As a society, we are overly obsessed with celebrities. We look up to them, we admire them, and we wish we could be just like them. Of course some people take “fanatic” to a whole new level, with their fandom becoming an obsession. Sometimes when that happens, it leads to some truly twisted and bizarre plots to hurt, maim, or even kill them, and it reminds us that maybe stardom isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Here are some truly insane plots to kill celebrities.
10. Mick Jagger
These days, pretty much everyone is aware of Altamont, a disastrous concert put on by the Rolling Stones in which the band had the infamous motorcycle gang Hell’s Angels provide security. The gang beat a young man (Meredith Hunter) to death during the course of the show and, after the fact, Mick Jagger swore never to associate with them again. Way to take a stand there, Mick. Very bold.
Anyway, apparently the Hell’s Angels could not wrap their heads around why Mick would no longer want to employ their services (it’s just ONE murder, for Pete’s sake,) and for them it became personal. So, in retaliation, the gang hatched an assassination plot in which they would travel by boat to Mick’s home in the Hamptons, only to have their plan thwarted when a storm hit and threw the Hell’s Angels overboard. The lesson here is that motorcycle gangs should probably stick to dry land when attempting to carry out evil schemes.
9. Russell Crowe
Back in 2001, the terrorist group al-Qaeda hatched a plan in which they would kidnap famous Americans in an effort to shake up the United States. One of those on the list was actor Russell Crowe, who, by the way, is not American. The group planned to snatch the actor just prior to the Oscars, at which he took home a Best Actor statue for his performance in Gladiator. While murder was never implicitly stated as a part of their planned attack on Crowe, considering the group’s rather murdery track record, it’s a pretty safe assumption that, had they been successful, his final screen appearance would have ended very, very badly for him.
This led to the FBI tailing Crowe everywhere he went leading up to and during the ceremony. Honestly though? Knowing Crowe’s reputation, he’d have probably preferred brawling with any potential kidnappers on his own. Maybe he would throw a telephone at them for good measure.
8. Shawn Johnson
Shawn Johnson is a retired Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, and is also a former competitor on Dancing With The Stars. She has also been the target of a very creepy stalker, who is now in jail after attempting to break into the Dancing’s studio to get close to her. A knife, a shotgun, some zip ties, and a bullet-proof vest were found in his car. We’re going to go ahead and guess he wasn’t planning on simply asking Johnson out to coffee.
Robert O’Ryan was completely obsessed with Johnson, and told authorities he firmly believed he and Johnson were soul mates, and needed to be together. He planned on marrying her, he said, though the weapons in his car both give new meaning to the term “shotgun wedding,” and make us think that it would have been a very short and violent honeymoon.
7. Jewel
While she has more or less fallen off the face of the Earth at this point, there was a time when Jewel was immensely popular, both as a singer-songwriter and as an unintentionally hilarious poet. She was so popular that, apparently, God sent a man named Michael Kozelka to her ranch in Texas with a dog and a knife to find her, probably not to ask her to sign his copy of her book of poetry.
Kozelka claimed that God led him to Jewel’s 2,000 acre ranch, where he found his way to the main house looking for the singer. He was quickly detained with the aforementioned knife on his person, and is currently doing time for stalking.
6. Ryan Seacrest
Look, you can say what you want about Ryan Seacrest. He’s short. He’s kind of annoying. He is absolutely freaking everywhere, and there’s no reasonable explanation why. But none of that should make anyone want to kill the dude, unless of course your name is Chidi Uzomah, an Army reservist who was found with a knife at E! headquarters, violently trying to get to Seacrest.
Seacrest had already been made aware of Uzomah, who had been stalking him for some time, so fortunately he had personal security in place. However, that did not deter Uzomah from attempting to find the diminutive TV and radio personality, and he had to be forcibly detained. He was later convicted to the maximum prison sentence for stalking. Good thing because, has he gotten to his target, “Seacrest out” would have taken on a whole new meaning.
5. Hilary Duff
While we can chuckle at the notion now, there was a time in which Hilary Duff was actually world famous, and ridiculously popular. So popular and enchanting was she, that a Russian teen named Maksim Myaskovskiy became completely obsessed with her, to the point where he hatched a plan to murder both Duff and her boyfriend, Joel Madden.
Myaskovskiy believed that Madden was standing in the way of his being happy with Duff, though we’re not sure how murdering her would have given him a chance with her, either. Myaskovskiy actually confessed to a private investigator that he was planning on murdering the teen star at a public event, which ultimately led to his arrest.
4. Michael Jackson
There are a lot of wild conspiracy theories about the death of Michael Jackson, ranging to his being assassinated by the CIA, to his still being alive. However, strange murder plots that sound like they are straight out of a movie have never been foreign to the King of Pop. After his death, the FBI released documents detailing the strange case of Frank Paul Jones, a man who stalked and threatened to kill Michael.
Not only did he threaten to kill Jackson, he also threatened to kill George H.W. Bush. So obsessed was he with the idea of killing Michael, that he actually wrote a letter threatening to commit mass murder at a Michael Jackson concert, just to ensure the star was among the dead. So what was his deal? Naturally, he wanted money. Oh, and he was also completely insane. See, he also believed he was married to Janet Jackson. Not a bad fantasy, all things considered, but it still makes you bat-crap insane if you actually believe it.
3. Miley Cyrus
So much could be said about Miley Cyrus. She’s kind of hot, she’s kind of dumb, she’s easy to mock, her relationship with her dad is kind of creepy; the list really goes on and on. And apparently, she’s so wildly popular, she nearly inspired a teenage boy to commit an act of terrorism in 2008.
That January, a 16-year-old boy hatched a plan that is almost too insane to be believed. His plot to kill Miley involved hijacking a plane, and crashing it into an arena in which she was performing. He was apparently very serious about this idea, as authorities found the plane’s flight plan (along with duct tape and rope) in his possession. Unfortunately for him, he failed to realize that the day of his planned hijacking was several days before the concert was set to be performed. Who would’ve thought being totally deranged meant you were bad at reading a calendar too?
2. Justin Bieber
Okay, go on and get your Bieber hate out of the way, we’ll wait.
All set? Good. There’s not a lot to like about Bieber unless you’re a teenage girl or, apparently, Usher or a Victoria’s Secret model. Still, once you hear about the plot to kidnap and murder the teen pop star, you might feel at least a little bit of sympathy toward the Canuck who looks way too much like Maggie Grace for our liking.
Anyway, just a few months ago it was revealed that a New Mexico prison inmate has an incredibly unhealthy obsession with the Biebs, including boasting a tattoo of the pop star on his leg. The inmate, Dana Martin, enlisted the help of his nephew in a plan to kidnap Bieber, with the scheme leading to – ugh – castrating him, before finally murdering him. The instrument of choice for the castration was to have been hedge trimmers, so just let that sink in and thank your lucky stars you’re not popular enough to inspire psychopaths to want to cut off your franks and beans.
1. Steve McQueen
So what could possibly top the Bieber story? How about being the number one target of one of the most notorious murderers in history, Charles Manson? It’s no secret that the Manson Family had a Death List of people they wanted very badly to kill, and right at the top of the list was the King of Cool himself, Steve McQueen.
Sadly, the plot to murder McQueen led to the deaths of five other people, including actress Sharon Tate and Jay Sebring, in 1969. McQueen was supposed to join his friends at the party they were murdered at but, to his good fortune, he decided to skip it instead. From then on out, McQueen carried a gun at all times, which is pretty reasonable when a cult of psychopathic murderers wants you dead.
12 Comments
Wow i am in complete and utter shock that Riccardo Lopez (Bjorks stalker) isnt on this list, the guy recorded about a weeks worth of footage mapping out his plan and acting totally bat s*it crazy. Then, he offed himself on the tape…
To be honest it would be a kindness to the workd to ensure that the “beebs” never reproduces
there was a live movie of Altamont that I saw when I was a kid, because my teenage sister wanted to see it, all I remember is seeing some guy rush the stage and get stabbed, and then people yelling “They just stabbed a guy!!”
not much to castrate from ole bieber
“Truly inspiring to be here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber.” Justin Bieber on Anne Frank. Am I the only person who thinks Justin Bieber is making Wacko Jacko look normal?
Wasn’t it a young man who was beaten to death at Altamont?
Yes, the man’s name was Meredith Hunter. The author of this piece probably saw the name “Meredith” and assumed it was a woman.
Also he wasn’t beaten he was stabbed. This was after he drew a gun and pointed it at the stage
Well, they beat him first, then stabbed him. But he was definitely a dude, not a lady.
No, if you watch the film, you see an argument, then a gun pulled, and then a stabbing. The Angels were criminals and assholes(Who said they were doing the security), but let’s try and get SOME facts right.
He was punched several times by members of the Hell’s Angels as he made an attempt to rush on to the stage. At that point he pulled a gun, then he got stabbed. I know the facts of this case.
Thank you, we have corrected this mistake and added a link to the Wikipedia page concerning this young man’s death.