Thursday, May 19, 2011

Unabomber: FBI wants my DNA in 1982 killer Tylenol probe


SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, says in court papers that he is under investigation in the 1982 Tylenol poisonings in the Chicago area that killed seven people.

In documents filed in federal court in Sacramento, Kaczynski said the FBI in Chicago wants samples of his DNA to compare with DNA profiles connected to the crime, in which someone put potassium cyanide in Tylenol capsules.

Kaczynski said prison officials in Colorado visited him three weeks ago with the FBI's request.

Kaczynski, 69, who is serving a life sentence at a "supermax" prison in Florence, Colo., wrote that "the FBI wanted a sample of my DNA to compare with some partial DNA profiles connected with a 1982 event in which someone put potassium cyanide in Tylenol."

Amateur sleuths have posted theories online for years suggesting Kaczynski, whose parents lived in the Chicago area, may have been involved in the poisonings. But his handwritten letter to the court is the first sign that federal investigators may be seriously considering the possibility.

Kaczynski made the claim in a 10-page letter filed last week in an attempt to stop part of a federal auction of his possession, including his handwritten manifesto and his hoodie and sunglasses. Kacdzynski said some of the possession could prove his whereabouts and activities in 1982.

"I have never even possessed any potassium cyanide," he wrote to the court.

FBI officials in Chicago did not respond to a request for comment, and the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento filed papers Monday opposing a halt to the auction.

"Kaczynski has not been indicted in connection with the Chicago Tylenol investigation, and no such federal prosecution is currently planned," the government's motion stated.

The prime suspect in the case has been James Lewis, who wrote letters to Tylenol demanding $1 million to stop the killings. He served a 13-year sentence for extortion but has never been charged with murder. In 2009, FBI agents and state police searched his condominium in Cambridge, Mass.

Seven people -- four women, two men, and a 12-year-old girl -- died in 1982 after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules that had been purchased from drug stores and groceries in the Chicago area. Someone had opened the capsules and replaced some of the acetaminophen with cyanide and returned them to the shelves.

The murders caused widespread panic and led to tamper-resistant wrappings becoming the norm on food and medical products.

The auction of Kaczynski's possession was ordered by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. to generate at least a portion of the $15 million in restitution Kaczynski was ordered to pay his victims, did not rule on Kaczynski's request by Wednesday morning and the auction began as planned.

Items on the auction block were seized in 1996 from Kaczynski's one-room cabin in the Montana woods that served as his base of operations for an 18-year bombing campaign that killed three people (two in Sacramento) and injured 23 others around the country.

All 60 lots of items started at a $25 base price and within hours the two most popular items were the handwritten manifesto, which was bid to more than $10,000, and the hoodie, which bid to more than $3,000.

The bidding is expected to shoot higher, as the auction continues until at least June 2.

Among the items for sale are Kaczynski's typewriters, a collection of driver's licenses and a birth certificate, knives, bows and arrows, newspaper clippings about his terror campaign and a well-worn copy of a King James Bible.

"The items that seem to be obtaining the highest bids aren't surprising, such as the original manuscript of his manifesto," said Shyam Reddy, regional administrator of the General Services Administration in Atlanta.

Many items attracted only a handful of bidders at first, though the auction will continue beyond June 2 if there is interest.

The GSA wants to generate as much money as possible to pay Kaczynski's victims, Reddy said.

"No one seems to know what these items are worth," he said in a telephone interview. "We are creating a new market for a trove of goods that have never before been available to the public.

"There's no Blue Book you can consult."

Kaczynski, who railed against technology as part of his bombing campaign, was arrested after David Kaczynski alerted authorities to his brother's writings, which he found while cleaning out the attic of their parents' Chicago-area home.

That the auction is being conducted online is "ironic, it's bittersweet," Reddy said.

"Not only are we helping out the victims and their families," he said, "we're also using the very technology that the Unabomber railed against in his 18-year bombing campaign."