A Brief History
On March 31, 1995, American singer and “Queen of Tejano Music,” Selena, was murdered, incredibly by the president of her fan club! The bad fan had as part of her fan club duties the responsibility for managing income from club dues, merchandise, and other Selena income, money that she was embezzling. Soon after the thefts were discovered, the fan gone bad shot Selena to death at the age of 23.
Digging Deeper
It may be nice at times to have loyal fans, but some fans go too far. Some examples of fans going overboard include:
John Lennon, former Beatle, was shot to death in 1980 by a fan that had become angry with Lennon’s “materialism.”
TV star Rebecca Schaeffer had a 19 year old fan that stalked and murdered her in 1989, spawning a 20/20 special called “Your Biggest Fan.”
Christina Grimmie, a singer that became famous on The Voice, was murdered by an obsessed fan in 2016.
Question for students (and subscribers): What other fans have gone overboard? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Montague, James. 1312: Among the Ultras: A Journey With the World’s Most Extreme Fans. Ebury Press, 2021.
Perez, Chris. To Selena, with Love: Commemorative Edition. Celebra, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Alkula’s of a Selena memorial in Corpus Christi, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
