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sinkingfeeling

(51,274 posts)
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 11:34 AM Jan 2014

Massive cache of explosives, bomb manuals found in Maryland home

Source: MSNBC.com

A Maryland man was being held on $400,000 bond Tuesday after local, state and federal authorities discovered working bombs, more than 100 pounds of bomb-making chemicals and numerous manuals for creating bombs and booby traps in his home, police said.

The man, Todd Dwight Wheeler Jr., 28, of Glen Burnie, in the Washington suburbs, was held on two counts of making explosives, two counts of possessing explosive materials and one single count of reckless endangerment. Federal charges were pending.

Wheeler was arrested on New Year's Day after police were called to his address by a relative who was concerned that he might be suicidal, police said in a statement Tuesday. He appeared to have injuries consistent with those caused by a chemical reaction, they said.

Read more: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/07/22221146-massive-cache-of-explosives-bomb-manuals-found-in-maryland-home?lite



Another one. I can't make out the tattoo on his neck, but think it might be 'Jesus'. You've got to take a look at his mug shot.

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Massive cache of explosives, bomb manuals found in Maryland home (Original Post) sinkingfeeling Jan 2014 OP
♫ Maryland, My Maryland ♫ bigworld Jan 2014 #1
His pupils look "pinned" like heroin addicts 2banon Jan 2014 #3
future president of the local Tea Party? ChairmanAgnostic Jan 2014 #13
I'm starting to be concerned that ... 1StrongBlackMan Jan 2014 #2
Wow - that is a serious level of ugly DURHAM D Jan 2014 #4
Is this the face of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? Mopar151 Jan 2014 #5
Bigger picture here - I think it says "Jess" (nt) muriel_volestrangler Jan 2014 #6
Wow. Doesn't he look like a real winner? kestrel91316 Jan 2014 #7
Hobbyist. Feral Child Jan 2014 #8
Well, the feds said there was enough bombs to demolish several houses. sinkingfeeling Jan 2014 #10
Yes, they did. Feral Child Jan 2014 #19
^^^^ this ^^^^ mike_c Jan 2014 #11
Thanks, mike_c Feral Child Jan 2014 #15
Do you believe it should be legal to make powerful bombs at home? tabasco Jan 2014 #16
sure.... mike_c Jan 2014 #17
+1 JoeyT Jan 2014 #18
Agreed, JoeyT Feral Child Jan 2014 #20
Where there are bombs, there are gun nuts. nt onehandle Jan 2014 #9
I hope he hasn't let his NRA membership expire. watoos Jan 2014 #12
looks a little troubled. olddad56 Jan 2014 #14
Corrupted Dark Elves Infiltrate NRA, Offer Bomb Production Workshops... n/t TygrBright Jan 2014 #21
 

2banon

(7,321 posts)
3. His pupils look "pinned" like heroin addicts
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 11:58 AM
Jan 2014

but his overall appearance is ghastly like meth freaks. that tattoo is bizarre, reflecting his persona, or at least what little we know about him Weird. I'm curious about the person who called in the authorities. Was it a relation living in the same domain - for how long, where were all these things stashed in the house? etc.. curious.

 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
2. I'm starting to be concerned that ...
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 11:44 AM
Jan 2014

there may be more "patriots" taking Gallow's call to an "American Spring", seriously, than I'd like to believe.

Mopar151

(9,965 posts)
5. Is this the face of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 12:01 PM
Jan 2014

Or the ol' family tree don't branch...

Seriously - some of New England's old mill towns ain't so nice. When I see a lot of faces like these, I know I'm in a bad-nasty neighborhood.

Feral Child

(2,086 posts)
8. Hobbyist.
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 12:54 PM
Jan 2014

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2014, 03:00 PM - Edit history (4)

100 pounds of "materiel" will end up with about 5 pounds +/- of energetic compounds.

I have over 100 lbs of "bomb making chemicals" in my garage. I have a 50# bag of fertilizer (ammonium nitrate). Several tons of AN laced with diesel fuel is the compound used in Oklahoma City.

I have several pounds of erythritol, an artificial sweetener. It can be easily transformed into erythritol tetranitrate by nitrating it with the gallon of commercial drain cleaner (98% sulfuric acid) and some of the AN mentioned above.

I have about a pound of home-made thermite, an exothermic compound that burns with ferocious heat, even under water. Iron rust and powdered aluminum, mixed. The rust provides oxygen, the aluminum is the fuel. After the burn what's left is elemental iron. The military uses it for incendiary purposes, I use it for welding metal sculptures.

I have a one gallon can of methyl ethyl ketone, a strong solvent. One of the things I use that for is cleaning metal surfaces prior to welding. I also have a gallon jug of 35% hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach), I use it in disinfectant solutions to clean the rooms in which I foster rescued animals. Combine the 2 with a splash of the sulfuric acid as a catalyst and you produce MEK-peroxide, a much safer initiator than the Acetone-peroxide used by most Mad Bombers. AP is in the form of crystals which can rub together and detonate, MEKP is an oily liquid that is much less volatile and prone to accident.

Somewhere I probably still have the copy of the Anarchist Cookbook (printed in the '70s, now a collectible) I was given as a joke when I was 25. Maybe I have my old Army field manual on explosives and booby-traps that I was issued prior to my Nam deployment.

I don't have a mini-14 automatic rifle, but I do have a Saiga (Kalashnikov) automatic shotgun.

Oh, I also have several tattoos.

I MUST be a terrorist, right?


I'll admit that as a very young man with a class of high school chemistry in my repertoire, I played with energetic compounds. I terrorized rocks and cacti (and probably some mice and lizards) in an abandoned quarry about 10 miles from the nearest civilization.

This guy was clearly making explosives, quite dangerously, in his residential neighborhood. I am not excusing his stupidity (or my own, those many years ago). Truth is, you'll find the same thing happening in thousands of houses by 14 to 30 year old adolescents across country and throughout the world.

There are websites and discussion boards world-wide where geeky kids talk about their experiments and adventures.

Some have been shut down by anxious governments, because they fear Islamic terrorists will learn how to wreak havoc with knowledge they've gained there. As if the US military hasn't trained thousands of actual terrorist, foreign and domestic...

Of course, many more sites have been set up by high school boys relishing the rebelliousness of thwarting The Man...


This guy didn't have near enough stuff to do more than blow up a mailbox. This is a sterling example of Law Enforcement colluding with the drama-hungry media to convince us that they're spending the billions of tax-dollars they suck-up in genuine urban-commando operations that keep us safe.

He was dangerous, no doubt, and LE properly interdicted before he fucked up and lost his fingers. BUT, he isn't a terrorist. He's just a dumb kid slightly too clever for his own good.



CAVEAT: Kids, don't try this at home. Sign off and watch an episode of the MythBusters, instead. They're experts (and Kari Byron is kawaii).

Most of the articles in the Anarchist Cookbook are junk that will fizzle & smoke if you try to use them, or blow up in your face.

The examples I've given above for household-explosives are incomplete and should not be attempted. Rigorous attention to detail, careful measurements, and concise temperature controls are necessary to make more than sticky, stinky glop with the chemicals I've listed.


Feral Child

(2,086 posts)
19. Yes, they did.
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:55 PM
Jan 2014

The average yield for the home chemist is roughly 10% to 50 % of the nitrated material. That's the base chemical of the explosives, not counting the nitrating agent or catalyst. Since the catalyst and nitrate source roughly equal the base chemicals, that laves roughly thirty pounds of base, IF the Feds didn't count lab-glass, tubing, containers and ancillary apparatus necessary for the reaction. Or the dry ice needed to chill the exothermic reaction that occurs during the synthesis, nitration is a heat-producing process.

At 10-50%, the most actual explosive material he could have produced would be fifteen pounds. Remember, he had "numerous" "bombs". Say, one pound per device.

Wait, we forgot to subtract the casings and firing mechanisms for each "bomb".

Look, this silly boy had 10 to 15 small devices, each carrying a couple of ounces of energetic compound. He was absolutely a danger. If he'd set off one bomb prematurely in his house, the whole lot woud have gone up and his house would be gutted but probably standing and the neighbors on each side would have lost their windows and breakables. But he didn't have enough actual material to start a guerrilla war.

The Feds lie about this stuff all the time. Our accumulated body counts in Viet Nam was triple the actual population of the country. DEA makes million dollar drug-busts twice a week.
Oh, and the Huns raped Belgian nuns in WWI.

You can doubt my assessment if you like. I'm not a chemist, just a grown-up school-boy that grew out of a dangerous hobby. If the local constable had stumbled on my home-lab during the heyday of the Black Panthers and the Weathermen Faction I would have been prosecuted as a left-wing terrorist. The locals would have curried favor with the FeeBees and the media-expert publicity hounds would have saved the nation from a communist menace.

They're still using melodrama to induce fear in the public. It's what they do. How they stay in business.

Nothing has really changed except the level of power and appetite we've granted to the Pigs.

mike_c

(36,213 posts)
11. ^^^^ this ^^^^
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 01:27 PM
Jan 2014

Critical thinking: 1. Fear mongering hysterical knee jerk responses: currently 7 or 8 in this thread, unfortunately.

Feral Child

(2,086 posts)
15. Thanks, mike_c
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:11 PM
Jan 2014

Also, the comments on his appearance.

From where I'm looking I see a shy, geeky kid with a bit of a wild streak and rebellious attitude. The tats are just him trying to be cool and not making it. The posture is probably embarrassment and fear, otherwise it looks like a bad driver's license photo.

Mine isn't framed and sitting on some girl's nightstand. In fact, i've never seen a mugshot or license photo i'd call glamorous.

But, the Bosses are getting what they want, aren't they?

 

tabasco

(22,974 posts)
16. Do you believe it should be legal to make powerful bombs at home?
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:22 PM
Jan 2014

If so, is your problem craziness or stupidity?

mike_c

(36,213 posts)
17. sure....
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:31 PM
Jan 2014

It's USING powerful bombs badly that should be illegal.

On a side note-- do you always begin conversations with people by asking them whether they're crazy, or just stupid? Is that your default conclusion about DUers when presented with points of view that you disagree with, or perhaps simply haven't explored yet?

DU threads are just full of that sort of knee-jerk personal discourtesy these days, not only directed toward the subjects of developing stories, like the gentleman in the OP, but also toward other members of this community. Thankfully, there is a solution. Welcome to Ignore.

JoeyT

(6,785 posts)
18. +1
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:51 PM
Jan 2014

Last time I had to buy fertilizer I wondered what DU would say if I happened to get arrested. So far my record was having to get 4 tons to fertilize hay fields. Driving around with 4 tons of "bomb making materials" and tattoos to boot.

I'd be willing to bet money no one on here has less than a hundred pounds of "bomb making materials" in their homes.

 

watoos

(7,142 posts)
12. I hope he hasn't let his NRA membership expire.
Wed Jan 8, 2014, 02:04 PM
Jan 2014

Good guys with bombs don't kill people, bad guys with bombs kill people, all he has to do is show his NRA card to prove he is a good guy.

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