Copyright 1994 The Baltimore Sun Company
The Baltimore Sun
December 13, 1994, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: TELEGRAPH (NEWS), Pg. 3A
LENGTH: 534 words
HEADLINE: Pattern has authorities expecting another strike by serial 'Unabomber' SOURCE: Newsday
BODY:
NEW YORK -- His bombs usually come in pairs, less than 30 days apart.
That pattern has federal authorities bracing for another strike by the serial bomber agents have dubbed Unabomber, sources said Monday.
Investigators who have spent more than 15 years tracking the elusive killer said they have isolated a pattern to the bomber's madness: He selects two people in geographically different locations and tries to blow up his second target within days of the first.
It's a thin link, and one that FBI officials readily admit gets them no closer to identifying the bomber who sent the deadly package that killed Thomas Mosser, a Young & Rubicam executive, in his suburban New Jersey home Saturday.
It was the 15th bombing linked to Unabomber in 16 years -- the second one to claim a life. His targets have been university professors, airline executives and computer experts. Mosser is the first advertising executive.
In an interview yesterday, Barry Mawn, special agent-in-charge of the Newark, N.J., FBI office, which is heading the investigation into the New Jersey bombing, acknowledged his frustration.
"This is a very difficult case for us," Mr. Mawn said. "When the device goes up, it destroys a great deal of the evidence."
Mr. Mawn confirmed that the return address and the postmark on the package that killed Mr. Mosser showed it was mailed from San Francisco Dec. 3.
From a preliminary on-the-scene investigation, FBI agents found the mark "F.C.," Unabomber's signature, impressed in a remaining shard of the bomb.
Authorities said that smaller fragments of the bomb were flown yesterday to federal labs in Quantico, Va., where they will be examined by scientists at the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Mr. Mosser, 50, was in the kitchen of his North Caldwell, N.J., home Saturday morning when he opened the videocassette-sized package that had arrived in the mail the day before. It exploded, and although an ambulance crew tried to revive him, Mr. Mosser was pronounced dead 10 minutes after the explosion.
A federal law enforcement agent involved in the bombing investigation said Mr. Mosser's wife "didn't pay much attention" to the return address on the parcel. "They're used to getting packages at home, so she really didn't pay much attention to where this one came from," the agent said. "It didn't really attract her attention."
Working from fragments removed from the bomb scene, technicians at the FBI laboratory in Washington, D.C., were able to determine the postmark, the agent said.
Since 1993, when Unabomber re-emerged after a six-year hiatus, agents set up their investigative clearinghouse in San Francisco, believing Unabomber lived in the Bay Area or elsewhere in Northern California. But during his bloody forays, agents believe Unabomber travels, placing his packages for his target by hand or sending them through the mail.
But no matter what his delivery method, the bombings usually occur in twos.
The juiciest lead the FBI has is an imprint lifted from the wrapper of a bomb that exploded at Yale University in 1993. From the plain paper covering agents found the message "Call Nathan R., Wednesday, 7 p.m."