History Main / MonsterFangirl

* Male examples: in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' fanfiction ''The Yellow Mile'', a grown-up Maggie, who is on death row after [[spoiler:killing one of the gangsters who murdered her parents,]] briefly contemplates the number of marriage proposals she's been getting.

Their fate is usually to be casually discarded to wind up [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness another victim]] or to go to jail for the crimes they commit to aid the Monster, often screaming declarations of love all the way. As a villain is not always redeemed, the woman's deluded attraction to the dangerous psychopath may also be a romantic manifestation of TooDumbToLive. This will often be a reason to justify the trashiness of TrashyTrueCrime.

* In the ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' episode "Life of the Party", Frasier, after another disastrous blind date, laments:

The Monster Fangirl (and this is almost AlwaysFemale, though the genders may be flipped) might have the belief that LoveRedeems, or she's InLoveWithYourCarnage (in the worst case), or believes that he's really innocent. If she's aware of his evil nature, it's essentially a form of AllGirlsWantBadBoys.

* {{Franchise/Batman}}:
** ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is the girlfriend of ComicBook/TheJoker, an infamous [[MonsterClown homicidal clown]] who terrorizes Gotham City. Harley was originally the Joker's psychiatrist at [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]] until she suffered a major case of CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure, being manipulated by the clown into falling in love with him. Harley is [[MadLove insanely devoted]] to the Joker, despite him being a [[AxCrazy violent]] [[TheSociopath psychopath]] who is [[DomesticAbuser terribly abusive to her]].
** After Harley ditched the Joker for good, the clown prince of crime got himself a new right-hand woman with Alexis Kaye AKA Punchline. A college student who got held hostage by the Joker during an attack on a TV Station, Alexis's infatuation with him eventually grew into an unhealthy obsession as she developed her own Joker-inspired attire and began to randomly poison people around Gotham in order to catch the Joker's attention. The MonsterClown saw potential in her and taught her a modified version of Joker Venom that Alexis tested on the [[DisposableVagrant homeless]]. Punchline finally proved herself to the Joker after she murdered the dean of her college. Additionally, she believes herself to be Harley's SuperiorSuccessor and apparently the Joker actually likes her and treats her better compared to his former henchgirl.

* In one of his limited series, ''ComicBook/{{Venom}}'' gains a crowd of child admirers on Halloween (one wearing a Spider-Man costume, ironically) after saving one from a mugger - the fact that he ''brutally killed'' the mugger is lost on them. He might have even given one an autograph if the police weren't coming.

* ''Literature/IBecameTheVillainTheHeroIsObsessedWith'': SuperVillain Egostic has an ever-growing fan club, due to a combination of [[DoNotAdjustYourSet forcefully broadcasting]] his attacks, killing supervillains instead of putting them in CardBoardPrison, and not actually killing any innocents. On multiple occasions, when Egostic sets up a HostageSituation, he finds fangirls of his amongst the hostages. Once, a group of them ask for his autograph. On another occasion, the fangirl feigns fear of him, before he asks her when his first attack was and she lists the date, exposing her, all the while his live-stream is filled with messages from women saying they wish they were in her place right now.

* The ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' franchise has Bellatrix Lestrange, tenaciously devoted fangirl to Voldemort, and [[WordOfGod according to J.K. Rowling]], is obsessed with Voldemort despite his complete inability to feel love, compassion, or even pity for another being.

* Sissi from the ''Literature/NightfallSeries'' [[spoiler: has become obsessed with Prince Vladimir, the BigBad who has destroyed the world and is breeding the surviving humans for vampire food. She's drawing pictures of him and is writing stories about him. She ends up at the Resistance because she's gone on a probably deadly journey to meet him.]]
* The [[Literature/ParkerPyneInvestigates Parker Pyne]] story "Have You Got Everything You Want?" by Creator/AgathaChristie has a milquetoast man arrange the theft of his wife's jewelry as he's being blackmailed over his having an affair years earlier. In actual fact, he didn't even ''have'' an affair; a frightened young woman fleeing a jealous husband spent the night in his hotel room, which is enough to cause a scandal, but he's firmly advised never to reveal that, as he's only interesting to his wife if she thinks her love redeemed a criminal.

* Baltar's cult in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' sheltered Baltar after his trial from the many, many people who wanted him dead.

* Several episodes of ''Series/CriminalMinds'', with "Riding the Lightning" and "The Angel Maker" being the most prominent examples.
** In "Riding the Lightning", the SerialKiller has a horde of fangirls who call themselves "The Brides of Jacob" and deliberately dress up as his victims.
** In "Devil's Backbone", PsychoTherapist Antonia Slade has either several Monster Fanboys including the unsub or just the unsub using several aliases.
* {{Gender Flip}}ped in ''Series/CriminalMindsSuspectBehavior'' with Veronica Day's Monster Fanboys.
* In ''Series/{{Flashpoint}}'', "Jamie Dee" takes a hostage to steal a police car. It turns out the "hostage" is one of his fangirls. [[spoiler: However, he's [[TheWoobie not what]] he seems]].
* The "fiancée" of Nate Haskell in the ''Series/{{CSI}}'' episode "Targets of Obsession". He has a whole ''club'' of Monster Fangirls.
** This reaches new highs of psychosis in "Father of the Bride", where fangirl Tina Vincent [[EvilLaugh cackles maniacally]] at her own capture, and spends her interrogation alternately smiling at taunting the cops with how much ''better'' [[SerialKiller Nate Haskell]] is than them.

* ''{{Series/Frasier}}'': in the episode "Life of the Party", Frasier, after another disastrous blind date, laments:
-->'''Frasier''': Murderers on Death Row can find women to marry them! I can't find one who'll sit through coffee with me!\\
'''Niles''': It's easy for those men to attract women, they have all that time to work out in the yard.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode "Seizure": Kevin Reddick, a death row inmate known as the [[SerialKiller Motel Ripper]], attracted these, including a research scientist he manipulated into committing a copycat killing. [[spoiler:Her boss Dr. Buckman set things in motion to exculpate Reddick because his PET scan showed Reddick did not have a lesion in his brain, which would have discredited Buckman's theory about rage killers. The research scientist, on the other hand, ''did'' have the lesion.]]
** Another episode centered around a recently-paroled killer, who is shown to have his share of "groupies" (which [[DeadpanSnarker Eames]] naturally makes a snarky comment about). [[spoiler:He's not responsible for the episode's main crime, however.]]
* The ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Svengali" featured a homicidal artist who has almost a dozen followers who commit murders, as he encourages them to be creative and to impress him. In the end, he gets sent to a Super Max prison where he will have no contact with anyone on the outside.

* One of the criminals in ''Series/LieToMe'' (a rapist who blinded his victims) had a Monster Fanboy who was so devoted that he married one of the victims so he could be "close" to what had been done to her.

* In the ''Series/Millennium1996'' episode "Lamentation" Lucy Butler comes off as this to Ephraim Fabricant, a notorious SerialKiller she's exchanged vows with over the Internet. [[spoiler: To put it mildly, she turns out to be the more dangerous of the two]].
* ''Series/TigerKing'': Season 2 mentions that in spite of Joe's incarceration for animal abuse and murder for hire, many gay men across the world have declared their love for him and/or written him letters. Joe describes one in particular as his new boyfriend.
** The director of "Tiger King" mentioned that he also received photos of women in bikinis as fan mail, despite the fact that he's gay.
* On ''Series/UnbreakableKimmySchmidt'', the Reverend who held Kimmy hostage for 15 years has a fiancee despite being in prison. Kimmy finds this out when he calls her asking for a divorce (since apparently he legally married her while she was a hostage) and a whole episode revolves around her and Titus trying to convince the woman not to marry him. Turns out the woman is marrying him because of her horrifically low self-esteem; in her words, she's okay with marrying a prisoner because he'll never spend enough time with her to find out how terrible she is.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'': After being convicted for the death of a busload of Nobel Prize winners (an accident that actually been caused by the Pointy-Haired Boss), Dilbert quickly discovers that life in maximum security is surprisingly enjoyable - he's got a large, furnished cell to himself, including an internet connection, and gets a ton of fanmail from women who finds his murderous reputation a turn-on.
-->'''Dilbert''': You know, I'm actually innocent.
-->'''Guard''': Yeah, but I wouldn't let that slide if I were you. *winks*

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders'': Dio has a ''lot'' of these. And they're not all girls, either.

* The Literature/ParkerPyne story "Have You Got Everything You Want?" by Creator/AgathaChristie has a milquetoast man arrange the theft of his wife's jewelry as he's being blackmailed over his having an affair years earlier. In actual fact, he didn't even ''have'' an affair; a frightened young woman fleeing a jealous husband spent the night in his hotel room, which is enough to cause a scandal, but he's firmly advised never to reveal that, as he's only interesting to his wife if she thinks her love redeemed a criminal.

Their fate is usually to be casually discarded to wind up [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness another victim]] or to go to jail for the crimes they commit to aid the Monster, often screaming declarations of love all the way. As a villain is not always redeemed, the woman's deluded attraction to the dangerous psychopath may also be a romantic manifestation of TooDumbToLive.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Karla Homolka, wife of Canadian sexual sadist and killer Paul Bernardo, was one of these and an active accomplice in his crimes but successfully portrayed herself to the court as a scared wife forced to go along with him in order to get a reduced sentence in exchange for providing evidence against her husband.
* Lots of {{serial killer}}s and {{spree killer}}s have gotten this, developing substantial fandoms from people who wanted to strike up relationships with them. Some famous examples include:
** Marriage proposals to inmates, and serial killer groupies. Quite famously, the "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez wound up [[https://www.bustle.com/articles/166062-where-is-richard-ramirezs-wife-today-doreen-lioy-is-mysterious actually marrying one of his admirers]]. Scott Peterson, a man convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in a [[IfItBleedsItLeads highly-publicized trial]], received his first proposal from someone wanting to be the next Mrs. Peterson [[http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/No-shortage-of-women-who-dream-of-snaring-a-2689657.php barely an hour after he arrived on death row]] while the jailers were busy answering to the telephone to admirers asking about his new postal address.
** This is often called "Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome", although they didn't have nearly as many fans as Hollywood might suggest, especially once they became known as cop-killers. Some other criminals of the time period, like John Dillinger and Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, had far more.
** The "Free Jahar" (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger Boston Marathon bomber) fangirly squeefest. Even ''Magazine/RollingStone'' magazine got caught up in this one, running [[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/jahars-world-20130717 a controversial cover story]] that featured a profile of the young Tsarnaev describing him as [[DracoInLeatherPants "a beautiful, tousle-haired boy with a gentle demeanor, soulful brown eyes and the kind of shy, laid-back manner that 'made him that dude you could always just vibe with,'"]] accompanied by [[https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-inconvenient-image-of-dzhokhar-tsarnaev a glamorous-looking cover shot.]]
** "Columbiners" are a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smk3HaIeYjY subculture of people obsessed]] with the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School Massacre]] and its perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Many take it well beyond just an ordinary TrueCrime enthusiasm into idealizing "Reb and [=VoDKa=]" as heroes for disaffected youth, with three of them winding up implicated in [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwpd4n/speaking-to-columbiners-about-depression-suicide-and-the-halifax-shooting-plot-232 a (thankfully thwarted) mass murder plot of their own]] in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and another one, around the time of the twentieth anniversary of the shooting, going so far as to travel from [[OnlyInFlorida Florida]] to Columbine High School in a failed attempt to pull off [[https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/fbi-launches-manhunt-for-sol-pais-surfside-teen-accused-of-threatening-columbine-and-other-colorado-schools-11149318 a repeat of the massacre.]] Less thankfully, one Columbiner in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}} actually did manage to imitate his heroes and [[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1568631/Biography-of-a-teen-killer.html kill eight people at his school.]]
** Similarly, James Holmes, who shot up a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado during the premiere of ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', gained a following of [[http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/users/2015/07/james_holmes_fandom_years_after_the_aurora_movie_theater_shooting_holmies.html "Holmies"]] afterwards.
** Likewise with the [[http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/04/cruzers-are-fans-of-school-shooter-nikolas-cruz.html "Cruzers,"]] fans of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, who flooded the jail in Broward County, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} with a deluge of fan mail and phone calls, some even giving money for his commissionary account. Nikolas Cruz even discussed with his brother about setting up a fan club, to gather money and love letters.
** The notorious SerialKiller Ted Bundy was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spD_66UkXP0 fairly handsome man,]] something that was not lost on people when Creator/{{Netflix}} premiered the TrueCrime {{documentary}} ''Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes'', nor when Creator/ZacEfron starred as Bundy in ''Film/ExtremelyWickedShockinglyEvilAndVile'' around the same time (both were directed by Joe Berlinger). [[https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/panbeb/ted-bundy-why-are-people-stanning-one-of-the-70s-most-notorious-serial-killers "Hot Ted Bundy"]] soon became a meme, to the point where Netflix felt obliged to remind people that there were thousands of other attractive men in their other programs who weren't serial killers.
** Jeffrey Dahmer, the "Milwaukee Cannibal", managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWoEBVogrbs&lc=UgwXfqE9dNGs2QCQSvN4AaABAg.97EbQoJWTtj97RgONaOzkf get fans squeeing over him.]] This is mainly due to his somewhat sympathetic backstory,[[note]]He suffered severe mental illness and compulsions, at least part of it due to prenatal neurological damage, his mother having taken over twenty psychiatric meds while pregnant with him[[/note]] pitiful persona,[[note]]He was meek and mild in interviews, and often expressed some genuine guilt, regret, and remorse.[[/note]] [[https://i.ibb.co/tMXkGLg/Annotation-2020-05-04-182855.png nerdish]] but [[https://i.ibb.co/28K792F/Annotation-2020-05-04-182731.png rather]] [[https://i.ibb.co/9vkZnrZ/Screenshot-2020-10-27-171855.png hunky]] PrettyBoy good looks, and other factors. Some romanticize his crimes into some twisted "murder & cannibalism for love". It also doesn't help that, like Ted Bundy, he also has a hot PrettyBoy former TeenIdol, Creator/RossLynch, playing him in ''ComicBook/MyFriendDahmer''. Female admirers either ignore the fact that Dahmer was gay or see his orientation as a perk. [[note]]FANGIRL: "I'd be safe around him and GuyOnGuyIsHot!"[[/note]] Many see Dahmer as one of the very few genuinely sympathetic serial killers, an otherwise decent fellow who was driven into evil and seemed to regret it.
** The "TrueCrime community" (or TCC) on Website/{{Tumblr}} has a bad reputation for this and has often been accused of glamorizing serial killers and mass murderers and trying to whitewash or justify their actions. Many of the fandoms described above (Columbiners, Holmies, Cruzers) were born from and have their main presences in Tumblr's true crime community, which also has a not-insignificant degree of overlap with the site's alt-right presence. Many of the more grounded true crime enthusiasts on Tumblr often despair at the reputation the community has.
** Yuka Takaoka, a 21-year-old woman who stabbed a man with a kitchen knife in 2019, claimed to have done so out of love, supposedly wanting to kill him and then herself because she could not bear the thought of them being apart. She gained a following among the anime community due to her rather attractive looks and her reputation as a "real-life {{yandere}} girlfriend", with a few [=GoFundMe=] pages even being created in an attempt to raise funds to bail her out. (Luckily, none gained significant traction before getting deleted, and at any rate, Japan does not allow bail for attempted murder.)
** [[https://heavy.com/news/2018/04/nasim-aghdam-youtube-shooting-suspect-channel-instagram-photos/ Nasim Aghdam,]] who shot and wounded three people and then killed herself at Website/YouTube's headquarters [[DisproportionateRetribution because she felt that they were unfairly blocking her videos]], was immediately noticed on many of the internet's [[{{Imageboards}} various crawlspaces]]. Not just because many of them sympathized with her specific grievances, but also because she was a very attractive woman of Iranian descent who often wore sexy and flamboyant outfits in her videos.
** Luka Rocco Magnotta, who filmed himself murdering Jin Lun and then dismembering and raping his body, has [[https://torontosun.com/2014/08/27/luka-magnotta-answers-fan-mail-from-jail-report admirers sending him love letters.]]
** Belgian ChildKiller Marc Dutroux has teenage girls sending him love letters. In his first months, admirers sent him enough money he was able to ''buy'' his own TV instead of renting it from the prison.
* In a non-romantic example, a number of mass murderers, especially those motivated by hatred of women, have gotten fandoms from the HeManWomanHater "incel" community, who see them as rebels against a system that they think denies them love and affection. (In other words, instead of directly falling in love with a killer, they think that the killer's crimes will improve their love lives.) Elliot Rodger, the Isla Vista, California shooter who [[ManifestoMakingMalcontent left behind a detailed manifesto]] (including a Website/YouTube video) outlining his motivations, is especially notorious for getting this, to the point some had nicknamed him "Saint Elliot."
* There's even people who squee over Nazi war criminals like Joseph Mengele and make cutesy Chibi fan art of the guy. Much like Bundy, his TallDarkAndHandsome appearance probably plays a part.
* John Hinkley Jr. attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981 due to his admiration of Travis Bickle from ''Film/TaxiDriver''. After getting parole in 2020, he began a musical career, and unfortunately many of his fans now actively applaud his assassination attempt and call him a "national hero" for it.
[[/folder]]

** After Harley ditched the Joker for good, the clown prince of crime got himself a new right hand woman with Alexis Kaye AKA Punchline. A college student who got held hostage hostage by the Joker during an attack on a TV Station, Alexis's infatuation with him eventually grew into an unhealthy obsession as she developed her own Joker-inspired attire and began to randomly poison people around Gotham in order to catch the Joker's attention. The MonsterClown saw potential on her and taught her a modified version of Joker Venom that Alexis tested on the [[DisposableVagrant homeless]]. Punchline finally proved herself to the Joker after she murdered the dean of her college. Additionally, she believes herself to be Harley's SuperiorSuccessor and apparently the Joker actually likes her and treats her better compared to his former henchgirl.

* Issue 3 of the mini-series ''ComicBook/StarWarsVaderDarkVisions'' features a mentally unstable nurse on board a Star Destroyer who falls in love with ''Darth Vader''. Her delusional mind even conjures up fantasies about them straight out of a cheesy romance novel and somehow convincing herself that his every act of murder and violence against a crewman is somehow showing his love for her. It ends exactly how you expect, really, but [[spoiler:sneaking into his quarters ''[[BerserkButton while he has his armor off]]'']] is a [[TooDumbToLive new kind of stupid]].

* ''Literature/IBecameTheVillainTheHeroIsObsessedWith'': SuperVillain Egostic has an ever growing fan club, due to a combination of [[DoNotAdjustYourSet forcefully broadcasting]] his attacks, killing supervillains instead of putting them in CardBoardPrison, and not actually killing any innocents. In multiple occasions, when Egostic sets up a HostageSituation, he finds fangirls of his amongst the hostages. Once, a group of them ask for his autograph. On another occasion, the fangirl feigns fear of him, before he asks her when his first attack was and she lists the date, exposing her, all the while his live-stream is filled with messages from women saying they wish they were in her place right now.

* ''Literature/TheFinalGirlSupportGroup'' has Chrissy Mercer, aka "Crazy Chrissy". Having been the FinalGirl survivor of a killing spree, she went on to sell killing spree memorabilia and run a "murderabilia" museum out of her house in Montana, and philosophizes about the relationship between final girls and slasher killers while connecting the slasher phenomenon to ancient Greek Dionysian cults. Her boyfriend Keith may or may not be a SerialKiller. [[spoiler:That said, it turns out that she was ultimately no threat, and in fact tried to warn Lynette that Stephanie was the real villain.]]

* The Literature/ParkerPyne story "Have You Got Everything You Want?" by Creator/AgathaChristie has a milquetoast man arrange the theft of his wife's jewelry as he's being blackmailed over his having an affair years earlier. In actual fact he didn't even ''have'' an affair, a frightened young woman fleeing a jealous husband spent the night in his hotel room, which is enough to cause a scandal, but he's firmly advised never to reveal that, as he's only interesting to his wife if she thinks her love redeemed a criminal.

* In the ''Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent'' episode "Seizure": Kevin Reddick, a death row inmate known as the [[SerialKiller Motel Ripper]], attracted these, including a research scientist he manipulated into committing a copycat killing. [[spoiler:Her boss, Dr. Buckman, set things in motion to exculpate Reddick because his PET scan showed Reddick did not have a lesion in his brain, which would have discredited Buckman's theory about rage killers. The research scientist, on the other hand, ''did'' have the lesion.]]

* ''Series/TigerKing'': Season 2 mentions that in spite of Joe's incarceration for animal abuse and murder for hire, many gay men across the world have declared their love for him and/or write him letters. Joe describes one in particular as his new boyfriend.

* Music/FrankZappa: "The Illinois Enema Bandit", about a real-life criminal who gave his female victims enemas. When sent to court "one girl shouts: "Let the bandit be" and another one shouts: "Let the fiend go free."

* Creator/ChrisRock "You get more respect comin' outta ''jail'' than school..."

* Played With in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal''. [[EvilDiva Courtney Gears]] constantly flirts with [[BigBad Dr. Nefarious]], and willing participates in his vendetta against organic life forms. However, ''[[PsychoSupporter she's]]'' much more [[TheSociopath psychopathic]] and [[{{Sadist}} sadistic]]; while Nefarious does have his [[PetTheDog noble moments]] like [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankAll4One saving Qwark]] and [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankRiftApart giving Lawrence paid paternity leave]], Gears takes advantage of her fame as an IdolSinger to kidnap and torture her fandom for fun and pleasure, and is willing to destroy ~80% of the ''universe's'' population out of xenophobia.

* Inque in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' had a male version. He helped her escape and tried to become like her. She pays him back for his help by giving him a half-way working solution. [[AndIMustScream He becomes something like her, all right.]][[labelnote:what happened?]] When Inque gives him ''half'' of what made her that way he becomes oddly shaped with enormous hands, too big of ears, and a huge MadEye. He can't talk, can barely move, and needs a caretaker to watch over him. Just like Inque.[[/labelnote]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Dilbert}}'': After being convicted for the death of a busload of Nobel Prize winners (an accident that actually been caused by the Pointy Haired Boss), Dilbert quickly discovers that life in maximum security is surprisingly enjoyable - he's got a large, furnished cell to himself, including an internet connection, and gets a ton of fanmail from women who finds his murderous reputation a turn-on.
--> '''Dilbert''': You know, I'm actually innocent.
--> '''Guard''': Yeah, but I wouldn't let that slide if I were you. *winks*

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "Pranksta Rap", Bart fakes his own kidnapping to avoid being punished after sneaking out to a rap concert, and ends up accidentally implicating Milhouse's dad Kirk Van Houten due to hiding in his apartment, and some very unexpected competence from Chief Wiggum. It ends up benefitting everyone involved; Bart gets off scott free, Wiggum is promoted, and Kirk loves prison, as he gets three meals a day, and conjugal visits from "Springfield's craziest chicks".
--> '''Lindsay Neagle''': You've kidnapped my heart!

* Karla Homolka, wife of Canadian sexual sadist and killer Paul Bernardo, was one of these and an active accomplice in his crimes, but successfully portrayed herself to the court as a scared wife forced to go along with him in order to get a reduced sentence in exchange for providing evidence against her husband.

** This is often called "Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome", although they didn't have nearly as many fans as Hollywood might suggest, especially once they became known cop-killers. Some other criminals of the time period, like John Dillinger and Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, had far more.

** Likewise with the [[http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/04/cruzers-are-fans-of-school-shooter-nikolas-cruz.html "Cruzers,"]] fans of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, who flooded the jail in Broward County, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} with a deluge of fan mail and phone calls, some even giving money for his commissionary account. Nikolas Cruz even duscussed with his brother about setting up a fan club, to gather money and love letters.

** Yuka Takaoka, a 21-year-old woman who stabbed a man with a kitchen knife in 2019, claimed to have done so out of love, supposedly wanting to kill him and then herself because she could not bear the thought of them being apart. She gained a following among the anime community due to her rather attractive looks and her reputation as a "real-life {{yandere}} girlfriend", with a few [=GoFundMe=] pages even being created in an attempt to raise funds to bail her out. (Luckily, none gained significant traction before getting deleted, and at any rate Japan does not allow bail for attempted murder.)

** Luka Rocco Magnotta, who filmed himself murdering Jin Lun and then dismember and rape his body, has [[https://torontosun.com/2014/08/27/luka-magnotta-answers-fan-mail-from-jail-report admirers sending him love letters.]]

* ''IBecameTheVillainTheHeroIsObsessedWith'': SuperVillain Egostic has an ever growing fan club, due to a combination of [[DoNotAdjustYourSet forcefully broadcasting]] his attacks, killing supervillains instead of putting them in CardBoardPrison, and not actually killing any innocents. In multiple occasions, when Egostic sets up a HostageSituation, he finds fangirls of his amongst the hostages. Once, a group of them ask for his autograph. On another occasion, the fangirl feigns fear of him, before he asks her when his first attack was and she lists the date, exposing her, all the while his live-stream is filled with messages from women saying they wish they were in her place right now.

* In Music/TheBeatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", the titular character murders several people with a hammer, but he still has fans.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* Creator/MadameMacabre's "Killer Love" is from the perspective of a woman who's in obsessive love with a SlasherMovie villain.

* Lummy from ''Manga/FairyTail'' is completely head-over-heels with MadBomber Jackal, [[ThisLoserIsYou a reflection of how fans became so enamored with him despite how he's nothing more than an irredeemable killer]]; on another note, she also changed BeastMan Tempester into a DarkSkinnedBlonde {{Bishonen}} to suit her tastes. [[spoiler:{{Deconstructed|Trope}} when her swooning gets on Jackal's last nerve, driving him to blow her to smithereens]].

The Monster Fangirl (and this is almost AlwaysFemale, though the genders may be flipped) might have the belief that LoveRedeems, or she's InLoveWithYourCarnage (in the worst case), or believes that he's really innocent. If she's aware of his evil nature, it's essentially a form of AllGirlsWantBadBoys turned UpToEleven.

Depressingly, this occurs even in RealLife. In medicine, this is sometimes called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybristophilia hybristophilia]], a paraphilia in which one is sexually aroused by the fact that somebody has committed a heinous crime.

** The "Free Jahar" (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger Boston Marathon bomber) fangirly squeefest. Even ''Magazine/RollingStone'' magazine got caught up in this one, running [[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/jahars-world-20130717 a controversial cover story]] that featured a profile of the young Tsarnaev describing him as [[DracoInLeatherPants "a beautiful, tousle-haired boy with a gentle demeanor, soulful brown eyes and the kind of shy, laid-back manner that 'made him that dude you could always just vibe with,'"]] accompanied by [[https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-inconvenient-image-of-dzhokhar-tsarnaev a glamorous-looking cover shot]].
** "Columbiners" are a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smk3HaIeYjY subculture of people obsessed]] with the [[UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Columbine High School Massacre]] and its perpetrators Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Many take it well beyond just an ordinary TrueCrime enthusiasm into idealizing "Reb and [=VoDKa=]" as heroes for disaffected youth, with three of them winding up implicated in [[https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kwpd4n/speaking-to-columbiners-about-depression-suicide-and-the-halifax-shooting-plot-232 a (thankfully thwarted) mass murder plot of their own]] in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and another one, around the time of the twentieth anniversary of the shooting, going so far as to travel from [[OnlyInFlorida Florida]] to Columbine High School in a failed attempt to pull off [[https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/fbi-launches-manhunt-for-sol-pais-surfside-teen-accused-of-threatening-columbine-and-other-colorado-schools-11149318 a repeat of the massacre]]. Less thankfully, one Columbiner in UsefulNotes/{{Finland}} actually did manage to imitate his heroes and [[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1568631/Biography-of-a-teen-killer.html kill eight people at his school.]]

** Likewise with the [[http://nymag.com/selectall/2018/04/cruzers-are-fans-of-school-shooter-nikolas-cruz.html "Cruzers"]], fans of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, who flooded the jail in Broward County, UsefulNotes/{{Florida}} with a deluge of fan mail and phone calls, some even giving money for his commissionary account. Nikolas Cruz even duscussed with his brother about setting up a fan club, to gather money and love letters.
** The notorious SerialKiller Ted Bundy was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spD_66UkXP0 fairly handsome man]], something that was not lost on people when Creator/{{Netflix}} premiered the TrueCrime {{documentary}} ''Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes'', nor when Creator/ZacEfron starred as Bundy in ''Film/ExtremelyWickedShockinglyEvilAndVile'' around the same time (both were directed by Joe Berlinger). [[https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/panbeb/ted-bundy-why-are-people-stanning-one-of-the-70s-most-notorious-serial-killers "Hot Ted Bundy"]] soon became a meme, to the point where Netflix felt obliged to remind people that there were thousands of other attractive men in their other programs who weren't serial killers.
** Jeffrey Dahmer, the "Milwaukee Cannibal", managed to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWoEBVogrbs&lc=UgwXfqE9dNGs2QCQSvN4AaABAg.97EbQoJWTtj97RgONaOzkf get fans squeeing over him.]] This is mainly due to his somewhat sympathetic backstory,[[note]]He suffered severe mental illness and compulsions, at least part of it due to prenatal neurological damage, his mother having taken over twenty psychiatric meds while pregnant with him[[/note]] pitiful persona[[note]]He was meek and mild in interviews, and often expressed some genuine guilt, regret, and remorse.[[/note]], [[https://i.ibb.co/tMXkGLg/Annotation-2020-05-04-182855.png nerdish]] but [[https://i.ibb.co/28K792F/Annotation-2020-05-04-182731.png rather]] [[https://i.ibb.co/9vkZnrZ/Screenshot-2020-10-27-171855.png hunky]] PrettyBoy good looks, and other factors. Some romanticize his crimes into some twisted "murder & cannibalism for love". It also doesn't help that, like Ted Bundy, he also has a hot PrettyBoy former TeenIdol, Creator/RossLynch, playing him in ''ComicBook/MyFriendDahmer''. Female admirers either ignore the fact that Dahmer was gay or see his orientation as a perk [[note]]FANGIRL: "I'd be safe around him and GuyOnGuyIsHot!"[[/note]]. Many see Dahmer as one of the very few genuinely sympathetic serial killers, an otherwise decent fellow who was driven into evil and seemed to regret it.

** Luka Rocco Magnotta, who filmed himself murdering Jin Lun and then dismember and rape his body, has [[https://torontosun.com/2014/08/27/luka-magnotta-answers-fan-mail-from-jail-report admirers sending him love letters]].

** ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is the girlfriend of ComicBook/TheJoker, an infamous [[MonsterClown homicidal clown]] who terrorizes Gotham City. Harley was originally the Joker's psychiatrist at [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]] until she suffered a major case of CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure, being manipulated by the clown into falling in love with him. Harley is [[MadLove insanely devoted]] to the Joker, despite him being a [[AxCrazy violent]] [[TheSociopath psychopath]] who is [[BastardBoyfriend terribly abusive to her]].

* In Music/TheBeatles' "Maxwell's Silver Hammer":

* Creator/DCComics supervillain and {{Franchise/Batman}} rogue ComicBook/HarleyQuinn is the girlfriend of ComicBook/TheJoker, an infamous [[MonsterClown homicidal clown]] who terrorizes Gotham City. Harley was originally the Joker's psychiatrist at [[BedlamHouse Arkham Asylum]] until she suffered a major case of CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure, being manipulated by the clown into falling in love with him. Harley is [[MadLove insanely devoted]] to the Joker, despite him being a [[AxCrazy violent]] [[TheSociopath psychopath]] who is [[BastardBoyfriend terribly abusive to her]].