Ten Times Deaths And Murders Were Blamed On Metal Music.
Popular music has always been seen by some as “the Devil’s work” – but sometime during the Satanic Panic that took hold in the 1980s, heavy metal music seemed to be repeatedly linked to horrendous murders and tragic deaths. Here are just ten examples, all of which were ambiguous at best, and ultimately completely unfounded….
1 – Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker find inspiration in an AC/DC song
Between April 1984 and August 1985 Richard Ramirez unleashed a total of thirteen murders across the state of California. He was labelled the “Night Stalker” by the media in the months leading up to his capture, but when he accidentally left his AC/DC hat at the scene of one of his horrific crimes, a “link” with metal music was quickly pounced upon by newspapers and news stations alike.
Ramirez fueled this speculation that heavy metal music was to blame for crimes he would eventually be sentenced to death for when he stated quite clearly in his trial that he had found inspiration from the AC/DC song “Night Prowler.”
The speculation was not followed up in any serious way, but Ramirez’ claims certainly helped fan the flames of the so-called Satanic Panic that gripped the decade, particularly in America, which increasingly saw heavy metal as being responsible for everything that was wrong in the world.
2 – Judas Priest vs. James Lance
In 1990 British metal veterans (even back then) Judas Priest, following the attempted double suicide of twenty-year-old James Vance and nineteen-year-old Ray Belknap in Reno, Nevada, were implicated as being the catalyst for the pair's actions and brought before a US court., While Belknap died instantly of the gunshot, Vance survived. He was left severely disfigured and eventually did take his own life three years after the incident by overdosing on painkillers.
The prosecution argued that through subliminal messaging the phrase “do it” was inserted into the song “Better By You, Better Than Me” and that this was the trigger for the young men to shoot themselves. The case was dismissed after a three week trial, with Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford, offering a similar response to Ozzy Osbourne’s several years earlier, in that if the band was to put subliminal messages in their songs, rather than asking people to kill themselves, they would ask them to “buy more of our records!”
You can read a little more on the aftermath of the Judas Priest trial here.
1 – Richard Ramirez - The Night Stalker find inspiration in an AC/DC song
Between April 1984 and August 1985 Richard Ramirez unleashed a total of thirteen murders across the state of California. He was labelled the “Night Stalker” by the media in the months leading up to his capture, but when he accidentally left his AC/DC hat at the scene of one of his horrific crimes, a “link” with metal music was quickly pounced upon by newspapers and news stations alike.
Ramirez fueled this speculation that heavy metal music was to blame for crimes he would eventually be sentenced to death for when he stated quite clearly in his trial that he had found inspiration from the AC/DC song “Night Prowler.”
The speculation was not followed up in any serious way, but Ramirez’ claims certainly helped fan the flames of the so-called Satanic Panic that gripped the decade, particularly in America, which increasingly saw heavy metal as being responsible for everything that was wrong in the world.
2 – Judas Priest vs. James Lance
In 1990 British metal veterans (even back then) Judas Priest, following the attempted double suicide of twenty-year-old James Vance and nineteen-year-old Ray Belknap in Reno, Nevada, were implicated as being the catalyst for the pair's actions and brought before a US court., While Belknap died instantly of the gunshot, Vance survived. He was left severely disfigured and eventually did take his own life three years after the incident by overdosing on painkillers.
The prosecution argued that through subliminal messaging the phrase “do it” was inserted into the song “Better By You, Better Than Me” and that this was the trigger for the young men to shoot themselves. The case was dismissed after a three week trial, with Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford, offering a similar response to Ozzy Osbourne’s several years earlier, in that if the band was to put subliminal messages in their songs, rather than asking people to kill themselves, they would ask them to “buy more of our records!”
You can read a little more on the aftermath of the Judas Priest trial here.
Thrash metal giants Slayer were taken to court twice by the family of Elyse Pahler
3 - Parents of Elyse Pahler take Slayer to court, twice!
In 1996, thrash metal giants Slayer were sued by the parents of Elyse Pahler, who claimed the band’s lyrics had been responsible for her daughter’s murder by three of their fans. Fifteen-year-old Elyse had been drugged, raped, brutally beaten, strangled and stabbed by way of a sacrifice to the Devil. It was claimed that the songs "Postmortem" and "Dead Skin Mask" had outlined instructions on how to carry out the vicious attack.
The group’s label was also under fire, with those acting for the Pahler’s stating, “none of the vicious crimes committed against Elyse Marie Pahler would have occurred without the intentional marketing strategy of the death-metal band Slayer" - you can read a little more about that here.
The case was dismissed in 2001, aside from a lack of responsibility or any real evidence, there were also questions surrounding free speech. A second case was brought by the Pahler family, which for similar reasons was also dismissed.
You can read a little more about the outcome of the trial here, and you check out the video below regarding the horrific murder of Elyse Pahler.
4 – Ozzy Osbourne and the Suicide of John McCollum
On January 12th, 1986, a lawsuit against former Black Sabbath frontman and heavy metal artist, Ozzy Osbourne, was filed by the parents of John McCollum – who after having listened to the song “Suicide Solution” had gone on to shoot himself dead. The prosecution tried to claim that there were Satanic backwards messages in the song (just before the lead solo if you are interested) that said “Get the gun! Shoot!”
The case was ultimately dismissed, with Ozzy stating that although there was a “vocal effect” on the mix during that part of the song, there was no backwards message. After all, he quipped years later on the "Don't Blame Me" documentary, “What performer wants his audience dead?”
5 – Marilyn Manson influenced the Columbine High School shooters
On 20th April 1999 senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gunned down twelve fellow students and one teacher at Columbine High School, before committing suicide around forty minutes after their killing spree began.
They had intended to rival the Oklahoma Bombing and had planted bombs strategically in the car park and in front of the cafeteria. When they failed to explode, Harris was heard to yell “Go! Go!” before the pair opened fire. You can read in more detail about that grim morning here.
In the aftermath, a flood of theories came as to why the pair had carried out their atrocities, with a link quickly established to industrial heavy metal act KMFDM. Bizarrely though it was Marilyn Manson who seemed to take the brunt of the blame, even though author Dave Cullen established that the pair were not even fans of his music. Manson would find himself having to defend himself repeatedly against the accusation over the coming years, something he stated almost ruined his career - you can read about that here.
6 – The West Memphis Three
In 1994, Damien Echols, Jessie Missklelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin, otherwise known in the media as the West Memphis Three, were found guilty of the murders of three young children, who, according to the trial, had been killed as part of a satanic ritual. Echols was sentenced to death, while Baldwin and Misskelley were given lengthy jail terms, before new DNA evidence in 2010 and much campaigning saw them released after entering into an Alford Plea – this basically prevents the men from suing the courts despite their innocence.
The evidence against them was weak, to say the least, and it appears to have been their long hair, black heavy metal t-shirts they wore and liking for bands such as Metallica and Megadeth, that put the spotlight on them and ultimately led to their convictions. You can read a little about that here.
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The West Memphis Three - released after serving 16 years in prison for crimes they didn't commit
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7 – Per Yngve Ohlin better known as, Dead commits suicide
On 8th April 1991, Per Yngve Ohlin, better known by his stage name of Dead, slit both his wrists, slit his throat, and some time shortly after shot himself through the head. A tragedy in itself, the death of the vocalist and frontman with Norwegian black metal band, Mayhem, took the whole genre down a road not walked before.
Mayhem had been living in a house near the woods in Krakstad, Norway which they also used as a rehearsal space. After being left alone in the house one morning, Dead calmly wrote a suicide note before taking his own life.
His body was found by Mayhem guitarist and co-founder Euronymous, whose first course of action after making the find was to promptly nip out to the shop to purchase a disposable camera, with which he then took several pictures of his bandmate's body – one of these pictures was eventually used as the front cover of the bootleg live album “Dawn Of The Black Hearts" - for those who want to view the picture click here - be warned, it is graphic!
Euronymous also made necklaces out of fragments of Dead’s skull – many of which he gave to musicians in the black metal scene whom he had deemed “worthy.” Many in the scene were critical of his actions, stating he was using Dead’s suicide to foster and encourage Mayhem’s image. It wouldn’t be the last time Euronymous would be involved in one of the darker moments of an already dark black metal scene, although the next time would bring much more scrutiny and from much further afield.
8 – Varg Vikernes kills Euronymous
By 1993 Euronymous and one-time guitarist in Mayhem, Varg Vikernes (now fronting Burzum) had become seriously at odds. There are several sides to the story, but essentially, Euronymous had asked Vikernes to see him regarding an unsigned contract. Upon his arrival at Euronymous’ apartment, a confrontation broke out between the two, which ultimately ended with Vikernes stabbing Euronymous to death.
Vikernes claims that the killing was in self-defense and that he had heard in the days leading up to the killing that Euronymous had planned to kill him and videotape the murder. Vikernes stated he had intended to give Euronymous the signed contract and then leave so that he would have no reason to contact him anymore. He offers a very in-depth view into what happened on his website, and claims he was attacked by the guitarist and with the aforementioned knowledge in mind, he killed his would-be assailant first.
He was sentenced to twenty-one years in prison and was released in 2009 after serving sixteen of them. The whole affair brought much focus on the black metal scene as a whole and is regarded as the darkest times for the music genre.
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Slipknot - described by some as "bad satanic music" following the killing spree of Morne Harmse
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9 – Morne Harmse kills classmates because of Slipknot!
On August 17th 2008, Morne Harmse, killed classmates and workers at Nic Diederichs Technical High School in Krugersdorp West, South Africa, using a samurai sword and “dressed as that guy from Slipknot!”
Many community groups and student organizations stated that Slipknot was “bad satanic music” and that it was the band’s satanic influence that had made Harmse commit his horrendous crime. The band themselves refused to comment on the incident.
Someone who did though was senior superintendent Gerard Labuschagne who worked on the case for Krugersdorp police and who disregarded such notions stating, "Whenever there is a murder, people jump to conclusions, and always God or Satan told the killers to do it. These notions shouldn't be taken seriously because it is straightforward: someone, of their own free will, can kill another person."
Harmse was sentenced to twenty years in prison in 2009.
10 – Ann Maguire, murdered by "heavy metal loner" - at least according to the tabloids!
One of the more recent attempts to link heavy metal music came after the murder of sixty-one-year-old Leeds school teacher Ann Maguire on 28th April 2014 in the United Kingdom, who was stabbed seven times by fifteen-year-old student William Cornick. He was subsequently sentenced to life in prison and must serve at least twenty years before he is eligible for parole.
While there is no evidence to back it up and certainly no real mention was made of it during the court hearings, many newspapers and tabloids in the weeks after did their best to push the “heavy metal might be responsible” angle, with claims that classmates had described Cornick as a loner who was obsessed with heavy metal music and whose Facebook profile picture was an image of The Grim Reaper.
Cornick did appeal against his sentence, but it was denied and it will be 2034 before he will be considered for parole.
Check out the video below - a documentary called "Until The Light Takes Us" that looks at the aforementioned Black Metal scene of the 1990s and how dark it really became.
[Marcus Lowth March 2016]
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