After John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981, police found The Catcher in the Rye in his hotel room. Hinckley later admitted to being an admirer of Chapman and studying his attempt on John Lennon.
At his trial, Mark Chapman read what is perhaps The Catcher in the Rye's most famous passage: I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around–nobody big, I mean–except me.
Robert John Bardo, who murdered Rebecca Schaeffer, was carrying the book when he visited Schaeffer's apartment in Hollywood on July 18, 1989 and murdered her