Born in Uruguay and raised in Georgia, USA, Ricardo López moved to Florida as a young adult, where he worked part-time as a pest exterminator. Socially isolated, plagued by low self-esteem, and intensely insecure about his physical appearance, López withdrew completely from the real world.
: For Lopez, filming himself building the bomb was as significant as the act itself; he viewed the tapes as "documentation of a crime" for the FBI. The Final Day and Suicide Video Ricardo Lopez Suicide Video