Bombing Suspect Waives Extradition Kaczynski Heads To California To Face Charges He’s The Unabomber
After three months in a Montana jail, Theodore Kaczynski traded a bulletproof vest for a tweed jacket Friday and agreed in court to be moved to California to face charges he’s the Unabomber.
Kaczynski, 54, waived his right to fight a Justice Department request to move him to Sacramento, where a federal indictment charged him in four of the attacks in the terrorist’s 18-year campaign to smash the modern industrial order.
Federal Judge Charles Lovell did not indicate when Kaczynski would be moved. The U.S. Marshal Service, which handles federal prisoners, refused comment.
Kaczynski wore the vest while being transferred to the courthouse. It was removed once he entered court.
His once shaggy beard and hair neatly trimmed, Kaczynski looked calm and alert during his first time in public view in more than two months. Kaczynski last appeared in court April 19 when defense attorneys tried to dismiss the lone charge against him because of news leaks. Lovell denied that motion.
On Friday, Kaczynski wore a light-colored tweed jacket over a pale green sport shirt, light brown slacks with no belt, and heavy-soled hiking shoes.
Lovell dismissed the single charge that had held Kaczynski since his arrest on April 3 at his cabin northwest of here, possession of bomb-making components.
Federal prosecutors in Helena moved to dismiss the charge “without prejudice,” meaning it could be refiled.
Kaczynski, 54, was indicted Tuesday in Sacramento on 10 counts of transporting, mailing and using bombs. The indictment involves four Sacramento-linked attacks, two of them fatal. In all, the Unabomber is believed responsible for 16 attacks that killed three people and injured 23.
The indictment charges Kaczynski in the first fatal Unabomber attack, a 1985 blast that killed computer store owner Hugh Scrutton, and the last fatal Unabomber attack, which killed timber lobbyist Gilbert Murray in April 1995. Kaczynski could face execution if convicted in either death. However, the Justice Department has not said whether it would seek the death penalty.
The indictment also accuses Kaczynski of two non-fatal bombings in packages were allegedly mailed from Sacramento.