Catcher in the Rye

Catcher in the Rye by Salinger is a rather original book, about a teenage anti-hero named Holden Caulfield, an occasional soft drug user and a socially awkward, slightly irritating character...What makes the book influential outside of libraries and home shelves are the theories that some sentences in the book were inserted with murderous intent.

During the arrest of Mark Chapman (John Lennon's killer), this book was found on him, which he was carrying with him during the murder and which he had bought a few hours before he killed Lennon, and there was even a scribbled note in the book that he was planning to do some shit, all signed `Holden Caulfield` and it was rumored that the guy was heard saying `Catcher in the Rye says John Lennon must die`...The alleged killer of Robert Kennedy (Sirhan Sirhan) also owned a copy of this book, as did the alleged executioner of Martin Luther King (James Earl Ray). John Hinckley, who almost assassinated the senile American President Reagan (he managed to shoot him in the chest but narrowly missed his heart), also read The Catcher in the Rye shortly before the assassination...

According to some theories, Salinger (himself a highly mysterious figure) was part of a team that worked on psy-ops, various mind control projects and the creation of "Manchurian Candidates", assassins who are programmed to kill a specific target but that target is communicated to them indirectly along with the order for action - by reading a book that contains commands that serve as a trigger for the program implanted in the assassin's mind. In this way, "undesirable" individuals can be eliminated without any risk that the orderers will be discovered in any way, there is no link that can be proven between the parties involved.

The book was published in the same year (1951) when the first CIA brainwashing program began (Project Artichoke, which would later be followed by the infamous Project MK-Ultra). Salinger led an extremely reclusive life, far from the media and even cut off contact with friends and relatives completely. For a long time, it was speculated that such an author did not exist, others claimed that he had been liquidated and still others that he lived on a mountain. However, Salinger was alive and passed away in 2010 at the age of 91, taking the secrets of his most famous work ``The Catcher in the Rye'' with him to his grave.

If you've read the book and have strange thoughts...it's not your fault, it's the book! And if you're reading it right now and you start muttering or scribbling around `Catcher in the Rye says the neighbor/random character who annoys you must die`, stop reading immediately Personally, I read it translated into Serbian-Croatian and didn't notice a surge of homicidal thoughts in my head, I guess the code is only activated in the original English...

(Roger Mortis, 070)