My friend and I were discussing Catcher in the Rye (he says I’m a lot like Holden) and he said something I’ve heard before. According to popular lore, many serial killers have been found to not only own the book, but have an obsession with it.
Do any of you know the veracity of this claim? Is this anecdotal evidence based on a few cases, or is it pretty widespread?
I’m probably not as much help as others are going to be, but I can contribute the fact that I’m pretty sure I recall hearing that both Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark Chapman (John Lennon’s assassin) had something of an obsession with the book. I’m off to google now to find out if i’m right or mussing my facts…
I havn’t heard anything about serial killers with regard to Catcher in the Rye though.
John Lennon’s killer (Mark David Chapman) and Reagan’s would-be assassin (John Hinckley) both had copies and afaik both identified strongly with Holden Caufield to a delusional extent. (Chapman was carrying and quoting from his copy at the time of his arrest right after the movie). One of them (I think Chapman) ended up at his trial quoting from it as if he were describing his own life.
Ok, for Lee Harvey Oswald read John Hinkley Jr and then everyone can post telling me how much I suck for relying on my apparantly feeble memory.
I’m still not finding anything concrete on any serial killers though, just vague allusions.
So basically, that’s where the screenwriter of Conspiracy theory got his idea? It seems like he saw those similarities between assassins and wove a government conspiracy behind it.
Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the replies so far.
It’s not that big a stretch. The book is about an alienated guy who dreams of doing something noteworthy. The two killers who were keen on the book were alienated weirdos and attention seeking one-off killers.
Hey you threw in the obligatory disclaimer - “I’m pretty sure I recall hearing” so you’re golden.
I actually read a long essay on the connections between the two recently and I’ve packed it away so I can’t dig it up, so all of this is IIRC (my disclaimer) but it was quite fascinating:
Chapman was obsessed with John Lennon and Holden Caulfield. He sometimes signed his name Holden Caulfield, and sometimes John Lennon. At one point he looked into changing his name to Holden Caulfield. Apparently for some reason he eventually decided he was in fact John Lennon and decided to shoot the “imposter” (or something to that effect) which he did, carrying Catcher in the Rye and quoting from it to the police and at his trial. Very odd.
Meanwhile the assassination of John Lennon apparently drove John Hinckley over the edge - he said his world ended or something because of it and a few months later he was inspired to try to assassinate Ronald Reagan to impress Jodi Foster. Apparently Hinckley was obsessed with the character of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver who was of course himself obsessed with asassinating first a politician and then rescuing Jodi Foster’s character by killing her pimp. Hinckley was also obsessed with John Lennon and Holden Caulfield too I don’t remember what the nature of those 2 obsessions was.
Make of it all what you will, the author of the essay was interested in these two as emblematic of the pathology of celebrity-worship and vicarious living, although another moral of the story might John Lennon + Catcher in the Rye = Potential Assassin. Or, life should never imitate art. Or some people are just freaking nuts. Make of it what you will.
Another point is that Catcher in the Rye was a well-known book that made it onto several school assigned reading lists in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
So it’s not just a short readable book about a smart lonely alienated guy, it’s a short readable book about a smart lonely alienated guy that achieved very high popular exposure and recognition. Increasing the chances that a seriously messed-up lonely alienated guy would encounter it and consider its story very significant to him.
I’ve got three or four copies, doesn’t everyone?
Another connection between The Catcher in the Rye and obsession is the novel Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella. The novel was made into the film Field of Dreams, although there was one important change made. In the novel, the main character Ray Kinsella is obsessed by baseball and the novel The Catcher in the Rye. Note that the name of the character has the author’s last name. Interestingly, though, there just happens to be a character named “Ray Kinsella” in a short story by J. D. Salinger. Note how this almost sounds like the kind of thing that a schizophrenic would work into his conspiracy theories: “Wow, he mentions me in one of his stories. It’s almost like he’s reading my mind and writing about me.” Of course, W. P. Kinsella was doing this deliberately to illustrate the thinking of a schizophrenic.
In Shoeless Joe, Ray hears voices instructing him to first build a baseball field on his farm and then to go see J. D. Salinger and bring him to a baseball game. In the film, this was changed to make the novel and author into a completely different (and fictional) book and a completely different (and fictional) author, played by James Earl Jones. This change was apparently made because Salinger didn’t want any more people obsessing over him.