U.S. Indicts Kaczynski Over Fatal Unabomber Attack in New Jersey

Unabomber suspect Theodore J. Kaczynski, a brilliant mathematician awaiting trial here in two fatal bombings, was indicted Tuesday in New Jersey in connection with a third deadly blast there in 1994.

A federal grand jury in Newark, N.J., issued a three-count indictment accusing Kaczynski, 54, of transporting a bomb from Montana, where he lived in a tiny shack, to San Francisco, where he allegedly mailed it to the northern New Jersey home of advertising executive Thomas J. Mosser.

Mosser, 50, was killed when he opened the explosive package in his kitchen.

“These charges are the result of a multi-agency investigation by the Unabom Task Force into a series of bombings that occurred across the United States beginning in 1978,” said Atty. Gen. Janet Reno in a statement.

Reno said two of the latest bombing counts could carry the death penalty. But federal authorities indicated that no decision has been made on whether to pursue the death penalty against Kaczynski either in New Jersey or Sacramento.

From the moment of Kaczynski’s arrest in April at his cabin, there has been a debate within legal circles over whether Sacramento, New Jersey or Montana would be the most suitable venue to prosecute the Harvard-trained mathematician.

In June, he was indicted in Sacramento in four bombings, including ones that killed Gilbert Murray, a Sacramento timber industry lobbyist, in 1995 and Hugh Scrutton, a local computer store owner, in 1985.

On Tuesday, Reno said Kaczynski will not be prosecuted in New Jersey until after his Sacramento trial, expected to begin next year.

However, Quin Denvir, Kaczynski’s attorney, said he plans to look into whether the Mosser charges should be transferred and consolidated into a single Sacramento case.

“It’s fairer to Mr. Kaczynski that he would only have to defend himself one time,” said Denvir, the federal public defender in Sacramento. “It would be much more cost-effective for the government.”