Science fiction operates on a grander scale than other genres, often portraying world-changing events that can be attractive to people who want to change the world. Such was the case with Robert Heinlein's highly influential novel "Stranger in a Strange Land." Time magazine reported that Charles Manson used the novel as a blueprint for his infamous family and that it led to the murder of Sharon Tate and others. It was later revealed, however, that Manson had never read the novel.

Some of Manson's followers had indeed adopted ideas and terminology from the book into their rituals. "Stranger in a Strange Land" features a Martian with superpowers who comes to earth and starts a free love movement. The novel also influenced others to form their own polygamous societies, including a "neo-pagan" group known as the Church of All Worlds. The church's Web site explains how its founders were inspired by Heinlein's novel: "This book suggested a spiritual and social way of life and was a metaphor expressing the awakening social consciousness of the times." (The Church of All Worlds has not been linked to any murders.)

Films reach a much wider audience than novels and often the real public outcry about a book isn't raised until the film version is released. "A Clockwork Orange" was blamed for inspiring so many copycat crimes -- from homeless people beaten to death to a gang rape where the attackers sang "Singin' in the Rain" -- that director Stanley Kubrick had it withdrawn from cinemas in England. The book's author, Anthony Burgess, insisted that there was no definitive proof "that a work of art can stimulate antisocial behavior ... the notorious murderer Haig who killed and drank [his victims'] blood said he was inspired by the sacrament of the Eucharist. Does that mean we should ban the Bible?"

Burgess was later to change his mind after the 1993 murder near Liverpool, England, in which 2-year-old James Bulger was abducted and tortured to death by two 10-year-old boys. The horror film "Child's Play 3" was linked to the case, and Burgess wrote that he now accepted the arts could exert a negative influence, adding, "I begin to accept that as a novelist, I belong to the ranks of the menacing."

Criminals will sometimes blame a work of fiction for their crimes, hoping to shift responsibility. These claims are inevitably treated with considerable skepticism. But one book that has been linked to a number of serial killers is John Fowles' "The Collector." The 1963 novel tells the story of a butterfly collector who becomes so obsessed with a woman called Miranda that he kidnaps and imprisons her in his cellar. California serial killers Charles Ng and Leonard Lake named one of their schemes "Operation Miranda." Lake later committed suicide, but Ng was found guilty of the imprisonment, torture and murder of 11 people during the 1980s. Ng blamed Lake for the murders and said he had been inspired to capture the women after reading "The Collector."

In Fowles' novel, Miranda encourages her kidnapper to read "The Catcher in the Rye," hoping he might identify with Holden Caulfield's feelings of alienation. Her captor complains that he doesn't like the book and is annoyed that Holden doesn't try harder to fit into society. There are enough rumors about murders linked to J.D. Salinger's classic that the unwitting assassins in the Mel Gibson film "Conspiracy Theory" are portrayed as being brainwashed with the urge to buy the novel.

John Lennon's murderer, Mark David Chapman, was famously obsessed with "The Catcher in the Rye." Chapman wanted to change his name to Holden Caulfield and once wrote in a copy of the book "This is my statement," and signed the protagonist's name. He had a copy of the book in his possession when the police arrested him.

French author Max Valentin (a pseudonym) got more than he bargained for when he wrote "On the Path of the Golden Owl," a 1993 novel featuring clues to the location of a real-life buried treasure. France was gripped with treasure-hunting fever as readers tried to find a replica of the golden owl (which could be exchanged for the real one) that Valentin had buried somewhere in rural France. In an interview with the Times of London, the author said he had received death threats and bribes amid the torrent of mail from people wanting to know where the owl was hidden.

He does not customarily respond to questions about the owl's location, but once had to intervene to stop someone from digging up a cemetery. Others have gone even further. "There was one who tried to dig up a train track," he said, "and another who walked into a bank with a pickaxe and started to dig up the floor of the lobby. I've told everyone it is buried in a public place but some people are crazy ... a man had firebombed a church and left behind a book containing the message: 'The golden owl is underneath the chapel.'" After more than 10 years, no one has yet managed to find the golden owl.

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