The Right Chemistry: Nothing Funny About This Uncle Fester

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His appearance in the video is striking. Uncle Fester wears a red devil costume full of horns and a tail. This isn’t the Uncle Fester you might remember from the 1960s Addams family sitcom, the one who sleeps on a bed of nails, feeds his plants with blood, and makes a lightbulb glow by putting it in his mouth. . This Uncle Fester is an underground chemist, real name Steve Preisler, who got the nickname during his undergraduate chemistry days because of his fondness for doing crazy things in the lab. After graduation, he put his chemical skills to use by converting ephedrine, then available in various cold remedies, into methamphetamine, “speed” or “crank” in the street language. For this he was arrested and sentenced in 1984 to five years in prison.

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In prison, he watched a television show of “terrorist publishers” who published books with instructions for making explosives. An idea was born! He would take revenge on the authorities, who in his opinion had imposed an unfair sentence on him for producing only a few grams of “methamphetamine”. He would train an army of chefs in the art of crank cooking! Preisler borrowed a typewriter and under the pseudonym “Uncle Fester” produced his cult classic, Secrets of Methamphetamine Making, detailing methods for synthesizing “methamphetamine” and its necessary precursors from chemicals. simple, mostly readily available. The book, peppered with outlandish anecdotes, provided specific instructions that anyone with a basic understanding of organic chemistry could easily follow. Preisler called his work “funny clean chemist,” but authorities labeled him “the most dangerous man in America.”

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Fester is still at it, as a video from 2021 Vice Media makes clear. He seems to enjoy his infamy as a popularizer of “forbidden knowledge”, as evidenced by the devil’s disguise, but there are several disturbing problems here. While the procedures shown in the video are too casual to be followed, he repeatedly refers to his Methamphetamine Making Secrets, now in the eighth edition. The book is even available on Amazon for aspiring chemists trying to follow in Fester’s footsteps. But there is something else. Their reckless spilling of inordinate amounts of chemicals, smoking while dealing with flammable substances, lack of ventilation, insensitive use of toxic mercury compounds, and flushing chemicals down the toilet all demonstrate a complete disregard for safety. This is not the way to do chemistry of any kind! A veritable stain on the face of a most useful science.

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When asked why “America’s favorite underground chemist” is not afraid that the video will trigger his arrest, Preisler claims that he has deliberately omitted the last step of the synthesis, ensuring that no one will be able to make methamphetamine based on what he has seen. He also notes that murders are routinely shown on television and wonders why anyone would object to showing a little chemistry. Well the chemistry shown is not harmless and can lead to real deaths. His argument that the large-scale manufacture of “methamphetamine” today is in the hands of the Mexican cartels and authorities should not worry about the little ones cooking a few grams for their own occasional use is an empty argument. Preisler tries to justify this by referring to the classic saying that “only the dose produces the poison”, although, curiously, as a chemist, he does not realize that this was first expressed by Paracelsus. However, the evidence indicates that much methamphetamine is synthesized in clandestine laboratories north of the border that cater to addicts, not “occasional” users.

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Not surprisingly, the creators of the television series Breaking Bad sought advice from “Uncle Fester.” That popular show featured a high school chemistry teacher who was diagnosed with cancer and worried about his family’s financial situation after his death, which seems imminent. He decides to descend into the criminal underworld and cook some methamphetamine to earn money. Preisler says he helped with the scripts and design of the equipment used. He even suggests that Walter White’s character was based on him! That’s possible because when the series aired in 2008, “Uncle Fester” and its books had gained a huge following. He had written about the synthesis of other controversial chemicals, such as LSD, nitroglycerin, and phosgene. In Silent Death, he describes the synthesis of the nerve gas sarin. That book was found in the belongings of the terrorist gang that unleashed an attack with this gas on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, killing 14 people. Preisler’s strange comment was “that was unfortunate, but it’s nice to know the recipe works.”

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Today, Preisler mocks and taunts the authorities who, according to him, are trying to catch him, even though he himself is not producing anything. He also vigorously attacks “copyright piracy”, claiming that stolen copies of his works can be downloaded illegally. Pontificate on the evils of stealing other people’s work! What about taking chemical reactions that have been developed by researchers for the advancement of chemistry and hijacking them to teach undercover chemists how to make drugs that cause misery and death?

Uncle Fester of the Addams never did anything so dire. He didn’t even do drugs. When he had a headache, he simply placed his head inside a large vise and proceeded to tighten it. Sometimes he even used the vise just for fun. Very different from the underground chemist “Uncle Fester” who enjoys screwing up people’s lives. It is a plague for chemistry.

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Joe Schwarcz is Director of the Office of Science and Society at McGill University (mcgill.ca/oss). Presents The Dr. Joe Show on CJAD Radio 800 AM every Sunday from 3-4pm