The Man That Copied Breaking Bad

why not Mexican Breaking Bad is one of the most popular shows of all time about an Everyman turned drug kingpin and with millions of people watching it some have tried to emulate Heisenberg himself with lackluster results which is what we'll be discussing today one of breaking bad's most iconic images is Walter White's signature product Blue Sky in the fiction of the show the drug achieves its distinctive blue coloring and due to the fact that it is made from methylamine rather than the normal chemicals that produce standard clear meth in real life though cooking with methylamine would not produce this effect nevertheless it did not stop drug users across the country from associating the blue color with quality and dealers took notice of this trend in 2013 shortly after the end of the series DEA agents Across America began noticing an uptick in blue meth flooding the streets however this was not the Super drug that was seen in breaking bad as it turns out local drug dealers had been receiving shipment of the product and then cutting it with chemicals in order to change its color this resulted in not in users receiving a better high but instead it getting sick as if that wasn't bizarre enough other variations were spotted such as red meth while authorities tried to put the warning out there to stay away from this dangerous new type of an already dangerous shrug it did not stop addicts from buying it up but while some people had a desire to try Walter White's signature products others wanted to be white himself Bradley Allen Roland was a chemistry professor at Henderson State University in Arkansas by all accounts he was a well-liked member of the school respected by students and facility alike according to his peers Roland was a big fan of Breaking Bad with many people around campus often referring to him as Heisenberg of course this was intended as nothing more than a lighthearted joke but they could have never expected how real it would turn out to be on October 7th 2019 a chemical spill occurred at the University City's Reynolds Science Center someone had dropped a large container of benzyl chloride causing fumes to spread around the school that forced the building to be evacuated and closed down for weeks on end now it needs to be understood that one of the uses for benzyl chloride is the creation of amphetamine class drugs this begged the question who had been handling the substance that day and why the answer came a few weeks later when Bradley Allen Roland was arrested alongside fellow chemistry professor Terry David Bateman on the charge of manufacturing and methamphetamine the duo had allegedly been so inspired by the television exploits of Walter White that they decided they could accomplish the same thing unfortunately for them their first attempt at creating their own drug Empire resulted in the chemical spill that shut down an entire School many onlookers said that perhaps they should have invested in an RV initially both men pleaded not guilty to the charges however that soon changed once the trial started while Roland claimed that the scheme had been cooked up between the two of them Bateman placed sole blame for the idea on his cohort this resulted in Bateman being completely acquitted while Roland was sentenced to four months in jail 200 hours of community service and was forced to pay Henderson State's cleaning bill after the evacuation totaling nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in Damages interestingly Bradley Rowland is not the only instance of an educator attempting to break Bad John ghost was a high school science teacher located in New Mexico unknown to his students and colleagues though ghosts was struggling with an addiction to drugs with meth being a particular favorite of his according to the man after the fact he had been toying with the idea of using his knowledge of science to create his own substances and was encouraged by fellow users to do just that he purchased the necessary ingredients and equipment to manufacture it but reportedly gave up after multiple unsuccessful attempts during a routine traffic stop in February of 2016 authorities discovered the drug and its Associated paraphernalia in the man's car while ghost was able to get out of this arrest on bond he still lost his teaching position a few months later in October he was once again pulled over and arrested when police found the equipment used to create meth in his vehicle this time the former educator remained Behind Bars and pleaded guilty to the manufacturing and possession of the Schedule II substance when the media got wind of ghost's story they began spreading it across the country as a tale of fiction becoming reality comparing it to the events of Breaking Bad however the convict took issue with his framing saying that any similarities between his life and the AMC Television show were purely surface level not only did he claim that he never had any intention of selling his product but he lacked the ability to recreate the quality of Walter White substance during an interview given from jail ghost said I don't have the chemistry skills to do that just because I taught an intro to chemistry to a bunch of ninth graders it doesn't mean I ran a full-blown meth lab eventually he was sentenced to four years behind bars while Bradley Roland and John ghosts may have shared a similar career path with breaking bad's protagonist there have been others who shared his name Walter Jack White lived in Lockwood Montana with a name like that perhaps it was some form of Twisted Fate that caused him to become addicted to methamphetamine as he spiraled deeper and deeper into debt from his dealers white was left with no choice but to begin selling the drug himself but just to keep his head above water according to White after the fact he tried to get out of this life multiple times only to be threatened back into it by his suppliers the dealer was in debt to multiple people and that included his son Brandon during a dispute about the money that was owed the young man shot his father in the back in his driveway while he managed to survive this attack the resulting investigation led to police discovering Walter's horde of drugs and weapons hidden in his home in fact a deeper dive revealed that the man had sold over 32 pounds of meth an amount the judge in the case described as extraordinary white was arrested in December of 2013. on charges of distribution of meth and possession of firearms for which he received 12 years in prison Walter apologized for his actions and almost seemed relieved that his conviction might finally get him out of the hole he had dug himself into with how many people tried to replicate Heisenberg's rise to prominence it led some to wonder if it would even be possible to recreate the product of the fictional character in real life the average purity of meth usually hovers around 80 to 90 percent what makes Walter White's creation notable within the world of Breaking Bad is that it boasts a purity of 99 percent the dealers could die their drug blue all they wanted but it would never compare to the work of the one who knocks as it turned out though there were some manufacturers who cracked the code of ultra pure meth they just weren't located in the United States in September of 2012 a group of five men were detained in Thailand after attempting to sell meth to undercover DEA agents upon analyzing the drugs authorities discovered that it had purity of 99 through further questioning they were able to determine that the product had been synthesized in North Korea allegedly the reclusive communist nation was home to several meth labs that were sending drugs to the Western World and many parts of the country saw high levels of addiction amongst the population some onlookers joked that Vince Gilligan should have chosen North Korea for the setting of a show rather than New Mexico while there were many who took inspiration from Breaking Bad to commit felonies others chose to recreate some of Walter White's less serious crime in a season 3 episode of the show following an argument with his wife Walter angrily hurls a pizza onto the roof of his family's home this quickly became a fan favorite scene and one of the most well-known and joked about moments of the series what must be said is that the house in question was not built for the show it is a real residence occupied by a real family in New Mexico when the owner Fran Padilla was approached by AMC to ask about using her home for their program she was initially thrilled by the prospect but as Breaking Bad gained popularity this stream soon devolved into a nightmare over time the Padilla family home turned into something of a tourist attraction as people from across the country traveled to New Mexico to visit Walter White's house at first this was no big deal Fran would often come out and chat with these visitors about their love for Breaking Bad since she too was a fan however as time went on these interactions became less and less friendly the once respectful guest slowly stopped viewing the house as the residents of a kindly old woman but instead as their own personal Breaking Bad themed playground many would ring the doorbell asking if Walter White could come out while others jumped into the pool in the backyard and graffitied the outer walls most notably many people started bringing pizzas to the home solely to hurl them onto the roof Just Like Walter White eventually enough was enough Fran was forced to put up security cameras and no trespassing signs around her property in order to discourage these vandals from visiting anymore she gave interviews saying that while she didn't mind people stopping by and taking photos from across the street she could no longer allow people to come onto her lawn breaking bad's Creator Vince Gilligan spoke out in defense of the Padilla family during a podcast and if you were getting on her nerves you were doing something seriously wrong I don't even consider him fans I consider them jag-offs of course with all of this going on many wondered why she didn't just sell the home surely the property would hold a lot of value due to its connection with one of the most popular television shows of all time but she refused stating that the home simply held too much sentimental value to ever part with apparently it was worth the constant headache of hooligans coming by sadly in 2020 it was reported that Fran Padilla passed away after a battle with cancer upon her death ownership of the house was given to her daughter Joanne unlike her mother Joanne has proven to be far more hostile towards Breaking Bad fans from the get-go she erected a large fence around the property in order to further dissuade visitors from vandalizing her home not only that but she has chosen to often stand on her front lawn and Shout at onlookers until they leave unfortunately for her though this approach seems to have backfired in recent years it has become a bit of a trend on Tick Tock for people to make the pilgrimage to the Walter White House in order to see what over-the-top things Joanne Will shout at them everybody go viral Bros hey hey pause this car in fact some of her tirades have caused people to accuse her of racism come on we're not Mexican today that is where the situation stands it is far less common for people to actually try to enter the property and since most of her visitors stay across the street there is not much the homeowner can do to stop them legally and this is not the only time the events of Breaking Bad have negatively affected someone's life one of the major plot points of the fourth season was the poisoning of a young boy named Brock and the Mystery surrounding who was responsible while the writers of the series seem to want audiences to believe Gus Fring was the culprit one viewer on Reddit proposed a theory that it was actually the work of Walter White while this convinced some one user was thoroughly unconvinced this person stated in a comment that if Walt was the one who poisoned Brock he would drink his own urine fast forward to the end of season 4 where it was revealed that Walter White had indeed been responsible for the crime true to his word the form user soon edited his comments with the link to a video of him performing his promised Act and I'm gonna try to do this all in one take the wealth is a poison little kids can't believe it much like Heisenberg allowing his ego to destroy his meth Empire so too did this redditor fall victim to his own hubris

Channel: TheGamerFromMars

Views: 130,219

Keywords: thegamerfrommars, internet culture, Breaking Bad, Walter White, True Crime

Id: 0GC34fKKRn8

Length: 12min 44sec (764 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 01 2023