Last of Unabomber

By MICK HOLIEN

Before I reveal what was behind that third floor elevator in the Lewis and Clark County Courthouse the morning of the Unabomber’s initial appearance, I want to share a couple of telephone pointers with you that unfortunately no longer apply because there are few pay phones remaining.

Just a tease.

As I was entering the courthouse elevator as instructed at 11 a.m. I was joined by a reporter from Salt Lake Tribune who said he’s been watching me and figured I had an angle.

What an angle, you say?

But back to the telephones – Confused?

If you are in a one-phone town immediately put an out-of-order sign on the receiver and you’ll never have to wait for its use.

And write down any pay-telephone number in your coverage area. You won’t believe it but if a phone rings, someone answers and gives great descriptions about what they can see.

The door comes open and there stands my friendly FBI agent instructing people where to sit in the tiny courtroom.

I was basically front row, stage-left between a beleaguered Theodore Kaczynski and the side door.

Just a few feet away one could tell he’d been cleaned up a bit from the arrest but the stench emulating from his clothes was putrid.

Listening to a litany of federal charges his one-word answers were barely intelligible. But as he turned to leave he looked right into my eyes and I asked “Do you have anything to say to your family,” at which point the room exploded with shouted questions like “Are you the Unabomber or Why did you do it.”

Immediately he looked away. He was going to answer I thought.

The courthouse parking lot and was in a frenzy. A print reporter from Great Falls was knocked to the pavement, breaking his camera lens.

Wearing a Thrift Store sports coat, he was horridly loaded for eventual transportation to trial.

I wrote a year later story on Stemple Road and I have a letter he wrote me r he didn’t approve of a story I wrote.

Journalism is always at least interesting. Just sayin’

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