FBI agents lead Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, into custody in Helena on April 3, 1996. At left is Bruce Ely, who was one of four students from the University of Montana who captured the only images of the arrest of Kaczynski.
After 25 years, photos that a foursome of University of Montana Journalism School photographers shot of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski are still making money.
“We did just have a recent sale to a British documentary crew,” said Gregory Rec.
Rec was a student at the university on April 3, 1996, when news circulated that the long-sought Unabomber had been captured by FBI agents at a tiny cabin outside of Lincoln. Rec had been on a freelance assignment for the Denver Post, returned to the school and found it empty. Discovering what was afoot, he sped toward the small mountain town, arriving only minutes before Kaczynski was loaded into a white Ford Bronco for a drive to nearby Helena.
“So I didn’t get to contemplate it much,” he said.
Along with fellow students Steve Adams, Bruce Ely and Derek Pruitt, the photographers followed the Bronco back to Helena where they captured the first photographs of Kaczynski after his arrest. The shots show the Unabomber being escorted to a downtown FBI office and after he exited a bathroom on the building’s third floor.
This 1996 photo shows a group of University of Montana students who were the first members of the media to arrive upon the arrest of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski on April 3, 1996. From left to right: Derek Pruitt, Bruce Ely, Greg Rec and Steve Adams.
“One guy opened the door, saw us and grabbed the guy and brought him out,” Adams recalled in a 1996 story. “They didn’t say one thing to us – they just went about their jobs. They were doing their job and we were doing ours.”
The photos show a shaggy-haired, bearded Kaczynski dressed in holey black jeans and a black T-shirt being escorted by two plain-clothes FBI agents, one wearing a cowboy hat and the other a baseball cap with a fly-fishing logo.
Rec was giving a photojournalism presentation to a group of high school students in Maine about six years after the arrest when one of them said, “Oh my god, that’s my uncle” — referring to one of the agents escorting Kaczynski .
FBI evidence photos show views of the inside of Ted Kaczynski’s cabin near Lincoln, Montana, and some of the items found by investigators.
“That’s the strangest incident I’ve had related to the Unabomber photos,” Rec said.
In a wild five hours of negotiations with photo agencies around the world from the offices of the Helena Independent Record, the four photojournalists agreed to stick together and sell all of their shots as a package and split the income evenly. At the time, Adams was on assignment for the New York Times, and Ely was working for the Missoulian.
The four agreed to go with Gamma-Liason for $2,500 upfront and a 60-40 split on any future sales.
“It’s probably the most exciting evening I’ve ever had,” Adams said at the time.
A 1996 Spokesman-Review story said Newsweek paid $26,000 for the photos, one of the highest prices paid for photos at the time. The images were also published in the Helena Independent Record, Denver Post, Missoulian, Newsweek, People, Time magazine and other publications and media around the world.
FBI agents lead Ted Kaczynski across a street in Helena on April 3, 1996, the night of his arrest.
“The biggest impact it had on me personally was it allowed me to pay off a significant chunk of my student loans,” Rec said.
Ely told the Spokesman he used part of the money he made from the Newsweek sale to buy new photo equipment and pay off a portion of his student loans.
Rec said the photographs gained the group notoriety when they were just starting out in the business. The incident still carries a certain cachet in photojournalism circles — being one of the four guys who captured the first photos of the Unabomber.
“The fame of it was wider than I would have expected,” he said.
Yet he doesn’t think the photos opened any doors for him, or impacted him professionally or his photography.
“The other guys talked about how we didn’t want it to be the thing we were remembered for,” he added, since they all ended up doing other important photojournalism work during their careers.
Ely went on to work at the Evansville Courier & Press and The Oregonian and is now the visual content manager for the Portland Trail Blazers.
Adams worked at the Indianapolis Star, Evansville Press and Charleston Gazette and is now digital media producer at Trib Total Media in Pittsburgh.
Pruitt earned a masters degree in journalism at the University of Montana, followed by several internships. He then worked as a photographer at The Montana Standard in Butte before moving to Glen Falls, New York, to work at the paper there. He now runs his own photography business.
Rec still stays in touch with some of his fellow photographers from that day, and continues to work as the chief photographer for the Portland (Maine) Press Herald.
“I still look forward to going out and doing my job every day,” he said. “Even after 24 years I still get jazzed about making images.”
Unabomber sketch, 1987
A suspect sketch of the Unabomber was released in February of 1987, following a Salt Lake City bombing that injured computer store owner Gary Wright. The sketch was revised years later, but featured the first view of the suspect, later identified as Ted Kaczynski, in his infamous sunglasses and hooded sweatshirt.
Unabomber sketch, 1994
The FBI commissioned this sketch of the Unabomber suspect by artist Jeanne Boylan after a witness insisted that a 1987 sketch of the suspect be revised. The witness saw the suspect, later identified as Ted Kaczynski, when he was placing one of his bombs at a Salt Lake City computer store.
Unabomber arrest, April 3, 1996
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is taken into custody on April 3, 1996, near Lincoln. Kaczynski was moved to this cabin, which was not his own, where he was interviewed by FBI agents and Postal Inspector Paul Wilhelmus.
Unabomber arrest, April 3, 1996
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is escorted out of a cabin rented by the FBI during their investigation on April 3, 1996.
Unabomber arrest, April 3, 1996
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is escorted by FBI agents following his arrest on April 3, 1996 near Lincoln.
Unabomber arrest, April 3, 1996
Federal agents escort Unabomber Ted Kaczynski into an FBI office in Helena following his arrest near Lincoln on April 3, 1996.
Ted Kaczynski’s mailbox
An FBI photograph shot during their weeks-long investigation prior to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s arrest shows Kaczynski’s mailbox near Lincoln.
Ted Kaczynski’s cabin
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s cabin near Lincoln is surrounded by crime scene tape in this 1996 photo.
Ted Kaczynski court appearance
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski arrives at the federal courthouse in Helena on April 4, 1996.
Ted Kaczynski, unabomber
Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, is escorted into the federal courthouse in Helena on April 4, 1996.
Unabomber arraignment, April 4, 1996
Theodore John Kaczynski, in orange jump suit, is led into a mass of news reporters and photographers as he is escorted in the federal courthouse in Helena, Thursday, April 4, 1996. Kaczynski, the suspected Unabomber, was to be charged with one count of possession of a bomb.
Ted Kaczynski arraignment, April 1996
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, surrounded by federal agents and media, is led into the federal courthouse in Helena on April 4, 1996 to make his initial court appearance. A cropped version of this photo was later published on the cover of Time Magazine.
Unabomber arraignment, April 4, 1996
Unabomber Ted Kaczynski is led by federal agents into the federal courthouse in Helena on April 4, 1996.
Media in Helena
With their satellite trucks in the background, network television crews report on the Unabomber story outside the county jail in Helena, Friday, April 5, 1996.
David Kaczynski
This June 10, 2011 photo shows David Kaczynski in a park near a family member’s home in Wheaton, Ill. Kaczynski was instrumental in identifying his older brother, Ted, as the Unabomber. David Kaczynski and his wife, Linda Patrik, noticed similarities between his brother’s manifesto “Industrial Society and Its Future,” published in the Washington Post and New York Times, and Ted’s previous writings.
Sketch: Unabomber appears in federal court with a public defender
A courtroom sketch by Wayne Klinkel for the Independent Record shows Unabomber Ted Kaczynski during a June 1996 court appearance in Helena.
Sketch: Unabomber appears in federal court with a public defender
A courtroom sketch by Wayne Klinkel for the Independent Record shows Unabomber Ted Kaczynski during a June 1996 court appearance in Helena.
Ted Kaczynski
In this June 21, 1996, file photo, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski looks around as U.S. marshals prepare to take him down steps at the federal courthouse to a waiting vehicle in Helena. Kaczynski was moved from Helena to Sacramento, Calif., where he was charged in connection with four bombing attacks.
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