14 Real Life Crimes and Murders Inspired by the Joker

The Joker is one of the best villains in comic and cinematic history. Not only is he the perfect anarchic foil to Batman’s whole brooding Boy Scout thing, he’s also a fun character. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who found inspiration for crimes from the Joker - especially Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the character as an unbeatable force of chaos. Crimes inspired by the Joker show you just how much of a nightmare it would be if the Joker actually existed, so maybe it’s good that most of these wannabe Jokers were arrested before they could do too much harm.

The most frightening aspect of people who pulled off Joker heists in real life is that they were fully committed to creating mass panic, eschewing their morals for a desire for nothing more than to see the terror they caused destroying lives in the real world. As you’ll come to find out, most of the people who tried to pull off Joker’s crimes in real life were much less adept at living a life of crime than the comic book villain.

Right after The Dark Knight was released in 2008, two teenagers from Pembroke, VA were arrested after they admitted to creating "a series of playing cards that were defaced with threatening writing and left at stores in Christiansburg and Pearisburg." The teens admitted that they were inspired to act like total dorks after seeing the Christopher Nolan film, and even though this seems like a fairly innocuous "crime," the jokers were hit with a serious charge: conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism. That seems excessive. 

In November, 2015, Canadian police arrested an unnamed 24-year-old Québécois man for posting a video where he wore a mask designed to look like Heath Ledger's Joker face, and threatened to kill one Muslim a week in the French-speaking province.

"As of next week, there will be murders all across Quebec," he says in the video. "We will eliminate all of them, one by one. Islam has harmed us enough. I will fire a bullet in the head of one Arab per week, starting next week." About this point in the video, the suspect brandishes an airsoft pistol while he makes his threats. The video went up a week after the attacks in Paris that killed 129 people, and Montreal police spokesperson Laurent Gingras sent a message to any other would be YouTubers, telling VICE News, "if you make threats on social networks or on the web, there are very concrete consequences in the real world." 

When will teens learn that life isn't all about YouTube views? It's about those native Facebook likes, ya'll! An 18 year old in Eastlake, OH was arrested in November, 2016 when he sprayed his hair lime green, and painted his face up Suicide Squad-style for a YouTube prank. What was the prank? This Ohio Joker ran into a Walgreens and rushed the pharmacy counter and demanded "all the pills." Classic YouTube prank. Police arrested the suspect, Donald A. Finnie, Jr., and charged him with two counts of inducing panic.

The most famous criminal inspired by the Joker was obviously James Holmes, the Aurora, CO theater shooter. On July 20, 2012, Holmes entered a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises dressed in tactical clothing. He set off tear gas grenades, and shot indiscriminately into the crowded theater. He killed 12 people and injured 70 others in the attack, and according to two federal agents, Holmes had dyed his hair red and was referring to himself as "the Joker" during the attack. After police captured Holmes, he told agents that he had placed explosive devices in his apartment. This sent everyone into a panic and caused a mass evacuation of not only his apartment building, but of the buildings surrounding it.

After going back and forth for three years about whether or not his mental illness played into the attack, Holmes's trial finally got underway. On July 16, 2015, a jury found Holmes guilty of 24 counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of possessing illegal explosives. The court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  

Enrique Dominguez, a 20-year-old man from Florida was arrested and charged with aggravated assault after allegedly telling a co-worker that he’d purchased a shotgun to murder his boss. He planned to join ISIS, dress like the Joker, and then shoot his boss at work. Not only did Dominguez have a big mouth, but he also had a problem with posting way too much information on social media. On Instagram, he posted a photo of 15 knives, commenting that it was his "lil arsenal." After investigators arrested Dominguez, they found a bag with a clown mask, duct tape, plastic wrap, gloves, and two large knives. Once in custody he admitted to planning a killing spree following a “day of allegiance.” 

In the summer of 2016, an Edmonton-area teen named Braydon Heather was attacked by an unnamed 15 year old who used a machete to give Heather a Joker smile. Aside from the Dark Knight-related injuries, Heather's jaw was broken, his thumb was removed, and he suffered a massive amount of upper body and cranial injuries. His attacker was charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public.

The Joker really inspires people in an awful way, doesn't he? One East Bay arsonist who allegedly felt slighted by his groomsmen after his marriage fell apart decided to get theatrical revenge on their perceived slights. In 2016, after Joshua Van Buskirk lost his job and separated from his wife of four years, he felt like his friends weren't backing him up, so he allegedly started setting their cars and homes on fire, while leaving Joker cards along with notes that read, "connect the dots." Van Buskirk denies any wrong doing.

In 2014, two psychopaths went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas, NV and ended up killing two police officers and an innocent bystander before killing themselves when faced with capture. One of the killers, Jared Miller, dressed as the Joker while on the spree. Prior to the killings, Miller posted a YouTube video in which he laid out his manifesto.

"I want to be a war mongerer [sic], not just some everyday terrorist. I want to blow up whole nations," Miller ranted in his video. After shooting the two officers, Miller and his girlfriend/accomplice draped their bodies in a yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flag, and another piece of cloth bearing a swastika. 

It's a shame that even the Joker can't stay sober long enough to get home safely. In 2013, police officers in Maine arrested 64-year-old Dennis Lalime after he lost control of his 2002 Buick Regal around 2 am and ran into multiple trees and a rock. Police said Lalime was not hurt in the crash and cooperated with officers during his arrest, but they didn't mention anything about whether or not he had asked if they wanted to see a magic trick when they pulled him out of his vehicle. 

A 14 year old in England was arrested in 2016 after she cut her own mouth open to give herself a Jokeresque smile before luring a friend into a secluded part of their school in Hampshire and stabbing her in the chest. After being arrested the girl said she didn't care if, "[people] blamed it on the Joker or Columbine, they didn't inspire me, they motivated me." Earlier in the day she sent a message to one of her friends saying, "if the plan does fail I will say the voices in my head made me do it." 

Prosecutors argued that the girl was obsessed with serial killers and The Dark Knight, and the defendant plead guilty to unlawful wounding and possession of a bladed article on school premises.