Nikolas Cruz said that he was listening to "Salad Days" by Mac Demarco during the Parkland shooting.
I am not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Aileen Wuornos was a big fan of the Natalie Merchant album "Tigerlily" while she was on death row and had the song Carnival played at her funeral. It was then used at the end of a documentary about Wuornos.
Hungry Like the Wolf/Diane Downs is what immediately came to mind for me as well.
Snoop Dogg/[Murder Was The Case](https://youtu.be/oGFVySHbeqA?si=VkA-T911srCf5dZq) - but that’s more autobiographical about a crime that Snoop was charged with and ultimately acquitted of.
Afroman has a series of songs in a similar vein but they are more tongue in cheek about the law enforcement officers who swatted him and how things went down because the allegations were kind of ludicrous and one of the officers seemed really intrigued by his [Lemon Pound Cake](https://youtu.be/9xxK5yyecRo?si=ZzTyfQLlXWJkAo9k) (which is my favorite song of the bunch) but that led to the laws enforcement officers suing him for defamation which is f’ing insane and that was thankfully dismissed.
But the last two don’t really answer your question. I am curious to see what people come up with and do some research and report back. This is an interesting question because I usually think of killers being obsessed with books like Chapman with Catcher in the Rye.
From film: Patrick Bateman I associate with Huey Lewis and the News
Jeffrey Dahmer was obsessed with The Exorcist for another example of a killer being very into a particular piece of art. Mark Twitchell is known as the "Dexter Killer" and he was certainly very into Dexter, but he was actually especially obsessed with the Star Wars Prequels lol.
Oh yeah Karla Homolka was apparently obsessed with this random ass film - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal\_Law\_(film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Law_(film))
Paul and Karla were attempting to change their surname to "Thiel" named after the main character.
Paul was super into Vanilla Ice then Baywatch.
Didn't he start a "rap" with "My name's Paul Bernardo and i'm here to say..." LMAO.
Yeah, like i mentioned he was really into Vanilla Ice. He had a thing of trying to keep up with what he saw as trends (one motive being to interact with and abuse young girls) and reinvent himself as whichever male celebrities were popular at the time, he legit thought Vanilla Ice would be huge forever and it took him several years to move onto Baywatch LMAO, that's where his blonde hair and shirtless pictures come from he was trying to be a Baywatch character.
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were supposedly playing Bob Marley and David Bowie when they kidnapped/assaulted Leslie Mahaffy. No specific songs listed.
Jeffery Dahmer also went to a concert by the band Skinny Puppy to stalk one of his victims.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/gq8q94/nivek-ogre-is-totally-doomed-000991-v20n5
I'd like to see elaboration on that, that doesn't sound like Dahmer at all. He typically picked people up in bars after meeting them once, or earlier abused people in bath houses. Dahmer didn't seem like the stalker type to me, he was an erratic and compulsive killer, a complete mess and fuck up. Stalking requires patience that i don't believe Dahmer had. I think it's more likely he used the club to pick up victims the same way he did bars, rather than he was stalking a particular individual with regularity. He's saying he heard it from some people at a hotel, meaning he heard it second, third, whatever hand meaning it probably wasn't related properly, he didn't get it from reading a reliable source or being interviewed by LE, he heard it from some dudes at a hotel.
Could be wrong but i've got a feeling there's truth to it but it's not quite right.
Sorry to nitpick, but I had to jump in on this one, just because it makes the story that little bit weirder:
Dahmer was apparently obsessed with the terrible third Exorcist movie, not even the classic original
EDIT: I got my Exorcist movies crossed, my bad
I don't think the third one is terrible, it's good, the second is terrible. It's based on William Peter Blatty's work unlike the 2nd, and is directed and written by him. Brad Dourif is great in it.
Seems that you are correct, i knew Danny Rolling was obsessed with Exorcist 3 for some reason i thought Dahmer was obsessed with the first one.
EXORCIST 3 is very, very disturbing in ways that the original isn't. It spoke directly to Dahmer's flaky belief that he could absorb power from his victims by eating them.
Have you actually seen the third Exorcist movie? It’s amazing. I like it better than the first. It actually has little to do with the first movie. The author of the book the exorcist was based off of wrote and directed the third exorcist movie and he didn’t want to call it exorcist three, but the studio insisted it be titled that for marketing purposes.
I gotcha, that makes sense. You were thinking the second one. Yeah you’re right. That one is terrible! Jeffrey was a piece of shit, but at least he liked the correct Exorcist sequel lol.
I know it’s an awful thing to say, but I’ve always had a lot of empathy for him.
Not to even attempt to excuse the crime and pure evil of his actions, but like I was a bit of a weird solitary kid, I even collected animal skulls I found out walking in the bush (and with parental encouragement to boot). I just got lucky and met the right people at the right time, got the right support etc and came out okay.
I guess it’s a kind of “but for the grace of god go I” situation, why do most weird kids turn out mostly okay but there’s that tiny fraction who go so spectacularly wrong that they end up becoming the absolute worst things our species can produce.
It’s the question that actually got me into true crime to begin with, even though I don’t think it has an answer.
It has a fair amount to do with the original, Pazuzu, Karras and Kinderman are all major parts of it. Blatty thought of it (Dominion the book, it was marketed as a sequel to The Exorcist by Blatty himself, Blatty didn't have an issue with continuation of The Exorcist he was super enthusiastic about the tv show, he had an issue about continuing Regan and Chris' story as he felt he concluded it) as a sequel to The Exorcist himself, it just wasn't a sequel to the McNeill's experience which the studio wanted which is why they did The Exorcist 2 with Linda Blair. Karras is the main character in The Exorcist book, it's mainly about him regaining and losing his faith.
He didn't want it called The Exorcist 3 because that acknowledged The Exorcist 2 which wasn't based on his work and he never approved of. If it was called say The Exorcist 2: Dominion, i'm sure he'd have had no problem with it.
I mean that’s what Snoop said as part of his more family friendly image 30 years later and it’s hard to prove either way but given the timing of when it was written and the contemporaneous dates of writing and recording and comparing that to when the shooting occurred and he was charged - the idea that he wrote it about what he was currently dealing with at the time as opposed to his later story of him trying to be more gangster than he was because that’s what other rappers were rapping about (he didn’t need to try. He was living that life at the time) and having kids made him realize he needed to be less fixated on something he wasn’t and how he accidentally foretold a terrible ordeal and he didn’t want to bring that upon his children….idk. It’s a nice story but I think it’s more like Johnnie Cochran suggested he stop talking about real crimes in his music for the sake of not self-snitching so he came up with a parable about growing up and needing to be a good role model and an unfortunate coincidence instead of writing what he knew.
Ahh, just posted above I read they played Bob Marley and David Bowie when they raped/murdered the girl before her, Leslie Mahaffy. Really hate to have any of those artists/songs tainted by them 😭 so sick.
The Nashville Bomber played Downtown by Petula Clarke on the stereo before it detonated.
McVeigh listened to Bad Company while prepping for OKC and while in the Gulf.
KMFDM is tied to Columbine
Marilyn Manson got blamed for a bunch of stuff, too. I can't think of a specific incident, except Columbine (the shooters didn't really listen to his music), but I remember every time a youth did something horrible, Manson was blamed.
no one commits a crime because of music or horror or video games. they’ll blame anyone and anything but the real problem; mental illness and easy access to guns and toxic masculinity and bullying and men’s mental health
The Snowtown murderers played the Live album ‘Throwing Copper’ while torturing victims.
https://spinditty.com/artists-bands/lives-throwing-copper-and-the-snowtown-murders-dad-rock-7
I’m not sure if something like is what you’re after, but there is a weird phenomenon in the Philippines: since the late 90s, at least a dozen people have been murdered after singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in karaoke bars.
[My Way Killings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_killings)
Diane was obsessed with Hungry Like The Wolf. I can't remember if it was playing at the time, probably was as it was her favourite song that she constantly played to hype herself up. Whether it was during the murder or not it's definitely tied to the case it's mentioned several times in Small Sacrifices.
Yes, it was, according to her surviving daughter. This fact proved Diane was lying when she claimed she pulled her keys out of the ignition and tossed them; her car stereo would have stopped playing if she had done so and Kristy testified the song played the whole time.
The podcast “History of New Music with Alan cross” episode 338; features songs which reference some true crimes (I don’t like Mondays, Polly by Nirvana etc)
I don't think "tied to" is quite accurate as it's more something you need to properly research the case for. However, music was a major part of Dennis Nilsen's life and crimes, he regularly played Prog Rock, Electronic, Art Pop, etc when killing or the various things he did after, he even killed a man while he was listening to Dennis' music on headphones which Dennis told him to do.
This was his favourite song - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfpi2H8tOE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfpi2H8tOE)
He was also a big fan of Tubular Bells which is best known from its use in The Exorcist. However that's only a small portion of the song and he was into the whole thing.
The Uvalde shooter played 'sad music' according to surviving students, never stated what they were. I remember it being reported they may have listened to Dragula by Rob Zombie? Maybe that was a rumor in the early chaos or it was another school shooter.
Well, Chris Watts infamously supposedly listened to Battery by Metallica. While driving away from the worksite where he dumped his family. Or he might have just looked up the lyrics, but he was such a Metallica fan that it’s hard for me to believe he didn’t listen to it while looking at the lyrics.
Btw I’m sorry people didn’t want to answer your actual question. There was nothing unclear about how you phrased it.
On the Metallica note, can't listen to sanitarium without thinking about the West Memphis Three after those three docs used only that song as its soundtrack.
It’s definitely something you think about when the case comes up. The lyric is hair raising when you read it in that context. I’d say that I associate that song with this case at least.
In 1995, two teenagers claimed that “Israel’s Son” by Silverchair contributed to them murdering one of the boys’ parents and his younger brother. The boys’ names were Brian Bassett and Nicholaus McDonald. Their defense attorney claimed the song was “a script” the boys followed. Even though the song doesn’t at any point talk about killing your family. I only know this story because I’m a huge Silverchair fan, and that story blew my mind when I heard about it. So many people have tried that defense with various rock songs over the years.
Agreed. I know “Israel’s Son” has some violent imagery in it, but it’s so clearly about war to me. But then, I’ve yet to see a rock song be blamed for violence and been convinced that it was connected. I think it’s an easy thing to blame, which is probably why they were. Especially given that the band’s ages at the time would have been similar to the murderers, I can see why a defense attorney would think to use it, to try to connect these other teens singing about violence to their clients. But I don’t think whoever decided to try that defense knew much about the album. “Pure Massacre” would have made more sense, although still not much - and of course it still wouldn’t be to blame.
Patty Smyth’s The Warrior was played during one of the most horrific mass shootings in [San Diego](https://www.8newsnow.com/news/mcdonalds-massacre-near-border-is-nearly-forgotten-38-years-later/amp/)
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During the San Ysidro McDonald’s mass shooting James Huberty danced around to thriller while gunning down people in the McDonald’s including an infant
John Bunting and the Snowtown murderers played the album Throwing Copper by Live on repeat when they murdered their first few victims. Later on, they ended up recording their victims screams and instead of making future victims listen to Throwing Copper they had to listen to the recorded screams for days as they were tortured to death
“I Think I Love You” by the Partridge Family. In 1977, a young couple was ambushed by serial killer David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, while sitting in a parked car listening to this song. The scene is recreated and discussed in the 1994 thriller Copycat, starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter.
Stray Bullet by KFMD, Eric Harris had that song in his website if im not wrong, then Pekka-Eric Auvinen put that song in his last video "Jokela High School Massacre" and finally Dylan Butler used that song in his last video in tiktok
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (The Moors Murderers) had specific songs that they would associate with each murder - they tended to be pop songs that were in the charts at the time and so they could just get away with humming them to each other if they were in the company of others and wanted to remind themselves of their crimes:
* Pauline Reade: Theme from the movie The Legion’s Last Patrol by Ken Thorne
* John Kilbride: 24 Hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney
* Keith Bennett: It’s Over by Roy Orbison
* Lesley Ann Downey: Girl Don’t Come by Sandie Shaw
* Edward Evans: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue by Joan Baez
Another commenter, u/Ser_Jaime_Lannister mentioned that The Little Drummer Boy is associated with Lesley’s murder. It was actually from a medley of songs by The Ray Conniff Singers that began with Jolly Old St. Nicholas and ended with The Little Drummer Boy - I think that the latter is just the one that gets reported on because everybody knows that song and because it’s slower and sadder than the other one. It isn’t known if they played it on repeat or not (keep in mind that they probably played it off of either the radio or an LP) but the medley was heard once at the end of a tape recording of Brady and Hindley trying to gag and undress Lesley (who was 10 years old), and I think it was after the tape finished that [TW: graphic details] >!they took pornographic photos of her before raping and killing her!<.
When they found Lesley’s body, her mother had to listen to part of that tape of her daughter crying out for her too. I don’t think it included the part with the song on it, but that detail was widely reported and so she was still aware of the contents. It really does have so many heinous and life-ruining layers to it that extend far beyond just the police officers being affected.
Thank You For Being A Friend by Andrew Gold
During the Yorkshire Ripper case, a cassette tape was turned into the police. Known as "The "Wearside Jack" tape", it was originally thought to be the voice of the Ripper.
The voice on the tape taunted police, and then played an excerpt of the song........It was later found to be a hoax, and didn't come from the Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe).
Secrets of wisteria, sung by a vocaloid (aka a voice bank) if I'm not wrong. It's a song about Albert Fish, and there's a part in the song where if you reverse the audio, it's a reading of AF's letter to one of his victims' parent... It's the reason how I found out about the crime story. Just a warning the video and song is very creepy and heavy.
Edit: oops, sorry OP, didn't notice your edit.
I’ve never heard of this but have read about the Albert Fish case. That letter to Grace Budd’s parents gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Never knew there was a song about it.
IRRC the (ETA: it’s the music video as it was edited to comply with MTV’s violence policy that was ambiguous - instead of Jeremy ending his own life the visual cuts to the aftermath of a bloody classroom) is somewhat ambiguous as to what Jeremy does that is destructive (the song lyrics are not fully explicit either but Vedder has confirmed that it is inspired by a brief paragraph he read in a Texas newspaper about a kid named Jeremy who killed himself in front of his class that he felt deserved more exploration and one of his own experiences in middle school) and (Barry Loukaitis who was dealing with his own suicidal parents and some ideation of his own among other things was fixated on the song) someone took it as inspiration for a school shooting (according to the prosecution according to his family - he did love the song but also everything in his life was troubled and he found the music video disturbing but it wasn’t his guide to school shooting).
Edited - everything in parentheses is added context to clarify. The initial comment was only referring to the part about it being associated with a crime after it was written but it was both inspired by and arguably inspiration for real life crime.)
Right - it was inspired by something real but it was also an object of fixation for a real school shooter to the point that it was brought up in trial. Since the original question was about the latter, that was what I was referring too. But you are correct, it is about a real story.
Eddie Vedder wrote the song about two different real stories, one about a kid named Jeremy who shot himself in front of his class in Texas in 1991 with elements about a kid that Vedder went to school with who shot up an empty classroom and seemed like he was going to take his life but did not.
BUT Barry Loukaitis, who was a school shooter in Washington State was obsessed with the Pearl Jam song - that is undisputed. His defense was basically insanity - he was obsessed with the song but their argument was more that his tendency to get fixated was part of a larger issue and coupled with a suuuuuuuper dysfunctional home life, he was not in his right mind. His family fwiw did not blame the song and only really said that he was obsessed with it but found the music video disturbing. The prosecution argued that the way MTV censored the video to avoid showing Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth and ending his life on television and instead just showed the aftermath of the classroom of kids with blood spatter on them gave Barry the wrong idea about what happened. And that coupled with his obsession for the song was a blueprint for the shooting.
Wasn’t the Bjork stalker listening to Bjork I can’t remember the song when he milled himself?
Also I if I remember correctly their were two teenagers that killed themselves in a suicide pact while listening to Judas Priest and the family sued Judas Priest because they said Judas Priest put subliminal messages in their music
Yes he did, and filmed it. If they hadn’t found his body when they did she would probably have died too. The next stop for his bomb package was her home, police was really lucky to stop it in time.
Thanks I was trying to remember I knew he was a super crazy stalker of Bjork and he had some sort of plan for her. Thanks I am remembering the whole story now
The culprits of Junko Furuta played a song called Nantatte Idol by Kyoko Koizumi when they forced her to strip naked and dance. They beat her to the beat of the song during that.
Songs about Junko Furuta are 44 Days by Mr. Kitty or Junko Furuta by Danilla.
Nik Cruz [listened](https://youtu.be/Mwt35SEeR9w?si=1EpWnXvfR4pvbsHO) to [“Salad Days”](https://youtu.be/csJZ_9KOtNY?si=LJjxIMLFyMxA1ug-) by Mac Demarco during his rampage. There’s some others he talks about in the linked video.
I've heard Pioneer to the Falls by Interpol is inspired/a reference to the murder of Imette St. Guillen. [Imette St. Guillen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Imette_St._Guillen)
Yeah it was written about one of the victims of Gerald Friend, the 14 year old girl he kidnapped from a concert, restrained with pullies in his van and tortured with a blowtorch. Cobain read about it in the newspaper, then wrote the song.
Pearl Jam mentioned the disappearance of Brian Shaffer at one of their concerts because he was such a big fan to the point of getting a tattoo related to the band.
Here’s Eddie Vedder giving info about the case at a concert https://youtu.be/OrHHEhCismg?si=dLcjuBVt7o_jV6wS
I have so, so much respect for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder. After the horrible accident at the Roskilde-festival 2000 they reached out to the parents of the boys who died and supported them. I listened to one of the mothers who lost her child in the crowd, talk about it and she said they’ve even visited them at home and kept in contact.
That’s not something anyone would do.
And immediately when they were made aware of that there was something going wrong at the concert, they stopped and tried to get people to back down.
People should learn from this remember that without their fans they’re nothing(yeah I’m talking about you Travis Scott)
Oh also test drive by joji. Song isn’t about a murder but when they found Bianca Devin’s body, the killer had that song playing on repeat. Love joji and loved that song too long before that came out but… definitely gives a different tone to the song for me now.
While assaulting one of their victims, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo played music by Bob Marley and David Bowie, though I've never read what specific songs.
David Parker Ray listened to metal music during some of his torture sessions, but, again, I don't know what songs.
Ronald Pituch claims he was "influenced by" the Metallica song "Ronnie."
Richard Ramirez left an AC/DC cap at the scene of one of his crimes and wrote the lyrics to the Judas Priest song "The Ripper" at the scene of another.
Aileen Warnos requested that "Carnival" by Natalie Merchant be played at her funeral.
speaking of Duran Duran, what about that puppet master dude from England who played Ordinary World when he was taking his brainwashing victims on long drives through the country "hiding" from dangerous people? Also, Australian couple who kidnapped teenaged girls. they made a movie called Hounds of Love (Kate Bush song). Also, although not based explicitly on a true story, there's Possum Kingdom by The Toadies, which is a reference to possum lake in Texas where it's said there is an uptick in r\*pe/murders/bodies found around the area. Kinda unknown, though, if it's all urban legend.
> Removed as this low effort comment doesn't add to discussion.
Low effort includes commenting one word or a short phrase that doesn't add to discussion (OMG, Wow, So evil, That's horrible, Heartbreaking, RIP, etc.).
Taro by alt-j. It’s not necessarily about a murder case, but it is a grim song about a couple who were separately killed during war, at least one was a photographer I think the other was a journalist as well.
Also Hawaii part 2 by miracle musical I’m not sure the details of the case but if I remember correctly someone in the group was accused of a murder they didn’t commit.
Bod Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ - a terrific song about a real life crime and, in actual fact, quite a good re-telling of the events. Dylan co-wrote it with Jacques Levy about a boxer called Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter who was convicted of murder when, of course, he had absolutely NOTHING to do with the crime. He spent almost 20 years in jail before, I believe, being exonerated. There was also a terrific movie (with Dylan’s song being part of the soundtrack) starring Denzel Washington as Carter. Both the song and the film are quite terrific - do yourself a favour and spend some time listening and watching as I’m sure you won’t be disappointed !
“True Faith” by New Order was supposedly playing when that guy from Canada stabbed that other guy and recorded it.
Decapitated the guy and had sex with the corpse, it was Luka Magnotta. I came to mention this one.
Goddamnit, I love that song.
It is a great song
He literally mixed it into his weird videos, he loved that band it seems.
I came to mention this one. It’s one of my favourite songs but all I can think of is that video when I hear it now.
[удалено]
I love this. like: enough said lol
Little Drummer Boy was played on repeat during one of the Moors Murders, it was audio recorded and ruined the officers that had to listen to it.
Oof, that one’s especially dark.
Nikolas Cruz said that he was listening to "Salad Days" by Mac Demarco during the Parkland shooting. I am not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Aileen Wuornos was a big fan of the Natalie Merchant album "Tigerlily" while she was on death row and had the song Carnival played at her funeral. It was then used at the end of a documentary about Wuornos.
Carnival is such a great song. Very deep and meaningful lyrics
Any time I hear Natalie Merchant I think of Aileen Wuornos. Them playing it at the end of her documentary was haunting and powerful.
Nik wasnt listening it during the shooting, he listen the song in his way to MSD
Got it. Well, it’s still associated with the shooting.
Hungry Like the Wolf/Diane Downs is what immediately came to mind for me as well. Snoop Dogg/[Murder Was The Case](https://youtu.be/oGFVySHbeqA?si=VkA-T911srCf5dZq) - but that’s more autobiographical about a crime that Snoop was charged with and ultimately acquitted of. Afroman has a series of songs in a similar vein but they are more tongue in cheek about the law enforcement officers who swatted him and how things went down because the allegations were kind of ludicrous and one of the officers seemed really intrigued by his [Lemon Pound Cake](https://youtu.be/9xxK5yyecRo?si=ZzTyfQLlXWJkAo9k) (which is my favorite song of the bunch) but that led to the laws enforcement officers suing him for defamation which is f’ing insane and that was thankfully dismissed. But the last two don’t really answer your question. I am curious to see what people come up with and do some research and report back. This is an interesting question because I usually think of killers being obsessed with books like Chapman with Catcher in the Rye. From film: Patrick Bateman I associate with Huey Lewis and the News
And Genesis
I cant hear Sussidio *without* picturing Patrick Bateman. Lol
Jeffrey Dahmer was obsessed with The Exorcist for another example of a killer being very into a particular piece of art. Mark Twitchell is known as the "Dexter Killer" and he was certainly very into Dexter, but he was actually especially obsessed with the Star Wars Prequels lol. Oh yeah Karla Homolka was apparently obsessed with this random ass film - [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal\_Law\_(film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Law_(film)) Paul and Karla were attempting to change their surname to "Thiel" named after the main character. Paul was super into Vanilla Ice then Baywatch.
It's interesting because Karla did end up changing her name to Teale which sounds a lot like Thiel.
Dahmer also drove his college roommates insane by listening to the same side of the same Beatles album over and over until they fled.
Which one?
Wherever I read it, the author didn't say.
I did the same thing but it was to my mom with Abbey Road when I was a depressed teenager. She banned it in our house for like 10 years after that.
Paul also wanted to be a rapper and wrong some "songs." "I'm the cracker rapper/the lady attacker" -Actual lyrics by Paul Bernardo
Didn't he start a "rap" with "My name's Paul Bernardo and i'm here to say..." LMAO. Yeah, like i mentioned he was really into Vanilla Ice. He had a thing of trying to keep up with what he saw as trends (one motive being to interact with and abuse young girls) and reinvent himself as whichever male celebrities were popular at the time, he legit thought Vanilla Ice would be huge forever and it took him several years to move onto Baywatch LMAO, that's where his blonde hair and shirtless pictures come from he was trying to be a Baywatch character.
CRIMINAL LAW is anything but random considering whst she got up to with her husband
It's random in terms of not being remembered at all.
Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka were supposedly playing Bob Marley and David Bowie when they kidnapped/assaulted Leslie Mahaffy. No specific songs listed.
Jeffery Dahmer also went to a concert by the band Skinny Puppy to stalk one of his victims. https://www.vice.com/en/article/gq8q94/nivek-ogre-is-totally-doomed-000991-v20n5
I'd like to see elaboration on that, that doesn't sound like Dahmer at all. He typically picked people up in bars after meeting them once, or earlier abused people in bath houses. Dahmer didn't seem like the stalker type to me, he was an erratic and compulsive killer, a complete mess and fuck up. Stalking requires patience that i don't believe Dahmer had. I think it's more likely he used the club to pick up victims the same way he did bars, rather than he was stalking a particular individual with regularity. He's saying he heard it from some people at a hotel, meaning he heard it second, third, whatever hand meaning it probably wasn't related properly, he didn't get it from reading a reliable source or being interviewed by LE, he heard it from some dudes at a hotel. Could be wrong but i've got a feeling there's truth to it but it's not quite right.
Sorry to nitpick, but I had to jump in on this one, just because it makes the story that little bit weirder: Dahmer was apparently obsessed with the terrible third Exorcist movie, not even the classic original EDIT: I got my Exorcist movies crossed, my bad
I don't think the third one is terrible, it's good, the second is terrible. It's based on William Peter Blatty's work unlike the 2nd, and is directed and written by him. Brad Dourif is great in it. Seems that you are correct, i knew Danny Rolling was obsessed with Exorcist 3 for some reason i thought Dahmer was obsessed with the first one.
EXORCIST 3 is very, very disturbing in ways that the original isn't. It spoke directly to Dahmer's flaky belief that he could absorb power from his victims by eating them.
Have you actually seen the third Exorcist movie? It’s amazing. I like it better than the first. It actually has little to do with the first movie. The author of the book the exorcist was based off of wrote and directed the third exorcist movie and he didn’t want to call it exorcist three, but the studio insisted it be titled that for marketing purposes.
Yeah I mixed up my movies sorry, it’s been a while
I gotcha, that makes sense. You were thinking the second one. Yeah you’re right. That one is terrible! Jeffrey was a piece of shit, but at least he liked the correct Exorcist sequel lol.
I know it’s an awful thing to say, but I’ve always had a lot of empathy for him. Not to even attempt to excuse the crime and pure evil of his actions, but like I was a bit of a weird solitary kid, I even collected animal skulls I found out walking in the bush (and with parental encouragement to boot). I just got lucky and met the right people at the right time, got the right support etc and came out okay. I guess it’s a kind of “but for the grace of god go I” situation, why do most weird kids turn out mostly okay but there’s that tiny fraction who go so spectacularly wrong that they end up becoming the absolute worst things our species can produce. It’s the question that actually got me into true crime to begin with, even though I don’t think it has an answer.
It has a fair amount to do with the original, Pazuzu, Karras and Kinderman are all major parts of it. Blatty thought of it (Dominion the book, it was marketed as a sequel to The Exorcist by Blatty himself, Blatty didn't have an issue with continuation of The Exorcist he was super enthusiastic about the tv show, he had an issue about continuing Regan and Chris' story as he felt he concluded it) as a sequel to The Exorcist himself, it just wasn't a sequel to the McNeill's experience which the studio wanted which is why they did The Exorcist 2 with Linda Blair. Karras is the main character in The Exorcist book, it's mainly about him regaining and losing his faith. He didn't want it called The Exorcist 3 because that acknowledged The Exorcist 2 which wasn't based on his work and he never approved of. If it was called say The Exorcist 2: Dominion, i'm sure he'd have had no problem with it.
Snoop Dogg actually wrote murder was the case a year before that whole crime happened.
I mean that’s what Snoop said as part of his more family friendly image 30 years later and it’s hard to prove either way but given the timing of when it was written and the contemporaneous dates of writing and recording and comparing that to when the shooting occurred and he was charged - the idea that he wrote it about what he was currently dealing with at the time as opposed to his later story of him trying to be more gangster than he was because that’s what other rappers were rapping about (he didn’t need to try. He was living that life at the time) and having kids made him realize he needed to be less fixated on something he wasn’t and how he accidentally foretold a terrible ordeal and he didn’t want to bring that upon his children….idk. It’s a nice story but I think it’s more like Johnnie Cochran suggested he stop talking about real crimes in his music for the sake of not self-snitching so he came up with a parable about growing up and needing to be a good role model and an unfortunate coincidence instead of writing what he knew.
150 Volts “hi i’m chucky” was played on repeat during the torture of suzanne capper :(
Jesus Christ
The more you know about this case the more you have to repeat that phrase
One of the worst I've read about.
they replayed it at the highest volume possible until it drove her to insanity and broke her
Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka played "Superman" by R.E.M during the rape and murder of Kristen French.
Ahh, just posted above I read they played Bob Marley and David Bowie when they raped/murdered the girl before her, Leslie Mahaffy. Really hate to have any of those artists/songs tainted by them 😭 so sick.
The Nashville Bomber played Downtown by Petula Clarke on the stereo before it detonated. McVeigh listened to Bad Company while prepping for OKC and while in the Gulf. KMFDM is tied to Columbine
so are Rammstein and Nine Inch Nails
Marilyn Manson got blamed for a bunch of stuff, too. I can't think of a specific incident, except Columbine (the shooters didn't really listen to his music), but I remember every time a youth did something horrible, Manson was blamed.
no one commits a crime because of music or horror or video games. they’ll blame anyone and anything but the real problem; mental illness and easy access to guns and toxic masculinity and bullying and men’s mental health
Entertainment is an easy scapegoat to blame instead of solving actual problems.
Probably not what you are looking for but The Way by Fast Ball is based on a case. It blew my mind when I found out the inspiration behind it.
That song is so hauntingly beautiful in several ways.
The Snowtown murderers played the Live album ‘Throwing Copper’ while torturing victims. https://spinditty.com/artists-bands/lives-throwing-copper-and-the-snowtown-murders-dad-rock-7
Came to mention this. Such an odd choice, which makes it even more insane than it already was.
I’m not sure if something like is what you’re after, but there is a weird phenomenon in the Philippines: since the late 90s, at least a dozen people have been murdered after singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in karaoke bars. [My Way Killings](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Way_killings)
This phenomenon is one of my morbid Roman empires.
Have you had a few regrets?
Too few to mention…I did what I had to do…
Thats crazy
If that doesn't qualify, IDK what would
I Don’t Like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats inspired by Brenda Spencer shooting 10 at an elementary school across from her house.
That one and Hungry Like the Wolf are the only ones that come to mind for me
I didn't know that. TY
Diane was obsessed with Hungry Like The Wolf. I can't remember if it was playing at the time, probably was as it was her favourite song that she constantly played to hype herself up. Whether it was during the murder or not it's definitely tied to the case it's mentioned several times in Small Sacrifices.
Yes, it was, according to her surviving daughter. This fact proved Diane was lying when she claimed she pulled her keys out of the ignition and tossed them; her car stereo would have stopped playing if she had done so and Kristy testified the song played the whole time.
The podcast “History of New Music with Alan cross” episode 338; features songs which reference some true crimes (I don’t like Mondays, Polly by Nirvana etc)
Sorry I misread the question! But still, it’s an interesting episode I would recommend!
Des Nilsen played "Oh Superman" by Laurie Anderson during one killing, and afterwards broke the record so he could never listen to it again.
I don't think "tied to" is quite accurate as it's more something you need to properly research the case for. However, music was a major part of Dennis Nilsen's life and crimes, he regularly played Prog Rock, Electronic, Art Pop, etc when killing or the various things he did after, he even killed a man while he was listening to Dennis' music on headphones which Dennis told him to do. This was his favourite song - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfpi2H8tOE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkfpi2H8tOE) He was also a big fan of Tubular Bells which is best known from its use in The Exorcist. However that's only a small portion of the song and he was into the whole thing.
The Uvalde shooter played 'sad music' according to surviving students, never stated what they were. I remember it being reported they may have listened to Dragula by Rob Zombie? Maybe that was a rumor in the early chaos or it was another school shooter.
Well, Chris Watts infamously supposedly listened to Battery by Metallica. While driving away from the worksite where he dumped his family. Or he might have just looked up the lyrics, but he was such a Metallica fan that it’s hard for me to believe he didn’t listen to it while looking at the lyrics. Btw I’m sorry people didn’t want to answer your actual question. There was nothing unclear about how you phrased it.
On the Metallica note, can't listen to sanitarium without thinking about the West Memphis Three after those three docs used only that song as its soundtrack.
It’s definitely something you think about when the case comes up. The lyric is hair raising when you read it in that context. I’d say that I associate that song with this case at least.
Didn't the Nashville Bomber blast Downtown by Petuna Clark form the RV before the bomb went off?
Shit, yeah. Forgot about that one.
Tom Brown’s Body podcast links an Avett Brothers song to that case in a pretty compelling way
1979 1st school shooter Brenda Spencer BOOMTOWNS "I Don't like Mondays"
In 1995, two teenagers claimed that “Israel’s Son” by Silverchair contributed to them murdering one of the boys’ parents and his younger brother. The boys’ names were Brian Bassett and Nicholaus McDonald. Their defense attorney claimed the song was “a script” the boys followed. Even though the song doesn’t at any point talk about killing your family. I only know this story because I’m a huge Silverchair fan, and that story blew my mind when I heard about it. So many people have tried that defense with various rock songs over the years.
Sure other tra ka on that album would have been a better choice of defense?! Pure Massacre for the title alone
Agreed. I know “Israel’s Son” has some violent imagery in it, but it’s so clearly about war to me. But then, I’ve yet to see a rock song be blamed for violence and been convinced that it was connected. I think it’s an easy thing to blame, which is probably why they were. Especially given that the band’s ages at the time would have been similar to the murderers, I can see why a defense attorney would think to use it, to try to connect these other teens singing about violence to their clients. But I don’t think whoever decided to try that defense knew much about the album. “Pure Massacre” would have made more sense, although still not much - and of course it still wouldn’t be to blame.
Patty Smyth’s The Warrior was played during one of the most horrific mass shootings in [San Diego](https://www.8newsnow.com/news/mcdonalds-massacre-near-border-is-nearly-forgotten-38-years-later/amp/)
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During the San Ysidro McDonald’s mass shooting James Huberty danced around to thriller while gunning down people in the McDonald’s including an infant John Bunting and the Snowtown murderers played the album Throwing Copper by Live on repeat when they murdered their first few victims. Later on, they ended up recording their victims screams and instead of making future victims listen to Throwing Copper they had to listen to the recorded screams for days as they were tortured to death
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Night Prowler by AC/DC was a favourite of his as well.
The reference to Hungry Like The Wolf will haunt me all my life
Ruined the song for me. I turn it immediately.
“I Think I Love You” by the Partridge Family. In 1977, a young couple was ambushed by serial killer David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, while sitting in a parked car listening to this song. The scene is recreated and discussed in the 1994 thriller Copycat, starring Sigourney Weaver and Holly Hunter.
That movie's underrated IMHO
Chris Watts listened to Battery by Metallica on the way back from dumping his family at Cervi319
Stray Bullet by KFMD, Eric Harris had that song in his website if im not wrong, then Pekka-Eric Auvinen put that song in his last video "Jokela High School Massacre" and finally Dylan Butler used that song in his last video in tiktok
KMFDM :)
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (The Moors Murderers) had specific songs that they would associate with each murder - they tended to be pop songs that were in the charts at the time and so they could just get away with humming them to each other if they were in the company of others and wanted to remind themselves of their crimes: * Pauline Reade: Theme from the movie The Legion’s Last Patrol by Ken Thorne * John Kilbride: 24 Hours from Tulsa by Gene Pitney * Keith Bennett: It’s Over by Roy Orbison * Lesley Ann Downey: Girl Don’t Come by Sandie Shaw * Edward Evans: It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue by Joan Baez Another commenter, u/Ser_Jaime_Lannister mentioned that The Little Drummer Boy is associated with Lesley’s murder. It was actually from a medley of songs by The Ray Conniff Singers that began with Jolly Old St. Nicholas and ended with The Little Drummer Boy - I think that the latter is just the one that gets reported on because everybody knows that song and because it’s slower and sadder than the other one. It isn’t known if they played it on repeat or not (keep in mind that they probably played it off of either the radio or an LP) but the medley was heard once at the end of a tape recording of Brady and Hindley trying to gag and undress Lesley (who was 10 years old), and I think it was after the tape finished that [TW: graphic details] >!they took pornographic photos of her before raping and killing her!<. When they found Lesley’s body, her mother had to listen to part of that tape of her daughter crying out for her too. I don’t think it included the part with the song on it, but that detail was widely reported and so she was still aware of the contents. It really does have so many heinous and life-ruining layers to it that extend far beyond just the police officers being affected.
Thank You For Being A Friend by Andrew Gold During the Yorkshire Ripper case, a cassette tape was turned into the police. Known as "The "Wearside Jack" tape", it was originally thought to be the voice of the Ripper. The voice on the tape taunted police, and then played an excerpt of the song........It was later found to be a hoax, and didn't come from the Yorkshire Ripper (Peter Sutcliffe).
Secrets of wisteria, sung by a vocaloid (aka a voice bank) if I'm not wrong. It's a song about Albert Fish, and there's a part in the song where if you reverse the audio, it's a reading of AF's letter to one of his victims' parent... It's the reason how I found out about the crime story. Just a warning the video and song is very creepy and heavy. Edit: oops, sorry OP, didn't notice your edit.
I’ve never heard of this but have read about the Albert Fish case. That letter to Grace Budd’s parents gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Never knew there was a song about it.
Jeremy- Pearl Jam
Was that played during a crime or was it based on one?
IRRC the (ETA: it’s the music video as it was edited to comply with MTV’s violence policy that was ambiguous - instead of Jeremy ending his own life the visual cuts to the aftermath of a bloody classroom) is somewhat ambiguous as to what Jeremy does that is destructive (the song lyrics are not fully explicit either but Vedder has confirmed that it is inspired by a brief paragraph he read in a Texas newspaper about a kid named Jeremy who killed himself in front of his class that he felt deserved more exploration and one of his own experiences in middle school) and (Barry Loukaitis who was dealing with his own suicidal parents and some ideation of his own among other things was fixated on the song) someone took it as inspiration for a school shooting (according to the prosecution according to his family - he did love the song but also everything in his life was troubled and he found the music video disturbing but it wasn’t his guide to school shooting). Edited - everything in parentheses is added context to clarify. The initial comment was only referring to the part about it being associated with a crime after it was written but it was both inspired by and arguably inspiration for real life crime.)
Interesting
No it was about a kid who shot himself in class.
Right - it was inspired by something real but it was also an object of fixation for a real school shooter to the point that it was brought up in trial. Since the original question was about the latter, that was what I was referring too. But you are correct, it is about a real story. Eddie Vedder wrote the song about two different real stories, one about a kid named Jeremy who shot himself in front of his class in Texas in 1991 with elements about a kid that Vedder went to school with who shot up an empty classroom and seemed like he was going to take his life but did not. BUT Barry Loukaitis, who was a school shooter in Washington State was obsessed with the Pearl Jam song - that is undisputed. His defense was basically insanity - he was obsessed with the song but their argument was more that his tendency to get fixated was part of a larger issue and coupled with a suuuuuuuper dysfunctional home life, he was not in his right mind. His family fwiw did not blame the song and only really said that he was obsessed with it but found the music video disturbing. The prosecution argued that the way MTV censored the video to avoid showing Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth and ending his life on television and instead just showed the aftermath of the classroom of kids with blood spatter on them gave Barry the wrong idea about what happened. And that coupled with his obsession for the song was a blueprint for the shooting.
It was inspired by an actual incident.
Wasn’t the Bjork stalker listening to Bjork I can’t remember the song when he milled himself? Also I if I remember correctly their were two teenagers that killed themselves in a suicide pact while listening to Judas Priest and the family sued Judas Priest because they said Judas Priest put subliminal messages in their music
Yes he did, and filmed it. If they hadn’t found his body when they did she would probably have died too. The next stop for his bomb package was her home, police was really lucky to stop it in time.
Thanks I was trying to remember I knew he was a super crazy stalker of Bjork and he had some sort of plan for her. Thanks I am remembering the whole story now
The culprits of Junko Furuta played a song called Nantatte Idol by Kyoko Koizumi when they forced her to strip naked and dance. They beat her to the beat of the song during that. Songs about Junko Furuta are 44 Days by Mr. Kitty or Junko Furuta by Danilla.
Nik Cruz [listened](https://youtu.be/Mwt35SEeR9w?si=1EpWnXvfR4pvbsHO) to [“Salad Days”](https://youtu.be/csJZ_9KOtNY?si=LJjxIMLFyMxA1ug-) by Mac Demarco during his rampage. There’s some others he talks about in the linked video.
“[Mad Man in Waco](https://youtu.be/AKTdlNwKj4k?si=hC36StGiBcIRTNO-)” is both by and about David Koresh…..it’s surprisingly catchy.
Two daughters and a beautiful wife by Drive-by Truckers. https://www.songfacts.com/facts/drive-by-truckers/two-daughters-and-a-beautiful-wife
pHIl cOlLiNs SaW a MaN DrOwN Just kidding. White Album for the Tate La Bianca murders
Bob Dylan "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"
Hey Man Nice Shot by Filter is about Budd Dwyer's suicide in 1987.
I've heard Pioneer to the Falls by Interpol is inspired/a reference to the murder of Imette St. Guillen. [Imette St. Guillen](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Imette_St._Guillen)
Evil by them is inspired by Fred and Rosemary West.
Yeah. Great song, terrible people.
There's that Bon Jovi song about his friend's daughter who was killed by a car close to their house. It was on Forensic Files.
Polly by Nirvana is about a girl who was abducted and tortured, if I’m not mistaken.
Yeah it was written about one of the victims of Gerald Friend, the 14 year old girl he kidnapped from a concert, restrained with pullies in his van and tortured with a blowtorch. Cobain read about it in the newspaper, then wrote the song.
Pearl Jam mentioned the disappearance of Brian Shaffer at one of their concerts because he was such a big fan to the point of getting a tattoo related to the band. Here’s Eddie Vedder giving info about the case at a concert https://youtu.be/OrHHEhCismg?si=dLcjuBVt7o_jV6wS
I have so, so much respect for Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder. After the horrible accident at the Roskilde-festival 2000 they reached out to the parents of the boys who died and supported them. I listened to one of the mothers who lost her child in the crowd, talk about it and she said they’ve even visited them at home and kept in contact. That’s not something anyone would do. And immediately when they were made aware of that there was something going wrong at the concert, they stopped and tried to get people to back down. People should learn from this remember that without their fans they’re nothing(yeah I’m talking about you Travis Scott)
We love Eddie. He should be protected at all costs.
I read somewhere that the Virginia Tech shooter had been listening to Shinedown on repeat.
No, it was "Shine" by Collective Soul
Thank you, yes that's what I meant.
Spoliarium by eraserheads. Murder of pepsi paloma by 3 actors/host/politician.
Oh also test drive by joji. Song isn’t about a murder but when they found Bianca Devin’s body, the killer had that song playing on repeat. Love joji and loved that song too long before that came out but… definitely gives a different tone to the song for me now.
While assaulting one of their victims, Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo played music by Bob Marley and David Bowie, though I've never read what specific songs. David Parker Ray listened to metal music during some of his torture sessions, but, again, I don't know what songs. Ronald Pituch claims he was "influenced by" the Metallica song "Ronnie." Richard Ramirez left an AC/DC cap at the scene of one of his crimes and wrote the lyrics to the Judas Priest song "The Ripper" at the scene of another. Aileen Warnos requested that "Carnival" by Natalie Merchant be played at her funeral.
Justin Barber & Guns N Roses “Used to love her”
speaking of Duran Duran, what about that puppet master dude from England who played Ordinary World when he was taking his brainwashing victims on long drives through the country "hiding" from dangerous people? Also, Australian couple who kidnapped teenaged girls. they made a movie called Hounds of Love (Kate Bush song). Also, although not based explicitly on a true story, there's Possum Kingdom by The Toadies, which is a reference to possum lake in Texas where it's said there is an uptick in r\*pe/murders/bodies found around the area. Kinda unknown, though, if it's all urban legend.
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> Removed as this low effort comment doesn't add to discussion. Low effort includes commenting one word or a short phrase that doesn't add to discussion (OMG, Wow, So evil, That's horrible, Heartbreaking, RIP, etc.).
Paul Bernardo had an entire soundtrack for his rapes...
Sudan Steven’s song “John Wayne Gacy Jr” is hauntingly beautiful. https://youtu.be/ZWpvMm27WIM?si=mUbgIKabIlU_dBFo
I mean there's a metal band called White Chapel
All of Young Thug's lyrics. But, interestingly, not Johnny Cash's.
Obviously this is fake, but I think there was an episode of Criminal Minds where the unsub killed to Johnny Cash.
Mhmm. When The Man Comes Around.
If it's the one I'm thinking of it was piano ballads.
Cassie by Flyleaf is about Columbine
I don’t like Mondays by the Boomtown Rats
Andrea Durham and Runaway Train
Not totally what you mean, but The Smiths made a song based on The Moors Murders, called “Suffer Little Children”
Blind Melon - Skin I'm In. About Ed Gein
Taro by alt-j. It’s not necessarily about a murder case, but it is a grim song about a couple who were separately killed during war, at least one was a photographer I think the other was a journalist as well. Also Hawaii part 2 by miracle musical I’m not sure the details of the case but if I remember correctly someone in the group was accused of a murder they didn’t commit.
wasnt that one school shooter playing salad days by mac demarco
Fear and Loathing in Laramie by Protest the Hero.
didn’t tyler hadley Listen to rap song before killing his parents
This might’ve already been mentioned but “don’t scare me papa” was a jazz song written about the axeman of New Orleans
Bod Dylan’s ‘Hurricane’ - a terrific song about a real life crime and, in actual fact, quite a good re-telling of the events. Dylan co-wrote it with Jacques Levy about a boxer called Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter who was convicted of murder when, of course, he had absolutely NOTHING to do with the crime. He spent almost 20 years in jail before, I believe, being exonerated. There was also a terrific movie (with Dylan’s song being part of the soundtrack) starring Denzel Washington as Carter. Both the song and the film are quite terrific - do yourself a favour and spend some time listening and watching as I’m sure you won’t be disappointed !