The Unabomber Hoax That Almost Shut Down LAX In 1995

Authorities were thrown when a second letter was received by The New York Times later the same day (via "Lone-Actor Terrorism: An Integrated Framework"). Laboratory testing on both letters confirmed their shared origin and authenticity (via The Washington Post). Yet, the new correspondence confessed that the San Francisco Chronicle's letter was a trick.

The bomber oddly called the threatening message "one last prank." The hoax-confirming second letter expressed an odd mix of sentiments. At first, it read as tongue-in-cheek. The bomber explained (per The Washington Post), "Since the public has a short memory, we decided to play one last prank to remind them who we are. But, no, we haven't tried to plant a bomb on an airline," followed by an ominous single word, "(recently)."

But while admitting the recent scare was meant as a cruel reminder of his influence and power, the second letter also contained a sentiment missing from previous messages: remorse. "In one case we attempted unsuccessfully to blow up an airliner" the letter read, referring to the 1979 American Airlines altitude-triggered bomb (via The Buffalo News). "The idea was to kill a lot of business people who we assumed would constitute the majority of the passengers. But of course some of the passengers likely would have been innocent people — maybe kids, or some working stiff going to see his sick grandmother. We're glad now that that attempt failed." The juxtaposition between threat and sincerity left law enforcement puzzled.