Garage Refill /// The Unabomber /// Part 1 | Forensic Files

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welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me
as always he's the one who likes all the pretty songs and he likes to sing along
he is the captain thank you thank you thank you it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks
for telling a [Music] friend this week we are very happy to be featuring birthday Bomb by the amazing
Artisans over at Prairie Artisan ales this is a deliciously complex Imperial style aged with coffee cacao nibs
vanilla beans and chili peppers then the icing on the cake it's finished with caramel sauce garage grade five out of
five bottle caps and this week I picked birthday bomb because it is a Citywide holiday here in Parts Unknown that's
right it is the captain's birthday so happy birthday to you old wise one and cheers to the captain yeah cheers to
that guy wherever he is and cheers to all of you for helping us fill up the fridge let's give out some praise and
thanks right here right now Captain first up a big cheers to Maggie formerly of Columbus currently residing in
Scottdale Arizona and a big we like your chib to Ashley in Phoenixville Pennsylvania next we have a cheers going
out to Kim in Crystal Lake Illinois and a big cheers to Christina in San Antonio
Texas and here's a little cheers to Jeff in Santa Barbara California and last but
certainly not least we have a big thank you going out to Devin and Angela in Denver Colorado everyone we just
mentioned went to True Crim garage.com and they helped us out with this week's beer fund for the beer run yeah little
birthday BW Ru beer run for all of our old episodes you can check them out guess what everywhere that you listen to
podcast and also check out our bonus show called off the Record OTR if you're nasty and that is enough of the business
all right everybody gather around grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime
[Music] [Music] murder is a broad and fascinating crime people murder for love and for hate some
murder for money others for want of money some people murder in a cold insane rage and some people murder with
the calculating skill of a butcher some people use guns or knives or their hands
some people murder children exclusively or women and some people plant bombs and hi
trffic locals and some mail them to specific targets New York City's mad bomber a
case featured here in the garage was about an angry and yes very much a Madman who terrorized New York City for
16 years in the 1940s and 1950s with explos Ives that he planted in public places bombs were left in foam
booths storage lockers and restrooms in public buildings including the Grand Central Terminal Pennsylvania station
Radio City Music Hall the subway and the New York Public Library for 16 years a period stretching back to 1940 the
largest most formidable police force in the nation had failed to hustle up any worthy leads by 1956 the bombers
handiwork showed a lethal new proficiency he declared his deadly intent in letters sent to newspaper
editors each rambling raging letter was cryptically signed FP desperation drove the police to
pursue a course they never before considered in the Department's 111e history NYPD was going to consult with
James a brussel a psychiatrist with the expertise in the workings of the Criminal Mind if physical evidence could
not lead the police to FP maybe emotional insights could since a physical description of the bomber was
unattainable New York police believe maybe Dr brussle could use the evidence to draw a profile of the bomber's inner
self an emotional portrait that would illuminate his background and disorder Brussel told them that the bomber was a
textbook paranoid schizophrenic people suffering from this disorder he explained May believe other people are
controlling them or plotting against them they are typically reclusive antisocial and consumed with hatred for
their imagined enemies for all their derangement they're capable of acting quite normal until inevitably some
aspect of their delusions enter into their conversation the paranoic is the world's champion Grudge holder Brussel
would explain we all get mad at other people and organizations sometimes but with
most of us the anger evaporates eventually the Mad bomber's anger does not once he gets the idea that somebody
has wronged him or is out to hurt him the idea stays in his mind the bomber Brussel continued almost surely operated
as a lone wolf paranoids quote have confidence only in themselves they are overwhelmingly
egocentric they distrust everyone an accomplice would be a potential bungler or double Crosser ultimately Dr Brussel
was correct and his assessment of the evidence which was simply the bombers actions words and
intent this specifically helped NYPD identify locate and apprehend a domestic terrorist that eluded them for 16 years
the mad bomber later identified as George mateski was angry and resentful about events surrounding a workplace
injury he suffered years earlier brussell called his approach Reverse Psychology today we call it criminal
profiling decades later in 1980 after four attacks the FBI created the uni bomb task
force during the 80s they failed to identify the unibomber and then he went dormant the FED suspected the terrorists
could be dead but then the attack started up again and in 199 93 things at the task force were ramping up and a new
wave of Agents with differing array of expertise were brought in to work the case its wouldbe assigned task force
agents all received a rather large memo titled major case number 75- unabomb for
well over a decade the FBI and other law enforcement agencies around the US investigated the case they dubbed
unabomb by the mid90s the perpetrator was the most Wanted serial killer in the United States and he was one that none
of his victims had ever laid eyes on an individual so mysterious and Elusive that he was known only by the case code
name the FBI had given him unibomber since his early bombings were directed at universities and
Airlines unlike the one big crude blast of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVey and his cohorts the unib bombers attack
were more like that of the Mad bombers but unfortunately more destructive and deadly these bombings were spaced apart
this perpetrator could wait and act over time he was more specifically directed he was clever he was diabolical
and his motive was wrapped in layers of mystery this is true crime garage and this is the case of the unibomber
[Music] on Thursday May 25th 1978 Mary Gutierrez was walking through a parking lot this
is in Chicago at the University of Illinois Chicago she is walking minding her own business when she sees a package
on the ground being the nice helpful person that she is she picks it up obviously wondering what the package is
doing just chilling there on the ground she's looking at it and she sees that the package is complete with shipping
address return address and postage in the form of several stamps but it has not been technically mailed yet because
the postage has not been stamped indicating that the postage parcel has been processed so not processed not
mailed so what should she do well she takes this parcel to a mailbox to drop it in and send it along its way but the
Box doesn't fit so seeing the return address she thought I'll notify the sender so she took the package back to
her home the return address indicated that the package was sent from a professor Buckley Christ Jr at
Northwestern University in Evanston she tracked down a phone number for the professor and she calls him they make
arrangements for someone to come by and collect the package now a messenger takes the box from the good Samaritan's
home to the professor at his office at the University Professor Christ receives the package sees his name and work
address listed as the sender or the return address and the package was to be shipped to another professor this is at
the renier Polytechnic School of Engineering in Troy New York now of course Professor Christ knows that he
has not sent this package to anyone recently he does not recognize the package nor does he know the professor
on the other end in New York where the box is to be sent yeah which would spike your curiosity yes so alarm bells are
going off so Northwestern University Professor Buckley Chris Jr said that the package seemed strange he did not have
any reason by the appearance of this package to believe that he was in any type of danger but again he said the
package seems strange and he suspected maybe something illegal was going going on so he calls the university Public
Safety Officer so unfortunately the officer made the determination to open the package and the Box exploded upon
opening and injured the security officer no one had any idea of where this package came from or who was responsible
for making the bomb and setting this trap so if you haven't already figured it out this is going to be the very
first attack of many but law enforcement will not know this at this time they would not have any evidence that this is
the first of many to come or even the last of several before what they do know is someone targeted someone else and
attempted VIA mail bomb to injure and likely kill someone as well as those around them your very first objective is
to identify the Target and maybe you can trace this thing back to the sender find
out who would want to harm the the Target or kill the Target and that could be the person responsible yeah but here
it's a little different cuz you actually have two Clues because you have a person
that they're using as the sender and the victim that's exactly right Captain you
have to wonder just exactly who is the actual Target here first guess it would be the person who was supposed to
receive the package this being the professor at the Polytechnic School of Engineering in Troy New York right but
one does not go to all of the trouble of making a bomb putting together the package and risk of getting caught not
to mention risk of blowing oneself up building and packing this bomb without a super strong desire to quote hit your
target so why not just mail the damn thing why even both with a return address unless you intend this to
mislead the police or did the bomber hope that if he dropped it somewhere someone would return to the sender and
then the sender is the actual Target right or was the bomber worried about being seen and possibly identified so
they just left it out in the open at some random spot so that some good Samaritan would find it and mail it for
them or like the Good Samaritan they tried to put it in a mailbox and it didn't fit then one has to Wonder Could
the bomber not really care who the bomb injures or kills as long as it is someone near the University of Illinois
Chicago and both addresses are simply meant to throw the cops off of the trail so ultimately what we have here is an
ineffective attack but a very confusing one at least from an investigative standpoint well the materials used in
this bomb and in this package they're they're not unique enough to give any clues to law enforcement this is going
to take us to May 9th 1979 a graduate student John Harris at Northwestern University is injured when
when he opened a box that looked like a present it had been left in a room used by graduate students so this seems like
a bit of a repeat in a way doesn't it kind of an oddly placed bomb just sort of Left for someone anyone to snag it
and open it up so possibly completely random Target or is it again we have the question of are these random targets or
are they actually targeted victims because again we see Northwestern University as part of this
whole attack right remember in the first attack the package was addressed to be sent from Northwestern University here
it's actually left at Northwestern University to harm someone there yeah and it starts making you wonder if it's
a disgruntle employee or maybe a disgruntle former student or current student and as you pointed out Captain
there's no real way to identify the attacker based off of the bomb and how it's constructed itself we're assuming that
the bomber putting these together was wearing gloves because there's no fingerprints left on any of the material
yeah they're not able to pull anything as far as forensic evidence off of these first two bombs and in fact because the
first one was going to be mailed you know it had the postage and all that already on it the investigative lead on
that particular attack was actually the United States Postal Service of course they had local authorities working on
both of these cases as well but they have the lead and it sounds to me that even though they're not able to identify
the attacker or the bomb maker based off of the construction of these two bombs themselves it sounds to me like they
were able to figure out that they were in fact connected to one another they were linked and I will get into that
later on the suspicions of why maybe it is the actual construction of the bomb itself but the nickname that they were
giving the bomber at the postal service was the junkyard bomber because most of these items that were used to construct
both of these two bombs were just I mean they were crude unsophisticated bombs basically and these were items that
somebody could find at your local junkyard yeah or items that they were also suspecting somebody actually if
they were handy at all they might have some of these items just laying around their house and some of the pieces and
and devices that were inside of these two bombs were handmade were were constructed themselves so yeah I think
there was probably something similar between the first one and the second one where they go okay this we're dealing
with the same individual on Thursday November 15th 1979 we have an attack on a large passenger commercial airplane
this is some scary [ __ ] right right here American Airlines flight 444 flying from Chicago to Washington DC
this is a 727 jet with 78 people on this plane 72 passengers and six crew members
MH the plane left Chicago at 8:25 a.m. going to DC and as they approach the capital these 78 people they hear a
muffled explosion on the airplane so we are still mid-flight up in the air when a small bomb explodes
now it looks like this explosive device thank God did not do what it may have been intended to do right however the
passenger cabin fills with smoke after this bomb detonates in the luggage compartment the pilot brought the plane
down early at Dallas International Airport the several passengers suffered smoke inhalation now this is super
fascinating though to me Captain a few hours after the attack a caller and I'm assuming here captain that it was all
the same caller but a caller phoned four Chicago News organizations one of them being the Chicago Tribune and in the
Tribune it was reported that the CER claimed to be a representative of an Iranian student group so this so-called
group is claiming responsibility for this attack and threatening additional attacks the caller St that other bombs
might be placed in shopping areas and on the CTA that's the Chicago's train line
the subway system okay so this so-called Iranian student group they're making these
threats because they're upset that America is making efforts to try to deport Iranian students which this makes
a lot of sense because look it's no secret that relations between Iran and America sell have been good at times and
they've been downright disgusting in fact all of the 70s was practically a nightmare between the two and at times
most of the world vers the Middle East were were just bad there was Black September the 72 Olympics and just
before this airplane bomb then there was the threat from this group Iran took over the US Embassy in tan and took us
diplomats hostage and then the US froze Iran Brand's assets so it's already this
is all very big news at the time so it's a big mess of what's going on between the relations between the two countries
so this threat is easily believable however you heard that that amazing guy in today's trailer leading
into the case this is about the unibomber so we know that that's the direction we're going here right that
trailer by the way was a combo of some of my own writing mixed with the writings from the book incendiary by
Michael canel and the anatomy of motive by John Douglas and Mark ALS Shaker two books featured on our show before and
two must own books for hardcore True Crime garages now to be perfectly clear here Captain even though the explosive
device did not do what it was supposed to do this was really a very dramatic event I mean imagine you hear an
explosion the cabin fills with smoke the oxygen masks drop down the passengers are leaving their seats and running to
the back of the plane well let me remind everybody fix your mask before you try to help your children with their mask
the crew is forced to make an emergency landing they Evacuate the plane plane from the rear firefighters and fire
trucks are there to greet the plane upon Landing they have to cut away a a small
section of the plane and spray everything down with foam to put out the fire There's an actual fire on this
plane right so I mean some truly heavy heavy stuff here now it was determined that the bomb was from a small package
that was being mailed to the greater Washington area so the plane is transferring not only passengers but
male as well on this trip everybody seem Tom hanon Cast Away it was a fairly small explosive device with a battery
and an timer which is an instrument that measures altitude so this instrument could trigger the bomb as the plane was
climbing in altitude okay so the the previous attacks are investigated at the local level and with USPS right however
an airliner bombing is a federal crime so here we go bring in the feds and as Nick Cage would say this whole place is
a crime scene well he said there's roughly about 80 passengers or so I don't know if that's full capacity but
they believe that if this bomb would have worked correctly it would have killed every single passenger on that
plane that's correct I mean we're talking about a huge death toll and just a a security nightmare too at the end of
the day for the entire country well this really UPS the anti but I don't think right away do they know that these
University of Northwestern bombs are connected to Flight 444 right that's going to take some
investigating and the short of it for this attack is that someone mailed an altitude sensitive
bomb to be on this airplane on a flight from Chicago to Washington DC and again 78 people who got lucky
that the manufacturer of this bomb was unable to get it to be quote successful yeah
and now we got the feds on the case and and hope hopefully we get Julius Pepperwood on the case as
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all right we're back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you Captain happy birthday all right I'm 21 he's 21
but been drinking on the show for 5 years and a and a half 21 and a half all right L capan we have another attack
this one is on June 10th 1980 this is a targeted attack on United Airlines president Percy wood who was injured
when he opened a package containing a bomb the bomb was disguised even inside of the shipping box the explosive device
was encased in a book called The Ice brothers by Sloan Wilson so the book was hollowed out with the bomb inside you
open up the B book and the bomb goes off the package was addressed and shipped to
Percy wood at his home and that is in fact where he opened the box as said Percy was injured on his hands face and
thighs when the package exploded but thankfully he was not killed during this attack so we have two bombs that are
connected to universities and two bombs that are connected to Airlines this is the fourth bomb in our series now of
course we know that the FBI they're already on the job but with this new attack they are going to bring in John
Douglas who ultimately would be just one of many FBI profilers who work the unabomb case I think captain at one
point in this investigation the FBI had about 150 agents actively working the case all at the same time this does not
include all of the local law enforcement agencies working the case throughout the
years as well now the agents working this attack they're going to need to clue Douglas in on their assessment of
the situation that is as follows one the United Airlines has not received any threatening letters or phone calls and
neither has Percy wood or his family so there was no indication beforehand that this attack was going to happen there
was no request for money or any type of extortion going on with the airline or with the Wood family themselves I mean
this guy's pretty well to do two the airline has not received any Ransom demand three there was no obvious motive
in this case or now the other three cases as well and for the agents in charge do not believe that this is the
first bomb that this attacker has mailed or placed okay Captain so no threats and
no Ransom that's pretty self-explanatory stuff right so anything you want explore
there captain or should we continue because I really want to get into numbers three and four no apparent
motive and not the first attack or question mark first attack well it's interesting because when you don't have
a ransom there's less evidence and like we said be before with these bombs in particular there's just no evidence Left
Behind fingerprints or or DNA that we know of or any markings to to even suggest that he it's even the same
bomber other than it seems like random items found around somebody's house or toolshed or junkyard and these are
extremely handmade bombs and what I mean by that is even the mechanisms and devices the workings inside of the bomb
itself a lot of those are handmade as well and so this is someone who is very meticulous to be able to construct all
of these items construct these bombs and not leave any type of fingerprints or forensic evidence on the bomb itself
plus you then have to package this baby up and ship it off and you've not left any forensic evidence on the packaging
as well now I think this is a good opportunity to take a deep dive into a little analysis of violent crime study
from the crime classification manual this will be good because it very likely ties into our case from last week as
well the timers or the Tylenol murders where we asked the question was the motive a form of public terrorism or
extortion or both or simply just a motive to kill so the classification here would be non-specific motive
killing a non-specific motive killing pertains to a homicide that appears irrational and is committed for a reason
known only to the offender it sub quently may be defined and categorized after more extensive investigation into
the offender's background here are the defining characteristics of such a homicide first we have the victimology
the victims of a non-specific homicide are random with no direct relationship between victim and offender victims can
be male female adults or children and demonstrate a disparity of characteristics and
lifestyle here as you pointed out Captain the interesting thing with our with our bomb attacks right is while the
individuals who are opening these packages and being injured by the result of these bombs while they might be
fairly random you've already put together that in the first two we're seeing a link to
universities specifically Northwestern University and both of them and then the second the third and fourth attack I'm
sorry airlines American Airlines and United Airlines so what what I think you're seeing here is less about the
individual and maybe more about the overall organization themselves yeah there is some some kind of connection
there and it's not just like we see in other cases where they're random victims or if you look at the the time MERS that
you just put bottles on the shelf and whoever gets them gets them so it's not the
so it's tough because we we're not seeing the direct link from this terrorist to the victims but there is a
link there and so far there's no communication there's no one claiming responsibility there's no one asking for
money or demands and again it makes it just extremely difficult now the frequent crime scene indicators of such
a crime would be that it's usually a public place okay of course we've seen that in three of these four attacks so
this poses a high risk to the offender there is nothing missing from the crime scene itself it is disorganized with no
effort having been made to conceal the victims so obvious thing here you send a bomb place a bomb whoever it affects or
kills that's the result you're not hiding the victims afterwards a firearm the weapon of choice is is typical with
this type of offender this is what we're talking about here Captain is just like
in the Tylenol murders totally random victims just like with a lot of these bombs totally random victims with the
exception of Percy wood but this also would talk and cover about the like a public shooter a a school
shooter or unfortunately what we've been seeing in the news too often lately people shooting at workplaces or out in
public places the firearm as Douglas indicates would be the choice of weapon for this type of Fender is brought to
the crimes now the crime often becomes a massacre because it is the offender's goal to kill as many people as possible
I think that's what we saw with the possible successful attack on the American Airlines flight 444 yeah this
is reflected by the use of weapons that the uh that offer optimal lethality by multiple weapons and by an
abundance of ammunition now the crime scene staging is not present because it's not necessary there's no reason for
the offender to Stage the crime scene as pointed out most of the time these are totally random victims
and typically this type of crime is almost exclusively committed during daylight in public places which we had
in the first three of these four attacks because the offender wants the highest death toll possible one the witnesses
often are available to identify the offender as he is unconcerned with being identified this is interesting because
in the first two attacks these bombs weren't really even mailed they were placed somewhere right
somebody anyone could have spotted someone placing this bomb in the parking lot where the first bomb was found or in
the um university where the second bomb was found it's pretty easy to just drop off
a package as you're walking and not be seen oh yeah yeah I would agree with that I think that the thing that would
be alarming is that it look looks like a package with intent it looks like a package that is that has a purpose and
to see somebody randomly just place it on the ground in a parking lot I think would be something that would be
abnormal you'd think that the bomber would you know you have to worry about a couple things one bending down and
placing the the the bomb on the ground uh the bomb going off but really you know these are a big enough box that you
would then have eyewitnesses that just saw in individual carrying a box and it might not be the bomb but that could be
a lead to the bomber typically in this type of crime the offender really has no escape plan
because they are fine with either committing suicide or being shot at the scene by police now Douglas will go on
to say that the offender usually has a disheveled appearance is withdrawn demonstrates an isolated effect and
possibly exhibits erratic Behavior and the search warrant suggestions should one get that far in their investigation
are as follows search the home of the suspect for weapons receipts and Records remember we are handpicking these
particular items in the search warrant itself if it's not written in the warrant it's not seizable evidence so
he's suggesting you want to include weapons receipts and Records this is because you are looking for especially
in this case this week right bomb making materials and then last week's case poisoning bottles of pain reliever
you're looking for evidence obvious or a paper trail because in both cases we have someone manufacturing the death
instrument the bomb the poison bottles somewhere before the attack well the fact that all these bombs are a little
different it's not the same exact bomb and like they're telling us I mean we we don't have pictures of each of the inner
workings of all these bombs but they're telling us these items could be found around your house they could be found in
a junkyard so you would almost think that the individual would have to write out their idea of how to create this
bomb and so there'd be some kind of uh diagram or some blueprint for the bombs because they're all different and and if
they don't take it that serious they could blow themselves up right and often that's what happens in these cases and I
can't remember if we talked about this last week or not but in poisoning cases especially when you're trying to poison
the masses like with with timers and with bomb cases especially when you're trying to bomb the masses like we're
seeing here they often either poison themselves injure themselves or blow themselves up one could only hope to be
so lucky when you have a case like this that's going to span the course of years
so of course as you pointed out the the bombs are different well why are the bombs different because the bomb maker
is learning and you're exactly right Captain you would anticipate finding not only diagrams and notes of how one
constructed the last bomb but also thoughts and ideas on how to better construct the next bomb this is kind of
a work in progress for this bomb maker yeah I agree and you pointed out the home items found around the home or or
junkyard or what have you inside of these bombs we're talking about things like you're going to find like pipes
Springs wires a lot of wood was used in the construction of these bombs which I don't know if that's super typical in
these types of situations but you're also finding batteries a lot of these bombs were powered with with everyday
batteries duracel Energizer stuff that you would find at at most people's homes so of course you're hoping to find
physical evidence of such if you get a guy that you like as a suspect when you go to search his home or his place of
work because in the poisoning and in the bomb making especially with the bomb making this is timec consuming Activity
one would need a decent level of privacy to be constructing these bombs if not he
could be turned in Fair fairly quickly by anyone who is aware of what this guy is up to so what we do know is like what
you're saying this guy needs privacy he needs a Workshop he needs maybe he's a a
mechanic and he can do it at his job but then you go but he doesn't need a lot of
money because the materials don't cost a lot but he has to be somewhat intelligent or at least mechanically
inclin because we don't hear of anybody accidentally blowing themselves up and like you said we see um the
sophistication level of the bombs growing by by each turn now this is not the first attack obviously and it sounds
like they being law enforcement were able to link these attacks together mostly based off of what kind of bombs
they were seeing which again was mostly crude pretty unsophisticated handmade bombs but you're going to recognize that
the construction is somewhat similar and materials are somewhat similar even though as the captain pointed out the
bomb maker is getting better at constructing these bombs but each one in the series each one of these bombs in
the series they're getting a little more advanced than the last and the bomb maker is putting
FC FC on the bombs football club that's right the uh Washington football club yeah no the uh whoever was making these
bombs was going out of their way to stamp into a piece of metal inside the bomb or on the bomb itself the letters
FC well there's your sign right I mean so even if you even a lay person can look at four bombs and go well somebody
stamped FC in these that must mean something yeah yeah I even I could figure that out you got to get up pretty
early in the morning yeah we didn't even have to turn on the computer to figure that one
out now the interesting thing here though is nobody seems to know what FC stands for and of course you know that
they're linked because they've not public announced that hey the bomb maker is putting FC on these bombs so if there's
a copycat out there it's not in these four situations because the copycat wouldn't know to put FC on the bombs
right so the FBI was holding brainstorming sessions trying to dream up what FC could stand for did they have
any guesses of what they thought it was oh the the list was incredibly long I thought about including some of them
here but I don't know they're I'd just be interested to see some of them were really farfetch um like obviously they
they thought maybe it could be somebody's name so you know Francis you know uh cockburn or something well and
not only someone's initials but then like some kind of organization some kind of group right because usually one thing
that we didn't include in that that classification and that that profile of this type of crime but when you're going
to profile this type of offender and you would have the same thing with the Tylenol murders case even when these
individuals are acting alone often they want to present the idea that they are a
group a a gang an organization they want to faction they want to seem bigger larger more threatening than what they
actually are on October 8th 1981 a bomb wrapped in brown paper and tied with a string ised Ed in the
hallway of a building at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City the bomb is safely detonated without causing any
type of injury now this is interesting captain and I don't know the exact details here but I'm not sure if this
bomb was simply just lying on the floor tied together with a string or if the bomb was actually tied to something
because the description I found didn't State either way and what I mean by that is remember the the mad bomber case he
would put his pipe bombs inside of a wool sock because the sock you could tie it to something or hang it from
something because you want the bomb up off of the ground right you know you want to hang that thing so up to like
shoulder level eye level maybe even higher because if it's lying on the ground you are practically shielding
half of the bomb if that's if that thing is off of the ground you can pretty much spray shrap nail 360°
causing as much damage as possible and often it is the shrap nail that kills rather than the actual blast so this
being the fifth attack again like we said we thought he was getting more sophisticated but we have no injuries of
this one so I mean good for the public but bad that he's continuing to continue on his bombing campaign right on the the
bomb itself while it may have been more advanced than the previous bombs it may just have been detected and somebody was
smart enough to identify it for what it was now on May 5th 1982 a bomb was sent to the head of the
computer science department at Vanderbilt University this was not opened by the department head but by their assistant
the bomb was sent to Patrick C fiser but fiser was was on vacation in Puerto Rico
at the time and his secretary Janet Smith she ends up suffering several injuries to her hands and face after she
opened the package in his office on July 2nd of the same year 1982 a package bomb
is left in the breakroom of Corey Hall at the University of California Berkeley this package explodes and injures an
engineering Professor I think this bomb Captain was just a small simple bomb right this one actually looks like it
was a bit of a step back as far as being you know more advanced than the others this one was a small simple bomb that
was made out of a like a little cigar box well then we have nothing so then we wonder does this guy like to smoke the
cigar well then we have nothing almost for almost 3 years then in May of 1985 another bomb was placed again in Cory
Hall the University of California Berkeley this injures another engineering student and I'm guessing
that there's again items that that look familiar or the style which these bombs are made look familiar but I'm also
guessing that all these bombs were finding the tag FC on yes the bomb maker is stamping little pieces of metal with
FC and placing them in the bombs it's the bomb maker essentially putting his signature his calling card
on an indestructible piece a piece that he knows is going to survive the blast fir crotch in or on the bomb he wants
the FBI and everyone else for that fact to know look this is me I am still here I am not dead I am not in prison and I
am not going away first we're seeing attacks on universities and then to Airlines and now we're back to attacks
on universities and in a row at California Berkeley yes so whoever's doing this is comfortable in that
setting getting close and just placing these bombs in that area well again this is kind of um a tell here because we
have we do have like we said before multiple people that they're sending to in the University of Northwestern which
is in Illinois and now we're all the way in California so does this um terrorist
does the bomber have connections to Chicago and to Berkeley right and the thing here too is with these last two
bombs they're placed or believed to have been placed in this Corey Hall which I I'm not familiar with the
campus itself but I'm assuming that this is a relatively open accessible building I mean I can't believe that
it's a student or faculty member that is placing these bombs there right this is
going to take us to June 13th 1985 and what I think we're seeing here Captain is the start of maybe a busy year for
our attacker so this is when a suspicious package was sent to Boeing fabrication to their fabrication
division in Washington this sounds to me like this one was spotted and detected and identified for what it was a bomb
because we have no death we have no injuries in this attack attempt and the bomb is safely
detonated so we have a second occasion where someone is able to identify the bomb as an as a bomb before it triggers
the mechanism to explode yeah see I'm just not that bright I mean and maybe it's because we get so many more
packages now than they got back in the day but it's like I get boxes to my house all the time and I I just open
them up I don't think twice about it yeah that's one thing that I considered when researching this case you know I
know my neighborhood and and most people's neighborhoods the Amazon little trucks
and vans are are frequent flyers in those areas and constantly just placing boxes on doorsteps and and front porches
heck we are subscribers and we advertise things like hellofresh and butcher box and first Leaf wine club and things like
that on this show all showing up in boxes right at people's homes and every time I cut open that box from first Leaf
I go thank God it's wine and not a bomb yeah well I mean I guess the I guess the
difference is that you do see the the shipping labels and you you see who it's coming from and in a couple of these
attacks the guy didn't even bother to mail it yeah of course this was mailed here for the Boeing attack the attempt
on Boe but in some of these attacks they're just leaving these random packages where curiosity kills the cat
thankfully no one's been killed but there's been people been injured by opening or handling a random package
that they find somewhere it's like too cheap for uh stamps on November 15th 1985 a University of Michigan psychology
professor and his assistant were injured when they opened a package containing a
three ring binder that had a bomb inside now this was Professor James mconnell and research assistant Nicholas sunno
they were both severely injured after sunno open the mail bomb addressed to McConnell so again un University again a
package addressed to a specific Professor well again now we have to go even further does this individual have
connections uh to Northwestern to the University of Michigan to California or Berkeley in California the bomber not
only indicates that he is specifically targeting Professor McConnell by addressing this package to the professor
but also the bomber included a letter with this package asking the professor to review a student's Master thesis so
taking it anep extra step further Captain addressing it to your target but also not wanting this item to just kind
of sit there randomly this is a letter to encourage the professor to open up the binder
because the bomb is disguised as a thesis in a three- ring binder simple bomb the three- ring binder is a little
larger than some of the previous packages that means it can be a little larger of a bomb a little more
destructive but again a simple action to trigger the bomb take the binder out of
the package open the binder binder goes boom thankfully no one is killed in this
attack on December 12th 1985 the Sacramento B newspaper ran the following news article the title is
Mystery blast kills Capital merch Merchant and the article reads A Sacramento businessman was killed
yesterday when a bomb that had been left behind his store blew up in his face the
blast shortly after noon mortally wounded Hugh Campbell scrutin age 38 owner of rentech computer rentals in
Sentry Plaza this located on hoe Avenue in Sacramento this is a little bit of a left turn I mean we have Airlines we
have universities now we have a technology store the device exploded just moments after scrutin left his
store through the back door and headed for the parking lot according to reports the blast blew scrutin about 10 ft the
first person to arrive at the scene heard the victim cry out oh my God help me and scrutin was pronounced dead at
12:34 p.m. at the University Medical Center he reportedly took the full force of the blast in the
chest there were no known witnesses to this crime the blast shook the entire shopping center and shrapnel was
scattered up to 150 yard from the point of the explosion shrapnel penetrated the
store's rear wall but no one else was hurt no motive for the bombing has been established and there are no known
suspects they said law enforcement said that it's possible that scrutin was not the intended victim this according to
the head of the sheriff's Homicide Bureau in Sacramento investigators noted that the rear of the shopping center has
a series of back doors and identifying which door is for which store would not be easy with the doors that close they
said how do you know which door belongs to which business no suspicious activity
was reported by the merchants at the shopping center and interviews with employees did not turn up any
significant leads in this case obviously looking at these bombs afterwards that's
we're going to lose some evidence with inside the bombs because they actually exploded they actually worked but again
are we seeing the signature FC in this bomb as well or are they not telling the public at this point that this one's
connected to the other ones well that's a good question because they're not really cluing us us being the public in
on everything that they seem to know about the bombs the making of the bombs or who is making and sending and leaving
these packages now on February 20th 1987 another bomb was left in the parking lot
of a Salt Lake City computer store so again Salt Lake City again a computer store or tech tech type
store the bomb this time severely injures the business owner's son but we have something very different
here Captain one of the employees at that store working at the store that day saw a man leave the
package and from that witness account we can create a composite sketch of the suspect all right so now we're we're
going to at least make some Headway here this led to a widely distributed sketch
of the suspect wearing a hooded sweat shirt an aviator sunglasses and the suspect is sporting a
mustache now do you think captain that this is probably one of if not the most well-known suspect composite sketch of
all time yeah yeah or at least In Our Lifetime that's for sure yeah I couldn't think what of one on the top of my head
that that would be even closely comparable so they were Distributing a few few different versions of this uh
hold on DB Cooper is pretty popular that's true as far as a uh composite sketch they were Distributing a few
different versions of this uh composite sketch for the public to see again it was very widely distributed at the time
and would be for years to come but one of the early ones I wanted to take it sometime here and read what is on this
actual wanted poster they were offering a $50,000 reward and stated that the suspect was wanted by the postal
inspection service for mailing or placing an explosive device and it goes on to say that on February 20th 1987 a
package exploded at a computer business in Salt Lake City Utah bombs have been either received in the mail or placed in
the following states so they have somehow connected all of these according to this wanted poster at the time bombs
have either been received in the mail or placed in the following states Utah Pennsylvania Illinois California
Michigan and Washington my my gut is telling me that there's there's the signature FC on all of them again I
believe you on that 100% Captain I think this guy he wants the investigators to know that they're all connected he wants
credit for the attacks and he wants them he wants the threat of of them knowing I'm not going away I'm going to keep
doing this it also goes on to say that the incident has been linked to 11 other incidents which have occurred across the
United States since 1978 injuring 21 people and killing one person the description is given of the
suspect and is as follows we're looking for a white male 25 to 30 years old 5' 10 in tall to 6 foot tall approximately
165 lbs slender build blond reddish hair with a light mustache and Rudy complexion which I was not familiar with
what that means but I always what does that mean I always thought people were saying Ruby complexion because I looked
up Rudy complexion and it means like reddish color uh Rosy color yeah I thought that was like
Ruby and goes on to say that the suspect was wearing blue denim jeans a gray hook
sweatshirt and Teardrop sunglasses smoked with smoked lenses not a lot to go off of there no obviously this person
thought that there was a chance that they would be seen placing this bomb in that parking lot and even though it's
behind the business they were organized enough in their attack that they chose to disguise themsel or at the very least
conceal their appearance in some manner with the sunglasses and the hooded sweatshirt but now that we got this
composite sketch they're going to be coming out and they they're going to tell you they're all connected and all
by the way this is a guy that we believe is the uni bomber right so we have notice the two major shifts in this case
and investigation one the attacks have now become lethal the bomb maker has retooled and constructed a better
explosive device and two now we have something on this guy we have a witness description so where before we simply
just had the FC markings that's the bombers including with the bombs now we at least have some idea of what this guy
looks like thanks for joining us here in the garage my gift to you on my birthday is
a promo code take this down it's 420 ji B 420 jib use that promo code at our store Page and you can save 25% off
your purchase and join us back here in the garage for the rest of the story until then be good be kind and don't
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The Unabomber /// Part 1 /// 482

Part 1 of 2 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com (http://www.truecrimegarage.com/)

In the 1990’s the F.B.I. was hunting a serial killer they called the Unabomber. At the time he was the most wanted man in America. He some how managed to avoid detection and capture for over a decade. This week in the Garage Nic and the Captain explore and examine the case and the man who committed these terrible crimes.

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Brief Summary

The episode details the Unabomber case, profiling attacks from 1978 to 1985 and discussing criminal profiling and investigative challenges.

Key points

The Captain's Birthday Celebration. The hosts celebrate the captain's birthday with cheers and a special beer.
The Mad Bomber of New York City. Exploring the case of the Mad Bomber who terrorized NYC for 16 years.
Airplane Bombing Incident. An explosion occurs mid-flight on American Airlines flight 444, causing panic.
Bomb Threats Targeting Airlines. A series of bomb threats linked to airlines raises national security concerns.
Percy Wood's Close Call. United Airlines president Percy Wood survives a bombing attempt at his home.
The Mystery of 'FC'. FBI investigates the meaning behind the mysterious 'FC' stamped on the bombs.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Murder is a broad and fascinating crime.

Introduction to the topic of murder in the podcast.

4:36WatchNov 16, 2023

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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