:01obsessed with the 1989 horror-fantasy film Warlock, in which a witch hunter tries to stop a
09:06son of Satan from destroying the world. In the movie, someone who drinks the boiled fat of a
09:10virgin will be able to fly. Charles and an 8-year-old accomplice lured Timpson into a
09:14remote area in the lakeside community of La Ronge, where he was stabbed and bludgeoned to death.
09:19Charles then reportedly removed flesh from Timpson's body and cooked it,
09:23although he didn't consume any of it.
09:25That individual didn't have a chance to develop the mechanisms to repress his drives.
09:31Charles was ultimately not found criminally responsible. Instead of prison, he's spent his
09:36life in psychiatric facilities ever since. The crime shocked Canada to its core and led to
09:41nationwide calls for violence in films and TV to be reined in.
09:45The Collector is an Oscar-nominated thriller released in 1965 that stars Terrence Stamp as
09:50a loner who kidnaps a young woman to make her fall in love with him. It was a favorite of Robert
09:54Burdella, who earned the nickname the Butcher of Kansas City after kidnapping, torturing,
09:58and killing several young men, whose bodies he later dismembered. Arrested in 1988, Burdella
10:03told prosecutors that the seed for his crimes was planted after he saw The Collector. He was given
10:08life in prison with no chance of parole. He died of a heart attack in 1992.
10:12The novel that The Collector was based on also inspired Leonard Lake,
10:16who carried out a string of kidnapping, sexual assaults, and murders in California in the 1980s.
10:20He and his accomplice, Charles Ng, routinely videotaped their victims in a secret bunker
10:25and a cabin before killing them. Lake kept a journal in which he referred to his actions as
10:29Operation Miranda, the name of The Collector's female protagonist.
10:33Lake killed himself with a cyanide capsule after his arrest, while Ng is on death row in California.
10:38If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis,
10:41help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988Lifeline.org.