Unabomber Suspect in Custody

The Harvard alumnus who is the FBI's prime suspect in the 17-year Unabomber case left a life in academics to become what people in the rural town of Lincoln, Montana, call a "hermit."

Theodore J. Kaczynski '62, who was an assistant mathematics professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s, is allegedly responsible for at least two murders and a slew of casualties since 1978.

Kaczynski lives outside Lincoln, Mont., in an isolated cabin without running water, electricity or a car.

After he was turned in by his family as a possible suspect, federal agents yesterday prepared to search Kaczynski's house.

Kaczynski's brother, a Washington-based attorney, turned him in to the FBI earlier this year after the family stumbled upon some of Kaczynski's writings in their suburban Chicago home.

The Montana Justice Department yesterday said a closure order, signed by an FBI agent, had been issued for airspace within a five-mile radius of Lincoln.

Lincoln, a peaceful town of roughly 1,500 residents nestled in the middle of the Rocky Mountains and bordering a wilderness area, has been crawling with activity since the news broke. People who work and live in the area say they are shocked that Kaczynski, a man no one really seems to know, is at the center of a riveting federal investigation.

A Quiet and Polite Man

During the summer, Kaczynski rides his bike into town and stops at Garland's Town & Country once or twice a week.

Teresa L. Brown, a Lincoln resident who works as a sales clerk at the store, says she has chatted with Kaczynski. He has bought fishing gear and asks here what bait is likely to work at a particular time of year. He has occaisionally purchased candles, batteries, a flashlight and a bag to carry things back to his cabin.

Brown describes Kaczynski as "a quiet, shy, very polite man" who always came into the store by himself.

"He's just such a nice guy," she says. "It's really surprising if he's the one. He's really the last person you would expect. He's really soft spoken. I just would never expect something like that out of him."

Brown and other people in Lincoln say they don't think Kaczynski is employed or owns a car.

Kaczynski was a mathematics concentrator at Harvard in the 1960s.

"I think he was a pretty good math major. I knew the name, and I knew of him," says Donald P. Ballou '62, a fellow mathematics concentrator.

Kaczynski went on to become an assistant professor at Berkeley, specializing in complex variables.

He resigned in June 1969 and apparently gave up math, according to the department chair from the late 1960s.

Although Heather A. Bickel, a receptionist at Hi Country Beef Jerkey, the largest company in Lincoln, which employs about 45 people, says everyone in the town basically knows their neighbors, Bickel says she doesn't know of anyone that knows Kaczynski.

"[Kaczynski's] house is probably seven or eight miles out of town, back in the woods all by itself," Bickel says. "I've seen him and that's about it."

The only other people who have cabins near Kaczynski on Stemple Pass Road are summer visitors who move out during the rest of the year, she says. The secluded cabins don't have phones, and Kaczynski's phone number is unlisted.

At Montana Al's Silver City Bar about 30 miles from Lincoln, no one recognizes Kaczynski's name, according to bartender Jim D. Thomas.

"It doesn't ring a bell to me, and I've been tending bar here for four years," Thomas says. "There's a lot of people that come into this bar."

A Mountain Town

Lincoln is a close-knit community that isn't frequently bothered by crime, according to residents. Fly fishing is a big sport among the area's citizens, many of whom are retired, seasonal visitors.

The town has its own elementary and high schools, a few grocery and convenience stores, a library and a police department.

The area's commerce centers on the lumber industry, which is note-worthy because the FBI says the Unabomber made his painstakingly polished bombs out of wood.

According to the Associated Press, the Unabomber seems fascinated by wood. He mixes his own chemicals from materials scraped out of fire-crackers and builds the electrical switches himself.

The Unabomber often carves bomb parts out of wood instead of buying easily available metal pieces. He boxes his videocassete-sized devices in wood, sometimes using four varieties. In the past, he has autographed the bombs with the intials FC.

A Deadly 17-Year Spree

The FBI has been hunting the Unabomber since 1978, when his first bomb exploded at Northwestern University. At least two people died and 23 were injured in 15 subsequent attacks. The most recent attack killed a Sacramento, Calif. timber industry executive on April 25, 1995.

The Unabomber appears to be disillusioned with science and industry and has written treatises on the inhumanity of industrial society, according to the Associated Press.

The victims have been university professors, particularly in engineering departments and executive in the aviation industry and computer stores.

Last fall, the FBI persuaded The New York Times and The Washington Post to publish the Unabomber's 35,000-word treatise after he promised to stop planting bombs. There have been no bombings since the treatises were published.

Andrew S. Chang, Colleen T. Gaard, Anne C. Krendl, Valerie J. MacMillan and Nicholas K. Mitrokostas contributed to the reporting of this story.

Brown and other people in Lincoln say they don't think Kaczynski is employed or owns a car.

Kaczynski was a mathematics concentrator at Harvard in the 1960s.

"I think he was a pretty good math major. I knew the name, and I knew of him," says Donald P. Ballou '62, a fellow mathematics concentrator.

Kaczynski went on to become an assistant professor at Berkeley, specializing in complex variables.

He resigned in June 1969 and apparently gave up math, according to the department chair from the late 1960s.

Although Heather A. Bickel, a receptionist at Hi Country Beef Jerkey, the largest company in Lincoln, which employs about 45 people, says everyone in the town basically knows their neighbors, Bickel says she doesn't know of anyone that knows Kaczynski.

"[Kaczynski's] house is probably seven or eight miles out of town, back in the woods all by itself," Bickel says. "I've seen him and that's about it."

The only other people who have cabins near Kaczynski on Stemple Pass Road are summer visitors who move out during the rest of the year, she says. The secluded cabins don't have phones, and Kaczynski's phone number is unlisted.

At Montana Al's Silver City Bar about 30 miles from Lincoln, no one recognizes Kaczynski's name, according to bartender Jim D. Thomas.

"It doesn't ring a bell to me, and I've been tending bar here for four years," Thomas says. "There's a lot of people that come into this bar."

A Mountain Town

Lincoln is a close-knit community that isn't frequently bothered by crime, according to residents. Fly fishing is a big sport among the area's citizens, many of whom are retired, seasonal visitors.

The town has its own elementary and high schools, a few grocery and convenience stores, a library and a police department.

The area's commerce centers on the lumber industry, which is note-worthy because the FBI says the Unabomber made his painstakingly polished bombs out of wood.

According to the Associated Press, the Unabomber seems fascinated by wood. He mixes his own chemicals from materials scraped out of fire-crackers and builds the electrical switches himself.

The Unabomber often carves bomb parts out of wood instead of buying easily available metal pieces. He boxes his videocassete-sized devices in wood, sometimes using four varieties. In the past, he has autographed the bombs with the intials FC.

A Deadly 17-Year Spree

The FBI has been hunting the Unabomber since 1978, when his first bomb exploded at Northwestern University. At least two people died and 23 were injured in 15 subsequent attacks. The most recent attack killed a Sacramento, Calif. timber industry executive on April 25, 1995.

The Unabomber appears to be disillusioned with science and industry and has written treatises on the inhumanity of industrial society, according to the Associated Press.

The victims have been university professors, particularly in engineering departments and executive in the aviation industry and computer stores.

Last fall, the FBI persuaded The New York Times and The Washington Post to publish the Unabomber's 35,000-word treatise after he promised to stop planting bombs. There have been no bombings since the treatises were published.

Andrew S. Chang, Colleen T. Gaard, Anne C. Krendl, Valerie J. MacMillan and Nicholas K. Mitrokostas contributed to the reporting of this story.