The ‘serial killer’ blowing Texas apart after five blasts and two murders
Austin, Texas has been rocked by a wave of attacks that have left many injured and two dead
STANDING solemnly in front of the nation’s press, police chief Brian Manley urged the bomber terrorising his city to come forward with their “message”.
Within hours, he had a response.
A sophisticated device, triggered by a tripwire on a pavement, rocked a south-west suburb of Austin, Texas, seriously injuring two men.
It was the fourth bombing to hit the US city in less than three weeks. With two people dead in the earlier blasts, investigators fear the unhinged culprit is trying to out-do the infamous “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, who killed three and injured 23.
Dan Defenbaugh, a former FBI bomb investigator, warned police could “have a serial killer on their hands”.
Yesterday a fifth package exploded at a FedEx warehouse. No one was seriously hurt.
Former counter-terrorism officer Fred Burton, 60, now a security expert in Austin, told The Sun: “The city is on edge, worrying where this bomber is going to strike next.
“They elevated the reward offer (to £82,000) for information leading to the capture of the bomber. Then they reached out to the bomber — and they got an answer.
“I believe that this was his response. It is very much like he is taunting authorities. We have a very crafty bomber here.”
President Donald Trump last night said: “We have to find this very sick person or people.”
A team of 500 officers in Austin are working around the clock to find the bomber before they strike again.
The Sun visited the liberal state capital, home to a million people, whose catchphrase “Keep Austin Weird” is emblazoned on shop fronts and T-shirts everywhere.
The city is in stark contrast to the rest of conservative Texas, with a huge student population, boutique shops, cheap housing and the celeb-filled South By South West (SXSW) festival.
We arrived to find fear stalking the streets, where armed police now stand watch.
KILLING SPREE OF KACZYNSKI
IT took 17 years to catch Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski – the Unabomber.
Between 1978 and 1995, the former Harvard maths prodigy targeted universities and airlines with mailed or hand-delivered bombs.
He killed three people and injured 23 others.
One blast, in 1979, happened on a Boeing-727 flight from Chicago to Washington but did not kill anyone.
FBI agents used the acronym “UNABOM” (UNiversity and Airline BOMber) to refer to his case.
He was finally arrested in 1996. Now 75, he is serving eight consecutive life sentences.
Four of the blasts — one each in the north, south, east and west of Austin — have encircled the city.
Terror took hold on March 2, when dad-of-one Anthony House, 39, was killed after a package blew up at 6.55am on the steps of his home.
Police initially thought thugs targeting a drug dealer had delivered a bomb to the wrong house.
But ten days later, Draylen Mason, 17, died and his mum was seriously injured when a parcel exploded on their front porch.
Later that morning, Esperanza Herrera, 75, was severely injured in another package explosion.
After those three blasts, authorities speculated the bomber could have a racial motive. Anthony and Draylen were African-Americans involved in activism in the black community, and Esperanza is Hispanic.
But the fourth bomb was detonated seemingly at random, injuring Will Grote, 22, and Colton Mathis, 23 — both white — when they triggered a tripwire. They are expected to survive.
Local Jeff Sasser, 49, helped treat the two later victims. He told The Sun: “One was wearing shorts and his legs were covered in blood. The tripwire could have been set off by any one of us here — it is very scary.”
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Chief Manley said there was a “message behind what’s happening in our community”, adding the tripwire showed a “higher level of skill” than the other blasts.
The Sun visited the exact spot of the attack. Police and FBI agents, as well as a bomb-sniffing K9 unit, kept streets on lockdown.
The parcel bomb at the FedEx warehouse in San Antonio, 80 miles away, was sent from Austin and addressed to a home in the city.
It contained nails and pieces of metal, and detonated on a conveyor belt. One employee suffered ringing in her ears, the only injury.
Police said the incident was linked to the previous bombings.
They are worried about the increasing brazenness of the attacks, fearing the culprit is seeking notoriety like Unabomber Kaczynski.
In light of the fifth attack, detectives now believe their suspect may have training in explosives.
The blasts have been targeted away from the SXSW music and film festival, held from March 9-17.
This year it featured guest speakers including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Steven Spielberg, Bill Murray and Bill Gates’ wife Melinda.
In a sign of growing fear, Trevor Ingram, 26, was arrested over a bomb threat that led to a SXSW gig by hip-hop band The Roots being cancelled on Saturday.
His arrest was not believed to be connected to the bomber, who experts think may have avoided the high-profile festival on purpose.
Ex-terror cop Fred, who works for security think tank Stratfor, said: “All of a sudden we see a shift from packages to a tripwire. I think that is very purposeful on behalf of the bomber.
“He is choosing areas away from surveillance cameras. He also didn’t go after the SXSW festival, which you might think he would.
“But the probability of getting caught on a video camera or by the police would have been far greater.
“If you look at these events on a map, it is almost like a methodical outer ring, trying to encircle the city. I think we will see more.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has now handed investigators £190,000 to buy seven portable X-ray systems to look inside suspicious packages. But detectives are also asking: Why Austin?
The city has seen a population surge in recent years, pricing disaffected locals out of homes and leaving a crumbling infrastructure.
In 2010 software engineer Andrew Stack III crashed his single-engine light aircraft into the offices of the US taxman — the IRS — in Austin.
The suicide attack by Stack, who was heavily in debt and under investigation, killed a worker and left 13 others injured.
He also torched his north Austin home, posting a suicide note blaming IRS “greed”.
In December 2014, home-grown extremist Larry McQuilliams was shot dead after firing more than 100 bullets from his AK-47 at several targets in Austin.
McQuilliams, who shot at the Mexican consulate and a courthouse, was upset at immigration into America. He had “let me die” written across his chest. Only he was killed.
Several jihadists and their plots have also been foiled across the city. They include US citizen Michael Todd Wolfe, also known as Faruk, 25, who in 2015 admitted providing material support to a terrorist group.
Austin police have so far not linked the current spate of bombings to terror and are still searching for a motive.
But, as Fred Burton wearily added: “We’ve had our fair share of crazy in this city.”