Unabomber's Last Victim -- One Year Later, Timber Lobbyists Recall Colleague

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - It was the size of a shoe box, neatly wrapped, heavy, and when it arrived at timber lobbyist Gilbert Murray's office, workers jokingly said it looked like a bomb.

It was.

"There was interest about the package. People passed it around and discussed it and actually said, `Ha, ha, this could be a bomb.' That's just human nature, I guess," said Donn Zea, vice president of the California Forestry Association.

A year ago this week, Murray took the package, opened it and died.

The April 24, 1995, blast was the third and final slaying attributed to the Unabomber. The mail bomber's trail stretches from a Chicago parking lot to Murray's former office four blocks from the California Capitol.

Also a few blocks from Murray's office is the site where the Unabomber trail may finally come to an end: The federal courthouse for California's Eastern District.

The gray courthouse is a potential site for the trial of Theodore Kaczynksi, the former Berkeley math professor arrested at his mountain cabin in Montana.

Kaczynski, 53, is accused of possessing bomb components but has not been charged in any Unabomber case.

If he is charged, California officials hope to try him here. Two Unabomber deaths occurred in Sacramento, the third in New Jersey. Of the 23 people injured, several were from Northern California.

Role of politics

Politics is also playing a role in the potential prosecution site: Gov. Pete Wilson wants the trial in state court in Sacramento County to give a political boost to the local Republican prosecutor, who is being groomed for the 1998 race for state attorney general.

"This man may have a serious mental illness, and it is more likely than not that the defense is going to be insanity," said Donald Heller, a former U.S. attorney in Sacramento who is now in private practice.

"The best place for that kind of prosecution is in state court. The DA's office in Sacramento County is probably better equipped to try an insanity defense than federal court; it's fairly rare that you get an insanity plea in federal court."

The California Forestry Association, often at odds with environmentalists, represents timber interests before the Legislature and Congress. Investigators said similar organizations were listed on notes in Kaczynski's cabin.

Offices were moved

As the one-year anniversary of Murray's death approaches, the California Forestry Association's offices are no longer in the building where he died.

And security is much higher at the agency's new location on the Capitol Mall: Security cameras scrutinize the entryway, a scanner examines packages that come in the mail, and staffers were given training in recognizing potential bombs and what to do when a suspicious package arrives.

"If we knew then what we know now, Gil Murray would still be alive," Zea said.