Testimony in the trial of the man accused of sparking the catastrophic Pacific Palisades fire has provided a disturbing glimpse into the mind of the alleged arsonist – one filled with burning resentment against women, the wealthy and the state of the world.

Jonathan Rinderknecht, 30, accused of setting the New Year’s 2025 Lachman fire, which purportedly reignited a week late on January 7 as the Palisades inferno, gave off “incel energy,” a passenger in his Uber the night of the first blaze, testified.

“Incel” is internet slang, shortened from “involuntary celibate,” that describes someone, typically a man, who is frustrated by their lack of sexual experience and blames women and society for their lack of romantic success.

Los Angeles resident Brennan White evoked the term when he described to the court what it was like riding in Rinderknecht’s Uber with his fiancée on New Year’s eve, according to Fox News’s coverage of the trial.

According to Fox:

White said that Rinderknecht was driving erratically and wouldn’t stop talking about how humanity was crumbling, talking about how there aren’t any good women in the region.

White, who was drinking that night, said he made small talk with Rinderknecht for the first three to five minutes of the ride, then the driver started ranting. He said that Rinderknecht was violent with his words but didn’t ask to be let out of the Uber because he felt it was better not to say anything.

As Breitbart News and other outlets have reported, the Palisades fire killed 12 people and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures, effectively erasing an entire community. Rinderknecht is on trial in federal court on three arson-related charges, including that he maliciously damaged and destroyed federal property.

Rinderknecht has pleaded not guilty; his attorneys claim the fire was started by fireworks.

White’s testimony mirrors statements made by prosecutors in a pre-trial memorandum filed with the court in April.

“In the months leading up to the fire, he had become increasingly angry with his life and society at large,” prosecutors wrote. “For example, in the weeks and hours leading up to the fire, defendant fixated on Luigi Mangione, who allegedly murdered the UnitedHealthcare CEO in New York City on December 4, 2024.”

Interestingly, during their January interview with Rinderknecht detectives apparently used a sophisticated interrogation technique where a suspect is asked to describe in the third person the motivations of someone committing a crime without requiring them to take legal responsibility for it.

Prosecutors wrote:

When investigators asked defendant why someone might commit arson in the Pacific Palisades, he responded that it would be out of resentment of the rich enjoying their money as “we’re basically being enslaved by them” and compared such an act of ‘desperation’ to the murder for which Mangione was charged.

The accused was also active on social media, the California Post reported last week, where he posted “anti-Trump screeds, photos of wildfires and a music video from a French rapper showing the musician lighting items on fire.”

Rinderknecht reportedly grew up in France and was living in an apartment in North Hollywood before the fire. He was arrested in Florida in October of last year in connection with the alleged arson in California.

The “incel” testimony may be one of the most “memorable” moments of the trial, but it doesn’t come without some risk, one legal analyst said.

“An incel is someone that is unable to have or maintain a relationship and is celibate involuntarily,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Fox News Digital.

Rahmani continued, “So someone that is a loner, someone who is strange, someone like that is more likely to be an arsonist, is more likely to be a mass shooter. So, by painting him in this way, I think it does help the prosecution’s case.”

However, she also said it also could provide an opening for appellate attorneys.

“The question is, is this unfair character assassination? Because Rinderknecht isn’t charged with being a strange guy, he’s charged with [sic] an arsonist.” she told the outlet. “And potentially this gives the defense another argument on appeal if their client is convicted.”

 Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. His residence and all his possessions were also destroyed in the fire in the Pacific Palisades where he had lived for more than 20 years. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.