He had proof the book would stop it. It was a different book.

Pedro Ruiz III, 22, wanted YouTube fame. His plan: have his pregnant girlfriend shoot him with a .50 caliber Desert Eagle while he held an encyclopedia to his chest. He'd tested it with a different book. He showed her the bullet hole as proof. She refused for a month. He talked her into it. Both cameras were rolling. The book did not stop it.

Pedro Ruiz III wanted more viewers

Pedro Ruiz III — known online as "The Crazy Pedro" — was 22 years old, living in Halstad, Minnesota, and trying to build a YouTube channel with his 19-year-old girlfriend Monalisa Perez. They had one child together. Perez was pregnant with their second.

Pedro had an idea for a video that would, he believed, go viral and grow their channel significantly. The idea: Monalisa would shoot him — directly in the chest — with a .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun, while he held a thick hardcover encyclopedia in front of him as a shield. The book, he was certain, would absorb the round. The cameras would capture the moment. The internet would go wild.

He told his aunt Claudia about the plan beforehand. She pleaded with him not to do it. She asked why he would use a gun. His answer was simple, honest, and fatal.

"Because we want more viewers."

Pedro Ruiz III, to his aunt Claudia — days before June 26, 2017

He had tested it. With a different book. With a smaller caliber.

Pedro was not operating on pure faith. He had done his research. He had, at some prior point, fired a bullet at a hardcover book — and the bullet had not gone all the way through. He kept this book. He showed it to Monalisa as evidence that the stunt was survivable.

There are at least two critical differences between Pedro's test book and the encyclopedia he planned to use for the actual stunt. First, the test bullet was a smaller caliber than the .50 Desert Eagle round that would be used on camera. Second, the book he was holding on June 26th was a different book than the one he used to demonstrate safety.

He was, in the most literal sense, showing her proof that a completely different experiment had worked, and presenting this as evidence that the current experiment would also work. This is not how physics operates.

She refused for over a month. He kept asking.

Monalisa Perez did not immediately agree to shoot her boyfriend in the chest. According to her own account to investigators, she refused for more than a month. She kept saying no. He kept asking. He kept showing her the book with the bullet hole. He kept explaining the logic.

Eventually she said yes. On June 26, 2017, Monalisa Perez, 19 years old and pregnant with her second child, picked up a .50 caliber Desert Eagle and agreed to shoot her boyfriend in the chest for YouTube.

90 minutes before: she announced it to the world

Approximately 90 minutes before the stunt, Monalisa Perez posted on Twitter. She wanted the world to know what was about to happen — and, importantly, who had come up with the idea.

"Me and Pedro are probably going to shoot one of the most dangerous videos ever. HIS idea not MINE."

Monalisa Perez, Twitter, approximately 90 minutes before the shooting — June 26, 2017

The capitalization of "HIS" is doing a lot of work in that tweet. It is the written equivalent of pointing at someone while backing slowly out of the room. It did not, however, constitute sufficient grounds for her to not do it.

Both cameras were rolling. She fired from one foot away.

Outside their home in Halstad, Minnesota, two cameras were set up: a GoPro mounted on the back of a car, and a second camera positioned on a ladder nearby. Pedro held the encyclopedia to his chest. Monalisa stood approximately one foot away, holding the Desert Eagle.

She fired once. The .50 caliber round passed through the encyclopedia and struck Pedro Ruiz III in the chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He was 22 years old. Monalisa called 911. The cameras had captured everything.

The footage was taken into evidence by law enforcement and has never been publicly released. It is catalogued on the Lost Media Wiki as "partially lost footage." The YouTube video that Pedro Ruiz III died to create does not exist on the internet.

180 days. 10 years probation. And one truly unusual condition.

Monalisa Perez pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in December 2017. In March 2018, she was sentenced to 180 days in jail — served in 30-day increments over three years — plus 10 years of supervised probation and a lifetime ban on possessing firearms.

She was also placed under one condition that is, to our knowledge, unique in the history of Minnesota criminal sentencing: she is permanently banned from receiving any payment for telling the story of the shooting. No book deals. No documentaries. No interviews for compensation. No podcast. No monetized video. The story of Pedro Ruiz III's death is, by court order, not a revenue stream available to the person who was there.

She retained custody of their two children.

A certificate of recognition from natural selection

Pedro Ruiz III was not a reckless person in the traditional sense. He planned this. He gathered evidence. He ran an experiment. He showed his girlfriend the results. He argued his case patiently for over a month. He set up two cameras. He was methodical. He was committed. He was catastrophically, fatally wrong about one variable.

The variable was: a .50 caliber round fired from one foot away will go through most books. This is not a controversial finding in the field of ballistics. It is, however, a finding that Pedro Ruiz III never encountered before it was too late to be useful to him.

He wanted more viewers. He got zero. His aunt told him not to do it. The internet will remember him forever. The algorithm did not save him. The book did not stop it.

"Natural selection does not grade on a curve. It does not offer extra credit. It does not curve the class. It simply notes your answer and moves on."

Darwin Awards editorial board