Assassins prefer 'Catcher in the Rye'

[snopes]

Comment: I had an English Prof tell me that the man who assassinated John
Lennon, the man who assassinated JFK, and the shooter of Reagan all were
in possession of Catcher in the Rye when they were arrested.

[Ramblin' Dave]

Mark David Chapman is known to have been obsessed with the book (he apparently thought Lennon had become a "phony"), but I've never heard that about the other two. IIRC Reagan's would-be assassin was trying to impress Jodie Foster.

[Spam & Cookies-mmm]

There was a copy in Hinkley's hotel room.

FWIW, Wiki makes note of the Chapman and Hinckley angles, but says nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald.

[snopes]

Oswald was barely literate; I don't imagine he would have found Catcher in the Rye all that appealing.

- snopes

4 out of 5 assassins agree! Ask your mental health professional or prison warden if Catcher in the Rye is right for you! ...Side effects may include eye strain, homicidal tendencies, increased sensitivity to phoniness, headaches, and dry mouth. Women who are pregnant, nursing, or may become pregnant should not try Catcher in the Rye. Those who are suffering from liver or heart problems should consult with their doctor before use.

[RealityChuck]

Catcher in the Rye has sold well over ten million copies since it's been published. It a perenniel seller. It's hardly surprising that any group of young people have it (some are even assigned it in school).

But if out of ten million copies, three turn into assassins, that's a pretty miniscule percentage.

[MooseMacD]

The book was also involved in the plot of Conspiracy Theory which probably helped in a small way to spread rumors about the book.

[Mouse]

Originally Posted by Miss Mouse

4 out of 5 assassins agree! Ask your mental health professional or prison warden if Catcher in the Rye is right for you! ...Side effects may include eye strain, homicidal tendencies, increased sensitivity to phoniness, headaches, and dry mouth. Women who are pregnant, nursing, or may become pregnant should not try Catcher in the Rye. Those who are suffering from liver or heart problems should consult with their doctor before use.

YSOMANK, Miss Mouse. In other words, you so owe me a new keyboard.

Originally Posted by Mouse

YSOMANK, Miss Mouse. In other words, you so owe me a new keyboard.

Aw, sweet, my first YOMANK and it's got an extra word in the acronym PLUS it's from another Mouse! Score!

[Wolf333]

I've heard that John Wilkes Booth was reading a review copy, but it was burned up in the fire.

[Majorsam]

Originally Posted by snopes

Oswald was barely literate; I don't imagine he would have found Catcher in the Rye all that appealing.

- snopes

I respectfully disagree.

Gerald Posner's book Case Closed (which by wild coincidence I was reading today) mentions several books we know Oswald read (or pretended to read) including Das Kapital, Animal Farm & Mein Kampf...he is also described by many who knew him as bookish or "a bookworm". He also checked out plenty of books from the library, mainly spy novels & science fiction. Although this is all second source, the author is using the Warren Commission report as primary source.

Unfortunately Posner's book doesn't mention Catcher in the Rye. Oh well.

Oh, and for the record....I'm not a Kennedy Assassination nut....I think Oswald did it...and this is the first book I've read on the subject

Sam

Originally Posted by Wolf333

I've heard that John Wilkes Booth was reading a review copy, but it was burned up in the fire.

Leon Czolgosz only had the Cliff's Notes version, does that count?

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Majorsam

IGerald Posner's book Case Closed (which by wild coincidence I was reading today) mentions several books we know Oswald read (or pretended to read) including Das Kapital, Animal Farm & Mein Kampf...he is also described by many who knew him as bookish or "a bookworm".

But that's the point: He aspired to the image of a serious political intellectual and thus made a show of having books around him, but the notion that he actually read (much less understood) them is highly questionable. The extant examples of his writing (such as the diary he kept while living in the USSR) evidence a bare high school-level literacy at best; I seriously doubt he could have gotten much out of trying to read a work like Das Kapital.

In any case, virtually everything he was credited with reading (or trying to read), even the fiction, was overtly political. Catcher in the Rye just doesn't fit that pattern.

- snopes

[Majorsam]

Whether he understood them or not, he clearly found it appealing to have the books since they fit his personna.

Don't get me wrong, Oswald doesn't appear to have been any great brain by any stretch of the imagination...Seems to me the books he chose to read he did so simply because they are overtly political and no, he probably didn't understand much of them. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't have read CitR, or would not have had it in his vast library. Although the books cited were very political, they were also controversial and it seems reasonable that he may have read & even "liked" it as he seems the type that was attracted to controversial books. And ya can't get too much more controversial than Catcher in 1963.

[Tenko]

I don't think it's so much that assassins prefer it than it is that CitR is a popular book. It's, like, saying assassins nowadays prefer HP or the Da Vinci Code. At my school, CitR is required reading - I never read it myself, though - and I don't think any of the students have been fillled with murderous intent, yet.

[Atlanta Jake]

Oswald was a patsy...
But I did hear that the guy in the grassy knoll dropped a copy of "Catcher in the Rye" as he fled the scene.

Oswald only had a Ham and Cheese on Rye...

Jake

[DesertRat]

Hmmmm.... pathetic maladjusted losers caught with copies of a book about a pathetic maladjusted loser... imagine that...

[bjohn13]

Originally Posted by snopes

Oswald was barely literate; I don't imagine he would have found Catcher in the Rye all that appealing.

- snopes

J. D. Salinger was barely literate when he (she?) wrote The Catcher in the Rye, so I could see how Oswald might be intrigued.

[Lainie]

Originally Posted by DesertRat

Hmmmm.... pathetic maladjusted losers caught with copies of a book about a pathetic maladjusted loser... imagine that...

My thought exactly.

Originally Posted by bjohn13

J. D. Salinger was barely literate when he (she?) wrote The Catcher in the Rye, so I could see how Oswald might be intrigued.

He, and cite, please, for your claim that he was barely literate.

No offense, but since you're unaware of his sex, I'm not inclined to take your word for anything else about him.