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Ex-Library Book: Very Good Condition! At most, it shows extremely little use with little noticeable wear. NO markings on pages. If used, probably read just once. Binding and spine are tight. We carefully inspected this book. 100% satisfaction guaranteed with every purchase! Book is from a library and may contain library labels and/or markings. Ex-Library Book: Very Good Condition! At most, it shows extremely little use with little noticeable wear. NO markings on pages. If used, probably read just once. Binding and spine are tight. We carefully inspected this book. 100% satisfaction guaranteed with every purchase! Book is from a library and may contain library labels and/or markings. See less

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UNABOMBER: How the FBI Broke Its Own Rules to Capture the Terrorist Ted Kaczynski Hardcover – June 17, 2014

by Jim Freeman (Author), Terry Turchie (Author), Max Noel (Author)

3.8 201 ratings

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

Editorial Reviews

Review

UNABOMBER is a fascinating inside account of how tenacious FBI agents solved one of the biggest cases in the history of the bureau. As spine-tingling as any thriller, the book candidly lays out the FBI's missteps in pursuing the case initially, and masterfully shoes how the good guys battled the bureaucracy and used their wits to finaly bring an end to the terror that swept the nation. --Ronald Kessler, author "The Secrets of the FBI" and "In the President's Secret Service"

UNABOMBER offers a unique window into the inner workings of the Bureau and a rare inside look at what may be the most complex criminal investigation in U.S. history. --Maryanne Vollers, author of "Lone Wolf --Eric Rudolph:Murder, Myth and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw"

UNABOMBER offers a unique window into the inner workings of the Bureau and a rare inside look at what may be the most complex criminal investigation in U.S. history. --Maryanne Vollers, author of "Lone Wolf --Eric Rudolph:Murder, Myth and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw"

About the Author

The authors are Jim Freeman, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, San Francisco, reporting directly to FBI Director Louis Freeh; Terry Turchie, designated by Freeman as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Unabom Task Force; and Max Noel, a Unabom Task Force supervisor and the agent who developed the arrest plan that led to the safe capture of Theodore Kaczynski. The three collaborated to write the definitive work on the man long considered to be the most notorious lone wolf terrorist in American history

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ History Publishing Co LLC; First Edition (June 17, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 364 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1940773067
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1940773063
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.48 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.25 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,750,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,606 in Criminal Law (Books)

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3.8 201 ratings

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Jerry Webb

Fair, accurate and interesting.

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2014

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In the interest of full disclosure let me make it clear I am a retired FBI Agent and was assigned to this case. I can guarantee this book is a fair and accurate portrayal of how the investigation went. The authors went out of their way to not only describe their part in the case but to make sure others that proceeded them in the early stages were recognized. Of course it all came together one morning in a remote corner of Montana and the way the story is told you can almost feel like you were there. I know because I was.

17 people found this helpful

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California Dreaming

Take a Victory Lap!

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2015

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I peeked at a few reviews before buying this book, and the usual litany of "This FBI writer has the biggest ego of all time" ad hominems were in plain view. Hey, I'm used to it a bit, but probably not as much as John Douglas, the former FBI agent who was in charge of the famed Behavioral Science Unit, or BSU; or Jim Freeman, who ran the Unabomber Task Force (UTF) from San Francisco. There is a fine line between having a big ego, and just telling it like it is, and I believe that both of these gentleman -- while certainly straddling the line -- fall more into the latter camp. And to reiterate for clarity, that camp would be, "Telling it like it is."

This doesn't mean that neither of these "hotshots" take a standard victory lap; in fact, they both often do. But I think that, if you shoot the winning bucket to win the NBA Championship -- Michael Jordan, anyone (how many times)? -- or perform the first heart transplant -- anyone remember Christiaan Barnard (I don't, without research) -- or finally catch the elusive UNABOMBER -- the catcher is Mr. Freeman, as you'll read -- then maybe you deserve to strike the pose, and run around the track one more time, like Usain Bolt did during the Olympics. Hey, I didn't have any problem with Mr. Bolt's so-called "antics." If I were the fastest man in the world, believe me, I'd let you know about it. And more than once.

But humility does have it's place, and the brother of Ted Kaczynksi -- David -- surely supplies enough of that here. Ultimately, he turned in his brother, and that's got to be more than a tough pill to swallow. But perhaps, it might have been instigated even more by David's wife. From what I understand, she is the one that ultimately pressured David into contacting the FBI, and the married couple did the smart thing: hire a lawyer first to handle the all of the dirty details.

But of course, David would never have contacted the FBI if Mr. Freeman hadn't lobbied to publish Ted's "Manifesto" in the first place. That was a very smart decision; if the FBI would have taken the standard we-don't-give-in-to-terrorists approach, then the Manifesto would not have been published, David's wife wouldn't have coerced her husband into hiring a lawyer, and just maybe, Ted would still be hanging out in a cabin in Montana, hunting rabbits -- and people. We'll never know.

But finally, with regards to the book, if you're seeking Ted's motivations for committing these crimes, you probably should seek elsewhere. This book comes from mostly the position of the FBI and its pursuers, and in this sense, it does a great job. It discusses FBI politics, which usually just got in the way; those politics reminded me of how Microsoft has been running that declining company for the past 20 years or so, and I got a good laugh out of that. The author even uses some similar language to Microsoft's well-known politics, "silos" being just one. And ironically, you'll also learn how the author was somewhat frustrated with Mr. Douglas' old group, in the sense that the BSU refused to modify an old profile of the UNABOMBER, even after more data was gathered on the elusive killer.

While we might hem and haw over whether or not Mr. Freeman has a huge ego, one thing is certainly clear after reading: Ted's ego was certainly his downfall. But to Mr. Freeman, either way I say, "Take a victory lap! You deserve it!"

7 people found this helpful

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Russ A.

A mixed bag

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2014

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I enjoy real-crime books, especially those involving the FBI, and I enjoyed this one, but it's not for everyone. It's full of many nuggets of fascinating facts buried in a mountain of pedestrian writing. Since I do offer some criticisms, let me first say that the authors and the whole Unabomber Task Force members mentioned here presided over the identification, capture and successful prosecution of the Unabomber, a serial killer. You or I might have been his next victim had they not succeeded. Results matter and they got the results, so they deserve credit for that. Bravo. But this is a book review, not a performance review.

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps most troubling is the pervasive cowardice described during the end game by FBI executives, prosecutors, and DOJ officials. No one was willing to make a decision about whether to release the manifesto, or whether to arrest or search Kaczynski because if it turned out wrong, it would hurt their career. If you care about your career, you shouldn't be in the FB I or DOJ. You should be caring about protecting the public from killers. How about just doing what is most likely to result in the capture of the killer? This concept seemed easy enough for the journeyman agents to understand - Puckett, Moss, and Noel, assuming the book has it right. They seem to be the ones who finally got the impetus going to do what's right. This top-level cowardice aspect left me with a despairing feeling about the future of he FBI, but this stark reality depicted here is probably what is most important in this book. Let's hope Director Comey reads it.

12 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

I enjoyed "Unabomber" immensely -- it's a readable

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2014

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I enjoyed "Unabomber" immensely -- it's a readable, engaging inside look at the team that tracked and caught America's most notorious and prolific serial bomber. It focuses on the law enforcement side of the equation, but also lets the Unabomber himself speak via excerpts of his voluminous diaries. Though co-authored by the three FBI agents most centrally involved in the endgame, the book has a consistent voice throughout and routinely acknowledges the many contributions of FBI, Postal, ATF, and even Forest Service personnel in helping crack the case.

Full disclosure: I know one of the authors personally. But even if I had received and reviewed the book in a plain brown wrapper, I would have liked it just as well.

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