These sorts of "forbidden knowledge" books (also including the Anarchist Cookbook, Poor Man's James Bond, etc.) exist in a sweet spot for bullshitters. The readers who can't understand the professional literature on e.g. making explosives and turn to your book are not competent to evaluate what they're reading. The few who attempt to follow the instructions and find them lacking are also unlikely to post verified reviews about how the explosive boobytrap did not kill the target as advertised. An author can mix together correct but partial information, speculation, and imagination as desired. It won't hurt sales if the instructions for homebrewed potassium cyanide don't work.
This reminds me of a story that happen long ago. I was working at a farm, I was with one of my mates and we were tasked with some general farm duties. One day we discovered a shed full of bags of Potassium Nitrate... I then recalled reading this recipe for a smoke bomb on the Anarchist Cookbook. Perfect! we though... all we need is sugar now...
We almost burned the whole place to the ground... for sure we did learn a valuable lesson that afternoon hahaha We did finish the job btw, and got the cost of replacing the lino deducted from our paychecks...
Just substitute me for you and your mates and the kitchen for the farm and, well, let's just say my aunt was not happy! At least the flames didn't quite reach the ceiling, so we still had a house to live in.
> The few who attempt to follow the instructions and find them lacking are also unlikely to post verified reviews about why the explosive boobytrap did not kill the target as advertised.
These days, who knows. We had Silk Road for a while.
Long ago, SWIM attempted some of the napalm recipes. It did create a flammable, gelatinous muck, but also ate holes in and leaked out of the storage containers the guide recommended.
At the time, there was no public forum in which to complain about this oversight, just a lot of "oh shit" heard echoing across the backyard when a test batch was ignited.
An interesting 'detail': Nancy Crampton-Brophy (the author) was recently convicted of killing her husband in Portland, Oregon. Seven years before her conviction, she also wrote a book titled 'How to Murder Your Husband'.
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Links don’t get previewed. It’s why many people copy paste from external sources instead of / in addition to linking. This is a blessing (never have to click on slow external link) and a curse (rare to ever clicks on links they’re too slow). If I just linked then nobody would click on it and I’d not get my point across. And I did t just want to copy the message since it wasn’t mine, so in place attribution as HN comment makes sense.
O_O