This case takes the notion of life imitating art to a newly macabre extreme. In 2010, Blake Leibel released his graphic novel, Syndrome. Described as The Truman Show meets Se7en, the story follows a rogue neuropathologist as he attempts to find a cure for evil, using a condemned serial killer as his guinea pig.

Initially met with a lukewarm response, the novel garnered international attention in 2015 after Leibel seemed to use its most violent scenes to commit what's been described as "the most brutal murder in LA's history".