The Other McCain

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‘Delusional-Sounding Allegations’: Conspiracy Kook Killed in Explosion

Posted on | December 6, 2023 | Comments Off on ‘Delusional-Sounding Allegations’: Conspiracy Kook Killed in Explosion

Police were attempting to serve a warrant Monday night at a home in Arlington, Virginia, when the house suddenly exploded. Human remains were found at the scene of the blast and police say homeowner James W. Yoo died in the explosion, the cause of which is unknown.

What is known, however, is that Yoo had a history of mental illness, that he filled his social media pages with bizarre messages, and that he filed a lawsuit that was dismissed in 2018. The judge wrote:

The Court has carefully reviewed each page of Plaintiff’s submissions. Plaintiff’s Complaint consists of delusional-sounding allegations intermixed with other statements that seem more factual. The allegations concern matters from Plaintiff’s childhood to the present. The allegations frequently involve Plaintiff’s interactions with his sister and wife. The pleading includes references to Plaintiff being hospitalized at RGH [Rochester General Hospital] against his will, and to various contacts with law enforcement. The Complaint also alludes to Plaintiff’s impending divorce from his wife. Ultimately, the Complaint indicates that Plaintiff believes he is the victim of conspiracy against him by his sister, his ex-wife, and others including RGH. Plaintiff believes, for example, that his sister, ex-wife and RGH conspired to prevent him from obtaining an attorney. Interspersed with these allegations are references to news stories appearing in the media over the past decades, that Plaintiff apparently believes are connected to the conspiracy that he describes. For example, Plaintiff apparently believes there is a connection between the alleged conspiracy, the terrorism on September 11, 2001, and the current investigation into the 2016 presidential election by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

In short, James W. Yoo was bonkers, berserk, daft, demented, off his rocker, a few fries short of a Happy Meal and cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

CNN has more background on the case:

Since the explosion, investigators have uncovered “concerning social media posts” allegedly made by Yoo, the police chief said.
LinkedIn posts from Yoo’s account espouse rambling and at times incoherent conspiracy theories against government officials, law enforcement, media outlets and, in one post on Friday, his neighbors whom the post accuses of being spies and collecting his information for unnamed handlers. . . .
Both the FBI and Arlington police said Tuesday that they had previously interacted with Yoo, but none of the encounters led authorities to open investigations.
Yoo had communicated with the FBI for several years through phone calls, letters and online tips, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the agency’s Washington, DC, field office.
“I would characterize these communications as primarily complaints about alleged frauds he believed were perpetrated against him,” Sundberg said. The communications did not prompt the agency to open any investigations, he added.
Prior to Monday, Arlington police had documented only two calls for service at the address over the past few years, both for complaints about loud noise, according to Penn.

The key bit of information there is that, despite his self-evident craziness, Yoo’s behavior did not lead “authorities to open investigations” — until, of course, he blew himself up. Now there’s an investigation.

The U.K. Daily Mail has some more about the crazy stuff Yoo was saying on social media. Paula Bolyard at PJMedia does a deep dive into these online rants, concluding that Yoo was “a disturbed individual whose rambling social media posts indicate that he may have been spiraling out of control in recent months.” Gosh, it’s almost enough to make you think that maybe Crazy People Are Dangerous or something.



 

Category: Crime

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