The Catcher in the Rye Conspiracy

[colorless]

For those who unfamiliar with this...

Mark David Chapman who murdered John Lennon, and John Hinkley the man who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan but failed were both found with copies of The Catcher in the Rye.

After killing John Lennon on December 8th, 1980, Chapman dropped the gun and proceeded to take out a copy The Catcher in the Rye, and calmly started reading, while waiting for the police to arrive. When police entered the apartment of John Hinkley, they found a copy of the book on his coffee table.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, Chapman told police, "If you want to know why I murdered John Lennon, read The Catcher in the Rye."

Here's more on it.

Do you think it's just a coincidence? Or is there some kind of message in the book?

Edited November 25, 2004 by colorless

[Frosty]

So what, Catcher in the Rye is a very popular book.

Edited November 25, 2004 by Frosty

[Blood Angel]

It could be a trigger object, it has been said that MKULTRA victims are triggered into service via a trigger object or trigger words. Once they see the words, they set out doing their dirty deeds. MKULTRA is a CIA admitted program, for making assasains out of ordinary people using mind control techniques.

[vimjams]

Forgive me if I am wrong here...But I read the book some years ago and just thought it was the boring day to day ups and downs out of somebody's life...A pot boiler.

It's quite possible that no significance exists and we are all being confused by the rants of a lunatic.

Considering the book has been widely read I hardly think these two (coincidental) events indicate anything more than what they are.

I love a conspiracy...But I can't see one here (unfortunately)

Vimjams

[MK ULTRA]

The guy who killed Robert F Kennedy was reading it too.!

They all had the same type of mad ramblings written in their notepads.

"JoHn LEnNON mUST DiE sAYs CatCheR In THe Rye"

"KeNNeDY MuST dIE sAYS cATCHer In THe rYE" etc.

I believe this one!

[vimjams]

They all had the same type of mad ramblings written in their notepads.

"JoHn LEnNON mUST DiE sAYs CatCheR In THe Rye"

"KeNNeDY MuST dIE sAYS cATCHer In THe rYE" etc.

Interesting MK...I hadn't heard of this detail before.

Vimjams

[The Gryphon]

Not to date myself but years ago in the library system Catcher in the rye was the first book listed and on the shelf under C classic American literature, oddly Salinger was also the first S under classic American literature. Another note is the frequency which Salinger.org gets taken down. In fact it's down right now, suspected hacker is from Brazil!

[MK ULTRA]

I think the authour J.D Salinger worked with Nixons mate Henry Kissinger in the counter-intelligence corps during WW2 too., very Manchurian candidate!

The books been lnked to killers such as the the Boston Strangler,The Son of Sam killer,Charles Manson,the zodiac killer(been left at scene)and Jim Jones of the Jonestown Massacre.

[vimjams]

Now it's beginning to sound sinister and much more interesting

Vimjams

[Sunofone]

i was wondering if anyone who has read the book could give me a brief synopsis on it? this is indeed an unusual coincidence- i knew about lennon but not reagan

[Guest Lottie]

One of my favourite books!

Here is a synopsis fearofone, its long so click here for the rest Link:

Holden Caulfield, the seventeen-year-old narrator and protagonist of the novel, addresses the reader directly from a mental hospital or sanitarium in southern California. He wants to tell us about events that took place over a two-day period the previous December. Typically, he first digresses to mention his older brother, D.B., who was once a “terrific” short-story writer but now has sold out and writes scripts in nearby Hollywood. The body of the novel follows. It is a frame story, or long flashback, constructed through Holden’s memory.

Holden begins at Pencey Prep, an exclusive private school in Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with school rival, Saxon Hall. Holden misses the game. Manager of the fencing team, he managed to lose the team’s equipment on the subway that morning, resulting in the cancellation of a match in New York. He is on his way to the home of his history teacher, Mr. Spencer, to say good-bye. Holden has been expelled and is not to return after Christmas break, which begins Wednesday.

Spencer is a well-meaning but long-winded old man, and Holden gladly escapes to the quiet of an almost deserted dorm. Wearing his new red hunting cap, he begins to read. His reverie is temporary. First, a dorm neighbor named Ackley disturbs him. Later, Holden argues with his roommate, Stradlater, who fails to appreciate a theme that Holden has written for him about Holden’s deceased brother Allie’s baseball glove. A womanizer, Stradlater has just returned from a date with Holden’s old friend Jane Gallagher. The two roommates fight, Stradlater winning easily. Holden has had enough of Pencey Prep and catches a train to New York City where he plans to stay in a hotel until Wednesday, when his parents expect him to return home for Christmas vacation.

En route to New York, Holden meets the mother of a Pencey classmate and severely distorts the truth by telling her what a popular boy her “rat” son is. Holden’s Manhattan hotel room faces windows of another wing of the hotel, and he observes assorted behavior by “perverts.” Holden struggles with his own sexuality. He meets three women in their thirties, tourists from Seattle, in the hotel lounge and enjoys dancing with one but ends up with only the check. Following a disappointing visit to Ernie’s Nightclub in Greenwich Village, Holden agrees to have a prostitute, Sunny, visit his room. Holden has second thoughts, makes up an excuse, and pays the girl to leave. To his surprise, Maurice, her pimp, soon returns with her and beats up Holden for more money. He has lost two fights in one night. It is near dawn Sunday morning.

[Angelofmercy]

I don't know, this seems kinda far fetched.

Catcher in the Rye is like Mandatory reading in Gradeschool now

Also, it's about depression and a lot of mentally unstable people tend to relate to it

Most assasins are obviously mentally unstable (HInkley, Lennon's assasin)

THis really is nothing more than a tiny coincidence. How many people have been murdered by people who had NOT read this book, or owned a copy?

I still hava copy, but at this time have no plans for assasination

[JennRose]

Yeah, Holden Caufield would be a good character for a mentally unstable loner to relate to. Not saying the book is some sort of trigger or enjoyed only by people close to insanity, but easy for someone who has the penchance for an act like an assasination to feel a connection with.

I mean, you wouldn't expect them to be carrying around copies of Welcome to Pooh Corner...if they all had a copy of that lying around, you would know something sinister was at work!

Edited November 27, 2004 by JennRose

[RelicHunter]

Read the book sophmore year...never really liked it. But I'm more into mystery/crime novels anyways. Just wondering, what's MKULTRA ??

[Looter]

Mark David Chapman claimed he was a CIA agent. He was a hardline Christian and hated John Lennon because he wrote the song God, which must have rubbed him the wrong way, he called John Lennon a fake because God is real. The catcher in the rye is saving children who are running through a field from running off a cliff representing adulthood. Chapman was trying to save children from emulating this Commie Hippy fake. This was the beginning of the Reagan crackdown on dissident thought which was necessary to restart the American War Machine.

[Blood Angel]

Just wondering, what's MKULTRA ??

399536[/snapback]

MK-ULTRA, (like its many spin-offs including MK-UMBRA etc etc) was/is a cCIA program to use mind-control (using methods such as, but not limited to suggestive drugs, LSD) to turn ordinary citzens into assasains, that would be awoken with a trigger object. CIA admitted devoloping this program in the 70s-80s.

[stalde]

i have a theory im in 12th grade and have just finished reading the book.

during the novel Holden Caulfeild has had some crazy events go on but he also had some impulses the first one being punching Stradlatter he wanted to punch that toothbrush down his throat also Maurice the pimp whoever wrote the "**** You" on the wall but Holden says hes to yellow and what i think maybe these killers wanted to take Holden actions to another level maybe they wanted to be the better Holden Caulfeild because the man who killed John Lennon imitated Holden's night he had went to a hotel and got a hooker and did not sleep with him he was also very good with kids and loved kids just like Holden but what he was , was Holden without the Yellowness he did what Holden couldn't

edit didn't realize this topic was that old maybe it will bring it back

Edited May 13, 2011 by stalde

[mrphilosophias]

Forgive me if I am wrong here...But I read the book some years ago and just thought it was the boring day to day ups and downs out of somebody's life...A pot boiler.

It's quite possible that no significance exists and we are all being confused by the rants of a lunatic.

Considering the book has been widely read I hardly think these two (coincidental) events indicate anything more than what they are.

I love a conspiracy...But I can't see one here (unfortunately)

Vimjams

<!--emo&--><img src='http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ph34r.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ph34r.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/original.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='original.gif' /><!--endemo-->

mr.hippo?

[Kismit]

mrphilosophi, who is mr hippo? and why are you looking for them?

[aquatus1]

And why do you expect an answer after 5 years?

[dmgspycat]

For those who unfamiliar with this...

Mark David Chapman who murdered John Lennon, and John Hinkley the man who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan but failed were both found with copies of The Catcher in the Rye.

After killing John Lennon on December 8th, 1980, Chapman dropped the gun and proceeded to take out a copy The Catcher in the Rye, and calmly started reading, while waiting for the police to arrive. When police entered the apartment of John Hinkley, they found a copy of the book on his coffee table.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, Chapman told police, "If you want to know why I murdered John Lennon, read The Catcher in the Rye."

<a href='http://www.john-lennon.net/whoauthorizedtheassassinationofjohnlennon.htm' target='_blank'>Here</a>'s more on it.

Do you think it's just a coincidence? Or is there some kind of message in the book?

There is more to the story about both alleged assassins...Edward Teller�s motive for setting up John Lennon�s murder

(July 2, 2005) New information links father of the H-Bomb, the late Edward Teller, and former Air Force Secretary and SDI/Star Wars advocate, Hans Mark, to Lennon's assassination. A major SDI test (code-named Dauphin) was performed in the Nevada Desert, testing laser-nuclear technology, on November 14, 1980, just three weeks before Lennon's murder. The success of Dauphin set the stage for a trillion-dollar defense buildup in the ensuing years.http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/lennon_report.htm