Dark inspiration of the Goth rocker Manson

Brian Warner is a multi-millionaire whose luxurious lifestyle has been built on a reputation for promoting death and destruction among teenagers. He is better known as Marilyn Manson.

The stage name mimics the sexuality of Marilyn Monroe while celebrating the deeds of the cult killer Charles Manson. The singer has been vilified for his Satanic lyrics.

Allegedly inspired by his music, the self-proclaimed Goths Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris walked into their school in Columbine, Colorado, on 20 April, 1999 and shot dead 12 other students and a teacher. Then they killed themselves.

The previous year, in October, 1998, Jay Fieldon Howell, 17, of Fort Worth, Texas, sat and watched a Manson video with a 14-year-old girl in his home. When it was finished, he took her to a shed in the back yard and stabbed her in front of a Satanic altar. In both cases, the influence of Manson, right, was cited by authorities as a possible contributing factor. The singer denies it.

For Luke Mitchell, an archetypal rebel without a cause, Manson’s dark, depressive music with lyrics advocating murder and suicide also appears to have struck a chord. As a moody teenager with a fascination for knives, violence and the occult, Mitchell, who smoked large amounts of cannabis, told police he found the shock-rocker’s music “trance-like”.

Mitchell’s fascination with Manson became central to the case after detectives spotted similarities between Jodi’s murder and that of a Hollywood actress, Elizabeth Short, in 1947 which Manson has highlighted. He has painted graphic water-colours of the brutal killing which he sells for up to £25,000. During the Jodi Jones trial Manson’s paintings were shown to the jury as a pathologist, Professor Anthony Busuttil, pointed out similarities in the wounds suffered by both victims.

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