Since the 1980s the term "Unabomber" and the initials "FC" have been synonymous to federal authorities as labels for a terrorist bomber who eluded them for 18 years.
The Unabomber inscribed "FC" on handmade explosive devices that killed and maimed, and signed it on correspondence attacking "the industrial-technological system." It also was the signature on a rambling screed against the dehumanizing nature of modern society that was published by The New York Times and The Washington Post.Investigators have said it is an abbreviation of "Freedom Club."
Meanwhile, agents dubbed their quarry "Unabomber" because early devices targeted universities and airline employees.
Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski, 54, is identified in all charging documents as "Theodore John Kaczynski, aka `FC."'
Kaczynski's attorneys have never liked the prosecutors' use of the appellation, feeling it clashes with their client's presumed innocence and would prejudice him at trial.
In papers they have filed, defense lawyers have omitted the initials from the case caption - or title - found on all pleadings and orders.
The matter has drawn the attention of the federal judge presiding over the Sacramento case and appears to be coming to a head.
U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. recently ordered the government - "in the interest of uniformity" - to quit putting the initials on the captions of papers it files in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Steven Lapham filed a brief Friday opposing elimination of the initials from the official case caption.
In an interview Tuesday, defense attorney Quin Denvir said he will respond with a brief "suggesting ought to be struck."
Lapham said in his brief that the government does not oppose dropping the reference "in future pleadings for the sake of uniformity or purely administrative reasons." However, he said, "the government specifically opposes any attempt to strike this term from the indictment or modify the caption of the case."
Where an alias is an important element of the prosecution, case law allows its use in the caption of an indictment, said Lapham. "Not only is `FC' highly relevant to the government's proof at trial, but, as aliases go, it is neither inflammatory nor prejudicial," he said.
Lapham also filed a sealed declaration setting forth "the facts pertaining to the relevance of `FC."'
But, Denvir countered that "FC" is "the guy who committed the crimes," and Kaczynski "is not that until the government proves it."
"It obviously wouldn't be appropriate to charge him as `aka the Unabomber,' and this is the same thing," said Denvir. "There is no reason for this except to prejudice the jurors when the indictment is read to them at the beginning of the trial.
"It's a cheap shot that you might expect from a hotshot, but not from a team of experienced prosecutors working directly for the attorney general."
"FC" was carved on the end caps of the bomb that killed computer store manager Hugh Scrutton in 1985. He picked up the device - disguised as a wooden block with nails protruding from it - in the store's parking lot, mistaking it for trash.
The initials and the word "anarchy," found painted on buildings and a statue on the campus of California State University, Sacramento, indicated that the terrorist was at the school just days before explosions in June 1993 seriously injured researchers Charles Epstein of the University of California, San Francisco, and David Gelernter of Yale University. The names of Sacramento State professors were on the return addresses of those two mail bombs.
Kaczynski is in Sacramento County Jail awaiting trial in connection with Scrutton's death, the bombings of Epstein and Gelernter, and a 1995 Sacramento blast that took the life of timber lobbyist Gilbert Murray when he opened a package mailed to his downtown office.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)