by Waits, Chris
On May 9, 1979, a disguised explosive device, which had been left in a common area in Northwestern University's Technological Institute, slightly injured a graduate student when he attempted to open the box and it exploded.
(After the first four bombs, the FBI organized the UNABOM task force, named for umvcrsky and a'uVmc bomhcx.)
When I read that the Unabomber's ninth device exploded at the University of California Berkeley on May 9, 1985,1 recalled the third week of May that year. While driving my recently purchased Blazer home on Stemple Pass Road, I saw Ted hitchhiking and picked him up. It was the first and only time I ever saw him hitchhike. He didn't know I was in the Blazer since he had never seen the vehicle. He was fresh off the bus, probably from Missoula, and was in a hurry to get home. He was carrying his small travel pack.
That bomb had detonated in a computer room at Cory Hall on the Berkeley campus. A graduate student in electrical engineering lost partial vision in his left eye and four fingers from his right hand. The device was believed to have been placed in the room several days prior to detonation.
Near the end of February 1987 my wife, while out walking with her dogs, surprised Ted where he was camped at one of our old cab-
ins about a mile up rhc i^ulcli. It was morninii; and cry cold. His tracks in the snow came from up the mountain, from the direction of his secret cabin. His beard was short, all new growth. He wasn't dressed for the w eather and was on his way back to his home cabin.
The I'nabomber's twelfth de ice had exploded at C^AAM's Inc., a computer store in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 20, 1987. Disguised as a pile of nail-studded boards, it was left in a parking space at the rear entrance to CAAM's. The bomb exploded and injured the store ow ner w hen he attempted to pick it up.
It should be noted that the Unabomber was spotted for the first and only time w hile in Salt Lake City. A woman saw him through a w indow at close range and a composite drawing was rendered from her description. He was clean shaven except for a mustache, w as w^ear-ing wraparound sunglasses, a gray hooded sweatshirt and light blue denim pants like those found in the secret cabin.
Authorities later speculated that the sighting stopped the Unabomber activities for more than six years. Now^ I wondered if Betty's encountering Ted on his w ay home increased his furtive behavior.
In late spring, May or June of 1993,1 attended two yard and garage sales and Ted w as at both, purchasing large quantities of old silver-plate flatw are.
On the twenty-second of June, a well known geneticist received a parcel at his Tiburon, California residence. It w as postmarked June 18, 1993, and later was determined to have been mailed from Sacramento. The doctor attempted to open the package, w^hich exploded, severely injuring him. It w as the Unabomber's thirteenth attack.
The fourteenth bomb was mailed from the same place on the same day, to the office of a Yale University professor and computer scientist. As he attempted to open it, the package exploded, severely injuring him.
It is significant these dates fall shortly after the yard sales. The explosive mixture in this later class of bomb included, along w ith other ingredients, metal powders—aluminum mostly, but silver as w^ell.
The silver, added to the aluminum mixture, w ould have increased the power of the explosive, and would have made the aluminum
• • •
$5 REWARD
WANTED BY THE
POSTAL INSPECTION SERVICE FOR
MAILING OR PLACING AN EXPLOSIVE DEVICE
THE US. l>OSTAt SERVICE MAY PAY A REWARD OF iff> TO$IK>fOOOFOR INFORMATION AND SERVICES LEADING TO TWE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF ANY P€RS
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IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THIS INCIDENT PLEASE CONTACT THE UNABOM LAW ENFORCEMENT TASK FORCE BY TELEPHONE CaLECT (801) 359-1917(24 Hr.)
impossible to track. It could also be added to the solder, rendering it untraceable.
The Unabomber's first devices had been quite crude; matchheads were the main explosixe. They were weak, because the matchheads would deflagrate (burn suddenly) instead of explode.
The second-generation bombs were better, but still weak. The main explosive ingredient was smokeless powder, obtained from various types of ammunition, including rifle and shotgun shells. This was an expensive way to obtain enough powder to produce a device. However, mixing the various types and brands of powder made the bombs impossible to trace.
The problem with a bomb of this type is that smokeless powder from ammunition also will deflagrate unless it's packed just right, totally sealed and then detonated properly
As the years passed and Ted experimented in the mountains surrounding our homes and studied the near-deadly impact of the bombs detonated in his acts of terrorism, he learned how to boost the power of his devices, which became much more sophisticated.
His third-generation bombs were very powerful. Extremely explosive mixtures were combined with powdered metal, like aluminum and silver, to produce a combination that could produce lethal results when sealed in a pipe or similar structure and properly detonated.
The fourth and final generation of bombs was by far the deadliest. Ted had achieved a major breakthrough by eliminating the need for a pipe. Now he built a detonating cap from copper tubing, and placed it in an explosive mixture that was filled with shrapnel. These bombs were lighter, less bulky (so more easily concealed), and twice as lethal.
The devices used in the later attacks, including numbers thirteen and fourteen, were of this type.
Common to all the devices was they were constructed from materials that were untraceable.
In the spring of 1993,1 moved all my heavy equipment home for the last time. Much of it was set up about a mile above my house in McClellan Gulch where I planned to operate a gravel business.
That summer thousands of yards of gravel were dug from the old
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With Kaczynski's key, the FBI was able to transcribe the code journal entries originally written in numerals.
miners' stone and ^ra el piles, washed and then sereened for arious construction projects.
Looking back, I can see how this acti ity within the confines of Ted's sanctuary—namely my ^ulch and the surrounding coimtry— would have had a disturbing impact on his psyche.
With each passing year
, the world was closing in on him, choking his need for solitude. The acti ity around the gravel plant and the daily noise of machiners' were things Ted could not tolerate. When the wind was right the grinding of rocks and grael, along with engine sounds, could be heard far off in the valleys and mountains.
He faced a dilemma know ing he was unable to follow his normal recourse, which was to destroy any intrusi e machines. Such a move w ould probably tip his hand.
I don't believe he thought I was part of the evil empire intent on destroying the country. He had listened to me talk too many times about my love for the land surrounding Lincoln and how I would always preserve my gulch. Even the gravel operation was a form of reclamation, an attempt to smooth out and level the mining scars left almost a century before.
He must have realized that if he alienated me in a violent verbal confrontation over the use of the machiner' he would most likely be banned from my gulch and the privacy of the place he loved so much. So I am now grateful for our friendship, even if it evolved into a friendship of necessity for Ted. He could have easily destroyed ever' one of my machines before I realized who was responsible.
Yet, knowing Ted, he probably plotted some type of retaliation.
While studying the dates of the bombings and related letters compiled by the FBI, I discovered an intriguing coincidence. Or was it Ted's revenge.^ Starting in June 1993, a particular date appeared once, then again and again.
The date was June 24.
My mind flashed back to a conversation Ted and I had about my birthday back on June 24, 1980. I had given him a ride that day as I drove home to clean up for a birthday supper.
June 24 didn't appear in his chronology until 1993, the same period I began work in my gulch on a larger scale. After 1993, the date appeared as follows:
AP Photo
Ted Kaczynski's tiny home cabin had one room, a woodstove, and neither plumbing nor electricity.
Photo by Michael Gallacher/The Missoulian
Kaczynski on the way to one of his first appearances in Helena's federal court.
Photo by George Lane/Helena Independent Record
One of the roads to Kaczynski's home cabin, blocked off by FBI agents just after his arrest.
Photo by Larry Mayer
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View to the vvest over Lincoln, Montana.
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McClellan Gulch, the nearby wild area that Kaczynski treated as his own Photo by David Weber/FBI
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Photos by Chris Waits
Above: By the time this photo of Kaczynski's root cellar was made, officials had fenced off his Florence Gulch home.
Left: Kaczynski's fair-weather shower.
Photo by Chris Waits
Kaczynski's home-built fence stile shows his usual mixture of scrounged materials.
Photos by Chris Waits
A typical Kaczynski trash dump, recognizable from the cans' jagged openings and attached lids and the fact that they had been burned.
Chemicals found inside Kaczynski's root cellar.
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Photos by Chris Waits
A buried food and ammunition cache.
Photo by Dave Shors
Residents of Lincoln built their Community Center in the 1910s, using Model T's to raise the eight log walls.
Photo by Chris Waits
Chris Waits' former shop where Kaozynski visited is now Waits' "true Lincoln Center.'
Photo by Chris Waits
Lincoln's Post Office.
Photo by Dave Shors
Photos by Chris Waits
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Above: FBI agent Max Noel, left, with Chris Waits exploring the gulch.
Right: Tasha, the malamute adopted to replace the first of Betty Waits' dogs that were killed, would meet a similar fate.
Photos by Chris Waits
Chris Waits' storage areas allowed him to recycle materials, but also provided "one-stop shopping" for the Unabomber.
A game trail through the woods near the secret cabin.
Kaczynski left tree blazes (left) that gradually would blend in and other blazes (above) that seemed like cryptic maps to special sites.
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Photos by Chris Waits
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FBI agent Dave Weber (right) and Chris Waits explored this old mine for Unabomber evidence.
Photos by Chris Waits
The old miner's cabin that Kaczynski cannibalized to build his hideout collapsed shortly after this picture was nnade, because Kaczynski hod stolen enough structural parts. Note the missing roof truss in bottom photo.
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Photos by Chris Waits
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From inside the old miner's cabin, Koczynski removed plywood (still in place at left) to roll up as chinking for his secret cabin.
Photos by Chris Waits
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Nearly invisible entrances to caves in the argillite cliffs, where Kaczynski stored materials.
This plastic container held solder and miniature wire connectors. Max Noel thought that Kaczynski had dropped it; Waits thought an animal had opened a cache.
Photo by Chris Waits
To the casual observer, the remains of animals that Kaczynski poached might look like natural deaths. This site is near Ted's "most secret camp."
Photo by Chris Waits
After months of disuse, the secret cabin was succunnbing to weather and aninnals. Picture was made days after its discovery. Plastic tarp once hod covered the roof; jeans were probably pulled out by animals.
Photos by Chris Waits
The secret cabin's homemade woodstove (above) photographed through roof timbers, and the piece of Phillips 66 can cut out for its door opening.
Photos by Chris Waits
Above: Going-to-town clothes were left to the elements, which included wild animals. Note fingerprinted brush handle at left.
Right: Gloves for bomb-building.
Photos by Chris Waits
Inside the secret cabin, evidence emerged as the ice and snow melted, including a serrated hunting knife. Duff on the floor is from the camouflaging branches that once covered the roof.
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Photos by Chris Waits
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Evidence inside the secret cabin was being destroyed for months before the FBI arrived, as the rodent-nibbled shirt below dramatizes.
Photo by Chris Waits
Only very close to the secret cabin can you begin to see the "ghostly image of horizontal logs in a vertical world of tree trunks.'
Photo by Chris Waits
Above: Chris Waits, left, watches as Dave Weber sites the Global Positioning Systenn unit near the secret cabin.
Right: FBI agents Max Noel and Dave Weber with Chris Waits.
Photos by Chris Waits
The secret cabin and a trademark can-burning site.
Photos by Chris Waits
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Above: Kaczynski's mountain-top view onto one of Waits' logging sites, bare and snow-covered when this was shot.
Right: Betty Waits and Bobby Didriksen.
Photo by Lorry Mayer
Low-level aerial of Stemple Pass area.
Photo by Chris Waits
Typical of the country Koczynski loved to hike.
Device #13, opened June 22, 1993. This device was mailed on the same date as Device #14, opened June 24, 1993;
New York Times letter, June 24, 1993. This letter was received by Warren Hoge, assistant managing editor for the Times;
San Francisco Chronicle letter, June 24, 1995. This letter was received by Jerry Roberts, editorial page editor;
New York Times letter, June 24, 1995. This letter was once again received by Hoge;
Washington Post letter, June 24, 1995. This letter was received by Michael Gretler
, deputy managing editor;
Penthouse magazine letter, June 24, 1995. This letter was received by Bob Guccione, publisher;
Scientific American magazine letter, June 24, 1995. This letter was received by an unknown person working for the respected science magazine;
Dr. Tom Tyler letter, June 24, 1995. This letter was received with a copy of the Unabomber manifesto by Tyler, who was working in the Social Psychology Group, University of California, Berkeley. Another copy of the manifesto was mailed to Washington Post 2ind The New York Times, also on June 24.
The June 24 coincidence continued when Ted floated a book proposal from prison. A story, published in the New York Daily News on June 24, 1998, and then picked up by The Associated Press announced "Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski is shopping for a book publisher from behind bars...Kaczynski's handwritten, four-page pitch arrived at Simon & Schuster offices earlier this month."