Killing Cops for Kicks

IRWIN KRAMER: Mickey and Mallory were natural born killers, Cross-Country criminals, who took many lives, but gained fans along the way.

Two of their biggest fans were Ben and Sara. They followed the same script on a journey that left one man dead in Oklahoma and 35-year-old Patsy Buyers paralyzed in Louisiana. When they confessed to this copycat crime, Patsy shot back in court in addition to Ben and Sara, Patsy sued Oliver Stone and Time Warner for producing a film designed to glorify and incite violence.

IRWIN KRAMER: The trial judge would not hold the procedures liable for copycat crimes and dismissed them from the case. Would Patsy have better luck on appeal? Patsy never lived to see the ruling, but the Appeal’s Court agreed that films designed to incite violence take freedom of speech a bit too far.

Her family pressed on, but could not prove that these filmmakers actually intended to promote violence. Oliver Stone did not win an Oscar for the film, but he and his partners did win the case.