Poe's novel was inspired by the murder of Captain White. John Knapp hired a man named Richard Crowninshield to kill White on the night of April 6, 1830. The crime was described to him by Daniel Webster.
9) Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoyevsky(1866)
His book was influenced by the criminal Pierre Lacenarie. He was a french murder, who was excuted for a double murder. He augured that he killed them due to social injustice.
8) Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie(1934)
Even though the the book is about the kiddnaping of a three year old girl, the author was inspired by the kidnaping of Charle Lindbergh's son. His kidnapper gave Lindbergh ransom note after ransom note, but never give him his kid back. When they found his son's body, he had been dead for two months.
7) Psycho by Robert Blouch(1959)
Ed Gein
Ed Gein inspired the author to write this novel. He was a disgusting man who took his victims bodies and turned them into furniture. Before becoming a murder, he was a grave robber -he collected body parts as trophies.
6) The Godfather by Mario Pazo(1969)
The Godfather has many allusions to real life mobsters. The Corleone family has similarities to Genovese and Bonanno, the families that committed crimes in reality. With the Bonanno family having two hundred members and the Genovese family having around 300.
5) The Black Dahlia by James Ellray(1987)
Elizabeth Short
The Black Dahlia is based on many of Hollywood's most infamous unsolved crimes. Although this story leans more towards true crime, I'm adding it to the list since the murder hasn't been found and I think adding more publicity to it might help the crime get solved. Elizabeth Short was a real woman who wanted to be an actress. Now that she has been murdered, her dreams haven't been fulfilled.
4) The Silence of the Lambs(1988)
The Silence of the Lambs was also inspired by the exploits of Ed Gein. In the novel the fictional character skins he's victims, but I'm sure if he did it for the same reasons
Gein did.
3) Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold(2002)
Lovely Bones was inspired by the author's personal experience with rape and battery. She was raped as a college freshman, near Syracuse University. The police couldn't identify him in tell she saw him again that same year. The police found him and he was sentenced eight to twenty five years in prison.
2) We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver(2003)
This book was inspired by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's murder of 12 students. The fictional murders in the book took place twelve days before the actual shooting.
1) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo(2005)
The news has claimed the Lizbeth Slander was inspired by serval women in Larsson's life. However, I don't think any of them inspired him more than the real Lizbeth. I found in on serval websites that Larsson had witnessed her getting gang raped. I've said this repetitively in my posts because I believe that if this really did happen, then someone needs to do something about it.
