The Boy Scout

0:00Support for Criminal comes from Fetch Pet Insurance. Every six seconds, a pet owner in the U.S. gets hit with a vet bill over$1 ,000. Fetch Pet Insurance can help. Fetch is a complete pet insurance for dogs and cats. You get paid back up to 90 % of vet bills. You can use Fetch for any vet in the U.S. and Canada. All vets are in network. Go to FetchPet.com slash save right now for your free quote. That's FetchPet.com slash save. Support for Criminal comes from Grow Therapy. Maybe you're dealing with anxiety, burnout, or financial stress. Whatever challenges you're facing, Grow Therapy is here to help.

0:42Grow accepts over 125 insurance plans. Sessions average$21 with insurance, and some pay as little as zero, depending on their plan. Visit growtherapy.com slash criminal today to get started. That's growtherapy.com slash criminal. Availability and coverage vary by state and insurance plan. Hi, it's Phoebe. I have some good news about our membership program, Criminal Plus. Maybe you've heard me say it before, but being a member of Criminal Plus is the number one thing you can do to support our work. And as of this week, we're making that membership even better. Criminal Plus is officially joining Patreon.

1:26Here's what it means. No ads on anything we make. Bonus episodes where you get to know the people who make these shows. It's like being in the room with us while we work. We get distracted, we tell stories, we talk about books and TV, we disagree about hot dogs. Criminal Plus members join us for virtual live events. We can talk with you, and you can talk with each other in chat rooms. That's something you all have been asking for for a long time. If you're not already a member of Criminal Plus, look in the show notes for a link to sign up, or go to patreon.com slash criminal. That's patreon.com slash criminal.

2:02Right now, if you sign up for an annual membership, you get two months for free. There are already some really fun things waiting for you when you join, including more than 50 bonus episodes, an upcoming live event, and a pretty great hat. Thanks very much for your support. Now, here's the show. Can you describe Gulf Manor? It's like a little, perfect little suburban subdivision that had a back-to-the-future charm. It's in the suburbs of Detroit. It's outside of Detroit. Author Ken Silverstein. And, I mean, if you want peace and quiet, it just seems perfectly idyllic. You would never expect anything out of the ordinary to happen there.

2:46The most unusual thing you'd spot would be a Mr. Softie ice cream truck pulling up and kids running up to get ice cream. You know, that's the type of neighborhood it is. On June 26, 1995, Dottie Peace, who lived in Gulf Manor, was driving home from work and saw something strange in her next-door neighbor's yard. She pulls into her driveway, and there are a group of men dressed in moon suits. And they were, you know, like something out of some nightmare, you know, Twilight Zone episode, swarming around this perfect little manicured lawn. And they were focused on this potting shed in the backyard.

3:33And they were dismantling this potting shed with electric saws and then stuffing it into these steel drums with radioactive warning signs. It must have been very hard to process this scene. What did she think was going on? She really had no idea initially, and the men in the moon suits weren't being terribly forthcoming. They weren't being forthcoming at all. And there were a group of neighbors standing out, and she went up to join them. And nobody really knew what was going on, but one of the neighbors told Dottie that there'd been someone who'd woken up, you know, in the middle of the night and saw this strange, eerie glow emanating from the potting shed, which made Dottie even more nervous and alarmed.

4:29And she went to her house and called her husband, and she said, Dave, there are men in funny suits walking around here. You've got to do something. Dottie Peace's next-door neighbors were a couple named Michael Polisek and Patty Hahn. Patty had a teenage son, David, who stayed with them on weekends. She and his father were divorced. The men in the moon suits were there because of something David had done. Something that had caught the attention of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the FBI. I'm Phoebe Judge. This is Criminal.

5:21Tell me a little bit about what David Hahn was like growing up. As a, you know, five, six, seven-year-old, he was, you know, a traditional young boy growing up in the suburbs. As he got a little bit older, you know, most boys, like, ride their bikes, you know, play baseball. But David became very, very obsessed with science. David's parents got divorced when he was nine. He went to live with his father, Ken, during the week. Not long after the divorce, Ken began dating a woman named Kathy. And within a year, they bought a house together, about 45 minutes away from Gulf Manor. When David was 10 in the late 1980s, Kathy's father gave him a book.

6:14An out-of-print copy of the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. It was written for young boys and girls. And it was written in like the 60s. You know, this was the age where, you know, it was believed that science would solve all of our problems. You know, it was for kids, but it confidently asserted that, you know, not too long in the future, we'd all be driving around in like jet, you know, it would be like the Jetsons. And science would solve everything from diseases. We'd have probably Martian colonies. It was just this incredibly utopian vision. And it resonated with David. He became very, very quickly obsessed with the book.

7:07And there was a little section that he read over and over and over again. On a page with the heading, What's Ahead in Chemistry? There is a short section called Atomic Energy that read, The force hidden in the atom will be turned into light and heat and power for everyday uses. And then it said, Do you want to share in the making of that astonishing and promising future? Well, David did, for all sorts of different reasons, but he wanted to be part of that. By the time David was 12, he was reading his father's college chemistry textbooks. His report cards at school were usually terrible, except for science.

7:51He started making his own fireworks using a formula he'd found in a library book. He got the magnesium shavings he needed from an auto shop, and the metal that made the fireworks red from highway safety flares that he bought at the hardware store and split open. He'd put on firework shows for the neighborhood. He was always sort of shy, but he was, like, it made him, it was a way for him to be popular. He set up a laboratory in his bedroom at his father's house and conducted most of the experiments in the Golden Book of Chemistry. He started mowing lawns so he could afford the equipment and chemicals.

8:30One time, he followed the book's instructions for producing chloroform and ended up passing out after he held it up to his nose. He didn't tell his parents about it when he woke up. He didn't have a lot of oversight. And, you know, his parents thought it was cool. I mean, hey, you know, better science than, you know, hanging out with rowdy teenagers or getting into drugs or anything. But then they started getting a little bit concerned because there were, like, little explosions and accidents happening in the bedroom. and there were burn marks and holes in the walls. The carpet was stained. They had to rip it out.

9:10You know, it looked like a war zone or something. His parents told him he couldn't do any more experiments in his bedroom, but he could keep doing them in the basement. When David wired up a bug zapper to the house's electricity and used it to raise and lower the voltage throughout the house, his stepmother started to lose patience and told his father that he really had to do something. So his father decided to convince David to join the Boy Scouts. David's father had been a Boy Scout growing up and thought it would be a healthy distraction. David loved it, but he kept doing his experiments. He started working other jobs to pay for them.

9:54One was as a grocery bagger at Kroger Supermarket. One day, another employee dropped eight containers of ammonia on the floor. When they broke, the fumes, which can be dangerous, spread through the store. David knew just what to do. He ran to the aisle with toilet bowl cleaners, grabbed one called the works, and poured the bottle on the spilled ammonia. It created a huge white cloud, but the smell went away. The works had an acid component that neutralized the ammonia base. David's boss, who thought he'd made a toxic gas when he saw the cloud, got ready to evacuate the store and fired David. He apologized later when he learned from Poison Control that David had done exactly what he should have.

10:44One night, his father and stepmother were just sitting up in the living room watching TV, and there was a huge explosion coming from the basement. And they ran down there, and David was lying on the floor, barely conscious. His eyebrows were smoking, is what they told me. And he had been playing around with, as part of one of his experiments, with red phosphorus, and he wasn't aware how that could easily trigger an explosion. So he'd been pounding it with a screwdriver. And when he was doing that, it triggered this explosion. And he, you know, they had to take him to the hospital and he had to have his eyes flushed.

11:30And for months, he had to go see an ophthalmologist. And, you know, it could have been, he was lucky. It could have been far worse. And, but then his father and stepmother were like, okay, That's it. No more experimenting. And like so David did what every teenager would do under the circumstances. He pretended to comply. But what he did instead was simply he shifted his laboratory from the basement out to the potting shed at his mother's home in Golf Manor. and his mother and her boyfriend, every once in a while, they'd see something that they thought was a little strange, like, you know, David would routinely wear a gas mask when he went out to the potting shed.

12:25And he'd sometimes, you know, stay out there until 2 or 3 in the morning and there'd be, you know, there'd be, like, flashing lights coming from the potting shed and all. But it didn't seem that out of the ordinary. And, you know, like, I don't know about you, but as a teenager, my God, I mean, I did incredibly reckless, stupid stuff and nobody was paying attention. Okay, it's strange, but it's great. Like, David's focused. He's getting, at least he's getting A's in science class and he's excited about school, at least about science. And he was still very active in his scout troop, although he was thinking about dropping out by the time he was 14 because it took time away from his experiments.

13:10But when he talked to his father about it, he convinced David to keep going. His father really wanted him to become an Eagle Scout because his father had fallen just short. At the time, only about 2 % of scouts made it to Eagle Scout. To do it, David would have to earn 21 merit badges. Some were required, like first aid, personal fitness, and camping. But others were elective. And one of them was the Atomic Energy Merit Badge. David's scoutmaster later said that he was the only scout in the history of their troop to try for it. The atomic energy merit badge pamphlet that he was using to get his merit badge was more or less written by the Westinghouse Electric, the American Nuclear Society, and the Edison Electric Institute, which is a trade group of utility companies, many which had nuclear plants.

14:09So there was no skepticism. There was no questioning of whether this was good for the country, whether it might be dangerous. It was just at the level of the Golden Book of Chemistry experiments. One project you could do to earn the merit badge was to build a little model reactor. using ping pong balls and tennis cans and, you know, just the sort of thing you'd see, like, at a teenage science fair. That's, of course, what most kids do. But not David.

14:55We'll be right back. To listen without ads, join Criminal Plus.

15:15Support for Criminal comes from Quince. With the warm weather already here, now is a good time to upgrade your wardrobe. And if you're looking for high-quality, long-lasting pieces that you can wear every summer, you might want to consider Quince. Quince has beautiful everyday pieces like 100 % European linen pants, dresses and tops with style starting at$32. Their denim is soft and easy to wear, and their organic cotton sweaters are perfect for layering on cool summer nights. I've tried their crewneck tee in organic cotton, and it was soft and comfortable. I think it'll be great for summer, and I like knowing that it's made from organic materials.

15:55Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash criminal for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. That's quince.com slash criminal for free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash criminal.

16:19Support for Criminal comes from Kachava. No two people make their green smoothies exactly the same. But if you're looking to add a bit of extra nutrition to yours, you might like cachava. When I start my mornings with a green smoothie, I throw in whatever I have available. Some mornings it's spinach, other times it's kale. Either way, it's very easy to add a few scoops of cachava before blending it all together. Cachava is an all-in-one shake that can help with your energy, digestion, immunity, and more. It's made with high-quality ingredients, without any artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners.

16:53It's just clean nutrition to fuel you wherever your day takes you. Their new travel packs make it even easier to do that. You can just throw one in your bag. One packet provides lots of protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, greens, probiotics, omegas, electrolytes, and more. Take your daily ritual with you. Go to cachava.com and use code CRIMINAL for 15 % off your first order. That's cachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A dot com, code CRIMINAL.

17:27David Hahn was 16 when he decided to try to build a nuclear reactor called a breeder reactor. This is a special type of nuclear reactor that would produce more energy than it consumed. It was designed in a way that you'd put in, let's just say, to make it easier, although obviously this is not a precise analogy, But, you know, if you went to the gas station and you filled your tank, you'd never really have to fill it again because your car would be generating more gasoline than it was consuming. The U.S. government had been attempting to make breeder reactors since the 1940s. The first one had a core meltdown within a few years, and the facility had to be permanently closed.

18:18Another one had a partial meltdown just three months after it started generating electricity, and was shut down for years. In the 1970s, the government poured money into a breeder reactor project in Tennessee. And by the early 1980s, it was the largest public works project in the United States. In 1983, it became clear it would cost too much to finish the project, and they had to give it up. Ten years later, David decided to try. And, you know, when you're a teenager, it's not that crazy. I mean, you might think, well, of course it's crazy to think that you could build a breeder reactor. But I don't know.

19:04I mean, I had crazy ideas when I was that age. You know, you think you can achieve anything. But for David, it was the validation, the recognition. You know, it was a way for David. You know, like other kids might excel at, again, baseball or basketball or something. But David, science, it was something that he was very good at. David found a diagram of a breeder reactor in one of his father's college textbooks. But it didn't have all the details about how you might put it together and what materials you'd need. So David wrote letters to the organizations listed in the Eagle Scout Atomic Energy Merit Badge pamphlet.

19:46He told me he was writing like up to 20 letters a day. And he was writing to industry and to the Department of Energy. And he would write letters claiming sometimes that he was a physics instructor at Chippewa Valley High School, which he attended. and that he needed material or information to engage his students and to get them excited about nuclear power. Most of the time it didn't work. But for every 10 letters he sent, he'd get a couple of replies. David exchanged a lot of letters with the director of isotope production and distribution at the Department of Energy, a man named Donald Erb, and also with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

20:37And he learned that a lot of radioactive materials weren't as hard to get as he would think. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent him a list of sources. Uranium, which David needed, was hard to find. But David had learned he could make his own. He'd read in a scientific encyclopedia that the isotope thorium-232 can become uranium-233. And thorium, which was named after the Norse god of thunder, Thor, was something David could find. The American Nuclear Society had sent him a brochure called Dreams and Dragons, which said that thorium-232 is used to coat a part in gas lanterns to make them glow more brightly.

21:26David managed to get a few dozen gas lanterns from camping surplus stores, but it wasn't enough. So he paid someone who worked at a camping equipment store to steal some from the storeroom. It took David almost a whole weekend to turn them into ash with a blowtorch. When he was done, he stored it in milk jugs and shoeboxes. But he wanted to make it more radioactive. So he cut open batteries and pried lithium from the center. And he heated the lithium with the ash. He got out a Geiger counter he'd ordered from a catalog. It started clicking as soon as he turned it on. Did he know about the danger of radioactive materials?

22:13I mean, he knew a little bit about it, but he just didn't take it seriously. I mean, he did take some precautions. He knew there were some dangers. So, you know, he wore a gas mask in the potting shed. But that would take care of it. You know, he didn't have proper material, but he put together a little makeshift lead poncho. He, you know, would throw out his clothes sometimes. I mean, he changed his shoes. He left them in the backyard. You know, he wasn't taking elaborate precautions. You know, there was all sorts of information out there that might have given him caution. but there was nothing that was going to deter him.

22:59He took this, you know, this fantasy version of a 1960s book, the Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, and he didn't really stray too far from the utopian version that was presented to him. To transform the thorium into uranium, David needed to build something called a neutron gun. He got a block of lead and hollowed it out with a chisel. And then he had to find the right elements to fill the chamber. One of them was easy to find. It was just aluminum, which David bought from a chemical supplier. But the other element was less available. It had to be a certain kind of radioactive substance. David had his heart set on radium, which the Golden Book of Chemistry called a miracle element.

23:51In the early 1900s, radium was used in all kinds of products, from lipstick to energy drinks. Clock faces and dials were painted with a radium-infused paint to make them glow. The employees at the clock and watch factories who did the painting, usually young women, were told the paint was harmless. So they'd take these little paintbrushes with quite thin point and put them in their mouth to, you know, with the radium paint to sort of make a point with the tip of the little paintbrush they were using. Many of them became very sick or died of radiation poisoning. We have an episode about this. It's called The Dial Painters.

24:32The women took legal action against their employers in highly publicized cases, which helped lead to the creation of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and better protections for people who work with chemicals. David didn't know about what had happened to the women who had painted the clocks, but he did know about the clocks. So he would take his Geiger counter that he had mounted on the dashboard of his car and drive around Detroit heading to junkyards and antique stores and taking in his Geiger counter to see if, you know, if there was anything that he might be able to buy to collect the radium he needed.

25:17And this was slow going, you know, spending the weekend driving around. And, you know, if you find anything, you're scraping the paint off of the clock and into some little container and slowly building up your stockpile. David spent a weekend scraping clocks with a screwdriver. But he only ended up with a small pile of paint chips. So he had to give up on radium and look for something else to use. He settled on an element called americium. You can get americium. I think you still can, although I'm not sure. But back in the day, smoke detectors contained a little chip of americium. David had stolen a few smoke detectors from his Boy Scout camp, but he would need a lot more.

26:08One day he heard that a local business was selling damaged merchandise, including smoke detectors, at a discount. But they only had a few dozen. Then he found out that smoke alarm companies will sell expired detectors directly to buyers. So he wrote to one of them, saying he was working on a school project, and got about 100 smoke detectors for a dollar each. Initially, he was getting all of the material shipped to his father's house. And, you know, there'd be just boxes and boxes coming. But he told, you know, he told them the same thing. Ah, it's just for this, you know, it's for his high school science class.

26:47He figured out where to actually find the americium and the smoke detectors by writing to a smoke detector manufacturer. A customer service representative told him exactly where it was located, sealed in a protective cover. David used pliers to pry it out. Once he had a pile of tiny chips of americium, he put on a paper hospital mask and welded them all together with a blowtorch. David was finally ready to put together his neutron gun. But he still really wanted to use radium. He'd always go into an antique store if he saw one. So one day, he has his Geiger counter, and he walks into an antique store, and the Geiger counter just, like, goes off.

27:36And he was very excited because he knew somewhere in that store, he knew he had hit a gold mine of radium, a radium mine. And it turned out, you know, the Geiger counter led him to a table clock, and it had a tinted green dial. And after haggling over the price with the owner, he bought it. And when he took it home, what had triggered the Geiger counter was that there was, you know, in these old clocks, there was always a little tiny door in the side. If you needed to wind up the clock, there was like a little key you'd use to wind up these clocks. So there was this little door where you could do that.

28:22But when David opened up that little door, there was a little bottle of radium paint. He never had a score like that. I mean, this was like, you know, robbing a bank. This was beyond David's wildest dreams. David put together a neutron gun with the radium. And when he was done, he put the gun on the floor of the potting shed and aimed it at the thorium. He covered the whole thing with a sheet of lead. And then he waited. He'd do his homework or watch TV for hours, then come back to check whether anything was happening with his Geiger counter. But it wasn't working. So David wrote to his pen pal at the Department of Energy, Donald Erb, to see if he knew what was going wrong.

29:09He presented it as a hypothetical problem. But Donald Erb had a very practical solution. Erb wrote back to tell David that the neutrons coming out of his gun were too fast, and that the Manhattan Project scientists had come across this problem too. David would need a filter to slow the neutrons down. He could use water or an isotope called tritium. Well, David didn't want to do water. He didn't want ping pong balls or tennis cans. He didn't want to do anything the easy way. So he looked into his options, and what he found were glow-in-the-dark gun and bow sights, which had small amounts. It was a waxy substance inside the gun or bow sight, and they contained a tiny quantity of tritium.