The line between being a fan and being a fanatic is thin.
It only takes a single mental break for anyone who’s loved a celebrity for years to turn
on them.
Many of these breaks have resulted in tragic murders.
They lead them to bring into a show or right to the celebrity’s home.
They are all sudden and unexpected, happening in a moment but with a long-lasting impact.
They change the way the world views the fields celebrities come from and even change the
laws the world follows.
Keep watching to learn about celebrities who were killed by their own fans.
John Lennon Of all the cases of celebrities who were killed
by fans, John Lennon’s is arguably the most famous.
It was sudden, and unexpected, and took one of the largest names in music from the world.
Mark David Chapman was a Beatles fan in his early life but suddenly experienced a “religious
awakening” one day.
He found Lenon’s lyrics in the song Imagine hypocritical.
His true motives were more complicated and more selfish than that.
On December 8, 1980, he decided that killing a celebrity would make him famous, and the
Beatles were known to be “more famous than Jesus.”
That’s why he targeted Lenon.
Mark got an autograph from him and then waited all day for the perfect moment.
He shot him five times outside of his home at 10:50 pm.
He didn’t even try to escape and calmly read The Catcher In the Rye until the police
came for him.
That book also tells of a fight against hypocrisy and has been connected to crime ever since.
He denied his lawyer’s request to plead insanity in court.
He instead pled guilty and got 20 years to life.
He continues to be denied parole despite repeated hearings.
His attitude has also changed over the years.
Today he admits he feels remorse since the murder and has praised Lenon.
Selena Yolanda Saldivar was such a fan of Selena,
the queen of Tejano music, that she founded and became president of her fan club in 1991.
They became friends, and she hired her as an assistant and manager of the Selena Etc.
clothing boutique.
Yolanda was later caught embezzling funds from the store and was fired in March of 1995.
They met at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas so that Selena could retrieve financial
records that proved her misdoings.
That was where the musical icon was shot in the back while running away.
She identified the shooter before succumbing to her injury at the Memorial Medical Center.
Selena died at the age of 23 on March 31, 1995.
It took nine hours before Yolanda surrendered to the police.
She was sentenced to life in prison and won’t be eligible for parole until 2025.
Rebecca Schaeffer Rebecca Schaeffer was the star of the show
My Sister Sam.
She had many fans, including an obsessed stalker named Robert John Bardo.
He watched her for three years and even sent her “love letters” begging to meet her
on set.
She responded that his letter was the most beautiful she’d ever received, but that
wasn’t enough for him.
Seeing her in a sex scene was the last straw.
He gave $250 to a private investigator to find out where she lived, and they got her
address from the DMV.
He went to her home and shot her in the chest when she answered the door.
He dropped a copy of Catcher in the Rye while running away but denied any implications that
he wanted to emulate John Lennon’s killer.
Rebecca Schaeffer died on July 18, 1989.
She didn’t die in vain because her story changed the legislation of the country forever.
It led to anti-stalking laws, a law that prohibited DMV employees from giving out addresses, and
more.
Robert Bardo was arrested two days later and extradited to California.
He was tried for first-degree murder and sentenced to life with no possibility of parole.
Dimebag Darrell “Dimebag” Darrell Abbot was the guitarist
of Pantera and Damageplan.
He was shot during a show on December 8, 2004, in Columbus.
The assailant was Nathan Gale, a former football player, U.S. Marine, and major Pantera fan.
He began screaming about how Darrell had broken up the band and shot the guitarist six times.
The tragedy all seemed like part of the show at first, but then everyone realized what
was going on.
Three others died trying to stop the shooter before he was killed by police officer James
Niggemeyer.
Friends and family don’t know what triggered Nathan Gale’s psychotic break.
He’d been discharged from the marines the year before because of his paranoid schizophrenia.
His former friend Jeramie Brey said he’d been saying that Pantera’s songs were his
and that they stole him from him.
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Keep watching to learn about more celebrities who were killed by their own fans.
Albert Ebosse Albert Ebosse was a rising soccer star and
the Algerian League’s top scorer.
On August 23, 2014, he and his JS Kabylie teammates were leaving the field after a disappointing
loss to USM Alger.
Angry fans were pelting the entire team, but one went a bit too far.
A slate tile dented Albert's skull, killing him instantly.
The story of what actually happened to him is still under investigation.
A recent autopsy allegedly shows he was stabbed and beaten to death in his changing room.
Pathologists say he had a cervical vertebra and other wounds that indicated more than
head trauma.
Even seven years of investigation has given no official answer.
Andres Escobar Andres Escobar is another famous soccer player
who died after a disappointing game.
Columbia was the favorite during the 1994 World Cup, but they lost 2-1 to the United
States.
This was partial because Andres kicked a ball into his own goal.
He was found dead nine days later.
It started with a few insults during a party and escalated quickly.
He was shot in the back and died at the age of 27.
Drug cartels had too much money tied up in his team to let the embarrassment of an own-goal
happen, but only a few of them were ever caught.
Humberto Munoz Castro was sentenced to prison for 42 years but got out after 11.
He wouldn’t reveal his bosses and accomplices, Santiago and Pedron Gallon, so they were never
punished.
His family made an effort to prevent similar tragedies a year later.
They started the Andres Escobar Social Project.
It’s a soccer program for disadvantaged youth that teaches values and helps them avoid
a lifestyle of drug use and theft.
Christina Grimmie Christina Grimmie found success on the talent
shows The Voice.
She placed third in the sixth season.
She was signed to Adem Levine’s record label and was ready to use the recognition to build
a career.
Kevin James Loibil became her most devoted fan.
He watched her videos on repeat and altered his own appearance to look attractive to her.
It’s believed that the thing that set him off was a simple comment from his friend Corry
Dennington.
He told the unstable young man that he didn’t have a chance to win his idol’s heart.
That began a philosophy of “if I can’t have her, no one can.”
Kevin planned the murder carefully.
He deleted all incriminating evidence from his phone and bought weapons at exactly the
right times.
Kevin went 100 miles to see her perform at the Plaza Live in Orlando on June 10, 2016.
He managed to smuggle guns into her show and fatally shot her while she was signing autographs.
Her brother tackled him but he escaped and then shot himself after.
Gianni Versace Fashion mogul Gianni Versace, unfortunately,
found himself the victim of a serial killer.
Andrew Cunanan had killed four people in three states and was even on the FBI’s most-wanted
list.
He was dormant for three months.
Gianni returned to his home in South Beach after a walk.
Andrew shot him twice in broad daylight.
The designer had only been home for a few days, but Andrew had been waiting for him
to return from touring for two months.
Arthur took his own life 10 days later, so his motive is unclear.
Some believe that he and Versace could have even been lovers.
He was well known for preferring old, wealthy men.
He’d also been sexually involved with all of the other former victims.
Arthur bragged about the connection that the two had, but it was never proven.
Versace's family claims it never happened and that they never knew each other.
They also weren’t pleased with the 2018 TV series The Assassination of Gianni Versace:
American Crime Story and insisted it must be treated as fiction.
Mikhail Lermontov Mikhail Lermontov was a Russian renaissance
man.
He was a soldier who was also successful at poetry, painting, and writing.
The problem was that he was also a clever trash-talker.
His friend and fan Nikolai Martynov was the frequent subject of his teasing.
They’d been in military college together and grown close.
One night, he decided he had enough and challenged him to a duel.
Mikhail fired into the air, but Nikolai hit him in the heart.
It was one of the few duels of the time that didn’t get canceled and ended in tragedy.
Jesse James Jessee James was a killer and robber.
Newspaper writers like John Newman Edwards, who later joined him in a gang, made him seem
like a Civil War hero.
Robert Ford and his brother Charles were fans of the mythic figure.
They joined Jesse’s gang in 1881.
They allegedly only participated in one train robbery together.
Robert got into serious trouble when he killed Jesse’s cousin Wood Hite after fighting
with fellow gang member Dickl Liddil.
He was questioned but given a deal.
Robert shot the most wanted man in the world in the back in 1882.
He earned a $10,000 bounty and a pardon.
The Ford brothers didn’t get off free.
They were arrested, plead guilty, hung, and pardoned.
Robert only got part of the money he was promised.
He was branded a coward and killed by Edward O’Kelly on June 8, 1892.
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