Jack’s testimony on May 27, 2009, during his trial.
Initially, Jack’s attorney, David Hoose, was asking him questions. Like every other witness, Jack started with stating and spelling his name for the record. I think David Hoose said something about Jack being the nickname that he actually went by. He asked Jack where he lived and to explain his education.
Jack said that he lived in Amherst and South Hadley and that he left Amherst Regional High School at the end of his junior year, that high school hadn’t worked out well for him. He didn’t like the courses that were offered. He took placement tests and was allowed to enroll at Holyoke Community College, where he had just finished classes in calculus and cultural anthropology in the semester prior to the raid.
Hoose next asked about Jack’s interest in chemistry and where he got his supplies. Jack replied that he had been interested in chemistry since he was very small. He did model rocketry in elementary school, had watched programs on the History Channel , and built rockets with his mom. He got his rockets and supplies at the hobby store. These rockets were small and only went up a couple of hundred feet but it was exciting.
When he started, he built rockets from kits, only, but later started building them entirely on his own. He got supplies at the hobby store, Walmart, and Target. He first started when he was 7ish, and continued with rocketry until the summer before the investigation (2007).
Hoose next asked if rocketry and chemistry had been Jack’s only interest. Jack said, no, that he was involved in computer science and programming, the outdoors and camping, and biology – the mechanisms of depression and anti-psychotics.
Jack next talked about his trips to Mexico. He said that mom had been studying an activist in southern Mexico and that he had gone four or five times, for three to four months. In Mexico, fireworks are legal. It was interesting to have a device made of newspaper with a wick. This kind of explosive is prevalent in Mexico. It gave Jack experience with this type of device.
Back in the US, Jack was interested in knowing how they worked. He read a lot of textbooks and subscribed to the chemical society.
Jack designed his own web-site. He taught himself about web design. His site was called “De Rerum Omnis”, or “all about everything” in Latin. He was also active on other chemistry and engineering websites. Jack wanted to make a universal science website. He included the major fields of science, but also Dr. Who, a show that was on the BBC for 40 years and that he watches, and cooking.
One category on the site was explosives. It has received the most attention, but he posted on other categories as well.
Hoose - What is a forum?
Jack - A forum is a public email system. You can start a thread and receive replies.
it is a way of organizing an online conversation. The rules for a site are on the front page. The moderator controls those who can participate. On his site, it isn’t the Wild West. No dumb or dangerous things. No foreign languages, and he likes (good) grammar as there is the potential for misunderstanding (with bad grammar), particularly in science. He wanted to eliminate any (unnecessary) risk. He also didn’t allow flame wars – no arguing in a non-scientific way – or racism. He also banned “kewls” – dedicated followers of the anarchist’s cookbook. He said that those people do very reckless things and have no respect for other people.
On his site, there are chemical formulas and recipes, examples of some of the things discussed.
Hoose – did you make some of these things? Jack – yes.
Hoose – How? Jack – I bought some materials at the store, such as baking soda. I also synthesized some precursors from various over-the-counter materials. A precursor is any chemical used to get another chemical. Almost everything is a precursor for something.
Hoose – how did you make PETN?
Jack - I did a nitration, the addition of (yikes! Long description of chemical process , too fast for me to take notes)….. to remove impurities.
Hoose – What materials did you use?
Jack - Ideally, nitric acid, penterythretol, baking soda, and water. I distilled the nitric acid, myself.
Hoose – How did you learn how to do these syntheses?
Jack - I read articles or designed them myself. Patent information is compiled by the army and FBI labs. Also, chemistry textbooks have some syntheses. I read everything there was to read to understand and take proper safety precautions. I generally studied for at least 4 ½ months before making any synthesis. I usually made things outside. For any nitration, there is the potential for poisonous gases.
Hoose – What about safe storage?
Jack - There are risks for storage of any chemical. Picric acid can detonate when struck but it was used by the ton and cast during World War I. It is incapable of detonation when wet. I stored it in a bottle of water.
Hoose – Why detonate (your experiments)?
Jack - It was a definite way to determine if an experiment worked – I didn’t need a $10,000 mass spectrometer – no machines were needed.
Hoose – Did you learn from the ones that didn’t work?
Jack - Yes. With video, you can go back and look . A detonation is one-shot. You get a lot from examining and reanalyzing the video.
Hoose – Why did you post the videos on the internet?
Jack - I got constructive criticism. 80-90% of my detonations were in the backyard. I also used bare dirt and gravel in the landfill. On the site in Leverett, it was a substantial hike, so as not to disturb anyone. I didn’t want to harm people or property. The gate to the landfill was open. I took precautions – I would walk around the whole area to make sure that there was nothing and no one around to harm. I had no intent to harm. You can look at the area – there was no permanent damage.
Hoose – Have you been back?
Jack - Many times. The ground is indistinguishable from before.
Hoose – What about the creek?
Jack - I assume there is a crater in the stream. I couldn’t measure it at the time. It is a seasonal creek. I went back after the spring flood. It is in Shutesbury or Leverett. It looks the same as it did before.
Hoose – What occurred on and after February 15?
Jack - The conversation began unpleasantly but it became OK. They wanted me to identify all chemicals in the house and to remove what was a danger. My stress greatly diminished over time. I cooperated. I talked about how I made things. There was a mixing up of lists by so many agencies. We had to clean up afterwards. In the aftermath of the raid, Dr. Williamson wrote me a letter and we spoke. We’ve continued an email correspondence and he gave me a number of books. The head of the undergraduate chemistry program at UMass also got in touch with me and we’ve met several times.
Hoose – What do you see as your future in chemistry?
Jack - I want to get a doctorate in organic chemistry.
Cross examination by Alice Perry.
Perry – You dropped out of Amherst Regional High School because you didn’t like the kids, isn’t that right?
Jack - (Look around the gallery, packed with friends and some of their moms!) No.
Perry asked something about what Jack had been doing, to which he responded that he had applied to UMass. She then asked if this was a result of the case and Jack said no.
Perry went on to say that she was interested in Jack’s high explosive portion of the website (?)
Jack said that he was stating facts as they stand, that he was not telling people anything new, only reposting information already available elsewhere.
Perry – Are you known online as “Bombboy”?
Jack - No.
Perry - Is the camera shake (in some videos) the result of your running away from the police?
Jack - No.
Perry went further on the offensive. She peppered Jack with questions about the distance the camera was from the detonations and “What if someone had walked through the woods?” and accused Jack of feeling “entitled.” She asked whether Jack’s father hadn’t said that the experimentation was a reckless idea, and that he had made something on the site. She also asked if Jack had asked a relative for money, to which Jack said that he used mom’s credit card to order things, not money. Jack said, “I asked for a chemistry set, not explosives.”
Perry – If you did this on a lawn, (there would be more damage?) – something about lawn versus woods.
Jack - You would get more damage with a shovel.
Perry asked something to the effect of, what if a child came by?
Jack - There were no children present.
Perry went off about the red fox video that she had previously accused Jack of making with Mr. Roberts. Jack insisted that it was not his video. He may have pointed out the dead kangaroo in the background, not something typically found in Western Massachusetts.
Perry went in a lot of directions with her next series of questions –
Jack’s responses – LSA is not LSD. It is not an explosive. Privacy is not a crime.
Perry then asked something about TATP – I think this is when she accused Jack of having 100 pounds of PETN on his dresser (as opposed to 100 grams). Jack corrected her. Perry implied that there was little difference between pounds and grams.
Perry accused Jack of causing the evacuation of the neighborhood. He calmly said that a single neighbor stayed with friends across the street and that the entire neighborhood was not evacuated. Perry then said something snide about one or many, it didn’t matter.
It’s not clear to me at this point what Perry asked next – something about unsavory names. Jack’s response was to the effect that people should be banned for their actions, not for their names.
I think that Hoose must have come back to reexamine Jack.
Jack talked about how he had given Peter Murray the name of someone who appeared to be an immanent threat. Jack repeated that he had only viewed the video of the killing of a red fox and had commented on that video (online) but that he did not make the video (or kill the fox).
This was the end of Jack’s testimony.
