Jim Freeman - Leading the FBI's Hunt for the Unabomber | Part 1

Jim Freeman spent 32 years as an FBI Special Agent, rising to Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau's San Francisco field office. In the final two years of the 17-year hunt for the Unabomber, Freeman took direct control of the UNABOM Task Force — reporting straight to FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno.

This episode centers on the case's most consequential turning point: the decision to publish Ted Kaczynski's 35,000-word manifesto in the New York Times and Washington Post. Freeman walks through the internal FBI debate over whether publishing would help catch a killer or simply give him what he wanted, and the moment Reno and Freeh personally authorized the risk.

From there, Freeman recounts how Kaczynski's own brother, David, recognized the language in the manifesto — and how that tip led investigators to a remote cabin outside Lincoln, Montana. What followed was a 40-day covert operation, culminating in Kaczynski's arrest by agents who, until hours before, weren't convinced the reclusive hermit in the woods could really be the man they'd been hunting for nearly two decades.

It's a story about a calculated gamble that worked — and about the ordinary caution, doubt, and bureaucracy that almost got in the way of catching one of the most notorious domestic terrorists in American history.

Part 1 ends the moment Kaczynski is finally in custody. In Part 2, Freeman takes us inside the cabin itself — and the evidence that sealed the case.

New episodes drop every other Tuesday and Thursday. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Learn more at citizensbehindthebadge.org.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(76)

Dave Hinners — The Arrests, the Trial, and What It Cost | Part 2

Dave Hinners was a Wichita patrol officer, not quite three years on the job, when he became the first officer to speak with the lone survivor of the December 2000 Wichita Massacre. Today he is the exe...

8 Okt 26min

Dave Hinners — First Officer at the Wichita Massacre | Part 1

Dave Hinners was not quite three years into his career with the Wichita Police Department in December 2000. Today he is the executive director of the United States Deputy Sheriff's Association. In thi...

6 Okt 26min

Bill Bratton — Sweet Alice, the Bronx, and What the Job Costs | Part 2

Bill Bratton led six police departments over fifty years, including the NYPD twice and the LAPD from 2002 to 2009. In the second half of this conversation, the policy arguments give way to the people ...

24 Sep 33min

Bill Bratton — Broken Windows, Stop-and-Frisk, and the Defund Years | Part 1

Bill Bratton is the only person ever to have led both the New York City Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. He joined the Boston Police Department in 1970 at twenty-three, badge 1...

22 Sep 41min

Barry Black — Building the Case Against Timothy McVeigh | Part 2

Barry Black retired from the FBI after thirty-one years as a master bomb technician and master instructor. On April 19, 1995, he was one of only two FBI bomb technicians in the state of Oklahoma. Part...

10 Sep 29min

Barry Black — The FBI Bomb Technician at the Oklahoma City Bombing | Part 1

Barry Black spent thirty-one years in the FBI. He joined wanting white collar work, having changed his major and his university to get an accounting degree because that was what the Bureau was hiring....

8 Sep 26min

Frank Pegueros — Answering D.A.R.E.'s Critics, and What the Job Costs | Part 2

Part 1 covered what D.A.R.E. teaches now. This half is about the people who teach it, and about the criticism the program has carried for forty years.Frank Pegueros — retired LAPD captain, President a...

27 Aug 36min

Frank Pegueros — What the D.A.R.E. Program Actually Teaches Now | Part 1

Francisco "Frank" Pegueros spent 26 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, retiring as a captain, and has spent the 30 years since as President and CEO of D.A.R.E. America. He has now been with...

25 Aug 35min