Gonzalo Barr

The New Zealand Herald (by way of the Drudge Report) reports today that author, Krystian Bala, was sentenced to 25 years in a Polish jail for “leading” the murder of Dariusz Janiszewski in 2000.  Two years later, Bala published a best-selling novel that described a murder earily similar in many details.  Polish detectives considered the case cold until they received an anonymous tip that they read Bala’s novel carefully.  From there, they managed to unearth more circumstantial evidence, enough to get a conviction, even if not for the murder itself.

The Times lists some other art vs. real life crimes –

— When Simon Mann was seized in 2004 by Zimbabwean security forces, with a planeload of companions and equipment, to face charges of plotting to overthrow Equatorial Guinea’s Government, similarities to Frederick Forsyth’s 1974 novel The Dogs of War were unmistakable

— Errol Trzebinski’s son, Tonio, was murdered in 2001 in precisely the way she describes a murder in her book The Life and Death of Lord Erroll. Ms Trzebinski believes her son’s killers were trying to warn her to stop investigating the life of Josslyn Hay, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, who is the subject of her book; she believes he was killed in the 1940s by British intelligence services

— Stanley Kubrick withdrew A Clockwork Orange from British cinemas in the early 1970s after a series of alleged copycat crimes.  One, the murder of an aged tramp, almost matched a scene in the film.

Sources: Peter Popham, “Writer convicted of murder he described in novel,” New Zealand Herald (Sept. 6, 2007), Roger Boyes, “Crime author charged with murder after the police read his perfect plot,” The Times (Aug. 9, 2007)