Posted on 05/31/2018 5:38:11 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Maryland tunnel digger accused of killing pal feared North Korea missile attack
By Nicole Hensley
May 31, 2018 | 7:45 PM
A man was charged in the death of a pal killed while digging a secret network of tunnels under his Maryland home he hoped would save him from North Korea’s budding nuclear missile program, according to his lawyer.
After months of nuclear weapon tests by the isolated nation last year, 27-year-old Daniel Beckwitt began construction on an underground bunker to protect himself from a possible intercontinental ballistic missile attack at his Bethesda property.
The digger’s paranoia was fueled by “rising international tensions” between the U.S. and North Korea, the lawyer said, when the Kim Jong Un regime began testing missiles with the potential of reaching the East Coast.
“There was nothing nefarious about his building of the tunnels,” said Beckwitt’s attorney, Robert Bonsib, on Thursday. “They were just a product of his world view.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
Great story!
Had a cousin living in “the country” (now known as the suburbs of Philly) who turned me on to Estes Industries rockets in the early 60’s.
Those engines would launch! His very first rocket was completely homemade with match heads as the engine propellant. Worked as planned!
LOL
You could have been semi-famous still to this day! :)
Yes, Estes rockets, indeed ! Our “warhead” was made of match heads, and gunpowder from some .22 shells we pinched from Grandpa’s stock. Prolly go to prison for that, nowadays.
Infamous, yes !
Maryland "Freak State" PING!
Yes, and the rest of us might all be speaking Russian ... so, nostrovia! Nearly well done! ha
Ha ha ha ....thanks!
Someone should have taken a chill-pill (or 4 or 8!).
You can’t do sh*t anymore without a government permit, with all related fees and taxes.
In Maryland, especially. Oh you can do it, you just have to pay the right people.
And still. Permitless construction used to be treated as a civil offense at worst. It would be like Maryland to try to escalate a connected accident into a crime.
The only news picture of the friend who died in the blaze is shown in a photograph wearing a suit and tie, not work clothes.
How might such a blaze begin — maybe it was through a fault in an electrical supply system?
OK, the fellow sounds like a bit of a tinfoiler. I remember the fallout shelter plans of the Cold War era, and they were like to build a room with shielding walls inside a room or in a basement. Ole Kim would have to score close to a direct hit in order for something like that not to hold up.
The question about “total lack of regard” is something that looks very much up in the air at worst. If two competent adults carry on a mutually agreed and understood activity on property that one or the other owns, and it goes wrong and one dies, it doesn’t sound appropriate to convict of criminal charges. There was no malice; only mutually agreed foolishness. Call it the “hold our beers and watch this” principle. Civil liability could be different, as in his family suing.
And... though this itself would have been a violation of civil law, it wouldn’t be a criminal activity. Had no accident occurred and the work later been discovered, the homeowner would have been dinged with a civil fine and an order to close the unpermitted tunnels. It’s not even like a joint venture to go rob a bank.
Some more info here:
Bethesda is not “Maryland”.
It’s DC Lite.
If you’re THAT paranoid try something more clever like not living right next to the primary target for any enemy of the US government.
There’s stuff where I live, out in the Wastelands, that’s gonna get hit with major megatons.
So I don’t worry and I don’t “prepare”.
I probably won’t even see the flash.
*shrug*
Where LIBS are in the majority it is equivalent to living in a mental asylum . maryland is THE Freak state .
Good point. Though things are set up so that the government can still operate if Washington is hit.
There is something queer about this story...
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