Unabomber Suspect Accused in 3 More Attacks

Unabomber suspect Theodore J. Kaczynski, already charged here in four bombings, was accused of three more attacks in federal indictments that were made public Friday.

The indictments--unsealed in Utah, Tennessee and Michigan-- initially were obtained between 1986 and 1992 against a “John Doe,” because the identity of the serial bomber suspect was not yet known, according to an announcement by the U.S. Justice Department. Now, prosecutors contend, Kaczynski “is believed to be the ‘John Doe’ in question.”

Prosecutors announced the unsealing because Kaczynski is already in custody in Sacramento, where on Tuesday he pleaded innocent to four attacks, including two fatal blasts. “There is no longer a legal justification for these indictments to remain sealed,” Justice officials said.

The announcement said the government intends to delay prosecution of the cases in other states pending the outcome of the trial in Sacramento. The release was made in Washington by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and U.S. attorneys in Utah, Tennessee and Michigan.

Quin Denvir, Kaczynski’s court-appointed attorney, said only: “We haven’t had a chance to review them [the unsealed indictments] in any detail.”

The Harvard-educated Kaczynski, who is in custody in the Sacramento County Jail, was arrested nearly three months ago at his isolated Montana cabin on a single explosives charge. Agents searching the tiny shack collected at least 40 boxes of material that they indicated tied the 54-year-old Kaczynski to the case.

Even before they searched the cabin, authorities believed Kaczynski was the elusive Unabomber whose attacks over a 17-year-period resulted in the deaths of three men, including a Sacramento lobbyist and a local businessman, and injuries to 23 other people.

Investigators from the federal Unabomber task force continue to probe the death of a New Jersey advertising executive. The task force derives its name from universities and airlines, which were among the serial bomber’s targets.

The Utah and Tennessee indictments unsealed Friday arose out of the mailing of a pipe bomb April, 25, 1982, from Provo, Utah, to professor Patrick C. Fischer of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. A secretary was injured when she opened the package. The Tennessee indictment, issued in 1986, charges Kaczynski with mailing an explosive designed to kill or injure. The Utah indictment, filed in 1987, accuses him of the same explosive-related charge as well as possession of a bomb.

The indictment unsealed in Michigan charges “John Doe” with mailing a pipe bomb to James V. McConnell, a University of Michigan professor, on Nov. 12, 1985. One person was injured three days later, but the professor, standing nearby, was unhurt. The charges of mailing a bomb with intent to kill were filed in 1990.

Another Utah indictment, filed in 1992 on three bombing-related charges, stems from a Feb. 20, 1987, blast in which a man was injured by an explosive device left behind his computer store in Salt Lake City. In a major break in the case, a woman gave the only eyewitness description of the suspect, and a resulting FBI composite sketch showing a man in a hooded sweatshirt and aviator glasses was widely circulated.

The indictment identified the suspect under three aliases: Enoch W. Fischer, Ralph C. Kloppenburg and FC. Federal authorities say the alias “FC” was used by Kaczynski and that eight of the 16 bombs linked to the Unabomber bore a personal identification mark consisting of those initials.

The latest disclosures about the Unabomber suspect come a year after Los Angeles International Airport went on a high-security alert because of a threat by the Unabomber to blow up an airplane. The scare dissipated after the bomber announced that the threat was a prank to remind the nation of his presence.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington contributed to this story.