Former FBI Agents Tell Tale Of 18-Year Search For Unabomber

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Former FBI agents are revealing their deep secret on how they captured the Unabomber over the course of 18 years in a new book.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the Unabomber was an elusive domestic terrorist that was focused on killing anyone who didn't share his twisted ideologies. Two of his victims were killed in Sacramento.

Max Noel and Terry Turchie, along with an army of investigators, helped capture Ted Kaczynski.

"I always called him the equal opportunity hater," Noel said. "He hated everything that wasn't him."

In 1985, Hugh Scrutton was killed when a bomb exploded behind his business on Howe Avenue. Scrutton thought it was a road hazard.

"So when he moved it, it blew up," Noel said.

Ten years later, Gilbert Murray, president of the California Forestry Association was killed.

Within 18 years, the Unabomber had killed one other person and injured 23 more.

"Our big break actually came when the unabomber began communicating with us with words instead of just bombs," Turchie said.

He says the FBI published Kaczynski's 35,000-word manifesto in the New York Times and the Washington Post. That eventually led to his capture in the hills of Montana.

Turchie was one of the officers that grabbed him as he stepped out of his cabin.

"Kaczynski was struggling because he didn't know what was going on," Noel said.

Agents found another bomb in the cabin.

"That bomb that was under the bed was going to mailed," Turchie said. "And it was going to be mailed to one of a dozen people or companies we found a list for in that cabin."

The two former agents say they're going to continue their book signing tour in Roseville next month at the Barnes & Noble in the Roseville Galleria on July 19.