Metallica to AC/DC: why do so many criminals blame heavy metal?
People fear what they don’t understand, and to outsiders, heavy metal is impenetrable.
Screeching, pained vocals. Deafening riffs bludgeoning the listener half to death. Themes of death, destruction and pain. There’s a lot to fear for those who don’t understand that the vast, vast majority of the time, heavy metal music is an exorcism of those feelings. Of giving cathartic expression to the darkest sides of the artists in an attempt to alleviate those dark thoughts. Unless you’re one of those Swedish black metal weirdos doing it for the joy of being evil.
However, the vast, vast majority of people don’t get it, and honestly, isn’t that the fucking point of heavy metal? This isn’t meant to be palatable, it’s not for everyone. This is a subculture and, while everyone is welcome, that doesn’t mean that we want to compromise for mainstream acceptance. While there’s a thrill in having a space of our own, we do also have to take everything that comes with it. What comes with it is squawking berks tugging their bollocks about heavy metal being a “corrupting influence”.
This is, of course, bollocks. Heavy metal is great, and the vast majority of heavy metal fans are some of the most jovial, respectful and welcoming music fans you’ll ever meet. Just ask any gig venue staff what their favourite kind of shows are to work and by and large, they’ll say metal shows. The music they’ll probably not get, but the people are grand. However, what is a subculture without a minority of fuckwits ruining it for everyone?
Every subculture has one, and if you’re a part of one and feel like yours doesn’t have a goddamn bad side to be ashamed of, I’ve got some horrible news about the way the other parts of that scene see you, my friend. In the case of heavy metal, there are a few people who’ve seemingly proved the moralist dickheads right, committed horrific crimes and then told them that heavy metal music made them do it.
What songs have inspired crimes?
In fact, one of the most notorious serial killers in American history has an unfortunate connection with one of the greatest hard rock bands of all time. In 1985, Los Angeles was shaken to its core by a string of brutal murders and assaults. There were vanishingly few clues at first, until at the scene of one of these crimes, an AC/DC cap was found that did not belong to the victim. When Richard Ramirez was arrested, legend has it that he was wearing an AC/DC shirt, and ever since his fandom of the band was discovered, one of their songs gave him his nickname.
Fittingly for a man who claimed that he did everything in Satan’s name, Ramirez was particularly obsessed with AC/DC’s Highway To Hell record. It’s reported that, in particular, the song ‘Night Prowler’ was his favourite and seemingly took a few pointers from the song in his modus operandi. “Was that noise out your window. Or a shadow on your blind? And you lie there naked like a body in a tomb. Suspended animation. As I slip into your room.” Hence, he was given the nickname The Night Stalker. Over a decade and a half later, another murderer credited his heinous actions with a song from another hard rock hero.
In 2002, 28-year-old Ronald Pituch murdered his mother when she wouldn’t buy him fucking cigarettes, then tied up his five-year-old niece so she wouldn’t tell anyone about his actions, then left on his motorcycle to track down his old high school crush. He was completely goddamn obsessed with her, had been harassing her for weeks and was convinced they could run away together. The good news is he didn’t find her. The bad news is that he found 11-year-old Gregory Katsnelson. He stabbed the poor boy and hid his body in a local pond.
After that, the psychotic break that Pituch was seemingly going through lifted, and he turned himself in. Part of his insanity plea was a proved history of severe mental illness. He was manically depressed and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, with part of his testimony being that he’d become obsessed with the Metallica song ‘Ronnie’. Listening to it over and over again, which, in his words, caused him to crack.
The stories go on. Charlie Manson took a Beatles song and thought it was telling him to start a race war. Justin Barber murdered his wife and said that the Guns N’ Roses song ‘Used To Love Her’ inspired him. The truth is that all of these people would have most likely done everything they did without their love of these songs, they’re just too cowardly to blame themselves and thus, point the finger at something they know people don’t understand.
The trouble is, it seems to work every time.