By 1996, Kaczynski -- better known as the Unabomber -- had become the subject of one of the longest and most expensive manhunts in U.S. history.
Colin Scott, another co-producer and a University of Montana alumni, said the Kaczynski story helped fuel America’s fascination with the West, and Montana in particular.
www.kbzk.com
[...] Updated 1:27 PM, Jun 22, 2023
Dave Shors remembers April 3, 1996, beginning like any other day in the newsroom of Helena’s Independent Record. But not long after the work day began, a bit of news trickled in: agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were staking out a cabin near Lincoln. Shors, then an associate editor at the newspaper, sent a reporter and a photographer an hour north to check it out.
As the day wore on, a rumor began to spread around town: The feds had the Unabomber in their sights.
“Unabomber” was the nickname given to a long-wanted domestic terrorist who, starting in 1978, committed 16 bombings across the United States, usually with package bombs sent in the mail. The bombings killed three people and injured 23 others. By 1996, the unidentified bomber had become the subject of one of the longest and most expensive manhunts in U.S. history.
As rumors that the FBI had their man began to spread, reporters from national outlets began calling, demanding to know what the locals knew, Shors recalled. But for much of the day, very little concrete information was available. But early that evening a student photojournalist from the University of Montana burst through the newsroom doors and announced he had just photographed the Unabomber suspect being taken into custody, the
Montana Free Press reports.
“One of our photographers took him into the dark room and helped him process the image and there he was, Ted Kaczynski, in all of his glory,” Shors said last week, 27 years after that fateful night. “It was wild.”
The newspaper struck a deal with the student journalist to publish the photo — as did many other media outlets in the country — and the next day it was on the front page of the Independent Record. In some ways, Kaczynski has stayed above the fold ever since.
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