WEBVTT - Love Letters 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.440 Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:09.320 iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:16.840 Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.280 is an open book, all of these amazing tales are 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:23.720 right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:37.159 Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On May fourth of 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.120 the year two thousand, a lone worker at the Pentagon 0:00:40.320 --> 0:00:44.440 sat bored at their computer desk, sifting through routine emails. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.000 They were surprised when they saw one with a subject 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:50.040 line that read I Love you in all caps with 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.760 no spaces. Their heart skipped a beat as they consider 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:57.040 that maybe they had a secret admirer. They clicked the email, 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.680 which was blank, but it had an attachment with the 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.840 same name, a love letter. Perhaps the worker clicked on it. 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:08.000 This was no secret admirer, though, but a trojan virus, 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:10.840 one of the first of its kind. Within a day, 0:01:11.080 --> 0:01:14.600 it had infected ten percent of all computers on the planet, 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:19.240 deleting millions of files. A little while earlier across the world, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.520 in the Philippines, computer college student O'Nell de Guzman was 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:25.880 staring at his thesis proposal in shock. 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:29.319 There were red marks all over it. His professor had 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:34.600 completely rejected it. Entitled Email Password Sender Trojan, it was 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.480 a proposal for a computer virus that would steal a 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.160 user's dial up credentials so that the sender could access 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.440 the Internet freely. At this point in history, in the 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:47.319 year two thousand, only about twenty five percent of the 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.800 world's population was actually online. In more developed Western countries, 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:54.840 users paid for internet access as much as they do today, 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:58.080 with a flat monthly fee, but in developing nations like 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:02.400 the Philippines, users had to pay hourly rates. O'Nell and 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.240 his fellow students imagined a future where everyone could gain 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:08.960 access to the Internet for free. They believed that it 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.919 was a human right, and he thought his virus was 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.800 a good way to make sure that that happened. But 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.720 his professor disagreed, writing this is illegal on the paper 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:21.040 and saying that the college wasn't in the business of 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:25.040 training burglars. For someone like Ohnell, this was just encouragement. 0:02:25.080 --> 0:02:28.480 Though the older, stuffier generation was willing to follow the 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.720 rules and remain under the heel of the more developed nations, 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:35.720 this younger generation was willing to take matters into their 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.360 own hands, and so O'Nell went ahead and he coded 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.880 the virus anyway. The trojan would also present itself as 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.799 a love letter from a secret admirer, praying on the 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:49.360 human desire for love and attention. O'Nell also made it 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:52.560 so that it would exploit a weakness in Microsoft Outlook. 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.560 This was the email software that the vast majority of 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.600 the world used at the time. The weakness was that 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.280 the software didn't show what kind of a file an 0:03:01.320 --> 0:03:05.239 attachment was, so users wouldn't notice that the file wasn't 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.600 a dot TXT or word document file, which is what 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.240 you'd expect a love letter to be, but a dot 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.440 VBS file, which is an executable program file, a program 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:20.400 such as a virus. O'Nell uploaded the program, which came 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.760 to be known as I Love You, and used it 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.640 to steal the Internet provider login credentials from wealthier users. 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.520 It's unclear if he realized that the program would also 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.720 delete all their files in the process, but what does 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.440 seem to have been intentional was that the virus would 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:37.880 then send itself to all of the contacts in the 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:43.000 user's address book, giving O'Nell even more potential targets. However, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.240 he couldn't have imagined how effective this would be. It 0:03:46.280 --> 0:03:51.520 made the virus travel exponentially, racing across the Philippines, Asia, Europe, 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.040 and the Americas within days. It showed how networked the 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.960 world really already was at that point, and also how 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.760 truly desperate for love many Peas people seemed to be. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.240 It didn't matter if the person was rich or poor, 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.840 successful or not. All kinds clicked on the attachment. The 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.760 virus soon led to email servers going offline in important 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.320 government centers such as the British House of Commons, the Pentagon, 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:21.599 and multiple American military bases. This cost billions worldwide in 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:26.360 both lost revenue and expensive additional hours as it professionals 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:28.320 had to come in and try to recover the lost 0:04:28.360 --> 0:04:32.280 files while also patching the various computer systems that were 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:35.880 vulnerable to I Love You Naturally. The FBI launched a 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:38.600 manhunt and soon narrowed the source of the bug to 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.880 the Philippines, and before long, Filipino law enforcement was banging 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.839 on Onell's door. Onell was put on a world stage 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.120 as reporters questioned him about the virus. He said he 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.839 had no idea the virus would travel so far, but 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.719 he wasn't sorry. He believed the Internet should be free. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.880 US law enforcement tried to charge him with fraud, but 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.080 that would require him to have broken laws in both 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:04.200 the US and the Philippines, and the Philippines had no 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:09.640 laws against hacking at the time, so O'Nell went free. Curiously, 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:12.680 he did not go on to an elaborate life of crime, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:16.920 or even a job in cybersecurity. No. When a reporter 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.159 tracked him down in twenty twenty, he was working in 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:37.919 a curiously mundane place, a cell phone repair store. It 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:40.840 was September of nineteen forty four in a quiet town 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.120 in Illinois, and Aileen Kearney had just crawled into bed. 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.640 She had almost fallen asleep when suddenly she smelled a 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.000 sickeningly sweet odor wafting in from the open window. At first, 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:54.080 she thought that it was just the flowers outside in 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.680 the garden, but the smell kept getting stronger. Eventually Aileen 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:59.920 tried to get up and investigate, but found that she 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:05.480 couldn't her legs were paralyzed. Aileen screamed for her sister, Martha, 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:08.280 who was staying in the other room. When Martha came 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.800 running in, Aileen asked if she smelled anything, and Martha 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.240 said no, But she was so alarmed by Aileen's sudden 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:19.159 paralysis that she immediately called her husband for help. A 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.160 few minutes later, there was frantic knocking on the front door. 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.400 Martha opened it and found her husband on the doorstep, 0:06:25.720 --> 0:06:28.599 sweating and terrified. He told Martha that he had just 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:32.560 seen a tall man in dark clothing lurking outside Aileen's 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:35.400 bedroom window. He tried to chase the man, but the 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:39.800 man got away. Martha took her husband into Aileen's bedroom 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.760 to see what was wrong with her. But now that 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.359 the man outside the window was gone, so were Aileen's symptoms. 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.520 Her legs were no longer paralyzed, and the sweet odor 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:52.279 she was smelling was gone. Convinced that the strange man 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.080 outside the window had been poisoning her, Aileen called the police, 0:06:56.240 --> 0:06:59.560 and the next morning, the so called anesthetic prowler was 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:04.479 front news. The strange affair, though, was only beginning. Once 0:07:04.520 --> 0:07:08.880 ailing story ran, the police were suddenly inundated with similar reports. 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.080 That same night, another woman in town had heard a 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.520 plopping noise followed by a strange smell, and her hands 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:18.440 and legs had started tingling. The night before that, a 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:20.400 couple had both been awoken in the middle of the 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:23.560 night by an unusual smell. When they tried to get 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.160 out of bed, they found that they were completely paralyzed 0:07:26.160 --> 0:07:29.760 and couldn't move for over an hour. A few days later, 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.320 a woman came home and found a small white cloth 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:36.040 pressed against her screen door. Without thinking, she sniffed it 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.440 and was overwhelmed by an unusual smell, and then she 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.120 felt an electric shock run through her body and she 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.680 fell to the ground, paralyzed for two hours. The wave 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:49.560 of attacks became a statewide crisis, and the anesthetic Prowler 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.160 soon became known by a much more catching name, one 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.240 named after the town the events were happening in, the 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.760 mad Gasser of Mattoon. The local police examined and ruled 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.840 out every possible suspect, escaped mental patients, known pranksters and criminals, 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.720 even a high school chemistry teacher. They analyzed the cloth 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:11.840 the woman had found on her screen door, but strangely, 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.320 there were no traces of chemicals on it at all. 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:17.760 They even brought in chemical weapons experts from the army, 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.760 who were unable to locate any poisonous gas residue at 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.800 any of the affected homes, and even though a few 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.680 people had claimed to have seen the mad Gasser and 0:08:27.800 --> 0:08:31.680 dozens had reported symptoms, no one had actually been hospitalized, 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:34.800 and there was no physical evidence of any chemical attacks 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.920 at all. Over the course of two weeks, more than 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.280 two dozen gas attacks were reported to local police, and 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.360 the panic spiraled out of control. Armed vigilantes roamed the 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:49.080 streets at night looking for the mad Gasser. Women were 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.000 afraid to leave their homes without carrying baseball bats for 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.920 self defense, and then, just as suddenly as the reports 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.760 had begun, they went away. The police received their final 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:03.199 work port of a gaser attack in mid September. Despite 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.239 calling in state and federal investigators for assistance, the authorities 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.360 never found out who or what was responsible for these 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:15.040 strange incidents. The mad guesser, if he even existed at all, 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:22.360 was never caught. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.880 through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:30.080 me Aaron Mankey in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:32.679 written by the Grim and Mild team, and produced by 0:09:32.800 --> 0:09:35.520 Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:39.640 who make it over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. 0:09:39.920 --> 0:09:42.240 You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:46.400 Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online, as well 0:09:46.440 --> 0:09:49.160 as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:52.480 ad free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all the 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.240 same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.240 Learn more and sign up over at patreon dot com, 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.920 slash grim and Mild, and until next time, Stay curious, 0:10:06.559 --> 0:10:06.920 m HM.