N.Y. Man Facing Life in Prison After Building Homemade "Death Ray"

JaredJones

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N.Y. Man Facing Life in Prison After Building Homemade "Death Ray"



An Upstate NY man was recently convicted by a federal court for building a "death ray" he planned to use to "massacre Muslims."

Step aside, Dr. Evil. Out of the way, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. There's a new (and much, much more sinister) mad scientist on the block now. The prison block, that is.

His name is Glendon Scott Crawford of Galway, NY, and he was just sentenced to 25 years in prison for trying to build a radiation-emitting "death ray"/dirty bomb to kill "enemies of Israel" and potentially president Obama.

This bizarre story all started back in 2012, when Crawford -- a self-described Klansmen and longtime mechanic of General Electric in Schenectady, NY -- entered the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York, Congregation Gates of Heaven in Schenectady, and the Israeli Embassy in Washington seeking funding or connections from members to help him acquire a commercially available, industrial-grade X-ray device to kill "enemies of Israel." He was immediately reported to the FBI, who then sent two undercover agents to provide him with an (inoperable) ray he had been seeking.

What followed was a 14-month investigation that stretched from North Carolina to New York and concluded with a SWAT-backed sting operation.

According to prosecutors, Crawford first called a Ku Klux Klan hotline in 2012 to reach to Chris Barker, a North Carolina-based imperial wizard in the KKK. Barker, who was already facing unrelated criminal charges, refused to participate and pointed Crawford in the direction of two undercover agents posing as Klan-connected rock quarry businessmen with the funding to purchase the ray.

The ray itself was to be disguised in a van marked "Halal Meat" (a common food eaten by Muslims) and set off using a remote trigger designed by fellow GE mechanic and Crawford's co-conspirator, Eric J. Feight -- who later dropped out of the plan and plead guilty to lesser criminal charges. If successful, the death ray would have exposed the targets to fatal doses of radiation, killing them before they could ever determine the cause of their illness. The remote trigger was successfully tested on May 20th, 2013, and several meetings between Crawford and the agents (who he gave the code names "Daddy Warbucks" and "Robin Hood." Seriously.) followed to set the plan into motion.

"Experts have advised the investigation that the remote initiation device and X-ray systems Crawford plans to weaponize would produce a lethal, and functioning, remotely controlled radiation emitting device," said the FBI in the initial criminal complaint filed in June 2013.

"The plot was real here," said FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Andrew Vale to reporters. "No matter how extraordinary the plot seemed, the threat was real. ... I'd like to continue to urge the community to come forward whenever they have information and allow the actual law enforcement experts to make that determination of whether there is an actual threat there or not."

On June 18, 2013, Crawford met the agents in a warehouse in Schaghticoke where the device (codenamed: "baby") was being kept. Crawford was arrested by a swarm of SWAT team officers at the warehouse later that day.

It took the jury less than three hours to convict Crawford on all three counts he was facing, no doubt enabled by the FBI surveillance video Crawford was captured on with Google maps of targets for his radiation weapon that included the included Muslim community centers in Albany, Schenectady that Crawford had personally spotted, the Governor's Mansion in Albany, and even the White House. The prosecutors, in fact, showed the jury over 7 hours of similar surveillance video, most of which featured Crawford declaring the Muslim community "medical waste" that needed to be "sterilized" by the radiation weapon.

Crawford now faces a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison for "attempting to produce or use a radiological dispersal device," with the potential to receive life in prison at his sentencing on December 15th. His conviction is the first of its kind since a 2004 federal law was passed by Congress to protect the country against terrorist using "dirty bombs" and WMD's of the like.

Absolutely insane, and something that happened just a stone's throw away from where I grew up. It just goes to show that sometimes the darkest corners of humanity can be found in your own backyard.

Source: Times Union [http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Crawford-awaits-deliberations-in-death-ray-case-6457202.php]



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Fox12

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Hah, the first conviction of a terrorist making a dirty bomb, and it's a white American trying to terrorize Muslims. Also, what the point of killing Obama now? Is he trying to become the next John Wilkes Booth? When the clan thinks you're too bigoted and crazy, you know you have problems.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Fox12 said:
Also, what the point of killing Obama now? Is he trying to become the next John Wilkes Booth?
I have seen images circling on social media claiming Obama is a muslim and should be tried in court for breaking the constitution. Now, I'm no expert on American law, but I'm quite certain that is an disturbed leap in logic.

OT: Must. Resist. Ranting. On. America's. Mental health issues! Urge. Too. Strong. Must. Murder. Chelsea. Bun!!
 

Worgen

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Xsjadoblayde said:
Fox12 said:
Also, what the point of killing Obama now? Is he trying to become the next John Wilkes Booth?
I have seen images circling on social media claiming Obama is a muslim and should be tried in court for breaking the constitution. Now, I'm no expert on American law, but I'm quite certain that is an disturbed leap in logic.

OT: Must. Resist. Ranting. On. America's. Mental health issues! Urge. Too. Strong. Must. Murder. Chelsea. Bun!!
There's a certain subset of crazy idiots here who are convinced that Obama is a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya and can't legally be the president and they think he is a tyrant because they are too stupid to know how elections work. Yes I do have a fear of periods, COMMAS FOR LIFE!
 

vallorn

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Well that's... You know as much as I'm glad they caught him, using an Xray device as a weapon in this way was quite a feat of engineering. For those who don't know, when constructed correctly an Xray machine can be powered by a battery (these exist in certain hospitals actually). However, to generate the levels of radiation needed to irradiate people to the level of 1 Gray or more (the levels where the symptoms of radiation toxicity begin to emerge) would require the van to be sitting there for long periods of time or to emit the dosage in a large pulse which would cause some issues.

But, once again, thank goodness the guys that he approached about this reported his ass to the FBI. I'd hate to have been reading the headlines of what would have occurred had he not been caught.
 
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You know, every time I hear these stories, I think the same damn thing.

"CAN YOU FUCKERS PLEASE STOP TELLING EVERYONE EVERY GOD DAMNED DETAIL ABOUT HOW THEY GOT CAUGHT!!!"

I mean, seriously! You want to catch more people like this, right? You want to stop them before they commit their act, right? So don't give away your secret of catching them. If I was another racist thinking I need to kill a lot of people and I'm shopping around for help.. I would see this as a warning.

"Ok, don't trust anyone I don't readily know. Got it. Stick to people I've known for years and has my same stupidity ideology. So I can at least get my attack off before I'm captured."

And seriously, what's the deal with the northern part of my State? It hasn't even been thirty days since that racist corrections officer blew off his leg [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rochester-area-bombmaker-blasts-leg-collected-nazi-posters-article-1.2317386]. At least I could comfort myself that the corrections officer was seven hours away. This guy was two.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Worgen said:
Xsjadoblayde said:
Fox12 said:
Also, what the point of killing Obama now? Is he trying to become the next John Wilkes Booth?
I have seen images circling on social media claiming Obama is a muslim and should be tried in court for breaking the constitution. Now, I'm no expert on American law, but I'm quite certain that is an disturbed leap in logic.

OT: Must. Resist. Ranting. On. America's. Mental health issues! Urge. Too. Strong. Must. Murder. Chelsea. Bun!!
There's a certain subset of crazy idiots here who are convinced that Obama is a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya and can't legally be the president and they think he is a tyrant because they are too stupid to know how elections work. Yes I do have a fear of periods, COMMAS FOR LIFE!
Herasy! You commanist scum...praying at the alters of altered periods. Periods...assemble yourselves. We have ourselves a battle of punctuation ahead of us!
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Xsjadoblayde said:
Worgen said:
Xsjadoblayde said:
Fox12 said:
Also, what the point of killing Obama now? Is he trying to become the next John Wilkes Booth?
I have seen images circling on social media claiming Obama is a muslim and should be tried in court for breaking the constitution. Now, I'm no expert on American law, but I'm quite certain that is an disturbed leap in logic.

OT: Must. Resist. Ranting. On. America's. Mental health issues! Urge. Too. Strong. Must. Murder. Chelsea. Bun!!
There's a certain subset of crazy idiots here who are convinced that Obama is a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya and can't legally be the president and they think he is a tyrant because they are too stupid to know how elections work. Yes I do have a fear of periods, COMMAS FOR LIFE!
Herasy! You commanist scum...praying at the alters of altered periods. Periods...assemble yourselves. We have ourselves a battle of punctuation ahead of us!

The commas have stood for the tyrant of the periods for long enough, we shall take what is rightfully ours and relegate the periods back where they belong, to the end of paragraphs where they can no longer do any harm.
 

fix-the-spade

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ObsidianJones said:
And seriously, what's the deal with the northern part of my State? It hasn't even been thirty days since that racist corrections officer blew off his leg [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rochester-area-bombmaker-blasts-leg-collected-nazi-posters-article-1.2317386]. At least I could comfort myself that the corrections officer was seven hours away. This guy was two.
Now, I know this is a serious issue with serious ramifications, but that is the funniest thing I've seen all year.

Reading the article gave me an image of J.W.Pepper, having finally gone off the deep end, cursing and muttering as he roles his dynamite in the garage. Cue dropping a stick and his cigar at the same time...
Xsjadoblayde said:
OT: Must. Resist. Ranting. On. America's. Mental health issues! Urge. Too. Strong. Must. Murder. Chelsea. Bun!!
Now remember, hold it nice and level, then chew, chew without mercy or regret!
 

Sarge034

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JaredJones said:
Crawford now faces a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison for "attempting to produce or use a radiological dispersal device," with the potential to receive life in prison at his sentencing on December 15th. His conviction is the first of its kind since a 2004 federal law was passed by Congress to protect the country against terrorist using "dirty bombs" and WMD's of the like.
Glad he got caught, but one thing springs to mind. If they're trying him under a terrorism law, why is he not also being charged with terrorism? I completely agree he was trying to build a radiological weapon (and that he should be charged with terrorism), but it just seems odd to me they'd pick one but not the other.
 

Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)

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Ha, you journalists need to really stop taking the onion.... Wait This isn't an onion article?


OT:I have no words, this is the weirdest thing I've heard this year. This sounds like a comic book villain plot and how to Fuck did this even man make a death laser.
 

Luminous_Umbra

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Sarge034 said:
JaredJones said:
Crawford now faces a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison for "attempting to produce or use a radiological dispersal device," with the potential to receive life in prison at his sentencing on December 15th. His conviction is the first of its kind since a 2004 federal law was passed by Congress to protect the country against terrorist using "dirty bombs" and WMD's of the like.
Glad he got caught, but one thing springs to mind. If they're trying him under a terrorism law, why is he not also being charged with terrorism? I completely agree he was trying to build a radiological weapon (and that he should be charged with terrorism), but it just seems odd to me they'd pick one but not the other.
...I could've sworn that requires at least an attempt.
 

Nailzzz

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I can't be the only one who thought of this immediately.
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/300ry4/the-colbert-report-black-history-month---laser-klan
Great stuff.
 

Sarge034

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Luminous_Umbra said:
...I could've sworn that requires at least an attempt.
That's a negative ghostrider.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/terrorism-definition

"Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics:
>Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;
>Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and
>Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

18 U.S.C. § 2332b defines the term "federal crime of terrorism" as an offense that:
>Is calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct; and
>Is a violation of one of several listed statutes, including § 930(c) (relating to killing or attempted killing during an attack on a federal facility with a dangerous weapon); and § 1114 (relating to killing or attempted killing of officers and employees of the U.S.).
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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Worgen said:
Xsjadoblayde said:
Worgen said:
Xsjadoblayde said:
Fox12 said:
Also, what the point of killing Obama now? Is he trying to become the next John Wilkes Booth?
I have seen images circling on social media claiming Obama is a muslim and should be tried in court for breaking the constitution. Now, I'm no expert on American law, but I'm quite certain that is an disturbed leap in logic.

OT: Must. Resist. Ranting. On. America's. Mental health issues! Urge. Too. Strong. Must. Murder. Chelsea. Bun!!
There's a certain subset of crazy idiots here who are convinced that Obama is a secret Muslim who was born in Kenya and can't legally be the president and they think he is a tyrant because they are too stupid to know how elections work. Yes I do have a fear of periods, COMMAS FOR LIFE!
Herasy! You commanist scum...praying at the alters of altered periods. Periods...assemble yourselves. We have ourselves a battle of punctuation ahead of us!

The commas have stood for the tyrant of the periods for long enough, we shall take what is rightfully ours and relegate the periods back where they belong, to the end of paragraphs where they can no longer do any harm.
Without periods, there would be no order. Every word will think it can just pass on its' responsibility to the next and be done. An endless chain of words until the reader passes out from thought exhaustion. We cannot have such madness on our pages. Triple periods...you see how they group together so neatly? That is what all commas are made from, triple periods. They...are the holy trinity of pause, without their pioneering teamwork, your anarchic commas would never exist. Ultimately, order must be maintained. Period.
 

Scarim Coral

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It kinda of scary how he even got hold of radioactive material to make his doomsday device (like really, how which I guessing they are investigating on it).
 

IamLEAM1983

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As serious as the threat was, I can't help myself but to imagine the guy with Skeletor's face, spouting something along the lines of "NEXT TIME, FBI! THE NEXT TIME, YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU CROSSED ME! NYAHAHAHAHAHA!"

I mean, this is bonkers enough to remind me of the old Crimson Ghost radio serials...
 

Pinkamena

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Scarim Coral said:
It kinda of scary how he even got hold of radioactive material to make his doomsday device (like really, how which I guessing they are investigating on it).
May I point you to the "commercially available x-ray machines", you goose.

vallorn said:
However, to generate the levels of radiation needed to irradiate people to the level of 1 Gray or more (the levels where the symptoms of radiation toxicity begin to emerge) would require the van to be sitting there for long periods of time or to emit the dosage in a large pulse which would cause some issues.
This got me thinking, how much power would actually be needed? Here [http://www.sprawls.org/ppmi2/XRAYPRO/#KV Effect] it says that emitted power increases with the square of the potential across the x-ray tube, and they give a value of about 13 mR/mAs at 100kV. Here [http://www.newcoinc.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=541] you can buy 450kV x-ray units. Using the square proportionality, this gives around 260 mR/mAs. The 450kV units are rated for 3400W. Using P=UI, this gives a current of roughly 8mA. This gives about 2R/s. So to reach 1Gy (100 Rad), we'd have to expose a person to this 450kV unit for no more than 50 seconds.

Of course in a real setup, the target person(s) would be far away, and I don't know how the angular distribution of the radiation behaves. Besides, they'd be shielded by walls. Then again, the cone of radiation would expose several people at once. Either way, 3400W can easily be pulled from a wall plug, so the power requirements aren't too high.
 

vallorn

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Pinkamena said:
Scarim Coral said:
It kinda of scary how he even got hold of radioactive material to make his doomsday device (like really, how which I guessing they are investigating on it).
May I point you to the "commercially available x-ray machines", you goose.

vallorn said:
However, to generate the levels of radiation needed to irradiate people to the level of 1 Gray or more (the levels where the symptoms of radiation toxicity begin to emerge) would require the van to be sitting there for long periods of time or to emit the dosage in a large pulse which would cause some issues.
This got me thinking, how much power would actually be needed? Here [http://www.sprawls.org/ppmi2/XRAYPRO/#KV Effect] it says that emitted power increases with the square of the potential across the x-ray tube, and they give a value of about 13 mR/mAs at 100kV. Here [http://www.newcoinc.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=541] you can buy 450kV x-ray units. Using the square proportionality, this gives around 260 mR/mAs. The 450kV units are rated for 3400W. Using P=UI, this gives a current of roughly 8mA. This gives about 2R/s. So to reach 1Gy (100 Rad), we'd have to expose a person to this 450kV unit for no more than 50 seconds.

Of course in a real setup, the target person(s) would be far away, and I don't know how the angular distribution of the radiation behaves. Besides, they'd be shielded by walls. Then again, the cone of radiation would expose several people at once. Either way, 3400W can easily be pulled from a wall plug, so the power requirements aren't too high.
I'm impressed with your maths on this one, but I think you underestimate the dispersion of the radiation involved. In hospital environments with well set up machines the staff still wear lead aprons and go behind covers for safety while the machine is on, This is because, even when fired at a patient in a hospital, roughly 30% of the X ray photons scatter off into the room which indicates that the beam will disperse quickly with air and other obstacles in the environment. As well as that, I dug up the generally accepted doses for medical X rays:

SOURCE: http://www.arpansa.gov.au/radiationprotection/basics/xrays.cfm
If a full body CT scan, which takes multiple Xray images at different angles around the entire body, only produces an effective dose in the patient of 10.6 mSv then either they use the machine like a flashbulb of some kind or they are not quite as powerful as you estimated.
Still, nice work there. It is probably not as difficult as I had first assumed but the use of a van confuses me since Xrays are effectively blocked by solid, dense objects like bone, stone, metal and concrete.

EDIT:
Scarim Coral said:
It kinda of scary how he even got hold of radioactive material to make his doomsday device (like really, how which I guessing they are investigating on it).
Mirroring what pinkie said somewhat, Xrays are not produced by radioactive materials, instead one generates an Xray by striking a sheet of tungsten with fast moving electrons, these generate photons in the Xray spectrum in a process that I can best describe as the inversion of the photoelectric effect.