" _" " You said he had a personal philosophy, some message he's trying to send." "You were right." "Screw this up, we'll crucify you." "We need you to get into a room with Kaczynski, break him down." "Ted asked for you." "I need help." "They need me to get the guilty plea." "_" "You tell yourself that you're the ones in control." "They obey you, your technology, your machines." "But what would you do without your car, your telephone?" "What if all the airplanes just stopped?" "10 years ago, computers were expensive toys." "Today, civilization as we know would fall apart without them." "You live in terror of a blackout, a computer crash, a car won't start, a phone doesn't ring." "So you construct your lives, your whole society so that won't happen." "Everything revolves around their needs, not yours." "They buzz, you jump." "They beep, you answer." "So ask yourself..." "Who's really in control?" "You or them?" "_" "Hey, we just got handed a 56-page manifesto from the most elusive criminal in the world, something so important he wants both The Post and The Times to have it, and I just want five minutes in the lab to read it." "I'll gown up, I'll look over their shoulders." " It's five minutes." " There's a system here, a process, a process that begins with a compete forensic analysis..." "Thorough, unhurried, uncorrupted" " by meddling rubberneckers." " Yeah, I know, but it's a big break in the case, and I'm here to be a word guy, all right?" "You are here to wait and to do what you're told." "A big break in this case comes when we pull a fingerprint off one of those pages, when we find another Nathan R." "A single strand of hair would be far more valuable than anything you are gonna get from reading the guy's rant." "Well, "Dad, it is I"..." "He got that from reading." "Yeah, case friggin' closed." "We wait for forensics..." "A month, a year, however long it takes." "And meanwhile, if you want to see some real police work, step inside." "Fitz, dude, you got to check this out." "It's friggin' sweet." " You're up." " We analyzed the postal steam of the whole West Coast, and we traced the path of every Unabom letter and package from the moment it dropped into a mailbox to sorting and distro to final delivery, where we identified two critical choke points." "So, if Unabom decides to keep dropping his mail in the Bay Area, there is a 95% chance that it will be sorted through one of these two facilities." "Meaning that we train those handlers and sorters to identify a Unabom package." "Then we could intercept every bomb en route." "Never have to worry about a Unabom package again." "Cool, right?" "Yeah." "You still want to tell us about "Dad it is I"?" "Okay." "Logistically what are we talking about here?" "Okay, so you see 945 A and 945 B?" "Those are the checkpoints right here..." ""Dad, it is I" tells us he likes word games and puzzles, and that he thinks he's smarter than everyone, and that he can be sneaking on by us." " _" " It's kind of true, 'cause no one here noticed 'cause you all underestimated him." "He has problems talking people." "That's why he resorts to cyphers." " _" " And he's probably got Daddy issues." "Now," "I got all this from a one-page letter." " _" " Imagine what I would get" " _ - off a 56-page manifesto." "Oh, yeah." "Now, that's my partner, right there." "You'll get your 56 pages after forensics is finished." "Goodbye." "Yeah, it's Cole." "What?" "!" "Where?" "I opened a letter from the Unabomber." "You work at the San Francisco chronicle..." "You're the only person who touched this?" "I'm just an editorial intern." "I just open letters to the editor as they come in." "But I-I could have died." "I could have been, like, blown up or something." "Yeah, but you weren't and a lot of people might be, so count your blessings and shut up." " What do you got?" " Chief, you ready?" "It's bad. "Warning..." ""The terrorist group FC", called 'Unabomber' by the FBI, is planning to blow up an airliner out of" "Los Angeles International Airport sometime during the next six days." "To prove that the writer of this letters knows something about FC, the first two digits of their identifying number" ""are 55." Is that number a match?" "What's the number he sent The Times?" "What's the authentication number FC sent The Times?" "553254394." "It's him." "Trisha, get Director Freeh on the phone," "L.A.P.D. Commissioner, FAA, and alert Janet Reno's Office, and make it clear we have a potential mass-casualty situation." "When a letter arrived at a San Francisco newspaper threatening to blow up an airliner..." "They say it bears all the marks of the Unabomber." "Federal officials believe the sender is the terrorist who has been sending bombs..." "The Unabomber appears to be ready to strike again." "This time the threatened target is a jetliner flying out of Los Angeles." "Frederick Benjamin Isaac Wood, FBI Wood." "Uh-huh, but those were planes with depleted fuel tanks." " Return address 549..." " Here we're talking about fully fueled jetliners within a shrapnel radius of an explosive device of unknown size and power." "How much fuel is in a 747 that's about to take off?" "Phil, now tell me where we are on refraction beam scanners." " Uh-huh. right." "So now you see..." " No, it's got to be mobile." "You can't bring items into the airport to be scanned." "Jesus, Phil." "You got to do it on the runway." "We got to just do it plane by plane." " Unbelievable." " Okay, two-one breach..." "Lucas. hey, can I... can I borrow your pen, please?" " Thank you." " Two, one, three." "We're at about 30%, but it looks like all the big databases are up and searchable." "IRS, USPS..." "Social security?" "_" "_" "Do you realize what this means?" "This is gonna be the first major case solved by computer." "If this is the guy." "There's no if, it's driven by the data." "Think about all the data the government has on its citizens." "Addresses, employment, military, census." "Eighty years of data, 250,000,000 people, but you can't do anything with it because it's scattered across dozens of different systems." "That's why I built the MPP, to bring all that data together in one place for the first time." "I mean look," "FC's authentication number looks a lot like a social security number, right?" "So I did a search." "And it's a match." "The number belongs to a guy named Alan Meeks." "40-year-old white male." "Then I crunched the USPS data." "Look where Meeks has been living for the past 30 years." "Oakland, San Francisco," "Salt Lake City, Sacramento." "It's all the key locations associated with Unabom activity." " Where is he now?" " He's already in custody." "They arrested Meeks right here." "Recognize the place?" "Yeah, Rentech... it's the site of the Hugh Scrutton bomb." "The Unabomber's first kill returning to the scene of the crime." "They're getting Meeks ready for interrogation right now, and I got to know if Meeks is the Unabomber." "What was he looking for here?" "Why'd you come back?" "Why this place?" "Computer rental store." "Computers." "Technology." "What did these people symbolize to you?" "You got to work early, you didn't expect them to be there." "10 seconds, 20 seconds..." "That's all you needed." "But she looked, and suddenly the Unabomber was flesh and blood." "A man, not a concept, and that's why this scared you so much." "That's why you stopped for six years..." "Hey, Hugh?" "Phyllis, do you have that invoice from Phoenix Games and Hobbies?" "I'm trying to get this stuff out the door before we open." "Phyllis?" "Are you in the bathroom?" "... Even though it felt good to finally succeed." "He was reliving it, savoring it." "Which he never got to do in '85 because of the eyewitness." "Meeks is ready!" "Let's get over there." "This could really be him." ""Pure Wood." Read 'em and weep, Fitzy." "That's the Unabomber." "T-h-e-n." "Thicker than water." "It's not him." "It's a spelling mistake." "So what?" "You get drunk, you get a tattoo..." "I don't remember seeing a spelling mistake in all those letters." "Does this guy look like the author of a manifesto entitled "industrial society and its future"?" "He sure does to me." "Here's the thing," "I don't think you meant to kill anyone," "I think you just wanted to send a message." "To scare them ***." "I definitely didn't mean to kill anyone, that's for damn sure." "Look, I believe you." "But these guys, they don't." "They're hard asses." "So tell me how to stop LAX." " Help me help you." " What's LAX?" "If you make this hard for me..." " I didn't mean to kill anybody." " ..." "I will make your life" " a living nightmare." " I can't take back what I did, and I'll live with this the rest of my life." "I paid my debts to society." "Wait." " Excuse me?" " Eight years, Iowa State Pen." "I came out a changed man." "I learned my lesson." "I never drove drunk again." "Not once, I swear." "Meeks was in jail half the time the Unabomber was active." " How come that wasn't in my file?" " We pulled everything we could..." "Cali, Federal." "You're telling me you don't have" "Iowa Bureau of prisons records in your MPP?" " Didn't we do this before?" " It's just for our files." "Here." "What's "Pure Wood"?" "Pure area in Peckerwood." "Their ain't no jungle-bunny blood in these veins." "Right." "She's thicker than water, right?" "Thicker than what?" "Thicker than water." ""Wudder"?" "Well, where the hell you from?" "And who talks like that?" "Y'all here that... "Wudder"?" "Christ." "Fitz, let's go." "The extraordinary precautions come because a letter was mailed to the San Francisco newspaper from a man the FBI calls "the Unabomber."" "Anything?" " Wudder under the bridge." " Damn." "You heard that, too?" "What Fitz has with his hoagie." "Wudder?" "Tabster, stone cold." " Come on." "Philly." " Fitz," " Burkhardt, conference room." " I've never heard you say pierogi, but you do say wudder." "Water." "Water." "I like wudder." "It's part of who you are." "So, one word, one tiny slip, and you think you know who I am?" "Are you seriously pissed off?" "About what?" "I said one word slightly wrong, and you can all peg me as the Philly street cop out of his depth." "Fitz!" "Now!" "Dude!" "Are you serious?" "So, you can read it." "Yeah?" "What is this?" "The forensic report. 300 pages" " that say we found nothing." " No, not the report, the document." " His document, his manifesto." " They're over there." "No one else wanted one." "What?" "Well, you're talking about three different dossiers, and I don't have them, so..." "Hold on a second." "For 17 years, the Unabomber has been trying to say something with these bombs, trying to send us a message, and now he lays it out, everything he's been trying to tell us, and you don't want to take the time to read it?" "We're dealing with a major airport shutdown here, so write up a three-page synopsis, clean, no typos, and we'll give it a look." "Yep." "All right." "New Unabom letter sent to The Times." " What?" " New York is faxing it through." "Jesus!" "Greg, I got to go!" "Look at page 3." "Is this guy jerking us around or what?" ""Since the public has a short memory," ""we decided to play one last 'prank'" ""to remind them who we are." ""But no, we haven't tried to plant a bomb" ""on an airliner."" "Recently is in parentheses." " He says it's a prank." " Yes, Sir." "One last prank." "and we're certain it's from the Unabomber?" "It's been authenticated, Sir." "It is definitely from the Unabomber." "And we will get you our recommendation." "What if he's just trying to get our guard down?" "He's got a bomb in one of those planes, just waiting for us to clear them for takeoff, and then boom." "We get another Lockerbie on my watch because" "I took a serial bomber at his word." "Personally, I think this whole manifesto thing could be a red herring." "We're dealing with a dummy here, an airline mechanic with a G.E.D., Max." "So, who's to say he didn't retype somebody else's essay to throw us off the scent, to draw us down blind alleys, to keep us away from the real leads in the real world..." "Forensics." "Sir, now that the manifesto has cleared forensics," "I think it's imperative that our agents read this document." "Okay, stop." "The Unabomber has threatened to blow an airplane out of the sky." "I've got four Senators and Janet Reno on my call sheet, asking me whether to believe this letter, where he says he's going to kill a few hundred innocent people, or this one, where he says the bomb threat is just a prank." "So, I'm not reading anything else." "I'm reading this and trying to decide whether LAX can reopen for business." "And if I make the wrong call, a few hundred people are gonna be blown out of the sky." "So give me a profile that answers that question." "If not, that's a stack of papers." "These are human lives." "Got it?" "Okay." "What do we got?" "Dude, have you read this?" "In the manifesto?" "Listen." ""In modern society, all that's required of you is obedience."" "Isn't that exactly what Cole said?" "The manifesto has to wait." "There are lives at stake." "The Unabomber and his bomb threat prank." "Which one's the truth?" "How could we possibly know that?" "_" "You know, Fitz, whatever it is you're going through, it didn't start two years ago." "It didn't start with this case." "It happened long before the Unabom." "It must have." "I know." "I just don't know when I started to feel so powerless." "Hey, we all feel that way." "Everyone does." "If everybody feels that way, what do we do about it?" "Nothing." "We like it." "We like feeling trapped, crushed." "I guess freedom is far more terrifying than slavery." "But there's nothing to do." "It's life." "You suck it up and you live." "That's not... that's not life." "That's not living." "That's sleepwalking." "Watching TV, eating trash, working to... to become something for someone else." "And nobody does anything about it." "Nobody even tries." "Nobody except for Ted." "Yeah, but, Fitz, he's the Unabomber." "He's evil." "Just down here." "_" "You gonna be okay?" "I don't know." "I have to go in there I have to face him." "Go." "_" "Is there a bomb on a plane, FC, or is it a prank?" "Boss needs these reports clean." "No typos." "Cole wouldn't be happy, FC." "_" "Excessive soldering." "This is the original letter." "Look, he punched right through the paper, not just crossing out his mistakes... obliterating them." "Profilers talk about signatures versus M.O." "M.O. is everything necessary to complete the crime, but signatures are the extras." "They reveal the psychology, the character." "Damn." "Like correcting the hell out of that letter." "Yeah, that's right." "But, uh, the Rentech bomb, the forensic report says something about excessive soldering." "His signature, definitely." "How do you know that?" "Don't worry." "It's just a mock-up." "But it's the exact copy of the way that bomb looked before it blew up." "You built this?" "What's wrong with you?" "You sure you're not the Unabomber?" "And all this as forensic evidence?" "Yes, sir." "I built this and a few others." "Bosses thought it was a waste of time, but I learned a lot by doing it." "He carves "FC" on the most indestructible component of each bomb..." "The part that he's sure will survive the blast." "Just to make sure we know it's him." "Like the excess soldering, he just floods all the connections like he's trying to hide them, then there's tons of extra epoxy all at the joints that no one seemed to report." "Totally unnecessary." "Just slathered it on." "Signatures." "Not M.O." "He didn't want anyone to see the cracks." "What's your name again?" "Ernie Esposito." "Thanks, Ernie." "This is my analysis on the LAX bomb threat." "It's clean, no typos, lots of big words." "Janet Reno will read it, and she'll be impressed by you." "What's the bottom line?" "Well, in my opinion, it's a prank." "There's no bomb at LAX" "FC cares about his reputation, his credibility." "He's ashamed of his mistakes, and he tries to obliterate them." "He tries to hide all the joints in his bombs so we don't see the work." "He's obsessed with presenting this perfect public image." "He wants to be seen as intelligent, as logical, as superior." "But it's a fragile self image, because he's really just afraid that everyone's gonna see his flaws." "Now, the bomb threat, that services his need for power." "You know, he enjoys making us squirm, but his reputation, that's the most important thing he has." "And he's not gonna give us the ammunition to go to the press so they can hold up something that he wrote and say," ""this guy's untrustworthy, he's a liar," ""he's a blood-thirsty lunatic who has no credibility" ""and will say anything to kill people."" "It's just all my opinion, but, um, you know, I can back it up." "Including the physical evidence," "I stand by it." "The thing about Fitz..." "He's no B.S.Er, for better for worse." "Okay, we're gonna read it and pass it up the chain." "Thanks for this." "This might cross Janet Reno's desk, so stay close." "You listen to me, you get a gold star." "A little obedience is all it takes." "I think FC says that in the manifesto, too." "You can put that in your three-page summary." "Leadership tips from the Unabomber." "Now we dig in." "_" "Let's go for the big picture." "He wrote 56 pages, laying out his philosophy of the modern world." "He called it "industrial society and its future."" "We call it his "manifesto."" "So, he sends the bombs as messages." "He's struggling to make himself heard." "So, what's the message?" " Technology sucks?" " All right, technology sucks." "And we are basically screwed." "The Unabomber just opened a door into his mind." "We need to step through it, so..." "Opening line," ""the industrial revolution and its consequences" ""have been a disaster for the human race."" "Technology was supposed to set us free, but it doesn't." "Like the car thing." "Cars were invented, and then, we're all suddenly free to go wherever we want." "But then, basically, it becomes mandatory to have a car." "So, instead of becoming more free, we've become more limited," " more constrained." " I mean, every city in society is all rearranged around cars until you can't even buy food without driving somewhere." "I mean, they're forced upon us." "Yeah, TV seemed harmless, too, before we flipped it around." "We put CCTV cameras everywhere and turned it into a tool to watch us." "We can't even drive fast if we're in a hurry" " or slow if we want to chill out." " We started in charge." "Now we're slaves to our own technology." ""Human beings are being permanently reduced" ""to engineered products, and mere cogs" ""in the social machine, deprived of dignity," ""autonomy, and freedom."" "The only option available to us is obedience." " _" " We're being turned into caged rats, distracted from the maze by the meaningless cheese we're running after..." "Status, promotion, money, nicer cars, bigger houses, more TVs, blasted with entertainment, adjusted with therapy and Prozac till you don't even want to be free anymore." "Or if you can't be adjusted, the psych ward." "Or prison." "The only alternative, the only hope for us, the only way to break free  is to blow the whole thing up." "I'm ready." "Kaczynski, you ready?" "Ted, as your attorney, I'm begging you to reconsider this." "Do not go in there alone with Fitzgerald." "It is unthinkably reckless for the defendant in a capital case to, "A," talk with the arresting agent, and "B," do so without counsel present." "This is a huge risk for you." "And there's no reason to take it." "Let me come in there with you." "I'll stay out of the way, just observe, and be ready to step in." "I'll be in the next room the whole time." "All you need to do to end the interview is to ask for me, okay?" "We need a guilty plea from Ted." "This is our only shot." "You're our only shot." "Right." "Give us a second." "We know Ted Kaczynski's the Unabomber, but we can't go to trial." "This case hangs on so many different technicalities." "If we go before a jury, if we roll that dice..." "These are dangerous, uncertain times." "Look at Waco." "Look at O.J." "Even the Menendez brothers hung their juries." "The Unabomber has an IQ of 168." "Think about that... 168." "If Ted Kaczynski goes to trial, he could walk." "If he walks, he disappears." "If he disappears, he's back in action." "Only this time, we'll never find him." "The guilty plea is the only way to make sure that doesn't happen." "Listen, Fitz." "I think Ted asked for you because he recognized a kindred spirit." "Play into that." "Make him feel smart, understood, sympathized with." "Build a connection, but stay opaque." "Don't give him too much." "He knows you as well as you know him." "Better." "He's gonna be probing you for weaknesses all the time, looking for anything to go against us." "Get him talking, build a connection, then start to steer him towards the guilty plea." "You're trying to help him, trying to save him from the electric chair." "You're his only friend, but do it gently." "Don't spook him, okay?" "Get him there." "Okay." "Agent Fitzgerald?" "I am so glad to make your acquaintance at last." "When would be a good time for you?" "I already talked to Kim about taking the days" "Nancy says she can cover for me, and Mom would watch the boys." "So, just tell me when." "But I took it." "Good to hear it." "That's great." "Uh, why don't you just call me back when I won't be" " just talking to myself." " Oh, no." "No, no." "I'm here." "I'm here." "I'm listening." "I am." "It's just, you know..." "You know..." "What's going on with you?" "I'm just gonna call you back." "Okay. okay, bye." "Um, that's for today." "Fitz." "Right now." "We've looked at the FAA reports," "L.A.P.D and airport briefings, read the material S.A.C. Ackerman sent." "Based on what we've seen," "A.G.'s office is good to sign off on reopening LAX." "How about you, Bill?" "FAA is good with that." "FBI Director Freeh here." "I'll confirm that from our end and give the green light to flight control." "Flight control," "I see the green light here, good to reopen runways." "First plane should be up momentarily." "Flight control, this is S.A.C. Ackerman, permission to stay on the line?" "Affirmative, agent." "The Unabomb device that almost blew up" "American airlines 444 was triggered by an altimeter set to blow up at 20,000 feet." "American flight 7 is airborne." "United 732 airborne." "TWA one-niner-niner airborne." "This is American flight 7." "We are climbing to 15,000 feet." "Climbing to 20,000." "Check in uniform 7." "We're approaching 10,000." "KLM 206, we're climbing now." "KLM 206, cruising altitude, over." "Approaching cruising altitude." "American flight 7, we're at 25,000, reaching cruising altitude now." "Approaching cruising altitude, over." "All clear." "All clear." "You hear that, agent?" "Loud and clear." "Thank God." " You made the right call." " I shouldn't have made any call." "All those people on the plane, and it was based on what, on some letters?" "It was the right call." "You really think you can get something good out of this manifesto?" "Something worthwhile?" "Yeah. yeah, I think I can." "Okay." "I'm giving you an office." "And a team, if you want it." "Maybe you'll even read the manifesto now." "I will." "We all will." "Actually, I already tried to read it." "Oh, no, I did." "But, come on, end notes and all these dead sentences." "Who writes like this?" "Who writes like this?" "Fitz?" "Who writes like this?" "_" "When I say "wudder,"" "you learn everything about me." "One tiny word, one tiny mistake, and you can tell I'm from Philly, blue-collar, local school, fan of Dave Schultz." "Just like when you say "bruh,"" "it could only be from San Francisco, right?" "What if there's a wudder or bruh in here, in the manifesto?" "I mean, how do we even start to look for that?" "I don't know." "Read it again." "Oh, boy." "Get some coffee on then, bruh." "_" "Agent Fitzgerald." "Long way from Montana." "Oh, yeah, well, most people carry their cage with them wherever they go." "At least if I remain disgusted by this place," "I know I'm still alive." "Still free in here." "So why me?" "Why you?" "You wrote the document that put me in here." "Your linguistic analysis of the manifesto got them the search warrant, the search warrant" " got them the evidence..." " The document that put you in here you wrote." "I am becoming very well-acquainted with your work." "It is the product of great imagination." "What I really appreciate about you is that most people take language for granted, but not you." "You saw it differently, and that is the first step toward becoming free..." "A shift in perspective." "Manifesto, for instance..." "I never liked that moniker." "It makes it sound like an unconsidered rant, and you and I both appreciate the power and specificity of words." "Manifesto versus article, insanity versus enlightenment, mental breakdown versus unextended leave from active duty." "You have had a change of life circumstance, since your work on the Unabomb case, am I wrong?" " Yeah, I have." " Because of what I allegedly wrote?" " Yeah." " What was it?" "Just between us." "When did it all click?" "No?" "Well, for me, uh, it all began in Chicago." "One day, this mockingbird began singing in the backyard there, you know, that puffed-up confidence just belting out his song, and" "I began to realize that the mockingbird is singing the car alarm." "Ba-beep, ba-beep." "You know the one?" "Rrr, rrr." "And I..." "I just sat there, listening to that poor, dumb bird for maybe an hour straight, thinking," ""what have we done?"" "How wrong that was, and it stuck with me." "I kept coming back to it, just trying to figure out where in the world we had gone so wrong that it had ended up here." "For me, it was the part about driving." "Every time I got in the car," "I thought about it." "The more I drove, the more it made sense." "Like, there was this one night I was driving home from work, and there was nobody on the street, I mean, nobody." "And I'm sitting there at a red light, just waiting, waiting." "And there's no cars anywhere." "But, still, I sat there." "I obeyed." "That's when I realized it's not about technology, it's not about machines." "It's about what they're doing to us." "It's about what they're doing to us." "What they do to our hearts, 'cause our hearts are no longer free." " And you wanted to be free." " Right." "You wanted your human dignity, your autonomy." " Yeah." " Everybody wants that." "People want it so badly, they're dying by the thousands every day, just trying to salvage some of their humanity." " Okay..." " Think about this, more people have died from suicide in just the time we've been talking than I allegedly killed in my entire career." "More people died from anti-depressants, plastic surgery, fast food." "Why..." "W-why is everybody so terrified of me?" "And ask yourself this question..." "Why are these men in suits so desperate to prove that I'm crazy?" "I will tell you." "It's because they know that I'm right." "I'm awake." " They're asleep." " Yeah." "And they're terrified they might have to wake up, too, and turn off their cellphones and their TVs and their video games, and face themselves the way that you and I have." "You and I?" "You and I." "Ted, I came here 'cause I believe in what you wrote." "Good." "I think you asked me here 'cause you need an ally to help save your life, so you can spread your message and change things." "Really change things." "Right?" "Right." "Now, I've gone through all your options." "I think a guilty plea..." "No." "No." "And he was doing so well." "I can talk about my options with any one of these barbary apes watching through the cameras." "But I chose you because I thought you were different." "Next time, you might bring me some writing paper and some stamps." "They're so stingy in here, and I have so much correspondence." "It's really quite overwhelming." "Thank you." " _" " We're looking for a "wudder," right?" "Something that tells us who he is, where he comes from?" "We're looking for mistakes, I found the first real mistake!" "This is cutting edge, using language to solve crimes!" "There's not even a name for what you're doing." "Fingerprints are forensics, DNA is forensics." "Spelling willfully with one "l" is not forensics." "We don't even know what we're doing, we're making this up as we go." "No more feelings, no more theories, hit him hard with the facts." "Make him understand that we own the courtroom." "James, do you really not have any idea why I brought you here?"