All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S01E15_English

♪♪

I realized
it wasn't a nightmare.

I was literally considering
the possibility

that my brother
was the Unabomber.

♪♪

♪♪

Hey, everyone.
I'm Hill Harper.

The hunt for the Unabomber
was one of the largest,

most expensive
investigations in FBI history.

This lone wolf serial killer
put the nation on notice,

as his increasingly
deadly campaign of terror

expanded across the country.

Beginning in the 1970s,

the mysterious bomber
taunted law enforcement,

left no trace of his identity,

made no demands,
and evaded capture for years.

By 1993, the case had gone cold.

People had hoped
the Unabomber was dead,

but really,
he was just getting started.

♪♪

Reporter: So far, investigators
don't know who he is,

but they say
he's attacked people

all across the country
since 1978.

Turchie: There were never
any serious subjects.

There had never been
any search warrants served.

It was as close to being
unsolvable as a case can be.

The Unabomber disappeared
for nearly 7 years.

A lot of people thought,
"He's dead.

He's either dead or in jail."

Dornin: Then, in 1993, come two
savage attacks in 1 week.

Noel: A bomb appeared
at the residence

of a Dr. Charles Epstein,

who was an internationally
renowned geneticist.

Reporter: Violence
shattered the life of one

of the West's most prominent
genetic researchers.

It was a small package
in the mail,

and it blew up
with a vengeance.

Reporter: Epstein's arm
was maimed by a bomb

sent to his Tiburon,
California, home.

It was much more sophisticated,

and his techniques had improved
immensely in the past 7 years.

Then he struck again.

The second professor this week
is hurt by a mail bomb.

Turchie:
Professor David Gelernter,

computer scientist
at Yale University,

received the bomb
in his office.

We heard a man screaming,
and a couple seconds later,

I saw a man running,
with blood.

Dornin: Police said it was
a miracle that Dr. Gelernter

survived the bomb exploding
right in his face.

Now the Unabomber
had everyone's attention.

A day or so later,
at "The New York Times,"

an editor named Warren Hoge
received a letter in the mail.

Reporter: Someone sent a warning
letter to "The New York Times"

that claimed to be
from an anarchist group

calling itself FC.

The letter said,
"They call us the Unabomber,

and we want to let you know
that we're back,

and we're going to begin
a campaign of terrorism again."

Turchie: The attorney general,
Janet Reno, said,

"Enough is enough.

We have been chasing this man
for 14 years."

"We need to stop this."

She came to the director
of the FBI, Louis Freeh,

and said,
"I want a real task force."

Louis Freeh said, "Fine."

Candiotti: Until now,
the investigations

had been piecemeal
all around the country

where the different attacks
had taken place.

Dornin: The task force had to go
back to the beginning

to look through a new lens.

A 1979 airplane bomb gave
the FBI the first clue

that they may have
a serial bomber on their hands.

An American Airlines 727,

with 80 persons aboard,
landed safely today

at Washington's Dulles
International Airport

after a small bomb exploded in
a mail pouch in the cargo hold.

Reporter: Recovered with
the remains of the bomb

were batteries
and an altimeter,

apparently used to
detonate the explosion

when the plane
reached a certain height.

Turchie: Explosive
devices have a signature.

The FBI lab examiner took a look
at the components

and the bomb
and its construction,

and he was convinced this can't
possibly be the first bomb

this individual has built.

Dornin: They were able to
connect the airplane bomb

with two previous bombs
placed at universities.

Reporter: There were
similarities in the way

the bombs were made and sent.

Many contained
meticulously-carved wood.

Some were signed
with the initials FC.

June of 1980, we had
the fourth Unabomb event.

This time, it was a bomb
mailed to Percy Wood,

the president
of United Airlines.

He sent a letter
to the president

of United Airlines saying,

"I'm sending you a book
of great social significance,

and you must read it."

So when he opened that package,
it exploded.

Reporter:
The bomb was a small cylinder

placed inside a hollowed-out
section of a book.

He devised stratagems
for the victims

to be sure to open the device.

Reporter:
The case, code-named Unabomb,
has primarily involved victims

who worked for universities
or airlines.

"Un" for university and "a" for
airliner -- "Unabomber."

Cossack: It was the randomness
of it that frightened everyone.

It would seem to die down
for a while,

and you'd almost forget it,

and then, suddenly,
it would happen again.

Then, his most vicious bombing
yet, his first kill.

In 1985, which we turned around

and called "the year
of the Unabomber,"

he actually placed
or mailed four devices

in December of 1985.

We had our first tragic outcome.

Reporter: 38-year-old
Hugh Scrutton died

when he spotted a paper bag

by a dumpster
at the back of his store.

When he picked up the device,
it exploded.

Puckett: Hugh Scrutton bent
over something

that looked like a road hazard
and exploded into his heart.

Tuchman: It was unimaginable.

These bombs were now
getting stronger.

A man had died,
and people were scared,

but then the FBI got
their first break.

Noel:
In 1987, in Salt Lake City,

the individual known
as the Unabomber was seen

placing the bomb beside the left
front tire of an automobile

in the parking lot of
Cam's Computer Company.

Gary Wright is brutally injured
by the bomb,

but his secretary catches
a glimpse of the killer

in the parking lot.

Reporter: The first solid lead,

a bomb explosion
in Salt Lake City,

but a woman sees him.

Angular features, hooded
sweatshirt, aviator glasses.

The Unabomber has a face.

Candiotti:
Seeing that sketch of him,

with a hood pulled up
over his face,

with the big sunglasses,
and you thought, "He exists."

Puckett: One witness sees him
in Salt Lake placing a bomb,

and he goes underground
for 6 years and 4 months.

♪♪

Then in 1993,
he came back stronger than ever.

He sent two new bombs, very much
improved in size and lethality.

Reporter: Seriously injured,
geneticist Charles Epstein,

while opening a package
sent to his home.

Maimed, computer science
professor David Gelernter,

opening a package
sent to his office.

When the Unabomber came back
on the scene,

he had taken all these years

to build a more powerful bomb
in a smaller package.

Noel: He conducted fragmentation
experiments,

he conducted explosive mixture
experiments,

trying to come up with a bomb
which would kill effectively.

And his practice paid off.

The bomb he sent to
Thomas Mosser

was the deadliest yet.

Reporter: Authorities
say the bomb that

killed Madison Avenue
advertising executive

Thomas Mosser was the size
of a video cassette tape

and was intended for its victim.

Turchie: It was loaded
with shrapnel.

It had green panel nails.

When it detonated,
it blew with such force,

it put a hole
in a cast-iron skillet.

It was just a very devastating
explosion.

Reporter: Behind the casket
carrying the body

of Thomas Mosser

was the most important
part of his life -- his family.

We were shattered we had lost
someone else to the Unabomber,

and we still hadn't gotten him.

It's extraordinary
that somebody like Mr. Mosser,

such a decent human being,

is one day alive and living,

and the next day,
he's not with us.

It was becoming apparent that
this guy wasn't going to stop.

Turchie:
While we're working on trying
to pull all this together,

unbeknownst to us at the time,
the Unabomber was on a bus,

making his way to the Bay Area
with his most lethal bomb of all

that he'd built,
and the results were tragic.

Reporter: A nationwide search is
on for the so-called Unabomber,

who has been tied
to 15 attacks since 1978.

Puckett: There were never any
latent fingerprints.

There was never any
particle evidence.

In fact, he planted evidence
to mislead investigators.

He would actually wear disguises
when he went anywhere,

to pick up a piece
that was going to become

a component in his bomb.

Puckett: I had only
really seen that

in foreign counterintelligence

because spies have
to be careful.

They have tradecraft,
and this guy was making up

his own tradecraft.

Turchie: But while
he was doing that,

he overlooked one
very serious aspect of this,

and that was
the behavioral part.

You can remove forensic clues,

but you can't remove
who you are.

Puckett: It was obvious that he
was a reader and a writer.

His grammar, his syntax,

vocabulary
was someone who was educated.

One of the immediate things
we had noticed,

when we started working
on Unabomb as a task force,

were all of those bombs that
were placed in universities --

University of Chicago,
at Northwestern University,

and University
of California, Berkeley.

Not mailed to them, placed.

So someone felt very comfortable
being in those environments.

Tuchman: As they developed
a profile of the killer,

the task force turned
to the public for help and said,

"Somebody must know
who this man is."

Freeman: We kept coming up
with new things

to communicate to the public

to make them partners
in our investigation.

Reporter:
The investigation is beefed up.

Government ups the ante.

The reward now $1 million.

Turchie: But while
we're working on trying to

pull all this together,
unbeknownst to us at the time,

the Unabomber was on a bus,
making his way to the Bay Area

with his most lethal bomb
of all that he'd built.

Here we go.

-Here we go? Okay.
-Here we go.

Reporter: The bomb came
in the day's mail.

A receptionist handed it
to 47-year-old Gilbert Murray,

who tried to open it
and was killed instantly.

When the package came in to

the California
Timber Association,

Mr. Murray said, "I'll just
take it back to my office."

The results were tragic.

Reporter: The most dangerous
serial bomber in US history --

16 bombs in 17 years,
23 injuries,

and now a third death.

It was very frustrating because
you were doing all the things

that you thought
you should do,

and you weren't any closer
to solving the case

than you had been
2 years previous.

Tuchman: Then the Unabomber
reached out to the press

and said,
"I want to make a deal,"

and it took this case
in an entirely new direction.

Reporter: Along with the latest
bomb, he sent three letters.

The letter says the bombings
are the work of a group

that hopes
to promote instability

in industrial society.

The bomber says he will stop

if a long article he's written
is published

in a major US Publication.

He made it very clear,
"If you publish the manifesto

in 'The New York Times'
or 'The Washington Post,'

the terrorist group FC
will desist from terrorism."

Freeman:
He cases are solved when the
subject starts communicating.

Any time you have someone
that wants something,

they usually give away
a little bit of themselves.

Reporter: The Unabomber has
delivered a manifesto

to "The New York Times,"

in which he says he's killed
to get attention for his views,

claiming that technology
reduces human beings

and other living organisms
to cogs in the social machine.

There were themes about people
taking care of themselves

and living on their own
in the wilderness.

There were themes
about the police state

and all of this surveillance
going on in our country.

It is so passionate,
and it is so detailed,

and it is so specific
that the person who wrote it,

no doubt,
has mentioned this to someone.

He had stayed under the radar
so long,

he was now getting to the point
where he wanted recognition.

This was his Achilles' heel.

Turchie: The question became,
how are we going

to take advantage
of his offer, if at all?

Because at that point in time,

the United States had
a very specific policy.

We did the not negotiate
with terrorists.

Tuchman: A terrorist asks you
to print something,

a manifesto in a newspaper,
and you just do it?

Maybe this is the first step
to ultimately catching this man.

Freeman:
We suddenly have a potential
treasure trove of information

coming from the typewriter
of the Unabomber himself,

and we're going to not
be allowed to share that

with the American people
because of this policy.

Tuchman: Attorney General
Janet Reno asked the FBI

for a recommendation,
whether or not to break policy.

The task force said yes.

Reporter:
The manifesto of a murderer.

"The Washington Post"
and "The New York Times" today

bowed to demands
of the Unabomber

and published his manuscript.

The move follows urging
from the justice department.

The media coverage of this case,
after the manifesto was printed,

it triggered
an avalanche of calls.

Reporter: Agents have received
more than 15,000 calls

and still no luck.

Thousands of tips
were coming in,

but one family couldn't see
what was right in front of them.

You know, the family is so close
to someone who is very sick,

and you don't see that person
as a label in a book.

You see them as a unique
individual.

Tuchman: David Kaczynski
had worried about

his estranged brother
for many years,

but never dreamed
that he would be dangerous

to anyone but himself.

Cossack: Certainly,
the family suspected

him of being mentally ill,

but to take that next step

and say he may be someone
who is murdering people,

they couldn't see it.

So along comes his
sister-in-law,

who sees him much differently,

as someone who
could be dangerous.

Patrik: Every other day,

it seemed as though there was
an article about the Unabomber,

someone who hated technology,

someone who had some kind
of carpentry skills perhaps.

And then places
where the bombs went off --

San Francisco, Chicago.

It sounded like
David's brother, Ted.

Kaczynski: She said,
"David, do you think

there's any possibility,

even a remote possibility,
that your brother,

Ted, could be this Unabomber

that everybody
is talking about?"

I thought, "There's no way
my brother is the Unabomber."

I asked mom, "What's wrong
with Teddy?

Why is he like this?"

And that's when she told me,
for the first time,

about Teddy's
hospital experience.

Reporter: This Unabomber
targets universities

and high-tech companies,
and despite some leads,

the FBI has been unable
to catch the culprit.

It's someone out there
in the public

that has the Unabomb subject
living next door to them.

Kaczynski: From the time
I was a young child,

I had this realization
that my brother was special.

He was special because
he was so smart.

His IQ was measured at 165.

Cossack: Kaczynski
was a brilliant student.

He was a mathematical genius,
but always a bit off-center.

Kaczynski: Our family really
valued education.

We were told, "This is the key

to the future,
not only your own future,

but for the betterment
of the world,"

and so Ted could, like,
do no wrong in my view.

He came from a rather
middle-class family,

used to have family gatherings

where they all would play
different instruments.

Kaczynski: It felt like,
you know, the only place

Ted seemed really comfortable
and relaxed

was in sort of the cocoon
of the family.

Cossack: He was very shy,
painfully shy,

and what happened is,
in school, they would --

they kept skipping grades
with him,

and so he would end up
the youngest in the next grade,

and he's the smartest,

and so, socially,
he never really fit in.

Kaczynski: Being in a social
situation was difficult for him.

A close family friend

or a relative
would drive up to the house,

and Ted would look out
the window, see them,

and he'd, like,
run up to the attic,

and I think it was his fear
of social situations

that prompted me to ask mom,
"What's wrong with Teddy?

Why is he like this?"

And that's when she told me,
for the first time,

about Teddy's
hospital experience

at the age of 9 months.

He had a rash covering his body,

and he was admitted
to the hospital.

Mom and dad were only allowed
to visit him

every other day for 2 hours.

Mom said that when her
little baby boy

came back from the hospital,
he no longer made eye contact.

He didn't smile anymore.

He was like --
As she described him,

"He was like a rag doll."

Then she said to me,
"David, don't ever abandon Teddy

because that's what
he fears the most."

My father said, "You see, David.

He'll go off to college.

Eventually he'll get married
and have a wonderful life.

You'll see.
Ted will find himself."

Dornin: Ted Kaczynski was
accepted to Harvard University

at the age of 16,
full scholarship.

His family thought
this was going to be

the beginning
of a great future.

Amador: When Ted
arrives at college,

it's nothing like what he had
dreamed of and hoped for

because he felt isolated.

He felt different.

He felt rejected at every turn.

Tuchman: Ted basically became
a guinea pig

in an ethically dubious
psychological experiment

conducted by Dr. Henry Murray.

Kaczynski: They gave a kind of
psychological test

to incoming freshman.

They selected the people they
thought were the most alienated,

in effect, the most vulnerable,
for this study,

to kind of determine what
their breaking point might be.

Cossack:
Henry Murray was using students

to study the effect of stress.

He did that by subjecting them

to long periods
of intense interrogation

designed to break
down their egos,

to break down
their confidence.

Tuchman: They were asked to
write an essay

about their principles
and their philosophies,

and that they would be debating
them with other freshman,

but it was all a lie.

Amador: They were being lured
into an experiment

and to be ridiculed
by graduate students

who would dissect their beliefs
and attack their foundation

and try and tear
down their egos.

Kaczynski was an eggshell
of a person to begin with.

What had started out
as a little bit

of social awkwardness

turned into a lot of fear
and anger and certainty

that the world
was rejecting him.

Kaczynski: He's showing up
on the last day of class,

acing the exam, even though
he hasn't been to the class,

but he's in his room,
kind of going through this,

you know,
delusional paranoid process

of thinking people
are talking about him.

He sees a couple out his window,
walking across the street,

and they're smiling
and laughing,

and he assumes
they're laughing about him.

There is a kind of breakdown
of reality taking place.

It's really the beginning
of the full-blown illness.

He gets his PhD,
and then gets his job

on the mathematics department

at the University
of California, Berkeley.

He got a tenured track position
and then shocked everybody.

After 2 years, he quit and
went to live in the wilderness.

Cossack: So he leaves Berkeley
and goes up to Montana.

He wants to return to the land,
grows his own food,

hunts his own food, and lives
a lonesome lonely Spartan life.

Kaczynski: It's because
he's beginning to develop

this philosophy that technology
is actually very,

very negative
for human beings.

It's ultimately going
to destroy the planet.

It's going to take away
our freedoms.

Dornin: This is the beginning
of Kaczynski's radical

political departure.

He was breaking with society,
going off the grid.

Cossack: And the more
time he spends alone

in this little cabin,

the anger that has been building
up inside of him goes unchecked,

and this begins
to take a dangerous turn.

Kaczynski: I remember mom
and dad coming to me

with this letter
that Ted had sent.

It was utterly abusive.

It was angry.

Basically it was saying,
"I've been unhappy all my life,

and now I finally
understood why.

It's because, mom and dad,
you never loved me."

By the end of the letter,
he says,

"I don't want anything to do
with you anymore."

Amador: As he was trying to
understand his social isolation

and awkwardness
and inability to function,

like many people with mental
illness who are paranoid,

he started looking around him.

And who's around him?

The people closest,
so his mother,

his father, his brother.

Tuchman: David was the last
family Kaczynski had,

but when David fell in love,

it drove his brother
even further away.

Amador: David had the audacity
to get married,

and Ted cut off
all contact with him.

He took that
as a personal affront.

His dearest, closest friend,

his younger brother
who he loved.

Kaczynski: He said I was stupid,

that I was making
the biggest mistake of my life,

and, "You're no brother of mine.

I don't want to hear from you
ever again."

Dornin: David married Linda,

and then Linda started noticing
disturbing things about Ted,

things that his own family
couldn't really see.

Cossack: And it's tough to think
your brother is so mad

that he's a murderer,

and it takes someone
like a sister-in-law

who sees him as someone
who could be dangerous.

When David got together
with his mother,

they spent hours
talking about Ted.

How could they help Ted?

So I began to pick up that

there were serious problems
in the family.

Kaczynski: Linda, she says,

"Dave, you know
your brother is sick, don't you?

I mean, he's mentally ill."

Puckett: The hair on the back
of my neck stood up.

I thought, "Oh, my God,
this is him."

Welcome back to
"How It Really Happened."

By 1995, the Unabomber had led
law enforcement

on a deadly 17-year manhunt
with a rising body count,

but now he wanted recognition.

When the FBI,
desperate for a lead,

took the unprecedented step

of allowing his manifesto
to be published,

the bomber's sister-in-law
started to connect the dots.

Now his brother would have
to make

the hardest decision
of his life.

Reporter: The Unabomber's
manifesto, reprinted in

"The Washington Post"
on Tuesday,

arrived on newsstands a day late
in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Finally, the day comes when
the Unabomber's

manifesto is published.

I think I'm going to read
the first paragraph,

maybe the first page,
and I'm going to turn to Linda

and say, "See, I'm right.
This isn't Ted."

And instead, as I begin to read,

you know, there's just sort of
a tightening, a chill.

His jaw dropped the first time

he saw the opening page
of that manifesto.

I realized pretty quickly

I can't tell Linda
in good conscience

that it wasn't written
by my brother.

Reporter:
In other excerpts, "The Times"
quotes the Unabomber wanting to

"overthrow the technological
basis of society."

He describes himself as angry,

with no reason to abide
by society's moral code.

The ideas in the manifesto
sounded strikingly familiar.

Patrik: And for the next couple
of months,

we would read that manifesto

and compare it to the letters
that David had from Ted.

Kaczynski: Sometimes I'd be
reading the manifesto

and all of a sudden forget

and think I was reading
one of Ted's letters.

I thought, "Come on,
this is crazy."

I was literally considering
the possibility

that my brother
was the Unabomber.

Cossack: David Kaczynski was
faced with a terrible dilemma.

He had to weigh his love
for his brother.

It's against what we would all
say is the right thing to do,

but certainly not
the easy thing to do.

Kaczynski: I'd been told, I
mean, from the time I was small,

that I needed to watch out
for him,

to protect him,
never to abandon him,

and here I could be handing him
over to the executioner.

It was a horribly hard decision
for David to make.

Kaczynski: I think, ultimately,
we realized we couldn't control

what would happen to him,
but we could stop the killing.

Cossack: So the family hires
an attorney, Tony Bisceglie,

to assist them
in dealing with the FBI.

Mr. Bisceglie provided to me

four letters handwritten by Ted.

I took the material
to the FBI laboratory.

So, in effect, we tipped off
the government

and then didn't hear anything
for two or three weeks.

Dornin: There were thousands of
calls coming in,

and the FBI
was inundated with tips.

Many people wrote and called
and said their ex-husbands were

the Unabomber or ex-boyfriends
or ne'er-do-well sons.

It was amazing how many people

thought that they knew
the Unabomber.

People will say,
"Oh, oh, that was easy.

His brother told you
who it was."

Well, what most people
don't understand is,

60 other brothers told us
with equal fervency

that it was their brother
that was the Unabomber.

Reporter: Phones ring constantly
in the San Francisco FBI's

Unabomb war room,
some with tips, some duds.

99% percent of the responses
are false leads, unfortunately.

There's only going to be
one call

that's going to be
the right one.

Tuchman: While they were waiting
for a call back,

David found an essay that his
brother wrote decades earlier.

It had an incredibly uncanny
resemblance to the manifesto.

Flynn: I took it to our FBI
laboratory,

and I was almost
immediately told

that the typewriting
didn't match.

They examined it and said,
"Nope, it's not the typewriter.

Therefore, it can't be
the Unabomber."

Molly wouldn't give up.

She called the task force
directly.

[ Phone rings ]

I said, "I think you're really
going to want to read this."

Puckett: I remember looking down
at this paper,

and by the third paragraph,

the hair on the back
of my neck stood up.

I thought, "Oh, my God.
This is him."

It didn't take much more
than that, at first blush,

to realize there's something
really chilling about this.

Freeman: We were in agreement.

Ted Kaczynski was our
primary suspect.

Turchie: We're going to close
down every other suspect,

and we're going to go ahead

and turn the Unabomb task force
towards this one individual.

Noel: We had 2,417
actual suspects.

They're numbered
chronologically,

as the information
is received.

Ted Kaczynski's file
was number 2,416.

Dornin: The task force
sent agents

to Montana to get eyes
on Kaczynski

and to try to connect him
to each one of the attacks.

Freeman: It took us a good
60 days of nonstop,

7-day-a-week,
24-hours-a-day

gathering evidence that would
convince a federal judge

that we had enough
probable cause,

not for an arrest warrant,
which is what I wanted,

but for a search warrant.

Turchie: For example, check all
the hotels in Helena.

Bingo, he'd come into town
about 31 times

and stayed at a hotel there,

all before or after
a Unabomb event.

We felt we would be ready to
serve a search warrant affidavit

by the end of April.

But then our plans were
short-circuited by a leak.

Someone from the investigation
was talking to the press.

Turchie: CBS News essentially
has told the Bureau

that they found out
we're in Montana.

They found out we have
a Unabomb subject,

and they're saying
they'll hold off

unless their competitors
find out,

and then all bets are off.

Dornin: As the agents walked
towards the cabin,

they had no idea
if it was booby-trapped

or if he had guns inside.

Dornin: On April 3rd, 1996,
over 100 agents

surrounded Kaczynski's cabin
in the mountains of Montana.

Turchie: We're dealing
with a person

who has been killing people
with bombs for 18 years.

These agents,
as they approached the cabin,

could be in jeopardy
from something

that he may have
booby-trapped on the outside.

So we're going to have to be
very, very careful

in approaching the cabin.

About a 40-yard walk toward the
cabin, and we began hailing him.

We could see there was smoke
coming from the chimney,

and we were pretty sure
he was there.

Turchie: It was a very
dangerous situation.

The biggest concern was
that his cabin

is going to be a bomb factory.

We also had no idea
what he might have in the way

of weapons inside,

but remember, he's hunting
in the wilderness.

He's killing his own game,
so he has weapons.

As we got right up to the cabin,

Jerry went toward
the front door,

and we could hear
some shuffling around inside,

and the door opened,

and there stood Mr. Kaczynski,

and he started
to turn to go back in the cabin,

and when he did, Jerry grabbed
him and snatched him,

and Kaczynski was yelling
and hollering and what have you.

I was just elated at the time
to see him,

as awful as he looked,

as awful as his hair looked,
as awful as he smelled.

Noel: It was incredulous
to me that that's who

we'd been looking for
and who'd been avoiding capture

for all these years.

Puckett: The cabin was
a mother lode of evidence.

40,000 pages of writings.

Bomb-making materials,
chemicals, journals.

Puckett: And all of his
experiments

that led to the construction
of the bombs,

some in mathematical codes,
some in other languages,

details of each Unabomb event.

Tuchman: Everything in there
implicating

Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber,

the man they had been
looking for for 17 years,

all inside this little shack
in the middle of nowhere.

Reporter: The FBI agents hunting
for the deadly

Unabomber have detained
a Montana man

described as a hermit.

A neighbor identified him
as Theodore Kaczynski.

While the FBI was executing
the search,

they insisted on a total
lockdown of information

so that the case
wouldn't be blown.

Kaczynski: I had no inkling that
they were going to arrest

Ted on the day he was arrested.

I was specifically told,
repeatedly,

"You cannot talk to David.
You cannot warn him."

We turn on the TV, and a suspect
had been arrested

in the Unabomber case,
and his name is

Theodore J. Kaczynski
of Lincoln, Montana.

Reporter: Theodore Kaczynski is
headed for the county jail,

where he will be held as the key
suspect in the Unabomber case.

Kaczynski: He looked horrible.

I mean, his clothes
were tattered.

They were filthy.
He was bedraggled.

Man: Ted,
are you the Unabomber?

Reporter:
Kaczynski said nothing as he
was taken away in handcuffs.

Dornin: He didn't seem like
this could be a mastermind

of all these bombings.

He seemed like some
just bum hermit

that they had dragged
out of the woods,

which is what they did.

We began to hear
our doorbell ring...

[ Doorbell rings ]
... and it was like --

kind of like a dam
had burst.

There was satellite trucks
coming in,

and people were getting out,

and they were setting up
cameras on tripods.

And it's then that, you know,
the reporter on TV says,

"Well, Kaczynski was fingered
by his own brother."

There are unconfirmed reports

that his own family
turned him in.

Law enforcement officials say
they will neither confirm

nor deny those reports.

It really did feel like a kind
of living, waking nightmare,

not knowing how do we live
the rest of our lives.

I'm going to be the brother

of a notorious
terrorist serial killer,

and I'm also the guy who
fingered his own brother, a rat.

I finally got the call that
it was okay now to call David,

and I called him just as
the news was breaking,

and the television crews were
showing up on his front lawn.

Kaczynski: She said, "Is there
you could do for us?"

And I said, "The only thing
you could have done is --

you failed to do,
protect our confidentiality."

I was really angry.
I slammed down the phone.

It felt like a trust
had been violated.

I ended up hopping on a plane
and going up to New York.

By the time I landed,
media was everywhere,

and they had already besieged
David and Linda's house.

I didn't know what to do.

You're just a neighbor
coming by?

Woman: Yeah.

Kaczynski: The press was trying
to get interviews.

You know, this was
such a private,

personal,
painful story for us.

I didn't want to talk about it
with anybody.

Flynn: So I went through the
backyards to their back door,

and I could hear voices.

So I'm trying to tap
at their door...

[ Knocking on door ]

...while the media is out front.

Kaczynski:
Linda went to the back door
and saw a face she recognized.

It as Molly Flynn from the FBI.

She started to apologize,

and just her feelings
overwhelmed her.

I went inside and told them
how really unfair it was...

♪♪

[ Voice breaking ] ...and that's
basically what happened.

I started to cry with them
because I said

it's really unfair
how they were being portrayed.

They had only done everything
for the right reason, so...

Kaczynski: I hope that I can
somehow emerge from this ordeal

as a better person.

I hope that our nation's
criminal justice system

will find the courage and the
wherewithal to take a closer,

more understanding
and compassionate

look at the problem
of mental illness.

I hope that my brother, Ted,
will someday forgive me.

Reporter: So far, Ted Kaczynski
has refused to speak

to the brother who did what he
still believes was right.

Dornin: And we were all waiting
for that moment,

and finally, we're going
to see this guy in court.

Reporter: Just as court
was about to begin

with opening statements,
Kaczynski spoke out.

Ted stood up, and the bailiff
starts shouting,

"You're out of order.
Sit down."

Dornin: It had been
nearly 2 years

since Ted Kaczynski's arrest,

and finally, we're going
to see this guy in court.

Reporter: Unabomber suspect
Ted Kaczynski now faces

the death penalty
if convicted.

We were told that Ted didn't
want us in the courtroom.

I said, "Well, if it might
be helpful to the jury

to see that this man
has a family,

we're going to be there."

My mother and I wish
to reiterate

to the surviving victims
our deep sorrow and regret.

Reporter: Attorneys
for Theodore Kaczynski

have at least two goals
this week --

find jurors they're happy with

and get the judge to go along
with a key strategy,

a mental illness defense.

Ted Kaczynski's lawyers wanted
to claim he was insane.

Kaczynski wanted nothing
to do with that.

Reporter: Just as court was
about to begin

with opening statements,
Kaczynski spoke out,

saying he had a statement
he wanted to read.

Ted stood up and said,
"Your honor, I need to speak

with you very urgently,"
and the bailiff starts shouting,

"You're out of order.
Sit down."

Reporter: He told the judge he
wanted to defend himself,

that he could not tolerate
the strategy

of a mental illness defense

the court-appointed attorneys
planned for him.

The judge was inclined
to let Kaczynski defend himself

because he seemed
so rational in court,

but the defense knew
that was suicide.

Reporter: A January 7th
transcript shows Judge Burrell

saying Kaczynski
looked sane to him.

"I find him to be lucid, calm.

He presents himself
in an intelligent manner."

Amador: The defense asked me
to write a declaration,

to educate the judge
about the research.

I'm talking about
a brain disorder

that leads somebody
to misinterpret reality

and feel certain
that they're in danger,

and that they have to,
as he wrote in his diary,

"strike back."

Reporter: A defense psychiatrist
claims Kaczynski

is a paranoid schizophrenic
and suffers a brain disorder

that impairs his thinking
and behavior.

Amador: About half of all people

with certain
psychotic illnesses,

like schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder,

don't understand they're ill.

When the judge ruled
he couldn't fire his attorneys,

and he couldn't defend himself,

Ted took matters
into his own hands.

Reporter: The Unabomb suspect,

who resisted being labeled
mentally ill,

may have attempted suicide
in his jail cell.

Ted Kaczynski attempted to hang
himself sometime last night.

Kaczynski: I heard this news,
and I was just crushed.

I remember I was sobbing.

Tuchman: After his suicide
attempt, the judge brought in

a psychologist
to independently assess

Ted Kaczynski's
mental condition.

Reporter:
This week, the Unabomber suspect
must face what his attorneys

say is his worst nightmare --
an extensive mental exam.

His examiner, Dr. Sally Johnson,

will begin
testing Kaczynski Monday.

Sally Johnson comes back
in agreement

that this defendant
has paranoid schizophrenia,

that he's delusional, he has
no insight into his illness.

Reporter: But government
prosecutors want the judge

to block such testimony

unless their own doctors
can examine the Unabomb suspect.

That's something Kaczynski
has so far refused.

The issue of whether Kaczynski
would be ordered to submit

to an examination by me
was litigated for a year.

Finally, the court decided,
and he was ordered to see me.

I dropped everything.

On the way to the prison,
a phone call arrived

saying he had decided
to plead guilty

rather than meet with me.

He was afraid I was going to
find him crazy or insane,

and he didn't want that.

Reporter: Nearly 20 years
after he set his first bomb,

Theodore Kaczynski pleaded
guilty to a bombing spree

that killed three
and injured 29.

Justice could best be served
by an immediate guarantee --

and that's what we get
out of the plea --

an immediate guarantee
that the defendant

will spend the rest
of his life behind bars.

The Unabomber's career is over.

Kaczynski: In the end,
Ted got life imprisonment

without possibility of parole.

Ted would be put in a place
where he couldn't hurt others,

and his life would be spared.

Part of the tragedy
of this whole saga

is that our parents raised us
to be humanitarians,

and then Ted, this bright,
brilliant young man,

turned into a murderer.

♪♪

The hard work of law enforcement
and the tough choices

of a loving family
ultimately came together

and halted Ted Kaczynski's
reign of terror.

He is currently serving
four life sentences

at a supermax penitentiary
in Florence, Colorado,

where he has written
and published two books

on the dangers of technology.

David Kaczynski has continued
his fight

against the death penalty

and is active in spreading
public awareness

on mental illness.

David has written
to his brother, Ted,

every birthday and Christmas
since the trial,

but has never received
an answer.

I'm Hill Harper.

Thanks for watching.

♪♪