Typewriter found in cabin
may match Unabomber'sApril 6, 1996
Web posted at: 12:20 a.m. ESTHELENA, Montana (CNN) -- Two manual typewriters have been removed from Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski's 10-by-12 foot Montana cabin and are being analyzed at FBI headquarters in Washington, federal officials said Friday.
The FBI believes that one of them is the one used by the Unabomber to type a 35,000-word manifesto published last year by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
They say that letters from the Unabomber were likely typed on the same machine. Experts can match documents to the typewriter that produced them by analyzing minute differences in the positioning and imprint of typewriter keys, which often change as the typewriter ages.
The Unabomber's letters to newspapers and the manifesto "were all typed on the same machine," said an official who asked to remain anonymous. "We believe he did that intentionally as a way for us to know the communications were authentic."
The publishing of the manuscript -- an anti-technological missive about the inhumanity of modern society -- followed a string of bombing attacks attributed to the Unabomber. The attacks occurred across the country over a span of 18 years. Three people were killed by the bombs, and 23 injured. The bomber promised to end the attacks if the treatise was published.
Kaczynski was formally charged Thursday with possession of bomb-making materials. Officials said the charge would keep the former University of California-Berkeley math professor in custody while they continue to build a case against him in the Unabomber attacks.
Kaczynski decided Friday to waive his right to a preliminary hearing or a bond hearing, according to a spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's office. A federal grand jury will meet April 17 to decide whether to issue an indictment against Kaczynski on the current charge.
Federal agents continue the search of Kaczynski's remote cabin on a mountain 60 miles northwest of Helena. Agent Donald J. Sachtleben said Thursday that the FBI had found a partly assembled pipe bomb and 10 three-ring notebooks filled with "page after page of meticulous writings and sketches, which I recognize to be diagrams of explosive devices," Sachtleben said.
Agents say they have also found pieces of metal, pipes and chemicals which can be used to make bombs. Investigators are moving cautiously.
"It's going very slowly because we're not sure if it's booby-trapped," said one federal agent. "We have an explosives ordnance team X-raying everything before we touch it."
Federal agents began to investigate Kaczynski in the Unabomber cases after his brother alerted them to some papers found in a Chicago home where Kaczynski once lived. Members of Kaczynski's family -- now living in Schenectady, New York -- are secluded in their home.
"They have no intention of talking to anyone," said neighbor Bob Welch. "They are completely exhausted. They've had a terrible time and they haven't had any sleep."
Related stories
- Agents move cautiously in Unabomber investigation
- Unabomber investigation far from over
- Suspect not charged with Unabom crimes
- Bomb-making materials found in suspected Unabomber's cabin
- Unabomber suspect in custody
- Professor says Unabomber suspect had promising mathematical career
- Trail of bombings linked to Unabomber
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