Unabomber - 18 Years of USA Terror

Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber

by Ted Ottley

(http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists/unabomber/)

He lives in a ten by twelve cell. He escaped the death penalty.  He’s given cooking tips to a secret agent and written a screed on how Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh got it wrong.

In short, he’s full of gratuitous advice on how to run the world.

He’s Unabomber Ted Kaczynski – one of society’s most obnoxious terrorists.

His biggest worry?  People will call him crazy.

He was born Theodore John Kaczynski in Chicago, on the 22nd of May 1942.

He has one younger brother, David.

His mother Wanda was widowed in 1990 when her husband Richard learned he had terminal cancer and took his own life.

Wanda and David were left to wonder how this son and brother evolved from brilliant academic to America’s most wanted terrorist.

His mother had to face the cruel reality that her firstborn bombed, killed and maimed innocent people for nearly eighteen years – in a mindless crusade against progress.

Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber

Student of Destruction

It was May 25th 1978.

A carefully wrapped parcel lay on the ground of the engineering department parking lot at the University of Chicago.  It bore red, white and blue stamps commemorating playwright Eugene O’Neill.  It was addressed to engineering Professor E.J. Smith, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

It appeared to be an undelivered parcel returned to its sender – Professor Buckley Crist of Northwestern University in nearby Evanston Illinois.   Without questioning how it had arrived at a different institution, the finder contacted Professor Crist.

Professor Crist claimed to have no knowledge of the parcel, but had it couriered to him anyway.  But when he saw it the following day, he noticed it hadn’t been addressed in his own handwriting.  This made him suspicious enough to call in campus cop Terry Marker. 

Ironically, there was some joking – "Maybe it’s a bomb!"   But the joke soon soured when Marker opened the parcel.  It exploded in his hand and he became the first person to be scarred by the Unabomber’s handiwork. 

Fortunately, the injury was slight, mainly because the bomb was an amateurish piece of construction.  Had it detonated with the full force its maker obviously intended, Terry Marker and those around him could well have sustained serious – if not fatal – injuries.  As it was, the security officer’s left hand was sufficiently damaged to send him to Evanston hospital.

The university called in the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) and they immediately proclaimed the bomb the work of an amateur for several reasons.

The strange contraption was made of bits and pieces that could have come from a home workshop. It was based on a piece of metal pipe – about an inch in diameter by nine inches long.  But the pipe was packed with something definitely not kept by the average home handyman – smokeless explosive powders. Its primitive trigger device – a nail tensioned by rubber bands – was designed to slam into six common match heads when the box was opened.  Then, the matches would immediately burst into flame and ignite the explosive powders.

There were two other distinctions.  The box was hand made of wood, as were the plugs that sealed the pipe ends. This was an unusual touch – pipe bombs usually use threaded metal ends that can be bought in any large hardware store – they make sure the pressure inside the pipe builds up enough to "bubble" the pipe until it swells enough to explode.  Wooden ends simply don’t have the tensile strength to cope with the pressure.

Fortunately for those who had watched Marker open the parcel, when the trigger hit the match heads only three ignited, so the bomb failed to pack its promised punch.  Had the bomb been made in a more conventional way, its builder would have employed batteries and heat filament wire to ignite the explosives more effectively.  

The other components could well have been scavenged from any junkyard.  For now, the Unabomber was simply thought of as "the Junkyard Bomber."

Just why Professor Crist had been targeted was unclear.  Theories ranged from a prank gone wrong to a disgruntled student paying the professor back for a poor grade.

The ATF agents routinely photographed the remains of the bomb, wrote up a report and went to interview the original addressee, Professor E.J. Smith at the Renasleer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.  Smith knew no reason for anyone to either attack or implicate him. 

The whole scenario was a strange "double- play" designed to confuse.  The bomber had made it appear that Crist sent the package to Smith, and, undelivered, it had been returned to an institution neither one belonged to.

The ATF filed their photos and findings and embarked on a series of wild goose chases.  As yet, there was no reason to suspect a serial bomber had made his first appearance.

And, in those early days, the significance of the unusual use of wooden components was a mystery. It was destined to unravel in deadly detail.

Cigar, Anyone?

On May 9th, 1997, John G. Harris – a civil engineering graduate student – decided to examine a cigar-shaped box – reportedly to keep personal belongings in.  The box, made of wood-veneered cardboard, had been lying around room 2424 at Northwestern University for a few days. It bore a "Phillies" cigar logo, and was fastened with tape.

When he opened the box, it exploded with a force much greater than the first one had.  Nonetheless, it created more noise and mess than damage.  Although it sent fragments of wooden debris and match heads flying, Harris fortunately got away with just minor cuts and burns. 

But the bomber was clearly learning his craft.  The rubber band and nail trigger mechanism had been replaced with a battery operated filament wire that quickly ignited the chemicals and match heads enclosed in a paper container. 

Interestingly, the common flashlight batteries that powered the device had all identifying material removed – presumably to make tracing their source impossible. 

Other identifiable remains included wires, lamp cord, fishing line, wooden dowels and friction tape.  Again, the bomber’s wired together junk collection was underpowered enough to spare lives.  The next was set to make headlines.

Come Fly With Me

American Airlines flight 444 originated in Chicago.  Its passengers, en route to Washington, D.C. suddenly heard a loud "thud" from the baggage area of the Boeing 727.

There, in a parcel, a household barometer had been rigged to function as an altimeter.  When the plane reached 35,500 feet, the device completed an electrical circuit that ignited a mass of gunpowder.  The makeshift bomb began to smolder in the hold.  Passengers gasped for breath as smoke poured into the main cabin. Oxygen masks dropped as the crew prepared for an emergency landing at Dulles International Airport, Virginia.

Passengers and crew evacuated via the escape slide, and twelve were rushed to hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation. When the source of the explosion was examined, it was a homemade bomb –again in a wooden box – that had been air mailed from Chicago. Clearly, the bomber could not know which flight would carry his parcel, so authorities concluded it was not a specific attack on American Airlines.   

Immediately, another two agencies became involved.  Because a bomb had been sent through the mail, US Postal Service Inspectors were added to the investigation mix. And, because the crime had crossed state lines, FBI personnel were immediately assigned to the case. 

In many ways, this duplication of authority hampered – many say delayed – the Unabomber’s arrest.  Certainly, information was not always exchanged immediately, and many investigators doggedly insisted their suspects were the only ones worth pursuing.  Territorial issues began to surface – each group wanted full credit for the crime’s ultimate solution. In time, over 50,000 would be added to the suspect database.

One man who received little notice in the print media, but was accorded star status in another way was veteran Postal Inspector Tony Muljat In the 1996 Docudrama Unabomber: The True Story, Dean Stockwell plays Muljat (called Ben Jeffries in the filmscript.) A man who spent 11 years trying to find the Unabomber, Muljat reportedly was first to make the connection between the criminal and his use of wood, observing, "It’s his signature."

Muljat also observed that had the bomb been constructed efficiently, it would have blown the 727 out of the skies.  As it was, most of the explosive powder didn’t explode – it simply smoldered.  

He found the use of barium nitrate in the bomb puzzling, and explained it had no explosive value – it was "…fireworks powder, just used to color the smoke green". Its significance would gradually be understood.

_______________________

 

In early June 1980, United Airlines president Percy Wood received a letter – allegedly from a Mr. Enoch Fischer of Lake Forest, Ill.  Fischer wrote:

Dear Mr. Wood, I am sending copies of "Ice Brothers" by Sloan Wilson to a number of prominent people in the Chicago area, because I believe [this book] … should be read by all who make important decisions affecting the public welfare."

On June 10th, Wood had just celebrated his 60th birthday when he received the parcel at his home in Lake Forest, Ill.

When he opened the book, a device concealed in its hollowed out pages exploded. Bits of metal and wood fragments flashed through the air piercing the first things they hit.  Wood sustained damage to his hands, face and thigh, where a large chunk of metal had lodged. 

Later, Postal Inspector Tony Muljat noted that the parcel had been addressed in green ink, and that the "wood" signature occurred four times in this bombing:  It was addressed to a Mr. Wood, it contained wood pieces to act as shrapnel, and its publisher was Arbor House, whose logo was a leaf. 

Moreover, the phony return address read Ravenswood Street.

Muljat saw the connection, but the message as yet was unclear.

And there was something new.  The bomber was signing his work in no uncertain terms.  Part of the metal bomb had the initials FC punched into it.  The signature was destined to be repeated.  But in June 1980, only the sender knew what the letters stood for – Freedom Club.

Following Percy Wood’s accident, the FBI identified the case as UnAbom – an acronym for targets to date – UNiversities and Airlines BOMbings.

But the Chicago area bombings stopped, and the bomber lay silent for 16 months.  Law enforcement agencies had started to relax, and speculated their man may have died, been jailed for another crime or suicided.  Others only hoped he’d blown himself up!

No such luck – on October 8th 1981 a bomb bearing the FC signature was discovered at the University of Utah but was neutralized before it did any harm. 

Seven months of silence followed.  

Working the West

The package was mailed early in May 1982 from the Campus Post Office, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and addressed to Professor Patrick C. Fischer, Pennsylvania State University.  The fact that Fischer hadn’t taught at Penn State for two years indicated the Unabomber was working from stale data, as he often did.  The package was forwarded to Fischer’s new base – Vanderbilt University. 

When it arrived, the professor was teaching in Puerto Rico, so secretary Janet Smith opened it.  It exploded with a ferocity that seriously injured her face and arms.  Bleeding and cut with shrapnel, she was rushed to Vanderbilt Hospital. 

She will never understand the bad luck that allowed the parcel to reach her desk.

It had been mailed using cancelled – and insufficient – postage.  The Unabomber expected it would be returned to its alleged sender – Electrical Engineering Professor LeRoy Wood Bearnson at Brigham Young University. 

Bearnson, of course, knew nothing of the parcel.  And it had originally been sent to the wrong address.  Ms Smith only opened it because her boss was lecturing in Puerto Rico.  Again, the name Wood appeared, as did a metal fragment with the letters FC.

__________________

Two months later, the Unabomber struck again – this time at Berkley, California.

On July 2nd 1982, Engineering professor Diogenes J. Angelakos entered a faculty lounge used by mathematics and computer science personnel in Cory Hall.  There, he noticed a strange-looking piece of equipment.

At first, he believed it must be some type of measuring device – one prominent feature was a gauge of some sort.  The apparatus incorporated a metal container, and featured a carrying handle resembling a handsaw grip.

When he lifted the handle, a pipe bomb placed inside the metal can exploded.  Almost instantly metal shrapnel – and the sheer force of the blast - caused serious damage to Angelakos’ face, hand and arm.  Flesh was torn from his fingers, and tendons were decimated.

That the container of gasoline itself had not ignited into a devastating fireball was incredibly fortunate.  Later, Professor Angelakos explained why:  "The idiot filled the tank to the top…and didn’t leave enough air for the gasoline to explode."

Again, the Unabomber had signed his handiwork with amateurism. And perhaps more; a fragment of paper had survived the blast. On it, the Unabomber had typed " - it works!  I told you it would. RV."

Although the message made no sense to investigators at the time, it turned out the Unabomber had attempted to implicate previous Berkeley colleagues, Hung Hsi Wu and Robert Vaught. 

For almost three years, the bombings stopped.  But then, the Unabomber returned to haunt Professor Diogenes Angelakos.

On May 15th 1985, Air Force Captain and Berkeley grad Student John Hauser entered a computer lab in Cory Hall at Berkeley.  There, he noticed an out of place three ring binder near a computer.  When he opened the binder’s cover it exploded.

It was the Unabomber’s most effective work of terrorism yet. Hauser was seriously injured.  Four fingers were destroyed; he suffered partial loss of vision in his left eye, and suffered severe medial nerve damage. Blood was spurting out of an artery in his arm and he screamed for help.

One who came running to his aid was Professor Diogenes Angelakos, the Unabomber’s last victim.  Quickly, he fashioned a tourniquet out of his tie as someone called 911.  

In one brief moment, John Hauser’s dream of becoming an astronaut was wiped out.  He later told Time, "I could see a large divot was taken out of the inside of my forearm…it was just destroyed…all of my fingers were missing two sections…"

Inspectors concluded that, during his three- year hiatus, the Unabomber had been honing his lethal skills.  Now, he’d graduated to deadlier explosives, including the potent mix of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder.  For shrapnel, he packed this latest pipe bomb with tacks, bits of lead and nails.  And again, the signature was stamped into an end seal of the pipe – FC.    

No closer to their quarry than they were seven years earlier, investigators were increasingly apprehensive – unless they stopped the Unabomber quickly, fatalities were inevitable.

_________________

An eagle-eyed mailroom clerk working for Boeing in Auburn, Washington noticed something strange on June 13th 1985.

A parcel addressed simply to Boeing’s fabrication division showed up five weeks after it had been posted in Oakland Ca.  Because no specific department or person was noted, the clerk considered it suspicious enough to alert the bomb squad. 

X-rays determined the package contained explosives.  Investigation proved the return address – Weiburg Tool and Supply, Oakland – a fiction.

The device provided technicians from the King County Bomb Squad with first clear look at the Unabomber’s "new & improved" creations.  After dismantling and cataloging each component – Including an FC logo – the bomb was destroyed.     

It was the Unabomber’s final assault on the airline industry, and his last aborted attack.

Programming Death

On June 15th 1985, University of Michigan psychology Professor James McConnell received a package at his Ann Arbor, Michigan home.  The sender was a Ralph Kloppenburg at the University of Utah.  An attached letter told McConnell, "I’d like you to read this book.  Everyone in your position should read this book."

A celebrity author, McConnell had appeared in the media frequently. He was popular with interviewers because he made his work in behavioral science both understandable and entertaining.  "Kloppenburg" had also claimed to be a student of behavior patterns and their influence on humanity.     

To an academic, requests to read unsolicited material were not unusual.  But when McConnell’s assistant – Nick Suino – opened the package, an explosion rocked the room.  Shrapnel ripped into his arm and midsection, and he required urgent medical attention.  Following his recovery, he said, "I was relatively lucky.  Others have lost fingers, limbs or even lives… I have since healed.  Because of the loud sound of the explosion inside the house, I lost my hearing almost totally that day.  I had some degree of difficultly hearing for about three months. His hearing eventually returned to normal.

But McConnell, who was nearby, also suffered partial loss of hearing that day.  Sadly, for a man who loved music, that damage was permanent.

A block of wood with nails protruding from it was lying in a parking lot behind the Rentech Computer Store in Sacramento, California.  Owner Hugh Scrutton noticed it – the kind of thing that could damage tires – as he left his premises.

Scrutton went to move it – he likely meant to toss it in a nearby dumpster.

But the minute he disturbed the chunk of wood, an enormous blast echoed throughout the strip mall.  Its force was so great it blew off most of his hand.  The bomb blasted metal fragments into his organs and impaled his heart. 

The Unabomber had reached a malicious milestone – he had now taken a human life.

The bomb itself was a study in cruelty.  To make sure it killed or injured as viciously as possible, it was loaded with sharp-edged chunks of metal, nails and splinters. It was the bomber’s most powerful bomb to date, comprising three 10-inch pipes filled with a super-explosive mix of four chemicals – potassium sulfate, potassium chloride, ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder.

Even the mechanism that triggered the explosion was backed up in a new way.  As usual, the use of wood and the FC ID were evident.

The next crime provided the Unabomb investigators with their first real hope of identifying the true killer.

On February 20th, 1987 a stranger was observed outside CAAMS, Inc. – a Salt Lake City computer firm.  A secretary observed a man in a hooded sweatshirt placing something – she wasn’t sure what – on the ground. 

The man, she recalled was nearly six feet tall, around 165 pounds and wore aviator sunglasses.  Her description was later used in the now famous Unabomber sketch.  The man looked at her and walked away.

Later, CAAMS’ vice-president Gary Wright drove his truck into the parking lot.

"…I noticed there was a piece of wood (that) had nails sticking out of it…"

When Wright went to kick the tire hazard out of the way, it exploded with just as much force as the previous bomb.

Wright later described the blast:  "At first I thought I’d been shot…I started to bounce around quite a bit, and I could see my pants were missing from about my knee down on my left leg.  My shoes had been burned…there were quite a few holes in my body…"

Gary Wright described the aftermath of the attack at the sentencing phase of the trial; 

"I required three separate surgeries to try and reconstruct nerves and to move tendons in my left arm and hand.  I had extensive plastic surgery to my face.  And hundreds of metal and wood fragments were removed from areas throughout my body.  To this day, (11 years later) I still remove pieces of shrapnel that continue to rise from below the surface of the skin."

The bomb that hospitalized Wright was a slight improvement on the previous computer store bomb.  The retaining system for the end plugs had been refined, and a more sensitive trigger mechanism employed. 

Mercifully, the bombings stopped for more than six years.  Some investigators speculated Kaczynski had been scared off after he’d been seen, and a sketch of the Unabomber had circulated.  Others came up with any number of theories – including one that the Unabomber had discovered religion.

Not quite.

Born Again Bomber

In 1993 he was back with a whole new arsenal – and a newfound vengeance.

After his six-year hiatus, he felt he had a backlog of scores to settle.  Authorities would later learn how the Unabomber had transported several bombs from his Montana home to Sacramento – his operations base for one week of mayhem.

On June 18th 1993, The Unabomber mailed two similar bombs; each contained in a wooden box and packed in a padded envelope.

The first reached geneticist Dr. Charles Epstein of the University of California, San Francisco, at his home. With no reason to suspect the parcel posed a threat, Epstein opened it and a violent explosion tore through the room.  Shrapnel blasted into his chest and face as the overall force ripped off three of his fingers and broke his arm.  Medics, police and an ambulance raced to the scene and rushed him to Marin General Hospital. Thanks to their swift response, Dr. Epstein lived to continue his valuable research for humanity.    

The return address was a ruse.  The alleged sender – Professor James Hill of Cal State – had not mailed it.

Later, Dr Epstein reflected on a scenario that could have been even more gruesome. "On most any other evening than June 22nd, 1993, my daughter, who brought in the bomb from the mailbox, and my wife, would have been standing next to me as I opened my mail."

A similar bomb was delivered to Dr. David Gelernter, associate computer science professor at Yale University.  The alleged sender – Mary Jane Lee of Cal State’s computer science department – knew nothing of the parcel.

On June 23rd, the accomplished scholar received a package roughly the size of a shoebox.  When he opened it mayhem erupted. The smoke from the explosion triggered fire alarms and sprinklers, the noise brought others running and the damage he sustained was horrendous.

The blast ripped off part of Gelernter’s right hand, destroyed the sight in one eye and hearing in one ear. Bleeding, he managed to drag himself down five flights of stairs and staggered to the campus’ medical center blocks away.  By the time he got there, his vital signs were critical.

He was stabilized and   rushed to Yale New Haven Hospital.  The story of his difficult recovery makes fascinating reading in his book "Drawing Life – Surviving The Unabomber." Said to be fine artist, Gelernter had to re-learn to paint with his left hand. 

He is, above all, a survivor – and the last one to live through a Unabomber attack.

"There are computer scientists far more distinguished than I…I don’t even like computers very much."
          - David Gelernter, on being targeted by the bomber, who saw computers as evil."

Soon after the bombing, a man telephoned the hospital where Gelernter’s brother – a geneticist – was working. His message was brief and threatening; "You are next."

The same day Gelernter was hospitalized, The New York Times received a letter postmarked Sacramento, California.

Directed to assistant managing editor Warren Hoge, the letter claimed to speak for a group calling itself FC.  Its authenticity seemed beyond question.  Not only did it predict the latest two bombings, it connected the earlier Unabomings with a coded clue.  In part, it read:

"We are an anarchist group calling ourselves FC.  Notice that the postmark on this envelope precedes a newsworthy event that will happen about the time you receive this letter, if nothing goes wrong.  This will prove that we knew about the event in advance, so our claim of responsibility is truthful.  Ask the FBI about FC.  They have heard of us.  We will give information about our goals at some future time.  Right now we only want to establish our identity and provide an identifying number that will ensure the authenticity of any future communications with us. Keep this number secret so that no one else can pretend to speak in our name."

The identifier – 553-25-4394 – read like a Social Security number.  It turned out to be just that, and belonged to a paroled con.  Co-incidentally, he had a prominent tattoo reading "Pure Wood." The only possible connection the FBI could come up with was that somehow, the Unabomber had stolen or found the ex-con’s ID where he claimed to have lost it.   

By now, the media and the public were demanding the FBI provide answers regarding the investigation.  At the same time, FBI director William Steele Sessions was under attack and on the way out.  It seemed apparent to everyone – except Sessions himself – that his days as chief were numbered. Six months earlier, a Justice department report had charged him with ethical violations. 

Desperate to cling to his position, he attempted to shore up support in a San Francisco press conference regarding the Unabomber. He discussed the letter and the way prior bombings tied in with the two most recent blasts.  But his statements were devoid of any startling new revelations. At one point, he simply underlined the obvious with: "The FBI will go back and look at all similar bombings, and if there are firm links that will come from the evidence."

The press conference did nothing to help save Sessions, and President Clinton was forced to fire him when he refused to resign.  On July 20th a new FBI Director was appointed – US District Court Judge Louis J. Freeh.

Still, the investigation struggled unsuccessfully to find any lead on the killer. The same July, a course of action that should have been taken years before was announced – the UNABOM task force was born.


A Trio for Ted

Attorney General Janet Reno stated this new amalgamation of three agencies – the FBI, Treasury Department (ATF) and the US Postal Service – would cooperate in an attempt to solve the case. Until then, many investigators constantly complained that the three groups were so intent on getting credit for solving the crimes, they withheld information from each other. 

It was obvious that territorial attitudes had impeded progress from the beginning.  Now, the group was headquartered in San Francisco, where all departments were ordered to share information and work side by side. But they would have little new information to process for almost a year and a half. 

On December 10th 1994, advertising executive Thomas Mosser flipped through mail that had arrived during a business trip.  There was a parcel addressed to him, naming his previous employer, Burson-Marsteller – a public relations subsidiary of Young & Rubicam ad agency, which he now managed as executive V.P. Significantly, an environmental publication had inaccurately connected him with the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster.  The article had wrongly identified Mosser as a spin-doctor hired to reinstate a positive Exxon image.

In spite of the incorrect spelling of his previous employer’s name, Mosser opened the meticulously wrapped parcel.  Immediately a violent explosion rocked the house and Mosser’s life was over. His head was all but severed from his body, his hand barely connected with his fingers, and his abdominal wounds were mammoth.

The bomb itself had been more vicious than any before – packed with razor blades, metal and nails it was designed to lacerate and pierce Thomas Mosser beyond recognition.

His wife, Susan described the blast saying, 

"…a thunderous noise resounded throughout the house… a white mist was pouring from the kitchen doorway… when the mist settled to the floor, a horrifying image emerged.  My husband’s body, face up on the floor, his stomach slashed open, his face was partially blackened and distorted.  Blood.  Horror… I dialed 911 and screamed ‘I need an ambulance!’"

"It was supposed to be the day my family picked out a Christmas tree.  The day we celebrated Tom’s latest promotion.  Instead, it was the day my husband was murdered – the day I had to tell the children ‘Daddy is dead.’"

The FC logo lay amongst the rubble and again a hand carved wooden box held the deadly payload.   Predictably, the return address was a fake.

There was one more tragedy to be played out – and Kaczynski’s deadliest bomb ever would set it in motion.

On April 24th 1995, California Forestry Association President Gilbert Murray went to examine a package addressed to his predecessor – William Dennison. A year earlier, Dennison had appointed Murray to succeed him.

Murray assumed the parcel was business-related, and its sender – Closet Dimensions, Oakland, California – was using out-of-date records.

One staffer noted it was "…heavy – must be a bomb!"  The quip referred to the recent Oklahoma City bombing.

As Gilbert Murray opened the parcel all hell broke loose.  Office furniture was reduced to rubble as bomb fragments punched holes into walls.  Murray died swiftly and horribly.  His face disintegrated as mangled body parts were hurled around the room.

"We blew up Thomas Mosser because he was a Burston- Marsteller executive… Burston- Marsteller is about the biggest organization in the public relations fields.  This means that its business is the development of techniques for manipulating people’s attitudes – The Unabomber."

You Have Mail

The same day several people received letters from the Unabomber.  For the next month, he limited his mail to non-lethal correspondence.  Although it contained nothing explosive, it was often loaded with vitriol.

An unwelcome letter to 1993 Bomb target David Gelernter was a rambling insult.  In part, it read:

"People with advanced degrees aren’t as smart as they think they are.  If you’d had any brains you would have realized that there are a lot of people out there who resent bitterly the way techno-nerds like you are changing the world and you wouldn’t have been dumb enough to open an unexpected package from an unknown source.

…You tried to justify your research by claiming … any college person can learn enough about computers to compete…apparently people without a college degree don’t count.  In any case, being informed about computers won’t enable anyone to prevent invasion of privacy (through computers), genetic engineering (to which computers make an important contribution), environmental degradation through excessive growth [to which] computers make an important contribution. …we do not believe that progress and growth are inevitable.

We’ll have more to say about that later.

FC

P.S. Warren Hoge of The New York Times can confirm that this letter does come from FC"

It may seem obvious now, but that letter confirmed the Unabomber’s perceived enemies:  Computers, Progress, Genetic Engineering and Environmental Issues. 

MIT’s Dr. Phillip Sharp also received a letter, which threatened: "It would be beneficial to your health to stop your research in genetics."

New England Biolabs researcher Dr. R. Roberts also received a warning to abandon his genetics study.

The last letter received that day was to Warren Hoge at The New York Times.  In it, FC is represented as a growing band of people (a claim investigators found improbable) and explained why various people and institutions were targeted.

A rambling and pedantic tome, it went on to explain the group was growing in numbers and in bomb-making sophistication and threatened:

"…since we no longer have to confine the explosive in a pipe, we are now free of limitations on the size and shape of our bombs …we know how to increase the power of our explosives and reduce the number of batteries needed…[We] expect to be able to pack deadly bombs into even smaller, lighter and more harmless looking packages. On the other hand, we believe we will be able to make bombs much bigger… we should be able to blow out the walls of substantial buildings.

Clearly we are in a position to do a great deal of damage.  And it doesn’t appear that the FBI is going to catch us any time soon. The FBI is a joke."

The letter then made its core demand.  The FC would stop the bombings if a respected paper would print its 35,000-word "Manifesto."  It ended with:

"If the answer is satisfactory, we will finish typing the manuscript and send it to you.  If the answer is unsatisfactory, we will start building our next bomb."

In its "deal" with the paper, FC said that, although it would cease its "terrorist" activities, it nonetheless "…reserve[d] the right to engage in sabotage." 

In other words, FC would stop killing people, but reserved the right to destroy property.

Three days later, FC got specific.  In a letter to the San Francisco Examiner, FC said it would blow up an airliner flying out of L.A. within six days.  Officials were reasonably sure this was a bluff; nonetheless, LAX was thrown into confusion over the holiday weekend.  The threat was not carried out.

In another letter that week, FC wrote Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, who had previously offered to publish the Manifesto.  FC, however, claimed it preferred to appear in what it considered "a respectable publication" like The New York Times or Washington Post.  However, FC didn’t quash the Penthouse deal; rather, it said unless publication in a preferred paper followed within a week, it reserved the right to use one additional bomb.  

Madman's Manifesto

After consulting Attorney General Reno and FBI Chief Freeh, The New York Times and The Washington Post decided to publish the Unabomber’s rambling and repetitive rant.  The papers, which split publishing costs, agreed with Freeh and Reno – surely someone would recognize the writer by his choice of words or philosophy.

Other papers also published the Manifesto, as did Time-Warner – Its Pathfinder.com billed the Manifesto as "the first epic-length attack on technology to be sent everywhere on a computer network."

"The purpose of submitting the information on the Internet is … Internet users are precisely the type of individuals that to date have been recipients of explosive devices attributed to UNABOM; scholars and researchers. - FBI Special Agent Tafoya, May 1995. Then, the FBI didn’t have its own Web site!"

The Manifesto – available in its entirety on CourtTV.com – is a long, rambling rant against progress.  One of its more deranged sentences runs, "In order to get our message before the public with some chance of making a lasting impression, we had to kill people."

He pronounced the Industrial Revolution, as "a disaster for the human race," as was, the use of technology.  Presumably FC excepted advances in the printing process, which made mass distribution of his diatribe possible.

On its surface, much of the writing was reasoned, but in the end he invoked pseudo- intellectual arguments to validate his totally unacceptable actions.  As to whether he was sane or not, it depends on whose writings you believe. Certainly he was sociopathic, in that his antisocial actions were not associated with remorse or guilt – his ability to rationalize and blame his behavior on others was huge.

Also symptomatic was the fact that, when the Unabomber was unable to direct his aggression outwards, he attacked himself – In jail, he apparently tried to suicide by hanging himself with his underwear.

In his book Unabomber:  A Desire to Kill, Robert Graysmith says he believed "the suicide attempt was a sham."  But Dr. Sally Johnson’s psychological report sheds a very different light on this speculation. 

All over America, scholars and students studied the Manifesto, hoping to find some clue that would pinpoint the Unabomber – and reap the one million dollar reward for identifying him.

One man – David Kaczynski – came to the sickening realization that the Manifesto’s writing style and philosophy closely matched that of his older brother Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski.  David and his wife Linda were devastated by the thought that Ted could have spent 18 years terrorizing and killing so many innocent people.  But the more they read, the more similarities they discovered.

Most telling was the Unabomber’s reversal of the saying " You can’t have your cake and eat it too." Writing about the negative consequences of eliminating industrial society, the Unabomber wrote: "…you can't eat your cake and have it too. To gain one thing you have to sacrifice another." Ted’s quirky use of the aphorism was precisely the way he – and his mother – had always phrased it.

There were many other similarities – far too many for David to ignore.  So, after much soul searching, David and his wife Linda felt they had a moral imperative to make contact with the FBI before more harm could be done.

Still, they had to be sure.  So they contacted an old friend – private investigator Susan Swanson – to enlist her help.  They told Susan they thought a ‘friend’ could be the Unabomber, and asked her to have some of Ted’s writings analyzed and compared with those in the Manifesto.

Swanson came back with an answer David hoped he’d never have to hear. After linguistic experts and profilers evaluated and compared the writings, they concluded the same person probably wrote them.  So, David and Linda made the painful decision to take their concerns to the FBI.

Swanson arranged for a friend – attorney Tony Bisceglie – to act as intermediary between the Kaczynskis and the FBI.  But first David and Bisceglie agreed on some guidelines. Mostly, these involved maintaining David’s anonymity.  The FBI agreed not to tell Ted that his own brother had named him as a possible suspect.

Later, when they broke their promise of confidentiality, the media hounded David and Linda mercilessly. Straight arrow members of the task force were infuriated that the leak had occurred – not just because of the Unabomer case, but because their lowered credibility could well deter future witnesses from coming forward.

The FBI did, however, honor their promise to handle the matter discreetly.  This they did – they realized a ham-handed approach could well see the bomber self-immolate if they pounced.   

David and Linda still hoped against hope they were wrong.  Finally, with the help of others – especially Agent Mollie Flynn – they managed to convince the FBI that the man who didn’t fit the popular profile might well be the bomber, and must be investigated.

Six weeks later, on April 13th 1996 the task force arrested Ted Kaczynski at his ramshackle cabin outside Lincoln, Montana. 


The tiny dwelling was crowded with proof that they’d found the Unabomber.

Montana Hermit

The planning and execution of the arrest had been a meticulously planned – and painstakingly slow operation.

The most delicate aspect involved the stakeout.  If the task force officers could watch Ted Kaczynski, they’d be able to apprehend any parcel he might attempt to mail or transport before it reached a potential target.  So their approach was simply to blend in with people who might visit the area.  That way, they hoped to surreptitiously get information on the man known simply as ‘The Hermit’ to the people of Lincoln, Montana. 

In going unnoticed, they had a patchy success.

In his book Unabomber: A Desire To Kill, Robert Graysmith cites the growing numbers of FBI that infiltrated the town – "mountain men who were too tidy, postal workers far off their routes… tourists out of season, lumberjacks and prospectors…" He tells how locals noticed the cars pulling snowmobiles were too shiny and new. "We instantly knew something was up" one told Graysmith.

Kaczynski’s insular personality worked against him – there were no neighbors to inadvertently warn him of the strange goings on.  Gradually, lookout posts were established, sharpshooters put in place and surveillance gear electronically monitored the area.  In the sky, satellite systems meticulously charted the area to provide the cops with detailed maps.  Kaczynski was literally surrounded.  It’s interesting to note that the technology the Unabomber despised worked against him – to great effect. 

The cabin in which Ted Kaczynski lived (Associated Press©)

Initially, the FBI had hoped to wait for Kaczynski to go to town for supplies or visit the local library.  They were out of luck, and becoming impatient.

Adding to the pressure, CBS was waiting to cover the stakeout – somehow, rumors of a search for the bomber had gotten out. In the end, investigators turned to a local – Butch Ghering – for advice.

Butch told them the hermit was extremely concerned that his property line might impinge on government land.  So the FBI enlisted forestry agent Jerry Burns to approach the cabin and lure Kaczynski outside on the pretext of checking the boundaries.

Map in hand, Burns did just that. And when Kaczynski walked out to talk to him, two officers grabbed Kaczynski and the backup team took over.

Handcuffed, the suspect was taken to a nearby cabin, where he was seated and told he had to wait while they went through his cabin.  When asked if entering the dwelling posed a danger, Kaczynski gave no definitive answer.

Agent Candice DeLong, one of the agents assigned to watch the suspect during the search, says he was evasive, and told them,  "Well, this looks pretty serious, and they say if you’re ever in serious trouble, you shouldn’t talk without an attorney.  So I think I’ll wait until I have an attorney."

During the wait, DeLong fed the handcuffed man and held a can of soda to his mouth so he could drink.  "…I was showing him far more compassion than he had ever showed for his victims," she noted.

She and Kaczynski talked about anything other than the bomber’s criminal activities.  Rather, when DeLong asked him about living off the land, he explained how to cook turnips and carrots using limited facilities.  Ms. DeLong says, "I felt, as he droned on, as if I were on a bad date."  This may be as close an insight as anyone will get into why the man never had a relationship with a woman.

Soon, the search team had found enough evidence to arrest Kaczynski on three murder charges.  He was shackled and taken away.

The FBI said they spent twelve days just listing their find of bomb parts and drawings, explosive chemicals and – most telling – detailed reports of the bombings.  In all, they confiscated and catalogued over 700 items from the 10-by-12 foot cabin.  Investigators said he even had a completed ready-to-mail bomb beneath his bed, as well as one under construction.

Most of Kaczynski’s confiscated journals and diaries were written in English and Spanish.  Some were even documented in a code – carelessly, the Unabomber kept the key to the cipher near his writings.  The typewriter used to type the Manifesto was also recovered, along with rough drafts of the document.

It struck the Unabomb team that finding any resemblance to the widely circulated Unabomber sketch of 1987 would have been impossible.  Although,  they did find the hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses in the cabin.

The crime site was soon cordoned off, the live bomb detonated and evidence hauled away for further analysis.  Later, his entire cabin would be trucked to its final destination – the former Mather Air Force Base near Sacramento, California.  There, members of the jury could experience the defendant’s smoke encrusted shack first hand.

In spite of the Unabomber’s promise to end the terrorism once the Manifesto had been published, the media learned that a hit list of prominent timber executives and academics was found.  Initially, authorities denied the list’s existence. 

Furious over information leaks that could only have come from his organization, FBI Director Freeh issued a stern warning to his employees:

"I ordered an investigation early this month of whether any FBI employees have leaked investigative information from the UNABOM case.  The investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility and will seek to uncover all information pertaining to any improper actions by FBI employees.  Unauthorized disclosure of investigative information or other confidential material will lead to immediate firing from the FBI and possible prosecution."

Later, it appeared the leaked information about a hit list was accurate.  And, on the off chance FC really was a group, potential targets were contacted and warned to be vigilant.

But, as profilers had foreseen, there was no FC – and no further need for added vigilance.  The Unabomber was out of business, headed for jail, and destined for his appearance in court.

"He smelled like warm dirt and was so filthy that even his long eyelashes were caked with soot – above the bluest eyes I have ever seen.  He was missing a front tooth"
 – ex FBI agent Candice DeLong, on meeting the Unabomber.

The Trial That Never Was

One of the longest book titles discusses the shortest trial ever.  It’s Michael Mello’s The United States of America versus Theodore John Kaczynski:  Ethics, Power and the Invention of the Unabomber. Author Mello - a former capital public defender – questions the approach Kaczynski’s legal team took in defending their client.  He correctly observes the defense team maneuvered their client into a position Kaczynski feared. Clearly, the prisoner wanted to base his defense on his philosophy rather than his sanity.

But his lawyers realized the evidence against him was overwhelming, so they prioritized saving their client’s life.  The surest way to succeed was to question their client’s sanity. Kaczynski certainly wanted no part of that, and initially refused to submit to psychological testing – in case they were right. 

The defense team’s second option was to run a two-way bet; they could ignore the sanity issue throughout the trial phase, but introduce it in the sentencing phase to avoid a death penalty.  Their pragmatism was evident from the outset.  Initially, the defense concentrated on eliminating damaging evidence from the trial, scheduled to begin November 12th 1997. 

On March 4th 1997, the defense filed a motion to throw out all evidence seized from Kaczynski’s cabin because, they claimed, the search warrant was only obtained when the FBI distorted comments from the Unabomber’s relatives.

To support the claim, they presented a sworn declaration by brother David Kaczynski, who said he’d stated he only had suspicions his brother was the Unabomber – whereas the FBI made it appear he believed his brother was the perpetrator.

The defense filed a similar motion about a month later, claiming false and misleading information was given to a judge to obtain the same search warrant.

On July 29th 1997, Judge Burrell agreed to a late challenge to the FBI’s search of Kaczynski’s cabin, with the exception of the defendant’s journals – they would be allowed as evidence in the prosecution’s case. This ruling would do little for the defense’s case – Kaczynski’s own writings were so damning an entire case could be built around them alone.

In the midst of many minor legal skirmishes, the Los Angeles Times reported on the FBI’s slipshod scientific methods in their crime lab.  Consequently, the defense considered using this information, even though the "Oklahoma Bombing" defense team had employed the same tactic to discount FBI evidence without success.

Finally, on November 12th 1997 the trial began with jury selection.  Within a week, the defense filed papers and affidavits from many psychiatrists describing Kaczynski’s mental illness and abhorrence of mental health practitioners.  Clearly, they believed if they could sell the jury on their client’s serious instability, he would probably escape the death penalty.  Kaczynski had not given the team permission to play this card.

The prosecution claimed Kaczynski’s refusal to use a mental illness defense was a rational action, because he was only hostile to mental health professionals when they brought up his disease. Judge Burrell again tried to have Kaczynski agree to psychiatric testing and again Kaczynski refused, hurling his pen across a table in anger.

By January 5th 1998, it seemed everyone had agreed to use no psychological testing.  But before opening arguments could begin, Kaczynski stopped the trial cold by asking to discuss an "important issue" with the judge regarding his attorneys.  A three-hour closed meeting in Judge Burrell’s chambers followed.  In it, Kaczynski said he wanted to switch attorneys, and the jury was dismissed for two days while the court considered the request.

Following deliberation, the judge said Kaczynski’s request to use celebrity lawyer Tony Serra was inappropriate, and the trial would proceed with the original defense team on January the 8th.

Again, Kaczynski stopped the trial by requesting permission to represent himself.  Surprisingly, Judge Burrell agreed – with the proviso Kaczynski could prove his mental capability to do so.  Forced to prove his mental competence, Kaczynski reluctantly agreed to examination by a mental health expert. On the same day, another revelation: Kaczynski had allegedly attempted to hang himself with his underwear in his cell the previous night.  

A jail cell in Sacramento County  (Associated Press©)

On January 9th, Dr. Sally Johnson was assigned to examine Kaczynski for competency.  Johnson, resident psychiatrist at the federal correctional facility in Butner, NC, previously examined celebrity criminals Jim Bakker and attempted Presidential assassin John Hinckley; she found each of them competent to stand trial.      

Her in-depth report probably gives us the best available picture of Ted Kaczynski’s private life.  

Back to Court

By January 22nd, both sides agreed Kaczynski was competent to stand trial and that he had the legal right to represent himself. But Judge Burrell had other ideas – he quashed Kaczynski’s desire to serve as his own counsel, calling it "untimely." 

The trial had already endured three false starts, and Burrell saw the defendant as "consistently and unequivocally" scheming to delay proceedings.  The judge called the request "…unacceptable.  It is patently unreasonable."

An hour later, it was announced that both sides had agreed to a plea bargain deal.  Although one had been discussed for months, the government had consistently rejected the idea because Kaczynski demanded his conditions be met – mainly that he would retain the right to appeal and that he would not be sent to a mental hospital.

Because this would never be allowed, the compromise was reached, and events in court unfolded swiftly.

The Court:  You wish to change your plea?"

Defendant:  Yes, your honor," Kaczynski     answered.

The Court:  Mr. Kaczynski, how do you now plead to the charges in counts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and10 of the indictment in this case and Counts 1,2, and 3 of the indictment in the District of New Jersey case:  Guilty or not guilty?

Defendant:   Guilty, your honor. 

When the day ended, Kaczynski had pleaded guilty to thirteen counts for attacks in three states that killed three and injured two. 

In keeping with the plea bargain, Kaczynski would serve life in prison with no chance of parole, but was spared the potential death sentence.

When the bomber left the court, he ignored his mother and brother, who were seated close behind him.  The first time he’d sighted them during the trial, a martyred look was his only acknowledgement of their existence.

Final sentencing took place on May 4th 1998.  The defendant and victims were allowed pre-sentencing statements – Kaczynski went first.

He complained that the prosecutors had distorted his motives and beliefs.  He called their sentencing memorandum 

"…purely political.  By discrediting me personally, they hope to discredit the ideas expressed by the Unabomber…I only ask that people reserve their judgment about me… until all the facts have been made public."

Understandably, his victims’ responses were unsympathetic.

Susan Mosser, whose husband Tom was killed in December 1994, made a strong statement as she described the killing:

"Nails. Razor blades.  Wire.  Pipe.  Batteries. Everyday household items.  Pack them together, explode them with the force of a bullet from a rifle, and you have a bomb.  Hold it in your hand while it is exploding, as my husband Tom did, and you have unbearable pain… the excruciating pain of a hundred nails, cut up razor blades and metal fragments perforating your heart, shearing off your fingers, burning your skin, fracturing your skull, and driving shrapnel into your brain…

Please, your honor, make this sentence bullet proof, bomb proof… Lock him so far down that when he does die, he’ll be closer to hell.  That’s where the devil belongs!"

Dr. Charles Epstein, injured in June 1993, believed he was 

"… the only person in modern times who was targeted for death just for being a geneticist."

Epstein addressed Kaczynski directly:  

"What right then do you have hiding in your shack in a forest to try to prevent me and my kind from trying to prevent the suffering of those who are afflicted by attempting to kill me and to intimidate the others?"

Epstein also damned the defense’s use of mental illness as a way to present Kaczynski as a suffering person:  

"By some convoluted form of logic, you were portrayed as the victim of a system of justice… What message.  Theodore Kaczynski the victim!"

Unable to attend, Dr. David Gelernter sent a message to be read in court.  In it, he wrote in favor of the death penalty:

"Imposing a death sentence isn’t easy… Murdering people with bombs is easy, but doing the right and decent thing is usually hard.

We ought to have…done it for the good of the country and out of our duty to the three murdered men."

Gelernter praised the bomber’s brother David "for his heroic decency."

Gary Wright, injured in Salt Lake City in February of 1987 spoke of the ongoing effects of Kaczynski’s handiwork:  

"To this day, I still remove pieces of shrapnel that continue to rise from below the surface of the skin."

Wright also praised David Kaczynski, his wife Linda and mother Wanda, noting, 

"Without their honesty, integrity and ability to do what was right, Ted would still be in a position to kill or maim additional innocent victims."

The last victim to speak was Nicklaus Suino, injured in 1985. He spoke of the ongoing traumatic conditions the bombing left him with and reflected on the death penalty:

"If there ever was a model candidate for the death penalty, Mr. Kaczynski is that candidate… however, the most important goal for me in seeing him prosecuted was to ensure that he is unable to send his dangerous packages to anyone else.

Observing the bomber’s strange evolution, he observed:

"He has actually become the very thing he once seemed to fear.  Not a victim of progress, but an empty machine, devoid of conscience…"

In a moving close, Nick Suino counseled his fellow survivors:

"Please, don’t let yourself become a victim.  You and I, we have more important things to do. When we leave here today, we can go out of here and live."

Back to Court

On January 23rd 1998, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh issued a statement praising his team and acknowledging the valuable contributions of the ATF, the Postal Inspection Service, and the Forest Service.

He noted The UTF (Unabomb Task Force) had – over 17 years – dealt with "3,600 volumes of information, 175 computer data bases, 82 million records, 12,000 event documents, and 9,000 evidence photographs." He also applauded the special computer system devised to present all evidence at the trial – even though it was never used.

But solving the crime was more luck than police work – David Kaczynski deserves most of the credit for bringing his brother, the Unabomber, to justice. The story of David Kaczynski is, in itself, a massive one.  He had often tried to emulate his older brother, and clearly admired his ability to survive on his own. 

David attempted to follow Ted’s lead – he, too, took to the wild and built his own cabin, but in the end, he left it to follow a more conventional life with brilliant and supportive wife, Linda.

David and Linda were the ones who had to deal with the trauma of turning Ted in for the greater good.  They were the ones who had to deal with the knowledge that the money the family sent Ted over the years – around $17,000 – was spent, largely, on building and transporting bombs to kill innocent people.  Ted had often claimed he needed the money for medical reasons, and, time and time again, he betrayed David.

When David received the one million dollar reward for uncovering the bomber, his selfless nature again surfaced – half the money went immediately to bomb victims and their families.  The balance was needed for the mammoth legal bills the family had covered. 

David and his mother paid dearly for their insults.  Nothing they did for Ted was good enough.  He even dictated the size of books David was "allowed" to send him as gifts.  He also demanded that only urgent letters be specially marked – the others he would ignore until he chose to open them.  When David coded one urgent so Ted would learn that his father had died, Ted was angered, calling the news unworthy of his immediate attention.

It is significant that David, his wife, and mother were respected and admired by everyone for the tough decision they took, and for the way they conducted themselves throughout the entirely unwelcome experience.

When Time asked David if he felt guilty, he said,  "Guilt suggests a very clear conviction or wrongdoing, and certainly I don’t feel that I did wrong. 

On the other hand, there are tremendously complicated feelings not just about the decision itself but a lifetime of a relationship in which one brother failed to help protect another."

There are many heroes in this case but not one stands taller than David Kaczynski.

During the sentencing, every victim and every legal representative held David, Linda and Wanda in high esteem.  Candice DeLong summed up the general feeling when she wrote, "To my mind, David Kaczynski deserved to be named Man of the Year."

Because of the plea bargain, most of the evidence never saw the light of day.

This in itself was regrettable because too many questions were never answered satisfactorily.  Among them, how a man in the wilderness – with no machine shop and no electricity – even machined and built the bombs remains a puzzle.     

Kaczynski received four consecutive life sentences in a maximum-security jail.  He was transferred to the Colorado "Supermax" facility, where he will spend the rest of his life – and simply fade into oblivion.    

"This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper." - T.S. Eliot.