Thesis
They say, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Aristotle). As a scientist, I used to find this saying perplexing. Almost everything in the perceivable universe can be broken down into definable parts, whose combination yields predictable outcomes. However, it turns out that there are exceptions. Observation, introspection, and intelligence have ways of complicating simple categorizations. An object is easy to classify until it has intent. In this same manner, my rudimentary understanding of morality has also been forced into question. I thought evil was a human invention. I was wrong.
Over the course of this study, I hope to showcase that this object, which will hereafter be referred to as “the radio”, not only has the ability to affect human minds, but, perhaps more puzzling, appears to have “intent”. While anomalous, this intent is observable and implies that the radio has some form of sentience, if not sapience. It is an object that exhibits cunning strategy and a desire to kill. The purpose of this drive is unclear. However, within the scope of this study, it is provable. While second-hand accounts and quantifiable data can be disregarded as coincidental or circumstantial, the qualities described have now been observed in a sterile environment, allowing me the privilege of verifying these phenomena. Further suggested research and the potential application of my findings will be included in their corresponding sections.
Production History and Component Breakdown
On a component level, the radio is nothing special. It is identical to any other in its line: a Luxury Edition, two-band, Euphoriovox radio. It was built in 1993 and was sold as an enthusiast-level throwback product. It was sold for roughly three times the price of the average consumer market corded radio and styled after popular radios from the 1980s. Part of the line’s marketing was that it was an “all-American construction and made with high-quality materials”. It has a full metal frame, high-quality wiring, and a polished steel exterior casing with ornate leatherwork at its base. Other than the antenna, which no longer retracts completely, it is in excellent condition.
It was only after the circumstances of its creation were closely examined that its uniqueness could be fully appreciated. To my knowledge, it is the only surviving model of its batch. 100 such items were created in the same week, during a time of great financial strain for Euphoriovox. Because of the financial pressures of the company, this line has parts and materials sourced from different vendors for cheaper prices: the steel was sourced from abroad, the leather from a local company, and the wiring was harvested from returned or defective radios. To the untrained eye, these radios were the same as any other from the line, but they cost the company 40% less to produce. They planned on continuing this practice with the line going forward, but quality testing proved that it would be untenable.
Only 12 of the radios were fully functioning, and workplace accidents, blamed on the lower quality parts and worker negligence, went up 300%. These radios were deemed inferior and expected to dilute the market value of the brand. The surviving radios were distributed to staff members as Christmas bonuses. Of the units I managed to trace, none have survived, save for this one unit.
While hunting down the radio’s siblings, the dubious nature of its components came into full view. The industrial company that produced the steel went under after it was discovered that they were using immigrant labor sent to them from a known dictatorship. The workers were little more than slaves. The leather was from a company that would later be known as a sort of local boogeyman. It was home to numerous scandals, which included workplace violence towards employees and horrific tales of animal cruelty. The internal components were harder to trace because of their refurbished nature, but in the case of the surviving radio, there was only one donor. It is unclear how or why a radio involved in an owner’s suicide was returned to the company or even how the water and electrical damage didn’t render the parts unusable, but the parts now reside in this radio. There are further parts that remain unaccounted for, but every component of the radio has likely seen suffering in one form or another. This leads to another tired saying: misery loves company.
The First Owner: Andre Ramírez
The radio’s first owner, Andre Ramírez, was by all accounts, an average man. He was married to a woman named Roberta, and they had an eight-year-old daughter named Mary. He was known as a loving husband and father, and a generous friend. He participated in charitable events within his community and, at work, he was reported to have performed well above expectations. He also had no criminal record before receiving the radio as a bonus on December 15th, 1995. That last point, along with his employee records, stands out as important. After an extremely violent act, neighbors and relatives usually say they never expected it; their friend or family member always seemed so normal. But for this man to never enter the system, that his employers saw him as having leadership potential, these comments seem less biased.
After December 15th, Andre appeared unchanged, at least from the outside. In the police reports, his wife said his behavior was normal until mid-1996. Independent research confirmed that he had taken the radio from their living room to his upstairs office, and the wife never saw it again. She did not understand the significance of this, but it coincided with the beginning of Andre’s antisocial behaviour. It started with him becoming more and more distant from his daughter. Roberta reported that “he was always so loving. Then one day it just stopped, and he treated her more like a stranger.” He also spent more and more time alone in his office. On several occasions, Roberta said he would spend the entire night up there, and she could faintly make out the radio, sometimes playing music and other times only static.
From her statement, Roberta said that over the next few months, Andre “became more and more distant. Wanting nothing to do with his friends or his family. He went to work, came home, and went upstairs to his office.” She said she never saw him eat, and he was losing weight. She worried he was sick or perhaps obsessing over work. On multiple occasions, she checked on the office while Andre was at work but didn’t find anything. The only thing on his desk was the radio. Unable to make sense of what was happening, she pleaded with her husband to seek help, but he brushed her off. He barely spoke, but the few times he did, it was to tell her about some Greek myth or about how hungry he was. However, no matter what she made, he just wouldn’t eat.
In September 1996, Roberta’s mother grew ill, and she was forced to travel abroad. This meant she would have to leave her daughter in Andre’s care. She said she was concerned about this, not just because she was now convinced Andre was sick, but because he was treating his daughter with suspicion. He had mentioned to her once that he was worried “she would take it all someday”. When asked what he meant, Andre just smiled and told Roberta not to worry about it. However, she was forced to leave.
Three weeks later, following the death of her mother, Roberta returned home. Hoping for a warm welcome, she was instead shocked to find her husband alone. He would not say where their daughter was, simply that “the usurper had been dealt with”. Roberta searched the house but found no trace of her daughter. The police were called; Andre was arrested; and there was a county-wide search.
Mary was never found.
While conducting further research into this story, Roberta’s interviews proved less than reliable. 36 years of distance have not helped her memory, and her rendition of events did not fit the narration of the police report exactly. Because of this, I fear we cannot rely on her timeline or the specificity of her quotes. One gap she did fill, which was omitted from the police reports, was the specific Greek myth Andre became obsessed with. She said that on more than one occasion he relayed to her the myth of Kronos.
Should time permit, a further survey of what was the Ramírez residence could prove fruitful. The police never found Mary, but they were looking for a body. I expect that a proper excavation will reveal bones, or at least fragments, which could help determine Andre’s level of delirium. My reasoning is based on simple biology. Regardless of Andre’s state, it is doubtful he managed to eat her bones.
Second owner: Smith Co. Appliances and Electronics
After Andre’s arrest and Mary’s disappearance, Roberta had little left for her. She arranged for the home and the belongings inside to be sold and moved away to be with her siblings. The sale of her belongings was handled wholesale, with like items sold together in bulk. All the electronics and appliances were sold to a representative of Smith Co. Appliances and Electronics, a small chain of stores that sold used and refurbished items. From there, the radio went quiet for a few years.
It was placed in a large plastic bin with an assortment of other radios and placed in a storage facility to be sorted later. That date never came, and for a time, the radio was forgotten. The items were brought to the warehouse for storage, but also for repair and assessment. Electronics were never the focus of the company, as most of the workers there specialized in appliances, and they tended to fetch a higher price. The radio was bought in bulk and for such a low price that its lot was deemed a low priority and was soon forgotten and placed on a shelf. Then it was pushed behind another box, and then another, until it was part of a lot deemed too old to even bother recycling. As the years went on, though, it grew impatient.
The warehouse had been in operation for many years at this point. Records show that it had consistent staffing and very little reported by the night guards. This began to change in the spring of 2001. The night guards began reporting strange noises and figures that appeared to be watching the building from the shadows beyond the property. There were no crimes, but a sense of paranoia was seeping into the nightly work.
In late 2001, there was a break-in. A man named Frank Gillus was caught trying to break into the room where the radio was stored. When interrogated, he reported that he wasn’t sure why, but “there was something valuable in there,” which he stated he “needed.” During his interrogation, the police noted that Gillus was fidgeting with his handcuffs. They said he pressed them down into his flesh, leaving creases in his skin as he stared down at his wrists. He had prior convictions and was sentenced to three years in prison.
In early 2002, after repeatedly complaining of noises and the feeling of being watched, the senior night guard quit. He said that in the middle of the night, he had nodded off and, after fitful, violent dreams, he awoke to the scream of an animal. After quitting, he took up a sales position at a local car lot and had no further unexplained experiences. During interviews, he stated that “scream” was what he said, but it was too generic. It sounded more like the animal was being slaughtered.
By 2004, the security staff turnover rate was high, and no new guard had lasted more than 3 months. Moreover, the day staff was beginning to exhibit signs of unexplained stress. There were growing rumors that the warehouse was haunted, and even the day staff reported mysterious figures and mild hallucinations. Further break-in attempts occurred in late 2004 and early 2005, with the owner responding by installing a modern security system. This did little to make the staff feel safer, and in mid-2005, another guard quit after being found in the morning opening and emptying boxes in what appeared to be a state of somnambulism (sleepwalking). When awakened, he said he dreamt that his watch was in one of the boxes and he was looking for it.
The final event took place in 2006 when Frank Gillus returned to the warehouse. He set off the alarm, but before the police arrived, he shot the night guard and had begun tearing apart the warehouse. Security cameras show him moving through the facility from shelf to shelf, room to room, moving closer and closer to the one that did contain the radio. From the footage, one can also make out the smears he left on the shelves and boxes as he progressed. When the police arrived they found Gillis sitting on the floor staring at the radio, silently mutilating himself. He was cutting a series of circles into his arm.
Frank Gillis died shortly after in a standoff with the police. He did not respond to their instructions to drop his weapon. The night guard survived and reported that before the police arrived he could hear the man speaking to someone. He said that Frank repeatedly called out, asking someone where they were. He also said another voice responded, a strange distorted voice, which he heard say “I am here.” The police report states there was no one else in the building and that the guard must have been delirious from blood loss.
The autopsy of Frank Gillus revealed an interesting secondary effect of the radio. It either has a minor impact on those it touches from a great distance or it leaves mental scarring of some kind. The smears he left were not just from the wound that the police witnessed him cut into his arm. Before he entered the warehouse, he had carved dozens more circles into his body. The purpose behind this is unclear. It may have been an act of devotion. What is more interesting is the skill and commitment required to perform his act of self-mutilation. The deep lacerations were perfect circles. Not only were they not the result of a template, as the circles were of various sizes, but they must also have been done with a perfectly steady hand. Either he was in a state where he felt no pain, or pain no longer held any meaning for him.
Third Owner: Rebecca Howsen
Shortly after Gillus was killed, it became apparent that the warehouse had to close. It was no longer profitable to keep it open, and the rumors were beginning to hurt business elsewhere. In one final attempt to make the company solvent, a large warehouse and tent sale was held to try and clear the warehouse’s merchandise. All the long-forgotten boxes were opened and their contents laid out for sale.
The sale was quite successful and almost fully covered the cost of closing down operations and redistributing the labor to other facilities. The locals turned out in droves to pick through the merchandise. Many, including one non-local, showed up due to the warehouse’s reputation. Rebecca Howsen, an up-and-coming tech blogger, came from out of state, thinking she could get a good story out of the trip and subsequent purchase if something caught her eye.
Rebecca found her prize on the vintage electronics table, which appeared to be an old AM//FM radio. The radio. She bought it for a pittance. “They didn’t know how valuable it was”, Rebecca later wrote. “They had no idea what it was.”
Rebecca wrote a few blog posts about the trip and the radio. Nothing remarkable can be found in them. Like the radio’s other victims, she is unaware of its more aberrant qualities. Some months later, her blogs began to shift. What was once a professional tech blog began to shift towards a forum for personal grievances. This shift also coincided with Rebecca picking up the habit of nail-biting. Her friends and family reported that they had not witnessed this behavior in her before.
This new direction came to a head when Rebecca openly accused her boyfriend of cheating on her. She identified him by name and even put his phone number in the post. Rebecca said that she could hear them talking on the phone. She even said she could hear them “fucking each other’s brains out”, as she put it. She said she had never caught him red-handed, but she could hear it, and no amount of lying would change that she knew. “[She] knew and [she]… needed him to admit it!”
In further posts, it became clear that Rebecca’s boyfriend had left her. She never received the confession she sought and spent the next couple of months ranting about it on her blog. Then, suddenly, her blog went quiet. Her final post was a long rant about needing to show the world she wasn’t crazy.
The rest of the story comes from an all-too-common source: police reports. Rebecca tracked down her ex, who was now living in a bachelor apartment by himself and staked him out. When the police searched her car, they found blankets, junk food, bottles of [omitted], and the radio, plugged into the cigarette lighter using an adapter. She had been watching him from her car.
Rebecca watched him leave for work and come home again. Saw him leaving and entering with another woman. Heard him talk about her.
“How much better his new lover was. How much prettier. Smarter. How he was going to propose to her. He was going to introduce her to his parents. He told her how much he loved her.”
One evening, as Rebecca watched her ex and his new girlfriend enter the apartment, she finally snapped. She followed him in and waited outside the door to his apartment, knife in hand. She tried to listen at the door but couldn’t hear them. She knocked furiously at the door. When her ex opened it, she threatened him, told him to step back, the knife pointed at his gut. Even through the fear, he said the thing that stood out most was Rebecca’s fingers. Her nails were ripped and torn out. Many were chewed down so close to the quick that there was little left but browning semicircles of dried blood and pus. Some were actively bleeding as if she nervously bit them off in the car.
After entering, Rebecca told the other woman to come out. She knew the woman was in there. No one stepped out. She told her ex “not to fuck with her. She’d kill them both if she didn’t come out.” He explained no one was there and gestured around. The apartment only had two rooms, and she was in neither. The dingy apartment didn’t even have windows.
Clarity hit Rebecca in that moment, and shame next. She began to cry and tried to pull the knife across her throat. Her ex stepped in, but she managed to cut through her windpipe and nearly sever the carotid artery. He wrestled the knife away and called an ambulance. He held a towel against her throat until they arrived, which is what ended up saving her life. Physically, it only took 6 months for Rebecca’s wounds to heal, but she never fully recovered mentally. She remains in psychiatric care. To this day, they have to keep her fingers wrapped in bandages so she doesn’t chew at them. As for the radio, it went into evidence. Then it went into storage, and then when the storage locker payments dried up it came into the hands of science.
Clinical trials
The radio has a history, but little of it can be fully verified. Some of its anomalous properties could only be inferred. Further firsthand evidence had to be gathered to prove my original hypothesis of power and intent. To this end, two test subjects were put in contact with the radio to see its effects. They will be referred to as Subject One and Subject Two. For control, their personalities and actions will be compared to their behavior before contact with the radio. I could be considered a further control group, as repeat contact with the radio has not affected me, and I have yet to hear anything but AM/FM stations from it.
Subject One was a 17-year-old male. He was Caucasian and of roughly average build and height. The radio was presented to him as a gift, and while he found the prospect of a radio amusing, he was soon observed to use it. Within three months, he began exhibiting antisocial behavior. When interviewed, he said he “just wanted to be alone.” He was observed listening to the radio most nights while pretending to do homework.
After 4 months of exposure, Subject One started to show a pattern of distrust towards authority. At night, he would turn the radio up loud, so no one could hear what he was saying. It is unclear whom he was talking to. On more than one occasion, it appeared that he had stolen money. When interviewed, he said, “You’re paranoid, I never stole anything.” Lies like this became more and more normalized, leading to the realization that much of the lying and stealing was related to drug use. Around this time, bruises and scrapes could commonly be observed on his face and body. It was unclear if he was fighting at school or committing some form of self-harm. Family members said, “This doesn’t make sense. He was always such a good boy.”
As Subject One deteriorated, he withdrew further. He was rarely seen in his last two months as he alienated his loved ones and continued the previously witnessed self-destructive behavior. After 7 months of exposure, he was found dead in a bathtub. He was found bloated and decomposing, having been in the water for 3 days. He was floating face down, and most of the skin on his arms and legs and sloughed off and made the water viscous and cloudy. The tub itself was permanently stained an off-yellow color from the waxy secretions the remained long after the crumbling body was removed. Not that it would have been used again, the smell of purification had soaked into the entire room. After the owners sold the house, it was gutted and remodeled from the studs to remove all traces of the odor.
Subject Two was a 45-year-old female. She was Caucasian and of average weight and height for her age. Unlike Subject One, Subject Two was exposed to the radio gradually. From afar, it seemed to have no effect. She went for 7 months without any immediate signs of change. But after it was brought into closer proximity, she deteriorated rapidly. She exhibited immediate signs of stress and dissociation. Her mood was constantly shifting from anxiety to depression to sudden bouts of sobbing. When interviewed, she said, “Why is this happening?” and “I don’t understand what went wrong.”
As mentioned above, her decline was much faster than Subject One’s. However, it took an extreme shift in month 9. She suddenly became intensely paranoid and suspicious of her family. For the first time, it appeared as if a victim understood the radio was the nexus of their misfortune, and she tried to remove it. Subject Two went missing shortly after.
Three weeks after subject one disappeared, she was found by a group of hikers. Her body was burned so severely that the police couldn’t positively identify her. There was little left, save a charred incomplete skeleton. Her identification was not helped by the fact that her head and hands were missing, seemingly scattered, or consumed by scavenging animals. A suspect was identified, but without evidence or a positive ID, there was no way to convict him. The case remains unsolved.
Findings
Throughout its life, the radio has shown the ability to affect human minds in a variety of ways after long-term exposure. Some of these effects are similar to those exhibited from prolonged exposure to infrasound, but that cannot account for all of it. It is also unclear how the infrasound is administered, as to most casual listeners it only produces the dialed frequencies.
It is also unclear how it affected the people involved in the Smith Co. incidents. It was unplugged for years, so where was it drawing power from? The lack of standard electrical power seemed to dull its influence, but it also appeared to move Mr. Gillus from miles away.
There is also the inconsistency of its effect and the way it appears to choose one victim at a time. Are they chosen with some purpose in mind, or do they simply affect a small minority of listeners? Is there even an intention or simply the illusion of such? I am inclined to believe that there is intent. It’s attempted escape from Smith Co’s along with Subject Two’s disappearance indicates that it wants to hurt people, and it will remove obstacles in its way.
Further Study and Potential Applications
While it is still unclear how the radio affects the mind of its victims, I now have a catalogue of the effects it can cause: auditory hallucinations, visual hallucinations, narrative-based manipulation, nightmares, sleep deprivation, depressive and manic states, feelings of grandeur, paranoia, disillusion, self-harm, and psychotic breaks. There are likely other effects or conditions only observable by the victim, but they will only be revealed through further research.
Though this study has been more than a little macabre, I am sure it is obvious why this work is important. If it can be accepted that this radio is evil, which I do, and we can accept that it causes others to do evil, which it does, we have to surmise that good also exists. If something can broadcast evil upon an unknowing audience, can we not do the same with good? Imagine prisons and reform centers with the sheer force of goodwill broadcast to them. Would the Senate purposefully create laws and regulations that hurt the average American if they had pure good filtering into their ears instead of lobbyists? Would anyone lack empathy if it were embedded in popular media? I think not.
While this may seem cruel, the greater good is clear. I will sacrifice my life to this work if necessary, and I’m sure that if they knew, every single victim would agree that it is worth it. I will miss my wife and son, but they would have wanted this. They would have wanted me to keep listening. My mind is swimming with these truths. “Compassion alone stands apart from the continuous traffic between good and evil proceeding within us.” (Eric Hoffer) Compassion is what drives me forward. The future will look back at this work and smile. “Life is neither good nor evil, but only a place for good and evil.” (Marcus Aurelius) This is why we must push forward and tilt the scales towards good. “The road to heaven is paved with test subjects” (citation needed). I forget where that came from, but it could not be more true. “You are good; you always were good. Your hands are clean and your heart is pure” (unknown). Affirmation isn’t necessary for my work, but it is nice to hear.
I need to test the effect on repeat victims. Rebecca and the night guard both survived. Will they be more or less susceptible to its influence than before? Maybe they will be aware of the effect this time. Rebbeca has very few fingernails left to remove, but maybe she will move on to toenails and teeth?
It should also be clear at this point that the sample size available is insufficient to pinpoint the way the radio causes harm and why. The next stages might need a more direct feed to crowds. Maybe over mall speakers, or at sporting events? Will a full season of exposure be enough to affect fans, or will only employees succumb?
We live in exciting times. For thousands of years, philosophers have pondered good and evil. I sit on the cusp of not only proving these concepts are universal truths but uniting the world in categorical goodness. If I can isolate how the radio does evil, I can then harness that effect for the good of mankind. Whether they are willing seems to be irrelevant to its effectiveness.
Jacob Marsh 