Love Letters - Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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[00:00]
Podcast Host/Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human
[00:06]
Narrator/Advertiser
Getting to a great idea is hard in college nonsensical essays, cringe inducing presentations, and seemingly unsolvable problem sets. But then the first thought becomes a final thesis. Jumbled slides transform into a polished keynote. And that midterm assignment gets a lot less mid because the road to great ideas is littered with bad ones. You just have to keep going until something clicks. Great ideas start on Mac. Find out more on apple.com college. Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and mild.
[00:47]
Erin Menke
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On May 4 of the year 2000, a lone worker at the Pentagon sat bored at their computer desk, sifting through routine emails. They were surprised when they saw one with a subject line that read I love you in all caps with no spaces. Their hearts skipped a beat as they considered that maybe they had a secret admirer. They clicked the email, but which was blank, but it had an attachment with the same name. A love letter, perhaps? The worker clicked on it. This was no secret admirer, though, but a Trojan virus, one of the first of its kind. Within a day, it had infected 10% of all computers on the planet, deleting millions of files. A little while earlier, across the world in the Philippines, computer college student Onel Daguzman was staring at his thesis proposal in shock. There were red marks all over it. His professor had completely rejected it. Entitled Email Password Sender Trojan, it was a proposal for a computer virus that would steal a user's dial up credentials so that the sender could access the Internet freely. At this point in history, in the year 2000, only about 25% of the world's population was actually online. In more developed Western countries, users paid for Internet access as much as they do today with a flat monthly fee. But in developing nations like the Philippines, users had to pay expensive hourly rates. O' Neil and his fellow students imagined a future where everyone could gain access to the Internet for free. They believed that it was a human right, and he thought his virus was a good way to make sure that that happened. But his professor disagreed, writing this is illegal on the paper and saying that the college wasn't in the business of training burglars. For someone like o', Neil, this was just encouragement, though the older, stuffier generation was willing to follow the rules and remain under the heel of the more developed nations. This younger generation was willing to take matters into their own hands. And so o' Neil went ahead and he coded the virus anyway. The Trojan would also present itself as a love letter from a secret admirer, preying on the human desire for love and attention. Ohnel also made it so that it would exploit a weakness in Microsoft Outlook. This was the email software that the vast majority of the world used at the time. The weakness was that the software didn't show what kind of a file an attachment was, so users wouldn't notice that the file wasn't a. Txt or Word document file, which is what you'd expect a love letter to be, but a VBS file, which is an executable program file a a program such as a virus. O' Neil uploaded the program, which came to be known as I love you, and used it to steal the Internet provider login credentials from wealthier users. It's unclear if he realized that the program would also delete all their files in the process, but what does seem to have been intentional was that the virus would then send itself to all of the contacts in the user's address book, giving o' Nel even more potential targets. However, he couldn't have imagined how effective this would be. It made the virus travel exponentially, racing across the Philippines, Asia, Europe, and the Americas within days. It showed how networked the world really already was at that point, and also how truly desperate for love many people seemed to be. It didn't matter if the person was rich or poor, successful or not. All kinds clicked on the attachment. The virus soon led to email servers going offline in important government centers such as the British House of Commons, the Pentagon, and multiple American military bases. This cost billions worldwide in both lost revenue and expensive additional hours, as IT professionals had to come in and try to recover the lost files, while also patching the various computer systems that were vulnerable to I love you. Naturally, the FBI launched a manhunt and soon narrowed the source of the bug to the Philippines. And before long, Filipino law enforcement was banging on Onel's door. Ohnel was put on a world stage as reporters questioned him about the virus. He said he had no idea the virus would travel so far, but he wasn't sorry. He believed the Internet should be free. US Law enforcement tried to charge him with fraud, but that would require him to have broken laws in both the US and the Philippines, and the Philippines had no laws against hacking at the time. So Oneel went free. Curiously, he did not go on to an elaborate life of crime or even a job in cyber security? No. When a reporter tracked him down in 2020, he was working in a curiously mundane place. A cell phone repair.
[06:06]
Ryan Reynolds
Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing For Amazon Health AI chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile Now. I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com switch upfront payment
[06:58]
Narrator/Advertiser
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is bus.
[07:13]
Erin Menke
It was September of 1944 in a quiet town in Illinois, and Aileen Kearney had just crawled into bed. She had almost fallen asleep when suddenly she smelled a sickeningly sweet odor wafting in from the open window. At first she thought that it was just the flowers outside in the garden, but the smell kept getting stronger. Eventually, Aileen tried to get up and investigate, but but found that she couldn't. Her legs were paralyzed. Aileen screamed for her sister Martha, who was staying in the other room. When Martha came running in, Aileen asked if she smelled anything and Martha said no. But she was so alarmed by Aileen's sudden paralysis that she immediately called her husband for help. A few minutes later, there was frantic knocking on the front door. Martha opened it and found her husband on the doorstep, sweating and terrified. He told Martha that he had just seen a tall man in dark clothing lurking outside Aileen's bedroom window. He tried to chase the man, but the man got away. Martha took her husband into Aileen's bedroom to see what was wrong with her. But now that the man outside the window was gone, so were Aileen's symptoms. Her legs were no longer paralyzed and the sweet odor she was smelling was gone. Convinced that the strange man outside the window had been poisoning her, Aileen called the police and the next morning the so called anesthetic prowler was front page news. The strange affair, though, was only beginning. Once Aileen's story ran, the police were suddenly inundated with similar reports. That same night, another woman in town had heard a plopping noise followed by a strange smell, and her hands and legs had started tingling. The night before that, a couple had both been awoken in the middle of the night by an unusual smell. When they tried to get out of bed, they found that they were completely paralyzed and couldn't move for over an hour. A few days later, a woman came home and found a small white cloth pressed against her screen door. Without thinking, she sniffed it and was overwhelmed by an unusual smell. Then she felt an electric shock run through her body and she fell to the ground, paralyzed for two hours. The wave of attacks became a statewide crisis, and the anesthetic prowler soon became known by a much more catchy name, one named after the town the events were happening in the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. The local police examined and ruled out every possible suspect, escaped mental patients, known pranksters and criminals, even a high school chemistry teacher. They analyzed the cloth the woman had found on her screen door, but strangely, there were no traces of chemicals on it at all. They even brought in chemical weapons experts from the army who were unable to locate any poisonous gas residue at any of the affected homes. And even though a few people had claimed to have seen the mad gasser and dozens had reported symptoms, no one had actually been hospitalized and there was no physical evidence of any chemical attacks at all. Over the course of two weeks, more than two dozen gas attacks were reported to local police, and the panic spiraled out of control. Armed vigilantes roamed the streets at night looking for the mad gasser. Women were afraid to leave their homes without carrying baseball bats for self defense. And then, just as suddenly as the reports had begun, they went away. The police received their final report of a gasser attack in mid September. Despite calling in state and federal investigators for assistance, the authorities never found out who or what was responsible for these strange incidents. The mad gasser, if he even existed at all, was never caught. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with Iheart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild Team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over@grimandmild.com curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon it's all the same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over@patreon.com grimandmild and until next time, stay curious.
[11:42]
Podcast Host/Announcer
A Better Help Ad One of the hardest parts about starting therapy? Not knowing what to expect. If you've never tried it before, it's natural to wonder whether therapy is right for you or if you'll find someone you connect with. But instead of listening to an ad, explore the stories of real people who've actually benefited from therapy. Visit betterhelp.com reviews to see the experiences of real BetterHelp clients and learn more about how finding the right therapist can change everything. BetterHelp has an average life therapy session rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on more than 1.7 million client session reviews. It's a simple way to see why so many people continue choosing BetterHelp when you're ready. BetterHelp makes getting started easy. Answer a few questions, match with a therapist based on your needs, and if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time. Insurance options may be available through select health plans. See the reviews, see what stands out, and and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit betterhelp.com for 10% off. That's better. H lp.com this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

Summary4 min read

Podcast Summary: Cabinet of Curiosities – "Love Letters"

Host: Aaron Mahnke
Date: August 4, 2026
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts and Grim & Mild

Episode Overview

In this episode of Cabinet of Curiosities, Aaron Mahnke explores two incredible historical tales linked by the theme of “love letters”—but not the romantic kind expected. The first story examines the infamous “ILOVEYOU” computer virus of 2000, exposing both a massive global cybercrime and an idealistic vision for digital freedom. The second story delves into the mysterious “Mad Gasser of Mattoon,” a wave of alleged gas attacks in 1944 Illinois that left residents paralyzed and terrified. Both stories showcase human curiosity, technology, and the thin line between reality and paranoia.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The "ILOVEYOU" Virus – When a Love Letter Becomes a Trojan Horse

[00:47–06:05]

A digital love letter with a disastrous twist:
- In May 2000 at the Pentagon, a seemingly sweet email with the subject "ILOVEYOU" is opened by a worker, only to unleash a devastating computer virus.
Origin Story:
- The virus was created by Onel de Guzman, a Manila college student, whose thesis—a program to steal internet credentials for free access—was rejected by his professor as illegal.
- According to Mahnke:
  
  "But his professor disagreed, writing 'this is illegal' on the paper and saying that the college wasn’t in the business of training burglars." ([02:44])
Motivation & Idealism:
- Guzman wanted to make the internet accessible to everyone, considering it a human right, especially in places where access was expensive.
Technical Exploit:
- The virus masqueraded as a love letter, exploiting Microsoft Outlook’s lack of attachment file-type transparency.
  
  “...so users wouldn’t notice that the file wasn’t a .txt or Word document file... but a .vbs file, which is an executable program...” ([03:52])
Global Impact:
- The virus rapidly spread, infecting 10% of internet-connected computers worldwide, causing immense financial damage and shutting down essential services (Pentagon, British House of Commons, US military bases).
- The virus propagated itself by emailing all contacts in a victim’s address book, demonstrating the interconnectedness of the digital world and human susceptibility to emotional cues.
Aftermath:
- The FBI traced the virus back to the Philippines, but with no local anti-hacking laws, Guzman faced no charges.
- Guzman's unexpected path:
  
  “...he did not go on to an elaborate life of crime... When a reporter tracked him down in 2020, he was working in a curiously mundane place. A cell phone repair.” ([05:45])

Notable Quote:

“It showed how networked the world really already was at that point, and also how truly desperate for love many people seemed to be. It didn’t matter if the person was rich or poor, successful or not. All kinds clicked on the attachment.” ([04:59])

2. The Mad Gasser of Mattoon – Fear, Paranoia, and the Power of Suggestion

[07:12–11:42]

A night of terror:
- September 1944, Mattoon, Illinois: Aileen Kearney experiences a sickly-sweet smell at night, followed by temporary paralysis. Family sees a mysterious man lurking outside.
A wave of incidents:
- Kearney's story is front page news, prompting similar reports across town:
  - Tingling limbs, paralysis, odd odors, and sightings of a suspect.
  - One woman finds a white cloth at her door, sniffs it, and collapses paralyzed.
- Police and newspapers fuel a panic; the attacker is dubbed “The Mad Gasser of Mattoon.”
Public and Official Reaction:
- Panic escalates:
  - Armed vigilantes patrol at night.
  - Women carry bats for self-defense.
- Massive investigation:
  - Suspects from pranksters to chemistry teachers are questioned.
  - Experts—including the army—find no evidence of chemicals or perpetrators.
The mystery endures:
- Over two weeks, two dozen attacks are reported, but no physical evidence or hospitalizations ever occur.
- The attacks cease as abruptly as they began, and the Mad Gasser is never found.

Notable Quotes:

“...the panic spiraled out of control. Armed vigilantes roamed the streets at night looking for the mad gasser. Women were afraid to leave their homes without carrying baseball bats for self defense.” ([10:43])
“Despite calling in state and federal investigators for assistance, the authorities never found out who or what was responsible for these strange incidents. The mad gasser, if he even existed at all, was never caught.” ([11:17])

Memorable Moments & Reflections

The astonishing reach and consequences of a simple virus leveraging our emotional responses.
The power of fear and collective suggestion in fomenting widespread anxiety—even without hard evidence.

Timestamps for Major Segments

The “ILOVEYOU” Virus: 00:47–06:05
- Virus origins, spread, and aftermath
The Mad Gasser of Mattoon: 07:12–11:42
- Initial attack, mass panic, investigation, and unresolved ending

Tone & Style

Aaron Mahnke delivers the stories in his signature tone—intrigued, slightly whimsical, and focused on wonder at the mysteries of history and human nature. He combines factual narration with thoughtful asides that invite listeners to reflect on the curious blend of technology, fear, and the universal longing for connection that shape our world.

Final Thought

This episode underscores the unpredictability and strangeness that lie beneath the surface of everyday life, urging listeners to "stay curious."

Loading summary

Transcript7 lines

[00:00]
Podcast Host/Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human
[00:06]
Narrator/Advertiser
Getting to a great idea is hard in college nonsensical essays, cringe inducing presentations, and seemingly unsolvable problem sets. But then the first thought becomes a final thesis. Jumbled slides transform into a polished keynote. And that midterm assignment gets a lot less mid because the road to great ideas is littered with bad ones. You just have to keep going until something clicks. Great ideas start on Mac. Find out more on apple.com college. Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and mild.
[00:47]
Erin Menke
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. On May 4 of the year 2000, a lone worker at the Pentagon sat bored at their computer desk, sifting through routine emails. They were surprised when they saw one with a subject line that read I love you in all caps with no spaces. Their hearts skipped a beat as they considered that maybe they had a secret admirer. They clicked the email, but which was blank, but it had an attachment with the same name. A love letter, perhaps? The worker clicked on it. This was no secret admirer, though, but a Trojan virus, one of the first of its kind. Within a day, it had infected 10% of all computers on the planet, deleting millions of files. A little while earlier, across the world in the Philippines, computer college student Onel Daguzman was staring at his thesis proposal in shock. There were red marks all over it. His professor had completely rejected it. Entitled Email Password Sender Trojan, it was a proposal for a computer virus that would steal a user's dial up credentials so that the sender could access the Internet freely. At this point in history, in the year 2000, only about 25% of the world's population was actually online. In more developed Western countries, users paid for Internet access as much as they do today with a flat monthly fee. But in developing nations like the Philippines, users had to pay expensive hourly rates. O' Neil and his fellow students imagined a future where everyone could gain access to the Internet for free. They believed that it was a human right, and he thought his virus was a good way to make sure that that happened. But his professor disagreed, writing this is illegal on the paper and saying that the college wasn't in the business of training burglars. For someone like o', Neil, this was just encouragement, though the older, stuffier generation was willing to follow the rules and remain under the heel of the more developed nations. This younger generation was willing to take matters into their own hands. And so o' Neil went ahead and he coded the virus anyway. The Trojan would also present itself as a love letter from a secret admirer, preying on the human desire for love and attention. Ohnel also made it so that it would exploit a weakness in Microsoft Outlook. This was the email software that the vast majority of the world used at the time. The weakness was that the software didn't show what kind of a file an attachment was, so users wouldn't notice that the file wasn't a. Txt or Word document file, which is what you'd expect a love letter to be, but a VBS file, which is an executable program file a a program such as a virus. O' Neil uploaded the program, which came to be known as I love you, and used it to steal the Internet provider login credentials from wealthier users. It's unclear if he realized that the program would also delete all their files in the process, but what does seem to have been intentional was that the virus would then send itself to all of the contacts in the user's address book, giving o' Nel even more potential targets. However, he couldn't have imagined how effective this would be. It made the virus travel exponentially, racing across the Philippines, Asia, Europe, and the Americas within days. It showed how networked the world really already was at that point, and also how truly desperate for love many people seemed to be. It didn't matter if the person was rich or poor, successful or not. All kinds clicked on the attachment. The virus soon led to email servers going offline in important government centers such as the British House of Commons, the Pentagon, and multiple American military bases. This cost billions worldwide in both lost revenue and expensive additional hours, as IT professionals had to come in and try to recover the lost files, while also patching the various computer systems that were vulnerable to I love you. Naturally, the FBI launched a manhunt and soon narrowed the source of the bug to the Philippines. And before long, Filipino law enforcement was banging on Onel's door. Ohnel was put on a world stage as reporters questioned him about the virus. He said he had no idea the virus would travel so far, but he wasn't sorry. He believed the Internet should be free. US Law enforcement tried to charge him with fraud, but that would require him to have broken laws in both the US and the Philippines, and the Philippines had no laws against hacking at the time. So Oneel went free. Curiously, he did not go on to an elaborate life of crime or even a job in cyber security? No. When a reporter tracked him down in 2020, he was working in a curiously mundane place. A cell phone repair.
[06:06]
Ryan Reynolds
Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts I I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing For Amazon Health AI chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24. 7 Healthcare just got less painful. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile Now. I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com switch upfront payment
[06:58]
Narrator/Advertiser
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when network is bus.
[07:13]
Erin Menke
It was September of 1944 in a quiet town in Illinois, and Aileen Kearney had just crawled into bed. She had almost fallen asleep when suddenly she smelled a sickeningly sweet odor wafting in from the open window. At first she thought that it was just the flowers outside in the garden, but the smell kept getting stronger. Eventually, Aileen tried to get up and investigate, but but found that she couldn't. Her legs were paralyzed. Aileen screamed for her sister Martha, who was staying in the other room. When Martha came running in, Aileen asked if she smelled anything and Martha said no. But she was so alarmed by Aileen's sudden paralysis that she immediately called her husband for help. A few minutes later, there was frantic knocking on the front door. Martha opened it and found her husband on the doorstep, sweating and terrified. He told Martha that he had just seen a tall man in dark clothing lurking outside Aileen's bedroom window. He tried to chase the man, but the man got away. Martha took her husband into Aileen's bedroom to see what was wrong with her. But now that the man outside the window was gone, so were Aileen's symptoms. Her legs were no longer paralyzed and the sweet odor she was smelling was gone. Convinced that the strange man outside the window had been poisoning her, Aileen called the police and the next morning the so called anesthetic prowler was front page news. The strange affair, though, was only beginning. Once Aileen's story ran, the police were suddenly inundated with similar reports. That same night, another woman in town had heard a plopping noise followed by a strange smell, and her hands and legs had started tingling. The night before that, a couple had both been awoken in the middle of the night by an unusual smell. When they tried to get out of bed, they found that they were completely paralyzed and couldn't move for over an hour. A few days later, a woman came home and found a small white cloth pressed against her screen door. Without thinking, she sniffed it and was overwhelmed by an unusual smell. Then she felt an electric shock run through her body and she fell to the ground, paralyzed for two hours. The wave of attacks became a statewide crisis, and the anesthetic prowler soon became known by a much more catchy name, one named after the town the events were happening in the Mad Gasser of Mattoon. The local police examined and ruled out every possible suspect, escaped mental patients, known pranksters and criminals, even a high school chemistry teacher. They analyzed the cloth the woman had found on her screen door, but strangely, there were no traces of chemicals on it at all. They even brought in chemical weapons experts from the army who were unable to locate any poisonous gas residue at any of the affected homes. And even though a few people had claimed to have seen the mad gasser and dozens had reported symptoms, no one had actually been hospitalized and there was no physical evidence of any chemical attacks at all. Over the course of two weeks, more than two dozen gas attacks were reported to local police, and the panic spiraled out of control. Armed vigilantes roamed the streets at night looking for the mad gasser. Women were afraid to leave their homes without carrying baseball bats for self defense. And then, just as suddenly as the reports had begun, they went away. The police received their final report of a gasser attack in mid September. Despite calling in state and federal investigators for assistance, the authorities never found out who or what was responsible for these strange incidents. The mad gasser, if he even existed at all, was never caught. I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities. This show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership with Iheart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim and Mild Team and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about the show and the people who make it over@grimandmild.com curiosities. You'll also find a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider joining our Patreon it's all the same stories, but without the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over@patreon.com grimandmild and until next time, stay curious.
[11:42]
Podcast Host/Announcer
A Better Help Ad One of the hardest parts about starting therapy? Not knowing what to expect. If you've never tried it before, it's natural to wonder whether therapy is right for you or if you'll find someone you connect with. But instead of listening to an ad, explore the stories of real people who've actually benefited from therapy. Visit betterhelp.com reviews to see the experiences of real BetterHelp clients and learn more about how finding the right therapist can change everything. BetterHelp has an average life therapy session rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on more than 1.7 million client session reviews. It's a simple way to see why so many people continue choosing BetterHelp when you're ready. BetterHelp makes getting started easy. Answer a few questions, match with a therapist based on your needs, and if it's not the right fit, you can switch therapists at any time. Insurance options may be available through select health plans. See the reviews, see what stands out, and and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit betterhelp.com for 10% off. That's better. H lp.com this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.