Diary Allegedly Says Kaczynski Planned to Kill

SACRAMENTO —  In riveting excerpts from the journals of Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber suspect revealed that he intended “to start killing people” and compared himself to infamous Texas tower killer Charles Whitman, according to prosecution documents filed late Wednesday.

“If I am successful at this, it is possible that, when I am caught (not alive, I fervently hope!) there will be some speculation in the news media as to my motives for killing. (As in the case of Charles Whitman . . . ),” a government psychiatrist quoted Kaczynski as writing in his journals.

“If such speculation occurs, they are bound to make me out to be a sickie, and to ascribe to me motives of a sordid or ‘sick’ type,” Kaczynski allegedly wrote in the passage in which he recalled Whitman.

Whitman killed 16 people and wounded 31 others in a shooting spree from atop a 300-foot tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin on Aug. 1, 1966. Whitman was shot and killed by police.

Dr. Phillip J. Resnick, a Cleveland forensic psychiatrist retained by the government, cited the writings to show that Kaczynski may not be suffering from a severe mental illness--as asserted by experts hired by his attorneys--and does not want to be unjustly labeled as mentally ill.

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“It does anger me that the facts of my psychology will be misrepresented,” Kaczynski allegedly wrote in an undated excerpt. “For that reason I have attempted to give here an account of my own personality and its development that will be as accurate as possible.

“I would point out that many tame, conformist types seem to have a powerful need to depict the enemy of society as sordid, repulsive or ‘sick.’ This powerful bias should be borne in mind in reading any attempts to analyse my psychology,” he continued.

The court filings are the latest salvo in a heightening war of words over Kaczynski’s mental condition.

At issue is just how much, if any, testimony Kaczynski’s attorneys can use from mental health experts who say he is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Those witnesses could be pivotal during a penalty phase of the case.

Kaczynski, who has pleaded not guilty, faces execution if a jury finds him guilty of being the Unabomber.

On Tuesday, his attorneys filed statements from their own experts describing how Kaczynski has failed to recognize his own mental illness.

But on Wednesday, prosecutors responded with sworn affidavits from Resnick and Dr. Park Elliott Dietz of Newport Beach as part of their effort to get Kaczynski to submit to a psychiatric exam. If they fail, prosecutors maintain, Kaczynski should be barred from using his own mental health experts during the trial.

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Special U.S. Atty. Robert Cleary, the lead prosecutor, said in a legal brief accompanying the affidavits that Kaczynski’s writings shed light on why he is reluctant to be seen by government experts.

“Those writings reveal that his crimes are motivated by his desire for revenge on a society that intrudes upon his chosen lifestyle,” Cleary said.

“The defendant expresses concern that his personal goals and politics would be undermined if people thought he was mentally ill,” Cleary said.

Kaczynski, wearing torn clothes and looking disheveled, was arrested in April 1996 at his tiny Montana cabin near the Continental Divide.

After searching the shack, government officials said they found a mountain of evidence, including journals, linking Kaczynski to an 18-year bombing spree that left three people dead and 29 others injured.

Jury selection began last week in Kaczynski’s trial in connection with blasts that killed Sacramento computer store owner Hugh Scrutton in 1985 and Sacramento timber industry executive Gilbert Murray in 1995.

He is also charged in bombings that seriously injured UC San Francisco geneticist Charles Epstein and Yale University computer scientist David Gelernter.

In his affidavit, Dietz said the defense has failed to prove that Kaczynski doesn’t want to talk to government experts.

“We will know whether he refuses only when given the opportunity to meet him,” Dietz said.

Dietz, who described himself as an expert on the misuse of psychiatry, noted that Kaczynski compared himself to Soviet dissidents erroneously labeled as mentally ill.

“Efforts to label him mentally ill would be abhorrent to Mr. Kaczynski,” Dietz said.

Meanwhile, 32 prospective jurors have tentatively qualified to serve on the panel. Jury selection continues today.