Story from Apr 11, 1996 at 11:30 PM EDT.
WASHINGTON (Reuter) - The FBI is investigating a failed romantic relationship involving Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski in 1978 when the bombing spree began, a legal source close to the case said Thursday.
The source, who asked not to be identified, said Kaczynski's family brought the difficult breakup to the attention of the FBI, which is trying to build a case that the reclusive former math professor was responsible for the string of deadly mail bombs that killed three people and injured 23.
Kaczynski's possible motives have remained mysterious as agents have collected a wealth of evidence including a live bomb and several partly built explosive devices at his remote mountain cabin near Lincoln, Montana, where he was arrested April 3.
U.S. District Judge Charles Lovell in Helena, acting on a request by federal prosecutors, Thursday sealed the cabin and surrounding 1.4-acre property for another 30 days while agents search for possible additional explosives.
In a statement supporting prosecutors' request for the order, special agent Terry Turchie of the FBI's Unabomber task force said agents might need to return to the cabin repeatedly as evidence is developed in the agency's far-flung investigation. ``Short of destroying the entire premises during an initial search, there are a few options other than multiple searches to ensure that every relevant wire and nail will be retrieved,'' Turchie said. Kaczynski, 53, a Harvard-trained mathematician who gave up an academic career for a hermit's life in the Montana shack, remains in a Helena jail on a charge of possessing bomb-making components. While Kaczynski moved into the shack shortly after buying the property in 1971, he worked briefly at a foam rubber factory in the Chicago suburb of Lombard, Illinois, in the late 1970s, where he struck up a relationship with the woman, the source close to the case said.
Kaczynski's younger brother, David, who worked as a supervisor in the factory, had to fire Theodore for harassing the woman and making crude remarks about her after she ended their relationship, the source said, adding that the dispute created tension between the two brothers.
It was David Kaczynski who provided the FBI its breakthrough tip in the case this year after undertaking his own investigation into the case.
One law-enforcement source said he was skeptical that a failed romance might have motivated Theodore Kaczynski, noting that he was known to have few if any sustained relationships after moving to the Montana wilds.
The New York Times Thursday reported details of a seven-year correspondence between Kaczynski and a Mexican farmhand in which the former professor expressed his loneliness. ``Even though you have to endure these difficulties, you will probably overcome them in the end, and your children will thrive and someday have children of their own,'' Kaczynski said in the May 1994 letter to Juan Sanchez Arreola, according to the Times.
``I wish I had a wife and children,'' Kaczynski wrote.
Law-enforcement officials said that among items found in the cabin search were a sweatshirt and aviator sunglasses that resemble those the Unabomber wore when he was seen by a witness in 1987 in Salt Lake City. That sighting was the basis for the widely circulated sketch of the bomber.
The officials also said investigators were trying to determine if a third typewriter found in the cabin may have been used to write the Unabomber's 35,000-word manifesto, published last year by the Washington Post and New York Times.
They said tests on two machines showed they had not been used.
Attorney General Janet Reno Thursday declined to discuss whether the death penalty would be sought in the case.
The Justice Department announced that a six-member Unabomber team had been named to head up the investigation and prosecution. It said no decisions has been made on what charges to file or where to bring them.
Heading up the team will be Robert Cleary, a federal prosecutor from New Jersey, the state where an explosive device sent by the Unabomber killed an advertising executive in 1994.
