COSTA MESA, CALIF. — A man who was killed when a homemade explosive blew up at his home was an eccentric who bicycled around his neighborhood dispensing anti-government conspiracy pamphlets, neighbors said Monday.
"He definitely seemed paranoid about things and people," Donna Swift said. "It was getting more extreme."
Some of what his pamphlets had to say caused him to be held for a 72 hour mental health evaluation some years ago, and he was apparently widely recognized as having serious mental illness problems, but as these things usually go, nothing was done about it:
A long, rambling article called "The Pricker" posted on the Internet mentions the man's address and is subtitled: "A True Story of Assassination, Terrorism And High Treason."
The article, dated 2002 and updated in 2005, says the pricker is a concealable weapon that can inject diseases into victims without their knowledge and contends that U.S. government assassins had infected people with AIDS and other diseases.
A variety of other plots are mentioned and the writer adds: "There are more plots coming, more subtle and powerful motivational implants, robot weapons, biological weapons, and colossal deceptions. We all need to realize that if we do not get this situation under control (or out from under control), that our entire species will perish."This is very sad. He was pretty clearly mentally ill -- but he was not an imminent threat to self or others. Fortunately, whatever he was fiddling with, he never had a chance to use it against others.
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