NSC260 The Unabomber Case
1. On May 25th 1978 A carefully wrapped
parcel lay on the ground of the engineering department parking lot at the
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
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.” The following
components were recovered from the blast scene: Remnants of 1" pipe,
Wooden box, Screws, Nails, Rubber bands, Epoxy, Two types of smokeless powder,
Match heads, wood plug, 3/4" black plastic tape, 1/2" filament tape,
Brown wrapping paper, "Eugene O'Neill" $1 U.S. postage stamps, and
Mailing label
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
2. On May 9th, 1979, 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
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.
3. American Airlines flight 444 originated in
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
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.
One man who received little notice in the
print media, but was accorded star status in another way was veteran Postal
Inspector Tony Muljat. 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.
4. In early June 1980, United Airlines
president Percy Wood received a letter – allegedly from a Mr. Enoch Fischer of
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
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
5. On October 8th 1981 a bomb bearing the FC
signature was discovered at the
6. The package was mailed early in May 1982
from the Campus Post Office,
When it arrived, the professor was teaching
in
7. Two months later, the Unabomber struck
again – this time at
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
8. 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
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.
9. An eagle-eyed mailroom clerk working for
Boeing in
10. On June 15th 1985,
11. A block of wood with nails protruding
from it was lying in a parking lot behind the Rentech Computer Store in
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
following components were recovered from the blast scene: Remnants of 1
and 1/4" pipe, 5/16" diameter metal pins, 1" diameter metal
plugs (Letters "FC" stamped into end of one plug), Metal shim, Machine
screws, Wood screws, Metal brackets, 4 D-cell batteries, 9-volt battery,
Solder, Fragments of wood, Stranded insulated copper wire, Stranded insulated
duplex wire, 1/2" filament tape, 3/4" black plastic tape, 3/4"
black friction tape, 2" masking tape, Epoxy adhesive, Varnish, Red paint,
Common nails, Aluminum powder particles, Ammonium nitrate residue, Potassium
chloride residue, and Potassium sulfate residue.
12. 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
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…”
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.
13. 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
The first reached geneticist Dr. Charles
Epstein of the
14. A similar bomb was delivered to Dr. David
Gelernter, associate computer science professor at
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 is, above all, a survivor – and the last one to live
through a Unabomber attack.
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
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.
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. 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. Now, the group was
headquartered in
15. 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. 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.
16. 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
One staffer noted it was “…heavy – must be a
bomb!” The quip referred to the recent
“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.” 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. It may seem obvious now, but the letters 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.
The letter 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.
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
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.
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.
Six weeks later, on April 13th 1996 the task
force arrested Ted Kaczynski at his ramshackle cabin outside
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.
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.
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
Kaczynski’s 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.
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.
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. 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. Kaczynski received four consecutive life sentences in
a maximum-security jail. He was transferred to the
“This
is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
- T.S. Eliot.
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