A manual typewriter found in Theodore J. Kaczynski's shack appears to be the one the Unabomber used to type his letters and his grand manifesto about the evils of technology, a federal official said Friday.
That apparent link between Kaczynski and the mastermind of the 18-year bombing spree came as federal agents spent a third day searching the tiny cabin and an outbuilding in the wilderness near Lincoln.Kaczynski, 53, was charged Thursday with possessing bomb components found in his cabin. The former Berkeley math professor was held without bail in a Helena jail under a suicide watch and decided Friday he did not want a preliminary hearing or a bail hearing.
Michael Donahoe, Kaczynski's court-appointed lawyer, said his client will wait for the federal grand jury to convene April 17 and decide whether to indict him.
The charge filed Thursday made no mention of attacks by the Unabomber, who has killed three people and injured 23 in nine states; the charge is intended simply to keep Kaczynski in custody while investigators build their case.
Kaczynski could get the death penalty if convicted under federal law of sending a mail bomb that kills.
Two manual typewriters were taken from the cabin and were being analyzed at FBI headquarters in Washington, but "it looks like the manifesto and the letters from the Unabomber were typed on" one of them, according to the official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We'll know for sure after the detailed lab analysis."
The Unabomber's 35,000-word manifesto and letters to newspapers "were all typed on the same machine," the official said. "We believe he did that intentionally as a way for us to know the communications were au-then-tic."
Experts can trace a document to a specific typewriter by studying minute variations in the positioning and shapes of letters, which change over time as typewriters wear.
The Unabomber's treatise on the inhumanity of industrial society was published last year by the New York Times and the Washington Post in the Post. The Una-bomber promised to stop trying to kill if the treatise was published. No bombings have occurred since.Kaczynski was taken into custody Wednesday as federal agents searched his cabin 50 miles northwest of Helena. They staked out the cabin for several weeks after Kaczynski's mother and brother pointed authorities to him when they found old writings they believed were similar to the Una-bomber's manifesto.
A federal agent said the search of the hand-built 10-by-12-foot cabin was going slowly for fear of booby traps.
Federal agents already have found a bomb workshop in the cabin, including a partially assembled pipe bomb, chemicals and 10 three-ring notebooks filled with meticulous notes and sketches of explosives and electrical circuitry.
In jail, Kaczynski is watched constantly in his cell by a deputy looking through a large window, Sheriff Chuck O'Reilly said. O'Reilly said a suicide watch is normal in high-profile cases, and Kaczynski has shown no suicidal tendencies.
Kaczynski has been cooperative with jailers and spends much of his time pacing in his cell, O'Reilly said. He is kept apart from other inmates and is eating his meals, the sheriff said.
Investigators haven't said how Kaczynski, described by neighbors as going everywhere on foot or on an old bicycle, could have mailed bombs from locations including San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Sacramento and Chicago and gotten to other cities were bombs were left.
Another question is whether Kaczynski had the money to make such trips. Neighbor Butch Geh-ring said Kaczynski refused to say how he made a living, but he recalled him saying once that his cost of living had risen to $300 from $200 per year.
Gehring, who owns a lumber business in Lincoln, said he hired Kaczynski a decade ago to peel logs, but Kaczynski did not like the job and quit on his first day.
Kaczynski's only means of transportation was an old bicycle, and his cabin has no electricity or running water, a lifestyle that appears to match the Unabomber's aversion to modern society and technology described in the manifesto.
Records filed with the Lewis and Clark County appraiser's office indicated Kaczynski qualified for a property tax credit because he earned less than $15,000 a year. Officials would not allow reporters to look at the documents that list the amount and sources of his income.