The Unabomber | FULL EPISODE | The FBI Files

for nearly two decades a mathematical genius with delusions of single-handedly destroying industrial society planted or mail powerful bombs to unsuspecting innocent victims it was a spree of mayhem that killed three and wounded over two dozen in the largest and most expensive investigation in FBI history agents spent 17 years hunting for the elusive terrorists known as the Unabomber [Applause] [Music] [Music] the first bomb came in the spring of 1978 the damage it caused was minimal but its impact would be enormous with each new detonation the bomber learned a little more about bombs and law enforcement learned a little more about the man who sent them because its targets were universities and Airlines the FBI called him the Unabomber I'm Jim Kallstrom former director of the FBI's New York office before we ever knew the name Ted Kaczynski we knew we were dealing with a disgruntled genius we just didn't know how smart or how angry he truly was or how far he'd go but while the Unabomber was carefully perfecting his bombs we were refining our profile it was all a matter of who would finish first on May 25th 1978 an engineering professor named Buckley Crist at Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois appeared in the mail room with a shoebox sized parsley professor Chris was listed as the return addressee and he didn't know the man it was addressed to campus security guard Terry marker cracked maybe it's a bomb as bombs bill it wasn't much of it began a 20-year streak of violence that would stumped the FBI and terrorize the nation on November 15th 1979 American Airlines flight 444 took off from Chicago bound for Washington DC as the Boeing 727 reached cruising altitude the cabin filled with smoke it was pandemonium [Music] the plane was diverted to Dulles Airport in Virginia a dozen people were treated for smoke inhalation but for a faulty wire and the bomb over a hundred people would have been killed bombing an airliner is a federal offense the FBI was called in FBI agent Chris Rene examined the evidence of the airline law essentially was a wooden box that looked to be hand fashioned handmade we found that it contained a barometric switch and some other initiating components batteries wires and a container for the explosive charge the barometric switch would function when the pressure changed in the baggage compartment sufficiently to close the switch or allow the barometric switch to function and actually detonate the bomb the use of an altitude sensitive barometric switch told the FBI that they were dealing with a serious and smart bomber Rene began his enquiries with the Chicago Police he was looking for anything to compare to the airline device at Northwestern University a thorough search uncovered the existence of two minor and seemingly unrelated incidents at the University in addition to learning of the device that injured Terry marker Ronay learned of another on May 9th 1979 another bomb had gone off at Northwestern University seriously injuring graduate student John Harris its design was nearly identical to the first one but since they were both relatively minor incidents authorities at the time didn't connect it to dismissing those devices as amateurish pranks the recovered debris was discarded working only from photographs Chris Rene concluded that all three bombs were the work of the same person there were construction techniques the way the wood was cut the way it was put together the markings on the wood the way the tape was applied that is evident in the photographs was the same as in the previous cases the pipe bombs placed inside wooden boxes were all made of ordinary components screws and nails and smokeless powder and black tape the components were homemade and sanded to render them untraceable certain components were not crafted as much as fondled and played with and looked at and you could see they were handled and shaped and reshaped and that just struck me that somebody spent an awful lot of time on this bomb enjoying putting it together the FBI realized they were dealing with a serial bomber one that was passionate about his craft in the 1950s a shy highly intelligent boy from suburban Illinois named Ted Kaczynski skipped a grade in elementary school he was an introvert preferring to withdraw into his room to study especially to study chemistry he was a prodigy with genius-level intelligence his IQ topped 170 and at Harvard at 16 and graduated in three years in 1962 in five years he had received his doctorate from the University of Michigan as an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California Berkeley Kaczynski was not a popular or outgoing professor practically no one got to know him in 1969 he abruptly resigned the social nature of his teaching position was too much for Ted he just didn't seem to fit in [Music] by 1971 Kaczynski had decided to drop out of society completely he bought an acre and a half of land in a rural area just outside of Lincoln Montana 6,000 feet above the society he had come to despise he built a tiny 8 by 10 foot cabin with no electricity or running water there he would sit by himself reading and writing one of the things Ted wrote was a 23 page essay raging against modern man's obsession with technological and scientific progress scientific research he wrote will inevitably result in the extinction of individual liberty he sent a copy to his brother David David read it and stuck it in a trunk where it's sat for a quarter of a century in June of 1978 Ted Kaczynski took a time out from his cabin to take a job working for his brother at a for cutting plant in Illinois Ted's bizarre behavior became too much his brother was forced to fire him Ted had insulted a female co-worker who had refused his advances Ted see and within a year moved back to his cabin in Montana vowing never to see his family again trying to fit in as a social being was too frustrating for the introverted genius Ted with drool even more believing modern man incapable of understanding him he was starting to see civil society as an obstacle that needed to be overcome in time Ted became acclimated to his life a few luxuries he took it upon himself to grow his own food and to be otherwise self-sufficient he had few acquaintances opting for his own company in the Montana wilds Ted rarely made it into Lincoln when he did it was usually to bury his face in reference books in the small town library on May 3rd 1980 Ted Kaczynski wrote his homemade bike into Lincoln he wasn't going to the library this time instead he caught a bus for Helena and checked into the Helena park hotel for a brief stay the next day he headed west Ted had urgent business that need attending to [Music] Percy would the president of United Airlines received a parcel to suburban Chicago home on June 10th 1980 a few days earlier he received a letter from a stranger promising to mail him a book which the letter said had tremendous social significance [Music] [Music] would place the package on his kitchen counter he opened and retrieved a book ice brothers by Sloan Wilson would was puzzled why is this book socially significant he opened the cover [Music] would was nearly killed the bomber had up the ante considerably with his fourth and most powerful device yet FBI and ATF bomb technicians pored over the scene it was quickly identified as the work of the serial bomber each bomb so far had been a pipe bomb with similar construction and wiring on this the fourth bomb the bomber had left a calling card punched into a piece of rubble were the letters FC certainly the initials FC were put in these bombs to be found clearly protected in such a way that they would survive the blasts it didn't make any sense to have it in there didn't function any in any way serve no purpose except to say here's my signature here's an identifying feature the FBI could only speculate what FC meant by this time FBI investigators had already given him a name he bombed universities and Airlines they called him Unabomber UN for university and a for airline naming him was easy finding him would be much much more difficult in 1981 with FC their best clue yet the FBI cross-referenced thousands of people with those initials but the Unabomber was not sitting idle in October a package was found sitting in a building at the University of Utah it was a pipe fortunately it was a done investigators now had a device intact perhaps a component was traceable it would take time to find out the Unabomber remained busy in the spring of 1982 a package meant for professor's Laroy would Berenson blew up instead in the hands of an academic assistant at Vanderbilt University the bomb was made of the usual materials with the initials FC on the surviving wreckage examiner's spent endless hours studying every minut detail of the Unabomber vices the most bizarre clues suddenly emerged the last two people specifically targeted were named Wood Wood played such an important role in every one of the bombs I mean it was present in every one of the bombs even when it didn't need to be he in fact if if he didn't have wood and he threw wood in it sticks of wood just so they'd be there there were references to wood in addresses and names of people throughout FBI lab examiner doug deedrick of the trace evidence unit is also a wood expert well the materials may indicate something about that individual they indicate where he might live what he might do for a living and that's one of the things that I was involved with especially in trying to determine where these types of woods came from what geographical area what part of the country this approach seemed like a long shot but the scarcity of clues left investigators with few options as the FBI investigation intensified so did the power of the unabomber x' devices on July 2nd 1982 professor Diogenes Angelico's of the University of california-berkeley a devoted husband and a popular teacher noticed a strange-looking object on the floor of the computer science departments coffee room the explosions seriously wounded him and tore off his fingers as he lay dazed he found a typewritten note whew it works I told you it would RV the FBI ran down everyone in America named Wu and everyone with the initials RV a monumental labor-intensive task but to no avail the note was a ruse another lead surfaced the day following the blast a custodian who worked in quarry Hall the building where the bomb exploded saw a man with a thin mustache and sweatshirt loitering in the hall the night before the custodian however was unable to remember enough details to help a sketch artist make a composite Angelico's was critically yunus requiring a lengthy hospital stay he was no longer able to care for his invalid wife she died within a month of the blast [Music] in May of 1985 in that same building Berkeley graduate student John Houser a captain in the Air Force noticed on the floor of three-ring binders sitting on top of another object [Music] [Music] Hauser had just applied for astronaut training what he didn't know is he lay wounded was that he had already been accepted into the program but he would never fly again his Air Force Academy ring was found imbedded in the wall across the world [Music] ironically professor Angelico's was nearby when the bomb exploded he rushed to help [Music] unabomber related crime scene investigations conducted by the FBI ATF and the United States Postal Service had become frustratingly routine the recovered bomb components were packaged and sent to the FBI lab for future comparisons over the next few years there would be many such examinations on May 8 1985 a package was received at the Boeing Corporation in Auburn Washington it was addressed only to the company was heavy and had too much postage a mark a suspicious mailroom employee called security the package was x-rayed and shown to contain a pipe bomb it had FC stamped into the end caps had the employee opened the package it most likely would have killed him and anyone else nearby [Music] on November 15th 1985 dr. James McConnell a psychology professor at the University of Michigan received a letter and package from a Ralph C Kloppenberg the sender described himself as a doctoral student I'd like you to read this book he wrote everyone in your position should read this book as he read his assistant opened the package nearby the explosion seriously injured the assistants and blew out the hearing of dr. McConnell examiner's continued to dissect the bombs they were evolving as the Unabomber refined his craft exhausted lab tests showed they were getting more sophisticated and more powerful agents were frustrated they were making little progress in determining the identity of the Unabomber and their analysis was confirming what they already knew if the packages kept coming it would only be a matter of time before someone was killed you scrutton on the rentec computer store in Sacramento California on December 11th 1985 about lunchtime scrutton headed out the back door that led to the rear parking lot when he noticed something it looked like a block of wood with four nails sticking out points out the explosion was ferocious blowing a massive gaping hole and to scrub his chest exposing his heart the Unabomber was now a murderer the bomb that killed hugh scrutton was the most powerful yet it consisted of a pipe within a pipe and contained all of the same characteristics as the others right down to the FC stamped on a surviving end cap the Unabomber investigation is now officially a homicide case investigators stuck to their strategy of keeping the details of the case secrets lest the Unabomber learn what they knew were worse lest they encourage copycats agents were desperate for a solid lead Ted Kaczynski was always activated secluded cabin when he wasn't making bombs he was writing his philosophy that justified them for Ted Kaczynski technological society was a horror defined by the Earth's destruction and human beings amounting to little more than mindless robots in Ted story anyone who was participating in the human races dependency on technology was a villain On February 20th 1987 a secretary at cams computer store in Salt Lake City looked out of her office window and caught a glimpse of a man in the parking lot placing an object on the ground an hour later the store's owner Gary Wright was in the parking lot he noticed the object on the ground it was a block of wood with four nails sticking out points up right received serious injuries but miraculously survived as police scoured bus stations and local businesses looking for a suspect a sketch with a mission from the Secretary's description it was unquestionably the portrait of a man in disguise the sketch didn't catch the Unabomber but in one way it may have worked knowing he was seen the Unabomber seemed to vanish after nine years of bombings Unabomber related incidents simply stopped after the 1987 Cannes explosion the investigation had continued that all available leads have been exhausted after six years of silence investigators were hopeful that the Unabomber had either been imprisoned on some unrelated charge or died either way the bombs had stopped but Ted Kaczynski was neither dead nor in jail he had spent the last six years virtually alone content in his day-to-day routine tending the garden hunting writing and visiting a library Ted always managed to stay on top of current events in 1993 after a six-year hiatus several highly publicized events propelled the Unabomber out of retirement the fiery siege at Waco Texas between the ATF and the Branch Davidian religious cult and the bombing of the World Trade Center created a violent political environment the Unabomber would return in a fit of violence of his own dr. Charles Epstein is a renowned geneticist at the University of San Francisco On June 22nd 1993 he sat down at his kitchen table to open his mail including a padded envelope which had arrived that day the blast critically injured dr. Epstein after two and a half hours of surgery he was stabilized and very lucky to be alive [Music] two days later on June 24th dr. David Galante a prominent computer scientist at Yale University arrived early in his office to open his mail from the previous day injured in his right arm I and abdomen dollars are struggled to his feet and went out the door for help [Music] the FBI quickly determined that the Epstein Bomb and the governor bomb were identical Piper is filled with potassium chlorate and aluminum powder both devices have been placed inside a handcrafted wooden box a few hours after the Galante bomb went off a letter was received in the mail room of the New York Times it was from a self-proclaimed anarchist group called FC who were claiming responsibility for the recent bombings FC promised more communications in the future an identifying number was provided to the times to ensure the authenticity of future communications it was five five three two five four three nine four the FBI determined that the number was a social security number of a twenty-year-old parolee in Northern California incredibly with a tattoo on his arm reading pure wood an investigation quickly dismissed him as the unit another major clue was discovered impressed into the paper on the New York Times letter was the faint notation call Nathan our Wednesday 7:00 p.m. the elusive Unabomber finally provided agents with a solid lead the FBI talked to over 10,000 people whose first name was Nathan and whose last name began with are the exhaustive search turned up nothing it seemed the Unabomber loved sending the FBI on wild goose chases The Times ran the letter which sparked public interest it also drew the FBI into dozens of false leads disgruntled students aircraft engineers even a Dungeons & Dragons Club in Chicago the latest round of activity had sent the FBI investigation into overdrive a yoona bomb task force consisting of FBI ATF and postal inspectors was formed to coordinate investigative efforts Jim Freeman was the head of the FBI's San Francisco field office he would also head the multi-agency yoona bomb test force we had evidence that was scattered around three different federal agencies and a lot of local state laboratories so we recognized that a task was to was to gain control of the information that was already out there determined what investigation had already been then done and we said about this by deciding to reinvestigate every you know bomb crime every shred of physical evidence that remained from past unabomber devices would be given to one forensic examiner special agent Tom Monell of the FBI laboratories materials and devices unit became the chief examiner for the investigation all the evidence in the Unabomber case no matter if it was explosive related or not came through me in my unit in a serial bombing type case such as the Unabomber case the most frustrating aspect was the fact that we were doing all forensic examinations that could possibly be done to the evidence and it wasn't able to lead us to any individual while the test for struggled Kaczynski's warped revolution against society continued on December 10th 1994 advertising executive Thomas Moser was opening his mail in his North Caldwell New Jersey his wife and two daughters were upstairs he examined a small package with excessive postage from an HC wickel Department of Economics San Francisco State University [Music] the explosion was the most gruesome yet instantly decapitating Thomas Moser with every previous device in the Unabomber investigation agent onel was able to reconstruct a replica working only from the debris recovered from the various crime scene signature as with the 15 bombs he had reconstructed type this one was unquestionably the work of the Unabomber plays a few months later Ted Kaczynski prepared for an extended visit to the west coast this trip would be his busiest to date on April 19 1995 Ted Kaczynski was in the San Francisco Bay Area when Timothy McVeigh's 2000-pound fuel oil bomb destroyed the Alfred P murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people Ted would not let his agenda be eclipsed by the devastation in Oklahoma the next day April 20th the nation's still reeling over Oklahoma City Kaczynski mailed five items four letters and a parcel within a few days the mail arrived back east first was a letter to the New York Times FBI special agent Terry turkey was second in command of the Unabomber ask force in the letter to the New York Times he mentioned that he was claiming responsibility for the attacks on Thomas Moser Charles Epstein and David Galera he also mentioned some of his goals and objectives and said that he was thinking of sending a manuscript in the essay and that he wanted them to consider publishing that essay and if they did he would make an agreement to cease committing terrorist acts the second letter received was the recent victim David Gill enter at Yale still recovering from his April wounding the letter was taunting dr. Gallardo people with advanced degrees are not 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 like you are changing the world on April 25th 1995 a package arrived at the California Forestry Association addressed to its former president William Dennis its current president Gilbert Murray decided to open it himself it exploded with incredible violence destroying everything in the office Gill Murray was literally blown to pieces four blocks away the Governor of California heard the glass from his office the Unabomber scare was nationwide bomb threats were being reported everywhere the FBI suspect list topped 50 thousand names 16 years and 16 bombs later when the Unabomber had claimed three lives and injured two dozen people two months after Marie was brutally killed a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle it read the terrorist group FC called Univ on by the FBI is planning to blow up an airliner out of Los Angeles International Airport during the next six days the threat had to be taken absolutely seriously because the Unabomber had in fact placed a bomb aboard an aircraft before it wasn't lethal enough below the plane out of the sky but we knew that that his bomb-making ability had progressed enough that he certainly was capable of that now the FBI saw to it that special security measures went into effect immediately at California airports no one without a ticket was allowed through security all bags were searched bomb sniffing dogs checked everything the Postal Service stopped flying the mail on commercial jets passengers are questioned about carry-on luggage that they've had have you had this package in your custody and control during the entire time did you patent did you pack the suitcase yourself those type of questions all began from that day in LAX the same day that the airliner threat was received at the San Francisco Chronicle the Washington Post received a message from FC a 56-page typed manifesto the New York Times received a carbon copy of the manifesto the next day as did the adult magazine penthouse two days after that the letter to the posting times laid out the terms and conditions for publication and agreed to stop the bombings if the post or the times published the special agent Terry turkey and the Unabomber task force receiving the manifesto was a huge break of course when the Unabomber script came in that was big information and this was a major break and we all knew that it was a major break which if handled properly could possibly lead us to identify the Unabomber the manuscript blandly titled industrial society and its consequences was a meticulously written tract against technology genetics leftism conservatism and modern society generally [Music] the FBI had many items of evidence collected from years of investigating this case they needed to generate just one solid lead one that could hopefully break the case wide open Freeman thought the answer lay in publishing the manifesto we very much were in favor of publishing it because after reading the manifesto it was clear that someone had had put their philosophy that had evolved over a number of years within the pages of this thing it was recognizable somebody in reading this we hoped would would read it and say I remember that guy he was sat next to me in class at such-and-such a university after some public soul-searching and discussions with the director of the FBI and Attorney General Janet Reno The Washington Post and The New York Times the decision was made to publish the manifesto the manifesto appeared in a special section of the post on September 19th 1995 by early 1996 Ted Kaczynski's brother David had been doing some soul-searching of his own the news reports that the Unabomber had connections to Chicago their boyhood home as well as to Berkley in Salt Lake City nagged at him he got a copy of the manifesto and began reading he read it in the hopes of erasing the idea that his brother was a killer what he read sent chills down his spine he recognized the language and content of the manifesto as being similar to that of writings by his brother Ted David dug up as many old letters and writings of Ted's as he could find and compared them to the Unabomber manifesto both had employed the unique phrase cool-headed logician David was distressed but not yet convinced [Music] he wrote Ted an urgent letter though he did not reveal his suspicions he requested a visit to Montana Ted refused his brothers request David decided to call a private investigator to look into the matter but the news that the private I brought him was not encouraging the private I submitted the manifesto along with some of Ted's writing to be analyzed by experts who didn't know the parties involved the experts concluded that the authors had a strong chance of being the same person frantically David continued his search for anything Ted had ever written to him in an old trunk he came across the essay Ted had sent him back in 1971 David could no longer hide from the reality that his brother might be the Unabomber [Music] David Kaczynski was stunned the 1971's a David had unearthed was eerily similar to the Unabomber manifesto torn by the prospect of turning in his own brother on the one hand and endangering lives on the other David Kaczynski made a gut-wrenching decision through his attorney he contacted the FBI about his brother in February of 1996 David Kaczynski told Task Force members of his suspicions he gave a detailed accounting of Ted's life where he grew up where he went to school and where he now lived he then turned over the 1971 essay and then we were able to do a side-by-side comparison between that document that was prepared many years before to the current copy of the manifesto and it was very clear to us many of us in the task force that that the similarities were more than coincidental the FBI analyzed the essay and found over 160 examples of similarities with a Unabomber manifesto including common phrases and misspellings the list went on and on after 17 years the FBI had its first major suspect Ted Kaczynski dozens of FBI agents quietly slipped into the small town of Lincoln Montana the FBI kept careful surveillance on Kozinski's Kevin as they laid out the case for a search warrant hoping that the Unabomber would not strike again in the interim at the beginning of April enough information had been uncovered to justify the warrant [Music] among other things agents were able to learn that Ted had traveled extensively Hotel records showed that he was always on the move immediately preceding a Unabomber event agent Terry churchy submitted a meticulous 65 page affidavit outlining the government's case against Ted Kaczynski and requesting permission to search his cabin we had been working all morning since about 5:00 that morning to pre position various agent teams in different locations in the woods in Lincoln Montana and at a forward command post that we established in Lincoln everybody had a different role we had also had the evidence response teams coming in and they were staging at a another command post that we had in Lincoln so everyone was ready to go once the warrant was signed [Music] disguised FBI agents and a forest officer approached Kaczynski's cabin they walked toward his cabin speaking loudly they didn't want Kaczynski to suspect there was anybody sneaking up on him the officers asked him to help identify a property line on their map as he turned to get his coat the officers pounced on Kaczynski the suspected Unabomber was in custody Kaczynski was immediately taken for questioning to a temporary forward command post Jim Freeman was about to come face to face with the man that had eluded the FBI for nearly two decades he looked just absolutely - shovel he he looked like he was covered with soot the agents that had had grabbed his arms - to restrain him had Swit on their hands said you like to travel Kaczynski admitted nothing and refused to say whether the cabin had any live bakka as the questioning continued the search of the cabin began the tiny cabin was treated essentially like a live bond it was assumed that the place at the very least had live bombs in it or at worst was heavily booby-trapped explosive ordnance disposal teams cautiously made their way into the cabin Ted Kaczynski had not been formally arrested on any charges yet as investigators searched through his cabin he found enough evidence to charge him with possession of bomb-making materials they found pipes chemicals wiring and batteries and wooden boxes this charge would allow agents to hold Kaczynski until a more thorough search could be conducted [Music] FBI Special Agent and explosive expert Donald sock Lehmann was responsible for quickly gathering evidence in order to obtain the arrest warrant he rushed to hell endure to petition the judge Saki Laban had been working on the Unabomber case for years I think it was on the ride back to Helena that night when Pat Webb and I who had worked on this for so many years just sort of looked at each other and realized that maybe this was the beginning of the end that we really did believe that night if we hadn't believed before that we had in fact caught the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski was detained overnight until formal arrest charges could be brought the following morning he was led through the streets on national television looking every bit the part of an eccentric hermit he was presented the next day before a judge and held on a charge of possession of bomb-making equipment the search of the cabin continued the room was a gold mine but a dangerous one each container each book each binder needed to be x-rayed for explosive devices it was clearly going to take a long time to search the tiny cabin the evidence being slowly hauled out of a cabin was damning a series of three-ring binders with page after page of detailed bomb designs which matched the bombs used in many of the Unabomber explosions explosive powders of the type used in the bombings aluminum ingots and aluminum shavings on the floor crucial bomb components [Music] there was the infamous hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses agent Thomas Monell the expert on Unabomber devices was also inside the cabin the other evidence located in the cabin were electrical components and wire that were consistent with majority of the Unabomber vices we found a improvised or a homemade flip type switch that was literally identical to three switches that were used in earlier bombs after almost two full days the search came to a sudden stop a package was found it was wrapped like previous bundles with a return address on it all it awaited was a victim's name and address for the front it was x-rayed and determined to be a large pipe special agent Sullivan had to handle the crisis well from the x-ray it looked very similar to the last bomb that had been placed the one that killed mr. Murray in Sacramento we were able to safely remove the box from the cabin and take it down the hill to where we set up a site to deal with the bomb the search slowly continued in the days ahead and more and more damning evidence was seized in addition to bomb-making paraphernalia and chemicals agents also seized letters notes diagrams and the unabomber manifesto one irrefutable link between Ted Kaczynski and the Unabomber remember the typewriter used for the manifesto the typewriter that had been used to type the manifesto wasn't found until literally the last day of the search which took four or five days it was literally in the last the bottom of the last box that was that was opened it had taken 11 days to search an 80 square foot room but the FBI's careful approach had paid off the man who had killed maimed and ruined lives all the while taunting the FBI was caught stone-cold on April 14th the entire cabin was hoisted onto a flatbed and hauled away for further examination the charges against Kaczynski had been upgraded On June 18th 1996 Ted Kaczynski was indicted in Sacramento on ten counts relating to Unabomber activities one charge in the death of hugh scrutton three charges in the wounding of charles Epstein three charges in the maiming of david Vallarta and three charges in the death of Gill Murray that day would have been Gill Murray's 48th birthday New Jersey authorities filed more charges for the death of Thomas Moser [Music] on November 12 1996 selected visitors filed into a Sacramento courtroom for the long awaited trial of Ted Kaczynski in the front row was Ted's family brother David and his mother Wanda Kaczynski as Ted entered the courtroom he turned his back angrily on his family members and he never acknowledged them opening statements were about to begin Kaczynski stood up and said he wanted to change lawyers after a few days the judge ruled that Kaczynski would have to undergo psychological testing federal prison psychiatrist dr. Sally Johnson spent many days with Kaczynski she concluded that Ted Kaczynski was mentally ill but was competent to stand trial the government's case against Kaczynski was overwhelming for 17 years the FBI had prepared for this day examiner's had reconstructed and preserved every device related to the Unabomber zkk rhymes with Ted Kaczynski's arrest they were now able to establish an irrefutable link between him and the Unabomber Ted's desire for solitude would no longer be self-imposed with no options he pled guilty to all Unabomber related crimes he was given four life sentences plus 30 years he would never be eligible for parole her agent Terry Turkey the Unabomber investigation shows the FBI's determination to never quit until justice is served no matter how long it takes for the people committing these crimes who may go on for many years and not get caught they may become more arrogant or they may become more complacent or they may think we're never going to catch them but I think for them and for the public the message has to be that we don't give up and then we're going to stay with it until we solve it and certainly I think that is what we're calling on to do and what we need to do in June 1988 Joanna Lee an assistant editor at Simon and Schuster publishing received a letter from Ted Kaczynski with her prison return address she knew he was the convicted Unabomber but opened it anyway Kaczynski wanted them to publish a book about his struggle to this date there are no takers [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The FBI Files

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Keywords: FBI, FBI Files, FBI Documentary, Documentary, Crime, Crime Documentary, Crime Patrol, True Crime, True crime daily, Unsolved, Crime Stories, Crime Documentaries Full Episodes, Full Episode, unsolved true crime, fbi files full episodes, we got him, mystery, solved, investigation, police, criminal, prison, jail, ted kaczynski, postal bomber, us mail, unabomber

Id: JOOF7Sh__tE

Length: 51min 53sec (3113 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 04 2020