Top 20 Real Life Crimes Inspired by Movies and TV

cruz told authorities he went on the four-day purge based on the 2013 movie entitled the purge that purge cost him three consecutive life sentences for murder welcome to watch mojo and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 real-life crimes inspired by movies and tv now said don't you blame the movies movies don't create psychos movies make psychos more creative for this list we'll be looking at various films and television series that inspired real acts of criminal behavior which of these stories do you find the most insane let us know in the comments below number 20 setting an apartment on fire backdraft a movie about a group of heroic firefighters is hardly the type of film you'd expect to influence a copycat crime but it did 18 year old glenn jones of lake george new york was watching backdraft with his girlfriend when he got a brilliant idea he wanted to be a hero so he naturally decided to set his girlfriend's apartment on fire and put it out himself he was successful in setting a chair on fire but it was extinguished by the girlfriend's family before he could act luckily no one was hurt in the ordeal jones in turn was charged with second-degree arson and he faced upwards of 10 years in prison so you know that plan didn't pan out do you regret your crimes yes and and i'm aware of the pain that i have caused number 19 purging the purge don't force this to hurt you we don't want to kill our own please just let us purge though the execution isn't always perfect the concept behind the purge is clever for one night every year all crime becomes legal and emergency services are prohibited from responding to calls it makes for a great fictional story but would be terrifying if actually brought to life unfortunately it was back in 2017 indianapolis's jonathan cruz was charged with three fatal shootings he directly referenced the film writing in one text message quote i purge every night now a witness also told detectives that crews had referenced the movie in person the thought that someone would take three innocent lives for sport is just beyond our comprehension unlike the purge crime is not legal ever and cruz was justly sentenced to three consecutive life sentences for his senseless actions number 18 bottle deposit fraud seinfeld here's a general rule of thumb don't do anything that kramer does now you're not talking that michigan deposit bottle scam no no i'm off that you tried it oh yeah every which way couldn't crunch the numbers it drove me crazy in the seventh season episode of the bottle deposit kramer and newman hatch a scheme to redeem empty bottles in michigan to earn an extra five cents per container this actually happened in 2011 when three people were charged with bottle deposit fraud yes it's a real thing couple thomas and megan woodward and a man named peter prybot illegally redeemed out of state bottles in maine combined they were charged with stealing upwards of 11 000 this was reported to be the first time in maine's history that someone was charged with bottle deposit fraud look at all those bottles and all those cans for what what a waste number 17 the dc sniper the matrix funnily enough the matrix defense is a real thing and yes it has worked a variation of the insanity defense this one claims that the defendant believes that they're in the matrix and therefore their crime didn't technically happen in their view their victims are still alive in the real world if you're killed in the matrix you die here the body cannot live without the mind back in 2002 lee boyd malvo and john allen muhammad committed the dc sniper attacks killing 17 people and injuring a further 10. malvo had made continuous references to the matrix like yelling free yourself from the matrix and telling fbi agents to watch the movie delusional or not malvo pleaded guilty to seven killings and was sentenced to life in prison number 16 various breaking bad thankfully most people don't watch crime shows and then get inspired but with a show as popular as breaking bad you know there will be some exceptions in fact breaking bad seems to have inspired a whole crime wave back in 2010 kansas city chief of police daryl forte claimed that a strain of blue meth was circulating throughout the city in 2012 police in alabama reported on a 55-year-old meth dealer going by the name walter white walter white you got me in one case a man named jason hart tried disposing of his dead girlfriend's body in sulfuric acid and perhaps most astoundingly the show was brought to life with steven doran a bald and cancer-stricken teacher who was arrested for selling meth number 15 teens start sucking blood twilight edward stop her blood is clean you're killing her stop in certain respects marketing a vampire story to young teens was not a great idea around the height of twilight mania there were reports of teenagers biting each other to draw blood in some sort of pseudo-intimate act and it worried a lot of blood specialists on the grounds of transmitting diseases things got pretty serious in des moines when an unnamed middle school student bit 11 different classmates his father blamed twilight and claimed that his son never meant any harm by the bites the authorities weren't having any of it and the young teen was sent to a juvenile correctional facility number 14 russian roulette the deer hunter widely touted as a masterpiece the deer hunter contains very famous sequences in which the main characters play russian roulette needless to say they don't go well stevie you gotta do it you don't do it they're gonna throw you in a pit they throw you in a pit you're gonna die unfortunately the movie inspired a huge number of copycat deaths as people all around america began dying in russian roulette accidents most of these occurred in the late 70s and early 80s when the film was still fresh in the public consciousness while it's hard to count the true number of deaths the national coalition on tv violence claimed that 25 lives had been lost as of 1981. that was just three years after the movie's release number 13 copycat killers money you train me yeah sure you do because that's my scent you're wearing this relatively unknown action comedy features chris cooper as a serial killer known as the torch in one scene the torch sprays gasoline into a subway token booth and lights a match threatening to burn the attendant alive if she doesn't hand over the money she does but the torch sets the booth on fire anyway implying he was in it for the violence itself i'm not in it for the money shortly after the movie was released a group of male teenagers reenacted the scene in a brooklyn subway and burned the clerk he died of his injuries two weeks later three teens were found guilty of the attack and two were sentenced to life in prison you see what happens when you play with fire you get burned number 12 akasha makes a demand queen of the damned akasha why so surprised milo you called i've come in 2002 a film based on anne rice's the vampire chronicles called queen of the damned was released in the film the late aliyah plays a powerful vampire named akasha this female vampire allegedly visited a young scottish man by the name of alan menzies promising him immortality in exchange for blood menzies listened to this fictional figure and killed his longtime friend manzi's claimed that he felt paranoid around his friend believing that he was going to kill him so he took action in the worst way menzies was subsequently committed to a psychiatric facility and claimed that akasha was still visiting him and asking for blood number 11 robbing a few ideas the town ben affleck wrote and directed this high octane heist film which is about a group of boston criminals who decide to rob fenway park in 2012 a group of three criminals undertook a robbery that bore striking resemblances to the town the three black robbers wore latex masks to make them appear white just as the robbers in the film at one point used latex nun masks to disguise themselves the criminals also robbed a few fancy tricks from the movie they too dressed as police officers they too doused the crime scene in bleach to remove dna and they too threatened an employee with personal information what the lenders want you to open this door the men initially walked away with 200 000 but were eventually caught number 10 becoming patrick bateman american psycho most people probably don't listen to the lyrics but they should because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends it's also a personal statement about the band itself hey paul [Music] christian bale plays quite a convincing psychopath patrick bateman has become one of cinema's greatest villains but that hasn't stopped some from identifying with him back in 2004 a 14 year old named michael hernandez killed his classmate in cold blood according to an expert for the defense hernandez wanted to become a serial killer and was modeling his actions after fictitious villains like patrick bateman hernandez tried pleading not guilty by reason of insanity but was rejected by the jury and thrown in prison for life he died behind bars in 2021 at the age of 31. no new knowledge can be extracted from my telling this confession has meant nothing number nine the dexter killer dexter it doesn't have to come to this but it always does dexter morgan really isn't the type of character to turn into a role model canadian man mark twitchell was a huge fan of dexter and began modeling his life after the titular serial killer in october of 2008 twitchell catfished a man on the dating website plenty of fish and lured him to his house twitchell then took him to a kill room that he'd set up in his garage and proceeded to go full dexter morgan the media subsequently labeled twitchell the dexter killer and his intense interest in the show was repeatedly brought up during the trial unlike dexter twitcher didn't go live as a lumberjack he was sent to prison for life and rightfully so number eight slashers as role models friday the 13th and a nightmare on elm street franchises daniel gonzalez was a very disturbed boy born in surrey england gonzalez showed some talent in school but was reportedly very troubled and required serious psychological aid by 2004 gonzalez was 24 years old unemployed and an avid watcher of horror movies that september gonzalez went on a violent spree and killed four people in three days he used knives to slay his victims and in one case he even wore a hockey mask like jason voorhees he also personally believed that he was similar to freddy krueger he soon became known as the freddy krueger killer and was committed to a psychiatric hospital gonzalez took his own life in 2007. number seven joker stuff the dark knight hi heath ledger's performance as the joker is iconic but it's also given rise to many unfortunate copycats in 2009 a female high school student in clinton indiana painted and cut her face to look like the joker she then tried attacking a teacher with a kitchen knife luckily no one was physically harmed the student was then taken into custody and placed in the care of a psychiatric facility another offense occurred in 2020 st louis man jeremy garnier conducted a live stream in which he dressed as the joker and threatened to commit a public bombing he was thankfully arrested before the livestream even ended i'm a man of my word number six more vampiric acts interview with the vampire i assume i need no deduction people really can't help themselves when it comes to vampire movies two days after watching interview with the vampire daniel sterling stabbed his girlfriend and reportedly drank some of her blood luckily she survived her extensive wounds sterling directly referenced the film while in jail saying he was quote influenced by the movie it was later reported that sterling attempted to kill his girlfriend in an act of revenge for dating another man sterling was charged for the attack and the jury dismissed his insanity defense he was instead found guilty and sentenced to life in prison number five personal project mayhems fight club the first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club the first and the second rules of fight club is you do not talk about fight club but no one said anything about starting your own perhaps unsurprisingly numerous underground fight clubs began popping up following the movie's release states like texas california and even alaska began reporting the clubs and membership ranged from high school students to silicon valley techies and princeton ivy leaguers unfortunately things also got a bit more serious as some teenagers began acting out their own project mayhem luke helder planted numerous mailbox bombs and attempted to make a cartographical smiley face out of his chosen locations and then there's teenager kyle shaw who tried blowing up a manhattan starbucks after starting his own fight club in central park number four ghostface copycats scream do you think someone's trying to duplicate woodsbroom it looks like it i think you have a copycat on your hands gee even though it was meant to satirize the slasher genre scream still somehow managed to inspire a few prospective criminals back in the late 90s two teenage cousins by the names of samuel ramirez and mario padilla were convicted of killing padilla's mother preliminary hearings during the trial made repeated mention of their love for the scream movies a more obvious copycat crime occurred in belgium when 24 year old thierry jahardan killed a teenager while wearing a ghost face costume jachardan later confessed that the crime was premeditated and inspired by the scream movies obviously considering his attire another copycat occurred in france in 2002 when a teen known only by the name of julianne killed his teenage neighbor while wearing a ghost face mask school officials have yet to comment but this is known to be the same costume worn by the killer number three alex's real-life drugs a clockwork orange you needn't take it any further son you've proved to me that all this ultraviolence and killing is wrong rather terribly wrong stanley kubrick's bizarre film is now considered a masterpiece but it's also one of the most controversial films ever made it was originally given an x rating in the united states and the kubrick family received loud protesters outside of their home it also didn't help that numerous crimes were being pinned on the movie this includes the random killing of an elderly man the death of a teen at the hands of their classmate and a sexual assault in which the perpetrator sang a crude rendition of singing in the rain as a response to the heated controversy kubrick withdrew the film from british release and it was unavailable in the region for the next 26 years number two numerous natural-born killers it's just murder man all god's creatures do it some form or another i mean you look in the forest you got species killing other species our species killing all species including the forest and we just call it industry not murder just as natural born killers was inspired by the story of charles stark weather and carol anne fugate so too did it inspire its own crime sprees countless incidents have been linked to the film including some of the most notorious crimes of the century multiple school shootings have been blamed on the movie including columbine eric harris and dylan klebold were said to be fans and harris repeatedly mentioned the film in his journal it also inspired the crime spree of teenagers sarah edmondson and benjamin de ross along with the richardson family murders the latter bore a striking resemblance to a scene in the film and the perpetrator even said that he would quote go natural born killer on the family end quote before we continue be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one john hinckley jr goes full travis bickel taxi driver [Music] the genius thing about taxi driver is that it doesn't predict anything it merely observes and comments on what's already there and what's already there are lonely people with troubling thoughts sometimes these people tip over into violence this is exactly what happened with john hinckley jr i really you know i really wanna i got some bad ideas in my head hinckley dealt with severe emotional problems and developed an obsession with jody foster after watching taxi driver he began stalking the young actor and was resolved to kill the president in a deluded attempt to impress her on march 30th 1981 hinckley attempted to assassinate ronald reagan he failed but wounded four including reagan himself and press secretary james brady died decades later as a direct result of the injuries do you agree 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Keywords: Film, TV, a clockwork orange, american psycho, breaking bad, crimes inspired by movies and tv, dexter, fight club, friday the 13th, interview with the vampire, list, mojo, natural born killers, nightmare on elm street, real-life crimes inspired by movies and tv, scream, seinfeld, taxi driver, the dark knight, the deer hunter, the matrix, the purge, the town, top 10, twilight, watch mojo, watchMojo

Id: E-db-vhWVS0

Length: 19min 15sec (1155 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2022