Random Real-Life Crimes And Murders Inspired By The Joker (16 items)

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  (#1) James Holmes Really Wanted To Be The Joker

  The most famous criminal inspired by the Joker was James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado, theater shooter. On July 20, 2012, Holmes entered a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises dressed in tactical clothing. He set off tear gas canisters and shot indiscriminately into the crowded theater. He killed 12 people and injured 70 others in the attack. According to two federal agents, Holmes had dyed his hair red and was referring to himself as "the Joker" during the attack. After police captured Holmes, he told agents that he had placed explosive devices in his apartment. This sent everyone into a panic and caused a mass evacuation of not only his apartment building, but also the buildings surrounding it.

  After going back and forth for three years about whether or not his mental illness played into the attack, Holmes's trial finally got underway. On July 16, 2015, a jury found Holmes guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, and one count of possessing illegal explosives. The court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  
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  (#2) Jerad Miller Was Obsessed With The Joker

  In 2014, two psychopaths went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas, Nevada, and ended up taking out two police officers and an innocent bystander before taking their own lives when they faced with capture. One of the culprits, Jerad Miller, dressed as the Joker while on the spree. Prior to the attack, Miller posted a YouTube video in which he laid out his manifesto.

  "I want to be a war mongerer [sic], not just some everyday terrorist. I want to blow up whole nations," Miller ranted in his video. After downing the two officers, Miller and his wife/accomplice draped the bodies in a yellow flag with the words "Don't Tread on Me" and a swastika. 
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  (#9) Joker Promises To Murder One Muslim Person A Week

  In November 2015, Canadian police arrested an unnamed 24-year-old Québécois man for posting a video where he wore a mask designed to look like Heath Ledger's Joker face, and threatened to take the life of one Muslim a week in the French-speaking province.

  "As of next week, there will be murders all across Quebec," he says in the video. "We will eliminate all of them, one by one. Islam has harmed us enough. I will fire a bullet in the head of one Arab per week, starting next week." At about this point in the video, the suspect brandishes an airsoft pistol while he makes his threats.

  The video went up a week after the attacks in Paris that claimed 129 lives, and Montreal police spokesperson Laurent Gingras sent a message to any other would-be YouTubers, telling VICE News, "If you make threats on social networks or on the web, there are very concrete consequences in the real world." 
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  (#16) Joker Attacks His Dorm Mate In The US Army

  In 2009, Specialist Christopher Lanum was brooding in his room with his girlfriend, Patsy Ann Marie Montowski. He was surrounded by his posters of the Joker when he suddenly decided it was time for war. He donned his Joker Halloween costume and started cleaning his knives in his room at the Fort Eustis barracks. A fight broke out between Lanum and his dorm mate, Specialist Mitchell Stone, with whom he shared the suite. 

  Lanum shocked Stone multiple times with a stun gun and stabbed him with a knife. Stone testified that Montowski also attacked him with the stun gun when he tried to escape. In a horrifying twist, Lanum proceeded to cut Stone's throat and ran off with Montowski, leading police on a slow-speed chase down a dangerous, winding road. Stone was rushed to emergency care and lived despite his serious injuries. 

  As Lanum and Montowski fled from Fort Eustis, Lanum finished painting his face to look like the Joker. However, he soon found himself cornered by the police when they crashed the car. Montowski claimed that Lanum asked her to end him with his shotgun, but she refused. Lanum then aimed the shotgun at police, ignoring orders to put down his weapon, and police fired on him.

  Lanum perished from his wounds, and Montowski was arrested and charged with being an accessory after the fact to assault. Montowski told FBI how Lanum had been obsessed with the Joker, idolizing the villain to an unhealthy degree. 
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  (#13) Big Joker Fan Forcibly Removed From Theater

  Here's a tip for all you Joker fans out there: Cosplay as much as you want, but you have to act cool if you're doing it in a movie theater. James Holmes ruined acting like a weirdo and dressing like the Joker in a movie theater for you, and that sucks, but that's the way it is. For instance, all 21-year-old Christopher Sides had to do to get arrested was get all Jokered out at the Premiere Theatre in Melbourne, Florida, and pace around the inside of the theater.

  The police were called immediately and, thanks to an existing warrant for failure to appear in court, the cops took him into custody.
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  (#15) Teen Joker Starts A Fire At His Old School

  Christopher Clancy decided to dress up as the Joker and set fire to his old high school in Clondalkin, Ireland, in May 2009. He "filled six large jerry cans with petrol," broke onto school grounds, and poured the flammable liquid in the hallways. After he set fire to the gasoline, he stood outside and filmed the incident on his phone to show off to his friends later. When police arrived, they saw him "in a purple suit, with green hair, a white face and red painted lips." 

  Clancy was charged with arson, but instead of jail time, he was sentenced to get medical assistance for his psychological problems given his young age. No one was harmed in the fire, but Clancy did do over a million dollars' worth of damage to the school. 

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