Unabomber

Unabomber News History

Copyright 1994 The Irish Times

The Irish Times

December 13, 1994, CITY EDITION

SECTION: WORLD NEWS; Pg. 11

LENGTH: 333 words

HEADLINE: Letter bomb attacks linked to newspaper profiles

BYLINE: By CONOR O'CLERY

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:

A WRITE UP in the New York Times can prove fatal, and appears to have led indirectly to the death of a US advertising executive last week. Mr Thomas Mosser (50), who was killed at his New Jersey home by a letter bomb last week, had been profiled in a recent edition of the newspaper.

The FBI has established that at least three other victims of a series of 15 unsolved letter bomb incidents, which have killed two men and wounded 23 other people over the past 16 years, had featured in the columns of the New York Times just before they were targeted.

The US authorities have offered an unprecedented $ 1 million dollar award for information leading to the apprehension of a shadowy figure codenamed "Unabom", an explosives expert believed responsible for sending bombs to college professors, computer experts and airline officials since 1978.

The components of the bomb and the letters "FC" on the packaging led the FBI to conclude all the bombs were linked, according to Mr Barry Mawn of the Newark FBI office.

Mr Mosser, recently promoted 10 general manager at the Young & Rubicam advertising agency in New York, one of the biggest in the world, was killed in the kitchen of his house in North Caldwell, New Jersey, when opening a cassette sized package. His wife and two children were elsewhere in the house.

The bomber is believed to be a white man in his late 30s or 40s, with a moustache. A man fitting the description was spotted kneeling beside an object moments before it exploded in Salt Lake City in 1987.

The latest case pointed to a resumption of the bombings after 18 months. A University of California San Francisco geneticist, Mr Charles Epstein, lost several fingers in a June 22nd, 1993 explosion. Two days later, a Yale computer scientist, Mr David Gelertner, was seriously injured by a letter bomb in his office.

In 1993, "Unabom" sent a letter to the New York Times, using the letters "FC" promising further information which never materialised.