Unabomber : the secret life of Ted Kaczynski

by Waits, Chris

  Inside the small front opening I could see many curious items spread across the floor and piled under the bed, things you wouldn't expect to fmd at a campsite or mountain cabin.

  Most out-of-place were several pairs of yellow latex-rubber gloves that immediately caught my eye. Some loose gloves were lying around, not only on the floor, but also near the stone hearth that supported the handmade stove. Others were still packaged in unopened clear plastic bags.

  Without touching anything I got down on my hands and knees at the doorway and carefully looked at one of the packages. From the price tag and label I could tell it came from a Skaggs Alpha Beta, a chain that has never had a Montana store under that exact name.

  There was a wide array of un-Ted-like clothing lying about on the dirt floor, probably pulled out from under the bed by small animals.

  I had never seen him wear any of these clothes—a bright-colored striped sweater, a tan polyester Henley shirt, and designer jeans. I figured they had to be disguises he wore to blend into the crowds when he traveled to the cities. All the clothes were in pretty good shape and it looked like the cabin had been used right up to the fall before his arrest.

  Many other items were still locked in stubborn mounds of ice and snow on the dirt floor.

  The tall dead lodgepole pine that had blown down across the cabin's top the previous season had badly ripped a blue nylon tarp Ted had used to cover the roof and back wall. He had camouflaged the tarp with a layer of pine boughs, but they had blown off the roof and now lay strewn inside the cabin and around the outside.

  Once the wind penetrated the blue roof tarp the gusts ripped away much of the black tarpaper, plywood plies, small boards, and small poles Ted used to chink the spaces between the logs.

  The secret cabin was still intact, but without its builder close at hand to perform annual maintenance, it was in disrepair. Its condition surely would have irritated the proud builder who had penned many pages in his personal journals describing his creation and its interior fixtures, almost like a young father lovingly writing about his newborn infant.

  Ted's journal entries not only described the construction of his cabin in detail and the amount of time spent on it, but also his original stove and the mistakes and problems he encountered building and then using it.

  He also wrote about the pristine and secret location he had chosen for his hidden mountain chalet. What would seem to be nothing more than a crude survival shanty to most people was a luxurious, private alpine condominium to Ted.

  I spent a little time hiking around the cabin, making mental notes about location, elevation, and other pertinent information. After taking a few more pictures, I placed my camera on a tripod and photographed myself standing next to the cabin so the FBI could see size and scale of the structure.

  Then I headed home, eager to tell Betty that she could make the hike if we followed the route I had taken. She would be excited and her next day's schedule would be reorganized to include a trip to the cabin.

  I deviated from my course slightly on the way back just to see how much snow remained in the creek bottoms. Walking across long snow-fields, I carefully tested each step to avoid falling into any snow-covered small ravines. Even though the wind-packed snow often looks level, it becomes rotten in late spring and a person can easily break through the surface and become stuck in wet snow over his head.

  The forest floor in winter hides other potential dangers for the hiker. Fallen branches can cover a small chasm, ravine or old mining hole, become covered with drifting snow, freeze and look like the surrounding area. But as the melting ice loses its grip, such a hole can become a dangerous pit to trap either human or animal.

  As I reached the bottom of the mountain, deep drifts still covered the creek, but I could hear rushing water undermining the last of winter's icy embrace.

  When I arrived home, Betty asked: "How was it, did you make it up there?"

  I told her it was a piece of cake. She knew me too well. She was eager and committed to go the next day, but she knew the trip would be more difficult than I let on.

  We spent the rest of the afternoon talking about the cabin, what was inside, the trip up and how different everything looked this time of year. She was fascinated by my description of the cabin, the large chunks of snow-ice inside that still encapsulated many items, the clothing, and yellow^ latex gloves.

  I added a pencil and tablet to my pack and Betty put some apples and snacks in hers. We wouldn't take any dogs because I was concerned about disturbing evidence and possible booby traps.

  We went to bed that night eager for the trek.

  The next morning, before we headed up the gulch, I called Bobby Didriksen so someone would know^ where we had gone. He was excited, too, and wanted a call as soon as we returned.

  I wanted to carefully check out several areas spotted on my first trip.

  Just outside the cabin door to the east Ted had dug a small firepit. It was still covered with patches of snow and ice, but some of his signature tin cans were starting to poke through the melting ice. Then on the west side, in a scrap pile, sheets of lead and pieces of angle iron were leaning up against the cabin.

  The ice chunks held mysterious items. Some were unidentifiable, but there appeared to be at last two different pill bottles, some wire, and a round piece of metal that looked like a compact disc. Extreme care would have to be taken not to touch anything, because at least two pieces of threaded pipe—possible bombs—lay under the bed near a pair of pants.

  The light blue denim jeans with beige pocket trim that had been hanging out through the back corner the first night I found the cabin had been pulled down by rodents once again, even though I had tightly rolled them up and placed them under the fallen tree on the roof

  During subsequent trips there would be time to document, map and make an itemized list for the FBI. More than likely, important evidence would be inside or around the structure and I felt responsible since it was on mv turf

  As Betty and I started our climb up the mountain we speculated about what Ted would think of us ^oing through everything in his secret sanctuary.

  The summer after the arrest, prosecutors found a reference in Ted's journals about a booby-trap out in the woods that was designed to kill someone. They asked him if he had really hidden a deadly bomb out there and if he had, where it might be located.

  Smugly, and with a sarcastic sneer on his face, he replied there was nothing. His arrogant look, however, said something different, like, "You'll never find it and I don't have to tell you anything, anyway."

  It made me wonder if he still hoped someone would accidentally trigger the booby-trap so he could claim another victim. He probably wouldn't have minded if that was me, my wife or one of our dogs.

  We'll never know, but I do remember an unexplained incident in the early '9()s that was a sign of the evil things that were happening around us.

  One afternoon Betty hurried into the house after a short hike and said, "I w alked up to the first cabin and got an extremely uneasy feeling, the kind you get when you know someone is watching you." She said the sense was overwhelming; even the dogs felt it and the hair on their backs stood straight up. She turned around and rushed home.

  She obviously wasn't joking, but I couldn't explain what had happened so I tried to play it dow n, attributing it to some passing feeling. Maybe that was the case. Or maybe Ted was watching her from an observation spot with his rifle sights leveled on her or one of the dogs.

  As we worked our way up the mountain, I said to Betty, "One thing I do know is that it's been a little more than a year since Ted was arrested and there hasn't been one theft, vandalism, or strange unexplained occurrence around here since then."

  Even though this hike took place before I was able to read Ted's own journals, w here he defiantly took credit for most of those incidents, the suspicion of his guilt was already firmly rooted in my mind.

  When we finally reached the small shelf, Betty was amazed by the way t
he cabin blended in to the mountainside.

  We took off our packs and while she scanned the cabin and its interior I set up my camera to take pictures. The first picture was one of Betty and me by the cabin door. Then, after taking some more of

  the outside, I started to make a detailed list and map the location of any visible items for the P"BI.

  My first list wouldn't be complete because of the ice and since I was reluctant to move anything. It would take at least three more trips to finish the inventory. Even then, other items would be found after the FBI came.

  While numbering and describing the visible items in the secret cabin I thought back to an evening phone call from agent Dave Weber on April 23, just three days earlier.

  Dave had said Ted was acting as his own lawyer, ordering and then voraciously reading any law books he could find while planning his case. According to Dave, Ted's public defenders Quin Denvir and Judy Clarke were going along with the plan and were working with him.

  I figured Ted probably had some trick in mind and would most likely discard these defense lawyers.

  As my thoughts returned to the task at hand, it seemed like such a bizarre situation, me making a list of clothing, tools, parts of devices, etc., that belonged to Ted the hermit mountain man while he was in jail diligently studying law books in order to save himself from the death penalty.

  I continued my list while Betty began a perimeter search, working away from the cabin in tight concentric circles, looking everywhere, especially in the juniper shrubs and other bushes.

  The outside search wouldn't be completed on that trip. Many items, especially clothing, were found caught on bushes and tree butts later. Before the summer was over I would find nearly eighty items inside and around the cabin (see Inventory at end of chapter). Most were in plain sight, but some were intentionally concealed.

  That April day, I finished packing away my pencil and tablet and after taking a few more photographs, Betty and I headed back down the mountain.

  I was eager to call Dave Weber and share the news that the snow was melting and the secret cabin held many more intriguing objects than we had anticipated.

  The FBI team had been delayed and wouldn't get back as early

  as planned. I made a trip—and more discoveries—alone on May 4. After talkin^!; to I)a e Weber then, we decided it would be best if I returned and draped a lar^^e tarp over the cabin to protect it and the contents. Betty and I made this trip together on June 10, when we resumed perimeter searches and found many more items that had been packed off by rodents. Some were several hundred feet away and we \()ndered just how many things would never be found.

  This time, I made a xideo tape of all the evidence before we covered the cabin to await the FBI. When agents arrixed, much of our time was spent searching other areas, and we found nothing new at the secret cabin.

  Every investigation at the secret cabin had been a juggling act between not disturbing important evidence and yet trving to preserve it.

  Boards, pieces of tarpaper, and plywood pieces were used in the cabin construction. The plywood piece with handwritten penciled notes about the application of the insect-repellent flowers of sulphur was found on June 4, 1998.

  The stove was full of charcoal and soot, and the aluminum stovepipe had been so hot at some point it had melted through in three places close to the ceiling and home-made roof jack.

  From the looks of the holes, Ted had come dangerously close to burning down his chalet.

  Chris Waits' inventory of items from the secret cabin

  1. Four-quart aluminum cooking kettle.

  2. Two-quart aluminum cooking kettle.

  3. Brown-gold mug with black-white floral design.

  4. White plastic rectangular pill box with sliding top.

  5. Green Bic-type lighter.

  6. Aluminum frying pan.

  7. Metal kettle bail with wooden handle.

  8. Utility wire bail type handle for kettle and frying pan.

  9. Light blue denim designer Levis with beige pocket trim.

  10. Dark blue denim designer Levis with orange stitching.

  11. Multiple pairs of yellow latex gloves open and used.

  12. Unopened packages of Skaggs Alpha Beta Store brand yellow latex gloves purchased in Salt Lake City, Utah.

  13. Plastic bag that contained Globe brand plastic utility drop cloth, 9-by-12-foot, from Seattle, Wash.

  14. G.I.-type survival knife in sheath with whetstone in a snap pouch on the front of the sheath.

  15. Five-inch-long thick aluminum pipe threaded on one end.

  16. Heavy blue-and-white fine braid nylon rope hanging on a nail inside on the wall.

  17. Coil of yellow nylon rope.

  18. Hand-built stove made from a five gallon oil can.

  19. Insulated stove board bent to fit the corner of the cabin, standing on edge to insulate the wall.

  20. Short piece of eight-inch stovepipe opened up to form a door for the stove and held in place with wire.

  21. Four-inch steel stovepipe crimped to fit into the large rear vent hole on the oil can stove.

  22. Four-inch aluminum vent pipe.

  23. Assorted tin cans, burned and with jagged open lids.

  24. Large (64 ounces) plastic Dr. Pepper soda pop jug used for water, with date 12/06/94 stamped on the top of the lid.

  25. One pair of about size 9 boots. Sorrel type (rubber bottom, leather upper) snow packs with felt liners.

  26. Assorted angle iron scraps.

  27. Assorted sheet metal scraps, some cut out.

  28. Pieces of six-inch steel stovepipe outside of the cabin piled with numerous other pieces of metal.

  29. Clear glass aspirin bottle with white snap lid.

  30. One rectangular curved piece of sheet metal with Phillips 66 label on it. (The piece looked like what was cut out of the stove when it was built.).

  31. Numerous pieces of olive drab rubberized nylon similar to the material used to build reinforced nylon rubber rafts.

  32. Coils of wire, baling or stove-type steel wire.

  33. Lengths of green nylon rope.

  34. Lengths of blue nylon rope.

  35. Small square glass bottle.

  36. Metal split ring (keychain type).

  37. One-inch threaded metal coupler.

  38. Compass top for survival knife (^lass broken).

  39. 'Ten-pound potato sack from Ste ensville, MT.

  40. Fku round metallic metal piece, thin with hole in the center and black paint around the hole; resembled a compact disc.

  41. Silver duct tape.

  42. Aluminum, flat metal utility handle for use with fry pan and cooking kettles.

  43. Small pieces of blue nylon tarp cut out into rectangles, possibly repair patches for roof tarp.

  44. White nylon rope coil.

  45. Fine-weave light-colored nylon rope tied to small tree and door frame for support.

  46. Blue-and-vvhite marbled plastic handle that had been sawed from a hairbrush or mirror. Handle had heavy black paint splotch with a well defined fingerprint clearly visible (probably why it was sawed off). The handle was hidden under the bed in pine needles.

  47. Pieces of cardboard with printing on them, used as cabin wall insulation and covering.

  48. Deer skull from buck shot right below one antler, with the other antler sawed off.

  49. Numerous pieces of aluminum foil.

  50. Pieces of olive drab plastic rain poncho.

  51. Brightly colored striped longsleeve sweater.

  52. Lengths of green nylon cord.

  53. Metal clip, resembling small money clip.

  54. Long blade from a bow saw that was hidden betw^een the inside cabin corner and the metal stove board behind the stove.

  55. Numerous pieces of bone.

  56. Small pile of used nails (removed from miner's cabin).

  57. Small oval metal piece with narrow slit and hole cut into it.

  58. Small file, fiat type.r />
  59. Tan polyester Henley shirt, stuck in bushes outside.

  60. Round green plastic holed base with a cone shape molded into the center. This piece resembles or even might be the

  insert for a Tupperware lettuce container, the part that holds the lettuce head in place.

  61. Lead sheets and scraps.

  62. Numerous zip-lock bags with bottoms chewed and contents missing, no doubt eaten or removed by animals.

  63. Empty bag for Skaggs Alpha Beta latex gloves, large, purchased in Salt Lake City, Utah.

  64. Rabbit skull with small caliber bullet hole through it.

  65. Metal flat washer.

  66. Bic-type lighter, another green one.

  67. Worm drive hose clamp.

  68. Galvanized roofing nails.

  69. Thin wooden boards from an old dynamite box.

  70. Large blue nylon tarp used to cover entire cabin roof and down the back side; still partially covered with pine boughs.

  7L Homemade candle holder, fashioned from a can or jar lid.

  72. Homemade roof jack for stovepipe, fashioned from sheet metal.

  73. Wood wedge for ax handle.

  74. Part of a cooked-cereal or cornmeal box with small metal pullout spout on the side.

  75. Pieces of pages from an American Heritage book or magazine.

  76. Chunk of hardwood, oak or hickory.

  77. Another pair of used yellow latex gloves down the mountain about 100 yards.

  78. Remains of a gray hooded sweatshirt lodged in a juniper shrub, heavily chewed and pulled there by animals.

  79. Small metal threaded ring.

  Many other small items, bits and pieces of cloth, wood, and metal too numerous to mention.

  Ted's Bed and Breakfast

  About the time Ted Kaczynski turned thirty-three in the mid-1970s, a series of events in the Lincoln area had him churn in anger, nurturing his anti-technology philosophy.

  One such event occurred early in July 1975 when one of his neighbors fired up a small bulldozer and cleared away trees knocked down by a heaT snow. To Ted's delight, the trees had blocked the road that ran past his home. But with the road's reopening Ted was furious, and he wrote passionately about it in his journals.