Fan Mails Singer Acid Spray, Videotapes His Own Suicide

MIAMI - A man obsessed with Icelandic pop singer Bjork mailed a book booby-trapped with an acid spray to her London home, then killed himself on videotape while listening to one of her songs, police said.

The device, designed to squirt sulfuric acid when the book was opened, never reached Bjork Gudmonsdottir because police found the body of Richard Lopez and uncovered his plot before the mail was picked up.

Scotland Yard, tipped off by Florida police, intercepted the package at a London post office and destroyed it yesterday.

Lopez, 21, videotaped himself explaining why he wanted to harm Bjork before he killed himself Thursday, police said.

"He admits to being obsessed with her, alludes to her having a relationship with a black man," Hollywood police spokesman Todd DeAngelis said yesterday. "And in his words, that was unacceptable."

The propellant could have caused burns, disfiguration or even death, DeAngelis said.

Bjork manager Nettie Walker told the Morgunbladid, a morning newspaper in Iceland, "She had never heard of this man or seen him."

The plot was discovered Monday when an apartment manager called police to report a foul smell coming from Lopez's one-room apartment in Hollywood, about 20 miles from Miami.

Police found Lopez dead. The camera was pointed at his body with a tape inside labeled "Ricardo Lopez - Last Day."

Lopez shot himself to death on tape. The Bjork song "I Miss You," which appears on her latest release, "Post," was playing in the background.

Police viewed 11 videotapes, each two hours long, made from January through Thursday. The tapes comprised a video diary in which Lopez filmed himself putting together the chemical propellant and talking about Bjork.

At one point, he held up the envelope addressed to Bjork's home, which told police where to look in London.

Lopez, originally from Atlanta, was unemployed.

Bjork took best female artist in the 1995 MTV Europe Awards. She was the lead singer for the critically acclaimed band the Sugarcubes, and left to pursue her solo career in 1992. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Information from Knight-Ridder Newspapers is included in this report.