Obsessed and unstable: The stars who were murdered by their own fans

Stars have always been easy targets because of their high profiles, it’s easy and common for people to get obsessed with celebrities they don’t know personally. And because celebrity’s whereabouts are often public, they can be a terrifying target. While for some fans admiring their idols from afar is more than enough, others cross the line with their unhealthy obsessions. Here are 10 celebrities who were brutally murdered by those who claimed to adore them.

In 2016, 22-year-old rising star Christina Grimmie was killed by an obsessed fan. She’d just won third place on the TV show The Voice and had a blossoming career in singing, song writing and acting. Christina was signing autographs after her concert when a man named Kevin James Loibl shot her three times. He had travelled from his home in St. Petersburg, Florida to Orlando by taxi with two handguns and a hunting knife. Infatuated with the singer, he came specifically to commit the crime. Grimmie’s brother was at the event and tackled the man, who then shot himself. Grimmie was sadly pronounced dead a few hours later.

Dimebag Darrell was a guitarist in the heavy metal bands Pantera and Damageplan. Damageplan had just begun a show in 2004 when Nathan Gale rushed on stage and shot and killed Darrell. Three others were killed trying to stop Gale who was himself eventually shot and killed by a policeman. According to Gale’s friends interviewed after the fact, he had been a big fan of Darrell’s previous band, Pantera, but also had accused them of stealing music from him. His writings found by investigators suggested that he may have suffered from schizophrenia and was mentally unstable.

Soccer player Albert Ebossé died at the hands of fans after a match on August 23, 2014, in Algeria. After losing the match at a game between JSK and USM Alger, him and his teammates began leaving the field when JSK's fans became aggressive in the stands and threw objects at the two teams as they left the pitch. The players were being showered by projectiles and one struck Ebossé on the head. Shortly after, Ebossé was taken to hospital in Tizi Ouzou; a statement from JSK eventually announced that he had "succumbed to a head injury".

Although The Princess of Wales’ death wasn’t directly linked to an obsessed fan, there was a huge public interest in the royal which some claim inevitably led to her death. Diana died in August 1997 after a car crash in Paris, France. In 2008, the jury decided that Diana had been unlawfully killed by the "grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles [the paparazzi] and of the Mercedes driver Henri Paul." The cause of the crash was officially blamed on the driver and the paparazzi that frequently followed Diana around. It is thought that maybe the driver was driving in an unsafe manner in order to evade photographers.

On the morning of July 15, 1997, legendary fashion mogul Gianni Versace, 50, was walking back to his Miami mansion from a coffee run when he was shot twice in the back of the head by spree killer Andrew Cunanan. According to Vanity Fair, 27-year-old Cunanan claimed to have met the fashion icon in 1990 and bragged that the two were friends, which was later found to be false. The name behind the iconic fashion brand was the last victim of Cunanan's cross-country murder spree, which claimed the lives of five men. Six days after Versace's murder, Cunanan's body was found on a Miami houseboat, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The American rapper Tupac Shakur left a musical legacy that continues but has also become part of today’s popular culture. The artist, who was also a poet and activist, was assassinated at the age of 25 on September 13, 1996. In his case, the identity of the murderers is still unknown and remains one of history’s most notorious murders. He was shot four times in Las Vegas while stopped at a red light in his vehicle. This case remains unsolved, nevertheless, there have been many theories circling the internet with some believing it might be either gang related, a crazed fan or that he is still actually alive!

Selena was a Mexican American born and raised in Texas, she was a legend for many as she was the first major Latin celebrity to break the mainstream music industry, her songs were chart-topping and won Grammy awards, but she quickly became a beauty and style icon. Yolanda Saldívar’s interest in Selena bordered on obsession, she was said to have Selena’s photo and memorabilia all over her apartment before she ever met the star. She soon became Selena’s boutique manager and friend, but it came out that Saldívar had been embezzling money. In 1995, when this became clear to Selena and her family, Saldívar lured Selena to a hotel room where the two got into an argument, and Saldívar shot Selena in the back, killing her instantly.

Heavily favoured to win the World Cup on June 23, 1994, Colombia lost in a shocking 2-1 upset to the United States after Escobar, attempting to block a shot, kicked the ball into his team's own net. Ten days after the match, Escobar was partying with friends, when three people began shouting insults at him and the situation quickly escalated into deadly violence. Gunfire broke out and the footballer was shot 12 times. He was just 27 years old. According to the Los Angeles Times, Colombian authorities believed that drug traffickers who lost big on the game marked Escobar for death.

Probably the most famous fan murder of all time, John Lennon of the Beatles was killed by Mark David Chapman in 1980. The rock icon was shot four times in the back outside his Manhattan apartment building. Chapman waited outside of Lennon’s apartment all day for the star to emerge however at the time it was common for fans to wait outside Lennon’s apartment for autographs. Chapman approached Lennon, asked for an autograph around 5pm, which Lennon gave him. But Chapman didn’t leave and when Lennon returned to his apartment after dinner, Chapman shot Lennon killing him.

The actress, model and wife of director Roman Polaski, was in the prime of her career when she was murdered on August 9, 1969, at the age of 26. The beauty, who was eight months pregnant at the time, was stabbed 16 times by “the Manson Family”. Her murdered Charles Manson, who had aspirations of becoming a musician, had previously attempted to get a record deal but was snubbed which left Manson agitated and disgruntled, leading him to take his revenge on Hollywood.