Steve Adams was a graduate student studying journalism at the University of Montana when a call came in from the New York Times on April 3, 1996.
The FBI was on the verge of arresting a reclusive mountain man believed to the infamous Unabomber. The paper wanted to hire a photojournalist to travel to the hills outside the village of Lincoln, Mont., 75 miles away, to photograph the arrest. Were there any students with the equipment and skills to take on the job?
Adams and three fellow students jumped at the opportunity.
The soft-spoken newsman came to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as a photographer three years later and remains a key player on the Trib’s digital team. He still marvels at how he and his fellow students scooped major media organizations that day to give the world its first look at Ted Kaczynski, the brilliant mathematician turned serial bomber.
“Four of us went out there,” said Adams, of Pittsburgh’s North Side. “When we got there, there was a whole pool of media already there. We waited all day because we couldn’t see anything. Toward end of day, a white Ford Bronco went by with tinted windows. We had a hunch he might be in there. So, we took a risk and left the media there and followed that Bronco into Great Falls.”
They arrived in Great Falls close behind the Bronco and were there to begin snapping the first images of the Unabomber as agents led away a scruffy bearded man, dressed in rags.
The students agreed, rather than compete against one another, they would sell their photos as a package.
Their work appeared in newspapers, magazines and books around the world.
“By taking the risk and leaving the pack of reporters at the scene, we got some pictures and we scooped them,” Adams said. “But it was a total gamble. If he hadn’t been there, we would have totally blown it.”
