Manhunt: Unabomber (2017) s01e01 Episode Script
UNABOM
1 Ted Kaczynski: I want you to think about the mail for a minute.
Stop taking it for granted like some complacent, sleepwalking sheep and really think about it.
I promise you, you will find the U.
S.
mail a worthy object of your contemplation.
A piece of paper can cross a continent like we're passing notes in class.
I can send you cookies from the opposite side of the world, and all I have to do is write your name on the box, put some stamps on it, and drop it in.
And you see, it only works because every single person along the chain acts like a mindless automaton.
I write an address, and they just obey.
No question.
No deviation.
No pause to contemplate eternity Or beauty Or death.
Even you, for all your protestations of free will, if a box comes with your name on it, you can't even imagine doing anything other Than obey.
- Morning.
- Hey.
Here you go.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Well, it's not your fault.
Society made you this way.
Hey, Gil? But you're a sheep, and you're living in a world of sheep.
And because you're all sheep, because all you can do is obey, I can reach out and touch anyone anywhere.
I can reach out and touch you Right now.
[Birds chirping.]
[Exhales sharply.]
[Chirping continues.]
[Leaves rustling.]
[Water rushing.]
You're trespassing.
This is private property.
[Sighs.]
Hey, Fitz.
Come on, let's go inside.
[Door hinges creak.]
Frank: Congratulations, you are now officially FBI profilers.
[Applause.]
As profilers, you're going to encounter a lot of skepticism.
A lot of agents, good agents, think us quacks.
No.
We're pioneers in the frontier of law enforcement.
We're scientists of the mind, and in the very worst cases the FBI deals with, we will be our nation's last hope.
Welcome to the behavioral analysis unit.
[Applause.]
Supervisory special agent Jessica Mcginity.
Wonderful work.
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Thank you.
With accommodation for superior merit, supervisory special agent James Fitzgerald.
[Cheers and applause.]
Congratulations, Fitz.
Congratulations.
Yeah! - Dad! - Whoo-hoo! [Indistinct talking.]
[Footsteps approaching.]
Dad, come on! Come outside, dad! Come on, dad.
Mom's gonna give us speech.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'm coming.
- Come on! - I'm coming! [Laughs.]
Okay.
Hi, everybody.
Can you believe we're even here celebrating my husband the FBI profiler? I'm still pinching myself.
[Clears throat.]
You were a rookie beat cop when we got married.
[Laughter.]
Jim, you were determined always to become what you saw as the best version of yourself, to become someone that your family, your sons could look up to and admire.
It's not easy being married to a stubborn man.
[Chuckling.]
I'm talking about you.
But it's that damned stubbornness that got you through night school, on to the detective squad, into Quantico, and finally into the elite of the elite.
I admire that so, so much, so cheers, Jim, welcome home.
[Cheers and applause.]
- Did you have fun? - Yeah.
You know I'm not great in crowds.
Well, I tried.
All right, look, who cares? Dan, clean up down there! Listen, it It was amazing.
Thank you.
Aww.
Look, I tried.
[Laughs.]
Thank you.
Well, you know, I I [Sighs.]
What? I had fun.
It's just hard waiting.
Oh, yeah.
You know? No, I-i got soapy hands.
Put 'em on me.
[Laughs.]
[Knock on door.]
Dan: Dad, there's two bald guys at the door! - [Laughs.]
Oh! Put 'em up! - Dan, Dan! - Look at this kid.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- Guess we missed the party.
- Look who it is.
No, no, we're just We're just cleaning up.
- Dan.
- We're trying.
It's a zoo.
Ugh, you got to change him.
- Yeah, all right.
- [Laughs.]
There you go.
[Sighs.]
Apologies, but It's all right.
we have something urgent we need to discuss with you.
Right.
Yeah, come in.
Mcalpine says you're the best profiler in his class, maybe the best he's got.
But you're 10 years older than the rest of your classmates, and I look at your résumé, and I see you languishing for almost a decade as a beat cop, mostly on the graffiti squad.
You piss somebody off? What happened? No.
I wrote a parking ticket.
Mm.
Chief asked me to make it go away 'cause it was for a friend of a friend, and I didn't.
So, what, you're like the Serpico of parking tickets? Some people would call that being overly literal.
Yeah, some people might.
Take a look at this letter.
Tell me what you see.
[Laughs.]
You're making fun of me.
You're making fun of me, right? Right? Here, take these upstairs.
How many times do I have to tell you? You talking about the emordnilap? "Dad, it is I"? Explain.
Well, it's a word thing.
It's like a palindrome, except it spells one thing forwards and another thing backwards.
The first letter of each paragraph d, a, d, I, t, I, s, I.
Okay.
D, a, d, I, t, I, s, I "Dad, it is I.
" D-a-d, I-t, right? D-a-d, I-t, I-s I "Dad, it is I," "is it I, dad?" [Chuckling.]
It's pretty cool, right? I'm Andy Genelli.
I'm head the Unabom task force.
I thought the I thought the Unabom case was over.
Six years and not a peep.
They thought he was dead, but now he's back.
Three new mail bombs, more deadly than before.
The latest one yesterday A timber lobbyist, Sacramento.
The news is gonna break on these tomorrow.
We've been playing it pretty close to the vest until we were sure it was him, and not a Hey.
Okay.
copycat, but it's him, and we need a profile.
Okay.
Go on upstairs now.
Now.
What are you doing? - I have kids.
- I want to send you.
It's one month.
You go out there, build a profile, and come back to the B.
A.
U.
with a big gold star.
They say this is from him, from the Unabomber? His most recent letter.
50 FBI agents have been going over that a fine-tooth comb day and night for two weeks.
Not one of them saw the emordnilap, not even me.
I've had profilers working on this thing for 15 years, and we're right back to where we started.
I need somebody that sees things differently, and like it or not, that's you.
But I've been away for four months, and I just got back.
I can't just up and go 'cause of him, so [Sighs.]
I can't do that to Ellie and the kids.
I can't do that to my family.
Here.
Good luck.
Good night.
Sorry to intrude.
- Do me a favor, Fitz.
- Hmm? Fitz, think about it.
Keep the photos.
The guy with this face blown off, he had a wife and kids, too.
- See ya.
- Not if I see you first.
Thank you.
- Are those for me from grandma? - Those are my cookies from grandma.
- They're mine.
- Yeah.
Go and unpack.
- [Door closes.]
- Go, go.
- Hi, guys.
- These are mine.
You need to share! I'm definitely not sharing.
Sorry, buddy, 'cause grandma made these cookies just for me.
Dan: Yeah, but you need to share.
- These are my cookies.
- Hey, guys.
Don't pig out on grandma's cookies.
Stan: Look at you.
You're living like an animal now, huh? [Laughs.]
Jesus.
You kill those yourself? Jim: What are you doing in my house, Cole? Well, I don't want to be here, believe me.
But the boss needs you.
We need you to get into a room with Kaczynski, interrogate him, break him down, get him to plead guilty.
We need someone who can speak the Unabomber's language, someone, uh, that he connects with.
Besides, Ted asked for you.
[Door hinges creak.]
[Crows cawing in distance.]
The Unabomber asked for me specifically? Specifically for you, and only you.
Why me? He says he'll only talk to the person who actually caught him, and for some reason, he thinks that's you.
Well, that is me.
You were chasing your tails for years before I came.
This guy You got some nerve.
I found him, I caught him, I put him in jail.
You know what? I got my life back together.
I'm just gonna stay right here.
Tell Ted I'm busy.
Listen, we have enough evidence to convict Ted Kaczynski 10 times over, but if this goes to trial, he's gonna make it a media circus, then we would be giving the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, the biggest microphone in America, and his message is dangerous.
We need him to plead guilty.
Look, Fitz, we're asking you, but we can order you if we need to.
You can order me.
[Scoffs.]
Right.
You still work for the FBI, you remember that? Now, hold on, Cole? I get the forestry service out here - Take it down, Cole! - Get out of here.
Get out of here.
Hey, Fitz.
Think about it.
[Car doors open.]
[Engine starts.]
[Vehicle departs.]
[Fire crackles.]
[Car horn honks, indistinct P.
A.
announcement.]
Fitz! [Car door closes.]
You have that new-profiler smell.
Tabby Milgrim.
- Hi.
- I'm your new partner.
Well, I'm the UTF's whole behavioral unit.
Come on.
Let's get you out of this craziness.
PB today.
Sorry.
Flight schools sucks.
Plus U San Raffaele is about a fart and a half away from losing it's accreditation, but whatever.
As long as I squeak out a masters before they go under, we're all good.
So, you're a profiler.
You trained at the B.
A.
U.
? Hell no, bruh.
I'm just a street agent.
Andy: You ever worked on a big op before? Some big bank robberies and a D.
A.
homicide task force in Philly had, like, 20 full-time agents.
It was pretty huge, pretty intense.
Hmm.
Well, welcome to the Unabom task force.
Whoa.
Fresh meat, you're with me.
Tabby: Big bad Stan Cole.
Come on briefing's about to start.
[Door closes.]
All right.
I'm gonna rip the band-aid off quick.
Most of you are TDY'd here for 60 days Want to get you on the playing field, except of course for Tabby whose been here for two years and somehow still shows up late.
We are hunting the deadliest serial bomber in history The Unabomber.
For 17 years he's been planting and mailing bombs, 16 bombs, three people killed, dozens injured, and we really have no friggin' clue who he is or why he's doing this.
We call him the Unabomber because his early targets were universities and airlines "Un" for "university," "a" for "airline," Unabom.
He calls himself "FC" for "Freedom Club.
" It's how he signs all his letters.
It's also how he signs his bombs.
17 years of bombs all signed by FC.
He's a sick bastard.
Northwestern, 1978, another one there in '79.
November '79 nearly takes out American airlines flight 444.
The bomb was sent via air mail rigged with an altimeter 22 passengers injured.
1980, United Airlines president gets his face blown in.
More university bombs, '81, '82 Computer science professors, engineering professors, one poor secretary at Vanderbilt opened a package addressed to her boss.
More universities in '82, '85, '85, Boeing in '85, two computer shops, '85 and '87.
The second one, he got his first fatality.
And this is where we got our first eyewitness.
She gave us this now famous sketch, and then nothing for six years.
So we figured he was dead or maybe finally got laid.
[Laughter.]
But then he is back Epstein at U.
C.
, Gelernter at Yale.
In his hiatus, he developed much more powerful and sophisticated bombs, and they keep coming.
Exxon Valdezâs PR guy, Mosser, and just last week, Gil Murray in Sacramento.
It took three body bags to collect the parts.
Why these targets? Why now? No clue.
So, what forensic leads do we have? Basically, we have no forensic leads.
No DNA, no prints.
But we did have a couple good ideas.
We discovered that he gets his addresses out one particular edition of "Who's who," so we interviewed just about every librarian in the country nothing.
Makes his bombs out of junk, so we did a national junkyard canvass no dice.
But we figure eventually he is gonna screw up, and maybe he already did.
Over the years, he's been mailing typed letters Nothing worth reading until this letter that he wrote to the New York times.
Now, the letter itself is blah-blah-blah, but forensics found this on the envelope "Call Nathan R.
" We figure he wrote himself a post-it note on top of the letter.
And that is our first real lead.
FBI agents are interviewing everyone called "Nathan R-something" in the country.
Plan B is to find Nathans with "R" middle names.
10,000 Nathan Rs.
And that is it.
Enjoy your afternoons.
Don't forget to tip your driver.
It's not much to go on.
Nope.
This is why they need us.
The profile's gonna focus the entire search.
It's a big responsibility.
It's exciting.
Yeah, right? Mildly.
Come on.
S.
A.
C.
Ackerman wants to meet you.
It's an honor, sir.
I feel privileged to be under your command.
I studied your cases at the academy The Russian river killer, Hartford abduction.
Under any other agent, that would have ended in a murder-suicide, and, agent Cole, Ohio Seven Sting, busting the Bad Axe Militia.
I can't believe I'm standing here.
I am I'm eager to learn form you both.
[Chuckling.]
Well, I love this guy already.
So, Fitz, we sent Genelli to bring back the best man he could find, and that is you.
Welcome aboard.
And here is what you're gonna be working on.
Stan: Low I.
Q.
, formerly employed by an airline mechanic or technician, no higher education, possibly little to no high school, grew up in Ohio Cleveland or Cincinnati likely Currently resides in the bay area.
So, what is this? It's our current profile, my own summary of it.
Where's the rest of it? That's exactly why you're here.
I want you to take that, flesh it out.
I'm gonna need 15 pages that can directly on Attorney General Janet Reno's desk.
So make us look good.
Yeah, I will.
I will.
I'll do my best.
It's just a little different than I'm used to, 'cause in terms of a profile, they were a lot more scientific and a little bit longer.
Welcome to the real world.
Quantico's a long way away.
What S.
S.
A.
Cole means is that that summary is a distillation of 10 years work, so it's got a solid foundation and we don't expect it to change except for the wood thing.
Mm.
The wood thing? There's a theory FC is obsessed with wood.
Maybe he has erectile dysfunction.
Since he blew up this Mosser guy moss It's like a plant, so that can go in your profile now.
That's gonna play very, very well with the press, so I want you to dress that up a bit, uh, "a propensity for softness in the genital region," something like that But nothing crude.
I can definitely do something.
I was excepting a support team.
Nope.
It's all you, Fitz.
But I know you can handle it.
Okay.
15 pages, clean, no typos, and wood, a lot of bullet points, a lot of big words, a couple weeks, get it turned in, get you back home.
If you want to hear some war stories, come out for a beer tomorrow.
We're going to Freddy's Old-school San Francisco.
You'll like it.
- Sure.
- Yeah.
[Door closes.]
[Insects chirping.]
[Indistinct chatter.]
I just don't see it.
I just don't see the wood thing.
They want me to do a thing about FC's erectile dysfunction.
What is it with men and their dongs? You should write it.
Write that report You'll be on CNN tonight.
It's B.
S.
This profile This profile is B.
S.
I think it's got to go.
Let's just start over.
What, just toss it all? I don't know, man.
They've been saying "airlines, mechanic from Cincinnati" for years now Consistently.
There must be some reason.
Come here.
What's the first trap we watch for as profilers? Inherited assumptions.
So all these preconceptions we just toss out, come at it clean.
We know nothing about nothing about FC except what the evidence tells us, so if we don't assume that he's a airline worker, what else points to Cincinnati? All the bombs that he planted at the universities Was it because he's a resentful outsider or because that's where he felt most safe? And here All right? Okay.
When he talked down on people with advanced degrees, is he actually low I.
Q.
with no higher education, or is he really smart, maybe he has a bunch of degrees and knows we're gonna read this letter and is hoping that we don't think too hard about it? I Wow.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Exactly.
We don't know.
We don't know anything.
But you go by this profile, your mind is just gonna go like this.
So we start over.
Make the list, everything we need.
[Basket rattles.]
Yes! Respectfully, this is what I need to start over and build a profile we can all stand behind.
I know it's a bump in time and in resources, but this is going on the Attorney General's desk, it's going in the press with your name on it, so we have to get it right.
Stan: How many profiles have you created, outside the classroom, I mean? [Sighs.]
This is my first.
Well, there you go.
So let me explain to you how this works.
Your job is to fulfill the duties laid out to you by S.
A.
C.
That's Ackerman.
He gave you parameters, now go execute.
Respectfully, all I'm asking for is the freedom to do excellent work for you.
That's all.
Otherwise, your profile is gonna hamper your investigation.
It's not gonna help it.
[Sighs.]
When your only tool's a hammer, son, everything looks like a nail.
You're a profiler, you think the profile's gonna catch him.
Genelli's a gearhead.
He thinks it's all about his computer.
We got a guy that's been working on the Unabomber stamp selection for the last five years.
To him, a $1 Eugene O'Neill stamp is the key to everything.
Now, I inherited that guy and I allow him to pursue that avenue, 'cause, uh, well, you never know.
But when I tell him to do something, I expect him to do it.
Well, I'm not your stamp guy.
I'm your profiler.
Even the stamp guy doesn't think he's the stamp guy.
[Door opens.]
All right, let me walk you through it.
[Door closes.]
You know what these are? These are profiles of the Unabomber, and we've got them all.
You want to know where he lives? Okay.
In a house with a room that his wife and kids know never to go into.
Or maybe with his mother a Norman Bates thing going on.
And this is a classic.
It's 20 full pages by the legendary John Douglas about how the Unabomber maintains his car right down to the air freshener, which is royal pine.
[Papers thud.]
Now, we've had every top profiler in the business come through here, and every single one of them says he's got to start all over, and every one of them says something completely different, so pardon me if I'm a little skeptical of your profession.
Now, Ackerman brought me in here to keep this investigation focused and on track.
We've been running around in circles for years, and it's time for that to stop.
So instead of 100 different contradictory profiles, we're going with one backed up by concrete forensic evidence, and that's the profile that I gave you.
The only way we're gonna catch the Unabomber, same way we catch anybody, that's forensics.
It's plain and simple.
Now, you could spend six months coming up with the world's most accurate profile, but that's not what we're looking for.
We're looking for 15 pages, no typos, and wood, and we want to take it to the press next week.
Now, I understand that you're a brilliant guy.
I do.
Mcalpine says you can all kinds of stuff hidden in letters, and that's great, so take the Unabom letters and find wood.
Okay? So right now, all that's required of you is obedience.
Understand? [Door opens, closes.]
[Sighs.]
Natalie: Okay, on Tuesday, we discussed regional dialects and linguistic prescriptivism.
See you next week.
[Indistinct chatter.]
Jim: Natalie.
[Chatter continues.]
[Door closes.]
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to just show up.
I just didn't know where else to go.
What happened to you? Where'd you go? Where have you been? You know, I tried to find you.
I called your office, your home.
I talked to your wife Everything.
The Unabom case is over.
It was over two years ago.
It's not over, and I need help.
You have to have some place you can go Family, somebody other than me.
[Sighs.]
Hey.
Look, look We got a friend! What's your name? Winston and Jasper.
Look, I-i have to defend my dissertation in a couple weeks, so I have to work tonight.
All right, I'm gonna take these guys to the kitchen.
Why don't you why don't you take a shower? You can sleep on the couch.
Come on! Come on! They want me to go in and interrogate Ted.
They need me.
They need me to get the guilty plea.
[Scoffs.]
I think that I think I need to confront him and get some answers.
You have the answers.
You proved that Ted's the Unabomber.
Answers for myself, so I can understand what happened to me and where I should go from here.
And what makes you think that he has answers to any question that matters? What do you think? You wanted this.
You wanted him in your life.
Secretly, somehow you wanted this.
That's the answer.
That's the only way I can make sense of what happened.
You wanted him in your life more than you wanted anyone or anything else.
Why would I want that? What kind of person would want that? Jim: They interview 10,000 Nathan Rs, and then they turn to me and say that profiling's a waste of resources.
Think about that.
You're a cog in the machine, Fitz.
Embrace it, bruh.
[Indistinct conversations.]
Oh-oh! There he is.
It's our head shrinker come to mingle with the commoners.
- Hey, where you going, bruh? - Sacramento to do my job.
[Door closes.]
Ted: They want you to obey.
They want you to be a sheep like they are sheep Obedient, unquestioning piece of machinery.
Sit when told to sit, stand when told to stand.
They want you to give up your humanity, your autonomy for a paycheck, gold star, bigger TV.
The only way to be human, the only way to be free, is to rebel.
They'll try to crush you.
They'll use every tactic they have to make you obedient, docile, subservient, but you can't let them.
You have to be your own master, whatever that takes.
Better to die a human being than to live as a purposeless cog in their machine.
Jim: You dropped it in the mail a week ago.
[Indistinct chatter.]
Woman: Gil.
This just came.
[Indistinct chatter.]
[Screaming.]
Jim: You want to be here.
You want to be here, touching this, savoring it.
[Insects chirping.]
But you can't be here.
You can't be here.
Ever for any of them.
Why is that enough for you and not any other serial killer? Never to see it, hear it, taste it, never to see Gil Murray's body.
Because it's not about him.
It's not about him as an individual, is it? These aren't people to you.
They're symbols.
You're sending a message.
That's why you use the mail, 'cause it's a message.
It's a hidden message.
And what does it symbolize? What does it represent? So, what are you trying to tell us, FC? What are you trying to tell me? "Dad, it is I.
" What are you trying to tell me, FC? What are you trying to tell me? [Knocks on window.]
[Indistinct chatter.]
Your whole profile is built on the assumption that FC was one of the airline mechanics that United Airlines laid off in Cincinnati, and that he targeted American Airlines flight 444 and United president Percy Wood out of a personal grudge, right? Right.
But let's think about mail bombs.
He can't hear them, he can't see them, he can't visit the site, he can't view the bodies, anything.
It's none of the satisfaction of revenge.
But he keeps bombing anyway.
Why? Because these aren't personal targets.
They are representational targets.
Gil Murray was a symbol of something for him.
All of his targets symbolize something for FC.
Andy: We have done every kind of victimology.
His victims are random, totally unconnected to each other.
All right.
So he spends years perfecting the most untraceable, sophisticated mail bomb ever created, and then just picks random targets from a phone book? I don't think it was a random coincidence that these letters spell "Dad, it is I," and I don't think it's a random coincidence that he's targeting airlines, scientists, computers, forestry people.
I think it only seems random because we don't know what connects them.
We can't We don't know his code, and the reason that we don't know his code is because we're still assuming he's a low-I.
Q.
pissed off airline mechanic when he's actually been outsmarting us the whole time.
We've got hard forensic evidence that he's a trained airline mechanic.
Look.
Batteries soldered in series, encased in a wire cage just like airplane power bricks, he's an expert at casting and shaping aluminum, and look look at this new switch he's developed.
It looks exactly like an airplane tail stand on a 747.
We've had pilots confirm that.
That only looks like a tail stand if you're looking for proof of the supposition that he's an airline mechanic.
If you're objective about it, it's just a switch.
Do you ever think that the reason you haven't got him in 17 years is that you're underestimating him? There is a powerful intelligence at work here, a deep personal philosophy underpinning all of FC's actions.
Now, you figure out the philosophy, you can figure out the man, you can crack the code.
But not with this.
We have to start over.
Get rid of that and start over.
Fitz, buddy, you're breaking my heart.
[Typewriter clacking.]
You are part of a world-class orchestra here.
Lots of instruments, lots of virtuosos, and out of all of these players, I'm pointing to you, and I'm saying now is the time for your solo.
Stand up, play your heart out so the whole world can hear you.
But you got to play with the sheet music that I'm giving you.
Because you may be a once-in-a-century talent, but if you can't harmonize with the rest of the orchestra, I'm gonna have to send you home.
[Clacking.]
Dude, where have you been? Why ain't you downstairs? Didn't Genelli tell you? I'm going home.
I'm not writing that B.
S.
Fitz, you got to get down to forensics now.
[Drawer slams.]
You said he had a personal philosophy, some message he's trying to send.
You were right.
The New York Times called it in.
They got a package.
Another bomb? No, it's something else.
They're calling it the "Unabomber manifesto.
" If you screw this up, we'll crucify you.
Hey, we just got handed a 56-page manifesto from the most elusive criminal in the world, and you don't want to take the time to read it? A big break in this case comes when we pull a fingerprint off one of those pages.
Personally, I think this whole manifesto thing could be a red herring.
Man: We have a potential mass-casualty situation.
Don: The Unabomber has threatened to blow an airplane out of the sky.
Jim: I have to go in there I have to face him.
We need a guilty plea from Ted.
Ted.
This is our only shot.
You're our only shot.
Ted: Agent Fitzgerald.
I am so glad to make your acquaintance at last.
Stop taking it for granted like some complacent, sleepwalking sheep and really think about it.
I promise you, you will find the U.
S.
mail a worthy object of your contemplation.
A piece of paper can cross a continent like we're passing notes in class.
I can send you cookies from the opposite side of the world, and all I have to do is write your name on the box, put some stamps on it, and drop it in.
And you see, it only works because every single person along the chain acts like a mindless automaton.
I write an address, and they just obey.
No question.
No deviation.
No pause to contemplate eternity Or beauty Or death.
Even you, for all your protestations of free will, if a box comes with your name on it, you can't even imagine doing anything other Than obey.
- Morning.
- Hey.
Here you go.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Well, it's not your fault.
Society made you this way.
Hey, Gil? But you're a sheep, and you're living in a world of sheep.
And because you're all sheep, because all you can do is obey, I can reach out and touch anyone anywhere.
I can reach out and touch you Right now.
[Birds chirping.]
[Exhales sharply.]
[Chirping continues.]
[Leaves rustling.]
[Water rushing.]
You're trespassing.
This is private property.
[Sighs.]
Hey, Fitz.
Come on, let's go inside.
[Door hinges creak.]
Frank: Congratulations, you are now officially FBI profilers.
[Applause.]
As profilers, you're going to encounter a lot of skepticism.
A lot of agents, good agents, think us quacks.
No.
We're pioneers in the frontier of law enforcement.
We're scientists of the mind, and in the very worst cases the FBI deals with, we will be our nation's last hope.
Welcome to the behavioral analysis unit.
[Applause.]
Supervisory special agent Jessica Mcginity.
Wonderful work.
[Camera shutter clicks.]
Thank you.
With accommodation for superior merit, supervisory special agent James Fitzgerald.
[Cheers and applause.]
Congratulations, Fitz.
Congratulations.
Yeah! - Dad! - Whoo-hoo! [Indistinct talking.]
[Footsteps approaching.]
Dad, come on! Come outside, dad! Come on, dad.
Mom's gonna give us speech.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'm coming.
- Come on! - I'm coming! [Laughs.]
Okay.
Hi, everybody.
Can you believe we're even here celebrating my husband the FBI profiler? I'm still pinching myself.
[Clears throat.]
You were a rookie beat cop when we got married.
[Laughter.]
Jim, you were determined always to become what you saw as the best version of yourself, to become someone that your family, your sons could look up to and admire.
It's not easy being married to a stubborn man.
[Chuckling.]
I'm talking about you.
But it's that damned stubbornness that got you through night school, on to the detective squad, into Quantico, and finally into the elite of the elite.
I admire that so, so much, so cheers, Jim, welcome home.
[Cheers and applause.]
- Did you have fun? - Yeah.
You know I'm not great in crowds.
Well, I tried.
All right, look, who cares? Dan, clean up down there! Listen, it It was amazing.
Thank you.
Aww.
Look, I tried.
[Laughs.]
Thank you.
Well, you know, I I [Sighs.]
What? I had fun.
It's just hard waiting.
Oh, yeah.
You know? No, I-i got soapy hands.
Put 'em on me.
[Laughs.]
[Knock on door.]
Dan: Dad, there's two bald guys at the door! - [Laughs.]
Oh! Put 'em up! - Dan, Dan! - Look at this kid.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- Hey.
- Guess we missed the party.
- Look who it is.
No, no, we're just We're just cleaning up.
- Dan.
- We're trying.
It's a zoo.
Ugh, you got to change him.
- Yeah, all right.
- [Laughs.]
There you go.
[Sighs.]
Apologies, but It's all right.
we have something urgent we need to discuss with you.
Right.
Yeah, come in.
Mcalpine says you're the best profiler in his class, maybe the best he's got.
But you're 10 years older than the rest of your classmates, and I look at your résumé, and I see you languishing for almost a decade as a beat cop, mostly on the graffiti squad.
You piss somebody off? What happened? No.
I wrote a parking ticket.
Mm.
Chief asked me to make it go away 'cause it was for a friend of a friend, and I didn't.
So, what, you're like the Serpico of parking tickets? Some people would call that being overly literal.
Yeah, some people might.
Take a look at this letter.
Tell me what you see.
[Laughs.]
You're making fun of me.
You're making fun of me, right? Right? Here, take these upstairs.
How many times do I have to tell you? You talking about the emordnilap? "Dad, it is I"? Explain.
Well, it's a word thing.
It's like a palindrome, except it spells one thing forwards and another thing backwards.
The first letter of each paragraph d, a, d, I, t, I, s, I.
Okay.
D, a, d, I, t, I, s, I "Dad, it is I.
" D-a-d, I-t, right? D-a-d, I-t, I-s I "Dad, it is I," "is it I, dad?" [Chuckling.]
It's pretty cool, right? I'm Andy Genelli.
I'm head the Unabom task force.
I thought the I thought the Unabom case was over.
Six years and not a peep.
They thought he was dead, but now he's back.
Three new mail bombs, more deadly than before.
The latest one yesterday A timber lobbyist, Sacramento.
The news is gonna break on these tomorrow.
We've been playing it pretty close to the vest until we were sure it was him, and not a Hey.
Okay.
copycat, but it's him, and we need a profile.
Okay.
Go on upstairs now.
Now.
What are you doing? - I have kids.
- I want to send you.
It's one month.
You go out there, build a profile, and come back to the B.
A.
U.
with a big gold star.
They say this is from him, from the Unabomber? His most recent letter.
50 FBI agents have been going over that a fine-tooth comb day and night for two weeks.
Not one of them saw the emordnilap, not even me.
I've had profilers working on this thing for 15 years, and we're right back to where we started.
I need somebody that sees things differently, and like it or not, that's you.
But I've been away for four months, and I just got back.
I can't just up and go 'cause of him, so [Sighs.]
I can't do that to Ellie and the kids.
I can't do that to my family.
Here.
Good luck.
Good night.
Sorry to intrude.
- Do me a favor, Fitz.
- Hmm? Fitz, think about it.
Keep the photos.
The guy with this face blown off, he had a wife and kids, too.
- See ya.
- Not if I see you first.
Thank you.
- Are those for me from grandma? - Those are my cookies from grandma.
- They're mine.
- Yeah.
Go and unpack.
- [Door closes.]
- Go, go.
- Hi, guys.
- These are mine.
You need to share! I'm definitely not sharing.
Sorry, buddy, 'cause grandma made these cookies just for me.
Dan: Yeah, but you need to share.
- These are my cookies.
- Hey, guys.
Don't pig out on grandma's cookies.
Stan: Look at you.
You're living like an animal now, huh? [Laughs.]
Jesus.
You kill those yourself? Jim: What are you doing in my house, Cole? Well, I don't want to be here, believe me.
But the boss needs you.
We need you to get into a room with Kaczynski, interrogate him, break him down, get him to plead guilty.
We need someone who can speak the Unabomber's language, someone, uh, that he connects with.
Besides, Ted asked for you.
[Door hinges creak.]
[Crows cawing in distance.]
The Unabomber asked for me specifically? Specifically for you, and only you.
Why me? He says he'll only talk to the person who actually caught him, and for some reason, he thinks that's you.
Well, that is me.
You were chasing your tails for years before I came.
This guy You got some nerve.
I found him, I caught him, I put him in jail.
You know what? I got my life back together.
I'm just gonna stay right here.
Tell Ted I'm busy.
Listen, we have enough evidence to convict Ted Kaczynski 10 times over, but if this goes to trial, he's gonna make it a media circus, then we would be giving the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, the biggest microphone in America, and his message is dangerous.
We need him to plead guilty.
Look, Fitz, we're asking you, but we can order you if we need to.
You can order me.
[Scoffs.]
Right.
You still work for the FBI, you remember that? Now, hold on, Cole? I get the forestry service out here - Take it down, Cole! - Get out of here.
Get out of here.
Hey, Fitz.
Think about it.
[Car doors open.]
[Engine starts.]
[Vehicle departs.]
[Fire crackles.]
[Car horn honks, indistinct P.
A.
announcement.]
Fitz! [Car door closes.]
You have that new-profiler smell.
Tabby Milgrim.
- Hi.
- I'm your new partner.
Well, I'm the UTF's whole behavioral unit.
Come on.
Let's get you out of this craziness.
PB today.
Sorry.
Flight schools sucks.
Plus U San Raffaele is about a fart and a half away from losing it's accreditation, but whatever.
As long as I squeak out a masters before they go under, we're all good.
So, you're a profiler.
You trained at the B.
A.
U.
? Hell no, bruh.
I'm just a street agent.
Andy: You ever worked on a big op before? Some big bank robberies and a D.
A.
homicide task force in Philly had, like, 20 full-time agents.
It was pretty huge, pretty intense.
Hmm.
Well, welcome to the Unabom task force.
Whoa.
Fresh meat, you're with me.
Tabby: Big bad Stan Cole.
Come on briefing's about to start.
[Door closes.]
All right.
I'm gonna rip the band-aid off quick.
Most of you are TDY'd here for 60 days Want to get you on the playing field, except of course for Tabby whose been here for two years and somehow still shows up late.
We are hunting the deadliest serial bomber in history The Unabomber.
For 17 years he's been planting and mailing bombs, 16 bombs, three people killed, dozens injured, and we really have no friggin' clue who he is or why he's doing this.
We call him the Unabomber because his early targets were universities and airlines "Un" for "university," "a" for "airline," Unabom.
He calls himself "FC" for "Freedom Club.
" It's how he signs all his letters.
It's also how he signs his bombs.
17 years of bombs all signed by FC.
He's a sick bastard.
Northwestern, 1978, another one there in '79.
November '79 nearly takes out American airlines flight 444.
The bomb was sent via air mail rigged with an altimeter 22 passengers injured.
1980, United Airlines president gets his face blown in.
More university bombs, '81, '82 Computer science professors, engineering professors, one poor secretary at Vanderbilt opened a package addressed to her boss.
More universities in '82, '85, '85, Boeing in '85, two computer shops, '85 and '87.
The second one, he got his first fatality.
And this is where we got our first eyewitness.
She gave us this now famous sketch, and then nothing for six years.
So we figured he was dead or maybe finally got laid.
[Laughter.]
But then he is back Epstein at U.
C.
, Gelernter at Yale.
In his hiatus, he developed much more powerful and sophisticated bombs, and they keep coming.
Exxon Valdezâs PR guy, Mosser, and just last week, Gil Murray in Sacramento.
It took three body bags to collect the parts.
Why these targets? Why now? No clue.
So, what forensic leads do we have? Basically, we have no forensic leads.
No DNA, no prints.
But we did have a couple good ideas.
We discovered that he gets his addresses out one particular edition of "Who's who," so we interviewed just about every librarian in the country nothing.
Makes his bombs out of junk, so we did a national junkyard canvass no dice.
But we figure eventually he is gonna screw up, and maybe he already did.
Over the years, he's been mailing typed letters Nothing worth reading until this letter that he wrote to the New York times.
Now, the letter itself is blah-blah-blah, but forensics found this on the envelope "Call Nathan R.
" We figure he wrote himself a post-it note on top of the letter.
And that is our first real lead.
FBI agents are interviewing everyone called "Nathan R-something" in the country.
Plan B is to find Nathans with "R" middle names.
10,000 Nathan Rs.
And that is it.
Enjoy your afternoons.
Don't forget to tip your driver.
It's not much to go on.
Nope.
This is why they need us.
The profile's gonna focus the entire search.
It's a big responsibility.
It's exciting.
Yeah, right? Mildly.
Come on.
S.
A.
C.
Ackerman wants to meet you.
It's an honor, sir.
I feel privileged to be under your command.
I studied your cases at the academy The Russian river killer, Hartford abduction.
Under any other agent, that would have ended in a murder-suicide, and, agent Cole, Ohio Seven Sting, busting the Bad Axe Militia.
I can't believe I'm standing here.
I am I'm eager to learn form you both.
[Chuckling.]
Well, I love this guy already.
So, Fitz, we sent Genelli to bring back the best man he could find, and that is you.
Welcome aboard.
And here is what you're gonna be working on.
Stan: Low I.
Q.
, formerly employed by an airline mechanic or technician, no higher education, possibly little to no high school, grew up in Ohio Cleveland or Cincinnati likely Currently resides in the bay area.
So, what is this? It's our current profile, my own summary of it.
Where's the rest of it? That's exactly why you're here.
I want you to take that, flesh it out.
I'm gonna need 15 pages that can directly on Attorney General Janet Reno's desk.
So make us look good.
Yeah, I will.
I will.
I'll do my best.
It's just a little different than I'm used to, 'cause in terms of a profile, they were a lot more scientific and a little bit longer.
Welcome to the real world.
Quantico's a long way away.
What S.
S.
A.
Cole means is that that summary is a distillation of 10 years work, so it's got a solid foundation and we don't expect it to change except for the wood thing.
Mm.
The wood thing? There's a theory FC is obsessed with wood.
Maybe he has erectile dysfunction.
Since he blew up this Mosser guy moss It's like a plant, so that can go in your profile now.
That's gonna play very, very well with the press, so I want you to dress that up a bit, uh, "a propensity for softness in the genital region," something like that But nothing crude.
I can definitely do something.
I was excepting a support team.
Nope.
It's all you, Fitz.
But I know you can handle it.
Okay.
15 pages, clean, no typos, and wood, a lot of bullet points, a lot of big words, a couple weeks, get it turned in, get you back home.
If you want to hear some war stories, come out for a beer tomorrow.
We're going to Freddy's Old-school San Francisco.
You'll like it.
- Sure.
- Yeah.
[Door closes.]
[Insects chirping.]
[Indistinct chatter.]
I just don't see it.
I just don't see the wood thing.
They want me to do a thing about FC's erectile dysfunction.
What is it with men and their dongs? You should write it.
Write that report You'll be on CNN tonight.
It's B.
S.
This profile This profile is B.
S.
I think it's got to go.
Let's just start over.
What, just toss it all? I don't know, man.
They've been saying "airlines, mechanic from Cincinnati" for years now Consistently.
There must be some reason.
Come here.
What's the first trap we watch for as profilers? Inherited assumptions.
So all these preconceptions we just toss out, come at it clean.
We know nothing about nothing about FC except what the evidence tells us, so if we don't assume that he's a airline worker, what else points to Cincinnati? All the bombs that he planted at the universities Was it because he's a resentful outsider or because that's where he felt most safe? And here All right? Okay.
When he talked down on people with advanced degrees, is he actually low I.
Q.
with no higher education, or is he really smart, maybe he has a bunch of degrees and knows we're gonna read this letter and is hoping that we don't think too hard about it? I Wow.
Yeah.
I don't know.
Exactly.
We don't know.
We don't know anything.
But you go by this profile, your mind is just gonna go like this.
So we start over.
Make the list, everything we need.
[Basket rattles.]
Yes! Respectfully, this is what I need to start over and build a profile we can all stand behind.
I know it's a bump in time and in resources, but this is going on the Attorney General's desk, it's going in the press with your name on it, so we have to get it right.
Stan: How many profiles have you created, outside the classroom, I mean? [Sighs.]
This is my first.
Well, there you go.
So let me explain to you how this works.
Your job is to fulfill the duties laid out to you by S.
A.
C.
That's Ackerman.
He gave you parameters, now go execute.
Respectfully, all I'm asking for is the freedom to do excellent work for you.
That's all.
Otherwise, your profile is gonna hamper your investigation.
It's not gonna help it.
[Sighs.]
When your only tool's a hammer, son, everything looks like a nail.
You're a profiler, you think the profile's gonna catch him.
Genelli's a gearhead.
He thinks it's all about his computer.
We got a guy that's been working on the Unabomber stamp selection for the last five years.
To him, a $1 Eugene O'Neill stamp is the key to everything.
Now, I inherited that guy and I allow him to pursue that avenue, 'cause, uh, well, you never know.
But when I tell him to do something, I expect him to do it.
Well, I'm not your stamp guy.
I'm your profiler.
Even the stamp guy doesn't think he's the stamp guy.
[Door opens.]
All right, let me walk you through it.
[Door closes.]
You know what these are? These are profiles of the Unabomber, and we've got them all.
You want to know where he lives? Okay.
In a house with a room that his wife and kids know never to go into.
Or maybe with his mother a Norman Bates thing going on.
And this is a classic.
It's 20 full pages by the legendary John Douglas about how the Unabomber maintains his car right down to the air freshener, which is royal pine.
[Papers thud.]
Now, we've had every top profiler in the business come through here, and every single one of them says he's got to start all over, and every one of them says something completely different, so pardon me if I'm a little skeptical of your profession.
Now, Ackerman brought me in here to keep this investigation focused and on track.
We've been running around in circles for years, and it's time for that to stop.
So instead of 100 different contradictory profiles, we're going with one backed up by concrete forensic evidence, and that's the profile that I gave you.
The only way we're gonna catch the Unabomber, same way we catch anybody, that's forensics.
It's plain and simple.
Now, you could spend six months coming up with the world's most accurate profile, but that's not what we're looking for.
We're looking for 15 pages, no typos, and wood, and we want to take it to the press next week.
Now, I understand that you're a brilliant guy.
I do.
Mcalpine says you can all kinds of stuff hidden in letters, and that's great, so take the Unabom letters and find wood.
Okay? So right now, all that's required of you is obedience.
Understand? [Door opens, closes.]
[Sighs.]
Natalie: Okay, on Tuesday, we discussed regional dialects and linguistic prescriptivism.
See you next week.
[Indistinct chatter.]
Jim: Natalie.
[Chatter continues.]
[Door closes.]
I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to just show up.
I just didn't know where else to go.
What happened to you? Where'd you go? Where have you been? You know, I tried to find you.
I called your office, your home.
I talked to your wife Everything.
The Unabom case is over.
It was over two years ago.
It's not over, and I need help.
You have to have some place you can go Family, somebody other than me.
[Sighs.]
Hey.
Look, look We got a friend! What's your name? Winston and Jasper.
Look, I-i have to defend my dissertation in a couple weeks, so I have to work tonight.
All right, I'm gonna take these guys to the kitchen.
Why don't you why don't you take a shower? You can sleep on the couch.
Come on! Come on! They want me to go in and interrogate Ted.
They need me.
They need me to get the guilty plea.
[Scoffs.]
I think that I think I need to confront him and get some answers.
You have the answers.
You proved that Ted's the Unabomber.
Answers for myself, so I can understand what happened to me and where I should go from here.
And what makes you think that he has answers to any question that matters? What do you think? You wanted this.
You wanted him in your life.
Secretly, somehow you wanted this.
That's the answer.
That's the only way I can make sense of what happened.
You wanted him in your life more than you wanted anyone or anything else.
Why would I want that? What kind of person would want that? Jim: They interview 10,000 Nathan Rs, and then they turn to me and say that profiling's a waste of resources.
Think about that.
You're a cog in the machine, Fitz.
Embrace it, bruh.
[Indistinct conversations.]
Oh-oh! There he is.
It's our head shrinker come to mingle with the commoners.
- Hey, where you going, bruh? - Sacramento to do my job.
[Door closes.]
Ted: They want you to obey.
They want you to be a sheep like they are sheep Obedient, unquestioning piece of machinery.
Sit when told to sit, stand when told to stand.
They want you to give up your humanity, your autonomy for a paycheck, gold star, bigger TV.
The only way to be human, the only way to be free, is to rebel.
They'll try to crush you.
They'll use every tactic they have to make you obedient, docile, subservient, but you can't let them.
You have to be your own master, whatever that takes.
Better to die a human being than to live as a purposeless cog in their machine.
Jim: You dropped it in the mail a week ago.
[Indistinct chatter.]
Woman: Gil.
This just came.
[Indistinct chatter.]
[Screaming.]
Jim: You want to be here.
You want to be here, touching this, savoring it.
[Insects chirping.]
But you can't be here.
You can't be here.
Ever for any of them.
Why is that enough for you and not any other serial killer? Never to see it, hear it, taste it, never to see Gil Murray's body.
Because it's not about him.
It's not about him as an individual, is it? These aren't people to you.
They're symbols.
You're sending a message.
That's why you use the mail, 'cause it's a message.
It's a hidden message.
And what does it symbolize? What does it represent? So, what are you trying to tell us, FC? What are you trying to tell me? "Dad, it is I.
" What are you trying to tell me, FC? What are you trying to tell me? [Knocks on window.]
[Indistinct chatter.]
Your whole profile is built on the assumption that FC was one of the airline mechanics that United Airlines laid off in Cincinnati, and that he targeted American Airlines flight 444 and United president Percy Wood out of a personal grudge, right? Right.
But let's think about mail bombs.
He can't hear them, he can't see them, he can't visit the site, he can't view the bodies, anything.
It's none of the satisfaction of revenge.
But he keeps bombing anyway.
Why? Because these aren't personal targets.
They are representational targets.
Gil Murray was a symbol of something for him.
All of his targets symbolize something for FC.
Andy: We have done every kind of victimology.
His victims are random, totally unconnected to each other.
All right.
So he spends years perfecting the most untraceable, sophisticated mail bomb ever created, and then just picks random targets from a phone book? I don't think it was a random coincidence that these letters spell "Dad, it is I," and I don't think it's a random coincidence that he's targeting airlines, scientists, computers, forestry people.
I think it only seems random because we don't know what connects them.
We can't We don't know his code, and the reason that we don't know his code is because we're still assuming he's a low-I.
Q.
pissed off airline mechanic when he's actually been outsmarting us the whole time.
We've got hard forensic evidence that he's a trained airline mechanic.
Look.
Batteries soldered in series, encased in a wire cage just like airplane power bricks, he's an expert at casting and shaping aluminum, and look look at this new switch he's developed.
It looks exactly like an airplane tail stand on a 747.
We've had pilots confirm that.
That only looks like a tail stand if you're looking for proof of the supposition that he's an airline mechanic.
If you're objective about it, it's just a switch.
Do you ever think that the reason you haven't got him in 17 years is that you're underestimating him? There is a powerful intelligence at work here, a deep personal philosophy underpinning all of FC's actions.
Now, you figure out the philosophy, you can figure out the man, you can crack the code.
But not with this.
We have to start over.
Get rid of that and start over.
Fitz, buddy, you're breaking my heart.
[Typewriter clacking.]
You are part of a world-class orchestra here.
Lots of instruments, lots of virtuosos, and out of all of these players, I'm pointing to you, and I'm saying now is the time for your solo.
Stand up, play your heart out so the whole world can hear you.
But you got to play with the sheet music that I'm giving you.
Because you may be a once-in-a-century talent, but if you can't harmonize with the rest of the orchestra, I'm gonna have to send you home.
[Clacking.]
Dude, where have you been? Why ain't you downstairs? Didn't Genelli tell you? I'm going home.
I'm not writing that B.
S.
Fitz, you got to get down to forensics now.
[Drawer slams.]
You said he had a personal philosophy, some message he's trying to send.
You were right.
The New York Times called it in.
They got a package.
Another bomb? No, it's something else.
They're calling it the "Unabomber manifesto.
" If you screw this up, we'll crucify you.
Hey, we just got handed a 56-page manifesto from the most elusive criminal in the world, and you don't want to take the time to read it? A big break in this case comes when we pull a fingerprint off one of those pages.
Personally, I think this whole manifesto thing could be a red herring.
Man: We have a potential mass-casualty situation.
Don: The Unabomber has threatened to blow an airplane out of the sky.
Jim: I have to go in there I have to face him.
We need a guilty plea from Ted.
Ted.
This is our only shot.
You're our only shot.
Ted: Agent Fitzgerald.
I am so glad to make your acquaintance at last.