Born in Uruguay into a standard middle-class family. Ricardo Lopez and his family immigrated to the United States where they established their lives in Georgia. Lopez was often described as an introvert that was seen as socially awkward. Lopez had very few friends and lacked any relationships with women. As Lopez grew older, he aspired to become a successful artist and dropped out of high school. When Lopez entered early adulthood, he lacked any social interaction, working solely in his brother’s pest control business he felt inadequate in every aspect of his existence.

Lopez became a recluse of sorts focusing on the lives of celebrities to have a human connection of sorts. By 1993, Lopez became fixated on the Icelandic singer Björk. His infatuation had heightened as he began collecting information on her daily life, her career and eventually writing numerous fan letters to her. Lopez described Björk as his muse and slowly his obsession was bordering psychotic.

In his diaries, Lopez expressed his desire to want acceptance from Björk as well as wanting to have “an effect on her life”. Lopez began to envision creating a time machine that had the capacity to allow for him to time travel to the 1970s were he could become friends with her. Lopez’s fantasies were not sexual in natural but were focused on the concept of companionship. He stated: “I couldn’t have sex with Björk because I love her.”

The Diary

Lopez’s diary began to expand eventually accumulating a massive 803 pages that expressed not only his inner thoughts on Björk but also his feelings of inadequacy, his distress regarding his weight, his inability to have a girlfriend and his embarrassment due to his gynecomastia. By 1996, Lopez had moved to Hollywood, Florida and was living alone. The news was circulating about Björk and her romantic relationship with Goldie, a fellow musician. Lopez was appalled and angered at what he deemed was nothing but betrayal. Lopez began to formulate his plan to punish the singer.

Screenshots from tapes Ricardo Lopez recorded.

The diary entries slowly became video entries as he wanted to express and document “my life, my art, and my plan.” Lopez felt by recording his daily thoughts he had become his own psychologist. His video entries eventually became eleven tapes containing two hours of footage each. Lopez’s hatred for Björk had intensified he stated, “I am going to have to kill her. I’m going to send a package. I’m going to be sending her to hell.”

Björk – an Icelandic singer-songwriter and founding member of the band the Sugarcubes.

Lopez formulated numerous plans for Björk’s demise, first intended to create a bomb filled with needles containing HIV-tainted blood, allowing for Lopez to leave a lasting effect on her life. He withdrew this plan as he lacked the capacity and means to develop such a devise. He decided he would create a letter bomb using a hollowed-out book to be sent to Björk. The device would explode, thus disfiguring the singer. He would then commit suicide once the bomb was sent, Lopez hoped that if Björk was in fact killed by the bomb they would be united in Heaven.

The Best of Me

On the early morning of September 12, 1996, Lopez began to document his final taped entitled “Last day – Ricardo Lopez” as he starts to prepare his package for Björk. After he successfully delivers the package to the post office, he resumes filming. Lopez has his head shaved as he begins to paint his face red and green. As Björk music plays in the background, Lopez begins to gaze at his reflection and states to the camera: “I am a little nervous now. I’m definitely not drunk. I am not depressed. I know exactly what I am doing. It is cocked back. It’s ready to roll.” Lopez states “This is for you.” as the song ends and proceeds to shot himself in the mouth using his .38 caliber pistol. Lopez’s body falls and a hand-painted sign with the words “The best of me. Sept. 12” is seen hung on the wall behind him. Police have suggested that Lopez intended for his brain matter and blood to cover the hand painted sign. His plan failed as the bullet never exited Lopez’s head.

Four days following his suicide a foul odor and blood was what alerted The Hollywood Police Department to enter his apartment. Written on his wall was “The 8mm videos are documentation of a crime, terrorist matter and for the FBI.” Once Lopez’s tapes had been viewed, Scotland Yard was alerted to warn the postal office of the package en route.

The package was intercepted before it was delivered to Björk and it was safely detonated. In a stroke of irony Björk and Goldie had ended their relationship only a few days before Lopez’s suicide.

The video diaries and recorded suicide of Lopez can be found on several video hosting sites such as LiveLeak and YouTube.