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Video: Sensational criminal cases that became the basis of the famous detective novels
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
We are sometimes amazed at the imagination of the authors of action-packed novels, forgetting that the most brilliant screenwriter and director is our life. However, the authors themselves remember this very well, therefore the plots of many famous detectives are taken from real criminal cases, and many famous literary heroes - both criminals and detectives - have prototypes.
Murder on the Orient Express
In March 1932, the whole of America, with bated breath, followed the development of the tragic story in the family of the famous pilot Charles Lindbergh. Not only did the criminals kidnap baby Charles Lindbergh Jr., who was barely one and a half years old, they encroached on the family of a real national hero. The father of the kidnapped child was a famous American pilot who was the first to fly the Atlantic Ocean solo. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of 50 thousand dollars - the parents, distraught with grief, complied with their demands immediately, but the child never returned home. This story has become a national tragedy. The Lindbergs were bombarded with dozens of letters with false leads, even the mafioso Al Capone offered help, Agatha Christie expressed her assumptions about possible kidnappers.
The child was found only after a couple of months, unfortunately, he was dead. It turned out that the criminals had killed the hostage on the day of the abduction. Only two years later, the alleged killer was calculated - Bruno Hauptmann - a carpenter who worked in the house. The jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Despite the fact that the evidence seems to have been compelling, more and more historians today are inclined to believe that an innocent person died in the electric chair for this crime. However, at the time, no one doubted that Bruno was a monster. It was this story that Agatha Christie used as the basis for the plot of one of her most famous detectives - Murder on the Orient Express. Rather, she finished writing her sequel to the real tragedy, modifying it a little - in a detective novel, a murderer who committed such a crime finds revenge after many years. And, by the way, besides Agatha Christie, other authors also addressed this crime. For example, Julian Semenov, who used the story of the Lindbergh family in the detective novel "Expansion-III".
Monster
(from an interview with Eileen Wuornos, given shortly before the execution)
On January 9, 1991, one of the most famous criminals of the 20th century, Eileen Wuornos, was arrested. She was accused of killing seven men. Initially, the former prostitute claimed that all seven had once raped her, and the murders were self-defense (or revenge, according to another version). However, after ten years of being on death row (this is how long the trial lasted), she herself began to demand the death penalty for herself, saying that she could no longer endure such a life. On October 9, 2002, Wuornos was given a lethal injection.
The image of this strange woman will probably continue to inspire writers, filmmakers and, oddly enough, musicians for a long time to come (several songs have already been dedicated to her and the opera Wuornos has been created). In 2003, Hollywood beauty Charlize Theron reincarnated as a woman-maniac in the biographical crime drama Monster and received a well-deserved Oscar for Best Actress for this.
Zodiac
This is what the serial killer who drove detectives in Northern California and San Francisco in the late 1960s called himself. Letters to local newspapers, encrypted cryptograms, threats to arrange the mass destruction of children and confessions of 37 crimes (all the victims were shot or killed with cold weapons) - this maniac added work not only to criminologists, but also to psychologists, analysts, ransomware … It's amazing that, despite on the army of angry police officers and rather lengthy "correspondence" with the media, this criminal was never caught. Many suspects were examined, but no reliable evidence was obtained for any of them. Interestingly, today this high-profile case, already 60 years old, remains open in several states of the United States. In 2018, forensic scientists said that they might be able to obtain a sample of Zodiac DNA using stamps from envelopes (for saliva residues), so it is possible that this story will continue.
In the meantime, the Zodiac remains the favorite of the creators of detective stories. This image has been used in various variations already in many novels, rock musicians around the world consistently devote songs and entire albums to the mysterious maniac, and the number of films with the "participation" of the famous serial killer has exceeded fifteen hundred.
Read next: 10 wise tips from the detective queen Agatha Christie
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