$\"Hunting$ <\/a>

Hunting the American Terrorist<\/p><\/div>\n

Gary:\u00a0 How did you get into this study of the lone terrorist?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 I was working for the FBI and they had hit a dead end with trying to locate the Unabomber so they decided to give up on the profilers and called my partner and I in to start a new task force and take a fresh look at the situation.\u00a0 The Unabomber went underground for almost six years and didn\u2019t kill anyone so he was not fitting the patterns of a serial killer.\u00a0 The people working on the case said he was either in prison or dead, but then he showed up again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 That sounds like a pretty daunting task.\u00a0 How did you approach the project at that point?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 We figured that everything they were doing up to that point was leading them no place so we had to go in and do things differently.\u00a0 We got carte blanche<\/i> from the Director of the FBI, and we went back and looked at all the scenes, all the victims and everyone involved.\u00a0 What we realized were the victims were totally unrelated and symbolic of something or some institution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Unabomber was given up by his brother, was your investigation successful?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 We had thousands of leads that we were looking into and Kaczynski was on the list.\u00a0 We would have gotten to him, it just steered us there quicker when we got the leads from his relative.\u00a0 As soon as we saw the writings, it just popped in us.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 What else did you do to study the lone terrorist?\u00a0 I saw you on a TV show for McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing?\u00a0\u00a0 Did you study others?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 I took to studying the ten biggest lone terrorists in the past years.\u00a0 Kaczynski, McVeigh and Nichols, Eric Robert Rudolph\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 The Olympic Bomber?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 And a number of other facilities for abortions in the south.\u00a0 I studied the lone terrorists and found some very common attributes.\u00a0 First, all had desired to leave a mark on the earth.\u00a0 They wanted to make an impact.\u00a0 Their victims were symbolic, not individuals to them. None really resisted arrest, yet they did work for escape.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 McVeigh was driving away in a car without a license plate?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 But he was driving away.\u00a0 He would have escaped and probably killed again if the cop didn\u2019t see he lacked a license plate. \u00a0He wanted the death penalty.\u00a0\u00a0 He didn\u2019t care what the victims thought about the bombing, in fact told them to \u201cget over it\u201d instead of showing empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 Real psychopathic response.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 More than psychopathic.\u00a0 The lone terrorist has no social connections.\u00a0 Not like Bin Laden who is the most well known terrorist with a purpose, these people have no social connections.\u00a0 In fact, many of them were turned down by radical right wing groups because the groups felt they were crazy.\u00a0 I remember McVeigh was look for friends and tried to join with the Michigan Militia and they thought he was too nuts and didn\u2019t want to have anything to do with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 Interesting.\u00a0 So these people are really disconnected?\u00a0 What about the Arizona killer, Loughner?\u00a0 He was disconnected from everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 But he had a definite target person and he believed the government was controlling the world through the use of grammar.\u00a0 Notice he was found incompetent to stand trial.\u00a0 The lone terrorists tend to be able to help in their defense.\u00a0 They may be crazy, but they are competent and there is sort of a logic to their thinking.\u00a0 It is a small distinction, but one that need to be made.\u00a0 Loughner actually knew who his target was in advance.\u00a0 The lone terrorist doesn\u2019t care who his target is as long as they are symbolic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 And what about school shooters.\u00a0 Can they be seen as lone terrorists?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 Most school shooters identify their targets and even know some of them, so they really don\u2019t fit this pattern.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 It is a whole new way of thinking about terrorism.\u00a0 I understand you went to an auction of the Unabomber stuff?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 Yea.\u00a0 He was ordered to give restitution to his victims so they auction off his stuff online.\u00a0 Do you realize the hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses are now at $20,000 and the auction isn\u2019t over yet?\u00a0 I guess people collect all kinds of things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 Could be a museum of the macabre, also.\u00a0 Kathleen, where can people get more information on this fascinating distinction?\u00a0 You have a book somewhere, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

Kathleen:\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Hunting the American Terrorist: The FBI\u2019s War on Homegrown Terror<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0I wrote it with Terry Turchie \u00a0in 2007.\u00a0 It is published by History Publishing Company and it is in digital format also.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary:\u00a0 Thank you very much Kathleen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this interview, sign up to receive updates for more posts on the latest in police psychology and stress management.<\/p>\n

Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP
\n<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

For books by Dr. Gary Aumiller go to www.myherodad.com or www.myheromom.com<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"