Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

UNABOMBER: How the FBI Broke Its Own Rules to Capture the Terrorist Ted Kaczynski

Rate this book
The story of the way the FBI was forced to change its methods of operation, from the traditional, media-shy Bureau of J.Edgar Hoover, to the technologically savvy and media friendly organization, necessary to capture Theodore Kaczynski, the notorious Unabomber.This book provides a fascinating look into the Bureau itself and the three individuals charged with leading the investigation and capture of the notorious terrorist after the Bureau s 18 years of frustration

364 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2014

Loading...
Loading...

About the author

Jim Freeman

34 books2 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
43 (29%)
4 stars
42 (28%)
3 stars
44 (30%)
2 stars
11 (7%)
1 star
5 (3%)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Russell Atkinson.
Author 15 books41 followers
July 28, 2020
I enjoy real-crime books, especially those involving the FBI, and I enjoyed this one, but it's not for everyone. It's full of many nuggets of fascinating facts buried in a mountain of pedestrian writing. Since I do offer some criticisms, let me first say that the authors and the whole Unabomber Task Force members mentioned here presided over the identification, capture and successful prosecution of the Unabomber, a serial killer. You or I might have been his next victim had they not succeeded. Results matter and they got the results, so they deserve credit for that. Bravo. But this is a book review, not a performance review.

First, the good. The book gives a very realistic view of the FBI, exposing many errors, foibles, egos, and so forth without sugar-coating. It provides many details of the case that I had never read about before, like the fact that for 16 years, no one who worked the case bothered to check to see if one of the first bombs, one found lying on the ground with plenty of postage, would fit in the nearest mailbox. All kinds of theories were formed about why the bomber chose to plant it there instead of mailing it. How is it possible no one thought that this might be due to the fact it wouldn't fit in the mailbox? The federal jurisdiction was so fractured that the various agencies (ATF, FBI, Postal Inspectors) were not even aware that three of the bombs were made by the same bomber for years because they didn't compare notes or case files. One of the bomb labs thought one bomb was intended to be a dud. Later, the other two agency labs disproved that. And so on. If you're a fan of this kind of crime detail, as I am, this book is worth wading through.

The high point of the book is not how the case was finally solved. It was solved not by the FBI but by the Unabomber himself the same way most criminals are caught. He kept committing crimes until he made a mistake and exposed himself. In this case, he wrote a "manifesto" and sent it to some newspapers, and when it was published someone who knew him, a relative, turned him in. This sort of crowdsourcing is as old as the hills. Before TV and the Internet it was done with wanted posters. I seem to recall reading once long ago that Kaczynski had been identified as a suspect early on but was even rejected by the FBI as a non-viable suspect. That's not mentioned in the book, so I can't be sure that's true. But basically, he outed himself by his arrogance, insane compulsive hatred, and his need to promote his "philosophy."

That's not to take away from all the hard work done by the task force, both before and after he was identified. Just because various methods didn't work doesn't mean they weren't worth trying or that anyone was deficient. Many clever approaches were tried but did not pan out. That's no doubt reality in law enforcement.

Where the book shines is in how it highlights what’s wrong with the FBI and other federal law enforcement. We see in this book the comedy of errors that early investigators made, gleefully pointed out by the main author of this book. Disturbing as it is to see him put down others not under his command, he may be doing the public a service. He takes pride in showing how superior his crew was, at least in his mind. The problem with that theory is that he and his crew came no closer to identifying the Unabomber than his predecessors. It took the Unabomber’s brother, an Ivy League graduate, to do that. Maybe the FBI should be recruiting there, or at MIT and Caltech, instead of in the usual haunts. Maybe they should be looking at SAT scores rather than the ability to wrestle felons to the ground. It’s the Federal Bureau of Investigation, for Pete’s sake, not the Federal Bureau of Patrol. If the FBI had put a couple agents with IQ’s equal to those of the Unabomber and his brother on the case early on, perhaps the fatalities (which came later) might never have happened. We’ll never know. The FBI still thinks of itself as a police agency instead of an investigation agency. It should be the varsity, but Freeman makes them look like bouncers with college degrees. In the British system, Scotland Yard Inspectors, brainiacs (theoretically at least) who don’t carry guns, do the investigating and call in the brawny constables when an arrest needs to be made. Something like that could be done with the FBI, but of course that will never happen. The pay and early pension of the FBI, higher than regular civil servants and even higher than other federal investigative agencies, is keyed to the “danger” and “stress” and need to carry weapons, so they have to be given police work to justify that. Freeman and his crew do deserve kudos for the excellent planning and execution of the arrest at least.

As for the writing, my description as pedestrian is charitable. The book is replete with grammar, punctuation, and wrong word errors. (Ordinance for ordnance, poured for pored, rationale for rational, feint for faint, etc.) The authors should have splurged and hired an editor, or at least a proofreader. The primary author (the SAC) seems never to have learned the objective case, or maybe just doesn't recognize a preposition or transitive verb when he sees one. ("joined Terry and I", "paused to urge both he and Joel" etc.) This mistake permeated the whole book, with only one instance of correct pronoun usage (at 62% of the way through according to my Kindle) when there were multiple objects. Maybe he missed 7th grade. 90% of the book consists of descriptions of meetings and how he wrested or kept control from other bureaucrats. It sounded like he viewed other agency heads and FBI executives as the main enemy rather than the Unabomber. His self-congratulatory tone is also hard to stomach since the SAC's main contribution, beyond appointing some competent worker bees, seems to be buying donuts and occasionally interrupting his golf game to listen to what the bees actually accomplished.

Perhaps most troubling is the pervasive cowardice described during the end game by FBI executives, prosecutors, and DOJ officials. No one was willing to make a decision about whether to release the manifesto, or whether to arrest or search Kaczynski because if it turned out wrong, it would hurt their career. If you care about your career, you shouldn't be in the FBI or DOJ. You should be caring about protecting the public from killers. How about just doing what is most likely to result in the capture of the killer? This concept seemed easy enough for the journeyman agents to understand - Puckett, Moss, and Noel, assuming the book has it right. They seem to be the ones who finally got the impetus going to do what's right. This top-level cowardice aspect left me with a despairing feeling about the future of the FBI, but this stark reality depicted here is probably what is most important in this book. Let's hope Director Comey reads it.
Profile Image for Anne Fox.
Author 25 books46 followers
October 24, 2020
This book impressed me as an FBI account of giving itself a pat on the back. It seems to gloss over the fact that it took 17 years for the Bureau to identify Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber, and also that in the end it wasn't truly the Bureau's analysis that led to that identification, but the publication of his manifesto by the Washington Post and the recognition by his brother David that the writing, both style and content, was remarkably parallel to that of Ted's. In the end, there were some telling indications of what a conclusion of the case was really about: the fact that the agent in charge of the capture of Kaczynski didn't want to involve the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team given the botched actions and horrid outcomes of the FBI's involvement in Ruby Ridge and Waco, and that from Janet Reno to Louis Freeh to the agents involved in the UNABOM task force a successful capture and incarceration of the person known only to them as "Unabomber" would be seen as a form of redemption of the Bureau in the wake of those two tragic events. In short, the FBI needed a win. Has the culture of the FBI, related in a quote by James Comey in the book as being a culture set in concrete for 30 years and very hard to change, really changed? One has to wonder.

The book has value as a historical document, but in my opinion must be approached in the light of more objective accounts.
Profile Image for HR-ML.
1,278 reviews55 followers
June 6, 2024
Non-fiction. This book was written by 3 FBI agents,
including Special Agent in Charge, Jim Freeman , who
tracked the Unabomber the last 2 years before he was
caught. I like how they connected the clues to find him.
Ted Kaczynski (hereafter Ted) was the Unabomber.

Jim Freeman received permission from FBI Director
Freech to start a Unabomber Task Force out of FBI San
Francisco office, to look at the evidence, witnesses,
& clues w/ fresh eyes. He "borrowed" the Clinical
Psychologist, Kathleen Puckett, from the FBI's
Counterintelligence unit. She determined Unabomber
painted himself as part of a radical anti-tech group,
when actually he was a loner who targeted scientists,
academics & engineers with his pipe bombs. He used
scrap wood and constructed home-made bombs. He
used excessive postage on the packages, but some
packages were hand-delivered, w/o use of the Post
Office. This perp had connections to Illinois, Utah
& California. They later learned Ted had a PhD in
math & taught @ UC Berkley for 1 year.

Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) responded to the
first two bombs. After the 3rd bomb the FBI's chief
explosives tech contacted the ATF and other federal
law enforcement.

Ted contacted the New York Times & the Washington
Post & told them to print his manifesto. The FBI chose
the Washington Post b/c they concluded the perp
would want to buy a copy of the newspaper. Ted's
brother David read the manifesto & contacted the
FBI's HQ in DC via his attorney. David recognized
phrases in the manifesto that matched school essays
Ted had written. David agreed to assist the FBI under
the condition Ted wouldn't receive the death penalty,
if found guilty.

FBI, ATM, the US Post Office Post Inspectors & local
law enforcement worked together. Once the FBI
zeroed in on Ted's cabin in Montana, they asked
US Forest Service policeman, Jerry Burns, to assist
& he did. The FBI obtained permission to use 2 empty
cabins, situated close to Ted's cabin.

CBS 60 Minutes discovered the truth about the
Unabomber & planned to break the news on 4/2/96.
Director Freech spoke to a CBS executive and told
him to hold off 1 day & CBS did.

Jerry Burns, who Ted knew, & 2 FBI agents posing as
mining company surveyors delivered the federal
search warrant to Ted on 4/3/96. The FBI found
explosive materials: potassium chlorate, sodium
chlorate and silver oxide. And a live bomb under
Ted's bed! The FBI disconnected the bomb, but
kept in it in tact. They also discovered his old style
manual typewriter used to send letters to the New
York Times, Nobel Prize winners, etc. Ted wore
tattered fifthly clothes, & had filthy hair. And had
a pronounced odor about him. He melted snow for
drinking water. Ted complained to the FBI: his
handcuffs were too tight.

The Unabomber killed 3 innocent people & maimed
23. It took the FBI 18 years to find him, but Ted
had nearly 6 years of inactivity. The FBI ruled out
2400+ suspects. This book included some of Ted's
chilling diary entries and excepts from his manifesto.
Ted confessed & was incarcerated in solitary confine-
ment in a supermax prison in Colorado. Recently Ted
was discovered dead in his cell, at another federal prison.
2 reviews1 follower
September 25, 2017
I finished this book simply because there's a dirth of books on the subject -- i.e., I had little choice, but it was truly painful. As Russell Atkinson pointed out in his excellent review, Freeman has zero understanding of the proper use of objective and subjective pronouns. Even worse, he uses them incorrectly essentially every single time that there are multiple objects. If incorrect grammar bothers you, completing this book could be torture; the incessant mistakes had me moaning out loud and, finally, cursing. It was maddening.
I won't take your time listing them, but the book is replete with malapropisms, as well.

But even more aggravating than these glaring defects, both of which could have been entirely eliminated simply by employing a proofreader, was the ridiculous recounting of details that have nothing whatsoever to do with the narrative. For example, at one point, Freeman devotes an entire paragraph to explaining the code word he and his secretary used for his playing golf, even including that he then "offered her coffee even though I knew she was a tea drinker." I found this amateurish writing to be actually insulting to readers. But using this ploy and personal notes he made of every interaction, conversation, and meeting for two years, Freeman somehow managed to squeeze about 75 pages of useful information into about 250 pages. In the end, i found those 75 pages to be interesting and useful, but never in my experience as a reader have I been forced to perform the inhumane labor required to separate this "wheat" from the chaff that the author heaped on by pitchfork. Had Freeman submitted this manuscript to my high-school English teachers, he would have been given a provisional "F" and directed to resubmit it after correcting the nearly innumerable errors.
Profile Image for Peter L.
152 reviews1 follower
August 10, 2017
FBI VS the UNABOMBER

It took the FBI 17 years & 16 or so explosions before his Brother ratted him out (A very good deed) & as Trump would say a true nut job who lived as a hermit off any grid. This is how his arrogance led the FBI to his bomb factory,
OK book but a little too much about infighting in FBI.
20 reviews
March 16, 2018
Well documented

Excellent book about the Unabomber task forces efforts to track down the most notorious serial bomber in US history. Well paced and well researched in terms of actual case facts. Author does a great job of humanizing the investigators who are trying to track TK down.
10 reviews
January 28, 2025
I randomly found this book at a used bookstore and had no expectations going into it. Turns out it’s one of the most entertaining books I’ve read in a long time. Maybe not the most poetic prose I’ve ever read, but it’s a page turner and provides fascinating and sometimes humorous insights into the daily life of an FBI agent. I’d love the opportunity to hear the agents speak in person.
Profile Image for Gary.
3 reviews
February 1, 2018
Interesting investigative read

Very interesting in regards to the investigation. Can be dry at times. Wish there was more into the unabombers psyche.
Profile Image for David.
204 reviews3 followers
August 27, 2019
I was promoted to read this book after watching Manhunter on Netflix. The book didn’t disappoint. I was interested in reading the real story and this book delivered.
Profile Image for GT.
86 reviews4 followers
November 23, 2015
It seems like a long time ago when we worried about this craziness, and with the speed of life, maybe these events did happen long ago. But reading this book brought it all back for me. If for that reason only, I thought it a worthwhile read.

Granted, the subject matter is in my wheelhouse. True-crime, San Francisco, FBI, 'good guys' win... The idea that so many people were negatively impacted by the actions of another lone 'nut' makes this a compelling story for me. The fact that it is told from the inside, by an FBI decision-maker, is what I really enjoyed. My one criticism might be that the book lays out so logically how this investigation was successful and previous incarnations were not. Either that is gospel truth, in which case the FBI appears to have been inept in their methods and organization to this point, or it oversells the ingenuity of the author and his team. Not an easy choice for me to make.

4 Stars

★ = Horrid waste of time
★★ = May be enjoyable to some, but not me
★★★ = I am glad I read it
★★★★ = Very enjoyable and something I'd recommend
★★★★★ = A rare find, simply incredible
1 review
June 21, 2022
Take it from someone who was there. Great read

I read this book with great anticipation. Finally the definitive account of the actual events related to the UNABOM investigation.
I was not disappointed. As one of the many agents who worked
on the case and assisted in processing evidence at the cabin, I
can attest to the accuracy of the writing.
Always interesting to find out high level details going on beyond the scope of the street agent.
Writing style is directed, accurate and without embellishments.
A must read for anyone truly interested in the real inside story of how the Unabomber was found and arrested.
Profile Image for Jason.
48 reviews
December 21, 2017
Meh...kind of interesting but I was hoping for more of a detailed breakdown of the investigation. This really just was kind of Freeman patting himself and others on the back for changing the investigation and dealing with the culture in the FBI. It was only OK but don't expect any great dive into Ted's motivations or the methods used to capture him.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews