Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye Enigma: J.D. Salinger's Mind Control Triggering Device or a Coincidental Literary Obsession of Criminals?:

“I shoot people in this hat.” –J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye


The mother of all Catcher incidents is probably Mark David Chapman’s assassination of John Lennon on December 8, 1980. As widely reported, and as mentioned in chapters 21 and 23 of The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy, the killer stood over the ex-Beatle’s corpse after shooting him and patiently read a copy of Salinger’s classic while waiting for police to arrive and arrest him.



Not long before the murder, Chapman had wanted to change his name to the novel’s narrator and anti-hero Holden Caulfield – so enamored was he with this fictitious character; inside the very copy of the book Chapman had purchased on the day of the murder, police found he’d written, “To Holden Caulfield, From Holden Caulfield, This is my statement”; and during the court case that followed, Chapman read a passage from the novel when addressing the judge and jury during his sentencing.

In the FBI’s Vault the following is mentioned under the file Attempted Assassination of President Ronald Reagan: “On March 31, 1981, John W. Hinckley, Jr., shot President Ronald Reagan and several others in a failed assassination attempt. The FBI conducted an extensive investigation, named REAGAT.”

Just like Mark David Chapman, Hinckley did not attempt to flee the crime site and seemed content to be arrested. After the assassination attempt, which besides wounding President Reagan also left White House Press Secretary James Brady permanently disabled, detectives found a copy of The Catcher in the Rye on a coffee table in Hinckley’s hotel room.

Before the attempt on Reagan’s life, Hinckley had relentlessly stalked actress Jodie Foster for a number of years. He reportedly became obsessed with the Hollywood star after first seeing her in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film Taxi Driver. Even to this day, more than three decades later, Foster has hardly ever spoken of the incident and has been known to walk out of interviews when Hinckley’s name, or the Reagan assassination attempt, is mentioned.

The shooter, whose full name was John Warnock Hinckley Jr., tried to assassinate Reagan because he said he thought that would impress Jodie Foster. It was later revealed that during his stay in the Washington D.C. psychiatric hospital St. Elizabeths, Hinckley had exchanged letters with serial killer Ted Bundy and sought the address of mass murderer Charles Manson.

Another Catcher fan was Robert John Bardo, yet another three-name assassin, who murdered American actress and model Rebecca Schaeffer on July 18, 1989. Like Mark David Chapman, Bardo was carrying a copy of Salinger’s book on him at the scene of the crime.

The one-time stalker of Madonna and child actress Samantha Smith, Bardo stalked Schaeffer before finding her alone at her home in Los Angeles. He shot the star of My Sister Sam TV series in the chest then threw his red paperback copy of the book onto the roof of a nearby building as he fled.

As for JFK’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald, The Catcher in the Rye was found in a raid on his Dallas, Texas apartment after the assassination. His other books included George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Although unconfirmed, it has been claimed by a few sources that Oswald was very keen on Salinger’s novel, which apparently was his favorite.

Criminals not officially acknowledged but rumored in conspiracy circles to have been directly influenced by Catcher include RFK’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan, Lee Harvey Oswald’s killer Jack Ruby, Martin Luther King Jr.’s murderer James Earl Ray, cult leader and killer Charles Manson, the Washington Sniper John Allen Muhammad, Jonestown founder Jim Jones, the Boston Strangler Albert DeSalvo, the unidentified Zodiac Killer, the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, serial killer Ted Bundy and the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Even if none of these killers (listed directly above) were inspired by Salinger’s novel, the list of murderers and other criminals whose possession of, or obsession with, the book that has been proven is surprisingly lengthy and throws up a thousand unanswered questions.

Isn’t it also possible, probable or even highly likely other criminals have been inspired by The Catcher in the Rye? How many assassins disposed of their copies after committing murders or other crimes – as Robert John Bardo tried to do? Maybe others were as obsessed with the book as Mark David Chapman was, but subsequent investigations failed to uncover those details?

After all, not every criminal keeps a diary or records of their personal library of reading material.

As one book reviewer wrote on Amazon.com in a review of Salinger’s classic: “There may be countless other criminals and stalkers who have identified with the book's main character, Holden Caulfield.”



"Now alone with Seventeen, Naylor stared intently at the young blonde operative. She was as motionless as a statue, staring right through him. She’d been like this for the past couple of minutes, but she didn’t know that. Her eyes had glazed over and she was in some kind of trance. She held a copy of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye." –The Ninth Orphan

Personally I am not convinced that the book inspires them. The reason I say this is because of Salinger's favorite film. I really think this should have been mentioned here. Alfred Hitchcock's movie The 39-Steps.

Mr. Know-It-All is a performer...an actor. His trick is learning facts. ...I am not going to spoil it because I think you would know more about what was going on in this film than I do.


So I hope you will comment on it.

Am not convinced either way, Cosmic, just intrigued enough with all the crimes to research and correlate them for the public to make up their mind about The Catcher/Salinger/MK-Ultra.
Have got no fixed opinion on the matter and very open to hearing your opinions.

I recall The 39 Steps was mentioned in The Catcher and have watched that film, but didn't realize it was Salinger's favorite movie. I have a feeling The Catcher is totally original though and not derived from anything else...Could be wrong tho...Feel free to enlighten further.

James wrote: "recall The 39 Steps was mentioned in The Catcher and have watched that film, but didn't realize it was Salinger's favorite movie. I have a feeling The Catcher is totally original though and not derived from anything else...Could be wrong tho...Feel free to enlighten further. ..."

I am not saying that the Catcher is not original. To me it is the medium that carries the spores of a lot of books, movies, historical references and allusions. But the point of the The 39 Steps was about a man, that along with the facts that he learns, has embedded in his memory, a plan to build an airplane engine. They are trying to take him and thus the plans back to Germany so that they can build it. Before they are able to accomplish this the protagonist is able to confront the hypnotized Know-it-all and ask him "what are the 39-Steps?" MR Know-it-all rattles off the list of steps to build the engine and asks if it is ok now, can he stop thinking about it...or something like this. You really need to watch it and tell me what is going on.

Have watched that film sooo long ago and can hardly recall the specific plot points you mention, so will rewatch it. Thanks.

The other favorite movie of Salinger's is The Grand Illusion
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=g...

Here is a link to the Thirty Nine Steps
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=t...

Trailer for the recent documentary movie on Salinger's life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_zcP...

Our most recently published book The Catcher in the Rye Enigma: J.D. Salinger's Mind Control Triggering Device or a Coincidental Literary Obsession of Criminals? has more info on this subject.

“A substitute teacher out on Long Island was dropped from his job for fighting with a student. A few weeks later, he returned to the classroom, shot the student, unsuccessfully, held the class hostage and then shot himself. Successfully. This fact caught my eye: last sentence, Times; A neighbor described him as a nice boy – always reading Catcher in the Rye. The nitwit, Chapman, who shot John Lennon said he did it because he wanted to draw the attention of the world to The Catcher in the Rye and the reading of the book would be his defense. And young Hinckley, the whiz kid who shot Reagan and his press secretary, said if you want my defense all you have to do is read Catcher in the Rye.” –Monologue delivered by Will Smith in the film Six Degrees of Separation (1993)