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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  (#3) Two Teens Were Charged With Conspiracy To Commit Acts Of Terror

  Right after The Dark Knight was released in 2008, two teenagers from Pembroke, Virginia, were arrested after they admitted to creating "a series of playing cards that were defaced with threatening writing and left at stores in Christiansburg and Pearisburg."

  The teens admitted that they were inspired to do this after seeing the Christopher Nolan film, and even though this seems like a fairly innocuous "crime," the jokers were hit with a serious charge: conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. 
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  (#4) 15-Year-Old Girl Goes Full Joker And Cuts A Smile Into Her Face

  In 2016, a 14-year old in England cut her own mouth open to give herself a Jokeresque smile and proceeded to lure a friend to a secluded part of their school in Hampshire, where she then stabbed the friend in the chest. After being arrested, the girl said she didn't care if "[people] blamed it on The Joker or Columbine, they didn't inspire me, they motivated me." Earlier in the day, she sent a message to another friend saying, "If the plan does fail I will say the voices in my head made me do it." 

  Prosecutors argued that the girl was obsessed with serial killers and The Dark Knight, and the defendant pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and possession of a bladed article on school premises. 
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  (#5) Teenager Attacks Another Teen And Leaves Him With A Glasgow Smile

  In the summer of 2016, an Edmonton-area teen named Braydon Heather was attacked by an unnamed 15-year old who used a machete to give Heather a Joker smile. Aside from the Dark Knight-related injuries, Heather's jaw was broken, his thumb was removed, and he suffered a massive amount of upper body and cranial injuries.

  His attacker was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public.
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  (#6) Florida Man Makes Radical Plan To Join ISIS And Kill His Boss

  Enrique Dominguez, a 20-year-old man from Florida, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after allegedly telling a co-worker that he’d purchased a shotgun to take out his boss. He planned to join ISIS, dress like the Joker, and then shoot his boss at work. Not only did Dominguez have a big mouth, but he also had a problem with posting way too much information on social media. On Instagram, he posted a photo of 15 knives, commenting that it was his "lil arsenal."

  After investigators arrested Dominguez, they found a bag with a clown mask, duct tape, plastic wrap, gloves, and two large knives. Once in custody, he admitted to planning a violent spree following a “day of allegiance.” 
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  (#7) East Bay Arsonist Allegedly Leaves Joker Cards For His Former Friends

  The Joker really inspires people in an awful way, doesn't he? One East Bay arsonist who allegedly felt slighted by his groomsmen after his marriage fell apart decided to get theatrical revenge on their perceived slights.

  In 2016, after Joshua Van Buskirk lost his job and separated from his wife of four years, he felt like his friends weren't backing him up, so he allegedly started setting their cars and homes on fire, while leaving Joker cards along with notes that read, "Connect the Dots." Van Buskirk denies any wrongdoing.
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  (#8) Joker Fan Robs Store For YouTube Views

  When will teens learn that life isn't all about YouTube views? It's about those native Facebook likes, y'all! An 18-year-old in Eastlake, Ohio, was arrested in November 2016 when he sprayed his hair lime green and painted his face up Suicide Squad-style for a YouTube prank. What was the prank?

  This Ohio Joker ran into a Walgreens and rushed the pharmacy counter and demanded "all the pills." Classic YouTube prank. Police arrested the suspect, Donald A. Finnie Jr., and charged him with two counts of inducing panic.
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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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  (#10) Drunk Joker Arrested In Maine

  It's a shame that even the Joker can't stay sober long enough to get home safely. In 2013, police officers in Maine arrested 64-year-old Dennis Lalime after he lost control of his 2002 Buick Regal at around 2 am and ran into multiple trees and a rock. 

  Police said Lalime was not hurt in the crash and cooperated with officers during his arrest, but they didn't mention anything about whether or not he had asked if they wanted to see a magic trick when they pulled him out of his vehicle. 
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  (#11) The Joker Slays Two Children

  In 2009, Kim De Gelder, a Belgian man with dyed red hair who dressed like Heath Ledger's Joker, was arrested after he went to the Fable Land nursery in the town of Dendermonde and took the lives of two infants and their 54-year-old caregiver. Gelder's lawyer claimed that his client was a paranoid schizophrenic who “is irresponsible and cannot be punished.”

  Gelder told the jury that he had previously thought about ending his own life by lying under a moving train; however, he changed his mind and decided that his time would be better spent slaying innocent people. On March 22, 2013, a jury declared De Gelder was fully accountable for the attack and found him guilty of four counts of murder. The court sentenced him to life in prison. 
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  (#12) 20 Guns Confiscated From A Joker

  This is an interesting story because it's the case of a criminal perpetuating the idea that there are multiple Jokers, perhaps based on the concept that the Joker is more of an idea than a specific person. In 2012, Neil Edwin Prescott, a former subcontractor for Pittney Bowes, was arrested after he allegedly referred to himself as “a joker" and threatened to shoot up his old place of business.

  After Maryland police took Prescott away, they removed 20 firearms and 40 boxes of ammunition from his home. 
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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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  (#14) This Joker Tries To Steal Batman Posters

  Spencer Taylor was arrested in 2008 after he tried to swipe Batman memorabilia from a mall in Three Rivers, Michigan, after a screening of The Dark Knight. At the time of his arrest, Taylor was decked out in a purple suit, white face paint, and a big red Joker smile. According to the staff at the theater, Taylor attempted to rip some Dark Knight posters down from the wall while exiting the theater and completely failed at this fruitless endeavor.

  Police made him pose for mug shots in and out of his face paint. 
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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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  (#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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