Ricardo López (stalker)

He fantasized about inventing a time machine to travel to the 1970s and befriending her as a child.

His fantasies about Björk were not sexual; in his diary, he wrote, "I couldn't have sex with Björk because I love her."

López's diary grew to 803 pages, with passages about his thoughts on Björk and his feelings of inadequacy due to being overweight, his disgust and embarrassment about his gynecomastia, and his inability to get a girlfriend.

He wrote that he considered himself "a loser who never even learned to drive" and complained about his menial job as an exterminator that earned little money.

The diary contained 168 references to López's feelings of failure, 34 references to suicide, and 14 references to murder.

He made 408 references to Björk and 52 references to other celebrities.

Ricardo López (January 14, 1975 – September 12, 1996), also known as "the Björk stalker", was an American pest exterminator who attempted to murder the Icelandic singer Björk.

López was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and moved to Lawrenceville, Georgia with his family, where he began working as an exterminator.

Ricardo López was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, on January 14, 1975, into a middle-class family who moved to the United States and settled in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

He had a good relationship with his family, and was described as easygoing but introverted.

He had a few male friends, but no female friends, nor a girlfriend.

In a diary found by police, López expressed feelings of shame and inadequacy, as well as feelings of social awkwardness around women.

López had Klinefelter syndrome.

With aspirations to become a famous artist, López dropped out of high school.

However, he did not seriously pursue an artistic career due to his feelings of inferiority, and fear of being rejected entry into art school.

He intermittently worked for his brother's pest control business to support himself.

By the age of 17, López had become reclusive and, as a means of escape, retreated into a world of fantasies and became enthralled by celebrities.

He had poor self-esteem, was socially reclusive, and eventually developed an obsession with Björk in 1993, though he did not hope to be sexually engaged with her; he was particularly angry over her brief relationship with the English musician Goldie due to the color of his skin.

In 1993, López became fixated on the Icelandic singer Björk.

He began gathering information about her life, followed her career, and wrote her numerous fan letters.

Initially, López cited her as his muse and said that his infatuation gave him a "euphoric feeling".

As time passed, his fixation became all-consuming and he grew more disconnected from reality.

In his diary, López wrote of longing to be accepted by Björk and to be a person who had "an effect on her life".

Over the course of nearly nine months in 1996, he made video diaries about her and other topics at his apartment in Hollywood, Florida.

On September 12, 1996, López mailed a letter bomb rigged with sulfuric acid to Björk's residence in London, then returned home, recorded a final video diary explaining his motivations, and ended it by filming his suicide by gunshot.

Hollywood police found his body and the videos four days after his death; they contacted Scotland Yard, who located the bomb in a London postal sorting office.

The parcel was safely detonated.

Björk was unharmed.

In 1996, López was living alone in an apartment in Hollywood, Florida.

Around this time he read in Entertainment Weekly that Björk was in a romantic relationship with the English musician Goldie.

López was angered by this perceived betrayal and the fact that she was involved with a black man, writing in his diary: "I wasted eight months and she has a fucking lover."

He began fantasizing about how he could "punish" Björk.

López stopped writing his diary and began filming a video diary in his apartment.

According to López, the diary's purpose was "…a documentation of my life, of my art and of my plans.“ and “Comfort is what I seek in speaking to you.” He recorded eleven video tapes containing approximately two hours of footage each. The tapes contain footage of López preparing his "revenge" and discussing his "crush [that] ended up as an obsession". López's anger over Björk's relationship with Goldie intensified and he decided to kill her. In one entry, he said: "I'm just going to have to kill her.

I'm going to send a package.

I'm going to be sending her to hell."

López initially intended to construct a bomb filled with hypodermic needles containing HIV-tainted blood, which satisfied his desire to have a lasting effect on Björk's life.

When he realized it would not be feasible to build such a device, López began constructing a letter bomb using sulfuric acid in a hollowed-out book, which he planned to have sent to Björk's home in London, England.

The device was designed to explode and kill or disfigure Björk as she opened the book.

He would commit suicide after mailing the bomb, hoping that he and Björk would be united in heaven.