April 3: FBI arrests Theodore Kaczynski, 53 as a
"strong" suspect in the Unabomb case, on a tip from his brother. Kaczynski,
a mathematician by trade, lived the life of a recluse in Lincoln, Montana in
a log cabin without electricity or plumbing.
A live bomb was found in log cabin and defused by the FBI.
Sketches and plans for bomb-making, chemicals, pipes, wires, etc. were also
found (in English and Spanish). Kaczynski has been charged with 1 count
of illegally posessing a destructive device and is being held without
bail. Meanwhile Federal authorities continue to build the case against him.
Grand jury convenes on April 17th..
The FBI is trying to do DNA fingerprinting between Kaczynski and the saliva on the stamps sent in the mail. The typewriter found in his log cabin may also have been used to type his manifesto. Kaczynski taught at UC-Berkeley, where two bombs went off. In addition, a bomb killed the president of the California Forestry Association last year. Such bombings caused Gov. Wilson to call for the trial to be moved from Montana to California.
(From the Washington Post/UPI) A sour romance with a woman in Chicago "may have sparked the suspected UNABOMber's reign of terror". David Kaczynski, his brother, fired him because Kaczynski "began harassing the woman", and "the string of bombings...began later that year."
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information about the Unabomber, including manifesto
Past history:
January 21: A simulated Unabomb was inadvertently slipped into the mail stream at a West Caldwell, NJ post office branch. Developed by the US Postal Service to train workers, it was a replica of the November 1994 bomb that killed Thomas Mosser of North Caldwell, NJ--but stamped "For display only".
On Oct. 7, 1995, as the FBI manhunt through Chicago schools continues, a man was arrested in connection to the case; he was later released. The 37-year-old was driving a van with expired California license plates; inside they found a gun and electronic equipment, but no Unabomber, much to the FBI's chagrin. The FBI has been investigating Chicago because they believe the Unabomber went to school there in the 1970s; specifically, they have interviewed UI professors. The manifesto supposedly rang a bell with a professor at Northwestern. A student named "Robert V" from the Morton Grove suburb wrote an anti-technology essay that sounded familiar and attended technology lectures in 1977. The first bomb, sent with a return address at Northwestern, was found in an UI parking lot.
The 35,000 word manifesto of the Unabomber, entitled Industrial Society and its Future, has been published. The Washington Post, in which it appeared as an 8-page insert on 19 Sept. (the deadline date), and the New York Times decided to print the manifesto on advice of Attorney General Janet Reno, releasing the following joint statement. The newspapers have been criticized for bowing under government pressure and pandering to a murderer's wishes.
August: FBI officials conducted an intensive manhunt, offering a reward of $1million for information. School officials in Chicago were shown a sketch of his profile. However no leads worked out and in the interests of national safety the two newspapers complied with Mrs Reno. Previously on this soap opera Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione offered to print the manifesto, and even give the Unabomber a monthly column (hrm..) but he spurned the offer, saying that he reserved to right to kill one more person since Penthouse wasn't respectable enough. The Unabomber says he may continue to cause "non-lethal violence" (...bombs are bombs, and it's a perverse and twisted symptom of a Unabomber-esque society that the degree of a bombing depends on the type of PR received --ed)
In July the Unabomber threatened "to blow up an airliner out of Los Angeles International Airport sometime during the next six days." In response, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered extra security, telling travellers to expect up to 2 hour delays at LAX. The US Postal Service temporarily stopped delivering mail on commmercial flights out of California. The threat was received by a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. A United Boeing 747 from LA to Sydney may have been the target of this threat. Officials found a suspicious looking transistor radio that initially was suspected of being a bomb (but nothing went off). Passengers were told to gather at the front of the plane and evacuated upon arrival.
A day later, 29 June, a letter to the New York Times said the previous letter was "simply a ruse" - "one last prank on the public", and that the Unabomber had made no effort to bomb any airlines recently.
-the Underground Man