For 17 years, an unknown bomber eluded the FBI. The trail would eventually lead to an unexpected life shaped by abstract mathematics, and to the words that finally exposed him.
For seventeen years, investigators searched for a man they could not identify.
They knew what he did. They recovered fragments of the devices he constructed, studied the materials he used, examined his letters, mapped his targets, and eventually even obtained a description of what he looked like.
But they did not have his name.
Beginning in 1978, homemade explosive devices began appearing at universities, businesses, airlines, and private homes across the United States. The early devices were relatively crude. Later ones became considerably more sophisticated.
Some injured their victims. Three people were eventually killed.
The person responsible seemed unusually careful about leaving evidence behind. He used materials that were difficult to trace, incorporated misleading clues, chose different kinds of targets, and operated across several parts of the country.
In 1979, the FBI formed a task force with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and…
