by Waits, Chris
Ted was extremely careful about formulating precise plans to make "hits" on people who represented technological industries he hated.
One of his plans explained how to murder an oil executive.
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Kaczynski's typewritten letter to the FBI that followed the 1995 Los Angeles airport incident.
UNDATED JOURNAL ENTRY
How to hit an Exxon exec:
Send book-like package preceded by a letter saying I am sending him a book I've written on oil-related environmental concerns attacking environmental position—and I'd like to have his comments on it before preparing a final version of manuscript. Also put in the letter a disclaimer stating that the book represents my own personal views and not those of the company I work for. This gives a touch of realism and it also explains why the letter is not on the company's [letterhead.'^].
Ted had spent plenty of time working on every detail of his plots. Now, incarcerated, he had nothing but time on his hands. After his arrest, one project was to create a chart that showed the mathematical probability of his being found guilty.
But in some ways Ted was prepared even for being arrested. He had acquired a copy of a publication on civil liberties and civil rights with precise instructions detailing the rights of an accused prisoner.
Ted knew every right, and followed to the letter every trick, that the booklet spelled out—right through all the pretrial actions.
His manipulation of the court system eventually tested the patience of Judge Burrell, who after the plea agreement would accuse Ted of "trickery" to preserve his life; grandstanding "antics" to delay and disrupt the trial proceedings; "contriving conflicts" to affect the process; and staging an "alleged suicide attempt that was merely one attempt among many rational and ongoing attempts to delay the trial he dreaded."
The judge also described Ted's "conflicts" with his attorneys as "purposeful attempts to delay" and cause chaos in the courtroom.
As Dave once put it, Ted was running his lawyers, not the other way around, and he was upset when he discovered they were planning an insanity defense.
His defense teams reluctantly went along with everything, but what else could they do.'^
Christmas seemed to come and go in a flash and I hoped the trial would as well. I knew better, though. Dave had told me the state of New Jersey would become the site of a second trial. He said a federal magistrate had ordered this trial and also told the prosecution to be prepared for it in no more than seventy days, which allowed little time to get ready for such a complicated case.
A second trial would have its advantages for the prosecution: in the event of a hung jury or a mistrial, there would be another chance to obtain a conviction.
On Monday, December 29, Dave called and left a message saying he had something important to tell me and would call again. I missed his call the next day and then decided to work near the phone until he called again. The next day, Dave reached me.
His important new s disturbed me deeply. He said he was leaving
the Unabom Task Force, and transferring to a job as a firearms and weapons instructor at a military base near San Diego. Dave seemed sad to leave, but excited about the prospects of his new job. He'd miss coming back to Lincoln on the case but would return for a vacation later with his wife.
Dave would work on Ted's case until the trial was over, but I knew we wouldn't be able to stay in touch as we had in the past.
I asked Dave what his boss, Joel Moss, thought about his transfer. Joel seemed upset, Dave said, and asked why he was leaving and what they should or could have done differently to keep him.
Dave's answer surprised me. He told Joel there were numerous things they should have handled differently. He was tired that every word and idea he uttered had fallen on deaf ears, and still believed that he should have been allowed to remain in Lincoln the past July to explore my gulch with me.
He also told Joel the shroud of secrecy imposed the first summer (1996) sered no purpose, as I could have helped them greatly. Wbrking together we could have wrapped up all the details before the pressure was on. He then said he had gone to the trouble of building a relationship with me, which they cut off Yet the leaks they were so concerned about came from within their own organization.
I mentioned I had decided to do a short interview with NBC to clarify a few details about Ted, but the interview contained no sensitive information. He promised to watch for it.
Dave said he would call me again the following week, and we both agreed it was nice to get a few things off our chests.
The first Monday of 1998 dawned. Opening statements in the Kaczynski trial were scheduled to begin that morning. But shortly into the session Judge Burrell called both sides and the court reporter into his chambers and they didn't return until after 12:30 P.M. The jurors were sent home.
That afternoon I called Dave, to find out what had happened in the courtroom. He said Ted had wanted to address the jury, then was allowed to approach the bench and to speak to the judge privately. The on-the-record meeting lasted for four and a half hours. Ted told Judge Burrell he wanted to fire his lawyers because he didn't approve of the insanity defense they planned.
It was an interesting hut not surprising development, considering how led had written of his extreme concern about the public perception of himself and his ideas. After all, if his ideologv' was being advanced by a "sickie," then it would be easily discounted and cast aside.
On the other hand, if his ideas were perceived to be the enlightened philosophy of an intelligent revolutionarv; then Ted would gain respect in some quarters and possibly even develop a following.
Dave said it had been interesting to watch Ted during the short public court session. He refused to even look at his mother or brother, who were in the courtroom, or acknowledge their presence.
As Dave and his boss, Joel, were waiting for Judge Burrell and Ted to finish their discussion in chambers, Joel said, "That friend of yours, Chris, is going to be on T^ doing an inter iew,'' a comment that implied I couldn't be trusted and was going behind Dave's back.
Dave immediately shot that theory out of the water, replying, ''I know. Chris already told me."
There was no further comment, Dave said.
I asked Dave how Joel knew about the interview^ before it even aired. Dave said they had a public relations spokeswoman, Leesa Brown, who monitored evers' facet of the media, from tabloids to talk shows to mainstream television and newspapers. Besides finding out what was coming from the press, her job included making statements to the press regarding the trial.
Dave said he was busy and couldn't talk anymore, but that he would call again on Wednesday. He was soon to be in San Diego training for his new job.
Earlier, when I had asked him about the witness list, he said Robert Clears- planned to first lay the foundation for the case, then call expert witnesses—lab technicians, forensic analysts, and agents involved with the investigation and arrest—and finally call civilian witnesses to the stand. The flow^ and direction of the trial would determine when and who would be called.
My thoughts during those early days in Januarv' were often directed to Ted, trying to understand his adult life between his move to Montana in 1971 and the fight for his life in a courtroom.
Some of the things I had learned about my friend and neighbor of twentv-five vears were incredible, to sav the least.
It still stunned me to feel I had been blind to what was going on right under my nose, especially when it came to his bombs.
In scientific fashion, he had developed them from crude devices into sophisticated, anti-personnel weapons. Included with detailed design diagrams were test results, charting the impact of different components.
He calculated mathematically the heat transfer on the bridge wire in
side his home-built detonator caps. He tested different types of detonator designs, chemical mixtures used in the devices, and different currents supplied for the batteries used, e.g., 9 volt; 1.5 volt C cell, and 1.5 volt D cell.
He field tested prototypes and calculated results like the distances of fragmentation, weighing different designs and various types of shrapnel. Using all this information, he could determine the effective killing zone of each type of device or detonator built.
He was extremely careful with the shrapnel he used, burning and soaking every piece in acid to destroy any traceable marks.
Ted achieved technological breakthroughs in some of his later devices by experimenting with explosive mixtures and detonators until he discovered lethal combinations that more than doubled the deadliness of a device while maintaining or reducing the weight of the finished bomb.
He learned how to eliminate the heavy, cumbersome, and more easily detected metal pipe and produce more easily packed and concealed bombs. The shrapnel in these was made of untraceable materials.
Even when he still used pipe, Ted learned how to make the bombs explode with greater fragmentation, causing more damage. His designs show^ed a gradual learning curve, the result of continuing experiments.
He obviously was obsessive about the very technology he loathed as he built and tested his devices right under my nose.
The whole case had dominated my thoughts since Ted's arrest, but it was so bizarre and unreal that at times I had to pinch myself to determine if it was real or nothing more than a bad dream.
The more I thought about the bombs, the more often strange incidents from the past popped up. My mind seemed to be making endless correlations, Ted things that were puzzling at the time, things I hadn't thought about for years.
For example, I remembered an ineident related by a delivery' truck dri cr. c knew Ted and I were friends, he'd seen me talking with Ted.
The drier told me one day he had delivered a package to Ted. It was the first and only time he ever had one for Ted.
Surprisingly, Ted opened the package right in front of him. It contained a blood pressure monitor from a hospital or doctor's office in Missoula. Ted grabbed the instrument, wrapped it around his arm, pumped it a little bit, and replied, "This should work." He smiled, removed it, placed it back in its box and then walked off
The incident had always been an enigma to me. Ted was health conscious, there's no doubt about that, and he tried to take care of himself physically. But buying a blood pressure monitor, especially from a health care provider instead of a more economical source.'^
I found out later he was taking his own blood pressure on a regular basis. He thought his heart was going bad, especially when he was consumed with anger.
FROM CODED JOURNAL
...MOTORCYCLE AND SNOWMOBILE FIENDS.THEnVOULDBUZZ UPANDDOWN ROADPASTMY CABIN ON MOST WEEKENDS,SUMMERANDWINTER.LAST SUMMER SEEMEDTHEYWEREWORSE THAN USUAL.SOMETIMES MADE IT a3da^veekend.when THEYWERENOTBUZZING UPTHIS-ROAD I WOULDHEAR THOSE CYCLES GROWLING ANDGROWL-ING OVER BY THEIR PLACE,ALLDAY LONG.ITWASGETTING ABSOLUTELY INTOLERABLE.MY HEARTISGOINGBAD.TAKES EXERCISE OK,BUT ANY EMOTIONAL STRESS,ANGER ABOVE ALL,MAKES IT BEAT IREGULARLY [^/V].ITGOT SO THAT THAT-CONSTANTCYCLE NOISEWASCHOKINGME WITH ANGER,HEARTGOING WILD.
Concerned about his heart, Ted wrote that during 1991 he went to see Carolyn Goren, a doctor of internal medicine/cardiology in Missoula.
She saw Ted in person twice and found nothing irregular about his heart or anything else, but prescribed a low dose and quantity of sleeping pills for stress and to help him sleep.
Ted sent her a record of his blood pressure readings every six months for the next five years.
But now I thought of another possible use for the gadget. What better piece of equipment to test an atmospheric pressure trigger switch.^ By the time he received the monitor, Ted had already attempted to use a barometer in one airliner bomb, unsuccessfully in that it detonated but did not destroy the plane.
Did he plan to use his monitor as a trigger switch.'^ At the least, it would be a handy and reliable way to test barometric or atmospheric pressure trigger switches in order to gauge how much pressure would be required to complete the circuit and detonate the explosive.
In his journals, he had complained about using a barometer to complete this function.
coded journal
dec29,1979.insome ofmy notes i mentionedaplan-for revengeonsociety plan was toblowup airliner inflight.latesummerandearlyautumniconstructed-device.much expense,becausehadto gotogr.fallsto-buymaterials, includingbarometerandmanyboxescar-tridgesforthepowder.iputmorethanaquartof-smoke lesspowderinacan,riggedbarometersodevicewould-explodeat2000ft.orconceivablyashighas3500ft.due-tovariationofatmosphericpressure.late oct.mailed-packagefromchicagoprioritymailsoitwouldgobyair.u nfortunatelyplanenotdestroyed,bombtooweak.new
SPARER SAID\AS"L0WP0WERDEICE".SURPRISEDME.
Scientifically, Ted analyzed the problem. "Possible explanations...defective barometer. Light touch of barometer needle on contact not absolutely reliable in transmitting current. I will try again if I can get a better explosive. At least I gave them a good scare."
Where is the blood pressure monitor now.'^ It wasn't in his cabin, and to date it is missing. Did Ted create a device from it that is still out there somewhere in a deadly state of limbo.'^ Or did he dismantle the monitor and use the parts.^
One thing for certain, Ted did write he would again attempt to
blow up an airliner once he came up with a better and more powerful expl()sie. The bomb found under his bed, marked as a Newell C'.hannel Reamer, certainly could have been designed for such a commercial plane.
On Wednesday, January 7, NBC began airing my interview early in the morning on loday. I wasn't able to watch the piece, but they sent me a tape.
It was apparent when it had aired, though, because of an immediate increase in phone calls from the media, which I aoided.
Wednesday afternoon, Dave called and said opening statements were now scheduled for the next day, Thursday, January 8. Ted was in court as we were speaking, in a private meeting with Judge Burrell where the judge was trsing to convince him to keep his present counsel. Dave and I agreed it was just another attempt to delay the trial.
Robert Clears' was hoping the judge would make his ruling on the admissibility of the unchargeable offenses before the trial resumed, so he'd be able to choose between his two opening statements.
Dave said he hoped the judge would get the issues regarding Ted's lawyers resolved that afternoon.
"They just don't get it," he said.
Ted's refusal of an insanity plea made perfect sense to Dave and me. Ted would rather accept the death penalty and go down in history as a martyr for his cause than spend the rest of his life in a mental institution labeled as insane.
The next morning, I received a call that Ted had tried to commit suicide by hanging in his jail cell. He was immediately placed on "suicide watch" twenty-four hours a day.
I had to wonder if it had been a serious attempt or just another ploy to delay the trial.
I went outside to clear my head with some good honest physical work—cutting firewood, milling boards, and working on one of my Cats. More than anything, it got me away from the phone. The whole affair had really changed our lives. Betty would no longer pick up the telephone for any reason and I didn't blame her.
That evening, while going through all the messages, I w-as startled to hear something new—a phone call threatening my family if I
cooperated with authorities further. It didn't intimidate me, though, and I was even pretty sure who had made the call.
"Don't you dare go and confront them! Just let it go, they're not worth it," Betty said.
I had to agree, but how dare they try to intimidate me.'^
"Turn it over to your friends in the FBI," she said.
That was a good idea.
A few days after Ted had staged his suicide attempt the thing I feared most happened. On Wednesd
ay, January 14, the defense learned from an unnamed media source that Ted's secret cabin had been found.
I dreaded the stampede that would ensue.
I thought about the buried caches of ammunition and food I had uncovered barely two weeks earlier and wondered if that would leak out, too. The agent I had shared the most information with was Dave, because I was trying to get him back to Montana to finish the job with me.
I really only wanted to turn things over to him, but now he was gone except for his contributions to the trial. I knew it was only a matter of time before other agents would want all the evidence from the secret cabin and caches.
And, the very next day, Thursday, January 15, Helena-based FBI agents Tom McDaniel and Terry Wade drove up to pick up the items from the cache and other evidence.
It wasn't a shock, since we had played phone tag during the last couple of weeks. I had mentioned it to Dave, knowing the purpose of their calls.
"At least they can't say you haven't been returning their calls," he replied.
Before the agents arrived, my friend Bobby Didriksen called and said they were in Lincoln looking for me.
None of the evidence was at home, but was safely protected. I didn't want to withhold anything, but I knew I wanted to talk to Dave before making any move.
A w^hite Ford Bronco show^ed up in my yard and the two agents got out.
Both were nice. Tom, the senior agent, and I talked about some mutual friends. After inviting them in and visiting for the better part
of two hours, I said I knew why they came, but I wasn't prepared to turn over the evidence yet. I had been working closely with Da e and needed to talk to him first, and also, the things they wanted weren't at home and would hae to be retrieved from the place where I had them hidden.
I told Tom I wasn't refusing to give up the items, but I wanted to be careful and get Dave's advice. Mistrust had developed between others on the Unabom Task Force and me, and because of the way I had been treated regarding the secret cabin, I didn't want a repeat of events. Tom understood.