There aren’t many things that make a person feel more helpless than being stalked and harassed by a mentally unbalanced individual. A stalker’s obsession with their victim can be so strong that any rejection of their unwanted advances can lead to violence and they will often have little regard for the legal consequences. Believe it or not, there was once a time when stalking victims had very little protection, as anti-stalking laws have only been on the books for a few decades. Unfortunately, as many of these terrifying cases will demonstrate, someone usually had to be victimized before the proper laws were enacted.
Tatiana Tarasoff & Prosenjit Poddar
Tatiana Tarasoff is a prime example of a stalking victim who did not have the proper laws in place to protect her. In 1968, Tatiana became friends with Prosenjit Poddar, a University of California–Berkeley student from India. They shared a friendly kiss at a New Year’s Eve party, which gave Prosenjit the impression that Tatiana was attracted to him, but Tatiana soon clarified that she was not interested in a romantic relationship. Prosenjit could not handle the rejection and developed an unhealthy obsession with Tatiana, often secretly recording their conversations together.
In the summer of 1969, Tatiana left on a trip to Brazil, so Prosenjit went to see Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist at the university hospital. During one of their therapy sessions, Prosenjit openly expressed his intentions to kill Tatiana. Dr. Moore believed Prosenjit was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and informed the campus police, but after police interviewed Prosenjit, they determined that he was not dangerous and decided to let him go. When Tatiana returned from Brazil, she was not informed about Prosenjit’s threats against her. On October 27, Prosenjit went to Tatiana’s house and shot her with a pellet gun before stabbing her 14 times.
Prosenjit immediately turned himself in and was convicted of second-degree murder, but his conviction was overturned because the jury at his trial was not properly instructed. Rather than retry him, the state elected to deport Prosenjit back to India after serving only five years. Tatiana’s family would sue the hospital for their failure to warn her about Prosenjit’s threats. This led to a Supreme Court case, Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, which ruled that mental health professionals have a duty to forgo confidentiality and warn individuals who are threatened by patients.
Theresa Saldana & Arthur Richard Jackson
These days, it’s not uncommon to hear news stories about famous celebrities being stalked by obsessive fans. Thankfully, most of these situations do not escalate into violence. That’s not the case with one of the first celebrity stalking cases to garner national attention, involving actress Theresa Saldana.
In 1982, the 27-year-old Saldana had already been featured in such prominent films as Raging Bull and I Wanna Hold Your Hand, but it was her performance in the movie Defiance that drew the attention of an obsessed fan named Arthur Richard Jackson. Jackson was a 47-year-old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland who had traveled all the way across the globe to illegally enter the United States. Jackson’s plan was to find Saldana, kill her, and join her in the afterlife after he was executed for her murder.
Jackson first hired a private investigator to obtain the phone number of Saldana’s mother. Pretending to be a representative for director Martin Scorsese, he called her and claimed he needed to contact Saldana about a possible film role. After Saldana’s mother provided her daughter’s West Hollywood address, Jackson traveled there and waited outside. When Saldana exited her residence, Jackson stabbed her 10 times with a hunting knife.
The only reason Saldana survived is because a deliveryman named Jeffrey Fenn rushed to her rescue and subdued Jackson. Saldana made a full recovery and Jackson was given a 12-year sentence for attempted murder. Jackson continued to write threatening letters to Saldana while in prison, but would be extradited to the United Kingdom to stand trial for another unrelated murder. After her recovery, Saldana became a prominent advocate for victim’s rights and even decided to relive her traumatic ordeal by playing herself in the made-for-TV movie Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story.
