As Taylor Swift deals with deranged NYC stalker, here are times celeb stalking turned into an absolute nightmare

News

By Patrick Reilly

A deranged man has repeatedly been arrested for lingering outside the Manhattan home of Taylor Swift — but released shortly after because his actions were not violent.

David Crowe, 33, could be seen rifling through a dumpster at the pop star’s home on Wednesday afternoon shortly after being charged with stalking and harassment charges.

Here are five instances where celebrity stalking turned into a nightmare:

John Lennon

Beatles legend John Lennon was famously murdered by maniac Mark David Chapman outside of the Dakota Hotel on the Upper West Side.

Chapman had been a massive Beatles fan but became upset with Lennon’s offhand comment that the supergroup was “more popular than Jesus” and Lennon’s lavish lifestyle living in New York City.

Chapman waited outside the hotel for Lennon, who signed an album for him.

He shot Lennon, 40, before notoriously opening a copy of J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” as he waited calmly for police to arrive.

Rebecca Schaeffer

Actress-model Rebecca Schaeffer was tragically shot and killed by stalker Robert Bardo after answering the front door of her Los Angeles apartment in 1989 when she was just 21 years old.

Bardo, an obsessed fan, had paid a private investigator to track down her address through vehicle records.

Bardo remains in prison, serving a life sentence without possibility of parole for the murder.

Schaeffer’s shocking death led to the passage of the first anti-stalking law, California Penal Code 646.9, in 1990 which makes it a crime to “willfully and maliciously harass another person and who makes a credible threat with the intent to place that person in reasonable fear for his or her safety.”

New York State has several similar criminal laws currently in place.

California additionally restricted access to driving records and the creation of a LAPD task force that works with prosecutors, celebrity attorneys and security to keep fans away from stars after Schaeffer’s death, AP reported.

Theresa Saldana

“Raging Bull” actress Theresa Saldana was approached by a crazed stalker outside of her West Hollywood apartment in 1982.

The stranger asked her if she was the famous actress she appeared to be. When she said yes, violent superfan Arthur Jackson stabbed her multiple times with a hunting knife.

Saldana survived when a delivery truck driver fought off her attacker and pinned him down until cops arrived, according to the New York Times. She spent three months recovering in the hospital after the attack.

Jackson had written in his diary that he was on a “divine mission” to bring Saldana “to eternity.”

Christina Grimmie 

“Voice” singer and YouTube star Christina Grimmie, 22, was killed by an obsessed fan while signing autographs at a post-concert event in Orlando, Florida, in 2016.

Grimmie’s killer, Kevin Loibl, was infatuated with the singer and believed that the pair would get married. He became enraged when he was shown pictures of Grimmie with another man. 

Loibl underwent a series of dramatic cosmetic surgeries to appear more attractive to the singer before the murder.

Madonna

Madonna’s security guards shot her stalker Robert Dewey Hoskins after he hopped the fence at her Hollywood Hills estate in 1995.

Hoskins had previously told the singer’s assistants he would either marry Madonna or slash her throat from ear to ear. Fortunately, the “Material Girl” singer was in Miami at the time.

He served a 10-year prison sentence for stalking and threatening Madonna following a 1996 conviction.