- 3 months ago
- #bjork
- #ricardolopez
In 1996, Ricardo Lopez an obsessed fan turned stalker, fueled by pure hatred and racism. Builds an acid bomb and mails it to Bjork.
#Bjork #Bjork Stalker #Ricardolopez
#Bjork #Bjork Stalker #Ricardolopez
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PeopleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge.
00:03Today we are going to be diving into the Ricardo Lopez case aka the Bjork Stalker.
00:10This is one of those rare cases where you get to see and hear first hand the inner thoughts of a celebrity stalker.
00:17There has been a fair amount of videos about this case but they either gloss over some obvious points
00:24and create their own interpretation of why this or that has happened.
00:28If they took the time to study this case and watch the raw footage they would get all the answers to their questions.
00:35There was even an ABC special back in 2004 about it and they totally botched it but that's the mainstream media for you.
00:44Now when I started studying this case I knew briefly about what happened and how but no further details.
00:51Going into this blindly and just started watching.
00:53The raw footage is 20 parts about 22 hours in total.
00:59I didn't watch it all in one sitting of course but once I watched one part I wanted to learn more.
01:06And by the time I got to the end knowing what was about to take place I felt a bit sad.
01:11But knowing what he tried to do you don't feel totally sorry for him.
01:15For those unfamiliar with Bjork she's a pop singer from Iceland.
01:20She's known for songs like Venus of the Boy, Army of Me and her biggest hit Human Behavior back in the 90s.
01:27Anyways let's go ahead and get into this case shall we?
01:31Ricardo Lopez was born January 14th 1975 in Uruguay.
01:40He's the youngest of three boys.
01:42The name of his parents are still unknown.
01:44His family immigrated to the U.S. when Ricardo was two.
01:48Growing up in Georgia and raised in the Jehovah's Witness faith.
01:51Which did play a key role in his thought process.
01:54More on that later.
01:56His family was very loving and supportive and very hard working.
01:59And despite him being very smart getting good grades in school he dropped out of high school when he was 15 to become an artist.
02:07Later on he moved to Hollywood Florida to work for his brother George's pest control company as an exterminator.
02:14His first obsession was with actress Gina Davis but gives her up once he finds out she's getting married.
02:20The date is January 14th 1996 when the camera turns on for the first time.
02:31Ricardo does a few tests to see if his new camera is working.
02:34He makes a few faces and reads out a poem that he wrote.
02:38After a few takes of him trying to recite the poem he gets into the meat of why he's truly recording.
02:44Today is his 21st birthday and as a gift to himself he buys a camcorder and a tripod.
02:50He wants to record his life, his art, and his plans.
02:55He holds up a picture of his newest obsession, Bjork.
02:58He compliments her and her face expressing how beautiful she is.
03:03Then gets right up close to the camera and says she's sleeping with a black man.
03:07He uses a racial slur to describe him but I'm not going to repeat that here.
03:12To him that's unacceptable.
03:13He found out from reading an article in a magazine and calling a celebrity hotline to confirm that yes, she is dating Tricky.
03:22Tricky is a music artist most known for his song Excess which was later used in the soundtrack for Queen of the Damned in 2002.
03:31But in Ricardo's mind Bjork committed the ultimate sin in his eyes.
03:35Thus he feels like she has to pay.
03:38He flat out says that he's going to have to kill her.
03:40He already has detailed plans drawn up.
03:44It's called the Master Blaster.
03:46This device will be disguised as a pop-up folder.
03:50Push a button and something fun pops up.
03:52But upon pressing a certain button it will poke her thumbs.
03:55With a hypodermic needle filled with HIV contaminated blood.
04:00A booby trap.
04:01Thus infecting her and in his mind giving her a death sentence.
04:05He pans the camera over to a detailed drawing of his prototype.
04:11What appears to be a folder with a cassette tape inside that will only be played once.
04:17He will give her misleading clues to buy him more time.
04:21And upon learning that she's infected he's going to kill himself.
04:24But he also states that he's in no hurry to finish his project because he doesn't want to kill himself while his mother is still alive.
04:33He knows that it will hurt her and he loves his mother dearly.
04:36Ricardo then talks about the most important thing in his project is for Bjork to know of his existence.
04:43Quote,
04:43I want to be the most important person in her life.
04:47The one who changed her life.
04:49Unquote.
04:50Little did he know how true that statement would be.
04:52From January 15th to February 2nd he makes daily recordings on a variety of topics.
05:00He obtained Bjork's personal address from a celebrity information service who gives out personal information for a price.
05:08He talks about his work life, his friend and co-worker Ralph, and his brother George.
05:14His philosophy on love and even crack some jokes at times.
05:17And from time to time recording himself working on his project.
05:21Ricardo even expresses that he wants love and to be loved.
05:26But because of his self-diagnosed XXY syndrome, that's why he feels he would be no good for anyone.
05:33It's as if he's finally comfortable finding someone to talk to and be as open as he can without judgment.
05:40Before buying the camera, he used to speak to himself in the mirror.
05:43It's sad that he has no one to express his thoughts to, so he resorts to talking to himself or to a camera.
05:51A whole month passes without any recordings.
05:54It's now March 3rd.
05:56He explains that he abandoned his project and finally calmed down about Bjork being with Tricky.
06:01Ricardo then talks about making a new project that would be more of a 3D image that moves a bit.
06:07The first time Ricardo sent something to Bjork, it was a sculpture that was sent back in 1994 to her fan club.
06:15He shows a rough sketch of a woman surrounded by polar bears.
06:19Then he talks about going to Uruguay because of his mother having eye surgery.
06:25March 10th.
06:25He seems pretty excited and upbeat, talking about his upcoming travel plans.
06:31March 15th through the 31st.
06:33He leaves for Uruguay.
06:34The camera finally turns back on on March 31st.
06:38Ricardo talks about his trip and being able to go onto the internet and even signed up for the Bjork fan club page.
06:46April 18th.
06:47Ricardo poses for the camera a few times for his new painting.
06:52Then silence for three months.
06:54It's July 14th.
07:01The camera comes on and Ricardo has a buzzed haircut and glasses on.
07:06He opens up and explains why he hasn't talked in a while because nothing has been going on.
07:11He quit his job recently after having an argument with his brother about two complaints that came in at work.
07:18Plus his company truck was like a garbage can.
07:21George was willing to give him one last chance but Ricardo decided to hell with it.
07:27He leaves a note saying that he quit.
07:30At the same time he turned around and told Ralph that he bought a gun and that no one is going to mess with him.
07:36Even though he hasn't bought a gun yet.
07:38On top of that his phone and cable will be shut off due to an overdue balance and with $4,000 in the bank to live off of.
07:47Ricardo discovers an article about Bjork getting engaged to Goldie, a techno music artist, and states again that he's going to have to kill her.
07:57This time with something a little more quick.
07:59An acid bomb in a hollowed out book and how will he get her to open it?
08:04Attach a letter from a literate stating that this book is being made into a movie and that they want her to write the musical score plus have a small part in the film.
08:14Even the Electra logo is on the envelope.
08:17Clever.
08:18A little too clever.
08:19Ricardo descends into madness slowly.
08:22Going on rants often and even changing what he calls his prime directive.
08:26At first it was to get back at Bjork but now it was about ending his life.
08:31He already believed that he was going to die before Armageddon and that if he was going to die with the monsters he was going to die as a monster.
08:40It seems even though he left the Jehovah's Witnesses he still holds a lot of their beliefs.
08:46That most are going to hell.
08:48Only 144,000 are going to heaven.
08:51Even his thoughts about his family changed, blaming his parents and other people for having kids for selfish reasons.
08:59Because even though he grew up in a loving family, he still ended up screwed up mentally.
09:04His selfishness has reached a new level.
09:06On July 23rd he buys a bottle of hydrochloric acid and after testing it decides it's not strong enough.
09:13So he goes back and buys sulfuric acid.
09:16On July 30th he buys a gun, a .38 special.
09:19He picks it up after the 72 hour waiting period on August 2nd along with hollow point bullets.
09:26August 3rd he tests the bottle that is going to hold the acid.
09:30Because he doesn't have any compressed air yet, he uses a bicycle pump.
09:35He drew a picture of Bjork on some cardboard and taped it to the wall.
09:39First test was with water and a little bit of ink.
09:42It didn't show up too well on the camera so he uses pure ink with a little water and it works perfectly.
09:48It's very scary what kind of device he's building.
09:52He receives a letter from his brother Carlos asking Ricardo to call him.
09:57On August 5th, Carlos flies down to talk with him.
10:00George confronts Ricardo telling him that he needs to get out of Miami.
10:05After arguing and crying, Ricardo agrees to see a psychiatrist and things cool down.
10:11He claims he's a confirmed neurotic and they put him on medication.
10:15He wasn't 100% honest with the therapist, but it was enough to get his family office back.
10:21The rest of the August videos were just of him building the acid bomb.
10:26In early September, he gave George several clues about what he was up to.
10:31About the acid burn scar on his arm, the post office, and him being angry at Bjork.
10:37He has more and more outbursts as the days go by and becomes more emotionally unstable.
10:43He treats the camera as if it's a person instead of an object.
10:46On September 8th, he begins to type up the letter that will entice Bjork to open the book.
10:52I find it weird that he had heard music playing in the background while he was doing this.
10:56It's almost surreal.
10:58The book is almost ready to go.
11:00Just have to add the acid and seal it up.
11:03But he procrastinates a bit.
11:04September 12th, 2.52 a.m., last tape.
11:09Ricardo begins putting the sulfuric acid inside the bottle.
11:12He seals the bottle shut and waits.
11:15He reads a letter that will be for Bjork, telling her of his true motives.
11:20By 8 a.m., the book is closed shut.
11:23By 9 a.m., he takes the package to the post office.
11:26Once he's back, he paints a message for the FBI on the wall.
11:30He then shaves his head, paints his face and head red and green.
11:36The reason for this is to throw off his brother George and anyone else who happens to find his body.
11:43He has a canvas behind him that says,
11:46The best of me, September 12th, playing the song, I Remember You.
11:50He takes a few deep breaths.
11:52He says, That's it, puts a gun to his mouth, and by 2.53 p.m., Ricardo is dead, falling on the floor just out of frame.
12:02On September 16th, an apartment manager noticed something coming out of the walls from apartment A.
12:14It was blood.
12:15So he called police.
12:17When they opened the door to the apartment, they noticed on the left was a body on the floor
12:22and a camera on a tripod pointed towards the chair.
12:26It was Ricardo.
12:27He had been dead for four days at this time.
12:30The police collected the tapes, rewinding a few minutes of the last tape to confirm that it was a suicide.
12:37But when the tape was rewound to the beginning of the last tape,
12:40they discovered that he made and mailed out an acid bomb.
12:44It was mailed on September 12th.
12:46It takes five days to get to Bjork's doorstep.
12:49The clock was ticking.
12:50The FBI was contacted, who in turn called the New Scotland Yard.
12:55They managed to locate the package just in time.
12:58It was in a South London post office.
13:01If it wasn't stopped, then the next stop was to Bjork's home.
13:05The bomb was detonated in a secure location and discovered that it was still viable.
13:10It sprayed acid all over the place.
13:13When Bjork got word of what happened, she made a brief statement for the press before leaving for Spain.
13:19She said she doesn't want fans to take her too seriously.
13:23It's interesting to learn that Bjork and Goldie broke up a week prior to the bomb being sent.
13:28If Ricardo had learned about that, would it have changed his mind?
13:32Probably not.
13:33Bjork felt bad for Ricardo's family, so she sent flowers to them.
13:38A selfless act of kindness, even though Ricardo tried to kill her.
13:42This definitely affected her a lot.
13:44She had hired a minder for her son, so he was always protected.
13:48And she kept her location secret, so nothing like this could ever happen again.
13:52Now, when anyone ever tells the story of Bjork, Ricardo's name will forever be a part of her history.
13:59So, in a way, Ricardo got his wish, after all.
14:01I know this was a dark video, but it's one I wanted to cover for a long time.
14:11See, one of my hobbies is studying extreme human behavior, discovering what makes someone do the extreme things that they do.
14:19So, when I heard about this guy about five years ago, I started searching for the tapes and managed to get my hands on all of them.
14:26Plus, some others I wasn't expecting to find.
14:28I knew little about Ricardo, and I was surprised anyone would stalk Bjork.
14:34So, I went into this with somewhat of a blank slate, and became fascinated yet horrified at the same time.
14:40In these tapes, I'll admit I had a bit of a nostalgia trip going on.
14:44With the music in the background, the different terminology he was using,
14:48having a beeper, still sending out something in the mail, and expecting things to take weeks on end.
14:55Surfing the net, and this was long before Google, long before YouTube, and all those other sites we'd take advantage of now.
15:041996 doesn't feel like it was that long ago.
15:08Watching these videos was like stepping into a time machine.
15:11I mean, back then, in the 90s, I was a teenager.
15:14And I'm still pissed with him that he killed himself on my birthday.
15:17Little bastard.
15:19Anyways, I digress.
15:20I found out from a podcast called Sword and Scale that they covered this case,
15:26and even went so far as to go to the apartment complex,
15:29asking residents there if they had ever heard of this story, and very few knew about it.
15:34They told the guy that no one lives in that apartment, and that it's used for a maintenance closet,
15:39that it was too small for anyone to live in there.
15:42But looking at the bathroom window from the courtyard, he saw shampoo bottles on the windowsill.
15:48So someone was living there after all.
15:51He knocked on the door.
15:52I mean, what was he expecting?
15:54For Ricardo to open it?
15:55But no one answered.
15:56So I found out on Zillow and Apartments.com that that studio apartment was there, but not available.
16:03I guess someone is living there.
16:05It has to be haunted, no doubt.
16:07So what did you think of this case?
16:09Do you think Ricardo could have been stopped?
16:11Let me know down in the comments below,
16:13and if you have any suggestions on cases I should cover, let me know.
16:17If you like this video, be sure to like, comment, and subscribe,
16:21and tickle that little bell icon so you don't miss the next episode.
16:25Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
16:28This is Phoenix signing out.
16:30Have a good evening, and stay safe.
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