The Megyn Kelly Show - December 22, 2021


The Unabomber: A Megyn Kelly Show True Crime Special | Ep. 227


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 40 minutes

Words per Minute

177.03926

Word Count

17,727

Sentence Count

286

Misogynist Sentences

13

Hate Speech Sentences

18


Summary

Ted Kaczynski was a twisted genius who terrorized this country for nearly two decades, building and sending bombs so untraceable, our best law enforcement agents could not figure out who was behind the carnage. But when the FBI finally caught up with him in 1996, they found enough evidence to bring him to justice.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 When I found out my friend got a great deal
00:00:02.160 on a wool coat from Winners,
00:00:03.760 I started wondering,
00:00:05.440 is every fabulous item I see from Winners?
00:00:08.560 Like that woman over there with the designer jeans.
00:00:11.260 Are those from Winners?
00:00:12.780 Ooh, or those beautiful gold earrings.
00:00:15.260 Did she pay full price?
00:00:16.600 Or that leather tote?
00:00:17.600 Or that cashmere sweater?
00:00:18.500 Or those knee-high boots?
00:00:20.300 That dress?
00:00:21.080 That jacket?
00:00:21.740 Those shoes?
00:00:22.780 Is anyone paying full price for anything?
00:00:25.800 Stop wondering.
00:00:27.000 Start winning.
00:00:27.940 Winners.
00:00:28.520 Find fabulous for less.
00:00:30.580 Welcome to The Megyn Kelly Show.
00:00:32.520 Your home for open, honest, and provocative conversations.
00:00:41.680 Hey everyone, I'm Megyn Kelly.
00:00:43.440 Welcome to a very special Megyn Kelly Show episode.
00:00:46.520 This week we are taking a look back
00:00:48.460 at some of the most infamous true crime cases
00:00:51.360 in American history.
00:00:53.280 Today's show focuses on a twisted genius
00:00:56.060 who terrorized this country for nearly two decades.
00:00:59.420 Building and sending bombs so untraceable,
00:01:03.420 our best law enforcement agents could not figure out
00:01:06.400 who was behind the carnage.
00:01:09.200 The targets?
00:01:10.400 Universities, airlines,
00:01:12.520 and sometimes random other places
00:01:14.880 to throw off the investigators.
00:01:17.400 Three people ultimately were murdered,
00:01:20.020 nearly two dozen others injured,
00:01:22.520 in many cases severely.
00:01:23.960 That is until the feds finally got a break
00:01:26.700 in what would become known as
00:01:28.500 the Unabomber investigation.
00:01:31.000 The man behind the bombings
00:01:33.040 sent a 35,000 word manifesto
00:01:36.460 to multiple newspapers and TV stations
00:01:39.180 across the country,
00:01:41.060 claiming to explain his motives
00:01:42.580 and vowing to stop the attacks
00:01:44.720 if they would publish it.
00:01:46.860 They did.
00:01:48.660 And it caught the eye
00:01:49.880 of someone very unexpected
00:01:51.660 who ultimately flagged him
00:01:54.080 to the FBI.
00:01:55.960 On April 3rd, 1996,
00:01:58.660 Ted Kaczynski's reign of terror
00:02:00.240 came to an end.
00:02:01.960 Investigators arrested him
00:02:03.200 in Montana
00:02:04.000 at a primitive cabin
00:02:05.260 with no electricity or plumbing.
00:02:07.040 And there they found
00:02:08.660 a wealth of bomb components,
00:02:10.900 40,000 handwritten journal pages,
00:02:13.480 and one live bomb
00:02:14.900 ready to be sent.
00:02:17.140 Today, Ted Kaczynski spends his time
00:02:18.900 in a federal prison in Colorado,
00:02:20.680 put there in large part
00:02:22.280 thanks to my next guest.
00:02:24.960 Terry Turchie has been described
00:02:26.760 as the heart and spirit
00:02:28.180 of the investigation.
00:02:30.120 Between 1994 and 1998,
00:02:33.100 Terry directed the Unabomb Task Force,
00:02:35.800 as it was known,
00:02:36.760 that helped identify
00:02:37.740 and then arrest Kaczynski.
00:02:40.840 He retired from the FBI
00:02:42.180 in April 2001,
00:02:44.420 having served as the first
00:02:45.640 deputy assistant director
00:02:46.860 of the newly created
00:02:47.920 counterterrorism division.
00:02:50.360 His book is Unabomber,
00:02:53.160 how the FBI broke its own rules
00:02:55.000 to capture the terrorist
00:02:56.600 Ted Kaczynski.
00:02:58.360 Terry, thank you so much
00:02:59.320 for being here.
00:03:00.820 Megan, thank you very much
00:03:01.780 for having me.
00:03:02.800 It's a riveting story.
00:03:04.600 I've read your book
00:03:05.340 cover to cover.
00:03:06.280 I've watched a bunch of movies now
00:03:07.920 and TV series
00:03:09.340 on the Unabomber,
00:03:10.440 so I feel like I have
00:03:11.120 a decent handle
00:03:11.800 on how it all went down.
00:03:13.440 But my biggest takeaway
00:03:15.020 in reading your book
00:03:16.080 was how it was
00:03:18.560 a meticulous,
00:03:20.840 painstaking,
00:03:22.900 teaspoons-in-the-ocean effort,
00:03:25.540 bit by bit,
00:03:26.920 day by day,
00:03:27.680 week by week,
00:03:28.300 month by month,
00:03:28.840 year by year,
00:03:29.400 to put together
00:03:30.640 the evidence
00:03:31.560 that cumulatively
00:03:33.500 would ultimately
00:03:34.720 be used
00:03:35.480 to take this guy down.
00:03:37.040 Well, that's a really
00:03:37.880 good description, Megan.
00:03:39.300 And I think that description
00:03:40.860 also matches
00:03:41.760 the team
00:03:42.780 that eventually
00:03:43.400 came together
00:03:44.220 to make all of this happen.
00:03:46.320 And we often joke,
00:03:47.900 and of course,
00:03:49.020 back then,
00:03:49.440 we weren't joking too much.
00:03:50.660 We were really
00:03:51.280 serious
00:03:52.360 and usually stressed out.
00:03:54.480 But we really
00:03:56.100 look back on this
00:03:57.520 and think that
00:03:58.200 we were very fortunate
00:03:59.160 that all of the people
00:04:00.580 who were in all
00:04:01.280 of these places
00:04:01.860 at the right time
00:04:02.820 really played
00:04:04.460 an important role
00:04:05.220 in making this all happen.
00:04:06.700 And when I say that,
00:04:07.940 I'm thinking of
00:04:08.520 Jim Freeman,
00:04:09.300 the special agent
00:04:10.000 in charge of our office
00:04:11.080 in San Francisco,
00:04:12.000 who was in charge
00:04:13.120 of all the investigations
00:04:14.240 that San Francisco
00:04:15.200 did in the FBI there.
00:04:17.140 Max Knoll,
00:04:18.160 who was just
00:04:19.420 a tremendous,
00:04:20.660 awesome criminal agent
00:04:21.860 who never wanted
00:04:22.980 to be assigned
00:04:23.640 a Unabomb
00:04:24.220 and was pulled off
00:04:25.460 of his organized crime work
00:04:26.880 to go work there.
00:04:28.260 Joel Moss
00:04:29.040 and Kathy Puckett,
00:04:30.100 both of whom
00:04:30.560 worked with me
00:04:31.220 on counterintelligence
00:04:32.400 in San Francisco,
00:04:33.840 they volunteered
00:04:34.480 to come over
00:04:35.440 from counterintelligence
00:04:36.560 and work on this case.
00:04:38.200 And then, of course,
00:04:38.820 Director Free
00:04:39.560 and Janet Reno,
00:04:40.740 who was the Attorney General
00:04:41.740 at the time,
00:04:42.700 and someone named Molly Flynn,
00:04:44.240 who was an FBI agent
00:04:45.360 who played a major
00:04:46.580 and key role
00:04:47.380 in our Washington
00:04:48.120 Metropolitan Field Division.
00:04:50.280 So all of this
00:04:51.120 came together,
00:04:51.980 a number of agencies,
00:04:52.920 the Postal Inspection Service,
00:04:54.800 the FBI,
00:04:55.840 the ATF.
00:04:57.240 And I was really proud
00:04:59.780 to be able to serve
00:05:01.260 with that team
00:05:02.280 and on that team
00:05:03.200 and be a part of that.
00:05:05.020 And it's because
00:05:06.020 of so many people
00:05:06.960 and certainly those people
00:05:07.920 I mentioned
00:05:08.380 that so much of this
00:05:09.660 came together.
00:05:10.980 I love this character,
00:05:11.800 Max Knoll.
00:05:12.980 I mean,
00:05:13.200 I realize he's a real person,
00:05:14.780 but in the book,
00:05:15.640 I love him as a character
00:05:16.800 because he is
00:05:18.380 the constant naysayer.
00:05:19.700 He's the one saying,
00:05:20.600 this is BS.
00:05:21.940 You can't put together
00:05:22.700 a criminal profile
00:05:23.820 based on comparing
00:05:24.700 words of one thing
00:05:25.660 to words that sound similar
00:05:27.080 in another thing.
00:05:27.860 You need hardcore
00:05:29.020 criminal evidence.
00:05:30.540 That's how you make a case.
00:05:31.960 And almost to the end,
00:05:33.260 he had real doubts
00:05:34.180 about whether this was the guy.
00:05:36.160 But the kind of evidence
00:05:37.660 Max wanted
00:05:38.480 was it was so hard
00:05:40.940 to get
00:05:41.520 in the Unabomb investigation.
00:05:43.980 The guy,
00:05:44.760 I mean,
00:05:44.940 we now know
00:05:45.520 it's Ted Kaczynski.
00:05:46.620 He was so clever.
00:05:48.620 He was brilliant
00:05:49.800 in hiding his identity.
00:05:52.200 He was
00:05:52.520 at least a couple
00:05:53.820 of steps ahead
00:05:54.600 of you guys
00:05:55.380 on how you might
00:05:57.080 detect identity
00:05:58.000 and even actively
00:05:59.360 taking steps
00:06:00.200 to plant evidence
00:06:01.280 in his bombs
00:06:02.020 that he knew
00:06:02.960 you'd run down
00:06:03.800 to make it look like
00:06:05.180 it was accidentally
00:06:06.060 placed there,
00:06:06.840 but it was in fact
00:06:07.600 an attempt to mislead you.
00:06:09.900 He actually spent
00:06:11.160 just as much time
00:06:12.240 doing that, Megan,
00:06:13.220 just as you laid out
00:06:14.300 as he did
00:06:15.140 building the bombs.
00:06:16.580 For example,
00:06:17.360 at one point,
00:06:18.200 and of course,
00:06:18.680 we confirmed all this later.
00:06:20.380 We found this out
00:06:21.400 when we searched his cabin.
00:06:23.440 But at one point,
00:06:24.980 he was in the men's room
00:06:26.060 in the bus station
00:06:28.320 at the,
00:06:29.360 in Missoula, Montana,
00:06:30.740 and he found
00:06:32.200 a couple of hairs
00:06:33.080 on the floor.
00:06:34.160 And later,
00:06:34.680 he would put
00:06:35.340 those two human hairs
00:06:36.620 between layers
00:06:37.400 of electrical tape
00:06:38.340 in one of his bombs.
00:06:39.740 What was he thinking about?
00:06:41.240 Well, he was thinking
00:06:41.860 that when we found
00:06:42.860 the debris
00:06:43.520 in this terrible crime scene,
00:06:45.060 he would actually,
00:06:47.040 we would actually think
00:06:48.100 that it was someone's DNA,
00:06:49.540 probably the bomber,
00:06:50.680 when in fact,
00:06:51.260 it would have nothing
00:06:51.840 to do with this case.
00:06:53.560 He would use wood
00:06:55.260 and metals
00:06:55.980 in putting these bombs
00:06:56.940 together.
00:06:57.320 At one point,
00:06:58.100 the FBI lab referred to him
00:06:59.660 as the junkyard bomber.
00:07:00.940 And so he would file
00:07:02.900 down the metal
00:07:03.700 so he could eliminate
00:07:04.620 fingerprints
00:07:05.140 if he thought
00:07:05.700 there were any there.
00:07:06.620 He would sand the wood.
00:07:09.140 I mean,
00:07:09.420 he thought of everything.
00:07:10.880 He thought of disguises
00:07:12.040 when he would go purchase
00:07:13.220 and acquire
00:07:13.940 everything from junk
00:07:15.540 at a junkyard
00:07:16.240 to something he might buy
00:07:17.260 at a hardware store.
00:07:18.420 He would take the jackets
00:07:20.000 off of batteries
00:07:21.140 so that we couldn't trace
00:07:22.860 the batch of batteries.
00:07:24.280 So he was doing
00:07:25.380 everything he could think of
00:07:27.100 to try and deceive
00:07:28.540 and lead us
00:07:29.780 in another direction
00:07:30.760 and confuse.
00:07:32.460 And I think that
00:07:33.680 certainly worked
00:07:34.660 to his advantage
00:07:35.660 for those years.
00:07:37.040 Right, because it's not
00:07:38.180 in reading your book
00:07:39.100 and so on,
00:07:39.480 it's not like the FBI
00:07:40.280 was full of a bunch of fools
00:07:41.760 who just didn't know
00:07:42.360 what they were doing,
00:07:43.180 though there was
00:07:44.160 a lack of appetite
00:07:45.180 for a period of years
00:07:46.460 to really devote
00:07:47.240 all the resources
00:07:48.140 necessary toward this case
00:07:49.940 because he went quiet
00:07:51.280 for about six years
00:07:52.320 and so the FBI
00:07:53.000 kind of, you know,
00:07:54.160 maybe died, whatever.
00:07:55.840 It wasn't that the FBI
00:07:57.220 was a bunch of
00:07:58.220 Dunderheads.
00:07:58.740 It was that this guy
00:08:00.220 was clever
00:08:01.820 in a really disturbing
00:08:04.440 criminal way.
00:08:06.060 When I heard
00:08:06.660 your description
00:08:07.160 of the bombs,
00:08:08.340 the one just now
00:08:09.420 and the ones
00:08:10.020 you give in your book,
00:08:11.240 it occurred to me,
00:08:12.860 weirdly,
00:08:14.280 there was love
00:08:14.960 put into them.
00:08:15.840 Like, the guy loved
00:08:17.100 the bomb itself,
00:08:18.420 though he hated
00:08:19.140 anybody involved
00:08:20.900 in sort of the university
00:08:21.820 or industrial complex
00:08:23.100 and so on.
00:08:23.540 Like, we'll get into
00:08:24.300 the reasons he was doing it.
00:08:25.460 But he loved his bombs.
00:08:26.540 He was very, very careful,
00:08:29.560 very meticulous
00:08:30.440 in putting those bombs together
00:08:31.840 and would really take it hard
00:08:34.120 when he would later read
00:08:35.620 as he was doing his research
00:08:37.020 that the bomb
00:08:37.940 didn't function properly.
00:08:39.460 And you see that
00:08:40.240 in a number of these bombings.
00:08:41.600 He would later write something
00:08:42.980 to the effect that,
00:08:44.300 damn,
00:08:44.780 I messed this up
00:08:46.240 or I didn't do this right.
00:08:48.200 Really bothering me.
00:08:49.880 Really making me angry.
00:08:51.140 I've got to build
00:08:52.400 a lethal bomb.
00:08:53.780 And that's the way
00:08:54.380 he was thinking.
00:08:55.560 And to kind of add
00:08:56.620 to one of the points
00:08:57.880 you made,
00:08:58.860 we also didn't understand
00:09:00.320 at that period of time
00:09:01.620 as much as we thought
00:09:02.860 we did
00:09:03.400 about the lone wolf
00:09:05.020 serial bomber.
00:09:06.200 We simply hadn't
00:09:07.080 had many cases like that
00:09:08.660 and we hadn't really
00:09:10.440 shared information
00:09:11.300 or been trained
00:09:12.120 in that kind of thing.
00:09:13.220 So we had to
00:09:14.160 almost put together
00:09:15.080 our own training,
00:09:16.100 our own educational process,
00:09:17.760 not only for us
00:09:18.800 who were responsible
00:09:19.640 for the case,
00:09:20.720 but for everyone
00:09:21.600 who was touching it.
00:09:22.820 And so we actually
00:09:23.700 built that into this case
00:09:25.160 so that we could
00:09:25.760 all be thinking of
00:09:26.960 and learning
00:09:27.760 as we went along.
00:09:29.160 And also we wanted
00:09:30.080 to make sure
00:09:30.560 we could pass
00:09:31.260 all of this along
00:09:32.180 if in fact
00:09:33.320 it all came out
00:09:34.980 as it ended up
00:09:36.100 so that other people
00:09:37.320 would be able
00:09:38.240 to use some of this
00:09:39.300 and some of the things
00:09:40.040 we did later on.
00:09:41.400 Yes, I definitely
00:09:42.360 want to get into that,
00:09:43.160 like what was learned
00:09:44.040 because what's fascinating
00:09:45.740 about the story is
00:09:46.780 you spent all this time
00:09:48.400 trying to figure out
00:09:49.900 who this was.
00:09:50.620 What is the profile
00:09:51.440 of this person?
00:09:52.180 Kathy Puckett,
00:09:52.860 you mentioned,
00:09:53.840 who, you know,
00:09:54.360 tried to come up
00:09:54.900 with a psychological profile
00:09:56.000 of what he was
00:09:57.000 and what you could expect
00:09:58.300 and then, you know,
00:09:59.740 nuggets of information
00:10:00.540 and I wonder
00:10:01.160 because one thing
00:10:02.240 you don't get to
00:10:02.720 in the book
00:10:03.100 is once you find him,
00:10:05.580 how did it match up?
00:10:06.960 You know, like,
00:10:07.540 how'd you do?
00:10:08.720 I want,
00:10:09.020 that needs to be part two
00:10:10.060 but we can just
00:10:11.500 try to handle it live.
00:10:12.920 Okay, so let's just start
00:10:13.940 before we get to all that.
00:10:14.760 Let's go through
00:10:15.340 a little bit chronologically
00:10:16.580 because I think
00:10:16.980 that's probably the easiest way
00:10:17.980 of understanding
00:10:18.600 his crimes.
00:10:21.680 Start with this.
00:10:22.560 Why was it called
00:10:23.660 the Unabomb investigation
00:10:26.660 and why was he dubbed
00:10:27.780 the Unabomber?
00:10:29.640 Certainly.
00:10:30.260 Well, in the first few years,
00:10:31.920 the targets of his bombs
00:10:33.340 seemed to be
00:10:34.380 university campuses,
00:10:36.180 university professors
00:10:37.340 and airlines
00:10:38.940 and especially
00:10:40.120 the first four bombs.
00:10:42.060 So the FBI,
00:10:43.680 particularly on major cases
00:10:45.340 like this,
00:10:46.260 finds that it's helpful
00:10:47.300 to add some sort of title
00:10:49.660 such as we added to this
00:10:51.520 and they call this case
00:10:52.840 Unabomb
00:10:53.600 for UNA universities
00:10:55.860 and airlines
00:10:58.560 bombings.
00:10:59.680 So Unabomb
00:11:00.560 became the name
00:11:02.000 of this investigation,
00:11:03.080 major case
00:11:03.600 that it was.
00:11:05.420 And then
00:11:05.840 at some point,
00:11:07.320 someone,
00:11:07.800 I think back east,
00:11:08.680 started referring to him
00:11:09.920 as the Unabomber.
00:11:11.560 So Unabomb
00:11:12.420 and Unabomber
00:11:13.000 not only became
00:11:14.320 how we identified
00:11:15.340 with the case,
00:11:16.260 but it also really
00:11:17.880 stuck with the public
00:11:18.960 when they finally
00:11:19.860 started learning
00:11:20.580 about the Unabomber
00:11:21.720 and what was going on.
00:11:22.840 So that's how Unabom
00:11:24.560 came into existence.
00:11:26.320 I never knew that
00:11:27.140 until I started studying
00:11:28.040 for this interview.
00:11:28.740 I always thought it was
00:11:29.560 like uni
00:11:31.160 as in one guy,
00:11:32.820 uni bomber,
00:11:33.720 you know,
00:11:34.020 and I guess I just
00:11:35.080 never paid attention
00:11:35.720 to the spelling
00:11:36.260 or thought much about it.
00:11:37.160 It's universities
00:11:38.000 and airlines.
00:11:39.060 That's how it started.
00:11:40.720 Exactly.
00:11:41.320 Yes.
00:11:41.820 Fascinating.
00:11:42.380 Okay.
00:11:42.620 So first he starts off,
00:11:44.440 the first couple of bombs
00:11:45.760 were at universities
00:11:47.100 in Chicago?
00:11:49.420 Yes.
00:11:50.020 In fact,
00:11:50.480 the first bomb,
00:11:51.380 and we'll go back
00:11:52.360 and do this
00:11:52.820 however you would like,
00:11:53.720 but later on
00:11:55.080 when we assembled
00:11:56.480 as the ultimate team
00:11:57.620 that took this
00:11:58.800 to the finish line,
00:11:59.780 we went back
00:12:00.680 and reinvestigated
00:12:01.740 all of these crimes.
00:12:02.680 So we learned so much.
00:12:03.820 But the first bombing
00:12:05.220 was at the University
00:12:07.220 of Illinois
00:12:07.840 Chicago Circle Campus.
00:12:09.840 And essentially
00:12:11.120 a passerby,
00:12:12.520 a lady named
00:12:13.100 Mary Gutierrez
00:12:13.920 was walking
00:12:15.300 by there one day.
00:12:16.400 It's the science
00:12:17.240 and technology
00:12:17.960 parking lot
00:12:18.840 of the campus.
00:12:20.220 And she saw
00:12:21.100 a package
00:12:21.720 between two cars,
00:12:22.920 two parked cars.
00:12:24.080 She picked it up,
00:12:25.120 she looked at it,
00:12:26.040 and she took it home.
00:12:27.580 And it sat there,
00:12:28.800 you know,
00:12:29.040 with her children
00:12:29.660 on the floor
00:12:30.200 for a day or two.
00:12:31.220 She saw that there
00:12:32.120 was a return address
00:12:33.080 and there was also
00:12:33.960 a recipient.
00:12:35.320 The return address
00:12:36.300 was a professor
00:12:37.160 named Buckley Christ
00:12:38.460 at Northwestern University.
00:12:41.440 And the intended recipient
00:12:44.480 was a professor
00:12:46.500 at RPI
00:12:47.500 in Troy, New York.
00:12:50.020 So she eventually
00:12:51.560 called the police.
00:12:52.520 The police come
00:12:53.080 and get the package.
00:12:54.160 They took it
00:12:54.860 to Buckley Christ
00:12:55.660 because his address
00:12:56.640 was on there
00:12:57.200 as the return address.
00:12:58.500 He said,
00:12:58.880 I don't know anything
00:12:59.260 about that.
00:12:59.960 So it was opened
00:13:00.880 at school
00:13:01.880 by a police officer
00:13:03.080 named Terry Marker.
00:13:04.620 And he suffered
00:13:05.760 some injuries
00:13:06.260 because it turned out
00:13:07.080 to be a bomb.
00:13:08.180 So that was
00:13:08.920 the first device
00:13:09.940 the Unabomber
00:13:10.560 actually sent.
00:13:11.740 But at that point
00:13:12.680 in time,
00:13:13.300 it was not looked upon
00:13:14.800 as anything
00:13:15.400 other than another bomb.
00:13:16.780 Back in those days,
00:13:18.100 as you well know,
00:13:19.100 the Weather Underground
00:13:19.980 and all kinds
00:13:20.940 of other organizations
00:13:21.820 were committing bombings.
00:13:23.140 They were attacking police.
00:13:24.760 They were active
00:13:25.400 on universities.
00:13:26.720 So there was
00:13:27.280 a lot of activity.
00:13:28.460 So since this
00:13:29.840 didn't hurt anyone
00:13:30.840 and there wasn't
00:13:32.880 much to go on,
00:13:33.760 it just kind of
00:13:34.320 got lost in the shuffle
00:13:35.360 other than recorded
00:13:36.440 at the ATF lab
00:13:37.560 and the evidence
00:13:38.980 tucked away.
00:13:40.960 And, you know,
00:13:41.640 there are quotes
00:13:42.480 from the Unabomber
00:13:43.520 throughout the book
00:13:44.660 and I know a lot
00:13:45.980 comes from that
00:13:46.520 35,000 word manifesto,
00:13:49.100 but he was writing
00:13:50.340 letters from time to time.
00:13:51.960 Was he not
00:13:52.580 during the course
00:13:53.400 of the bombings?
00:13:55.180 Actually,
00:13:55.800 he only wrote
00:13:56.540 two letters.
00:13:57.320 The first letter
00:13:58.420 during the course
00:13:59.060 of the first 14 bombings.
00:14:00.780 The first letter
00:14:02.080 was actually
00:14:03.060 to Percy Wood,
00:14:05.340 who was the president
00:14:06.540 at the time
00:14:07.300 of United Airlines.
00:14:09.060 And in June of 1980,
00:14:10.500 he received a letter
00:14:11.720 from an individual
00:14:13.160 who identified himself
00:14:14.440 as Enoch Fisher.
00:14:16.300 And Enoch Fisher said,
00:14:18.060 look,
00:14:18.260 I'm going to be
00:14:18.800 sending you a book.
00:14:20.060 And the book
00:14:20.760 is called
00:14:21.300 Ice Brothers
00:14:22.000 by Sloan Wilson.
00:14:23.280 And this is a book
00:14:25.240 that you should
00:14:25.720 pay great attention to
00:14:26.720 because you make decisions
00:14:28.120 regarding the social
00:14:29.120 welfare of people.
00:14:30.640 And so when you get
00:14:31.600 the book,
00:14:32.220 think about that.
00:14:33.680 So Percy Wood
00:14:34.460 subsequently got the book.
00:14:36.020 He went to open
00:14:36.960 the package
00:14:37.600 and then open
00:14:38.540 the wrapping.
00:14:39.800 But essentially,
00:14:40.460 the book was hollowed out
00:14:41.680 and it was a bomb.
00:14:42.500 It was an explosive device.
00:14:44.320 And so this was
00:14:45.500 the fourth Unabomber
00:14:46.460 device,
00:14:47.000 by the way.
00:14:48.000 And that letter
00:14:49.780 was interesting,
00:14:51.920 but there wasn't much
00:14:52.860 they could do
00:14:53.340 with that either.
00:14:54.340 So that became
00:14:55.400 later on something
00:14:56.860 that actually
00:14:58.120 first got us
00:14:58.880 into the words
00:14:59.640 of the Unabomber.
00:15:00.440 And we'll talk about
00:15:01.120 that probably later.
00:15:02.320 But so that was
00:15:03.740 the first letter.
00:15:05.360 During one of the
00:15:06.460 Unabomber events,
00:15:08.000 as we started calling them,
00:15:09.380 of 1985,
00:15:11.100 he sent his second letter.
00:15:13.040 And that letter
00:15:13.760 was to an individual
00:15:15.420 named James McConnell.
00:15:17.420 James McConnell
00:15:18.300 was a professor
00:15:19.260 at the University
00:15:20.220 of Michigan.
00:15:21.560 And what the Unabomber
00:15:23.080 sent him
00:15:23.840 was a letter saying,
00:15:25.780 I'm a student.
00:15:26.980 I'm doing a thesis
00:15:28.160 on something called
00:15:29.360 the history of science.
00:15:31.000 And I'd like you
00:15:31.780 to consider being
00:15:32.580 my thesis advisor.
00:15:34.420 And that letter
00:15:35.600 was signed
00:15:36.200 Ralph C. Kloppenberg.
00:15:38.780 And of course,
00:15:39.640 this was in a
00:15:40.340 three-wing binder,
00:15:41.200 like it would be
00:15:41.960 some sort of
00:15:42.760 student's essay, maybe.
00:15:44.740 And when Professor
00:15:46.300 McConnell's assistant
00:15:47.400 went to open
00:15:48.740 that package,
00:15:50.100 it exploded,
00:15:51.120 just very similar
00:15:51.960 to the book
00:15:52.500 that Percy Wood received.
00:15:54.000 Again, we were fortunate
00:15:55.180 that they suffered injuries,
00:15:57.380 but certainly
00:15:58.080 they did not
00:15:59.160 suffer something critical
00:16:00.660 or die from
00:16:01.280 those explosions.
00:16:02.700 Those were the two letters
00:16:03.800 that the Unabomber
00:16:04.700 wrote between
00:16:05.840 1978
00:16:06.840 and around
00:16:08.340 1993.
00:16:10.600 In 1993,
00:16:11.880 all that changed.
00:16:12.920 when the Unabomber
00:16:15.020 started corresponding
00:16:16.120 with the New York Times
00:16:17.440 and eventually
00:16:18.320 with the New York Times
00:16:20.000 and several other
00:16:20.760 entities and people.
00:16:22.540 So,
00:16:22.880 that is kind of
00:16:25.020 how his letters
00:16:25.820 would evolve
00:16:27.500 over the years
00:16:28.520 between 78
00:16:29.780 and 93
00:16:30.620 and then subsequently
00:16:32.060 through 96.
00:16:33.620 And then later,
00:16:34.440 when you finally
00:16:34.980 started to figure out
00:16:35.880 who it was,
00:16:36.660 you managed to get
00:16:37.340 a treasure trove
00:16:38.240 of letters
00:16:38.740 between the Unabomber
00:16:40.760 and his family members,
00:16:41.840 which would prove
00:16:42.620 really helpful
00:16:43.400 and useful
00:16:44.060 eventually.
00:16:45.380 But,
00:16:45.740 so,
00:16:46.200 he's bombing universities,
00:16:49.000 he attempts
00:16:49.520 to bomb an airplane,
00:16:51.120 and this is still
00:16:51.940 back in the late 70s,
00:16:53.380 I gather,
00:16:54.080 but it didn't work.
00:16:56.100 Thank God.
00:16:56.700 Well,
00:16:56.900 it went off,
00:16:57.620 but it kind of fizzled,
00:16:58.940 and it didn't bring down
00:16:59.880 the airplane,
00:17:00.400 although it did cause
00:17:01.180 a lot of injuries
00:17:01.920 to the people
00:17:02.400 on board the plane.
00:17:04.380 You were,
00:17:04.720 you were so right,
00:17:05.720 Megan.
00:17:06.080 In 1979,
00:17:08.240 an American Airlines
00:17:09.240 flight,
00:17:09.660 444,
00:17:10.340 was leaving from Chicago,
00:17:12.140 headed for National Airport.
00:17:13.900 And,
00:17:14.400 the plane got up
00:17:15.300 in the air,
00:17:16.040 suddenly the pilot
00:17:17.120 and the passengers
00:17:18.640 felt this jolt.
00:17:20.520 The plane started
00:17:21.600 having some problems,
00:17:23.300 and it turns out
00:17:25.080 that there was a package
00:17:26.100 on board that plane
00:17:27.260 put in the mail stream.
00:17:28.800 The U.S. Postal Service
00:17:31.440 was actually able
00:17:32.920 subsequently to determine
00:17:34.880 the path
00:17:35.980 that mail package
00:17:37.660 had taken
00:17:38.340 when the bomber
00:17:40.060 put it in the mail
00:17:40.860 in Chicago.
00:17:41.760 So they were able
00:17:42.420 to trace a package
00:17:43.620 that a witness
00:17:44.340 had touched
00:17:45.000 and eventually
00:17:46.440 got on board
00:17:47.720 this flight 444,
00:17:49.820 and it turns out
00:17:51.460 the bomb
00:17:52.160 that he designed
00:17:53.020 had some deficiencies
00:17:54.420 with respect
00:17:55.160 to the explosives.
00:17:56.780 So when it detonated,
00:17:58.800 instead of blowing up,
00:18:00.620 it started smoldering,
00:18:02.080 and it started burning
00:18:03.120 in the cargo hold.
00:18:05.160 So as the plane
00:18:06.200 was getting closer
00:18:07.040 and, of course,
00:18:07.540 declaring May Day
00:18:08.380 and wanting an emergency landing,
00:18:10.000 it was diverted
00:18:10.840 to Dulles Airport
00:18:11.900 where they had the equipment
00:18:12.940 to deal with this.
00:18:14.080 When the plane landed,
00:18:15.680 the pilots were actually
00:18:17.040 prepared to testify
00:18:18.200 many years later
00:18:19.260 when we were ready
00:18:20.340 to start the Unabombers trial
00:18:21.860 that had they not
00:18:23.300 landed the plane
00:18:24.320 on the tarmac
00:18:25.120 when they did,
00:18:26.400 they were literally
00:18:27.260 minutes or seconds
00:18:28.700 maybe away
00:18:29.560 of the fire
00:18:30.820 in the cargo hold
00:18:31.900 burning through
00:18:32.820 the main hydraulic system.
00:18:35.260 They said
00:18:35.620 if that had happened,
00:18:36.360 the plane would have
00:18:36.940 fallen out of the sky
00:18:37.940 and everybody
00:18:38.400 would have been killed.
00:18:39.800 So this is one
00:18:40.920 of the reasons,
00:18:41.740 certainly,
00:18:42.140 that in 1979,
00:18:43.680 this became
00:18:44.400 a significant
00:18:45.160 major case.
00:18:46.660 It was a crime
00:18:47.180 aboard aircraft.
00:18:48.040 It was an explosive device.
00:18:49.380 And so we knew
00:18:51.200 from that point on
00:18:52.320 we had a real problem,
00:18:53.540 but it wasn't until
00:18:55.000 Chris Rone,
00:18:56.280 who was a laboratory
00:18:57.360 supervisor
00:18:58.680 and explosives examiner,
00:19:00.520 started looking at this
00:19:01.840 and he felt that
00:19:02.740 this is the first time
00:19:04.260 I've seen
00:19:04.720 this kind of
00:19:05.660 craftsmanship
00:19:08.600 in putting together
00:19:09.440 a bomb
00:19:09.860 because all bombers
00:19:11.620 do their bombs differently.
00:19:13.240 No two bombers
00:19:14.000 build their bombs
00:19:15.240 the same
00:19:15.760 and that goes
00:19:16.240 whether it's
00:19:16.720 an international terrorist
00:19:17.800 or a domestic terrorist.
00:19:19.380 They all do something
00:19:20.360 a little differently.
00:19:21.320 He had not noticed
00:19:22.300 this before,
00:19:22.900 but he thought
00:19:23.540 that the bomber
00:19:24.200 had to have
00:19:25.180 put together
00:19:26.040 other bombs
00:19:26.700 because it was
00:19:27.460 done so well.
00:19:28.520 So he sent out
00:19:29.680 a bulletin
00:19:30.340 to other law
00:19:31.120 enforcement agencies.
00:19:32.460 This is all
00:19:33.000 back in 1979.
00:19:35.560 And the ATF,
00:19:36.880 which had handled
00:19:37.680 the first two
00:19:38.400 unibomb devices,
00:19:39.820 again,
00:19:40.240 in that era
00:19:40.920 that we talked about,
00:19:42.480 actually responded
00:19:44.460 and said,
00:19:45.260 you need to see
00:19:45.900 these other two devices
00:19:47.200 because they kind of
00:19:48.120 sound like
00:19:48.580 what you're describing.
00:19:50.180 And Chris Rone
00:19:50.900 was then able
00:19:51.820 to say,
00:19:52.480 we have a serial
00:19:53.520 bomber at large.
00:19:54.980 So it was on
00:19:55.720 the third bombing,
00:19:56.780 the attack on the airplane,
00:19:58.480 that we knew
00:19:59.400 we now have
00:20:00.060 a serial bomber.
00:20:01.400 And shortly after that
00:20:02.440 in 1980,
00:20:03.060 we would have
00:20:03.580 the fourth device,
00:20:04.900 the attack on Percy Wood,
00:20:06.440 the president
00:20:06.900 of United Airlines.
00:20:08.940 Later in the investigation,
00:20:11.220 as the Unabomber
00:20:12.200 gets better
00:20:12.880 and more efficient
00:20:14.080 at making deadly bombs,
00:20:16.320 he will threaten
00:20:17.120 to take down
00:20:17.940 another aircraft.
00:20:19.960 And you can see
00:20:20.520 from Terry's description
00:20:22.060 why they took that
00:20:23.780 so seriously
00:20:24.680 and were so concerned
00:20:25.920 he could do it
00:20:27.600 and had the will
00:20:28.580 to do it as well.
00:20:30.080 There's so much more
00:20:30.800 to go over.
00:20:31.920 The profile
00:20:32.680 of the Unabomber,
00:20:33.760 what drove Ted Kaczynski
00:20:35.300 to do this?
00:20:36.200 How?
00:20:36.940 And how did the FBI
00:20:38.820 ultimately nab him?
00:20:40.820 Don't go away.
00:20:41.400 More with former
00:20:42.400 FBI agent Terry Turchie
00:20:43.760 on the Unabomber
00:20:44.820 investigation.
00:20:46.320 Terry,
00:20:53.000 let's fast forward.
00:20:54.060 So he tried
00:20:54.600 with the airplane,
00:20:55.300 he failed.
00:20:55.780 He continued bombing.
00:20:57.620 But it wasn't until 1985
00:20:59.740 that he had
00:21:01.540 his first kill.
00:21:03.160 He managed to kill
00:21:03.920 the first person
00:21:04.840 out of all those
00:21:05.680 he attempted to kill,
00:21:07.440 though he had wounded many.
00:21:09.000 So who was that
00:21:09.900 and what happened
00:21:10.520 with Hugh Scruton?
00:21:12.280 Yes.
00:21:12.600 In December of 1985,
00:21:14.440 the Unabomber
00:21:15.080 finally got what he wanted.
00:21:16.620 He wanted to kill someone.
00:21:18.500 And Hugh Scruton
00:21:19.300 was a businessman.
00:21:21.400 He ran a very successful
00:21:23.160 computer store
00:21:24.120 in an outside-type mall,
00:21:25.860 outdoor mall,
00:21:26.780 in Sacramento, California.
00:21:28.680 And he walked out
00:21:30.360 into the back
00:21:31.260 of the store one day
00:21:32.320 and saw what looked to him
00:21:34.200 like a road hazard, Megan.
00:21:35.640 And it was essentially
00:21:37.080 two-by-fours nailed together
00:21:38.720 with nails protruding
00:21:40.420 out of the wood.
00:21:42.720 And so his thought process
00:21:44.360 was this could hurt somebody.
00:21:46.180 Somebody could pull up here
00:21:47.200 with a car
00:21:47.760 and have some problems.
00:21:49.120 So he leaned over
00:21:50.740 to remove the road hazard
00:21:53.340 and to put it
00:21:54.020 in a nearby dumpster.
00:21:55.160 And at that point,
00:21:57.360 this was what we call
00:21:58.120 the passive device
00:21:59.080 as he broke the connection
00:22:00.820 between the ground
00:22:01.720 and that device,
00:22:02.980 the two-by-fours
00:22:04.000 were actually hollowed out
00:22:05.240 and the Unabomber
00:22:06.000 had built a lethal bomb
00:22:07.500 inside the wood.
00:22:09.500 And Mr. Scruton
00:22:11.300 just simply
00:22:12.660 took the full impact
00:22:15.060 of that explosion
00:22:15.940 and died outside
00:22:18.400 in the back of his store
00:22:20.680 from that device.
00:22:22.120 And it would be two years
00:22:24.560 before we would hear
00:22:25.520 from the Unabomber again.
00:22:27.120 But in 1987,
00:22:28.900 using the same model,
00:22:30.620 the same kind of plan
00:22:32.760 with the two-by-fours
00:22:33.920 even cut from the same
00:22:35.700 pieces of wood,
00:22:36.840 he made another similar bomb
00:22:38.720 and was involved
00:22:40.220 in placing it outside
00:22:41.420 of a computer store
00:22:42.540 called CAMS
00:22:43.680 on February 20, 1987
00:22:45.840 in Salt Lake City.
00:22:47.800 And this time,
00:22:49.360 as he kind of knelt down
00:22:51.120 to finish up
00:22:53.220 preparing the bomb
00:22:54.400 so that it would detonate,
00:22:56.200 one of the employees
00:22:57.660 of CAMS
00:22:58.560 named Tammy Floyd
00:22:59.720 was looking out
00:23:01.000 a back window
00:23:01.720 and she started yelling
00:23:03.200 that someone is out here
00:23:04.200 doing something
00:23:04.820 in the parking lot.
00:23:06.480 What happened
00:23:07.240 within minutes
00:23:09.260 is the son
00:23:10.240 of the owner of CAMS,
00:23:11.440 Gary Wright,
00:23:12.200 pulled up.
00:23:13.240 He saw this
00:23:14.220 and he thought
00:23:15.140 the same thing
00:23:16.080 because he would tell us later,
00:23:17.720 I thought it was
00:23:18.380 a road hazard.
00:23:19.040 I thought it was something
00:23:19.840 that would hurt someone.
00:23:21.180 So I went to move it.
00:23:23.000 But instead of kind of
00:23:24.400 leaning over the two-by-fours
00:23:26.800 when he went to pick them up,
00:23:28.380 he kind of knelt
00:23:29.600 and then kind of brushed
00:23:32.120 against it
00:23:32.900 before he actually
00:23:34.000 picked it up
00:23:34.640 or moved it.
00:23:35.620 And the bomb exploded,
00:23:37.120 but he was spared
00:23:38.280 the full blunt
00:23:39.240 of that explosion.
00:23:40.760 And so this is
00:23:42.460 when the Unabomber
00:23:43.380 was seen
00:23:43.960 with the gray hooded sweatshirt
00:23:45.580 and the aviator sunglasses.
00:23:47.020 So after all of these years
00:23:49.060 between 1978,
00:23:51.240 1987
00:23:52.120 and all these
00:23:53.340 starts and starts
00:23:54.260 on this investigation,
00:23:55.860 someone had finally
00:23:57.240 witnessed
00:23:57.880 this individual
00:23:59.020 who up until then
00:24:00.060 was a major mystery.
00:24:01.720 And this is when
00:24:02.400 everyone kind of
00:24:03.340 got involved.
00:24:04.060 I mean,
00:24:04.260 Reader's Digest
00:24:05.080 did a big story
00:24:05.960 on the composite.
00:24:08.360 They did a big story
00:24:09.720 on what he looked like
00:24:11.160 with the hooded sweatshirt
00:24:12.980 and the aviator sunglasses
00:24:14.200 that you're showing there.
00:24:15.040 And so they also
00:24:17.440 became very familiar
00:24:18.320 with that word Unabomber.
00:24:20.300 Later,
00:24:21.160 as we reinvestigated
00:24:22.860 all of this,
00:24:24.140 something else
00:24:24.840 significant happened.
00:24:26.180 And so I think
00:24:26.740 this is a good time
00:24:27.600 to tell you the story.
00:24:29.300 During the investigation
00:24:30.700 in 1987,
00:24:32.320 that witness
00:24:33.140 was interviewed
00:24:33.720 by the police,
00:24:34.680 by the FBI.
00:24:36.260 She had a really
00:24:37.220 good recollection
00:24:38.240 of what she saw
00:24:40.640 and what she was hearing.
00:24:43.420 So someone told her
00:24:45.620 along the way,
00:24:46.460 we thank the police officer,
00:24:47.620 to take notes
00:24:48.560 and make sure
00:24:49.700 those notes
00:24:50.340 were with her
00:24:51.000 and kept fresh
00:24:51.940 in her mind.
00:24:52.940 And somebody would
00:24:54.200 stop by later
00:24:54.940 and pick them up.
00:24:56.460 Well,
00:24:56.960 no one ever stopped by
00:24:58.080 to pick up those notes.
00:24:59.300 And even in
00:25:00.000 subsequent interviews,
00:25:00.900 no one asked
00:25:01.660 about those notes.
00:25:03.400 And so in
00:25:04.580 fast forward
00:25:05.960 to 1994,
00:25:07.880 Max Knoll
00:25:08.540 had reinvestigated
00:25:09.940 those two,
00:25:10.660 a couple of those events
00:25:11.900 that were related,
00:25:13.540 the CAMS bombing
00:25:14.960 and the Rentech bombing.
00:25:16.700 And so Max
00:25:18.480 was interviewing Tammy
00:25:19.640 and she mentioned
00:25:20.480 the notes
00:25:21.120 and he said,
00:25:22.080 wait a minute,
00:25:22.560 what notes?
00:25:23.900 And she went
00:25:25.600 and retrieved them.
00:25:26.440 She said,
00:25:26.800 these notes.
00:25:28.280 And so what appeared
00:25:30.280 to us
00:25:31.040 is that she was
00:25:32.320 never comfortable
00:25:33.140 with the initial composite.
00:25:35.400 So about that time
00:25:36.880 in San Francisco
00:25:37.820 in the Bay Area,
00:25:38.780 there was another
00:25:39.800 very, very significant
00:25:41.040 investigation
00:25:41.820 and that was
00:25:43.220 the disappearance
00:25:43.900 and subsequent murder
00:25:45.060 of Polly Klass.
00:25:46.920 And we ended up
00:25:48.880 having a major break
00:25:49.900 in that case
00:25:50.580 because, again,
00:25:51.440 Jim Freeman,
00:25:52.160 who was a special agent
00:25:53.100 in charge of the FBI
00:25:54.100 in San Francisco,
00:25:55.200 ran that as well.
00:25:56.900 And Jim ended up
00:25:58.580 bringing in
00:25:59.320 a artist
00:26:00.160 named Jeannie Boylan
00:26:01.400 to do a composite
00:26:03.000 of who somebody
00:26:04.220 had seen
00:26:04.900 in the vicinity
00:26:06.540 when Polly Klass
00:26:07.380 was,
00:26:08.900 when Polly Klass
00:26:10.060 disappeared.
00:26:11.280 And so it turned out
00:26:12.460 that that composite
00:26:13.460 was almost
00:26:14.080 a spitting image
00:26:14.900 of Richard Allen Davis
00:26:16.040 who was eventually
00:26:17.660 convicted
00:26:18.180 of murdering,
00:26:19.340 kidnapping
00:26:19.660 and murdering
00:26:20.320 Polly Klass.
00:26:21.560 So Jeannie Boylan
00:26:22.660 was contacted
00:26:24.400 by Max.
00:26:25.100 We said,
00:26:25.440 Max,
00:26:25.720 go find Jeannie.
00:26:26.860 See if she can do
00:26:27.860 a composite
00:26:28.520 this many years later
00:26:30.140 and sit down
00:26:30.820 with Tammy
00:26:31.340 and see if Tammy
00:26:32.740 would be more happy
00:26:33.720 and more satisfied
00:26:34.780 with whatever
00:26:35.520 Jeannie Boylan
00:26:36.160 comes up with
00:26:36.960 based on Tammy
00:26:37.940 Floyd's description.
00:26:38.720 So lo and behold,
00:26:40.740 she came up
00:26:41.880 with a composite.
00:26:43.380 You just showed it
00:26:44.560 and it was a composite
00:26:47.500 that Tammy Floyd
00:26:48.360 really, really liked.
00:26:49.680 She said,
00:26:50.060 that is the person
00:26:50.800 I saw
00:26:51.420 on February 20,
00:26:52.840 1987.
00:26:54.140 So eventually
00:26:55.380 we ended up
00:26:56.820 taking the other composite,
00:26:59.720 getting rid of that
00:27:00.660 and showing this.
00:27:01.880 It was introduced
00:27:02.480 by Jim Freeman
00:27:03.260 at a press conference
00:27:04.300 with the media
00:27:05.040 back in around
00:27:06.900 the end of
00:27:07.500 1994.
00:27:10.100 And it was
00:27:11.120 a major step
00:27:11.780 for us
00:27:12.180 and a major break
00:27:13.020 for us
00:27:13.400 because we had
00:27:14.660 a witness now
00:27:15.460 satisfied with what
00:27:16.680 she was trying
00:27:17.280 to articulate
00:27:17.820 and we had a composite
00:27:19.420 which we really
00:27:20.060 believed in.
00:27:21.880 And, you know,
00:27:22.220 now, of course,
00:27:23.080 we know what Ted
00:27:23.680 Kaczynski looked like
00:27:24.640 and I have to say
00:27:25.500 it's pretty striking.
00:27:27.220 This Tammy
00:27:27.740 did a damn good job.
00:27:29.480 You think about
00:27:30.120 eyewitness testimony
00:27:31.160 and how notoriously
00:27:32.420 unreliable it is,
00:27:33.500 but her,
00:27:35.180 if you pictured,
00:27:36.220 you know,
00:27:36.540 we'll show Ted Kaczynski
00:27:37.640 in the YouTube version
00:27:38.600 of this,
00:27:39.280 that guy was very scruffy
00:27:40.660 in sort of the perp walk
00:27:41.540 we saw him in
00:27:42.020 but you picture him
00:27:42.680 years earlier
00:27:43.340 with a hoodie
00:27:44.840 and the aviator glasses
00:27:47.480 and you could see
00:27:48.920 how accurate she was
00:27:50.560 and she went on saying
00:27:51.460 he's a white male,
00:27:52.720 I think he had
00:27:53.120 strawberry blonde hair,
00:27:54.120 he had a mustache,
00:27:54.840 he was on 5'10",
00:27:55.740 about 165 pounds,
00:27:57.080 a reddish complexion,
00:27:58.280 gray hooded sweatshirt,
00:27:59.140 aviator style sunglasses.
00:28:00.060 I mean,
00:28:00.920 this is an eyewitness
00:28:02.080 that's a dream, right?
00:28:03.320 It's like you don't
00:28:04.380 get a lot of these.
00:28:05.980 It was wonderful
00:28:06.780 and as you can imagine,
00:28:08.740 we were really buoyed
00:28:09.720 at that time
00:28:10.340 because when you're
00:28:11.160 years later
00:28:11.920 trying to put all this together
00:28:13.360 and you get a break
00:28:14.560 like that
00:28:15.060 and a witness like that,
00:28:16.300 it really is important.
00:28:17.800 One funny story though,
00:28:19.380 earlier we were talking
00:28:20.360 about Max Knoll
00:28:21.360 and you mentioned
00:28:22.860 the word brusque.
00:28:23.660 Well,
00:28:24.240 Max took Jeannie
00:28:25.240 out to Salt Lake
00:28:26.160 and sat down
00:28:26.800 with Tammy Floyd
00:28:27.540 but while Tammy Floyd
00:28:29.460 was articulating this
00:28:31.040 to Jeannie Boylan,
00:28:32.360 she had a daughter.
00:28:33.680 So Max was there
00:28:35.200 entertaining the daughter
00:28:37.900 by showing her
00:28:38.960 the Lion King.
00:28:40.280 So he was crawling around
00:28:41.540 on the floor
00:28:42.240 showing Lion King
00:28:43.740 while the business
00:28:44.800 was taking place
00:28:45.640 in the other room.
00:28:46.380 So, you know,
00:28:47.100 we do a lot of different things
00:28:48.360 but that was the call of duty
00:28:49.860 for Max
00:28:50.380 at that particular couple of hours.
00:28:51.740 That's amazing.
00:28:52.460 The senior respected FBI agent
00:28:54.060 trying to solve
00:28:54.620 a serial bomber case
00:28:56.080 out there
00:28:56.340 but this would have been
00:28:57.360 right up Max's alley
00:28:58.320 because he was like
00:28:59.100 hardcore evidence
00:29:00.480 not BS word comparisons
00:29:02.140 eyewitness pictures
00:29:03.620 like that's up his alley.
00:29:05.260 Okay, so
00:29:05.920 so while you're getting
00:29:07.860 the eyewitness ID
00:29:09.240 shorn up and so on
00:29:10.260 the FBI is trying
00:29:11.700 to gather data
00:29:13.540 like what
00:29:14.260 what can we figure out
00:29:15.240 about this guy?
00:29:15.760 We've had bombings
00:29:16.480 in Chicago.
00:29:17.560 We've had bombings
00:29:18.240 in California.
00:29:19.460 We've had bombings
00:29:20.240 in Utah
00:29:20.780 and you're trying
00:29:22.280 I mean
00:29:22.680 it sounds like
00:29:23.700 so simple in retrospect
00:29:24.760 once you know who he is
00:29:25.760 but it's
00:29:26.100 it truly is like
00:29:27.140 trying to find a needle
00:29:28.040 in a haystack
00:29:28.760 because yes
00:29:29.920 you can come up
00:29:30.380 with a profile
00:29:30.880 of somebody
00:29:31.340 who lived here
00:29:32.200 and then there
00:29:32.900 and then this third place
00:29:33.920 and this fourth place
00:29:34.640 but you don't know
00:29:35.900 when the person was born.
00:29:38.000 You figured out
00:29:38.760 he was probably
00:29:39.360 a college educated guy, right?
00:29:40.800 So like
00:29:41.160 how do you begin
00:29:42.760 and you talk about this
00:29:43.540 in the book
00:29:43.840 to create systems
00:29:45.800 that will
00:29:47.000 siphon down
00:29:48.180 the enormous
00:29:49.140 pool of people
00:29:50.140 who would fit
00:29:51.580 into those descriptions?
00:29:52.720 So when I first came over
00:29:55.340 Jim Freeman said
00:29:56.200 here's what I want you to do
00:29:57.340 this is the first thing
00:29:58.120 I want you to do
00:29:58.860 give me a proposed strategy
00:30:00.860 for how we're going
00:30:01.720 to address
00:30:02.360 exactly what you said
00:30:03.640 Megan.
00:30:04.340 So I went out
00:30:05.080 and I met with Max
00:30:06.040 I met with everybody
00:30:06.840 on the UTF
00:30:07.700 and started reading files
00:30:09.960 and then sat down
00:30:11.460 with everyone
00:30:12.040 the entire UTF
00:30:13.660 at that point in time
00:30:14.720 which was about
00:30:15.780 25-30 people
00:30:16.960 from those agencies
00:30:18.100 we talked about
00:30:18.940 and said
00:30:21.100 here's what I think
00:30:21.880 and here's what I've learned
00:30:22.680 and I'm going to articulate
00:30:23.500 this to the SAC
00:30:24.980 first of all
00:30:26.360 we need to reinvestigate
00:30:27.920 all of these
00:30:28.500 Unabomb crimes
00:30:29.360 one more time
00:30:30.540 only this time
00:30:31.800 we're going to do it different
00:30:32.920 we're not going to use
00:30:34.080 the FBI system
00:30:35.200 of lead offices
00:30:36.420 and auxiliary offices
00:30:38.200 and office of origin
00:30:39.320 what we're going to do
00:30:40.720 is send
00:30:41.660 Unabomb task force
00:30:43.600 teams
00:30:44.300 back to these offices
00:30:46.060 where all these
00:30:46.800 police departments
00:30:47.560 or the FBI
00:30:48.340 and the other agencies
00:30:50.060 ATF and Postal
00:30:51.060 had already done
00:30:51.760 investigation
00:30:52.260 and we're going to have
00:30:53.760 these teams
00:30:54.540 that are currently
00:30:55.280 on Unabomb
00:30:55.980 take a good
00:30:58.480 clean look
00:30:59.700 at all of these crimes
00:31:00.720 again
00:31:01.060 so secondly
00:31:02.340 I want everybody
00:31:02.960 to partner up
00:31:03.860 find a partner
00:31:04.940 because it's going to be
00:31:05.720 a long hard show
00:31:07.320 and so I want you
00:31:08.840 to get somebody
00:31:09.460 that you like being around
00:31:10.620 you're going to be
00:31:11.520 basically living
00:31:12.520 with these people
00:31:13.280 or with each other
00:31:14.460 so
00:31:14.800 they all chose up
00:31:16.360 sides
00:31:16.720 it didn't matter
00:31:17.300 if you were an ATF
00:31:18.120 FBI agent
00:31:18.900 it didn't matter
00:31:19.380 to me
00:31:19.640 what it was
00:31:20.540 just choose a partner
00:31:21.720 that if you're going
00:31:22.700 to go work out
00:31:23.360 in the morning
00:31:23.920 before you start
00:31:24.780 the day
00:31:25.120 fine
00:31:25.500 but the rest
00:31:26.460 of the day
00:31:26.900 you're going
00:31:27.200 to be
00:31:27.540 you're going
00:31:28.760 to be together
00:31:29.280 and maybe
00:31:30.240 late into the evening
00:31:31.440 even
00:31:31.680 so that's what
00:31:33.380 we did
00:31:33.840 and we started
00:31:34.640 the reinvestigation
00:31:35.640 but then
00:31:36.280 as we started
00:31:37.200 having tons
00:31:38.560 of new information
00:31:39.500 come in
00:31:40.020 we've talked
00:31:40.980 about the example
00:31:41.720 of the composite
00:31:42.880 well there was
00:31:43.760 tons of new
00:31:44.700 information
00:31:45.180 that we had missed
00:31:46.220 the first time around
00:31:48.380 and in subsequent
00:31:49.240 tries at this
00:31:50.740 so
00:31:51.580 we had to have
00:31:53.140 a way to sort it out
00:31:54.340 and we realized
00:31:56.320 at a certain point
00:31:57.220 as we were together
00:31:58.100 as the kind of
00:31:59.380 modern day UTF
00:32:00.180 in the 1994-96
00:32:02.400 time frame
00:32:03.000 that there was
00:32:04.540 a lot of
00:32:05.120 Unabomb myth
00:32:06.240 there was a lot
00:32:07.460 of fiction
00:32:08.120 there were a lot
00:32:09.760 of theories
00:32:10.380 and sometimes
00:32:11.520 those had crossed
00:32:12.420 the boundaries
00:32:13.080 and Unabomb myth
00:32:14.760 or fiction
00:32:15.640 had become
00:32:16.300 Unabomb fact
00:32:17.160 so we realized
00:32:18.600 this is toxic
00:32:19.680 and we're going
00:32:20.320 to have to
00:32:20.780 separate all this
00:32:21.780 so we created
00:32:23.320 something called
00:32:24.160 Unabomb fact
00:32:25.160 fiction and theory
00:32:26.120 and everyone
00:32:28.160 on the Unabomb task force
00:32:29.780 when we had
00:32:30.820 the first draft
00:32:31.720 of this document
00:32:32.560 received a copy
00:32:34.120 and every single week
00:32:36.340 when we brought
00:32:37.080 everything together
00:32:37.760 and we brought
00:32:38.260 everything together
00:32:38.900 by separate types
00:32:40.060 of meetings
00:32:40.620 that went on
00:32:41.680 all week
00:32:42.180 every week
00:32:42.700 we had to
00:32:45.340 be familiar
00:32:45.940 with
00:32:46.240 I mean it
00:32:46.560 was your
00:32:46.860 responsibility
00:32:47.660 I mean almost
00:32:48.360 your solemn
00:32:48.980 obligation
00:32:49.620 be familiar
00:32:51.100 with the most
00:32:51.940 updated version
00:32:53.140 of Unabomb
00:32:54.260 fact fiction
00:32:55.120 and theory
00:32:55.540 another thing
00:32:56.840 since you know
00:32:58.160 how the FBI
00:32:58.900 works Megan
00:33:00.020 we did something
00:33:01.100 that we hadn't
00:33:01.820 done before
00:33:02.400 either
00:33:02.700 and that is
00:33:03.460 whether you
00:33:04.740 were an FBI
00:33:05.520 agent
00:33:05.980 or you were
00:33:06.560 an FBI
00:33:07.040 analyst
00:33:07.480 or you were
00:33:08.300 an FBI
00:33:08.680 support employee
00:33:09.600 that did
00:33:10.340 something
00:33:10.660 in connection
00:33:11.200 with logistics
00:33:11.940 or the hotline
00:33:12.920 everybody
00:33:13.920 was expected
00:33:15.480 to be at
00:33:15.920 Unabomb meetings
00:33:16.740 everybody
00:33:17.460 had a seat
00:33:18.280 at the table
00:33:18.920 everybody's
00:33:20.020 opinion
00:33:20.500 and eyes
00:33:21.340 and ears
00:33:21.840 was important
00:33:22.600 and everybody
00:33:23.600 was encouraged
00:33:24.240 to speak up
00:33:24.940 because we
00:33:25.400 needed every
00:33:25.960 voice and every
00:33:26.640 brain we could
00:33:27.280 get
00:33:27.500 so that was
00:33:28.880 our guide
00:33:29.480 to those
00:33:29.980 discussions
00:33:30.600 the Unabomb
00:33:31.320 fact fiction
00:33:31.880 and theory
00:33:32.200 document
00:33:32.580 finally
00:33:33.080 to really
00:33:34.100 get to your
00:33:34.600 question
00:33:35.060 and the point
00:33:35.680 here
00:33:35.940 over all those
00:33:37.960 years of
00:33:38.420 investigation
00:33:39.080 all kinds
00:33:40.460 of agencies
00:33:41.080 assembled this
00:33:42.040 information
00:33:42.520 through all
00:33:43.040 kinds of
00:33:43.400 databases
00:33:43.860 none of
00:33:44.960 them were
00:33:45.300 compatible
00:33:45.840 so we
00:33:47.320 brought in
00:33:47.940 an outsider
00:33:48.640 the bureau
00:33:49.220 approved this
00:33:50.100 they brought
00:33:50.840 in an outside
00:33:51.640 consultant
00:33:52.220 who for one
00:33:53.540 year
00:33:53.880 from 1994
00:33:55.140 to the
00:33:56.280 I'd say
00:33:57.100 early summer
00:33:57.920 of 1995
00:33:58.980 took this
00:34:00.940 massive amount
00:34:02.140 of literally
00:34:02.920 millions of
00:34:03.880 bits of
00:34:04.360 data
00:34:04.760 put it all
00:34:06.320 together
00:34:06.780 in one
00:34:07.440 system
00:34:08.000 and
00:34:09.120 prepared it
00:34:10.420 so that we
00:34:11.200 could do
00:34:11.520 one thing
00:34:12.180 and that
00:34:13.060 was to
00:34:13.580 suddenly turn
00:34:14.340 Unabomb
00:34:14.800 into a
00:34:15.440 proactive
00:34:16.100 search
00:34:16.820 for Unabomb
00:34:17.900 suspects
00:34:18.680 who we
00:34:19.440 could tie
00:34:20.100 even when
00:34:20.700 we first
00:34:21.220 opened the
00:34:21.740 case up
00:34:22.380 to specific
00:34:23.720 geographical
00:34:24.440 areas
00:34:25.260 and we'd
00:34:26.140 never been
00:34:26.560 able to
00:34:27.000 do that
00:34:27.340 before
00:34:27.780 and that
00:34:28.380 was the
00:34:28.720 entire
00:34:29.240 purpose
00:34:29.820 of doing
00:34:30.380 this major
00:34:30.860 computer
00:34:31.240 project
00:34:31.680 and by
00:34:32.740 the time
00:34:33.520 that the
00:34:33.900 Unabomber
00:34:34.480 actually started
00:34:35.260 getting more
00:34:35.820 active
00:34:36.280 and corresponding
00:34:37.460 with us
00:34:38.360 we were
00:34:39.580 ready to
00:34:40.180 actually flip
00:34:40.880 the switch
00:34:41.620 got approval
00:34:43.300 from FBI
00:34:43.880 headquarters
00:34:44.360 for 24
00:34:45.220 7 operation
00:34:46.480 to then
00:34:47.920 send
00:34:48.340 analysts to
00:34:49.160 work in
00:34:49.600 San Francisco
00:34:50.200 during
00:34:50.780 around the
00:34:51.680 clock
00:34:51.940 and what
00:34:52.860 was really
00:34:53.320 ironic
00:34:53.780 is when
00:34:54.240 we asked
00:34:54.640 for terrorism
00:34:55.500 analysts
00:34:56.040 the bureau
00:34:57.040 said well
00:34:57.400 we don't
00:34:57.740 have
00:34:58.180 terrorism
00:34:58.760 analysts
00:34:59.220 but we'll
00:34:59.940 send you
00:35:00.320 all the
00:35:00.740 analysts
00:35:01.080 that we
00:35:01.400 can send
00:35:01.800 you
00:35:02.000 so that
00:35:02.600 you can
00:35:02.880 get this
00:35:03.260 job done
00:35:03.780 and staff
00:35:04.280 a 24
00:35:04.760 7 operation
00:35:05.720 and that's
00:35:06.440 exactly what
00:35:07.160 they did
00:35:07.580 so shortly
00:35:08.600 after that
00:35:09.480 and after
00:35:10.420 the attacks
00:35:11.100 in 1995
00:35:11.920 we began
00:35:13.480 the 24
00:35:14.920 7 operation
00:35:15.940 of developing
00:35:16.840 proactive
00:35:17.760 Unabombed
00:35:18.320 suspects
00:35:18.720 which would
00:35:20.280 eventually
00:35:20.920 teach us
00:35:22.820 so much
00:35:23.540 that when
00:35:24.320 the right
00:35:24.840 person came
00:35:25.680 along
00:35:26.200 it was
00:35:26.940 almost
00:35:27.220 miraculous
00:35:27.800 it just
00:35:28.400 all started
00:35:29.160 to fall
00:35:29.540 together
00:35:29.940 well it
00:35:30.920 was
00:35:31.080 fascinating
00:35:31.620 because
00:35:32.020 first of all
00:35:32.400 it's very
00:35:32.780 interesting
00:35:33.100 that this
00:35:33.480 is during
00:35:33.740 the Clinton
00:35:34.020 administration
00:35:34.560 and preceding
00:35:36.100 as well
00:35:36.380 we had
00:35:36.720 no
00:35:36.940 counterterrorism
00:35:38.160 force
00:35:38.900 going in
00:35:39.760 the FBI
00:35:40.200 and of course
00:35:40.860 we all know
00:35:41.400 what happened
00:35:41.760 at the end
00:35:42.180 of Bill
00:35:42.680 Clinton's
00:35:42.940 presidency
00:35:43.300 in the
00:35:43.580 beginning
00:35:43.800 of George
00:35:44.120 W.
00:35:44.420 Bush's
00:35:44.700 with 9-11
00:35:45.620 2001
00:35:46.140 we learned
00:35:46.700 a lot
00:35:47.240 in the ensuing
00:35:48.260 decade
00:35:48.820 about the
00:35:49.480 need for
00:35:50.100 that kind
00:35:50.640 of analysis
00:35:51.520 proactive
00:35:52.540 analysis
00:35:53.200 but I
00:35:55.120 one of the
00:35:55.740 things I
00:35:56.080 wondered
00:35:56.440 in sort
00:35:57.260 of watching
00:35:57.600 all this
00:35:57.840 unfold
00:35:58.220 was at
00:35:58.820 what point
00:35:59.540 did it
00:36:00.080 become
00:36:00.300 clear to
00:36:00.660 the public
00:36:01.220 that there
00:36:02.100 was a
00:36:02.420 Unabomber
00:36:02.940 because one
00:36:03.420 thing you
00:36:03.720 think about
00:36:04.280 is why
00:36:05.060 was anybody
00:36:05.900 opening a
00:36:07.500 package that
00:36:08.320 they weren't
00:36:08.800 certain was
00:36:09.940 safe and from
00:36:10.840 someone they
00:36:11.420 knew you
00:36:12.600 know past
00:36:13.160 bomb number
00:36:13.920 three right
00:36:14.700 like did it
00:36:15.780 need more
00:36:16.120 publicity were
00:36:17.000 we not
00:36:17.520 were we not
00:36:18.160 publicizing it
00:36:19.080 enough like how
00:36:20.120 could people
00:36:20.560 still be confused
00:36:21.420 into opening
00:36:22.640 unknown packages
00:36:23.320 I think one
00:36:25.700 of the big
00:36:26.140 problems was
00:36:26.920 that as
00:36:27.420 these
00:36:27.700 investigations
00:36:28.380 were proceed
00:36:29.100 right after
00:36:29.780 a bombing
00:36:30.240 people became
00:36:31.240 very familiar
00:36:31.880 with something
00:36:32.360 particularly after
00:36:33.100 Hugh Scrutton
00:36:33.800 was killed
00:36:34.300 was murdered
00:36:34.860 by the
00:36:35.220 Unabomber
00:36:35.700 and then
00:36:36.520 after 1987
00:36:37.800 when the
00:36:38.420 composite came
00:36:39.200 out and
00:36:39.700 places like
00:36:40.580 Reader's Digest
00:36:41.800 ran these
00:36:42.220 big articles
00:36:42.840 people were
00:36:44.560 tuning into
00:36:45.540 that but
00:36:46.340 then as
00:36:46.840 the leads
00:36:47.500 in the
00:36:47.780 investigation
00:36:48.300 would run
00:36:49.020 out
00:36:49.340 the contacts
00:36:51.380 with the
00:36:51.720 press would
00:36:52.100 kind of
00:36:52.400 stop and
00:36:54.180 and the
00:36:54.920 FBI would
00:36:55.440 become
00:36:55.780 distracted by
00:36:56.500 other things
00:36:57.220 and same
00:36:58.580 for the
00:36:58.920 Postal
00:36:59.260 Inspection
00:36:59.700 Service same
00:37:00.440 for the
00:37:00.760 ATF we
00:37:01.820 always had
00:37:02.500 one agent
00:37:03.400 his name
00:37:03.800 was John
00:37:04.360 Conway and
00:37:05.420 he's a he's
00:37:06.560 an amazing
00:37:07.000 guy because
00:37:07.780 during all
00:37:08.460 this time he
00:37:09.720 was still
00:37:10.140 assigned as
00:37:10.760 the case
00:37:11.260 agent for
00:37:11.800 Unabom and
00:37:13.000 at one
00:37:13.460 point in
00:37:13.900 time you
00:37:15.020 earlier had
00:37:15.860 mentioned that
00:37:16.640 break in
00:37:17.860 Unabom
00:37:18.300 activity
00:37:18.860 from 87
00:37:20.020 to 93
00:37:20.720 and that's
00:37:21.280 after he
00:37:21.680 was spotted
00:37:22.500 after he
00:37:22.920 was spotted
00:37:23.280 by the
00:37:23.620 eyewitness
00:37:23.940 Terry
00:37:24.320 exactly
00:37:26.480 and so
00:37:27.720 during that
00:37:29.080 time someone
00:37:30.160 at FBI
00:37:30.860 headquarters
00:37:31.600 actually told
00:37:33.380 John he
00:37:34.080 should close
00:37:34.840 the Unabom
00:37:35.440 case because
00:37:36.680 the Unabom
00:37:37.360 was probably
00:37:38.040 dead since
00:37:38.740 we hadn't
00:37:39.160 heard from
00:37:39.560 him for
00:37:39.860 years
00:37:40.200 and John
00:37:41.580 Conway
00:37:42.200 single
00:37:43.220 you know
00:37:44.400 singularly
00:37:44.880 working that
00:37:45.560 case with
00:37:46.600 no big
00:37:47.260 authority
00:37:47.740 helping him
00:37:48.760 at all
00:37:49.220 said look
00:37:50.280 that's just
00:37:50.960 a bad
00:37:51.580 idea
00:37:52.040 you cannot
00:37:52.840 close this
00:37:53.520 just because
00:37:54.060 we haven't
00:37:54.580 heard from
00:37:55.020 this guy
00:37:55.420 he cannot
00:37:56.620 be presumed
00:37:57.380 dead and
00:37:58.100 indeed he
00:37:58.860 was not
00:37:59.400 dead because
00:38:00.140 come along
00:38:01.120 June of
00:38:01.800 1993 there
00:38:03.360 were two
00:38:03.720 more bombings
00:38:04.420 within 48
00:38:05.220 hours and
00:38:06.220 3,000 miles
00:38:07.740 of one
00:38:09.060 another and
00:38:09.960 I want to
00:38:10.940 go back to
00:38:11.380 Kathy Puckett
00:38:12.460 for a minute
00:38:12.940 the behavioral
00:38:14.300 assessment
00:38:15.420 person and
00:38:16.720 she had
00:38:17.740 concluded
00:38:18.180 that and
00:38:18.800 I'm quoting
00:38:19.160 here from
00:38:19.480 your book
00:38:19.840 safety security
00:38:21.100 and secrecy
00:38:21.880 are of
00:38:22.360 paramount
00:38:22.880 importance
00:38:23.520 to the
00:38:23.880 Unabomber
00:38:24.340 he has a
00:38:25.120 strong sense
00:38:25.880 of self
00:38:26.260 protection
00:38:26.700 he would
00:38:27.480 have no
00:38:28.280 direct
00:38:28.680 connection to
00:38:29.340 either of
00:38:29.780 the individuals
00:38:30.400 targeted
00:38:31.240 saying that
00:38:33.200 would have
00:38:33.780 risked
00:38:34.280 exposure
00:38:35.040 his careful
00:38:37.040 and cautious
00:38:37.660 nature she
00:38:38.520 believed is
00:38:39.420 what drove him
00:38:40.140 underground after
00:38:41.120 having been
00:38:41.680 spotted by Terry
00:38:42.620 so in a way
00:38:43.360 that eyewitness
00:38:44.040 moment with
00:38:44.700 with Terry
00:38:45.340 could have
00:38:46.220 saved a lot
00:38:46.700 of lives
00:38:47.080 I mean
00:38:47.360 who knows
00:38:48.080 he might
00:38:48.900 have been
00:38:49.240 above ground
00:38:50.000 bombing for
00:38:50.560 all that time
00:38:51.140 but it took
00:38:51.880 seven years
00:38:52.340 before he
00:38:52.720 regained his
00:38:53.300 confidence
00:38:54.480 and what
00:38:56.620 was the
00:38:56.920 nature of
00:38:57.300 the bombings
00:38:57.820 in June
00:38:58.220 of 1993
00:38:59.000 in June
00:39:00.680 of 1993
00:39:01.500 after not
00:39:02.360 hearing from
00:39:03.000 the Unabomber
00:39:03.680 we heard from
00:39:04.380 him as you
00:39:04.860 said
00:39:05.180 simultaneous
00:39:06.020 bombings
00:39:06.860 the first
00:39:07.700 one was
00:39:08.240 directed at
00:39:09.060 a geneticist
00:39:10.140 Dr. Charles
00:39:11.560 Epstein
00:39:12.000 who lived
00:39:13.020 in
00:39:13.240 Timberon
00:39:13.600 California
00:39:14.060 and he
00:39:15.240 received a
00:39:15.780 bomb one
00:39:16.220 day in
00:39:16.820 his home
00:39:17.420 and the
00:39:19.400 device went
00:39:19.960 off when
00:39:21.080 he went to
00:39:21.500 open it
00:39:21.860 it was a
00:39:22.280 much smaller
00:39:23.020 compact bomb
00:39:24.380 it was about
00:39:25.360 the size of
00:39:26.040 a videocassette
00:39:26.960 as far as
00:39:27.500 a package
00:39:28.040 and later
00:39:29.620 we would see
00:39:30.380 the Unabomber
00:39:31.080 write that
00:39:32.100 I took the
00:39:33.160 time off
00:39:33.740 or while I
00:39:34.300 was taking
00:39:34.740 the time off
00:39:35.380 I perfected
00:39:36.740 or we
00:39:37.140 he always
00:39:37.620 referred to
00:39:38.380 Unabomber
00:39:39.200 as we
00:39:39.820 the terror
00:39:40.440 group
00:39:40.760 FC
00:39:41.080 and I
00:39:41.500 should
00:39:41.680 make sure
00:39:42.100 I say
00:39:42.380 that here
00:39:42.720 and we
00:39:43.940 perfected
00:39:44.820 a smaller
00:39:45.480 more lethal
00:39:46.140 bomb
00:39:46.620 that we
00:39:47.240 can put
00:39:47.580 in the
00:39:47.800 mail stream
00:39:48.360 and that's
00:39:49.660 exactly what
00:39:50.400 Professor Epstein
00:39:51.220 went to
00:39:51.720 open
00:39:52.080 and was
00:39:53.000 very very
00:39:53.540 seriously
00:39:53.940 injured
00:39:54.400 two days
00:39:55.900 later
00:39:56.280 on the
00:39:57.080 entire
00:39:57.860 opposite
00:39:58.580 coast
00:39:59.020 at Yale
00:39:59.420 University
00:40:00.020 a computer
00:40:02.180 scientist
00:40:02.740 Dr. David
00:40:03.420 Galerter
00:40:03.900 received a
00:40:05.020 bomb in the
00:40:05.400 mail
00:40:05.580 he was at
00:40:06.140 his office
00:40:06.640 at Yale
00:40:07.140 and when
00:40:07.900 he went
00:40:08.380 to open
00:40:08.720 his package
00:40:09.260 the same
00:40:09.860 thing
00:40:10.260 and right
00:40:11.900 after that
00:40:12.700 the New York
00:40:13.820 Times has
00:40:14.580 a letter
00:40:15.060 postmarked
00:40:16.160 before it
00:40:16.640 and before
00:40:17.500 those events
00:40:18.020 and they
00:40:19.220 get a
00:40:19.900 letter from
00:40:20.440 the Unabomber
00:40:21.000 the terror
00:40:21.500 group FC
00:40:22.120 as he
00:40:22.620 calls them
00:40:23.200 and it
00:40:24.020 says look
00:40:24.440 our group
00:40:25.320 is providing
00:40:25.880 you with
00:40:26.280 a number
00:40:26.700 this is
00:40:27.300 our own
00:40:28.100 secret
00:40:28.560 identification
00:40:29.160 number
00:40:29.740 the FBI
00:40:30.980 knows of
00:40:31.620 us
00:40:31.920 we're the
00:40:32.420 terror
00:40:32.680 group FC
00:40:33.320 now the
00:40:34.320 reason he
00:40:34.680 said that
00:40:35.220 is on
00:40:35.540 some of
00:40:36.020 the bomb
00:40:36.500 on the
00:40:37.500 in plugs
00:40:38.640 of the
00:40:38.940 pipes
00:40:39.300 and on
00:40:40.120 debris
00:40:40.480 in the
00:40:40.780 bomb
00:40:41.100 crime
00:40:41.980 seats
00:40:42.260 we had
00:40:42.840 found
00:40:43.380 embedded
00:40:44.420 on the
00:40:44.960 metals
00:40:45.440 the
00:40:45.840 letters
00:40:47.000 FC
00:40:47.360 so not
00:40:48.680 on all
00:40:48.980 the bombs
00:40:49.440 but on
00:40:50.040 some of
00:40:50.400 them
00:40:50.560 so we
00:40:51.200 knew
00:40:51.480 that
00:40:51.840 the
00:40:52.180 Unabomber
00:40:52.560 was also
00:40:52.980 going by
00:40:53.980 the
00:40:54.520 letters
00:40:55.120 FC
00:40:55.520 so
00:40:56.600 he told
00:40:57.780 the New
00:40:58.000 York
00:40:58.140 Times
00:40:58.420 this
00:40:58.760 and
00:40:59.680 of course
00:41:00.360 the New
00:41:00.660 York
00:41:00.840 Times
00:41:01.180 turned the
00:41:01.660 letter
00:41:01.880 over to
00:41:02.400 us
00:41:03.320 and now
00:41:04.140 we know
00:41:04.660 and this
00:41:05.200 was
00:41:05.360 significant
00:41:05.920 and it
00:41:06.780 certainly
00:41:07.080 was
00:41:07.300 significant
00:41:07.700 to the
00:41:08.580 then AG
00:41:09.280 Janet Reno
00:41:10.120 and FBI
00:41:10.640 Director
00:41:10.980 Free
00:41:11.220 both of
00:41:11.680 whom
00:41:11.780 were
00:41:11.900 relatively
00:41:12.300 new
00:41:13.180 on the
00:41:13.440 job
00:41:13.860 they
00:41:15.540 knew
00:41:15.900 that
00:41:16.240 the
00:41:16.400 Unabomber
00:41:16.860 now has
00:41:17.220 come back
00:41:17.640 to life
00:41:18.080 in a
00:41:18.400 big
00:41:18.600 way
00:41:19.120 we
00:41:19.760 hadn't
00:41:20.020 heard
00:41:20.220 from him
00:41:20.600 for all
00:41:20.940 those
00:41:21.120 years
00:41:21.460 now he's
00:41:22.580 back
00:41:23.000 now he's
00:41:23.840 killed
00:41:24.100 or almost
00:41:24.900 killed
00:41:25.160 two people
00:41:25.720 on each
00:41:26.260 coast
00:41:26.660 and so
00:41:27.820 we have
00:41:28.800 to really
00:41:29.180 get after
00:41:29.720 this
00:41:30.140 and so
00:41:30.920 they
00:41:31.480 ordered
00:41:32.040 that a
00:41:32.920 task force
00:41:33.540 be established
00:41:34.280 that it
00:41:34.980 be set up
00:41:35.480 in the
00:41:35.740 San Francisco
00:41:36.340 division of
00:41:36.940 the FBI
00:41:37.380 and they
00:41:38.320 sent FBI
00:41:39.580 officials out
00:41:40.620 from FBI
00:41:41.200 headquarters
00:41:41.720 to run
00:41:42.840 that task
00:41:43.600 force
00:41:43.900 so between
00:41:44.880 June of
00:41:45.520 1993
00:41:46.160 and around
00:41:47.620 April of
00:41:48.260 1994
00:41:48.960 eight or
00:41:50.420 nine FBI
00:41:51.040 officials were
00:41:51.980 running the
00:41:52.700 Unabom investigation
00:41:53.680 from San
00:41:54.720 Francisco
00:41:55.200 and this
00:41:57.140 is when
00:41:57.540 according to
00:41:58.040 your book
00:41:58.680 Max
00:41:59.080 Knoll
00:41:59.380 pulls
00:41:59.720 aside
00:42:00.060 some
00:42:00.260 top
00:42:00.640 FBI
00:42:01.480 officials
00:42:01.920 I
00:42:02.380 believe
00:42:02.940 it
00:42:03.080 was
00:42:03.220 at
00:42:03.360 a
00:42:03.460 meeting
00:42:03.640 where
00:42:03.800 the
00:42:03.900 director
00:42:04.220 free
00:42:04.540 was
00:42:04.720 present
00:42:05.060 and
00:42:05.360 says
00:42:05.860 the
00:42:06.380 truth
00:42:06.680 which
00:42:06.940 is
00:42:07.160 we're
00:42:07.600 not
00:42:07.800 getting
00:42:08.000 the
00:42:08.120 resources
00:42:08.480 we
00:42:08.680 need
00:42:08.980 loops
00:42:10.100 are
00:42:10.280 not
00:42:10.460 being
00:42:10.700 closed
00:42:11.200 this
00:42:11.680 needs
00:42:11.840 to be
00:42:12.020 taken
00:42:12.220 more
00:42:12.440 seriously
00:42:12.920 I
00:42:13.700 want
00:42:13.940 my
00:42:14.140 evidence
00:42:14.700 and
00:42:15.280 he
00:42:15.700 gets
00:42:15.860 taken
00:42:16.100 very
00:42:16.340 seriously
00:42:16.840 the
00:42:17.160 FBI
00:42:17.440 does
00:42:17.740 start
00:42:17.940 to
00:42:18.060 throw
00:42:18.240 resources
00:42:18.740 at
00:42:19.020 this
00:42:19.220 after
00:42:19.400 these
00:42:19.620 double
00:42:19.900 bombings
00:42:20.400 but
00:42:21.040 two
00:42:21.280 more
00:42:21.520 people
00:42:21.900 were
00:42:22.200 about
00:42:22.480 to
00:42:22.700 die
00:42:23.020 that's
00:42:23.440 where
00:42:23.520 we're
00:42:23.620 going
00:42:23.700 to
00:42:23.780 pick
00:42:23.920 it
00:42:24.020 up
00:42:24.160 with
00:42:24.320 Terry
00:42:24.600 on
00:42:25.240 the
00:42:25.380 unibomber
00:42:25.860 investigation
00:42:26.400 right after
00:42:26.820 this
00:42:27.000 quick
00:42:27.280 break
00:42:27.580 and
00:42:28.380 programming
00:42:28.840 note
00:42:29.100 for you
00:42:29.440 remember
00:42:29.820 that
00:42:30.020 you
00:42:30.100 can
00:42:30.240 find
00:42:30.520 the
00:42:30.660 Megyn Kelly
00:42:31.080 show
00:42:31.300 on
00:42:31.440 Sirius XM
00:42:32.140 Triumph
00:42:32.620 Channel
00:42:33.000 111
00:42:33.560 every weekday
00:42:34.580 at noon
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00:42:35.440 and the
00:42:36.120 full
00:42:36.260 video
00:42:36.520 show
00:42:36.740 and
00:42:36.860 clips
00:42:37.140 when
00:42:37.340 you
00:42:37.440 subscribe
00:42:37.720 to
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00:42:38.060 youtube
00:42:38.280 channel
00:42:38.600 youtube.com
00:42:39.320 slash
00:42:39.580 Megyn Kelly
00:42:40.100 if you
00:42:40.820 prefer
00:42:41.040 an audio
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00:42:46.800 you get
00:42:47.160 your podcast
00:42:47.800 and there
00:42:48.220 you will
00:42:48.500 find
00:42:48.820 our full
00:42:49.860 archives
00:42:50.400 over
00:42:50.680 200
00:42:51.260 shows
00:42:51.660 now
00:42:52.000 back
00:42:58.080 with me
00:42:58.340 now
00:42:58.520 Terry
00:42:58.780 Turchie
00:42:59.160 who directed
00:42:59.720 the FBI
00:43:00.180 task force
00:43:00.900 that helped
00:43:01.600 identify
00:43:02.060 and arrest
00:43:03.160 unibomber
00:43:04.140 Ted Kaczynski
00:43:04.940 the book
00:43:05.920 intersperses
00:43:06.600 bits of
00:43:07.240 Ted Kaczynski
00:43:07.880 manifesto
00:43:08.700 the unibomber
00:43:09.220 manifesto
00:43:10.500 in between
00:43:11.780 the crimes
00:43:12.240 and helps
00:43:12.600 us get
00:43:12.860 to know
00:43:13.260 him
00:43:13.560 and understand
00:43:14.460 him
00:43:14.880 to the extent
00:43:15.680 one can
00:43:16.200 there are
00:43:17.400 quotes like
00:43:18.040 this
00:43:18.740 quote
00:43:19.060 since committing
00:43:19.700 the crimes
00:43:20.240 reported
00:43:20.640 elsewhere
00:43:20.980 in my
00:43:21.320 notes
00:43:21.620 I feel
00:43:22.620 better
00:43:23.000 you can
00:43:23.740 see him
00:43:24.200 working
00:43:24.540 something
00:43:24.820 I'm starting
00:43:25.160 to feel
00:43:25.540 better
00:43:25.760 now that
00:43:26.080 he's
00:43:26.260 starting
00:43:26.460 to hurt
00:43:27.120 more
00:43:27.320 people
00:43:27.700 and kill
00:43:28.300 more
00:43:28.540 people
00:43:28.960 and
00:43:29.900 Kathy's
00:43:30.760 assessment
00:43:31.380 of him
00:43:31.920 was that
00:43:32.240 this is
00:43:32.560 a guy
00:43:33.020 who
00:43:33.860 wanted
00:43:34.460 to present
00:43:35.060 himself
00:43:35.500 as a
00:43:35.900 rational
00:43:36.320 revolutionary
00:43:37.080 attacking
00:43:37.880 the industrial
00:43:38.820 technological
00:43:39.940 system
00:43:40.500 that he
00:43:40.800 opposes
00:43:41.260 for the
00:43:41.840 good of
00:43:42.100 the public
00:43:42.600 she said
00:43:43.360 he's simply
00:43:43.920 seeking attention
00:43:44.700 for himself
00:43:45.460 she believed
00:43:46.000 he had
00:43:46.280 obsessive
00:43:46.680 compulsive
00:43:47.100 personality
00:43:48.380 that his
00:43:49.240 devices are
00:43:49.840 meticulous
00:43:50.360 a real
00:43:50.660 pride
00:43:51.160 in its
00:43:51.580 workmanship
00:43:52.160 she says
00:43:53.120 people like
00:43:53.720 this are
00:43:54.460 very organized
00:43:55.420 perfectionists
00:43:56.140 can be
00:43:56.440 very polite
00:43:57.260 may seem
00:43:58.060 very cold
00:43:58.720 to others
00:43:59.460 I would
00:44:00.360 later find
00:44:00.760 this interesting
00:44:01.320 Terry
00:44:01.660 myself
00:44:02.020 because
00:44:02.480 he probably
00:44:03.980 was
00:44:04.360 obsessive
00:44:04.760 compulsive
00:44:05.100 and a
00:44:05.380 perfectionist
00:44:05.940 but when
00:44:06.260 you guys
00:44:06.500 found him
00:44:07.000 he was
00:44:07.220 totally
00:44:07.560 unkempt
00:44:08.220 and disgusting
00:44:08.800 and smelled
00:44:09.380 bad
00:44:09.640 and hadn't
00:44:10.220 showered
00:44:11.040 and I
00:44:11.260 just
00:44:11.440 that was
00:44:11.960 one of
00:44:12.160 the things
00:44:12.440 that sort
00:44:12.660 of jumped
00:44:12.960 out at me
00:44:13.360 is like
00:44:13.640 oh how
00:44:13.960 how weird
00:44:14.860 you think
00:44:15.180 of that
00:44:15.380 you know
00:44:15.600 obsessive
00:44:16.160 you think
00:44:16.400 he'd be
00:44:16.860 you know
00:44:17.340 rigidly
00:44:17.780 clean
00:44:18.140 but anyway
00:44:19.120 sort of
00:44:19.640 to jump
00:44:20.260 back
00:44:20.700 you're trying
00:44:21.480 to figure
00:44:21.760 out a
00:44:22.040 psychological
00:44:22.460 profile
00:44:22.980 and now
00:44:23.400 you've
00:44:23.580 got the
00:44:23.860 full team
00:44:24.280 on it
00:44:24.540 now director
00:44:25.120 free
00:44:25.360 has stepped
00:44:25.700 in
00:44:25.920 janna
00:44:26.120 reno
00:44:26.400 has stepped
00:44:26.760 in
00:44:26.960 they're
00:44:27.200 listening
00:44:27.680 to you
00:44:28.100 guys
00:44:28.320 finally
00:44:28.760 giving
00:44:29.080 you the
00:44:29.320 resources
00:44:37.000 that be
00:44:37.400 take us
00:44:38.100 to
00:44:38.440 december
00:44:38.920 10th
00:44:39.380 1994
00:44:40.060 yes
00:44:41.540 it was
00:44:42.120 a terrible
00:44:42.860 day
00:44:43.340 jim
00:44:44.380 was
00:44:44.680 it was
00:44:45.080 a weekend
00:44:45.520 i got
00:44:46.280 a call
00:44:46.720 from
00:44:47.100 the east
00:44:47.680 coast
00:44:48.040 and there
00:44:48.320 had been
00:44:48.500 a bombing
00:44:48.980 in north
00:44:49.980 calwell
00:44:50.300 new jersey
00:44:50.840 and it
00:44:51.580 turned out
00:44:51.940 to be
00:44:52.380 at the
00:44:53.180 home of
00:44:53.520 thomas
00:44:53.820 moser
00:44:54.280 who was
00:44:54.680 a major
00:44:55.460 ad
00:44:55.700 executive
00:44:56.120 at the
00:44:56.680 firm
00:44:57.060 burson
00:44:57.420 marsteller
00:44:57.940 and he
00:44:59.660 had been
00:45:00.120 traveling
00:45:01.360 out of
00:45:01.820 the country
00:45:02.300 this was
00:45:03.440 near christmas
00:45:04.220 so the
00:45:04.840 family was
00:45:05.320 getting ready
00:45:05.760 to go
00:45:06.460 and
00:45:06.720 find a
00:45:07.600 christmas
00:45:07.900 tree
00:45:08.160 so he
00:45:08.960 was in
00:45:09.120 the kitchen
00:45:09.520 going through
00:45:09.960 his mail
00:45:10.420 and one
00:45:11.380 of the
00:45:11.600 things he
00:45:11.920 picked up
00:45:12.360 was this
00:45:12.760 package
00:45:13.220 that looked
00:45:14.240 like a
00:45:14.540 videocassette
00:45:15.180 and the
00:45:16.120 kids had
00:45:16.540 just left
00:45:17.260 the kitchen
00:45:17.740 when he
00:45:18.080 went to
00:45:18.380 open this
00:45:19.000 and this
00:45:19.740 was such
00:45:20.280 a terrible
00:45:20.860 lethal
00:45:21.300 bomb
00:45:21.800 that it
00:45:23.120 killed
00:45:24.200 mr moser
00:45:25.060 just about
00:45:26.360 instantly
00:45:26.840 and it
00:45:27.820 the shrapnel
00:45:29.320 from this
00:45:29.840 bomb
00:45:30.220 filled
00:45:31.060 you know
00:45:31.700 how people
00:45:32.240 will have
00:45:32.740 their frying
00:45:33.740 pans
00:45:34.260 over their
00:45:34.920 stoves
00:45:35.420 those kind
00:45:35.960 of
00:45:36.180 presentations
00:45:37.440 so some
00:45:38.360 of these
00:45:38.640 nails
00:45:38.940 actually
00:45:39.440 the force
00:45:40.220 of the
00:45:40.480 blast
00:45:40.880 drove them
00:45:41.920 through these
00:45:42.540 cast iron
00:45:43.660 skillets
00:45:44.420 and so
00:45:45.340 there was
00:45:45.900 debris
00:45:46.220 everywhere
00:45:46.740 i called
00:45:48.060 jim freeman
00:45:48.780 told him
00:45:49.640 what had
00:45:49.940 happened
00:45:50.340 told him
00:45:51.460 what we
00:45:51.820 were thinking
00:45:52.700 might be
00:45:53.680 going on
00:45:54.400 we couldn't
00:45:55.760 exactly say
00:45:56.680 or declare
00:45:57.160 it was a
00:45:57.520 unabomb crime
00:45:58.180 scene at that
00:45:58.740 time
00:45:59.040 but i
00:46:00.240 called tom
00:46:00.800 manol
00:46:01.300 in washington
00:46:02.420 dc
00:46:02.720 now at
00:46:03.080 the time
00:46:03.520 tom was
00:46:04.240 our main
00:46:04.960 laboratory
00:46:05.500 examiner
00:46:06.260 and tom
00:46:07.220 was this
00:46:08.020 fabulous
00:46:09.700 bomb
00:46:10.680 explosives
00:46:11.140 person
00:46:11.580 who not
00:46:12.540 only knew
00:46:12.900 unabomb
00:46:13.340 but he
00:46:13.700 could just
00:46:14.000 about talk
00:46:14.760 with his
00:46:15.120 eyes closed
00:46:15.640 about bombs
00:46:16.340 and explosives
00:46:16.960 and so
00:46:17.360 we asked him
00:46:18.380 to go
00:46:18.680 i'm sorry
00:46:19.800 was he the
00:46:20.500 postal service
00:46:21.160 guy
00:46:21.440 no he
00:46:22.640 was at
00:46:23.060 the fbi
00:46:23.580 lab
00:46:23.980 okay
00:46:24.260 and was
00:46:25.120 our fbi
00:46:25.600 lab examiner
00:46:26.360 who actually
00:46:26.820 had the
00:46:27.320 ticket on
00:46:27.820 unabomb
00:46:28.280 as far as
00:46:28.780 forensics
00:46:29.300 now
00:46:29.580 because all
00:46:30.880 of the lab
00:46:31.340 examinations
00:46:32.020 that had been
00:46:32.480 done all
00:46:32.880 those years
00:46:33.360 we folded
00:46:33.940 into just
00:46:34.660 the fbi
00:46:35.180 lab
00:46:35.600 so he
00:46:36.460 was kind
00:46:36.900 of in
00:46:37.120 the hot
00:46:37.440 seat when
00:46:37.860 there was
00:46:38.120 an explosion
00:46:38.800 so um
00:46:40.260 tom went
00:46:41.580 to new
00:46:41.920 jersey
00:46:42.260 he called
00:46:43.160 when he
00:46:43.420 got there
00:46:44.000 they got
00:46:44.640 him to
00:46:44.900 the house
00:46:45.340 in north
00:46:45.700 call well
00:46:46.180 he called
00:46:46.600 before he
00:46:47.120 went in
00:46:47.580 we had
00:46:48.300 to wait
00:46:48.660 a while
00:46:48.940 because after
00:46:49.500 an explosion
00:46:50.040 there are
00:46:51.040 significant
00:46:51.820 gases in
00:46:52.580 the house
00:46:52.940 there are a
00:46:53.340 lot of
00:46:53.640 things going
00:46:54.080 on you have
00:46:54.460 to be really
00:46:54.820 careful of
00:46:55.380 course and
00:46:56.180 so when
00:46:56.740 tom went
00:46:57.380 in there
00:46:57.920 uh he
00:46:59.340 almost came
00:47:00.060 out immediately
00:47:00.680 megan and
00:47:01.300 he got on
00:47:01.920 the phone he
00:47:02.440 said he
00:47:02.800 called me
00:47:03.100 back he
00:47:03.480 said terry
00:47:03.860 this is
00:47:04.160 unabomb
00:47:04.660 uh i saw
00:47:05.880 the fragments
00:47:06.800 on the
00:47:07.200 floor some
00:47:08.140 of the
00:47:08.480 switches that
00:47:09.460 are fragments
00:47:10.340 of switches
00:47:10.840 from this
00:47:11.440 bomb all
00:47:12.660 of this
00:47:13.080 has unabomb
00:47:13.860 written all
00:47:14.300 over it
00:47:14.740 so called
00:47:15.720 jim jim
00:47:16.260 came into
00:47:16.700 the office
00:47:17.340 called uh
00:47:18.780 and uh
00:47:19.520 dispatched
00:47:19.960 some of our
00:47:20.560 a couple of
00:47:21.040 our agents
00:47:21.520 and a postal
00:47:22.080 inspector to
00:47:22.900 new jersey
00:47:23.440 they would
00:47:24.380 work on
00:47:24.880 the ground
00:47:25.300 there and
00:47:25.780 help coordinate
00:47:26.340 the actual
00:47:26.840 investigation
00:47:27.480 and then
00:47:28.620 by monday
00:47:29.340 morning that
00:47:29.960 was on the
00:47:30.340 weekend by
00:47:30.840 monday
00:47:31.220 morning we
00:47:32.260 were having
00:47:32.740 conferences with
00:47:33.600 fbi hq uh
00:47:35.620 of course uh
00:47:36.660 this now really
00:47:37.580 raised the
00:47:38.140 temperature and
00:47:39.580 uh during one
00:47:40.500 of those
00:47:40.820 conferences someone
00:47:42.220 at fbi hq
00:47:43.560 said well
00:47:44.040 turkey you need
00:47:45.120 to be back in
00:47:45.800 new jersey uh
00:47:47.300 jim freeman
00:47:47.900 basically put his
00:47:49.460 finger on the
00:47:50.660 mute part of the
00:47:51.400 phone he goes
00:47:51.880 i'll answer that
00:47:52.720 question and
00:47:53.900 said no you're
00:47:54.460 not going back
00:47:55.200 to new jersey
00:47:55.760 told them i'm
00:47:56.640 not coming back
00:47:57.300 to new jersey
00:47:57.940 and about this
00:47:58.560 time uh max
00:48:00.340 said and another
00:48:01.160 thing uh you
00:48:02.980 you people don't
00:48:03.860 even know this
00:48:04.520 case you don't
00:48:05.300 even understand
00:48:05.920 some of the
00:48:06.460 leads were
00:48:06.840 working in the
00:48:07.380 case and so
00:48:07.920 that started us
00:48:08.960 down the road
00:48:09.640 of what you
00:48:10.560 mentioned at the
00:48:11.160 break before we
00:48:12.320 knew it a few
00:48:12.880 weeks or a
00:48:13.520 couple weeks uh
00:48:14.360 later director
00:48:15.440 free was on his
00:48:16.280 way to to see
00:48:17.300 us all at uh
00:48:19.360 the fbi in san
00:48:20.340 francisco and
00:48:21.480 of particular
00:48:22.140 concern and
00:48:23.320 kind of to show
00:48:24.080 you how things
00:48:24.580 can work in the
00:48:25.260 bureau he put
00:48:26.420 out the word and
00:48:27.140 he told the
00:48:27.560 sac you don't
00:48:28.560 need to be at
00:48:29.080 this meeting i
00:48:29.760 want to talk to
00:48:30.580 the unabomb
00:48:31.180 agents and the
00:48:32.800 people working
00:48:33.520 uh unabomb and
00:48:34.760 uh and terchi so
00:48:35.900 uh of course you
00:48:37.520 can imagine how
00:48:38.140 jim is feeling
00:48:38.760 about all this so
00:48:39.660 jim met him at
00:48:40.660 the airport uh
00:48:42.640 they had a
00:48:43.400 cordial meeting and
00:48:44.160 then we had a
00:48:44.760 meeting of all the
00:48:45.540 uh the brass from
00:48:46.580 the other agents
00:48:47.280 and then i found
00:48:48.860 myself it was like
00:48:50.180 all of a sudden
00:48:50.820 okay uh terry and
00:48:52.700 i are going to go
00:48:53.140 down and address
00:48:53.780 the unabomb task
00:48:54.620 force and i found
00:48:55.560 myself alone in
00:48:56.380 the hallway with
00:48:57.020 the fbi director
00:48:57.860 and walking down
00:48:59.280 the hall and and
00:49:01.160 and i referred to
00:49:02.460 him as director
00:49:02.960 free and he
00:49:03.880 immediately turns
00:49:04.660 and says uh
00:49:05.500 call me louie
00:49:06.420 oh boy and so
00:49:07.580 we walk in we
00:49:08.540 walk into the and
00:49:09.500 i i couldn't do
00:49:10.320 that i it was just
00:49:11.360 hard to say that
00:49:12.220 but anyway we
00:49:13.300 walk into the
00:49:14.020 office and the
00:49:15.120 utf is there and
00:49:16.940 uh you can
00:49:17.780 imagine or
00:49:18.700 probably maybe
00:49:19.660 you can't imagine
00:49:20.520 or maybe many
00:49:21.160 people and how
00:49:22.020 you feel when
00:49:23.620 the case is now
00:49:24.720 dramatically different
00:49:25.680 you've been
00:49:26.300 working to
00:49:27.140 identify and get
00:49:28.060 this person off
00:49:28.920 the street but
00:49:30.140 now on your
00:49:30.860 watch someone
00:49:31.800 else is murdered
00:49:32.820 and this now
00:49:34.720 is happening to
00:49:35.420 us it was our
00:49:36.880 absolute most
00:49:38.580 worst nightmare
00:49:39.440 and that's how
00:49:40.520 everyone felt i
00:49:41.660 mean everyone
00:49:42.320 was absolutely
00:49:44.180 depressed i mean
00:49:45.620 i think people
00:49:47.060 look at fbi
00:49:47.840 agents as well
00:49:48.620 they're the
00:49:49.400 professionals they're
00:49:50.220 going to get this
00:49:50.840 done one way or
00:49:51.700 the other we
00:49:53.040 were absolutely
00:49:54.240 devastated and
00:49:55.740 so this is the
00:49:56.880 backdrop as
00:49:57.940 director free walked
00:49:59.040 in to address all
00:50:00.040 of us so during
00:50:01.520 this conversation
00:50:02.620 and he was very
00:50:03.480 gracious and and
00:50:04.600 very nice and
00:50:05.640 and we had a
00:50:06.600 very good talk
00:50:07.460 but at some
00:50:08.240 point max said
00:50:10.220 look i have to
00:50:11.500 tell you there's
00:50:12.420 a lot of things
00:50:13.100 that are not
00:50:13.560 getting done
00:50:14.180 i've sent 62
00:50:16.100 questions off to
00:50:17.320 the fbi lab about
00:50:18.560 previous bombings
00:50:19.580 they've still never
00:50:20.540 been answered
00:50:21.200 terry's been on
00:50:22.380 the phone but
00:50:22.900 they're still not
00:50:23.780 answering our
00:50:24.240 questions uh we
00:50:25.960 are trying to do
00:50:27.020 certain things with
00:50:28.160 with leads and
00:50:29.260 with investigation
00:50:29.960 and many of the
00:50:31.380 special agents in
00:50:32.260 charge aren't
00:50:32.860 prioritizing this
00:50:33.860 exactly so so
00:50:34.940 let me just pause
00:50:35.680 you there let me
00:50:36.780 pause you there
00:50:37.240 because there's so
00:50:37.700 much to pick up
00:50:38.180 on because max
00:50:39.360 you know i won't
00:50:40.300 say lit a bomb
00:50:41.000 but lit a fire
00:50:42.440 uh as did the
00:50:44.040 your small group
00:50:45.360 and finally they
00:50:46.860 listened how they
00:50:48.540 caught the unabomber
00:50:49.960 right after this
00:50:50.720 break
00:50:50.920 so by the time
00:50:57.200 terry of that
00:50:57.880 meeting with fbi
00:50:59.120 director free and
00:51:00.520 max going off and
00:51:01.700 you and jim freeman
00:51:02.780 just trying to jump
00:51:03.520 up and down and
00:51:04.120 say you know we
00:51:04.820 need resources come
00:51:05.740 on like this is
00:51:06.620 inexcusable and he
00:51:08.060 listened and and
00:51:09.080 you got him um
00:51:10.500 the unabomber had
00:51:11.340 already just killed
00:51:12.380 another man he
00:51:13.840 would go on to
00:51:14.480 kill yet another
00:51:15.560 man uh gilbert
00:51:16.740 murray in sacramento
00:51:17.980 um and then he
00:51:19.660 would threaten to
00:51:20.280 bring down an
00:51:20.840 aircraft in flight
00:51:22.000 uh which you took
00:51:23.420 very seriously for
00:51:24.340 the reasons we
00:51:25.020 discussed earlier
00:51:25.880 so but the the
00:51:27.520 biggest and most
00:51:28.640 important break in
00:51:29.740 the case was about
00:51:31.660 to come when did
00:51:33.220 you first get word
00:51:34.160 of the quote
00:51:35.720 manifesto
00:51:36.720 so mr murray as
00:51:38.860 you mentioned had
00:51:39.560 been murdered in
00:51:40.760 um sacramento
00:51:41.840 california in
00:51:43.360 april of 1995
00:51:44.720 and just several
00:51:46.080 days after the
00:51:47.380 oklahoma city
00:51:48.040 bombing
00:51:48.420 so a number of
00:51:50.080 people were
00:51:50.660 concerned that
00:51:51.500 maybe the bombing
00:51:52.320 in oklahoma city
00:51:53.120 is connected to
00:51:53.760 the unabomber
00:51:54.240 well kathy was
00:51:55.520 very significant
00:51:56.260 there as well
00:51:56.940 because she
00:51:57.780 provided the opinion
00:51:59.180 that look
00:52:00.040 our guy is a
00:52:01.460 very meticulous
00:52:02.420 uh killer of
00:52:04.300 of individual
00:52:05.300 people i mean
00:52:06.120 he's he's sending
00:52:07.160 singular bombs to
00:52:08.700 people and he's
00:52:09.760 very careful in
00:52:10.580 doing it the
00:52:11.720 person who wreaked
00:52:13.780 havoc in oklahoma
00:52:14.900 is a mass murder
00:52:16.180 they're two separate
00:52:17.560 kind of people
00:52:18.320 and uh i worked
00:52:19.920 with kathy for a
00:52:21.080 long time so uh
00:52:22.760 whenever she had
00:52:23.640 an opinion like
00:52:24.300 that to me it
00:52:25.140 was uh as
00:52:26.020 close to gospel
00:52:26.980 as you were going
00:52:27.580 to get well the
00:52:28.540 fbi agreed with
00:52:29.540 that
00:52:29.840 so we were
00:52:30.960 able to maneuver
00:52:31.580 through that
00:52:32.080 because you can
00:52:32.540 get distracted
00:52:33.200 very easily in
00:52:33.940 something like
00:52:34.380 this so now the
00:52:35.260 bureau has two
00:52:35.860 major uh things
00:52:37.300 going on because
00:52:38.100 within days of the
00:52:39.460 oklahoma city
00:52:40.040 bombing uh we
00:52:41.880 have the death
00:52:43.080 of uh gilbert
00:52:44.120 murray at the
00:52:44.660 hands of the
00:52:45.100 unabomber another
00:52:46.200 terrible crime
00:52:46.940 scene tom manol
00:52:48.360 came out he
00:52:49.140 actually went to
00:52:50.000 oklahoma city to
00:52:51.480 gather evidence and
00:52:52.460 get things back to
00:52:53.240 the lab then he
00:52:54.440 came to san
00:52:55.120 francisco went up
00:52:56.060 to sacramento and
00:52:57.300 helped us with
00:52:57.920 that as well and
00:52:59.100 so all of this
00:52:59.880 is going on
00:53:00.700 and uh in the
00:53:02.080 wake of this the
00:53:03.220 unabomber starts
00:53:04.140 firing off more
00:53:05.860 letters and um
00:53:07.500 they went to the
00:53:09.060 new york times
00:53:09.840 eventually they
00:53:10.480 would go to bob
00:53:11.220 guccione at
00:53:11.980 penthouse magazine
00:53:12.940 they would go to
00:53:14.280 a couple of
00:53:15.020 nobel prize winning
00:53:15.980 scientists to a
00:53:17.400 university of
00:53:17.980 california professor
00:53:18.800 named tom tyler
00:53:19.860 and uh they all
00:53:21.280 have a little
00:53:21.640 different theme but
00:53:22.420 by and large the
00:53:24.100 unabomber wanted
00:53:24.880 the world to
00:53:25.620 know that uh the
00:53:27.900 terrorist group fc
00:53:28.900 has a manifesto and
00:53:30.680 we want it published
00:53:31.740 and uh if it's
00:53:33.620 published we will
00:53:35.460 desist from committing
00:53:37.400 acts of terror but we
00:53:39.800 will reserve the right
00:53:41.040 to commit espionage and
00:53:42.700 that that always was
00:53:44.440 interesting megan but i
00:53:45.440 have to tell you here
00:53:46.400 very quickly that a
00:53:48.200 number of years ago you
00:53:49.080 did a a interview of
00:53:50.780 william ayers a uh
00:53:52.200 radical weather
00:53:53.180 underground terrorist
00:53:54.220 and he said
00:53:55.540 something very
00:53:56.440 similar he reminded
00:53:57.760 you that look we
00:53:59.480 only went after
00:54:00.500 people and or after
00:54:01.880 property we didn't
00:54:02.960 go after people well
00:54:04.540 that is exactly what
00:54:05.840 the unabomber the
00:54:06.760 lone serial terrorist
00:54:08.060 was telling us years
00:54:09.180 later and i found the
00:54:10.880 mindset interesting
00:54:11.860 and and of course the
00:54:13.880 the question that is
00:54:15.140 begging there is that
00:54:16.060 look you can't
00:54:17.260 guarantee that you're
00:54:18.220 only going to damage
00:54:18.920 property you're going
00:54:19.740 to kill people and so
00:54:21.360 you must not care and
00:54:22.940 so that was where we
00:54:24.040 were at with the
00:54:24.680 unabomber and again
00:54:25.560 kathy weighed in and
00:54:27.180 she said something very
00:54:28.260 very interesting that
00:54:29.300 would factor into our
00:54:30.260 deliberations eventually
00:54:31.340 on what to recommend
00:54:32.780 about publication and
00:54:34.420 that is that the
00:54:35.740 unabomber will probably
00:54:37.280 not be able to stop
00:54:39.600 himself from sending
00:54:40.640 other bombs even if he
00:54:42.400 says he wanted to
00:54:43.480 this is something that
00:54:45.020 he does this is who he
00:54:46.740 is so getting a promise
00:54:48.680 or a pledge from him is
00:54:49.640 almost as useless as
00:54:50.940 as it can be so this
00:54:53.800 is the situation we
00:54:54.860 found ourselves in as
00:54:56.460 we were trying to
00:54:57.140 determine what to do
00:54:58.340 and as we then
00:54:59.840 received you know the
00:55:02.940 call from the bureau
00:55:03.840 what is going to be your
00:55:06.140 recommendation what are
00:55:07.460 you going to ask about
00:55:08.760 his the demand from
00:55:10.020 fc from the terror
00:55:10.980 group fc to actually
00:55:12.480 publish this manifesto
00:55:13.860 that's i mean so much
00:55:15.840 responsibility if you if
00:55:17.700 you don't publish it and
00:55:19.380 he bombs again there'll
00:55:21.080 be second guessing if
00:55:22.640 you do publish it and
00:55:23.900 he bombs again there'll
00:55:25.220 be second guessing and
00:55:26.160 it's like you've got
00:55:26.660 people's lives in your
00:55:27.500 hands here before i
00:55:28.960 forget terry just
00:55:29.540 quickly what what did
00:55:30.680 fc wind up standing
00:55:31.940 for
00:55:32.260 we're never really going
00:55:35.080 to be sure we uh we
00:55:36.860 never of course were
00:55:37.980 able to talk to the
00:55:39.100 theodore kaczynski about
00:55:40.200 it and uh there are
00:55:42.280 some uh suggestions that
00:55:44.000 it stood for freedom
00:55:44.760 club something like
00:55:46.260 that but uh nothing
00:55:47.940 certainly that helped
00:55:49.000 us on the trail of
00:55:50.440 trying to identify who
00:55:51.480 the terror group fc was
00:55:53.080 okay so you ultimately
00:55:54.820 decide um publish it
00:55:57.460 tell them to do it and
00:55:59.020 the the you really
00:56:00.640 thought in the end there
00:56:02.240 will be somebody out
00:56:03.340 there in reading a 35
00:56:04.960 000 word manifesto who
00:56:07.540 will recognize phrases
00:56:09.100 words ideas philosophies
00:56:11.800 that this guy holds so
00:56:13.420 strongly there's no way
00:56:14.480 he hasn't expressed them
00:56:15.480 to others and you did
00:56:18.100 it the the washington
00:56:19.280 post right printed the
00:56:21.600 manifesto you had fbi
00:56:23.360 agents staked out at the
00:56:25.140 various locations in the
00:56:26.440 relevant location where
00:56:27.260 you thought the unabomber
00:56:28.200 could possibly be
00:56:29.140 california watching no no
00:56:31.620 luck um but there was
00:56:34.060 there was luck in one
00:56:36.260 particular person
00:56:37.180 who read that manifesto
00:56:38.820 can we jump to that part
00:56:39.640 of the story sure we
00:56:41.140 can uh so between the
00:56:43.080 time of the publication
00:56:44.200 of the manifesto in on
00:56:46.080 september 20th or 19th uh
00:56:48.200 1995 and the middle of
00:56:50.160 february we received
00:56:51.880 probably close to 55 000
00:56:54.400 phone calls and tips uh with
00:56:56.680 people turning in you know
00:56:57.860 wives turning in their
00:56:58.820 husbands for the rewards
00:57:00.180 uh girlfriends turning in
00:57:03.340 boyfriends and all that
00:57:04.520 thing but by this time we
00:57:06.660 really knew a lot about the
00:57:08.380 unabomber uh in fact the
00:57:09.940 behavioral science unit said
00:57:11.180 look you basically solved the
00:57:13.040 case you just don't know the
00:57:14.240 guy's name and uh we're all
00:57:16.780 looking at each other like well
00:57:17.940 that would be hopeful wouldn't
00:57:18.940 it so uh when we got the
00:57:21.040 manifesto and we recommended
00:57:22.780 eventually publication it was
00:57:25.020 based on the idea that uh i we
00:57:27.800 we had a lot of meetings as i
00:57:29.280 mentioned to you and i mentioned
00:57:30.760 in one of the meetings that i i had a
00:57:32.400 high school teacher his name was
00:57:33.640 larry lawson and he taught
00:57:35.260 creative writing and uh
00:57:37.240 ironically i stayed away from
00:57:38.520 math and tried to stay into
00:57:39.760 stuff like creative writing and
00:57:41.180 in high school and uh and he
00:57:43.360 told us no two people write
00:57:45.160 alike and uh so we talked about
00:57:48.080 that and so we said look we know
00:57:50.160 so much about unabom we need to
00:57:52.600 recommend uh now that there's one
00:57:54.960 piece we're lacking this
00:57:56.440 manifesto could now be be the
00:57:58.260 thing that gives us that piece and
00:57:59.860 so we need to recommend
00:58:01.280 publication and so um off we
00:58:03.960 went uh jim freeman and uh
00:58:06.920 kathy pocket and myself to louis
00:58:10.280 free we had a meeting with all the
00:58:11.900 bureau brass there briefed the case
00:58:14.740 and said we recommend publication of
00:58:17.840 the unabom manifesto in the
00:58:18.940 washington post we went across the
00:58:20.700 street to the ag did the same
00:58:22.900 thing they approved it and it was
00:58:25.560 published on the 19th and by
00:58:27.360 february uh 14th we got the call we
00:58:30.880 needed and uh it was essentially
00:58:33.220 like all things unabom it came it
00:58:35.820 didn't come easy it was a uh on the
00:58:38.540 overhead speaker system there was a
00:58:40.600 paging uh anybody from the unabom
00:58:42.780 task force can you pick up on such
00:58:44.500 and such a line well joel moss who
00:58:46.840 was the supervisor of the suspect
00:58:48.360 squad listened to this uh paging for
00:58:51.100 about three tries and finally he puts
00:58:54.040 down what he's doing he picks it up
00:58:55.860 because he obviously hoped somebody
00:58:57.840 else would answer it he's up to his
00:58:59.300 eyeballs and alligators with uh
00:59:00.960 thousands of unabom suspects and he
00:59:03.800 gets on the phone with another agent
00:59:05.280 molly flynn in washington metropolitan
00:59:07.300 field office she has received a 23
00:59:10.480 page essay from uh an individual an
00:59:13.880 attorney named anthony besagli in
00:59:16.060 washington anthony besagli had dealt
00:59:18.180 with the fbi before he'd had a client
00:59:20.380 approach him who gave him this and they
00:59:22.440 were worried that someone close to
00:59:24.580 them could be the unabomber but they
00:59:26.520 wanted to find out a little bit before
00:59:28.680 they volunteered who they were so um
00:59:31.560 molly flynn sent the essay to the bureau
00:59:34.920 uh in the bureau lab looked at it and
00:59:37.920 they came back and said this isn't typed
00:59:41.060 on the unabomber's typewriter and that
00:59:43.360 was it well she didn't stop there she
00:59:46.260 thought wait a minute you know this is
00:59:47.900 what we're all about so uh she called the
00:59:51.660 san francisco utf she ends up getting a
00:59:53.820 hold of joel moss she starts explaining
00:59:56.400 this joel listens for a while he said
00:59:58.220 get it to me right away he immediately
01:00:00.300 understood the significance or potential
01:00:02.320 significance of what of some of the
01:00:04.460 passages she read so he came to my
01:00:07.220 office after he had a fax copy of this
01:00:08.960 and after he and kathy had talked they
01:00:10.960 said let's go to lunch i said i can't i
01:00:12.800 i'm committed to going to lunch with jim
01:00:14.440 and joel literally your boss jim freeman
01:00:16.760 three of us had worked together a lot he
01:00:18.820 grabs me by the arm we go to lunch and i
01:00:21.420 cancel out on jim well we end up sitting
01:00:23.780 there when jim freeman comes into the same
01:00:25.480 place for eating and so you stood me up
01:00:28.360 for your friends here huh well we had the
01:00:31.520 the the talk about the 23 page essay
01:00:34.300 started reading it that night and uh our
01:00:38.040 world had changed forever you you could not
01:00:40.680 read the 23 page essay believe in the
01:00:43.500 strategy we were following and not believe
01:00:46.180 that this was the golden ticket
01:00:48.240 there were phrases that he used in both
01:00:53.100 what turned out to be letters to his
01:00:56.760 brother and in the manifesto that were
01:00:59.960 just too identifiable and unique to him
01:01:03.820 ted kaczynski it was chilling i took it
01:01:07.640 home that night to hold my copy and my
01:01:09.700 wife was watching television and i was
01:01:12.160 laying on the couch in the family room
01:01:13.620 and uh i just jumped out of the couch and
01:01:16.940 headed into the den to get my copy of the
01:01:19.120 manifesto because in the 23 page essay
01:01:22.020 there was a phrase the sphere of human
01:01:24.720 freedom well that exact phrase was in the
01:01:27.380 you know about manifesto and i went and i
01:01:29.520 started looking at other things at that
01:01:31.020 point in time i called joel i called
01:01:32.680 kathy and uh i went back in and i i just
01:01:35.820 told my wife i'm gonna i'm gonna go on in
01:01:37.540 and work some and uh and i just said i
01:01:40.460 think we might have found the unabomber and
01:01:42.220 that's all i said to her and and the next
01:01:44.460 morning of course our entire discussion now
01:01:47.600 turns to the 23 page essay and the
01:01:50.580 manifesto as it turned out david kaczynski
01:01:54.520 ted's brother was married to a woman named
01:01:58.840 linda and she would later describe the
01:02:02.880 genesis of her suspicion as between the two
01:02:04.820 of them she apparently was the first to
01:02:06.480 suspect that it was ted david's brother
01:02:08.600 uh you write in your book she was in paris
01:02:10.720 in august 1995 when she read an article
01:02:12.820 about the unabomber in an international
01:02:14.460 edition of a newspaper her anxiety grew as
01:02:17.820 the unabomber was described as a loner
01:02:19.840 probably from chicago check check who had
01:02:23.760 likely lived in utah and northern california
01:02:26.160 check check linda had never met ted but
01:02:29.420 this was consistent with her knowledge of
01:02:31.020 him uh and it goes on from there and then
01:02:33.780 it had excerpts of the manifesto which
01:02:36.360 seemed a lot like ted's letters to her
01:02:38.600 husband that you go on to say that one of
01:02:41.900 the things she realized was that she and
01:02:45.960 david had been asked by ted kaczynski david's
01:02:49.940 brother for money a couple of times and he'd
01:02:53.080 been living like a hermit in the middle of
01:02:54.420 montana in some cabin so they were a little
01:02:56.300 puzzled by why he would need money anyway but
01:02:58.260 they were they deduced that he used their
01:03:01.700 money to make bombs they were mortified
01:03:04.780 exactly and especially the last two bombings
01:03:08.280 in november of 94 he'd asked for a thousand
01:03:10.960 dollars and in december of 94 he asked for
01:03:14.020 two thousand dollars and so of course we had
01:03:16.600 the december 94 event involving mr moser
01:03:19.640 and then the follow-up mr murray in 95 so
01:03:22.640 it was just uh frightening to to think that
01:03:27.080 they they were absolutely right and we felt
01:03:29.560 really badly that uh that could be the case
01:03:32.040 but in fact that's what it turned out to be he
01:03:34.440 was getting money from them to finance those
01:03:36.420 last two bombings
01:03:37.380 now another phrase in the um in the writings
01:03:41.260 that matched uh that there was a comparison
01:03:44.160 between he would write you can't uh eat your cake
01:03:48.320 and have it too which is a reversal of the saying
01:03:51.560 the saying is you can't have your cake and eat it
01:03:53.100 too and he reversed it and and what like where did
01:03:56.940 you see that how did that come together
01:03:58.180 yes eventually we would see that in in several
01:04:00.840 places but that showed up in the um the manifest
01:04:04.900 the um the 23 page essay and it showed up when we
01:04:08.860 went to visit wanda and uh his mom and she had uh
01:04:13.320 information and all kinds of things in a steamer trunk
01:04:16.880 that theodore owned and he had left it with her many
01:04:19.860 years earlier and said i don't want it anymore do
01:04:22.300 whatever you want well she kept it all these years
01:04:24.480 so it was essentially abandoned property and uh we went
01:04:27.880 into the steamer trunk and found written on a a draft
01:04:31.220 of uh of the essay you can't eat your cake and have it too
01:04:35.180 and so all of these things start coming together
01:04:37.740 and uh they're just too many of these um coincidences i guess you
01:04:43.320 could call them but it was all about words it was all about
01:04:47.160 language and and so earlier when we uh when you and i spoke and we talked
01:04:51.900 about those two early letters the ralph kloppenberg letter and the
01:04:56.040 history of science and then the enoch fisher letter that had prompted us to do a
01:05:00.960 project and we had a number of investigative projects that we worked on
01:05:04.320 and one of those projects had to do with uh interviewing professors at
01:05:08.440 universities so we had become in fact joel had become our expert on the
01:05:12.500 history of science and we found that there were um 44 american universities
01:05:17.800 and colleges across the country that enrolled 400
01:05:21.360 people in the uh the discipline history of
01:05:24.680 science none of us had ever heard of it and we just wanted to mark this
01:05:28.320 territory not to forget it so he actually went joel actually went to a
01:05:32.220 history of science convention one year in new orleans
01:05:34.500 and i guess that was a big splash they loved having the fbi there it was very
01:05:38.680 exciting but he was there to learn about what history of science means so
01:05:44.080 all of this is fresh on our mind when theodore kaczynski shows up
01:05:47.640 as a suspect and lo and behold when we go to start doing all the basics that we
01:05:53.140 always did with any suspect and one of them was to get all their
01:05:56.300 school transcripts lo and behold there's a course that
01:05:59.800 theodore took early on in harvard or university of michigan
01:06:03.720 called history of science the introduction to history of science
01:06:06.640 science so he had a creative side and he would pull on that when uh he was
01:06:10.820 putting together these bombs or putting together ideas
01:06:13.100 so this is how all of these things uh whether they were phrases or uh those
01:06:19.280 kinds of things from the investigation or passages from the manifesto
01:06:23.600 or passages from the um 23 page essay that matched the manifesto
01:06:28.320 all of this started falling together and these pieces became the the foundation the
01:06:34.980 building block of this search warrant the thing is
01:06:38.140 this was not dna this was not fingerprints this was not eyewitness stuff
01:06:43.540 this was words and so doj said knock yourself out but this
01:06:49.560 this is a probable cause and of course our response was wait a minute
01:06:53.560 this is as good as any of the things you just mentioned almost because
01:06:58.400 first of all this is all we have but knowing all of this and seeing every day
01:07:04.320 more stuff was coming together i mean there was no question
01:07:07.020 more and more of these pieces were coming together
01:07:09.320 we always would do a timeline and one of the things david was able to do
01:07:14.420 eventually is he gave us uh well over a hundred envelopes
01:07:18.280 with postmarks on them they represented the envelopes that the letters between
01:07:22.940 he and ted that he had received from ted
01:07:25.020 had had received over 30 years he kept all of that
01:07:28.860 and we had thus a timeline during the entirety of the unabomb series of events
01:07:34.120 and we only ended up finding one contradiction in that entire uh 16 years
01:07:40.680 using all these postmarks and all the other things we used
01:07:43.920 so it was all falling together and we kept going back and saying no
01:07:48.680 we're close to having what we need to get into that cabin
01:07:52.640 and we need to do it and um doj uh was not sold
01:07:58.300 and eventually it took the fbi director louis free
01:08:02.760 and the attorney general to simply bypass all the advisors and committees set up
01:08:08.440 to uh give us advice about this it took the two of them
01:08:11.920 to say uh look we trust the utf we trust the people on it
01:08:16.720 we've been following this case we know this case like the back of our hand i mean
01:08:20.300 janet reno would carry around her uh copy of fact fiction and theory
01:08:24.420 and you had to be careful if you were talking to her because she'd listen
01:08:27.480 and then you go wait a minute isn't this part of theory for her
01:08:30.840 and so uh she was that into this case and of course
01:08:34.320 director free was was really into it from day one but
01:08:37.400 so that was the kind of relationship we now i mean we're almost
01:08:40.760 it may be that they're high level government officials
01:08:43.880 but everybody as we said at the beginning everybody was at the right
01:08:48.140 for us was the right person in the right spot
01:08:52.020 at the right time and and you know the egos had been
01:08:55.580 tossed to the floor uh the emotion you could you could show your emotion
01:09:00.100 uh i mean it was it was amazing i mean i look back on it now and as i'm talking
01:09:05.160 to you i almost have chills because
01:09:06.460 it wasn't like people might think uh the attorney general the director of the fbi
01:09:11.820 the the sac of san francisco the agents we were all equal in this boat and uh if
01:09:18.280 we didn't help each other we were all going to drown in it
01:09:21.400 and uh i think that's at some point that became
01:09:25.280 the reason that we were successful in bringing all this together
01:09:28.780 hence the the piece of the title about breaking the rules
01:09:33.340 the um they got their search warrant this group uh not the arrest warrant they got
01:09:38.620 the search warrant which wasn't all they wanted but it was good enough as it would
01:09:42.800 turn out and wound up uh in the snowy mountains of montana
01:09:47.480 um tons of agents waiting for ted kaczynski there was a whole
01:09:52.620 ruse as you can imagine had to be executed very carefully so that no one got hurt
01:09:57.140 understanding this is a bomb maker inside of this cabin
01:09:59.360 suspected but for very good reason uh and eventually
01:10:03.120 they would have to affect that arrest under circumstances they never foresaw
01:10:08.660 we pick it up there right after this
01:10:10.740 so now you go out to the mountains of montana the middle of nowhere
01:10:18.300 and you've got to start putting the the pieces in place for you know what you
01:10:23.160 hope will be an eventual arrest and the what i the question i had in
01:10:26.420 reading your book were you talking about you know now you got to start
01:10:28.580 interviewing the locals you get some important locals on your side
01:10:31.780 you you start interviewing bus drivers because ted kaczynski only has a bicycle
01:10:35.660 so how is he getting from the middle of nowhere down to sacramento
01:10:39.200 into utah wherever he's going there's got to be a way so you got to find bus
01:10:42.680 drivers you got to figure out routes taken you got to see
01:10:44.640 where did he stay what are the do we have any receipts let's get the bank
01:10:47.700 accounts let's build a case a case that max would love
01:10:51.000 to show um actual proof that this guy has been in the places we suspect he's been
01:10:56.020 during the relevant time frames and what i kept thinking reading how you guys had to do
01:11:00.120 this was a just arrest the damn guy you know it's
01:11:02.780 him right like you can't do it that way and b weren't you worried someone was
01:11:08.520 going to leak either you know outside you know to to
01:11:13.000 random people who might spread it but or b to to ted kaczynski like how could you
01:11:17.460 assure yourself that people weren't friends with him or maybe they just
01:11:21.580 blabbed to somebody some random person like the fbi contacted me they asked me
01:11:24.640 all these fun questions they think if there's some guy in the woods and then word
01:11:27.500 would get out you know how do you control that me and everything you said
01:11:30.460 was so right on uh we were we were worried about so many things that that
01:11:35.340 was the most stressful time of this entire investigation there could be leaks
01:11:39.900 he could have something in the cabin that eventually is going to hurt somebody
01:11:43.680 uh he could get on a bus and place another bomb or mail another bomb all these
01:11:49.080 things are going on our on in our minds and so we had to try to deal with each of
01:11:53.080 these contingencies so uh what we did is that uh around i don't know it was
01:12:00.120 probably around the third week of february uh called max max was on leave at
01:12:04.980 the time i said we're sending you to uh montana i know you don't think much of
01:12:10.200 uh theodore kaczynski as the unabomber but you're the guy that has to be in
01:12:14.900 montana all the time to take care of and manage the small team we're going to send
01:12:19.540 with you and uh we need you to go to those hotels motels try to try to somehow
01:12:25.700 place this guy out of that cabin start interviewing people um and of course all
01:12:31.780 this has to be done discreetly and uh we can't even mention the word unabomb
01:12:35.920 so uh max of course being max he he he came right back he goes into montana buys all
01:12:42.900 his winter clothes and uh and sets about doing what he has to do
01:12:47.140 and he and i talked several times every day uh and uh he directed a team of
01:12:53.380 about three people which would start to grow almost every day after we first got
01:12:57.860 started but in that time a lot of things happened and we needed all these things
01:13:03.480 for our search warrant max was able to go pay a visit to butch gearing it was on
01:13:09.040 the butch gearing lumber mill property that theodore kaczynski and his brother
01:13:12.580 david has had actually purchased the house or the the land for the the cabin
01:13:17.740 that kaczynski built in 1971 so max went and had a talk with
01:13:23.020 gearing to learn about the unabomber or you know you learn about kaczynski
01:13:26.800 and uh gearing was uh where as we said wearing the team jersey after that he he was
01:13:32.320 willing and ready to help and provide whatever kind of information or help to
01:13:36.280 us we needed so that was kind of uh uh secured so then uh max was able to
01:13:42.740 develop jerry burns jerry burns became just vitally
01:13:46.080 important everybody's heard of the u.s forest service
01:13:49.240 very few people know that the u.s forest service has their own special agents and
01:13:53.580 and law enforcement and uh i've worked with so many of these people over the
01:13:57.220 years and they're really really good well jerry burns was uh
01:14:00.900 uh absolutely amazing and so we befriended him and and kind of put the
01:14:05.880 team jersey on him his supervisor agreed that he didn't need to know what jerry
01:14:09.920 was doing on behalf of the fbi but jerry was briefed on everything he was
01:14:14.200 brought into the whole unabombed picture of this
01:14:16.240 and uh so he was able to be a goal might of information about kaczynski because he
01:14:20.680 was always running into him out into kaczynski out in the forest
01:14:23.780 that was important the ssra the senior supervisory resident agent
01:14:29.320 in helena montana was an individual named tom mcdaniel
01:14:33.120 he was amazing and and was there every step of the way with us
01:14:37.320 and then finally bernie hubley bernie was the assistant
01:14:41.000 u.s attorney in the district there and lo and behold
01:14:45.040 our luck again bernie hubley was a former fbi agent
01:14:48.780 so he was brought into this and almost fell over on a bar stool one day when
01:14:53.540 max briefed him and said here's why we're here
01:14:55.760 and uh we're here because in your territory it's so crazy
01:14:59.120 it's crazy to think about like these guys being like wait what the unabomber
01:15:03.140 like the most notorious criminal in the country right now at large
01:15:06.180 so okay eventually i gotta skip ahead because i there's so much more important
01:15:10.440 things to get to so you do get your search warrant it
01:15:13.280 wasn't easy but but just long story short on that so much of the that
01:15:17.220 painstaking fbi work went into it and it wasn't a guarantee that you were
01:15:21.800 going to get it but all those years and hours of of collective effort
01:15:25.620 paid off you got the warrant you go to execute the search warrant
01:15:29.700 jerry who you mentioned the local who ted knew and he was important he was
01:15:34.400 the front man and then there are two other guys who went
01:15:37.080 to knock on the door with a ruse about we need to check your property line and it
01:15:40.680 was something jerry ted kaczynski had to see jerry's face otherwise
01:15:43.320 he wouldn't have opened that door he would have been suspicious
01:15:45.800 so he was critical and lo and behold he was home ted kaczynski and you you got
01:15:51.880 him you grabbed him um he said he was going to go back in he would show you the
01:15:54.860 property lines he's going to go back in and grab his coat and no he was not
01:15:57.600 going to grab the coat the fbi grabbed him pulled out a six hour that was the
01:16:01.520 end of his attempt to go back in the house and he was not placed under arrest
01:16:06.520 but taken to another cabin where questioning began and i have to ask you you
01:16:13.260 know after all this effort right he's in this cabin you've got him you and your
01:16:19.120 team and like what are you thinking at this
01:16:22.160 point you know because the pictures do show this disheveled crazy
01:16:25.780 looking mountain man who looks just like he hasn't seen a brush or a shower in 20
01:16:31.140 years like what are you thinking well max couldn't wait to take a bath i mean he
01:16:37.700 he already felt really dirty he wanted to get away from here take a shower as soon as
01:16:41.520 he could but he would end up being with kaczynski just about the rest of the day
01:16:45.100 and end of the night at about one o'clock uh i was thinking more of what we had to
01:16:49.940 do next i i mean it was almost like uh okay that part of this is over and now we
01:16:57.540 can breathe a little easier but not really because we've got a lot of work to
01:17:01.540 do so now we start bringing in everybody else all these evidence response teams
01:17:05.480 and uh and then we call the bureau but now the bureau is saying well you you don't
01:17:10.960 have anything but a search warrant what are you doing well we're taking him out
01:17:14.880 and putting him into another cabin to be on ice here for a while while we decide
01:17:19.020 what to do and of course our plan was to take him up the mountain and over to
01:17:22.660 helena and um and of course doj said you can't do that you can't arrest this man
01:17:28.700 well we're not gonna let him go back in the cabin and so by late that night after
01:17:34.520 hours of debating that occurred back east we'd already taken theodore kaczynski into
01:17:40.240 helena he was in the car with max and tom and
01:17:43.140 paul wilhelmis a postal inspector uh they took him into helena to get him
01:17:47.160 booked at the jail eventually uh and jim and i were following him up the
01:17:51.520 mountain and into helena and we were uh eventually on the phone with the
01:17:56.020 director and and he's getting kind of a a lot of information that i'll i'll call
01:18:01.120 it what it was it was fiction from doj people that that had no no they had no
01:18:06.480 clue of what they were talking about and so people were a little concerned are you
01:18:10.400 making an arrest that you can't make but by about midnight uh howard shapiro the
01:18:16.920 fbi chief legal counsel got on the phone with me i said just let me go through
01:18:21.160 everything that's going on in the other room and lo and behold he said i don't need
01:18:25.760 to hear anything else i'll brief the director do what you're doing and get
01:18:29.140 this person locked up and we'll we'll deal with the rest of this tomorrow and
01:18:32.480 that's exactly what happened you uh eventually after sort of de-rigging
01:18:38.160 the house and making sure it was safe to enter and there were all sorts of
01:18:41.380 things you gotta you gotta read terry's book to hear like the painstaking
01:18:44.780 efforts to make sure that it was safe but you you get into his cabin and this to
01:18:50.500 me is where it all comes together 20 years of clue gathering would match up
01:18:59.680 with what you found in that cabin forget enough to make an arrest now we're
01:19:05.040 talking we need enough to put this man away for the rest of his life and it was
01:19:10.680 all there you know i think about let me just give you one i think about um terry the the um
01:19:18.120 right the eyewitness is that tammy tammy sorry tammy the eyewitness who had given
01:19:22.900 us the aviator sunglasses and all that back at the one bombing years ago now nobody ever
01:19:27.080 made an eyewitness nobody ever matched that picture up with ted kaczynski and said i know
01:19:31.700 that guy so okay did she really make a difference a hundred percent because tell us about some
01:19:37.760 of the things she described that you found in ted kaczynski's cabin well of course the infamous
01:19:43.980 portrait of the uh aviator sunglasses and the guy wearing the gray hooded sweatshirt and lo and
01:19:49.760 behold there in the cabin were aviator sunglasses and gray hooded sweatshirt hanging up on a on a hook
01:19:56.260 over in the corner to the left as you were facing from the outside uh we found a live bomb on the second
01:20:02.640 day of the search wrapped and ready to mail ironically it had a return address of the seattle fbi office
01:20:09.960 and so he was getting ready to taunt us again uh we we we saw across the cabin remember the cabin
01:20:17.240 nine by twelve in size and then it had a loft so uh across from where we were looking through this
01:20:23.680 the only door of the cabin uh were all kinds of containers cartons and bottles some were labeled
01:20:29.700 they were labeled with explosive uh or ingredients that you could use to make explosives and in fact
01:20:35.380 the unabombers early bombs had some of these combinations uh like potassium chlorate and sodium
01:20:41.360 chlorate and things like that uh we found a oatmeal container quaker oatmeal container with uh pre-made
01:20:48.120 switches that he had already made ahead of time so he could literally reach onto the shelf and pull off
01:20:53.480 a switch that he might use in a bomb he wants to construct we found thousands of pages of typed or
01:21:00.580 handwritten notes and we found a uh autobiography of of him he had he had literally uh laid out his
01:21:10.180 entire life uh in all of these notes and we also found admissions and or confessions to all 16 unabomb
01:21:20.020 devices now what in fact we did find with about 500 pages of those uh admissions is that he had taught
01:21:28.080 himself spanish and he wrote those admissions and confessions in spanish so now we had to get on
01:21:34.300 the phone and start assembling every fbi spanish speaker we had so that we could get those translated
01:21:41.500 and stop any bombs that might now still be in the maelstrom so we we have all these things still
01:21:48.140 going on because of this guy's nature and personality one question i wanted to ask you having read the book
01:21:55.220 was you one of the queries one of the one of the oddities was the fbi uh agents analyzing the case
01:22:03.540 before you knew who it was believed that um the forensic experts they said the unabomber is melting scrap
01:22:11.540 aluminum for his more recent bombs he would need an electric powered kiln to do that and he ted kaczynski
01:22:20.100 only had like a wood burning stove in there he had no electricity and so did we ever solve the mystery
01:22:27.140 of how he melted scrap aluminum with just a wood burning stove which the forensic experts said he
01:22:33.400 could not do well they may have said he could not do it but we've all all learned about experts and uh
01:22:40.820 the experts were simply wrong and he had the potbelly stove and he had a big fire pit dug in front of the
01:22:46.280 cabin and uh he melted his own aluminum the hard way and that's how he was meticulously making these
01:22:53.620 bombs and i know we knew this from the manifesto but we haven't really gotten into it in this
01:22:58.380 interview but from the manifesto and the materials he found in his cabin and the interviews with his
01:23:03.000 brother david and so on because ted was not talking he clammed right up what what do we know about
01:23:09.720 why about the reason for his terror campaign over 20 years yes he actually goes into that and he says
01:23:18.820 people are going to uh give a number of motives to what i'm doing uh but i'm doing this because i'm
01:23:27.400 getting personal revenge i'm doing this because i'm angry uh there was really no rationality to
01:23:34.540 uh all of these things that look so organized like like he might have had an anti-technology beef of
01:23:40.840 course he kind of did but it was all when you get down to it when you think of airlines he was mad
01:23:46.840 because the uh the planes flying over the wilderness area where he lived made too much noise so then he'd
01:23:53.340 write i'm i'm embarking on a plan to get even and this is kind of how he was thinking and uh as kathy
01:24:00.460 had said early on uh this is about anger it's about what a person like this a serial killer
01:24:08.160 a serial criminal uh has welled up inside them they are angry and uh certainly theodore kaczynski
01:24:15.840 was angry and so he wrote about his anger he wrote about personal revenge as a motive and uh he gave
01:24:22.660 other motives of course but this is what it all came down to for him anger and revenge at what he
01:24:29.000 thought were slights against him all right we'll get into you know more about his past in one second
01:24:35.040 but before we get to that he there's a reason why he was not um facing the death penalty by the time
01:24:43.300 you got your hands on him and he would have to face justice can you explain just with the criminal
01:24:47.620 trial what happened because you didn't have to try him and there was a reason why death was not on the
01:24:52.560 table in the lead up to this uh david had requested that we have some sort of deal where he will help
01:25:00.580 us but there will be no death penalty well of course we had to say no to that we couldn't talk like that
01:25:04.900 uh with anybody before any kind of trial so ultimately there was death penalty attached to
01:25:10.680 the indictments that uh or the trial process in both sacramento and had we gone there new jersey
01:25:16.560 uh on the main cases uh that we were we were indicting him on uh but at some point in time uh
01:25:24.220 right before the trial jury was to come in uh and and we were going to start the trial he just kind of
01:25:32.100 threw it in you know he didn't want to plead guilty at all to anything they tried to um have a
01:25:37.880 conditional plea where we would uh you know kind of take his plea but he could appeal things all his life
01:25:45.460 he said no and finally they said well look if you um if you take the death penalty off the table
01:25:51.840 you know we'll plead guilty unconditionally to all of these crimes and that's exactly what happened
01:25:57.040 and that happened literally i mean the beginning of that happened literally minutes before the judge
01:26:03.300 had kind of read his final words and and told the courtroom okay i'm going to bring in the jury
01:26:08.640 and all of a sudden you know kaczynski basically threw something or made some noise they were done
01:26:15.440 the attorneys got up the whole thing was over that day and uh within an hour we were told he's he
01:26:21.800 wants to plead guilty i mean so terrified about the thought of having his own life taken from him
01:26:27.020 and of course not a shred of concern or care for the lives he took and and the people he maimed and
01:26:34.580 you know i think about those poor children and that wife um of poor um thomas mosser who had to run
01:26:42.080 into that kitchen after they heard a bomb go off and see the remains of their loved ones i mean like
01:26:46.180 and ted kaczynski's worried of course to the end about himself and what he might have to go through
01:26:52.100 um has he ever spoken terry has he ever given an interview or you know done anything other than
01:26:59.640 the manifesto to help people understand no not really he's he's turned down most interviews i think
01:27:06.300 he eventually might have spoken with someone briefly i uh but i'm not sure i i remember vaguely
01:27:12.220 at some point he might have but uh he certainly is not talking to us he um uh he has developed or he
01:27:19.800 had developed i think a relationship of some sort with timothy mcveigh before he was executed uh and
01:27:26.600 of course he's on uh he's at the supermax and i think right down the row from him is eric robert rudolph
01:27:34.040 another loner uh serial bomber from the olympic bombing of 1996 so uh he's really never talked
01:27:41.600 he's really never said much and uh i don't think he plans to say anything he's never talked at all
01:27:46.640 uh since then to his brother and of course he hadn't talked to his brother for years before that
01:27:51.560 right he would he cut off his brother and his mom and i think his dad was alive for some of that
01:27:58.040 um unclear why that the brother married a college professor when it was a question about whether he
01:28:04.060 was he was upset about that he didn't like universities as we covered earlier um and yet
01:28:10.200 the brother loved him david kaczynski loved his brother ted and really seemed to wrestle with that
01:28:16.340 phone call he made after reading the manifesto and you know again he tried to bargain for his brother's
01:28:22.080 life but knew he had to do the right thing i mean he's he's really kind of an unsung hero in the whole
01:28:26.680 thing because even though we have so many fbi agents working tirelessly around the clock for years to
01:28:32.320 catch the guy boy oh boy you know a lot of people would say i wouldn't i wouldn't do it wouldn't turn
01:28:37.020 my own brother in i'd do something else uh but he did the right thing and he and in large part you know
01:28:42.400 he he played a major role in in apprehending the brother okay the profile of ted kaczynski is where i want
01:28:48.420 to pick it up next because i read some crazy stuff about this guy and i would love to go through some
01:28:54.500 of it with you not it wasn't in your book but i want to understand ted kaczynski a bit better and
01:28:59.980 lessons learned now that now that you can look back on your investigation and know who it is
01:29:04.620 what would you have done differently okay we're gonna pick it up there with terry churchy
01:29:08.260 on the unabomber investigation next
01:29:10.220 so an important piece of the story is who was this guy like what turns you know some normal
01:29:20.280 american who by all accounts didn't have an extraordinarily odd childhood into a serial
01:29:26.080 killer that's what ted kaczynski is a serial killer so um let's just start with what do we
01:29:31.480 know about his you know one through 20 about that period of his life sure well his brother kind of sums
01:29:37.300 that up the best i think because he thought a lot about that and he would constantly remind us
01:29:42.160 we came from the same family we were raised in the same way by the same people i don't even
01:29:49.300 understand how he can attach certain meaning and value to some of the things he was taught in the
01:29:54.540 way he was raised that he talks about that's what he would say about ted i don't understand how we
01:29:59.400 could come from the same family because my recollections and memories of growing up
01:30:03.340 are nothing at all like his i have no idea how he got these notions
01:30:08.000 and therein i think lies the problem for us uh in future cases and in trying to identify or prevent
01:30:16.560 some of these types of things i think it's very difficult to figure out uh how to see these people
01:30:21.880 ahead of time how to how to uh figure out how one person is going to be fine and how another person
01:30:28.240 becomes a serial terrorist i i don't know if uh we're even close to that kind of uh assessment
01:30:35.300 right now i know we've tried to articulate things that were missed and uh yet they're only um on the
01:30:43.560 surface like uh someone acted a certain way in school or didn't get along with anybody or was
01:30:49.880 constantly angry uh kathy says that uh and she did a major study we one of the things we did to try to
01:30:56.160 answer your question is uh when i went back to the bureau at the end of my career uh we got the
01:31:01.320 money and we brought kathy back to do a study on loan serial bombers and she concluded that these are
01:31:08.960 people who are trying to make a mark in society they want to be known uh they fail at being known
01:31:15.020 they fail at group identity they cannot become part of a group they simply cannot socialize to where
01:31:20.680 they can become part of any kind of group so uh what they start to do is create their own group
01:31:27.080 thus the unabomber created theater kaczynski created the terror group fc and then they seek
01:31:32.740 this uh major type of event uh like a bomb in a terrible tragedy to get traction and be known and so
01:31:40.260 uh that's about as close as we can get but she based that on a number of serial killers and a number
01:31:46.580 of people because we don't have many serial bombers of course uh but there are certainly uh very similar
01:31:52.920 patterns going on there so we passed that study along uh to the uh to the bureau i mean that it was
01:32:01.480 bureau property we passed it along to use in the future and in fact it was used uh initially when
01:32:08.240 they were trying to deal with the anthrax case because if you recall there was a real wave a very strong
01:32:14.440 wave initially that the anthrax attacks on the east coast had to be committed by an international
01:32:20.880 terrorist it just had to be and uh kathy and i at the time were in the lawrence silvermore lab we'd
01:32:26.740 retired we were working there and the bureau actually called and they said we have a meeting coming up
01:32:31.440 and we're trying to be the voice in the wilderness telling the entirety of the rest of the government
01:32:36.760 that the fbi thinks the anthrax attacks are domestic terrorism and we would hate to see them go off
01:32:43.700 in a different direction and you know end up attacking iraq or something based on this and
01:32:48.660 right so that's the kind of thing that can happen in the kind of discussion that we were literally
01:32:53.600 having after that study and um and after we had left so just a couple of items he was brilliant he
01:33:02.220 what i read that he skipped two grades uh he went off to harvard at age 16 um he graduated with a phd
01:33:11.560 in mathematics in 1967 he would go on to teach mathematics at the university of california at
01:33:17.120 berkeley of course we would see you know bombings in california and the universities there abruptly
01:33:21.980 returned to chicago to live with his parents um and then he wound up purchasing this land in montana
01:33:29.040 and living in this cabin now i also read online that he was at one point he considered himself
01:33:36.120 trans and actually went to seek the operation or at least psychiatric affirmation of that is that true
01:33:45.340 i think there's some discussion in his journals of uh something like that uh to be honest i don't uh
01:33:54.760 i didn't pay a lot of attention to that uh at that time but uh i think he wrote something very
01:34:01.400 similar to that yes and there was never a woman in the picture from what i read i never hear anything
01:34:06.000 about this girlfriend that girl no ex-wife like no women there weren't and he was very disappointed
01:34:13.800 and bothered by that and in fact so disappointed that he put an ad in a newspaper in the uh san
01:34:20.800 francisco bay area in the oakland berkeley area and um the ad is probably the reason he never got what
01:34:26.520 he wanted he said he was uh individual seeking a squaw uh someone who could live a wilderness life
01:34:32.940 and essentially be told what to do and he said he was shocked takers he was he was he was shocked in
01:34:41.540 his journal because then he wrote it and i'm shocked no one responded so i i mean maybe i'm so smart in
01:34:50.120 some ways and not so smart in other ways now what about um there was some reporting that when he went to
01:34:55.900 harvard they did this experiment it was voluntary to take part in it but he was a young kid when he
01:35:00.860 started i mean 16 is very young to be at university um he participated in it was some sort of an
01:35:05.800 experiment to see how well you handled stress and criticism given to you like on a loop about you
01:35:12.500 about your writings and and some theorized this may have been a turning point you know like somehow it
01:35:18.680 drove him crazy what do we know about that well megan we know that's a theory he never says much
01:35:25.440 about it there's a there's another kind of companion thing that he was involved in some
01:35:29.440 unbeknownst to him some secret kind of experimental testing that the cia was doing in some places
01:35:35.440 using students uh but he doesn't really look at any of that as the reason uh that these things happen
01:35:43.080 he himself says people are going to describe all kinds of motives and all of these things to me
01:35:50.200 as the reason i'm doing this they're all wrong i'm doing this because i'm angry and i'm revengeful
01:35:57.820 and this is how i'm going to get even and that's really the strongest thing we have to go by everything
01:36:04.320 else pretty much falls back into the old fact fiction and theory but there's so many people out
01:36:10.040 there now because you know they have access to a lot of his uh library of journals and documents and
01:36:15.080 things and so now everybody is going to weigh in on what theodore kaczynski must be thinking but
01:36:20.160 as you mentioned does he take questions and does he get involved in discussions and
01:36:24.360 sadly in some ways the answer is no we'll never know for sure what's what's he what he's thinking
01:36:29.260 he hated technology he hated advancement he wanted rural caveman type living and really hated anybody or
01:36:36.180 anything that pushed for i would say now 21st century type advancements and i can't imagine what the
01:36:42.800 what the ted kaczynski of the bombing years you know 1998 minus 20 would have thought of twitter and
01:36:50.520 jeff bezos and bill gates and all of it uh i mean i'm sure i i know but so so final point looking back
01:36:58.080 now at the investigation and then comparing it against the real killer what what do you think were the
01:37:05.640 the biggest lessons learned i think the biggest lessons learned are uh kind of almost contrast with
01:37:12.660 each other first of all you have to follow the basics you can't overlook things that you would
01:37:18.020 do in any case whether it's a bank robbery case or anything else you have to follow the basics and get
01:37:22.380 them recorded and then uh remember what is important as you're doing that and at the same time you can't
01:37:28.680 be tied to a system which doesn't move fast enough to keep up with what you're trying to do and in this
01:37:35.300 case when you've got a bombing and then you could have another bombing and another bombing uh you've
01:37:39.820 got to be getting that information out and distributed and then assessing it uh a lot for a long time in all
01:37:46.540 kinds of cases the biggest criticism of the fbi is that it has all this information its biggest weakness
01:37:52.640 is it uh it doesn't really know what it uh what it has and uh because it has so much and so uh that is
01:38:00.320 what we try to overcome and uh so you have to be doing that but then the the other significant thing
01:38:05.520 that i think uh you see all through this and i think today it is true and it will always be true and
01:38:11.360 it was true before i ever became an fbi agent um we are nothing without the public without the help of
01:38:19.400 the public without the trust and support of the public and if we lose that and uh we can debate
01:38:26.120 how people may feel today if we lose that we're in trouble and that ought to be at the forefront of
01:38:32.540 every mind who runs the fbi works in the fbi at any level that if you lose that trust with the public
01:38:39.540 and you don't trust them to help support you and help you with these cases then you've got some big
01:38:45.080 problems law enforcement in a constitutional republic in a free country is about the people
01:38:51.480 and it's about teaming up with those people the fbi used to have an old pamphlet it was called
01:38:57.260 cooperation the backbone of law enforcement and by golly uh that was the basis of all of our media
01:39:03.860 of everything we did and if i had to do over i would have done it faster in greater quantity uh
01:39:10.260 and and by golly uh i would be educating everybody who ever walked into law enforcement
01:39:15.960 that it's about you and the public and they've got to trust you and you've got to depend upon them
01:39:20.840 and that's that's the kind of relationship we have with david yeah and that's where we are today
01:39:25.860 boy oh boy i have things changed since uh you were solving this case and have things
01:39:31.880 and how they need to change back the fbi is seen very differently now and you know what reading how
01:39:36.620 the media worked with you guys on the leaks and trying to protect the public made me think about
01:39:41.080 how the media has changed too and not for the better uh so appreciate your hard work you're
01:39:46.440 telling the story uh it's an honor to know you terry i hope you can come back too thank you megan
01:39:51.560 you too thank you very much on behalf of every other work this case all the best to you thanks
01:39:56.720 for joining us today download the megan kelly show on your podcast youtube.com slash megan kelly to
01:40:01.200 watch it thanks for listening to the megan kelly show no bs no agenda and no fear