A lot of people seem to believe Kaczinsky has been cleared or "exonerated" by the FBI and the SFPD. When you ask to see the statement or document clearing him they get flustered and just post an unsourced newspaper article and an unsourced article from a book. There has never been an actual announcement from the SFPD or FBI that Kaczinsky was cleared, is that correct?

That is correct. They really don’t say that. at least not to me or publicly that I know of. I was never told by the FBI or SFPD that Ted was "cleared" of being Zodiac. And I have never seen a press release from the FBI or SFPD stating Ted has been "definitively cleared" of the Zodiac crimes.

At the very start SFPD and the FBI did not take seriously the idea of Ted being Z. SFPD said they would briefly look at this "crazy idea" but made it clear they "were NOT doing a major investigation into Ted K". SFPD compared the cab prints to Ted’s prints. No match. But CCCSD Crime Lab Chief Paul Holes told me there are no confirmed Z prints. The cab prints do not match to any other prints in the case or too each other. Hundreds of people use a cab, and a criminal can easily avoid leaving prints by wearing gloves (and gloves were found in the cab). SFPD no longer has confidence that the partial DNA recovered from a stamp is from Z. Paul Holes told me "I would not dismiss an otherwise strong suspect, (specifically mentioning) Ted K or Mr. X, solely on the basis of a non-match to prints and DNA. "

SFPD had someone (we don’t know who) do a cursory handwriting comparison right after TK was arrested. Before the police had the samples of Ted’s writing from pre Z days in the 1960’s. Supposedly this "expert" said he could not match TK to Z, but unlike with Allen and every other suspect, could not rule out TK as Z either. You can see for yourself the handwriting matches, the amazing new work done by Marclean, and word and phrase matches, are incredible and unlike any other suspect.

I am really not aware of anything substantial the FBI ever did on TK as Z. If they are dismissive of it, it is IMO lack of creative thinking, red tape and bureaucratic inertia.

When I talked to the FBI Task Force about Tylenol, I mentioned Zodiac in re Ted and poisoning, and they listened to what I had to say, asked a few questions, but said they only had jurisdiction for Tylenol. The FBI has mainly operated in an assist capacity on Zodiac, for codes, handwriting, etc. Murder is not a federal crime. It is debatable if Z committed extortion by US mail as he never asked for money.

The FBI never did an investigation of TK as Z. In fact the search warrants for Ted specifically apply to crimes starting in 1978.

SFPD was interested in hearing my info and evidence on TK as Z. Paul Holes thought of TK as a very good Z suspect. In Ohio the Captain of the homicide suad called me about possible matches between the Bricca family murders/Percy murder and Zodiac and TK, and based on information I gave him about SB 63, Zodiac and TK, issued a press release saying Zodiac was a person of interest in the Bricca slayings, which were bound knife murders of a couple (and child) in which the female was placed atop the male. And he and other people in county and state law enforcement sent letters to the feds to request Ted’s DNA for comparison to Zodiac and other unsolved couple and lone female murders (then thinking there was Z DNA.)

See TK not being cleared http://unazod.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=104

And TK and alibi for Z crimes viewtopic.php?f=102&t=236

And shared handwriting, words and phrases viewtopic.php?f=102&t=250

Is it known what the plea arrangement was, when TK plead guilty to the Unabomber charges? is it possible that there was a condition (since he was accepting 8 life sentences with no parole) that LE would not accuse/investigate/prosecute him for any other crimes prior to 1978? If so, I wonder if some people in high levels of LE intentionally discourage anyone, especially lower levels of LE, from trying to connect TK to Z, because if that was done, it could perhaps give TK an opportunity to return to court, claiming his confession deal had been violated.

Is that a scenario that could exist?

Many people have speculated exactly along the lines you suggest. Officially, however, the answer is no. The plea agreement that Kaczynski entered into was put on the record in open court. The basics of it were that the death penalty was waived, in exchange for Kaczynski pleading guilty to charges that resulted in a sentence of life in prison with no parole.

Now could there have been an unofficial and or off the record agreement, that if Kaczynski pleaded guilty to the Unabomber charges, no charges for possible other crimes, such as Zodiac or Tylenol, would ever be brought? I suppose that is possible. Again, there’s no evidence for it on the record, so I tend to doubt that an official agreement like that was ever made. The official agreement was put on the record, and I don’t know how any unofficial agreement would stand up without it being entered into the record in front of the court.

I think the bigger motivating factor may be simply that the FBI does not want to have it come out that an amateur, or small group of amateurs, was able to solve a crime that they were not able to solve.

Very soon I’m going to post on the Tylenol case, what my experiences were on it, and the overwhelming amount of evidence that points to Kaczynski as being a very good suspect for that case.

When I first contacted the FBI in 2011, there was skepticism at first, but when I provided all the evidence to the FBI, I felt like the agent I was speaking to understood it, was seriously interested, treated me with respect and asked good questions.

And the initial follow through by the FBI was good. They did what they told me they were going to do. They told me that on the basis of the evidence I presented to them, they considered Ted a valid suspect for the Tylenol murders. The FBI said they recovered a partial DNA sample from the Tylenol pills tainted with cyanide. In other words there was DNA material inside a fingerprint smudge , not sure if it was sweat, skin or something else.

They did approach him and ask him to volunteer a DNA sample. Ted flat out refused to volunteer a sample, saying that 3 to 5% of the population can match a partial DNA sample. Which is not true, and sure as hell sounds like something a guilty person would say to avoid giving a DNA sample! The FBI then told the media that they would seek a court order to get the DNA sample.

And from there the trail goes cold. Once it got up to the higher level the FBI, as far as I know, they just totally backed down. They absolutely caved in, and did not seek a court-ordered warrant to get the DNA. Why did they do that? I don’t know, but I can only speculate that they must have felt that if the DNA matched, and the case was solved, they would not look good for being unable to solve one of the most notorious mass murderers and product tampering poisonings in history.

And it’s confusing because they would get some credit for solving the case now, but I guess that was not enough to outweigh the feeling that they’d be portrayed as stupid or incompetent for being unable to solve a case that an amateur solved. I honestly don’t know the answer.

But the FBI is now out of the picture, and the case has been turned over to local authorities, and I have some reason to believe that I may actually be able to get something done now.

And I think solving the Tylenol Murders case through a DNA match to Kaczynski will absolutely lead to solving the Zodiac case through a DNA match to Kaczynski.

I was always confused by this terminology. Why would the police care about "clearing" anyone?

Their job is to find the person who committed the crime, not the person who didn’t commit the crime. Of course they are going to investigate people who might turn out to not be the person who committed the crime, but that is only because they thought he might be the right person; Not because they are trying to prove his innocence, that would be a waste of their time.

So why is the presumption that it’s routine for police to announce the people who were "cleared" of having committed the crime?

Generally police don’t wish to disclose any information about an ongoing investigation, so the only time a person would be said to be "cleared" of the crime was after the case was solved. Since they couldn’t be cleared if they were convicted and found guilty, they could only be cleared by having someone else be arrested and convicted, in which case saying that they were cleared would be unnecessary since it would be apparently obvious.

It’s even more silly if you think about it because there is nothing really to "clear". There is no shame in being investigated for a crime, if you are innocent. If you are guilty, the shame lies in being arrested and convicted of the crime. So by merely being investigated there is nothing to clear. I should think someone being "cleared" should apply to a person who is wrongly convicted and then has it overturned. But that is not usually the sense that we are talking about.

In this case it’s even funnier because we don’t care about Ted or anyone else who is "cleared". We want to know that he was NOT cleared because only someone who is NOT cleared could be found guilty.

But "not cleared" is even more meaningless than "cleared". The most likely reason to not be cleared of a crime is precisely because you are in fact innocent. You need not be cleared if there is nothing to clear, if you were never investigated or indeed ever even suspected. Unless we are taking that to be the definition of "cleared", in which case that puts it into utter absurdity for anyone to announce all of the people who have never been considered for criminals.

I recently watched a series illustrating a perfect example of how a suspect was "cleared" even when multiple of his co-conspirators stated he made the bomb used in the crime.

The 4 part series is called:
Evil Genius: the True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist

It outlines the strangest crime story I have ever heard of.

some info about the case can be seen HERE

Back to the point…

Even after:

-the collar bomb was put on Brian Wells in the field behind Rothstein’s house,
-the ransom note was for the exact amount needed to pay off Rothstein’s debts,
-Rothstein had claimed to friends to know how to build bombs,
-the bomb had unique arrow diagrams on it, just like papers found in Rothstein’s basement,
-and he was named by multiple co-conspirators as the maker of the bomb,

William "Bill" Rothstein was cleared by the FBI in a televised press conference.

Now could there have been an unofficial and or off the record agreement, that if Kaczynski pleaded guilty to the Unabomber charges, no charges for possible other crimes, such as Zodiac or Tylenol, would ever be brought? I suppose that is possible. Again, there’s no evidence for it on the record, so I tend to doubt that an official agreement like that was ever made. The official agreement was put on the record, and I don’t know how any unofficial agreement would stand up without it being entered into the record in front of the court.

Howard Davis absurdly alleged that his suspect, Bruce Davis, was not prosecuted for the Zodiac murders after his conviction for Manson Family murders (on the groundless basis that a Zodiac prosecution would have somehow jeopardized Bruce’s existing convictions). Vincent Bugilosi said that this would have constituted obstruction of justice by law enforcement and the judiciary, so I assume the scenario you are describing with TK could not lawfully occur.

Bruce Davis / Hood & Garcia ‘connection’:

viewtopic.php?f=99&t=1493&p=16953&hilit=buggy#p16953

I bet Bruce has some scars on his hands. Indeed, they charged him with what they had. To set him free now? Not really, imo. Same with Teddybear Kaczynski.

QT

Every day in courts in America felons, and sometimes even murders, plead guilty to one crime and have other crimes that they were charged with or could have been charged with dropped. Several people have suggested to me or questioned to me if Ted Kaczynski could have made some type of deal wereby pleading guilty to the Unabomber crimes, prosecutions for other crimes like Zodiac or Tylenol were dropped.

As I stated above, I tend to doubt that very much. The official agreement was put on the record, and it states that in exchange for pleading guilty to the Unabomber crimes, the death penalty will be waived. There is nothing in any part of the record that indicates any sort of agreement or promise about not investigating or prosecuting other crimes.

And I don’t see how any sort of off the record unofficial agreement would have any weight and legality unless it was put into the official record before the court and approved by the judge. So I reject the notion that there was any type of deal involved here.

Much more likely, I think, it’s just a combination of bureaucratic inertia, what serial killer profiler and former FBI agent John Douglas called "linkage blindness", the ego and arrogance of certain parts of the FBI to admit they made mistakes and an overall misunderstanding of what motivated TK as a killer.

I am now at the start of an effort making a final push to attempt to solve the question of whether TK was the responsible party in both the Zodiac and Tylenol cases. In both cases I am avoiding the FBI, which based on my past experience values ego, political considerations and avoiding publicity for mistakes ahead of wanting to solve the cases.

In both cases I am dealing with local authorities, who I think want to actually solve the cases, and do not have a stake if in so solving it it turns out exposing that when the FBI arrested TK they made a blunder by not also fully investigating whether he was responsible for other crimes.

I agree with you QT, in that neither Davis or TK should be released. Davis has come up for parole and been rejected. TK is not eligible for parole.

Aside from the good example given by Jelberg, also remember that Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was officially cleared by the police, by police investigation, police interview of witnesses and a polygraph test. Of course DNA later proved that he was the Green River Killer.

Interesting QT. Perfectly plausible that a suspected Zodiac case could actually be a Manson Family case.

This is BD’s right hand. Decide by yourself if it has cuts or not.

QT

Cleared???? I shall raise the bullshit flag…..ALA is still not cleared either…hell none of em are including KQ "X" or even gaik

Allen was accused by Cheney, who kept inventing things along the way so Allen remained a suspect in the eyes of the police. Plus science never brought incriminating elements as far as he is concerned.
As for Gaikowski, well, he’s clearly not a better suspect than the great majority of POIs in the Zodiac case to me. Sorry Tom, (I know you will respond anyway), but the few elements against Gaikowski as being the Zodiac are "légers", as one would say in French