Man who died in CA blast lived in foil-wrapped home, filmed neighbors

Man who died in CA blast lived in foil-wrapped home, filmed neighbors

www.latimes.com

A man who apparently blew himself up with explosives in his Costa Mesa home was known to record video of his neighbors from his property, prompting calls to police from residents, authorities said Monday.

Neighbors described Kevin Harris, 52, as odd but harmless with a history of mental illness. They made a point to walk at a brisk pace past his house, which was wrapped in foil, neighbors told The Times. Cryptic notes would appear, taped to a tree in the front yard.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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Not related to the events in Boston, of course, but when I came across this, one thing that struck me is how these types of people are being more and more publicized. Build a bomb, write a manifesto, and get on the news.

I truly wonder why this guy, who was obviously crazy, and had been reported as such for years, was still wandering the streets.

Harris' manifesto is here, if you'd like to read it: The Pricker. It is long, convoluted and bizarre, but interesting in its insights into the fractured mind.

Harris' house can be seen here, though, unlike the sensationalist article title, it appears he covered his garage door with foil, not the whole house.

www.latimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Another sad case of sickened Americans getting the cue to self-destruct

Coming to a home near u

RIP all these trouble souls abound!

reply to post by adjensen
Poor man! I wonder why none of his friends or family tried to get him some help? Apparently his neighbors and the police were aware of his mental health problems, so if he had no close friends or family why didn't any of them try to get this man some help?

It is a sad day when people are only concerned with their own troubles and don't care about the people who live right next door to them anymore. I'm glad that the people in my neighborhood all are friendly with each other and help each other out when we need to.

I'm not going to make a 'clever comment'. (i swear i won't, but i'm bursting @ the seams.)

It is unfortunate that the quality of health care especially for the mentally disabled has declined over the past several years.

(you see i can reply without a smart as* remark)

Originally posted by littled16

Poor man! I wonder why none of his friends or family tried to get him some help?

Help him out with the explosives?

Even if he did blow himself up, that doesn't necessarily mean that he was trying to.
Coulda been accidental.

reply to post by BrokenCircles
Certainly it could have been accidental, but the man was having some serious issues. His "manifesto", the taping of the really strange and cryptic notes to trees, convinced that his mind was being read electronically, calling the police to report a "man down" at his residence and upon arriving telling them all is okay, filming all of his neighbors- those are some signs that he had some serious mental problems happening and if someone had bothered to try too get him some help maybe he wouldn't have either purposefully or accidentally blown himself up.

reply to post by adjensen


He brings the "conspiracy theorist" title a whole new meaning...

-SAP-

Originally posted by littled16

Certainly it could have been accidental, but the man was having some serious issues. His "manifesto", the taping of the really strange and cryptic notes to trees, convinced that his mind was being read electronically, calling the police to report a "man down" at his residence and upon arriving telling them all is okay, filming all of his neighbors- those are some signs that he had some serious mental problems happening and if someone had bothered to try too get him some help maybe he wouldn't have either purposefully or accidentally blown himself up.

Apparently he was correct about his mind being read, since you seem to know exactly what he was thinking, and what he needed.


Regarding his behavior, it appears that was nothing new.

.....The document appears to have been first written in 2002 and updated in 2005. The website labels it a “draft of a work in progress.”..

www.latimes.com...

reply to post by littled16


Maybe he didn't want any help?

Seriously nobody mentions which ATS member this might be...?


Well you can cross me off the list

Originally posted by BrokenCircles

Originally posted by littled16

Poor man! I wonder why none of his friends or family tried to get him some help?

Help him out with the explosives?

Even if he did blow himself up, that doesn't necessarily mean that he was trying to.
Coulda been accidental.

No, not with the explosives. Someone should have helped him with the proper use and application of foil as he is clearly doing it all wrong.

Actually, I should have said "was" not is. Clearly if he had mastered the proper usage of foil he would probably still be alive.

Originally posted by abeverage
Seriously nobody mentions which ATS member this might be...?


Well you can cross me off the list

(no clever comments damnit)

i may have known the guy. R.I.P. former ats member we'll miss ewe.

Originally posted by TKDRL
reply to post by littled16

 

Maybe he didn't want any help?

It's almost certain that he didn't, though he clearly needed it. A disease such as he showed signs of (paranoid schizophrenia) is self-perpetuating -- the cure is seen as being part of the cause, or part of the problem, so it isn't hard to avoid help at all costs.

I'm really surprised that, in a nanny state like California, he wasn't involuntarily committed, although until the bombs, he probably was just viewed as a harmless kook. This may well make things hard on other kooks, though, as many will be seen as dangerous, even if they are not.

If you read his manifesto, it's pretty well written. Like Kaczynski, he wasn't stupid, just crazy. He starts out with a premise that the government has the means of giving people cancer and other diseases through a small puncture wound, evidenced by three random ex-wives of politicians that he met who had cancer, and runs with it from there. 17,000 words later, we've toured Jesus, aliens, Star Trek (which was either a CIA plot, or it really happened, I can't sort out which,) 9/11, China and a host of other subjects.

reply to post by adjensen

Not related to the events in Boston, of course, but when I came across this, one thing that struck me is how these types of people are being more and more publicized. Build a bomb, write a manifesto, and get on the news. I truly wonder why this guy, who was obviously crazy, and had been reported as such for years, was still wandering the streets.

It's like a faucet that drips & drips and isn't repaired. The loss is greater and greater until one day...

The nation is ill. So much that made us who we are for so long has been carefully and quietly ripped away. At first, it was just a drop here and there and eventually, it has become a steady flow. Our souls pour out in waves of emotion and loss but... no one in the marbled halls of power has any intention of fixing it.

The intention is, from all observation, to drain the the reserve... with each drop, with each pool of sadness and grief that is our blood, we become less and less the nation that once could not be overcome.

We sit back, mow our lawns, buy insurance, install a new big screen TV... all while looking back at the drippy tap swearing that we will someday fix it but, we don't.

People call concerned citizens names and see them them with tin foil hats but never stop to understand that they are but one drop of our people lost in the steady flow.

This is our time... a decade based not on effort or drive or energy or anything. Our time is built on the slimmest of foundations... on 'hope' which is not even a dream for tomorrow.

...

Originally posted by TKDRL
reply to post by littled16

 

Maybe he didn't want any help?

Nonsense. he wanted help....maybe he didn't know he wanted help but he wanted help.

Originally posted by billy565

Originally posted by abeverage
Seriously nobody mentions which ATS member this might be...?


Well you can cross me off the list

(no clever comments damnit)

i may have known the guy. R.I.P. former ats member we'll miss ewe.

You said you wouldn't make any...I didn't!

My sister is schizo.. and is currently writing a book.... graduated college with an English degree, and is quite intelligent...

Should I be scared she will blow herself up? Okay, since I'm not too worried about her committing suicide, I'll continue. Sometimes there isn't any help available to people with these personality types. To some, that don't know what these types were like before, they seem just like normal people. I experienced a human being change, from a normally silly, happy go lucky logical human being, into a deep thought manic depressive, connecting the strangest dots type of person.

I wish there was something I could do, but their really isn't.

Reading his manifesto and it's..."interesting". According to the website hosting it, itself, he revised and added to it many a time. Can definitely see a reduction in mental capacity as the manifesto carries on. Starts out kind of interesting but then it starts to really decline. Like this one:

A fake heart attack can be induced with an oral poison or, in Mr. Bruney’s case, by spraying a toxin in the victim’s face. The last time someone tried that with me, it was a sewer snake from a neighbor’s house up to my kitchen sink.

A snake popping out of a drain can be really scary and can make one feel like they're going to have a heart attack but it's not necessarily an assassination attempt. I don't know if the guy was always off of his rocker or if he progressively went off his rocker over time. It's interesting though because he does actually mention some true stuff, here and there. Overall though, I think he had a lot of delusions of grandeur and paranoia.

I don't know much about this (yet...), but one thing I do find very strange is that even on a site like ATS, everyone seems to be assuming that he was crazy and that he blew himself up. Maybe he was and maybe he did, but surely there must be at least some slight possibility that someone else blew him up, and that maybe he could have had some reason to be paranoid.

Just sayin'. And mostly because a lot of conspiracy theory people seem to wind up dead under questionable circumstances. Maybe it's the natural end for some. Or maybe not.

I for one would like to know a bit more before reaching a conclusion.