Kaczynski confesses to attacks

SACRAMENTO - Theodore Kaczynski, the schizophrenic hermit filled with rage against technological society, confessed as part of a plea bargain yesterday that he was the terrorist Unabomber who killed three and maimed dozens more in a deranged campaign against scientists, computers and jet airplanes. Under terms of the agreement, he was spared the death penalty but will serve life in prison without possibility of release.

"The Unabomber's career is over," said lead federal prosecutor Robert Cleary in a statement outside the courthouse moments after the guilty pleas were entered.

In the last-minute deal, struck on the day that opening arguments in his long-delayed trial were to begin, Kaczynski pleaded guilty to 13 counts of transporting explosive devices with the intent to kill or maim. Kaczynski also pleaded guilty to all federal charges against him - those here and those in another case not yet presented in New Jersey - comprising five bombings during his decades-long crusade against modern technology.

At the same time, Kaczynski admitted in court that he placed or mailed another 11 bombs, for which he was not charged.

Kaczynski's admission of guilt in the decades-long series of bombings closed one of the longest-running, most expensive and most bizarre investigations in FBI history. The investigation ended only when Kaczynski's brother alerted authorities soon after recognizing the fevered anti-technology themes in a 35,000-word manifesto published in June 1995 by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Cleary said the government, which turned down earlier attempts by the defense to reach a plea bargain, agreed to accept life imprisonment rather than execution because yesterday marked the first time Kaczynski agreed to plead guilty without any other conditions except a reprieve from death.

"The key to the agreement was this was the very first time there were no strings attached," Cleary said. "We believe justice was best served by an immediate guarantee" that Kaczynski will be imprisoned for life without a chance to appeal any portion of his case.

01-23-98