In the root cellar of his hand-built cabin, Unabomb suspect Theodore Kaczynski stored the turnips and potatoes he needed to get him through the winter. But among some 40 packages stuffed into the cabin’s cramped loft, Kaczynski kept his intellectual sustenance.
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There, investigators found what they believe is an early draft of the Unabomber’s 35,000-word diatribe against technology.
Authorities called the manuscript the strongest link in a growing chain of evidence that connects the reclusive former math professor to the mail bombings that have killed three people and wounded 23 others since 1978.
Found within days of Kaczynski’s April 3 arrest, the papers were flown immediately to the FBI evidence lab in Washington and were still undergoing tests Friday, a federal official said. Preliminary tests matched the manuscript to one of the typewriters removed from the cabin, officials said.
Agents also have interviewed several people in Lincoln, Mont., who said they sold Kaczynski paper and carbon sheets that preliminary tests indicate could match the draft manuscript.
Kaczynski, 53, is being held on a single count of possessing bomb components as authorities prepare their case against him.
His court-appointed attorney Mike Donahue did not return calls requesting comment Friday.
The manifesto, entitled “Industrial Society and Its Future,” was published in September by The Washington Post and The New York Times after consultation with the Justice Department. The Unabomber had demanded publication as his price for ceasing his string of fatal bombing attacks.
The densely worded treatise, which calls for a return to “wild nature,” was central to identifying Kaczynski. His brother David Kaczynski contacted the FBI after reading the published manifesto and matching it to family letters sent by Theodore Kaczynski.
In order to convince authorities that his communications were authentic, the Unabomber used only one typewriter for the manuscript and for his taunting letters to newspapers and to victims, officials said Friday. He wanted to distinguish himself from possible copy-cats, authorities believe.
From 1985 on, the Unabomber signed most of his letters with the initials he carved into his bombs and used for the manuscript: “FC,” which he said stood for a revolutionary brigade called the Freedom Club.
The club had only one member, investigators said.
If charged under federal statutes as the Unabomber, Kaczynski could face capital punishment for the 1994 killing of public relations executive Thomas Moser and the 1995 death of timber lobbyist Gilbert Murray in Sacramento, because both killings happened after the federal death penalty statute took effect.
Moser, a father of four who had recently been promoted to general manager at the Young & Rubicam public relations firm, was killed when he opened a videocassette-sized letter bomb that blew a two-foot crater in the formica counter of his North Caldwell, N.J., family kitchen.
The bomb was in a hand-crafted box made of four types of wood, authorities said.
The Unabomber explained in a later letter that the public relations firm developed “techniques for manipulating peoples’ attitudes.”
Murray, a father of two, was preparing to attend an academic and athletic award ceremony for his oldest son when he opened a package addressed to a former official of the timber lobbying association for which he worked.
Kaczynski remains under round-the-clock observation in a Helena jail cell about 60 miles from the remote 1.4-acre parcel he and his brother bought in 1971.
Lewis & Clark County Sheriff Chuck Reilly said Friday that Kaczynski is cooperating with guards and has become “a model prisoner” who is grateful for the books and magazines authorities have provided him.
Alone in a prison gym, he plays basketball, Reilly said.
Kaczynski, who is on suicide watch although he has made no attempt at taking his own life, is not allowed any visitors except his lawyers.
Donahue on Friday was assigned a second public defender, Anthony R. Gallagher of Great Falls, to assist in preparing the complex case.
Reilly said that while there have been numerous requests from the media to interview Kaczynski–all of them denied–there have been no similar requests from any members of his family.
“Mr. Kaczynski is probably eating the best food he has had for some time” the sheriff added.
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From the crude, unlit cabin, agents also recovered handwritten notes in Spanish and English that describe chemical compounds that could be used in making bombs, as well as containers of potassium chlorates, lead and silver oxide–chemicals which are commonly used in explosives, a federal official said Friday.
The FBI crime lab has spent “thousands and thousands of hours” combing through the residue of previous Unabomber explosions, and done “an extraordinary amount of forensic examination of the residue of evidence” an official said.
Lab technicians have expressed confidence that these materials can also be matched to those discovered in the remote cabin.
The Justice Department has assembled a six-member team of prosecutors to bring its case against the Unabomber suspect.
FBI agents have found evidence from the cabin directly linking Kaczynski to some of the bombings. They declined to pinpoint which of the 16 attacks the evidence involved.
John O’Brien reported this story from Helena and David Jackson from Washington, D.C.