What types of crimes are associated with The Necronomicon, and what makes this hoax so dangerous?
Daniel Harms Assessing the impact of The Necronomicon on crime is a tough problem. Most police officers aren’t trained in understanding the occult, or (worse) are trained badly. When they encounter a crime with strange aspects, they just try to do their best to figure out what’s going on. They pass their interpretations on to journalists, who are also not trained in understanding the occult. By the time it reaches us, it’s a mess already. John and I get plenty of reports of crimes where a hoax Necronomicon is found on the scene. We usually just sigh and toss those in the files, because there’s no occult motivation behind them. Still, we’ve got a couple of cases in the book that we feel are Necronomicon-inspired, and I think I’ve heard of one or two more. I hope the book raises awareness of these issues and encourages people to examine them more closely. What makes The Necronomicon lead to crime? I’m not sure we can blame any book for a person’s actions. However, one of the hoaxes – the
