Federal agents searching the cabin of Theodore Kaczynski have found what they believe is the original typed copy of the Unabomber's anti-technology manifesto - the clearest link yet between the Montana hermit and the Unabomber's 17-year terrorist spree, sources said.
Discovery of the 35,000-word manifesto in the 10-by-12-foot cabin where Kaczynski lived for 25 years dramatically strengthens the potential case against him, legal specialists said.Evidence gathered earlier in the cabin - bombs, bomb-making equip-ment, lists of occupations of some Unabomber targets, and a type-writer that analysts say matches some Unabomber mailing labels - painted a picture of a man who had the ability and perhaps the inclination to commit the crimes but was mainly circumstantial, they said.
"If it's the original manifesto, that's a true smoking gun," said former Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Ullman. "It looked like a strong circumstantial case, but obviously this will make it stronger."
Kaczynski, a 53-year-old Harvard-educated mathematician, is being held in a Helena, Mont., jail on a weapons charge. Federal prosecutors are debating when and where to charge him in the Unabom case.
Officials in two states, California and New Jersey, have lobbied Washington for the Kaczynski trial, because each was home to men killed in Unabomber attacks. Two of the three fatalities were Californians; one was from New Jersey. Twenty-three other people were maimed over the course of the Unabomber's 16 total attacks.
The manifesto makes direct reference to the 1994 slaying of New Jersey advertising executive Thomas Mosser, but Ullman predicted that discovery of the manifesto in the cabin would not by itself persuade prosecutors to try Kaczynski in New Jersey.
"The significance of the manifesto is it points to him," said Ullman, who is now with the Boston firm of Nutter, McClennon and Fish. "That fact that it refers to one case probably won't make a big difference in determining which state should hold the trial."
The manifesto, titled "Industrial Society and Its Future," was a rambling screed about how advanced technology and corporate mal-feasors were upsetting the natural way of life.
It was published amid much controversy last September by the Washington Post and the New York Times, after the Unabomber demanded that his views be aired or else he'd continue his deadly attacks.
At the time, both papers came under fire from journalists who felt acceding to terrorist demands violated the integrity of the press, and from anti-terrorism hardliners who feared that giving in to the Unabomber could inspire others to make similar threats.
But it now seems clear that publishing the manifesto provided the break in the case that agents had been seeking for nearly 18 years.
Theodore Kaczynski's brother David had taken note of the fact that so many of the Unabomber attacks had occurred in places where his brother had lived but had not seriously believed he might be the killer, a source close to the family said.
Last September, when the manifesto came out in copies of the Post, David Kaczynski, a social worker from upstate New York, sought out a copy to put his mind at ease. Far from reassuring him, the manifesto seemed distressingly similar to the writings of his brother, the source said.
Late last year, David Kaczynski and his wife revealed their suspicions to the FBI. After staking out Theodore Kaczynski's cabin for almost a month, agents arrested him on Wednesday, April 3.
Since then, they have moved carefully to search the premises, believing that the cabin might be booby-trapped. Each day brought new accounts of evidence found in the cabin, and federal sources said they were pleased with the progress of the investigation.
But the manifesto is the strongest link in the chain of evidence being forged by agents and prosecutors.
Justice Department spokesman Carl Stern Friday refused to confirm or deny any evidence in the case, but sources say the manifesto, along with the alleged typewriter link, bomb-making materials, and travel records placing Kaczynski near the sites of Unabomber attacks provide more than enough evidence to bring charges.
On Thursday, Attorney General Janet Reno appointed Robert Cleary, a respected veteran prosecutor based in New Jersey, to head the team of six lawyers handling the case. She emphasized that Cleary's selection did not mean the charges would be brought in New Jersey.
In addition to determining when and where to bring charges, Reno must decide whether to seek the death penalty for Kaczynski.