For this he got nabbed and sentenced in 1984 to five years in prison. After graduating, he put his chemical knowledge to use by converting ephedrine, at the time readily available in various cold remedies, to methamphetamine, “speed” or “crank” in street language. This Uncle Fester is a clandestine chemist, real name Steve Preisler, who acquired the nickname during his undergraduate days as a chemistry major because of his penchant for doing crazy things in the lab. This is not the Uncle Fester you may remember from the 1960s Addams family sitcom, the one who sleeps on a bed of nails, feeds his plants blood and makes a light bulb glow by putting it in his mouth. Uncle Fester is in a red devil costume replete with horns and a tail. Photo by Chiaki Tsukumo / The Associated Press Article content Join the conversation In Silent Death, 'Uncle Fester' describes the synthesis of the nerve gas sarin, and that book was found in the belongings of the terrorist gang that unleashed an attack with this gas in the Tokyo subway system in 1995 killing 14 people, Joe Schwarcz says.
