Celebrity Stalker Cases
We take a look at the most infamous, creepy and downright bizarre celebrity stalker cases in history. Scary…
Winona RyderWinona Ryderhas revealed that she once had a "creepy" stalker, but he left her for someone else.
Earlier in her career a guy who was a regular extra in her movies was starting to be "really creepy" towards her, but when she reported him to her director, the man insisted he was "not even obsessed" with her any more as he had moved on to another star, Alyssa Milano.
Asked if she'd ever had a stalker, she said: "Yeah. I did. I had a few. One was really nice. He kept showing up as an extra on movies, and you don't know. You have to be careful. So I told the director, because he was kinda creepy. And I got this letter in my trailer the next day that was like, 'I was just trying to get work as an extra! Just so you know, I'm not even obsessed with you anymore, I'm obsessed with Alyssa Milano now!' So he kind of left me for Alyssa Milano."
Rex FeaturesKeanu Reeves suffered a case of life imitating art when two women broke into his home over two days. The actor is soon to star in a film called Knock Knock, which is about two women turning up on his doorstep and wreaking havoc on his life. Then Keanu faced two female stalkers breaking into his home in REAL LIFE. The first came and sat in his library, and was found by the actor sitting calmly in a chair, and the second broke in via an unlocked door and swam naked in his pool.
After a 39-year-old man was arrested for "breaking into" Sandra Bullock's home, the 49-year-old actress has now reportedly filed a restraining order against the man.
According to TMZ a protective order is only issued if the actress has reason to fear the suspect.
WENNJustin Timberlakewas forced to take a restraining order out against Karen McNeil after the 48-year-old JT-obsessive was caught loitering on his Hollywood estate for the third time. It was reported the “heavyset” woman “trespassed onto [Timberlake's] property, attempted to gain access into his home, and delusionally claimed to be friends with him.” She must now stay at least 100 yards away from the Sexy Back singer, his home and his car. Shockingly, this isn’t the first time said stalker has been court ordered to stay away from a star: Gun ‘N’ Roses rocker Axl Rose had a similar order placed on her too back in ’97. In the words of JT: What Goes Around… Comes Around, McNeil.
Big PicturesA 29-year-old British man queued at London’s flagship Waterstone’s book store for a reported five hours to see X Factor songstress Leona Lewis, then punched the Bleeding Love singer in the face when he finally reached the front. He was arrested at the scene as a badly-shaken Leona escaped with slight bruising.
Big PicturesWelsh beauty Catherine Zeta Jones was targeted by a crazed stalker when she left Blighty’s fair shores and hooked up with Hollywood heavyweight Michael Douglas. Believing that our Cath was only with Douglas for his money, Dawnette Knight sent some truly evil, disturbing letters to the Chicago starlet, threatening to ‘slice’ her up ‘like meat on a bone’. Luckily for the Zeta-Jones-Douglas’, Knight was sent to prison in 2005. Catherine said at the time: "You will never be famous, you will never be infamous; you are just a criminal."
WENNIn 2000, pizza delivery boy Dante Michael Soiu sent actress Gwyneth Paltrowup to five letters a day with flowers, chocolates, packages of porn and pizza (?!). He was declared legally insane at the trial and detained in a high-security psychiatric hospital in California indefinitely.
Big PicturesIn what could be considered the greatest declaration of love in history, middle-aged homeless man William Lepeska figured the way to catch the eye of tennis hottie Anna Kournikova, was to swim naked towards her Miami Beach estate, presumably to flaunt the ‘Anna’ tattoo on his right thigh. He was arrested when he got out on to the pool deck of the wrong house. Still naked, and reportedly shouting “Anna, save me!” Lepeska was sent to a secure facility in Florida. He had been previously obsessed with Spice Girl Mel B but said, and quote: “finally I said the heck with her, moving on to greener pastures”.
WENNIn 2006, ‘author’ Dessarae Bradford ambushed Colin Farrell during filming of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, climbing on-stage and handing both Colin and Jay a copy of her latest self-published book ‘Colin Farrell: A Dark Twisted Puppy’. This was, in fact, Dessarae’s second book – she wrote the perplexing but nonetheless entertainingly titled ‘I F**ked Alec Baldwin In His A*s’ as well. A court since ordered that Bradford must stay at least 150 yards from the Irish actor and his family.
WENNIn 2001, 46-year-old Diana Napolis claimed that Steven Spielberg and his wife were part of a satanic cult operating out of his basement, and that the Oscar-winning director had implanted a microchip called a ‘soul-catcher’ in her brain. He hadn’t – and a judge ruled that Napolis posed a serious threat and barred her from coming within 150m of Spielberg or his family.
PA PhotosBut Diana Napolis didn’t stop there. She soon turned her attentions to actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, whom she believed was using mind controlling "cybertronic" technology to manipulate her body. After threatening letters and several frightening confrontations on the red carpet, Napolis was committed to a state hospital, and is barred from any contact with the actress or her family for ten years.
WENNIn 2001, Sharon Stone came home to find Italian kitchen porter Agostino Pomato in her pool house. He professed his love and said he had travelled from Italy to make her his wife. Luckily, Sharon’s driver and gardeners stopped him for getting too close to the Basic Instinct starlet, and he was deported from the US back to his native Italy. Pomato didn’t learn his lesson though, and just a year later he was back on American soil, informing supermodel Claudia Schiffer that the pope had ordered them to marry. Tut-tut. He was later sectioned under the mental health act.
PA Photos46-year-old Robert Gardner stalked Janet Jackson for NINE years, sending letters and showing up at random events – even the 2004 trial of her brother Michael. During the trial, Gardner confessed he believed himself and Janet were “in a relationship”, and was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from the singer and her family.
WENNIn one of the most infamous Hollywood stalker cases in history, John Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster. After becoming obsessed with cult psycho flick Taxi Driver, in which Foster played 12-year-old prostitute Iris, Hinkley moved close to Yale University where the actress was studying, and took to slipping poems under her dorm-room door to get her attention. When that didn’t work, he outlined plans to assassinate the president, claiming that the shooting was “the greatest love offering in the history of the world”. Hinkley made good on his promise – he fired six shots at Reagan later that day. Reagan survived, and Hinckley was confined to a Washington hospital indefinitely.
Big PicturesIn an attempt to win the heart of leggy actress Uma Thurman, Jack Jordan – a 37-year-old who’d had a crush on Uma since high school – sent her sexually explicit cards and drawings depicting the actress’ death. He also repeatedly visited her house and even tried to get into her trailer on a film set, leaving a note that read “my hands should be on your body at all times.” Creep. He was found guilty of fourth-degree stalking and one count of second degree aggravated harassment in 2008.
Big PicturesIn 2005, a Californian judge granted Pamela Anderson a three-year restraining order against Brit William Peter Stansfield, who claimed he wanted the Baywatch babe to star in a movie he had written for her. In order to secure Pam for the ‘role’, homeless 29-year-old Stansfield took to hanging around the starlet’s house, harassing her family and even turning up at her children’s school.
PA PhotosSelf proclaimed ‘self-employed musician’ Cristin Keleher made headlines in 1999 when she broke into the home of legendary Beatles guitarist George Harrisonand helped herself to a frozen pizza. She was jailed for four months for trespassing and theft after Harrison revealed this peckish midnight caller had actually been stalking him for years. Shockingly, Keleher was back in the news in 2007 when her body was found in a car in California.
Big PicturesAll-action, big-nuts, Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx got the better of his stalker. Steven Taliver tricked Foxx into opening the door of his Philadelphia hotel suite by posing as one of Beyoncé's producers, but after realising he didn't know the man, Foxx forcibly removed him from the room and slammed the door in his face. Taliver fled the scene but police caught up with him and later revealed he had tried to bust into Foxx's room on the set of his movie, Law Abiding Citizen (how ironic) on another two occasions. In addition to stalking, Taliver was charged with burglary, making criminal threats, false imprisonment and harassment.
WENN43-year-old Japanese, Britney-obsessive Masahiko Shizawa was ordered to stay 300 yards away from the singer in 2003 after moving from his native Japan to stalk her; sending her hundreds of chilling letters and photographs. One particularly disturbing note read: “I hope that your bodyguard doesn't prevent me from catching you this time." What’s Japanese for CREEPY?
Big PicturesIn ’99, police found stalker Athena Rolando in Brad Pitt’s home, wearing his clothes. And a pair of piggy slippers. Upon searching the woman, they found she was carrying a book on witchcraft and, inexplicably, a foot-long safety pin wrapped with ribbons. Rolando claimed that voices led her to Brad's home and was ultimately sentenced to three years’ probation and psychological counseling.
WENNBeing party to the most famous celebrity marriage on the planet doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Victoria and David Beckham have found themselves victim to many an obsessed fan and kidnap plot since their fame peaked in the late ‘90s. In ‘99, police helped foil a plot to snatch the Spice Girl and son Brooklyn, then a further kidnap plot involving Victoria and the boys surfaced in '02. That same year, former escort Chinyelu Obue was detained under the mental health act for bombarding Becks with naughty letters and raunchy pictures of herself – even going as far as breaking into his Cheshire apartment and stealing his post. And in 07, the Beckhams were forced to beef up security yet again when a sexy teenage girl followed David to his hotel room in Toronto – a witness said at the time: “She was using her feminine wiles but everyone was worried about the intense look in her eyes.”
WENNIn one of the more disturbing cases of celebrity stalking, homeless Robert Dewey Hoskins was jailed for 10 years in 1996 after making violent threats against queen of pop Madonna. Serial Madge-offender Hoskins attempted to get up close and personal to the Material Girl on three separate occasions before his final arrest, when he was shot and wounded in a brawl with guards. He threatened to slice the singer’s throat and kill her bodyguards, even managing to get within ten feet of her after scaling the wall of her LA home in ’95. It is reported Hoskins even wrote ‘Madonna’s stalker’ all over the walls of his cell. Blimey.
Rex FeaturesQuite possibly the most chilling and tragic stalker case in history; in 1980, Mark David Chapman travelled to New York, intent on killing legendary Beatles singer John Lennon. After spending the afternoon outside Lennon's apartment, the now infamous Dakota building — during which he received an autograph from Lennon — Chapman shot the music legend in the back. Charged with second-degree murder, he has been in Attica State Prison ever since and has been denied parole five times.
