Ricardo Lopez aka "Björk stalker" (found video diary/death footage of pest control officer; 1996): Difference between revisions

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{{NSFL|disturbing subject matter/visuals}}
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| THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS NSFL CONTENT; PLEASE BROWSE WITH CAUTION.
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{{InfoboxFound
{{InfoboxFound
|title='Bjork stalker' tapes
|title=<center>"Björk Stalker" (Tapes)</center>
|image=Ricardo lopez day 1.png
|image=RicardoLopezBjorkStalker-Day1.png
|imagecaption=Lopez as he appears on the first day of his recordings.
|imagecaption=Lopez as he appears on the first day of his recordings.
|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
|status=<span style="color:green;">'''Found'''</span>
|datefound=09 Jan - 06 Feb 2014
|datefound=09 Jan 2014 - 24 Sep 2016 - 12 Apr 2019
|foundby=[http://lostmedia.wikia.com/wiki/User:Bun39 bun39], [http://lostmediawiki.com/User:Gavin Gavin] aka [https://www.youtube.com/user/glbracer glbracer]
|foundby=[http://lostmediawiki.com/User:Bun39 bun39], [http://lostmediawiki.com/User:Gavin Gavin] aka [https://youtube.com/user/glbracer glbracer], [https://youtube.com/channel/UCnbw9ctvbyewRaqJzoLxmPw Death Addict] and Nonoseacrest
}}
}}
Ricardo Lopez, now infamously known as the "Björk stalker", was a pest control officer who lived in Hollywood, Florida. He rose to notoriety in late 1996 after creating an acid dispensing device disguised as a promotional package and mailing it to the London residence of Icelandic singer Björk, with whom Lopez had an unhealthy obsession.
On September 12th, 1996, after mailing the deadly device, Lopez shot himself in the head while listening to Björk's cover of the 1941 love song "I Remember You". Lopez recorded roughly 20 hours of video diary footage from January 14th, 1996 (his 21st birthday) up until and including his suicide, documenting his reasoning behind the attack (namely because, on account of his extremely racist views, he detested the fact that Björk had, at the time, dated two men of color, fellow musicians Tricky and Goldie), the process of creating the device and giving insight into his life and mind in general. In addition, '''he also kept a physical diary''', which, by the time of his death, had surpassed 800 pages. It can be seen frequently throughout his recordings.
The package was ultimately intercepted and detonated without incident by the London Metropolitan Police, having been tipped off by American authorities, who had been called to Lopez's apartment on September 16th, after a maintenance worker noticed a lingering foul odor and blood dripping from the ceiling; upon entering the apartment, police discovered a message written on the wall in black paint, reading "THE 8MM TAPES ARE A DOCUMENTATION OF A CRIME. TERRORIST MATERIAL. ''THEY'' ARE FOR THE F.B.I." along with Lopez's tapes, diary, and decomposing body.
==Availability==
For quite some time following the incident, DVD copies of the complete recordings were allegedly made discreetly available for purchase from the Hollywood Police Department's Records Unit, although it is said that they eventually ceased providing them for unknown reasons. However, some claim to have purchased copies from other sources, such as mysterious underground websites, with some copies even showing up on eBay and the like every once in a while.<ref>[http://thedocumentaryblog.com/2007/01/15/the-video-diary-of-ricardo-lopez/ The Documentary Blog article on ''The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez''; 15 Jan 2007.] Retrieved 10 Nov '14</ref>
In years past, a handful of snippets from the footage have come to light in the form of a documentary on the subject titled ''The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez'', with two separate versions released, in 2000 and 2013 respectively, each version running just shy of 1½ hours, the latter including the uncensored suicide footage, which had been leaked online years earlier (albeit in low quality).
However, the complete set of recordings remained unattainable for the vast majority of people, until late 2013, when Lost Media Wiki user bun39 obtained encoded .mp4 copies of the full set of recordings (ripped in hourly installments) and proceeded to send them to then LMW staff member Gavin aka glbracer to upload to YouTube, which he did from early January through early February 2014 (also providing downloadable mirrors of the tapes in a variety of video formats).
Interestingly, keen-eyed viewers who had observed both ''The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez'' and the full set of uploaded tapes noticed that the latter videos were missing a portion of footage shot between September 6th-7th (as is evident from the video's timestamp) which had previously been made available via the aforementioned documentary, suggesting that there might have been additional unreleased footage. This was supported by the fact that the footage cuts off abruptly in the documentary, and was ultimately proven to be true, as YouTuber "Death Addict" uploaded the missing segment on September 24th, 2016 which was given to Zeus (a staff at DeathAddict) by someone named Gabe, who got it from someone at the Swords and Scales podcast who had the footage meaning the Lopez tapes are officially found in their entirety. However, as of July 18th, 2018, Death Addict deleted his YouTube channel and the partial footage was removed from YouTube with 20,000 views.


Ricardo Lopez (now infamously known as the '''’Bjork stalker’''') was a pest control officer who lived in Hollywood, Florida. He rose to notoriety in late 1996 after creating an acid dispensing device disguised as a promotional package and mailing to Icelandic singer Bjork, with whom Lopez had an unhealthy obsession. On the 12th of September, 1996, after mailing the deadly device, Lopez shot himself in the head while listening to Bjork's cover of the 1941 love song "I Remember You"; Lopez had recorded roughly 20 hours of video diary footage from January 14th, 1996 (his 21st birthday) up until (and including) his suicide, documenting his reasoning behind the attack, the process of creating the device and giving insight into his life and mind in general. In addition, he also kept a physical diary, which, by the time of his death, had passed 800 pages and which can be seen several times throughout his recordings.
==External Links==
*[http://reddit.com/r/MorbidReality/comments/1ywhkx/ricardo_lopez_bjork_stalker_faqs_answered_after/ An in-depth FAQ on the tapes, written by Redditor Wulfruna after viewing them in their entirety; 25 Feb 2014.]
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_L%C3%B3pez_(stalker) Wikipedia article on Ricardo Lopez.]


For quite some time following the incident, DVD copies of the complete recordings were made discreetly available for purchase from the Hollywood Police Department, although they eventually ceased to provide them for reasons unknown. In years passed, a handful of snippets from the footage had come to light in the form of two separate documentaries on the subject (each running roughly 1½ hours, one of which included the uncensored suicide footage, which had, notably, been leaked online beforehand, albeit in low quality), although the complete footage remained unattainable for the vast majority of people, until late 2013, when Lost Media Wiki user bun39 obtained encoded .mp4 copies of the tapes and proceeded to send them to Lost Media Wiki staff member Gavin aka glbracer to upload to YouTube, which he did from early January through early February of 2014 (also providing mirrors of the tapes in a variety of video formats).
==References==
{{reflist}}


Interestingly, keen eyed viewers who had reviewed both the aforementioned documentaries as well as the set of uploaded tapes noticed that they seemed to be missing a portion of footage which was visible in one of said documentaries, suggesting that there may still exist additional, unreleased footage (as the missing footage seen in the documentary cuts off abruptly, as if taken from a larger portion of video). Regardless, in contrast to the sheer amount of footage that has been made available of Lopez's video diary, most consider the tapes found.
[[Category:Found media]]
[[Category:Found recordings of real incidents]]
<no-comment-streams />

Latest revision as of 05:14, 8 April 2023

Nsfl.png


This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter/visuals.


RicardoLopezBjorkStalker-Day1.png

Lopez as he appears on the first day of his recordings.

Status: Found

Date found: 09 Jan 2014 - 24 Sep 2016 - 12 Apr 2019

Found by: bun39, Gavin aka glbracer, Death Addict and Nonoseacrest

Ricardo Lopez, now infamously known as the "Björk stalker", was a pest control officer who lived in Hollywood, Florida. He rose to notoriety in late 1996 after creating an acid dispensing device disguised as a promotional package and mailing it to the London residence of Icelandic singer Björk, with whom Lopez had an unhealthy obsession.

On September 12th, 1996, after mailing the deadly device, Lopez shot himself in the head while listening to Björk's cover of the 1941 love song "I Remember You". Lopez recorded roughly 20 hours of video diary footage from January 14th, 1996 (his 21st birthday) up until and including his suicide, documenting his reasoning behind the attack (namely because, on account of his extremely racist views, he detested the fact that Björk had, at the time, dated two men of color, fellow musicians Tricky and Goldie), the process of creating the device and giving insight into his life and mind in general. In addition, he also kept a physical diary, which, by the time of his death, had surpassed 800 pages. It can be seen frequently throughout his recordings.

The package was ultimately intercepted and detonated without incident by the London Metropolitan Police, having been tipped off by American authorities, who had been called to Lopez's apartment on September 16th, after a maintenance worker noticed a lingering foul odor and blood dripping from the ceiling; upon entering the apartment, police discovered a message written on the wall in black paint, reading "THE 8MM TAPES ARE A DOCUMENTATION OF A CRIME. TERRORIST MATERIAL. THEY ARE FOR THE F.B.I." along with Lopez's tapes, diary, and decomposing body.

Availability

For quite some time following the incident, DVD copies of the complete recordings were allegedly made discreetly available for purchase from the Hollywood Police Department's Records Unit, although it is said that they eventually ceased providing them for unknown reasons. However, some claim to have purchased copies from other sources, such as mysterious underground websites, with some copies even showing up on eBay and the like every once in a while.[1]

In years past, a handful of snippets from the footage have come to light in the form of a documentary on the subject titled The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez, with two separate versions released, in 2000 and 2013 respectively, each version running just shy of 1½ hours, the latter including the uncensored suicide footage, which had been leaked online years earlier (albeit in low quality).

However, the complete set of recordings remained unattainable for the vast majority of people, until late 2013, when Lost Media Wiki user bun39 obtained encoded .mp4 copies of the full set of recordings (ripped in hourly installments) and proceeded to send them to then LMW staff member Gavin aka glbracer to upload to YouTube, which he did from early January through early February 2014 (also providing downloadable mirrors of the tapes in a variety of video formats).

Interestingly, keen-eyed viewers who had observed both The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez and the full set of uploaded tapes noticed that the latter videos were missing a portion of footage shot between September 6th-7th (as is evident from the video's timestamp) which had previously been made available via the aforementioned documentary, suggesting that there might have been additional unreleased footage. This was supported by the fact that the footage cuts off abruptly in the documentary, and was ultimately proven to be true, as YouTuber "Death Addict" uploaded the missing segment on September 24th, 2016 which was given to Zeus (a staff at DeathAddict) by someone named Gabe, who got it from someone at the Swords and Scales podcast who had the footage meaning the Lopez tapes are officially found in their entirety. However, as of July 18th, 2018, Death Addict deleted his YouTube channel and the partial footage was removed from YouTube with 20,000 views.

External Links

References

  1. ↑ The Documentary Blog article on The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez; 15 Jan 2007. Retrieved 10 Nov '14
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