CNN - Bomb defused at Kaczynski's cabin

Bomb defused at
Kaczynski's remote cabin

Reporters tour suspect's property

April 7, 1996
Web posted at: 12:30 a.m. EST

LINCOLN, Montana (CNN) -- FBI agents Friday defused a live bomb found in the mountain cabin of Theodore Kaczynski. Investigators discovered the bomb after searching the Unabomber suspect's cabin in Lincoln, a federal law officer said Saturday. Agents said they believe the bomb had a specific target.

Kaczynski, a former university professor, is suspected of being the mysterious figure who police say has planted fatal bombs over a span of 18 years.

The U.S. official said that FBI agents are becoming convinced that the 53-year-old, reclusive Kaczynski is the mastermind behind 16 attacks that have killed three people and injured 23.

FBI officials say that they have discovered a virtual bomb-making workshop inside Kaczynski's 10- by 12-foot cabin. They have also found two manual typewriters that agents said might have been used to type the 35,000-word Unabomber "Manifesto," a treatise denouncing technology published by two major U.S. newspapers.

The FBI has been X-raying more than 40 boxes found in a loft of the cabin before removing them from the site and sending them to an FBI lab for further examination.

Kaczynski has been charged with illegally possessing a destructive device and is in custody at the Lewis and Clark County Jail in Helena. The Justice Department has said that the charge would keep him in jail while prosecutors built their case.

'This was ... his hiding place'

The FBI Saturday allowed a group of reporters to tour the site of the plywood cabin, which sits at the end of a narrow, muddy road next to another, empty cabin.

The charred remnants of a campfire marked the ground in front of the cabin, which has no electricity or plumbing nor an outhouse nearby.

Parked by a shed were two rickety bicycles, one of which Kaczynski pedaled around town. And there were two gardens.

"It was certainly a place that I don't think anybody would want to live," said Reuter correspondent Martin Wolk.

Carol Wells, who sold the recluse kerosene and batteries over the years, said Kaczynski wasn't a full-time resident of Lincoln.

"This was not Ted's home, this was strictly his hiding place," Wells said. (79K AIFF sound or 79K WAV sound)

Another reporter described the scene as "very tranquil."

Suspect's family to hold press conference

An attorney for Kaczynski's family announced Saturday that they will hold a press conference Monday at the University Club in Washington.

Attorney Tony Bisceglie also asked reporters to give the family their privacy.

It was Kaczynski's brother, David Kaczynski, who tipped off the FBI that Theodore might be their suspect.

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