With the recent lawsuit against Slayer, where the parents tried to sue the band because they believed that their music influenced three teenage fans to brutally murder their daughter, I felt this was a good opportunity to look at the history of music being used as a scapegoat. 

The first widely publicized case where music was said to influence murder was with the Manson Family. The murderous hippy cult believed that they were receiving messages from the Beatles “white album” calling on them to start a race war that they called “Helter Skelter”. Using song lyrics mixed with the catholic Bible, Charles Manson convinced his followers that the black man would rise up against the white man and eventually triumph. All the while, Charley and his followers would wait out the war, and once it was over they would emerge from the “bottomless pit” to rule the world. But Manson became frustrated when the blacks were too slow to start “Helter Skelter”, so he sent some of his followers out to commit the brutal Tate/LaBianca murders in hopes of pinning the blame on black militants and sparking the race war he sought. 

While the white album contains some rather strange music and lyrics, only someone who is mentally unhinged to begin with could derive the messages Charley and his Family claimed to have received from it’s content. 

In the past we saw two high profile lawsuits against heavy metal artists, Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest. Both lawsuits claimed that the lyrical content of music performed by these artists consciously and unconsciously influenced teenage fans to commit suicide. 

In the Osbourne case the family of the teen who committed suicide while listening to Ozzy’s “Blizzard of Ozz” album, claimed that the lyrics to “Suicide Solution” had convinced the teen to kill himself. The song deals with the tragedy of drinking yourself to death and was inspired by the death of AC/DC vocalist Bon Scott who, after a night of heavy drinking, fell asleep in his car and died of hypothermia. However, attorney’s for the parents of the suicide victim claimed that the song sent a subliminal message that told the listener "Why try, why try? Get the gun and try it! Shoot, Shoot, Shoot".  Ozzy stated after these allegations surfaced that the part of the song in question was just him playing around with vocal effects in the studio and has no hidden meaning or message. "I swear on my kid's life I never said 'get the f***ing gun'". The family was unsuccessful in pinning the blame on Ozzy. 

In a similar case, Judas Priest was accused on influencing two teens to join in a suicide pact with alleged subliminal messages on their “Stained Class” album. The parents of the victims claimed that the album contained hidden messages like  "Try Suicide," "Let's Be Dead," and "Do it, Do it". 

In this case, two disturbed teenagers joined in a suicide pact after spending the day drinking beer, smoking pot and listening to the “Stained Class” album. One of the teenagers shot and killed himself instantly, while the other blew off his jaw, mouth and nose with the shotgun, but lived for another three years. 

An attorney for Judas Priest and CBS records told the judge in the case, "There are no hidden messages on the records. These two young men had many problems with drugs, alcohol, scrapes with law enforcement and loss of jobs."

Then there is the case of the “West Memphis Three”. In this case, three teenage metal fans were accused and convicted (using circumstantial evidence) of brutally murdering three young boys. The basis of the case was what seemed to be a coerced confession from one of the accused. Jessie Misskelley, confessed to the crime after spending hours being interrogated by West Memphis police. No one really knows what occurred during that interrogation because the officers did not keep a recording of the proceeding. Add to that the fact that Misskelley’s low IQ made him susceptible to coercion.  These boys were singled out as suspects based on the fact that they dressed in black and listened to bands like Metallica. Aside from the suspect confession, no solid physical evidence was presented at the trial linking the teens to the murder. However, evidence was presented by the defense that may have linked the murders to another suspect, which should have presented the jury with enough reasonable doubt to acquit. As it stands now, the accused are seeking a new trial.

Recently, another case has surfaced where the parents of a murdered 15-year-old girl are seeking damages from the metal band Slayer, because they believe that the bands’ music influenced three individuals to murder their daughter.

The three murderers are presently serving 25-year-to-life sentences for the crime after pleading no contest to the charges. When arrested they told authorities that they perpetrated the murder to make a pact with the devil that would give them the “craziness” to take their own death metal band to a professional level. 

Continued