this. i remember looking down at this paper, and by the third paragraph, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. i thought, oh, my god. this is him. it didn t take much more than that, at first blush, to realize there s something really chilling about this. we were in agreement. ted kaczynski was our primary suspect. we re going to close down every other suspect, and we re going to go ahead and turn the unabomb task force towards this one individual. we had 2,417 actual suspects. they re numbered chronologically, as the information is received. ted kaczynski s file was number 2,416. the task force sent agents to montana to get eyes on kaczynski and to try to connect him to each one of the attacks. it took us a good 60 days of nonstop, 7-day-a-week, 24-hours-a-day, gathering evidence that would convince a federal judge that we had enough probable cause, not for an arrest warrant, which is what i wanted, but for a search warrant. for example, check all the
hotels in helena. bingo, he d come into town about 31 times and stayed at a hotel there, all before or after a unabomb event. we felt we would be ready to do service search warrant affidavit by the end of april. but then our plans were short-circuited by a leak. someone from the investigation was talking to the press. cbs news essentially has told the bureau that they found out we re in montana. they found out we had the unabomb subject, and they re saying they ll hold off, unless their competitors find out, and then all bets are off. as the agents walked towards the cabin, they had no idea if it was booby-trapped or if he had guns insid
in his jail cell. ted kaczynski attempted to hang himself some time last night. i heard this news, and i was just crushed. i remember i was sobbing. after his suicide attempt, the judge brought in a psychologist to independently assess ted kaczynski s mental condition. this week, the unabomber suspect must face what his attorneys say is his worst nightmare: an extensive mental exam. his examiner, dr. sally johnson, will begin testing kaczynski monday. sally johnson comes back in agreement, that this defendant has paranoid schizophrenia, that he s delusional, he has no insight into his illness. but government prosecutors want the judge to block such testimony unless their own doctors can examine the unabomb suspect. that s something kaczynski has so far refused. the issue of whether kaczynski would be ordered to submit to an examination by me
but the defense knew that was suicide. a january 7th transcript shows judge burrell saying kaczynski looked sane to him. i find him to be lucid, calm. he presents himself in an intelligent manner. the defense asked me to write a declaration, to educate the judge about the research. i m talking about a brain disorder that leads somebody to misinterpret reality and feel certain that they re in danger, and that they have to, as he wrote in his diary, strike back. a defense psychiatrist claims kaczynski is a paranoid schizophrenic and suffers a brain disorder that impairs his thinking and behavior. about half of all people with certain psychotic illnesses, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, don t understand they re ill. when the judge ruled he couldn t fire his attorneys, and he couldn t defend himself, ted took matters into his own hands. the unabomb suspect, who resisted being labeled mentally ill, may have attempted suicide
the way the bombs were made and sent. many contained meticulously-carved wood. some were signed with the initials fc. june of 1980, we had the fourth unabomb event. this time, it was a bomb mailed to percy wood, the president of united airlines. he sent a letter to the president of united airlines, saying, i m sending you a book of great social significance, and you must read it. so when he opened that package, it exploded. the bomb was a small cylinder placed inside a hollowed-out section of a book. he devised stratagems for the victims to be sure to open the device. the case, codenamed unabomb, has primarily involved victims who worked for universities or airlines. un for university and a for airliner, unabomber. it was the randomness of it that frightened everyone. it would seem to die down for a while, and you d almost forget it, and then suddenly it would happen again. then his most vicious bombing yet, his first kill.