Although not a HF story, I can relate an incident similar to what you ask
about that resulted in blame being placed on TS, which has generally escaped
the scorn so often piled on HF--

In the 1890s a group of teenagers in St Louis formed a burglary ring and one
of them got shot. On his death-bed the kid claimed they were inspired by TS
to form their gang, and had sworn secret oaths to each other. Somebody
clipped a newspaper story about this and sent it to Twain for comment. I
have the letter Twain sent back, very brief, thanking the sender for "the
sermon" and promising that he would never write a book like TS again.

Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX