French Killers Inspired By Breaking Bad TV Show 182
hcs_$reboot writes: Four people who planned to dissolve a young French woman's body in acid were inspired by hit US TV show Breaking Bad. Two men went to the woman's house to settle a €6,000 drug debt. There, they beat her violently, killing her through a blow to the skull. Later, they bought acid in order to dissolve her body. The victim's body was found decomposing in a flat in Toulouse on Monday night, after having being cut up into pieces, covered in cling film and shoved into a suitcase. Chlorine acid had been used to try and disguise any trace of the corpse. A similar "decomposition" scenario is featured in season one of Breaking Bad (2008-2013).
Did they actually mention they were inspired by br (Score:3, Insightful)
People have been dissolving bodies in acid for a long time. Unless they specifically quoted breaking bad as inspiration, drawing this connection is quite ridiculous, and pretty much just click bait.
Re:Did they actually mention they were inspired by (Score:5, Informative)
People have been dissolving bodies in acid for a long time. Unless they specifically quoted breaking bad as inspiration, drawing this connection is quite ridiculous, and pretty much just click bait.
Actually, yes, in the 2nd link. RTFA for chrissake
The prosecutor explained that the suspects had been inspired by a US TV show Breaking Bad, where the lead characters use Hydrofluoric acid - a highly corrosive acid - to dissolve the bodies of their victims
Re:Did they actually mention they were inspired by (Score:5, Funny)
RTFA for chrissake
Whoa whoa whoa. You're going to have to take that article reading shit outside, mmkay?
We don't do that here.
Re: Did they actually mention they were inspired b (Score:2)
Yeah we don't do that 'round here, boy!
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That doesnt mean the criminals were actually inspired by Breaking Bad. That only means the prosecutor saw Breaking Bad and assumed the criminals were copying that. Lets not forget that breaking bad was inspired by REAL LIFE when they wrote that part in. Find me a reliable quote from the actual offenders where they say they were inspired by Breaking Bad. Then your statement will be correct.
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Re:Did they actually mention they were inspired by (Score:5, Informative)
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That was my thought too. When I hear "dissolving bodies in acid" I immediately thought of the Snowtown murders, not Breaking Bad.
Come to South Australia - it's barrels of fun!
Too soon?
Re:Did they actually mention they were inspired by (Score:5, Funny)
People have been dissolving bodies in acid for a long time. Unless they specifically quoted breaking bad as inspiration, drawing this connection is quite ridiculous, and pretty much just click bait.
Actually, yes, in the 2nd link. RTFA for chrissake
The prosecutor explained that the suspects had been inspired by a US TV show Breaking Bad, where the lead characters use Hydrofluoric acid - a highly corrosive acid - to dissolve the bodies of their victims
The prosecutor said it, so it must be legit.
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Did the suspects tell him or did he assume they learned it from there?
BIG difference.
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Thanks for clarifying this. When I want to know the motives of an alleged criminal was really thinking, I find that the prosecuting attorney is usually the best source to figure that out, mainly because of a lack of any bias whatsoever.
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Of course, idiots will do all kinds of stupid things, even without tv, just look at any history book.
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All of which are indirect references to John George Haigh, an actual murderer who did use acid to destroy the bodies of his victims. He used concentrated sulfuric, and it worked very well. The police couldn't even identify most of the remains as a corpse, and certainly not identify it. They only succeeded with one, because the victim wore acid-proof artificial dentures. That was the only part to survive in recognizable form.
Re: Did they actually mention they were inspired b (Score:1)
And before books existed, our stone men anchestors told each othet stories about murderers dumping their victims into bogs at the camp fire.
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Yes, according to their lawyer, Gaul Goodman.
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More like "Dumb and Dumber" (Score:2)
How long would it have taken to google the correct way to dissolve a body?
At least they didn't use HFl in a steel bath tub.
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And what reason do you have to prefer DuckDuckGo? Do you have access to their internal operations?
Why trust the search engines at all? You don't need to trust any of them to use them to search.
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Tracking what exactly? If the phone/wifi has no ties to the AC, what are they going to be tracking? The local library?
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Did he kill her in the library?
With the candlestick no less.
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I'm sorry, I think you'd make a terrible criminal if you can't think of any solutions to the aforementioned.
I highly suggest you live a very boring life.
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So you use Search Engine X. How do you know they're not tracking you, just like any other search engine? Do you have information on their internal operations? Do you have some compelling reason to trust them over any other search engine Y?
Your choice of search engine is irrelevant. You should be considering disconnecting yourself entirely from your searches.
Calling you a dumbass would be an insult to donkeys.
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So use a premade anonymizing linux distri, pipe your search through TOR and a canary proxy to boot. You think that should do for a fucking online search?
Jeesh, I don't even want to know what you do to get your illegal porn.
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The steel bathtub really wouldn't make much different. If they used HFl and weren't experienced chemists, chemical engineers or possible PPE bods, then they'd be thoroughly dead, regardless of the container.
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HF is incredibly scary stuff because if it touches you the burns are very severe
You should have read the MSDS closer then, because the scary part is how much damage it can do without visual signs of a severe burn. These include things like damaging your bones, causing a heart attack from messing with blood chemistry, and causing burns that don't appear until a day or two later.
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Why do you think I was unaware of that?
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Alkaline hydrolysis FTW (Score:3)
It appears an efficient way to dissolve a body is alkaline hydrolysis [wikipedia.org]; use potassium hydroxide, add heat and pressure, go drink a couple of coffees, you're done, deal with the goo. Legal as a cremation substitute for a couple of years now in some North American regions.
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the body is placed in a chamber that is then filled with a mixture of water and lye, and heated to a temperature around 160 C (320 F), but at a high pressure, which prevents boiling
and of course everyone has a "chamber" ready for alkaline hydrolysis nearby.
completely wrong (spoilers) (Score:5, Informative)
the famous scene in breaking bad has to do with hydrofluoric acid, not "chlorine acid" (assuming they mean hydrochloric acid)
in the breaking bad scene, jesse puts the body in a bathtub, instead of a plastic bin like he was was instructed to by walt. HF, unlike HCl, dissolves glass and ceramics. and so the partially dissolved body comes crashing through the ceiling
http://breakingbad.wikia.com/w... [wikia.com]
mythbusters busted this though:
http://www.today.com/popcultur... [today.com]
there is a nice combination of acids that apparently works great for dissolving bodies, but neither mythbusters nor breaking bad is going to tell us (probably some mix of acids, paying attention to the molar concentrations)
furthermore, the mafia has been dissolving bodies in acid for decades. breaking bad did not invent the concept, and these french goons did not necessarily get the idea form breaking bad
so the connection of this crime to breaking bad is complete bullshit, invented by some reporter who doesn't know his history of organized crime and is only familiar with tv shows
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Concentrated sulfuric does the job very well, according to research conducted by John George Haigh.
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That's not the weird part. The weird part is posting on slashdot when you were hanged half a century ago.
Though it might go part way to explaining schwit1 and Bennet Haselton.
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Technically, a criminal saying he was inspired by some artistic work can be more or less of a lie used as an 'excuse', or even just an imitation reflex (possibly guided by the investigators bringing the idea about). It can also be just a small part of the 'inspiration', focused on by the media. There has been cases of criminals telling about Grand Theft Auto or some other game, while they actually weren't playing video games. There has also been cases in Japan of criminals telling about anime, while they ac
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I'd guess that more than 10 of them read French.
Mais non?
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also, isn't dangerous enough to scare chemists shitless in the quantities they would require.
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Nasty, as in, spill a single mini-drop of it on your finger, and you'll be lucky if all you lose is the finger. At least, that's the take I got when I visited a lab that worked with the stuff, from their safety protocols and overview.
Re:completely wrong (spoilers) (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it is quite astonishingly nasty stuff. It's actually a weak acid because the Fl really isn't all that keen on letting go of the hydrogen. But also astonishingly reactive. This makes it worse. Spill a strong acid on your skin and it will just destroy it right there and then. HFl, however isn't fully disassociated, so any associated stuff won't react... yet. It will permeate through your skin, start moving to other places and then react.
Truly unpleasant stuff.
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I cringe every time you write Fl or HFl. It's fucking F and HF. The goddamn chemical symbol is F, not Fl. It isn't fucking chlorine.
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i've spotted the elusive chemical nomenclature nazi
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flerovium is not a fissile material. a fissile material is material capable of sustaining a nuclear fission chain reaction. flerovium doesn't hang around long enough to accomplish this
the term you want to use is *fissionable* material
educate yourself:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
now you've learned some nuclear chemistry today, useless pedant
not that i care. but you can't skewer someone for minor points and then claim immunity from the same when someone points out your ignorance
like grammar nazis, you ar
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But I do:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piranha_solution/ [wikipedia.org]
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BB probably cited HF because: #1 it is VERY difficult to obtain in large quantities, at useful concentrations and #2 it is VERY difficult to handle safely, (yes, BB did specifically flag these concerns accurately in the script) and #3 is VERY easy to detect even small traces, forensically. Therefore - it's probably the WORST way to dissolve a body (even if it's fairly effective).
I'm told that this "mixture" of acids that solves all three of these problems is Muriatic Acid, commonly found at your hardware st
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There is an easier and very safe way to dissolve a body. All you need is a week or so, and a tub full of water at around 40 Celsius and a good dose of biological washing powder/liquid. The enzymes will breakdown the tissues of the body leaving just the bones and teeth. You could always dispose of the bones in the good old fashioned way of a bonfire (its a corruption of bone fire).
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there is a nice combination of acids that apparently works great for dissolving bodies, but neither mythbusters nor breaking bad is going to tell us (probably some mix of acids, paying attention to the molar concentrations)
Piranha Solution [wikipedia.org]
Don't use a metal tub or HCL (Score:2)
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Alternatively, use a wood chipper.
Re: Don't use a metal tub or HCL (Score:2)
Or cut off hands and head, then chop body up so that it is not recognizably human and dump in nearest pig farm feeding trough. Then get a small amount of thermite and slag hands/head in the middle of fucking nowhere.
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Sir? We'd like to have a word with you concerning the whereabouts of your missing wife...
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I prefer the Gary Heidnik / Jeffrey Dalmer method: Chop up the corpse, cook and eat.
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Do you want to elaborate on how you came to have a preference in the first place?
Why are you arguing about facts? (Score:2)
This is sensationalistic news. Look at the components: drugs, a murdered young woman, gruesome botched corpse disposal and a violent TV show known world wide. Who give a crap about anything else? Not the people who wrote the story and not the people viewing it. Trying to see if any of it makes sense is just spoiling everyone's fun.
It could turn out that the story was scrambled and what really happen
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This is Slashdot. Try to think of TFA, TFS, TFH, etc. as writing prompts.
...right after these messages... (Score:2)
La Femme Nikita (Score:2, Informative)
The film La Femme Nikita by Luc Benson (1990) is famous for the scene where the cleaner guy uses acid to dissolve a body. It's even french.
I would have used (Score:2)
aqua regia. It's so much more... refined.
Uhhhh... The smell? (Score:2)
Using acids (or bases, for that matter) on organic matter usually results in some rather unpleasant odors. I would certainly NOT recommend doing something like this in a place where I (or anyone) has to breathe. Yes, the fumes are also toxic, but you go willingly yourself FAR, FAR away from where it happens simply because the stench drives you out.
Kids these days! (Score:2)
Back in my days we used to wrap the bodies in chicken wire with some stones and dump them in the deep ends of rivers.
Slashdot categories (Score:2)
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To quote a friend of mine who works with large quantities of chemicals at times, "If you like to grow old in the job, you have some healthy respect for most concentrated acids. HF, you fear. No matter the concentration."
They actually got it right (Score:2)
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it doesn't form white fuming clouds easily
Hydrogen fluoride does make white fumes at room temperature, though they dissipate pretty quickly (I only worked with it in small scale). For a look at a large scale HF release: http://www.usw.org/workplaces/... [usw.org]
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Depends entirely on whether you're mixing mortar or a cocktail.
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Nukes are an awfully expensive way to dispose of a corpse unless you've got some sort of batch processing going on.
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nuke, corpse acquisition and disposal all in one easy step.
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Washing power dissolves tissue much much better.
Presumably the bio stuf, not the non bio. I'm guessing you need the enzymes, not the surfactants.
Re:better solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Pigs work better and faster. Feed a body to the pigs and you might end up with a few teeth in pigshit, nothing more. Use the pigshit to fertilize some fields, and the body is just gone.
Dissolving tissue in bathtubs, etc, just leaves evidence in the trap, the pipes, (probably) in the bathroom and tub, and "weeks" is a lot of exposure.
All good drug dealers need to invest in a hog farm. It's worth it even when you don't have bodies to dispose of! Tasty bacon!
Credit "Snatch" (Score:2)
https://youtu.be/u3qy4Zv4snI?t=1m1s [youtu.be] "Never trust a man with a pig farm..."
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Forensic analysis proved difficult because the bodies may have been left to decompose or be eaten by insects and pigs on the farm. During the early days of the excavations, forensic anthropologists brought in heavy equipment, including two 50-foot (15-meter) flat conveyor belts and soil sifters to find traces of remains. On March 10, 2004, it was revealed that Pickton may have ground up human flesh and mixed it with pork that he sold to the public; the province's health authority later issued a warn
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Hence the dissolving bathtub scene. Probably the French can't get their hands on hydrofluoric acid.
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Hence the dissolving bathtub scene. Probably the French can't get their hands on hydrofluoric acid.
It's very nasty stuff and not available in bulk from your local hardware. Apparently burns are very bad because it soaks through tissue to quickly attack bone (could be bullshit to scare students but it's oft repeated). I've used it a bit to etch glass and some aluminium alloys, but for the later hot concentrated caustic soda is far less to worry about instead. There have been a few oil refinery accidents with clouds of HF vapour - white cloud coming out of the gear that uses it means run like hell and l
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http://pipeline.corante.com/ar... [corante.com]
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Yes it's dangerous but I suggest a bit of reality instead of Hollywood shit designed to scare students into treating it with respect. Reality is bad enough without pretending it's movie Nitro.
A spill on your skin can mean the bone underneath with start dissolving very soon with no way to stop it until the reaction is complete - isn't that scary enough without Hollywood physics?
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There are both topical and injectable things that will stop the reaction. Stuff like calcium gluconate can be injected locally to stop and sometimes even prevent damage that would appear a day or two later, while an IV for large exposures will help keep your nervous system and heart working. The only sucky part is that the absorption of calcium from HF can help remove pain from some of the damage it does, so it hurts more to restore nerve function in the area.
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That sounds more like something meant to scare you, which is actually quite dangerous when dealing with HF, because you should be aware of the actual dangers and problems it can cause.
HF is a rather weak acid compared to some of the other strong inorganic acids. It can etch glass, but the reaction is not particularly fast. If you spill it on you, you won't get an immediate massive burn like you would with other acids, and in fact, if you wash it off quickly, won't notice much of an injury. But it absorbs
Re:better solution (Score:5, Interesting)
Bingo.
I worked in academic organic chemistry for quite a few years, and was constantly spooked by some of the careless and dangerous things organic chemists would do to speed things up. And got to see a few ambulances pull up after things went "boom". The one thing all the organic chemists were afraid of though was the pure hydrogen fluoride our lab was working with daily. People who do peptide chemistry treat their HF apparatus like an airplane: preflight safety checks every time. If we had ever had an exposure (no accidents while I was working there), we had 4l bottles of magnesium sulfate to douse ourselves with and calcium gluconate gel right at the hood. I also had MSDS and current standards of care attached to the fume hood and sterile injectable calcium gluconate, all to be brought with us to the ER. I also kept the phone number for the ER handy - and the phone number for the president our our research institute. He's a chemist and knows the president of the hospital we would be taken to, which I hoped would provide some leverage in getting the ER up to speed before the ambulance arrived.
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It's little things like this that remind us how US Healthcare is really fucked up in a banana republic kind of way. It should not matter who rings the ER and gives them a heads-up on an incoming industrial accident case.
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Not HCl either. The thing is, a human body is made of all kinds of substances, and no one acid could break down all of them. HF is a very weak acid, but it is really good at breaking down substances high in Calcium, i.e. bone. HS would break down the skin pretty well. Etc.
A major stumbling block you're going to run into though is that any strong chemical reaction is going to be highly endothermic. That is, it's going to produce a LOT of heat. That said, you can surely expect not only a very strong smell of
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Oops, sorry, meant to say exothermic rather than endothermic.
Re:better solution (Score:4, Interesting)
Strong bases would work just fine for breaking down protein. Then you take the bones and digest them in the acid of your choice.
Shit, even StackExchange will help you dispose of a body [stackexchange.com].
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I heard that the producers of Heathers were sued by some Columbine victims' families, but I couldn't find a source when I searched a few minutes ago. If I remember correctly it was dismissed.
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You're watching how drugs are made and how murders are committed, what do you expect? Of course you're clearly doing this for educational purposes so you know how to do it yourself.
Doesn't matter whether in either case the writers or actors know anything about the processes involved or whether they deliberately made it so you could not simply "follow their steps" to succeed. You tried to acquire knowledge that you don't need to do your job. You're a criminal.
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Knowledge is a weapon. Thought is a crime.
Re: better solution (Score:2)
Messages for murderers, News that splatters.
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Peanuts, and a trombone.