Manhunt: Unabomber (2017) s01e08 Episode Script
USA vs. Theodore J. Kaczynski
1 Fruit of the poisonous tree That's the option that you're neglecting to mention, where I get all this evidence thrown out, and I walk away a free man.
If you walk, you lose all respect.
Are you talking about me or you? [BIRDS SINGING.]
[CHAINSAW WHIRRING.]
[WHIRRING STOPS.]
[THUD.]
Hey, Ted.
Ready for your big day? Yeah.
Yeah.
TED: I also completed a new draft of the Jim Fitzgerald cross-examination.
The questions are in the top notebook there.
Please review the changes.
You'll hold in your hands a blueprint for the public evisceration of James R.
Fitzgerald Fruit of the poisonous tree.
If you stick to my questions, his search warrant will be invalidated, and I'll be walking out of here.
Why don't you guys go and review this? [INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
You don't want to see this.
I want you to know I'm here, because none of this matters.
He can tear your résumé apart on that stand.
He can burn forensic linguistics at the stake.
I will still be here.
Check your left jacket pocket.
[CHUCKLES.]
you know, we can't count our chickens before they hatch.
The search warrant may stand, and if it does, we'll be going to trial.
Sure.
But I don't expect that to happen.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
That's my job.
We've been laying the ground work for the next steps here, just in case.
It's called the 12.
2[B.]
motion.
It'll let us introduce evidence about your past and how that's impacted you, some things about the Murray experiments, this kind of thing If you give your permission.
I know I certainly see you much differently now that I've gotten to know you better, and I'd like the jury to see the real you, too.
Sure.
You have my permission.
All rise! Calling criminal case S96259 United States versus Theodore John Kaczynski.
Be seated.
Okay, I've reviewed the defense motion to suppress evidence.
The court is ready to hear testimony from supervisory special agent James Fitzgerald.
And is the witness present? Yes, your honor.
[EXHALES SLOWLY.]
Let me see counsel in my chambers before we begin.
TED: Is this about the motion? JUDY: We'll get him on the stand, okay? The court finds the defense's motion to be without merit.
The search warrant stands.
Testimony from special agent Fitzgerald will not be necessary.
Jury selection begins Monday.
Your honor, motion to reconsider.
Motion denied.
We're moving on.
Adjourned.
BAILIFF: All rise! JUDY: [QUIETLY.]
I'm so sorry.
We did everything we could.
What happened in there, Judy? He's a law-and-order judge, freaked out by the publicity and terrified of losing control.
He called this a fishing expedition.
And we made the case, we fought for it, but the search warrant's gonna stand.
STAN: Forensic freakin' linguistics.
I don't know how, but you did it.
W-why'd the motion get thrown out? STEVE: We dodged a bullet.
Well done.
This is a big win for the case, and you.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
- Agent Fitzgerald? - Yeah.
Charles Epstein.
I've been coming to every session.
This is good news.
Every session.
And I'll be at every one until it's over.
Until justice is done.
[THINKING.]
"until justice is done.
" Justice.
Why did they throw out that motion? What happened in there? What did they say about behind closed doors with Judge Burrell? Why? Why would Judy Clarke write this whole motion and then sabotage it? What's happening? FITZ: This is the defense's motion to get the search warrant thrown out.
Look at the language.
The idiolect is an exact match.
Ted wrote this whole thing himself.
Why would a lawyer let their client write the most important document in the entire case? I don't know.
Doesn't make sense, does it? Unless it's to distract him from his lawyers' real plan.
I think they're gonna try to get him off with an insanity defense.
I saw one of his victims today, Epstein.
He shook my hand.
He has 2 1/2 fingers now, and he'll have 2 1/2 fingers the rest of his life.
Yet they act as if I won, that it's over.
It's not over.
It's not over for Epstein until Ted is behind bars forever, not in some psych ward or on his way to supervised release.
Ted has power over every one of us as long as he's not in jail.
[SIGHS.]
You know, the first time you sat with Ted, I didn't know if you were gonna come back.
You have all the feelings that Ted feels The anger, the resentment, the feelings of betrayal, the feelings like there's something so wrong with the world.
But you did the one thing that Ted could never do.
And that was to look at Charles Epstein as a fellow human being, to look at him with a sense of empathy, to feel a sense of obligation to him.
And if that's what is motivating you now, I think that's truly noble.
I used to think that Ted had all the answers.
Ted does have some of the answers.
Not the ones that really matter, though.
See, there's only one thing not accounted for in Ted's philosophy.
But it's everything.
It's what you felt shaking Epstein's hand.
Simple as that, huh? Since when was love ever simple? Now go.
You know how to finish this.
Did you come here to gloat? 'Cause I have work to do.
I got something to show you.
Where are we? An air force base.
Well, this reeks of desperation.
I can't even w-w I-is this supposed to intimidate me? You'll not only lock me up, you'll lock my house up, as well? James, here's the thing you're not grasping.
The outcome of the trial is nothing.
The trial itself is everything.
It's gonna give me the biggest microphone in the world.
Before, I had to threaten violence to get one Manifesto published in the Post.
Now I'm gonna be piped directly into every living room in the country.
And if you put me in a jail cell, I will spend the rest of my life appealing.
But if it's the worst case, the very worst case a person like you can possibly imagine, the death penalty, I promise you, I won't even blink.
There's one possibility you didn't think of.
On the cabin, the prosecution didn't bring it.
The defense did.
Why? Why don't you know about it? DAVID: Thank you for having me here.
I-i appreciate the opportunity to tell my brother's story, as as I understand it.
The real story o-of Ted Kaczynski is the story of lifelong, undiagnosed mental illness.
Some years ago, I showed his letters to a psychiatrist, who found him deeply delusional and provisionally diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
And the clinical description of paranoid schizophrenia mirrors many of the behaviors that I've observed in Ted over the years, especially his break from society as a young man.
FITZ: Your brother's on every news channel, every magazine, every newspaper, saying the same thing.
He's got, like, a script he's repeating over and over.
At least Judas had the decency to hang himself.
David doesn't even believe in mental illness.
Who cares? We'll muzzle him the moment the trial begins.
He's not the only one repeating from that script or talking to the press.
It's the New York times.
"A sealed psychological report provided by Kaczynski's lawyers" suggests that Kaczynski has been suffering from mental illness since before he moved into a one-room shack in the woods in 1972.
Its findings are consistent "with diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
" They're setting you up.
Your own lawyers are working against you.
They're the ones feeding David his lines, giving this to the press.
And they're the ones that shipped this cabin across the country so they could bring in the jury and say, "look at this pathetic man and his pathetic cabin.
You got to be crazy to live like this.
" I don't believe it.
They can't do any of that, James.
My legal team isn't authorized to pursue a mental-defect defense.
Right.
Right.
You'd have to give them permission to file, like, a 12.
2[B.]
Motion, and you'd never Grant it.
Ted [SIGHING.]
you can see so much about the world, but you've got a big blind spot when it comes to who you choose to trust.
You gave your lawyers permission to bring in experts to prove that you're mentally defective, and they're gonna twist everything you've ever written, everything you've ever told anybody, to fit the predetermined diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
But before those experts come in, the whole world is gonna hear the diagnosis a million times on TV, in the newspapers, from David, from your own mother.
So, the trial is just gonna be a foregone conclusion.
And you think death is the worst thing that they can do to you? They won't even give you that, 'cause they don't execute crazies.
I'll get new lawyers.
I'll appeal.
There won't be any appeals.
They'll have your capacity removed.
They're gonna stick you in an insane asylum where, slowly, you will be adjusted.
Pills, electroshock therapy, threat, punishment, reward, till finally you're cured.
It might take years, but it's gonna happen.
You will be normal, and you'll rejoin society.
You'll get a credit card, an apartment, business casual wardrobe, you know, some of those tops with the penguins on them.
And you'll get a job behind a desk where you'll work obediently 9:00 to 5:00, and your first paycheck, you get a cellphone.
Next one, you get a TV.
You know, if you splurge, you can get yourself a Nintendo.
And every night, you fall asleep watching that TV.
And every weekend, you're gonna go to the mall.
You're gonna walk around circuit city.
You're gonna look at the big-screen tvs and think, "should I get myself a 20-incher?" Or should I just keep saving up for the 27-incher? "I don't know.
" And, as you're thinking about this, slurping on your orange Julius, somebody's gonna recognize you and say, "weren't you that Unabomber guy," you know, the guy that wrote all that stuff "and killed all those people?" And you'll go, "yeah, that was me", but I was very sick.
"But I got help, and I'm much, much better now, thank you.
" And then you're gonna go back to watching your tvs.
And you won't even remember that you wanted anything more than this.
See, Ted, you predicted all this in your Manifesto.
"Many tame and conformist types seem to have a powerful need" to depict the enemy of society as sick so as to delegitimize "their valid complaints against society.
" This cabin used to be a symbol of moral courage, and now they're just gonna point it and say you've got to be insane to live this way.
Well, they brought the cabin, but they didn't bring the forest.
Or the rain.
It was beautiful.
It was very beautiful.
Hey, I know it was.
You know, the irony is, they're gonna show this cabin as evidence that I'm crazy.
But if everyone was content to live simply like this, we'd have no more war, no poverty, no pollution.
The truth is, if someone could hand me a pill that would make me normal, take these questions away, I might even take it if it was my own choice.
Your brother keeps saying that you'd be happier in a jail cell.
Three hot meals a day.
Plus The dimensions are about the same 10x12.
Hmm.
Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? If I go to jail, he pockets a $1 million reward.
My lawyers get to say they saved me from execution.
Judge and the prosecutors can brag about how the Unabomber will rot in a hole forever.
And what do I get? I know you're not insane.
Every time I stop at a red light, or I follow the arrows in Ikea, or I sit and I wait and listen for the modem to dial up, I can see the systems that control our lives, and I feel my freedom being hemmed in, and I hate it.
What you have to say about the world, it matters to the future.
And all I got to do is roll over and stop fighting, right? Well, now, isn't that convenient, the way your own interests and mine align so perfectly? No, the fight's fixed.
It's done.
You've already lost.
Get out of my house now, please.
Get out! You fight this, they'll call you crazy.
Or you plead guilty and go away forever.
And your ideas will live on.
TED: Sit down, Judy.
We need to talk.
What did you discuss in chambers During the challenge to the search warrant? I told you.
Burrell didn't want his courtroom to become a circus.
Did you sell me out, Judy? Did you? Did you go behind my back and torpedo that motion? Burrell called me into chambers, Ted.
Remember? Hang on.
Contraband.
Do I have total control of my defense? It's your defense.
This is all about you every decision, every discussion.
My entire life right now revolves around doing right by you, okay? So, you will not be presenting to the court that I am mentally defective? Ted, what gave you that idea? Fitzgerald showed me the cabin, Judy.
He showed me the cabin, and he told me the 12.
2[B.]
meant that you were gonna say I'm insane, and you know that would be so much worse for me than death.
Ted, we found out the prosecution built their own mock-up of your cabin to show the jury, and that they were planning to present their own mental health testimony.
In my legal judgment, it was prudent to ensure we'd be able to present the truth about you and your life to combat the government's distortions.
I tried to keep you out of the trenches on this, take care of the "p"s and "q"s so you can keep thinking big-picture for us.
But if you lack confidence in my legal judgment - No.
- if you want to read everything we've filed on your behalf, - I'm more than happy to - No, I'm not saying that.
No, I'll bring in the document boxes if you want total transparency, if you want to see and approve everything, - page by page - No.
[SIGHS.]
I trust you.
I've just been betrayed by so many people.
Fitzgerald got into my head.
You know I really care about you.
Not just as a colleague.
[QUIETLY.]
now, finish these before the guards see.
You'll get me into trouble.
The defense has some remaining questions regarding juror questionnaires.
A number of the responses from jurors number 16, 68, and 73 were illegible, and we'd like to clarify those before we move on to voir dire.
- Counsel? - Uh, we couldn't read them, either, your honor.
We have no objection.
I'll allow it.
Anything else before we move on? Yes, your honor.
We need some clarification from the defense before we can begin jury selection.
Uh, I have here what I believe to be an intentionally-vague 12.
2[B.]
motion from the defense, but their witness list includes a number of experts on paranoid schizophrenia.
Your honor, can we move this to chambers? No, what is he What are you talking about? We need clarification before beginning jury selection, your honor, if the defense is going to pursue a mental-defect defense and continue to - That is not our intention.
- Your honor, please, can we continue to claim that the defendant is paranoid Your honor, I need a moment alone with my attorneys.
You stood right there, and you lied to my face.
We're saving your life, Ted.
It's my life, Judy! Mine! [BREATHES DEEPLY.]
You're gonna walk back in there, and you're gonna inform the court that we will not be pursuing mental-defect defense, not now, not ever.
I won't have it.
Whether you approve of my strategic decisions or not, I have an ethical obligation in the system to do what I have to in order to save your life.
You're not saving my life, Judy! You're saving my body, and you're saving my body by destroying my life's work! Ted, you mailed bombs to innocent people so you could get some half-baked ideas published in a newspaper.
I will work around the clock to save your life.
That's my obligation as your attorney.
But if you're not mentally defective, I don't know who is.
TED: Your honor, my relationship with my present attorneys has become untenable.
They have admitted to lying to me, to tricking me, to betraying my trust.
They knew all along that I would rather die than be falsely portrayed as mentally ill.
I do not want to represent myself, but right now, I see no alternative.
I don't think so, Mr.
Kaczynski.
In my courtroom, there are no theatrics, and there are no delays.
I may be many things, Mr.
Kaczynski, but the one thing I am not is a Lance Ito.
I'm sorry, I don't understand.
The judge in the O.
J.
Trial.
No delay.
The trial will continue.
Well, your honor, I'm not asking for a delay.
I can begin representing myself in an hour One hour from now.
We've already considered this.
Based on the psychological evaluation your defense provided me, I find you mentally unsound to mount an effective defense.
Psychological evaluations that you've already considered? Did you all discuss this beforehand? Have you all decided how this ends? I'm sane enough to stand trial, sane enough to spend the rest of my life in a federal penitentiary, but I'm too insane to represent myself, too insane to be executed, and I'm guessing I'm too insane to testify and say anything about what I actually believe in.
Is that what you're secret psych report said? Your honor, I am afraid I have a constitutional right to represent myself, and if I have to take that to the judicial review board, - I will.
- Well, of course you have that right.
You can certainly choose to represent yourself.
If you do, however, that raises the question of whether you're mentally fit to stand trial at all.
And we can easily resolve the question of your mental competency with an observation period in a mental institution, say, starting with a 60-day stay in the care of a psych hospital, perhaps longer if the doctors find it necessary to start treatment or medication, whatever they determine is in your best interests.
If you want to pursue this, I'll write the order now and have you remanded into their care.
- We have no objection to that.
- No, no, no.
I-I-i I need I need some time.
I need time to think about my options.
You don't have time, and you don't have options.
Your trial will continue now, Mr.
Kaczynski.
These are your lawyers.
You will do as they instruct.
If they say you're mentally defective, you will nod and agree in silence.
[INDISTINCT THUMPING ECHOING.]
Ohh! [CHOKING.]
[GASPS, GRUNTS.]
All right.
He's making a deal.
Ted's gonna plead guilty.
Holy shit! What'd you say to him? The truth.
JUDGE BURRELL: Is it your understanding that your attorneys had discussions with the attorneys for the government in this case, concerning your change of plea? Yes, your honor.
JUDGE BURRELL: Are you entering this plea voluntarily because it is what you want to do? Yes, your honor.
Do you understand that, as part of this plea, you are waiving your right to appeal? I do.
That you are waiving your right to challenge any portion of this proceeding in the future, including the search warrant? I understand.
Very well, then.
How do you plead to all charges? Guilty.
[SPECTATORS MURMURING.]
JUDGE BURRELL: We will reconvene for sentencing.
We will hear testimony from the victims, and you'll be able to make a statement then if you wish.
Court adjourned.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
[MURMURS INDISTINCTLY.]
letters that land the bombers.
You're gonna have a long, brilliant career reading nasty letters from "a" -holes.
Congrats.
A big win, Fitz.
This is a big win.
JUDGE BURRELL: Before we proceed with sentencing, we will hear from those victims who wish to make a statement.
Susan Mosser, wife of Thomas Mosser, who was murdered by the defendant in December of 1994.
SUSAN: December 10th.
It was supposed to be the day my family picked out a Christmas tree.
Instead, it was the day my husband was murdered.
The excruciating pain of 100 nails, cut-up razor blades, and metal fragments, burning your skin, fracturing your skull, and driving shrapnel into your brain.
GARY: Imagine what it is like to constantly wonder what would make a person want to kill you, to look down at injuries that shock you beyond belief, and to wonder what has happened and why, to be overwhelmed with the feelings of rage, and the heartache of knowing that you will never again be the same as you were before.
GELERNTER: We've decided to let him live, so let him be our living symbol of cowardice and evil.
It gives us a chance to look our worst instincts in the face, and to say to them, "you will not prevail.
" CHARLES: What a message.
Theodore Kaczynski was a victim.
By some convoluted form of logic, you've portrayed yourself as a victim.
As you start your life sentence in prison, this is what I wish for you.
Given that your victims were blinded by your bombs, may you also be blinded, by being deprived of the incredible light of the moon, the stars, the sun, the beauty of nature, for the rest of your life.
Given that your victims lost their hearing because of your bombs, may you spend the rest of your days in stony silence.
And given that your victims were maimed by your bombs, may your body be shackled with the same violence and hatred that have already imprisoned your mind.
And given that your victims were killed by your bombs, may your own death occur as you have lived In a solitary manner, without compassion or love.
The defendant will now have an opportunity to make a statement if he wishes.
I only ask that people reserve their judgment about me and about the Unabom case until all the facts have been made public.
There is so much that [SIGHS.]
I'm not, um [ENGINE STARTS.]
JUDGE BURRELL: In keeping with the terms of the plea arrangement, I sentence Theodore Kaczynski to life in prison, plus a 30-year consecutive prison sentence, plus three additional life prison terms to be served consecutively.
The defendant committed unspeakable and monstrous crimes.
I believe that if he had the opportunity, he would use his resourcefulness to repeat such acts.
Because of the callous nature of his crimes, the defendant presents a grave danger to society.
Therefore, I will recommend that he serve his life imprisonment in solitary confinement at a federal administrative maximum facility.
I only wish the suffering I could impose on you would in any way match the suffering of the men and women here.
This matter is adjourned.
[GAVEL BANGS.]
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
Ladies and gentlemen, David Kaczynski is the real hero of the Unabom story.
He came forward when no one else would.
And, after legal expenses, he will be donating all of the reward money to the victims and their families.
He is truly an American hero.
I have a statement to read.
Speaking for my mother, Wanda, my wife, Linda, and other members of our family, I would like to say that our reaction to today's plea agreement is one of deep relief.
We feel it is the appropriate, just, and civilized resolution to this tragedy in light of Ted's diagnosed mental illness.
We'd like to thank the FBI for their care in investigating this case and protecting the public safety.
We thank the department of justice and prosecution attorneys for their thorough FITZ: It's over.
It's really over.
[ENGINE STARTS.]
MAN: Look straight ahead.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS.]
Look to your right.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS.]
Look to your left.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS.]
Open your mouth.
Wide.
Lift your left leg.
Right leg up.
At this point, I want all your clothes off.
Strip naked.
Arms straight up.
Bend over.
Pull your cheeks apart.
Two loud, forceful coughs.
[COUGHS.]
MAN: Left arm down.
MAN #2: Both knees up on the bed.
Left hand.
Right foot.
Look at the wall.
Stay on your knees until we leave.
So, now what? Don't know.
Anything we want, right? [ELECTRICITY BUZZING.]
We have him.
Here's a look inside the eight-episode event.
"MANHUNT: Unabomber.
" We'd like to thank the FBI for their care in investigating this case.
The set there's so much thorough attention to detail.
Every piece of paper, every book that's on every shelf has been thought about and fussed over.
We need to execute a warrant on Ted's cabin.
CARLSON: From very early on, day one, the one thing absolutely we wanted to get right was every detail in Ted's cabin.
The cabin remains one of our pride and joys Just the detail and the accuracy in which we re-created that.
Ted lived in a cabin that was 10-foot by 12-foot for 25 years.
SODROSKI: It was created with a level of authenticity that's just unbelievable.
You walk into Ted's cabin, you're walking into Ted's cabin.
"MANHUNT: Unabomber" on discovery.
If you walk, you lose all respect.
Are you talking about me or you? [BIRDS SINGING.]
[CHAINSAW WHIRRING.]
[WHIRRING STOPS.]
[THUD.]
Hey, Ted.
Ready for your big day? Yeah.
Yeah.
TED: I also completed a new draft of the Jim Fitzgerald cross-examination.
The questions are in the top notebook there.
Please review the changes.
You'll hold in your hands a blueprint for the public evisceration of James R.
Fitzgerald Fruit of the poisonous tree.
If you stick to my questions, his search warrant will be invalidated, and I'll be walking out of here.
Why don't you guys go and review this? [INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
You don't want to see this.
I want you to know I'm here, because none of this matters.
He can tear your résumé apart on that stand.
He can burn forensic linguistics at the stake.
I will still be here.
Check your left jacket pocket.
[CHUCKLES.]
you know, we can't count our chickens before they hatch.
The search warrant may stand, and if it does, we'll be going to trial.
Sure.
But I don't expect that to happen.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.
That's my job.
We've been laying the ground work for the next steps here, just in case.
It's called the 12.
2[B.]
motion.
It'll let us introduce evidence about your past and how that's impacted you, some things about the Murray experiments, this kind of thing If you give your permission.
I know I certainly see you much differently now that I've gotten to know you better, and I'd like the jury to see the real you, too.
Sure.
You have my permission.
All rise! Calling criminal case S96259 United States versus Theodore John Kaczynski.
Be seated.
Okay, I've reviewed the defense motion to suppress evidence.
The court is ready to hear testimony from supervisory special agent James Fitzgerald.
And is the witness present? Yes, your honor.
[EXHALES SLOWLY.]
Let me see counsel in my chambers before we begin.
TED: Is this about the motion? JUDY: We'll get him on the stand, okay? The court finds the defense's motion to be without merit.
The search warrant stands.
Testimony from special agent Fitzgerald will not be necessary.
Jury selection begins Monday.
Your honor, motion to reconsider.
Motion denied.
We're moving on.
Adjourned.
BAILIFF: All rise! JUDY: [QUIETLY.]
I'm so sorry.
We did everything we could.
What happened in there, Judy? He's a law-and-order judge, freaked out by the publicity and terrified of losing control.
He called this a fishing expedition.
And we made the case, we fought for it, but the search warrant's gonna stand.
STAN: Forensic freakin' linguistics.
I don't know how, but you did it.
W-why'd the motion get thrown out? STEVE: We dodged a bullet.
Well done.
This is a big win for the case, and you.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
- Agent Fitzgerald? - Yeah.
Charles Epstein.
I've been coming to every session.
This is good news.
Every session.
And I'll be at every one until it's over.
Until justice is done.
[THINKING.]
"until justice is done.
" Justice.
Why did they throw out that motion? What happened in there? What did they say about behind closed doors with Judge Burrell? Why? Why would Judy Clarke write this whole motion and then sabotage it? What's happening? FITZ: This is the defense's motion to get the search warrant thrown out.
Look at the language.
The idiolect is an exact match.
Ted wrote this whole thing himself.
Why would a lawyer let their client write the most important document in the entire case? I don't know.
Doesn't make sense, does it? Unless it's to distract him from his lawyers' real plan.
I think they're gonna try to get him off with an insanity defense.
I saw one of his victims today, Epstein.
He shook my hand.
He has 2 1/2 fingers now, and he'll have 2 1/2 fingers the rest of his life.
Yet they act as if I won, that it's over.
It's not over.
It's not over for Epstein until Ted is behind bars forever, not in some psych ward or on his way to supervised release.
Ted has power over every one of us as long as he's not in jail.
[SIGHS.]
You know, the first time you sat with Ted, I didn't know if you were gonna come back.
You have all the feelings that Ted feels The anger, the resentment, the feelings of betrayal, the feelings like there's something so wrong with the world.
But you did the one thing that Ted could never do.
And that was to look at Charles Epstein as a fellow human being, to look at him with a sense of empathy, to feel a sense of obligation to him.
And if that's what is motivating you now, I think that's truly noble.
I used to think that Ted had all the answers.
Ted does have some of the answers.
Not the ones that really matter, though.
See, there's only one thing not accounted for in Ted's philosophy.
But it's everything.
It's what you felt shaking Epstein's hand.
Simple as that, huh? Since when was love ever simple? Now go.
You know how to finish this.
Did you come here to gloat? 'Cause I have work to do.
I got something to show you.
Where are we? An air force base.
Well, this reeks of desperation.
I can't even w-w I-is this supposed to intimidate me? You'll not only lock me up, you'll lock my house up, as well? James, here's the thing you're not grasping.
The outcome of the trial is nothing.
The trial itself is everything.
It's gonna give me the biggest microphone in the world.
Before, I had to threaten violence to get one Manifesto published in the Post.
Now I'm gonna be piped directly into every living room in the country.
And if you put me in a jail cell, I will spend the rest of my life appealing.
But if it's the worst case, the very worst case a person like you can possibly imagine, the death penalty, I promise you, I won't even blink.
There's one possibility you didn't think of.
On the cabin, the prosecution didn't bring it.
The defense did.
Why? Why don't you know about it? DAVID: Thank you for having me here.
I-i appreciate the opportunity to tell my brother's story, as as I understand it.
The real story o-of Ted Kaczynski is the story of lifelong, undiagnosed mental illness.
Some years ago, I showed his letters to a psychiatrist, who found him deeply delusional and provisionally diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
And the clinical description of paranoid schizophrenia mirrors many of the behaviors that I've observed in Ted over the years, especially his break from society as a young man.
FITZ: Your brother's on every news channel, every magazine, every newspaper, saying the same thing.
He's got, like, a script he's repeating over and over.
At least Judas had the decency to hang himself.
David doesn't even believe in mental illness.
Who cares? We'll muzzle him the moment the trial begins.
He's not the only one repeating from that script or talking to the press.
It's the New York times.
"A sealed psychological report provided by Kaczynski's lawyers" suggests that Kaczynski has been suffering from mental illness since before he moved into a one-room shack in the woods in 1972.
Its findings are consistent "with diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
" They're setting you up.
Your own lawyers are working against you.
They're the ones feeding David his lines, giving this to the press.
And they're the ones that shipped this cabin across the country so they could bring in the jury and say, "look at this pathetic man and his pathetic cabin.
You got to be crazy to live like this.
" I don't believe it.
They can't do any of that, James.
My legal team isn't authorized to pursue a mental-defect defense.
Right.
Right.
You'd have to give them permission to file, like, a 12.
2[B.]
Motion, and you'd never Grant it.
Ted [SIGHING.]
you can see so much about the world, but you've got a big blind spot when it comes to who you choose to trust.
You gave your lawyers permission to bring in experts to prove that you're mentally defective, and they're gonna twist everything you've ever written, everything you've ever told anybody, to fit the predetermined diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
But before those experts come in, the whole world is gonna hear the diagnosis a million times on TV, in the newspapers, from David, from your own mother.
So, the trial is just gonna be a foregone conclusion.
And you think death is the worst thing that they can do to you? They won't even give you that, 'cause they don't execute crazies.
I'll get new lawyers.
I'll appeal.
There won't be any appeals.
They'll have your capacity removed.
They're gonna stick you in an insane asylum where, slowly, you will be adjusted.
Pills, electroshock therapy, threat, punishment, reward, till finally you're cured.
It might take years, but it's gonna happen.
You will be normal, and you'll rejoin society.
You'll get a credit card, an apartment, business casual wardrobe, you know, some of those tops with the penguins on them.
And you'll get a job behind a desk where you'll work obediently 9:00 to 5:00, and your first paycheck, you get a cellphone.
Next one, you get a TV.
You know, if you splurge, you can get yourself a Nintendo.
And every night, you fall asleep watching that TV.
And every weekend, you're gonna go to the mall.
You're gonna walk around circuit city.
You're gonna look at the big-screen tvs and think, "should I get myself a 20-incher?" Or should I just keep saving up for the 27-incher? "I don't know.
" And, as you're thinking about this, slurping on your orange Julius, somebody's gonna recognize you and say, "weren't you that Unabomber guy," you know, the guy that wrote all that stuff "and killed all those people?" And you'll go, "yeah, that was me", but I was very sick.
"But I got help, and I'm much, much better now, thank you.
" And then you're gonna go back to watching your tvs.
And you won't even remember that you wanted anything more than this.
See, Ted, you predicted all this in your Manifesto.
"Many tame and conformist types seem to have a powerful need" to depict the enemy of society as sick so as to delegitimize "their valid complaints against society.
" This cabin used to be a symbol of moral courage, and now they're just gonna point it and say you've got to be insane to live this way.
Well, they brought the cabin, but they didn't bring the forest.
Or the rain.
It was beautiful.
It was very beautiful.
Hey, I know it was.
You know, the irony is, they're gonna show this cabin as evidence that I'm crazy.
But if everyone was content to live simply like this, we'd have no more war, no poverty, no pollution.
The truth is, if someone could hand me a pill that would make me normal, take these questions away, I might even take it if it was my own choice.
Your brother keeps saying that you'd be happier in a jail cell.
Three hot meals a day.
Plus The dimensions are about the same 10x12.
Hmm.
Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? If I go to jail, he pockets a $1 million reward.
My lawyers get to say they saved me from execution.
Judge and the prosecutors can brag about how the Unabomber will rot in a hole forever.
And what do I get? I know you're not insane.
Every time I stop at a red light, or I follow the arrows in Ikea, or I sit and I wait and listen for the modem to dial up, I can see the systems that control our lives, and I feel my freedom being hemmed in, and I hate it.
What you have to say about the world, it matters to the future.
And all I got to do is roll over and stop fighting, right? Well, now, isn't that convenient, the way your own interests and mine align so perfectly? No, the fight's fixed.
It's done.
You've already lost.
Get out of my house now, please.
Get out! You fight this, they'll call you crazy.
Or you plead guilty and go away forever.
And your ideas will live on.
TED: Sit down, Judy.
We need to talk.
What did you discuss in chambers During the challenge to the search warrant? I told you.
Burrell didn't want his courtroom to become a circus.
Did you sell me out, Judy? Did you? Did you go behind my back and torpedo that motion? Burrell called me into chambers, Ted.
Remember? Hang on.
Contraband.
Do I have total control of my defense? It's your defense.
This is all about you every decision, every discussion.
My entire life right now revolves around doing right by you, okay? So, you will not be presenting to the court that I am mentally defective? Ted, what gave you that idea? Fitzgerald showed me the cabin, Judy.
He showed me the cabin, and he told me the 12.
2[B.]
meant that you were gonna say I'm insane, and you know that would be so much worse for me than death.
Ted, we found out the prosecution built their own mock-up of your cabin to show the jury, and that they were planning to present their own mental health testimony.
In my legal judgment, it was prudent to ensure we'd be able to present the truth about you and your life to combat the government's distortions.
I tried to keep you out of the trenches on this, take care of the "p"s and "q"s so you can keep thinking big-picture for us.
But if you lack confidence in my legal judgment - No.
- if you want to read everything we've filed on your behalf, - I'm more than happy to - No, I'm not saying that.
No, I'll bring in the document boxes if you want total transparency, if you want to see and approve everything, - page by page - No.
[SIGHS.]
I trust you.
I've just been betrayed by so many people.
Fitzgerald got into my head.
You know I really care about you.
Not just as a colleague.
[QUIETLY.]
now, finish these before the guards see.
You'll get me into trouble.
The defense has some remaining questions regarding juror questionnaires.
A number of the responses from jurors number 16, 68, and 73 were illegible, and we'd like to clarify those before we move on to voir dire.
- Counsel? - Uh, we couldn't read them, either, your honor.
We have no objection.
I'll allow it.
Anything else before we move on? Yes, your honor.
We need some clarification from the defense before we can begin jury selection.
Uh, I have here what I believe to be an intentionally-vague 12.
2[B.]
motion from the defense, but their witness list includes a number of experts on paranoid schizophrenia.
Your honor, can we move this to chambers? No, what is he What are you talking about? We need clarification before beginning jury selection, your honor, if the defense is going to pursue a mental-defect defense and continue to - That is not our intention.
- Your honor, please, can we continue to claim that the defendant is paranoid Your honor, I need a moment alone with my attorneys.
You stood right there, and you lied to my face.
We're saving your life, Ted.
It's my life, Judy! Mine! [BREATHES DEEPLY.]
You're gonna walk back in there, and you're gonna inform the court that we will not be pursuing mental-defect defense, not now, not ever.
I won't have it.
Whether you approve of my strategic decisions or not, I have an ethical obligation in the system to do what I have to in order to save your life.
You're not saving my life, Judy! You're saving my body, and you're saving my body by destroying my life's work! Ted, you mailed bombs to innocent people so you could get some half-baked ideas published in a newspaper.
I will work around the clock to save your life.
That's my obligation as your attorney.
But if you're not mentally defective, I don't know who is.
TED: Your honor, my relationship with my present attorneys has become untenable.
They have admitted to lying to me, to tricking me, to betraying my trust.
They knew all along that I would rather die than be falsely portrayed as mentally ill.
I do not want to represent myself, but right now, I see no alternative.
I don't think so, Mr.
Kaczynski.
In my courtroom, there are no theatrics, and there are no delays.
I may be many things, Mr.
Kaczynski, but the one thing I am not is a Lance Ito.
I'm sorry, I don't understand.
The judge in the O.
J.
Trial.
No delay.
The trial will continue.
Well, your honor, I'm not asking for a delay.
I can begin representing myself in an hour One hour from now.
We've already considered this.
Based on the psychological evaluation your defense provided me, I find you mentally unsound to mount an effective defense.
Psychological evaluations that you've already considered? Did you all discuss this beforehand? Have you all decided how this ends? I'm sane enough to stand trial, sane enough to spend the rest of my life in a federal penitentiary, but I'm too insane to represent myself, too insane to be executed, and I'm guessing I'm too insane to testify and say anything about what I actually believe in.
Is that what you're secret psych report said? Your honor, I am afraid I have a constitutional right to represent myself, and if I have to take that to the judicial review board, - I will.
- Well, of course you have that right.
You can certainly choose to represent yourself.
If you do, however, that raises the question of whether you're mentally fit to stand trial at all.
And we can easily resolve the question of your mental competency with an observation period in a mental institution, say, starting with a 60-day stay in the care of a psych hospital, perhaps longer if the doctors find it necessary to start treatment or medication, whatever they determine is in your best interests.
If you want to pursue this, I'll write the order now and have you remanded into their care.
- We have no objection to that.
- No, no, no.
I-I-i I need I need some time.
I need time to think about my options.
You don't have time, and you don't have options.
Your trial will continue now, Mr.
Kaczynski.
These are your lawyers.
You will do as they instruct.
If they say you're mentally defective, you will nod and agree in silence.
[INDISTINCT THUMPING ECHOING.]
Ohh! [CHOKING.]
[GASPS, GRUNTS.]
All right.
He's making a deal.
Ted's gonna plead guilty.
Holy shit! What'd you say to him? The truth.
JUDGE BURRELL: Is it your understanding that your attorneys had discussions with the attorneys for the government in this case, concerning your change of plea? Yes, your honor.
JUDGE BURRELL: Are you entering this plea voluntarily because it is what you want to do? Yes, your honor.
Do you understand that, as part of this plea, you are waiving your right to appeal? I do.
That you are waiving your right to challenge any portion of this proceeding in the future, including the search warrant? I understand.
Very well, then.
How do you plead to all charges? Guilty.
[SPECTATORS MURMURING.]
JUDGE BURRELL: We will reconvene for sentencing.
We will hear testimony from the victims, and you'll be able to make a statement then if you wish.
Court adjourned.
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
[MURMURS INDISTINCTLY.]
letters that land the bombers.
You're gonna have a long, brilliant career reading nasty letters from "a" -holes.
Congrats.
A big win, Fitz.
This is a big win.
JUDGE BURRELL: Before we proceed with sentencing, we will hear from those victims who wish to make a statement.
Susan Mosser, wife of Thomas Mosser, who was murdered by the defendant in December of 1994.
SUSAN: December 10th.
It was supposed to be the day my family picked out a Christmas tree.
Instead, it was the day my husband was murdered.
The excruciating pain of 100 nails, cut-up razor blades, and metal fragments, burning your skin, fracturing your skull, and driving shrapnel into your brain.
GARY: Imagine what it is like to constantly wonder what would make a person want to kill you, to look down at injuries that shock you beyond belief, and to wonder what has happened and why, to be overwhelmed with the feelings of rage, and the heartache of knowing that you will never again be the same as you were before.
GELERNTER: We've decided to let him live, so let him be our living symbol of cowardice and evil.
It gives us a chance to look our worst instincts in the face, and to say to them, "you will not prevail.
" CHARLES: What a message.
Theodore Kaczynski was a victim.
By some convoluted form of logic, you've portrayed yourself as a victim.
As you start your life sentence in prison, this is what I wish for you.
Given that your victims were blinded by your bombs, may you also be blinded, by being deprived of the incredible light of the moon, the stars, the sun, the beauty of nature, for the rest of your life.
Given that your victims lost their hearing because of your bombs, may you spend the rest of your days in stony silence.
And given that your victims were maimed by your bombs, may your body be shackled with the same violence and hatred that have already imprisoned your mind.
And given that your victims were killed by your bombs, may your own death occur as you have lived In a solitary manner, without compassion or love.
The defendant will now have an opportunity to make a statement if he wishes.
I only ask that people reserve their judgment about me and about the Unabom case until all the facts have been made public.
There is so much that [SIGHS.]
I'm not, um [ENGINE STARTS.]
JUDGE BURRELL: In keeping with the terms of the plea arrangement, I sentence Theodore Kaczynski to life in prison, plus a 30-year consecutive prison sentence, plus three additional life prison terms to be served consecutively.
The defendant committed unspeakable and monstrous crimes.
I believe that if he had the opportunity, he would use his resourcefulness to repeat such acts.
Because of the callous nature of his crimes, the defendant presents a grave danger to society.
Therefore, I will recommend that he serve his life imprisonment in solitary confinement at a federal administrative maximum facility.
I only wish the suffering I could impose on you would in any way match the suffering of the men and women here.
This matter is adjourned.
[GAVEL BANGS.]
[INDISTINCT CONVERSATIONS.]
Ladies and gentlemen, David Kaczynski is the real hero of the Unabom story.
He came forward when no one else would.
And, after legal expenses, he will be donating all of the reward money to the victims and their families.
He is truly an American hero.
I have a statement to read.
Speaking for my mother, Wanda, my wife, Linda, and other members of our family, I would like to say that our reaction to today's plea agreement is one of deep relief.
We feel it is the appropriate, just, and civilized resolution to this tragedy in light of Ted's diagnosed mental illness.
We'd like to thank the FBI for their care in investigating this case and protecting the public safety.
We thank the department of justice and prosecution attorneys for their thorough FITZ: It's over.
It's really over.
[ENGINE STARTS.]
MAN: Look straight ahead.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS.]
Look to your right.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS.]
Look to your left.
[CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS.]
Open your mouth.
Wide.
Lift your left leg.
Right leg up.
At this point, I want all your clothes off.
Strip naked.
Arms straight up.
Bend over.
Pull your cheeks apart.
Two loud, forceful coughs.
[COUGHS.]
MAN: Left arm down.
MAN #2: Both knees up on the bed.
Left hand.
Right foot.
Look at the wall.
Stay on your knees until we leave.
So, now what? Don't know.
Anything we want, right? [ELECTRICITY BUZZING.]
We have him.
Here's a look inside the eight-episode event.
"MANHUNT: Unabomber.
" We'd like to thank the FBI for their care in investigating this case.
The set there's so much thorough attention to detail.
Every piece of paper, every book that's on every shelf has been thought about and fussed over.
We need to execute a warrant on Ted's cabin.
CARLSON: From very early on, day one, the one thing absolutely we wanted to get right was every detail in Ted's cabin.
The cabin remains one of our pride and joys Just the detail and the accuracy in which we re-created that.
Ted lived in a cabin that was 10-foot by 12-foot for 25 years.
SODROSKI: It was created with a level of authenticity that's just unbelievable.
You walk into Ted's cabin, you're walking into Ted's cabin.
"MANHUNT: Unabomber" on discovery.