Numb3rs (2005–2010): Season 2, Episode 16 - Protest - full transcript
The bombing of a recruitment office puts Don and his father at odds, and brings an agent out of retirement.
♪
♪ Saturday night
I was downtown ♪
♪ Working for the FBI ♪
♪ Sitting in a nest of bad men ♪
♪ Whisky bottles piling high ♪
♪ Bootlegging boozer
on the West Side ♪
♪ Full of people who
are doing wrong ♪
♪ Just about to call
up the DA man ♪
♪ When I heard this
woman singing a song ♪
♪ A pair of .45's made
me open my eyes ♪
♪ My temperature
started to rise ♪
♪ She was a long cool
woman in a black dress ♪
♪ Just a 5'9", beautiful tall ♪
♪ With just one look
I was a bad mess ♪
♪ 'Cause that long
cool woman had it all ♪
I'm pretty sure there's an
ATM around here somewhere.
I don't wanna wander around
downtown at this time of night.
Don't worry. If we don't
find one here, we'll go back.
Ah, here's one.
You never listen to me.
Hey, guys. DON: Hey.
It's an Army recruiting office.
We had the victim
standin' here at the ATM.
He died on the scene.
His wife's in shock,
but she's stable.
Bomb looks to be homemade.
We'll need the chem
workup to know more.
It's an interesting
choice of target.
High-profile and
low risk of casualties.
Antiwar protest?
Maybe just somebody with an
axe to grind against the Army.
Well, someone's definitely
gonna take responsibility for this.
You were right.
This came in last night,
just before the bomb went off.
You having any
luck tracing this?
It's been routed
through so many servers,
I can't promise anything.
"This act is in retaliation
"for an illegal war
begun at the behest
"of U.S. imperialists."
Wait. It's signed the
Weather Underground?
The protest group from the '70s?
Maybe somebody's
havin' a flashback.
Weather Underground
were radicals
disguised as patriots.
They were willing to use
any means necessary
to accomplish their ends.
Today we call them terrorists.
Uh, Agent Thomas
Lawson. Retired.
Back in my day, uh,
all we had was a
couple of IBM Selectrics
and a telephone.
I'm sorry. Can we help
you with something?
Chief of Criminal Division
called me this morning.
Why is that?
You had a bombing
at a recruitment center.
We had an identical
bombing at an ROTC office
35 years ago to the day.
And you think it's
the same people?
Same person.
Matthew Stirling?
He was a member
of a local radical group
from '69 to '71.
He was responsible
for three bombings,
including the one at the
ROTC which killed two people.
Where is he now?
Never apprehended.
His current whereabouts were
unknown until this morning.
We all use math every day.
To predict
weather, to tell time,
to handle money.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's logic.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's rationality.
It's using your mind to solve
the biggest mysteries we know.
The e-mail is almost identical
to a letter received
by the FBI in '71,
except, uh, instead of Vietnam,
the new letter reads Iraq.
Bomb materials, composition
and placement are all similar.
Yeah. I know you guys didn't
use math consultants back then,
but, uh, meet my
brother Charlie.
He's gonna do a statistical
assessment of crimes from back then
and compare it to this one here.
Given the length of time
between these bombings.
This is going to be
a great challenge.
Maybe, if you were looking
for a different perpetrator.
We haven't ruled out the
possibility of a copycat yet.
You're wasting time.
Time you haven't got.
We're gonna look
into Stirling as well as
some current groups
with similar profiles, so...
The day after Stirling
was questioned
about the ROTC bombing,
he went underground.
He abandoned a wife and baby.
The bomb he set
killed two people.
Thomas O'Keefe, 17.
Albert Whitetower, 16.
I was the one that had to
knock on their parents' door
to tell 'em their kid was dead.
Next time, it'll be you.
Somebody blew up a car
and that's an antiwar act?
A military vehicle,
parked outside of an
Army recruiting office
where somebody was killed.
American Peace Movement.
You might wanna round up
some of the local
high school parents.
I understand a lot of
them aren't too happy
with the Army's on-campus
recruitment tactics.
Your organization called for
resistance against the United States.
The war on Iraq is illegal,
and any resistance is
protected by international law.
Vandalism and violence aren't.
We're gonna need to
take a look at all the e-mails
coming and going
into your office.
Then you're gonna
need a warrant.
Maybe.
Look, try to pull any
of that Patriot Act stuff,
and you'll get plenty of press.
I don't doubt it.
You're wasting your time.
We didn't have
anything to do with it.
Really? Cross your
heart and hope to die?
Hey!
So, what do you think of this?
Wow.
You got it done fast.
Yeah. I found it in
the original designs.
The people who owned
the place before us,
they... they tore 'em out.
I can't imagine
why they did that.
Well, people did a lot of
stupid things in the '70s.
I take it you're not just
talking about home remodeling.
Here are the files from the
ROTC bombing. Oh, great.
So you think this guy Stirling
was involved with these
recent bombings, huh,
after all these years?
Stirling?
You're talking
about Matt Stirling?
Yeah. Why?
Well, I knew him.
We worked together.
You did? At City Hall?
No. Californians for Peace.
We organized volunteers.
Matty worked with
the local colleges.
You were an antiwar protester?
I participated in peaceful
demonstrations, so did Matt.
Dad, Matt Stirling is the one
who blew up the ROTC Center.
He killed two innocent kids.
Matt Stirling's guilt was
never proven in a court of law.
Yeah, because he took off.
Look, I knew Matt Stirling.
He had a wife, he had a child.
What are you talking about?
I'm talking about evidence.
What evidence?
Those files right
there, to begin with!
Oh, come on. You guys probably
had twice that much on the man
you mistakenly accused of
the Madrid train bombings.
We're trying to stop someone
from killing innocent people here.
So were we!
Hey. Hey.
I didn't know Dad was so
active back then.
Yeah, well, I kind of forgot about
it until I was joining the Bureau.
Came out in my background check.
Was he ever arrested?
Oh, yeah. Twice.
Twice? Sit-ins.
I was, like, three. Mom and
Dad both took me to a march.
LAPD hauls Dad off in cuffs.
Dad has an FBI file.
Uh-huh. What's in it?
Well, that's the thing. It's
funny. You know, I mean,
I never wanted to
read it that closely.
By the time I was
born, the war was over.
Yeah. Well, lucky you.
All right, Don.
What about this
bomb investigation?
Well, I mean, Stirling's
our prime suspect,
but 35 years,
that's a long time.
You know, you've got a lot
of data here from the old case,
and I might be able to run
an application of math called
social network analysis, which
analyzes the structure of groups.
Might tell us how Stirling fit
into Californians For Peace,
and who he worked with.
Could it tell if he was involved with
something like the Weather Underground?
Oh, quite possibly.
And if it was a copycat?
The analysis might very
well identify likely suspects.
We're coming up empty with
e-mails and phone records.
There's nothing to indicate that
any of the local antiwar groups
were planning
anything like this.
LAPD's anti-terrorist
surveillance indicates
these groups are
organizing demonstrations
to mark the start of
the war this spring.
So we're back to
lookin' at a copycat.
Well, either that, or Lawson's
right and Stirling's resurfaced.
It's possible. Serial
bombers often claim
political motivations,
but it's a sociopathic drive.
It's the same as serial killers.
They can go underground for
years, and then return to violence
if circumstances bring
up old obsessions.
Circumstances like a new
war, new climate of protest?
You got it, but if it is him,
more than likely, he's gonna
contact somebody from his past.
Yeah, Matt and I were
very good friends back then.
But that was back then.
You worked together
in the peace movement.
And I admired
Matt, I really did.
But the things we did,
I don't believe in them anymore.
Are you saying you
were involved in violence?
No, no, none of us were.
No, it's just those protests,
when the troops
needed our support,
comin' back from that hellhole.
Yeah. That's something I
wish I'd never been a part of.
Dad. Hey, Wilkie's
at the Culver City site.
He says the concrete
hasn't shown up yet.
Uh, Agent Sinclair,
this is my son, Adam.
Is everything all right?
Yeah, everything's fine.
They just have some
questions about a guy
that I knew a
very long time ago.
Well, do you wanna
talk to the foreman or...
No, no. You can handle
it. I'll be right there.
My son.
Smart kid. He's got
a business degree.
Me, I studied sociology.
Mr. Bennett, if you
think of anything,
or if you hear from anyone,
give us a call.
Hey, Tom.
Hi.
Some of my old files.
I'm going through
and annotating them.
Look, uh, I gotta tell you,
we really appreciate
all you're doing.
Somewhere in me, I still
think of this as my case.
Yeah. I understand.
I mean, they get
under your skin, huh?
Then maybe you'll understand
if I speak to you frankly
about something.
Yeah, sure.
Are you sure
you're the right guy
to be heading up
this investigation?
You read my father's file.
I thought your name
sounded familiar.
Checked up on him.
Your father was a leader, Eppes.
He organized radical activities,
and he knew Matt Stirling.
I just wanna be sure that
we're all on the same team here.
We just got the
prelim on the bomb.
Looks like a non-industrial
grade nitroglycerin.
It's probably homemade.
Back to basics, sulfuric,
and nitric acid, glycerin,
sodium carbonate,
sawdust was the stabilizer.
Were there any
signature elements?
Yeah, there was one.
The sodium carbonate was
sodium carbonate decahydrate.
In other words, baking soda.
Stirling's bomb. To the letter.
Why are you asking
me about Matt Stirling?
Because you were closely affiliated
during the antiwar movement,
and we had a bombing
at a recruitment center
on the anniversary
of the bombing
at the ROTC center in '71.
Right. I remember.
The FBI blamed
that one on Matty.
You think he's come back
after 35 years to do it again?
We haven't come to
any conclusions yet.
Sounds like you have.
But you don't really know anything
about the ROTC bombing, do you?
I know that two young men
were killed in the explosion.
And 18-year-old boys
were used as cannon fodder
in a war we had
no business fighting.
Do you have any information on
Matthew Stirling's current whereabouts?
None.
Would you tell me if you did?
That's the same question
they asked me in 1971.
And what was your answer?
Over 2,000 troops
are dead in Iraq.
That's not an
answer. The point is,
the more things change,
the more they stay the same.
Nearly 35 years later,
you're still chasing
the wrong man.
Mom, please, maybe they
have something they can tell us.
Trust me, they don't.
You don't know that.
Do either of you
know where he is?
We haven't seen him since
the day he disappeared.
You people hounded him,
and threatened him with jail.
Forced a loving
husband and father
to leave his family, or face
prison for a crime he didn't commit.
If he was innocent, why didn't
he stay and defend himself?
You were gonna railroad him.
The government wanted
to discredit the peace effort,
what better way than indict
a local leader for murder.
The effort, as you called it,
was riddled with terrorists,
people who hated this country.
Look, there was a... a bombing at
an Army recruiting office recently.
You know anything about that?
Of course not.
Have you had any contact with your
husband since his disappearance?
No.
You realize he's
probably married again.
New wife, kids.
Probably, he's got some nice
house in the suburbs somewhere.
Tom. Tom, Tom, Tom.
My mother filed a
missing persons report.
Nobody ever did
anything about it.
Okay. What if something
happened to him?
What if he was hurt?
What if he needed help?
I want you to leave, now.
All right. Both of you.
Get out of my house.
Agent Lawson? Hi.
I'm here looking for my brother.
They said he might be with you.
No, he just left.
We're taking a little
break from each other.
A little disagreement
over methods employed
in this investigation.
I can relate to that.
Yeah. My day, witness
refused to cooperate,
we didn't coddle them.
My brother coddled someone.
You sure we're talking
about Don Eppes here, right?
You know, you have
a lot of data here.
I investigated
Californians for Peace
and violent protest
groups for five years.
A lot of data.
That's actually what I'm trying to
verify through social network analysis.
See, you know when
you're getting old.
I never heard of that.
Humans form social networks,
from bridge clubs
and church groups,
to universities and
federal agencies.
Now, mathematically, we can
analyze these organizational structures
to reveal who the
true leaders are.
Now, these various
antiwar groups in 1971
were also social networks.
Now, using bipartite
network analysis,
I can identify who the
true connectors are.
See, in my day, we, uh...
We didn't work much
with college professors.
We didn't think
we could trust 'em.
I have National
Security clearance.
Well,
here's to you.
So what happened to your
social network analysis?
I'm still working on it.
But this e-mail the FBI
received promises more violence,
and Don would like me
to analyze past attacks
to see what can be expected.
So, we're working
on recurrence plots.
I mean, hundreds of
these events happened,
many happened here at CalSci.
Oh, the school had
defense contracts back then.
I mean, there were antiwar
demonstrations right here on campus.
Bad news is, three
of those 12 events
rank high as possible repeats.
Really?
Two were vandalisms that
destroyed research for defense work,
and the third was a fire
that damaged a sculpture
right out in front
of this building.
And they all happened
around this time in 1971.
1971.
You know, all these
things were in the headlines.
Pentagon Papers, My Lai
massacre, Charles Manson murders.
And do you have any
idea how little press
the Apollo 15
mission was getting?
I need more current data.
You do have a problem.
You have one single recent event
with which to base
your comparisons.
Which means that you
need more bombings.
That's right. The constant
quandary of crime analyses,
to get more data,
you need more crimes.
Why is everyone running?
Oh, no. Oh, my
God. They hit it again.
The same globe that
was burned in 1971.
Well, now you have more data.
So the fire at CalSci
does in fact match a fire
that the FBI linked to Stirling.
Linked it to him, because
he was the one that set it.
We have an e-mail
claiming responsibility
identical to a note nailed
to a tree back in 1971.
Reads, "There can be no
peace for the masters of war."
That's a reference
to a Bob Dylan song.
Stirling used
politics as an excuse.
Now with the antiwar movement
revived, he's back in his element.
Based on the evidence,
we're not letting go
of the possibility
that it was a copycat.
The sculpture burned due to a creosote-based
substance that somebody put on it.
There's only about a dozen places
in the area where you can buy it.
All right, so why don't you
get a list of recent buyers,
run that against anyone
who bought chemicals
used in the recruitment
office bombing.
Wait a minute,
we've got a match.
The language in the letters.
The construction of the bomb.
The sculpture.
We need to quit chasin'
around and drag in
Stirling's wife, his daughter,
anybody he's associated with.
These people all have
careers, they got mortgages.
Believe me, they'll talk to us.
Well, I disagree.
And I think our best shot is
following the leads from today, Tom,
not from 35 years ago.
All right, guys, let's just
continue with what we're doing.
This is exactly what
I was worried about.
Pardon me?
Divided loyalties.
"Subject is active in groups
"associated with the overthrow
of the U.S. government,
"violent political unrest
and social agitation."
Uh-huh. And your point?
Your commitment
to this investigation.
Your father knew Stirling,
he worked with him.
All right, look, let's just
clear this up right now.
Are you actually
suggesting that my father
had something to do with
these bombings? Of course not.
But your father knew the
people that Stirling knew.
Your father's a
source of information.
A source which you
are choosing not to use.
Hi. Hi, can I help you?
I'm Laura Stirling.
My father was Matthew Stirling.
Your brother's working
on a case involving him.
Okay. I cannot discuss
my brother's work.
I did an internet
search on your brother
and I found out that
sometimes he works with you.
If you have questions,
if you have concerns,
you need to take
them directly to the FBI.
I know, but...
My mother's still
angry with the FBI.
She'd never cooperate with them,
and she wouldn't want me
cooperating with them, either.
If I went to their offices,
she'd never forgive me.
I'm sorry, then
why are you here?
Um...
This hairbrush
was my father's.
The FBI might be
able to match his DNA.
You understand
that if they match
this to a crime scene,
it might prove that your father
was involved in these bombings.
It's a chance I'm
willing to take.
I barely got to know my father.
But, if he's proved
innocent, then maybe, finally,
he can come home.
Hey. Charlie's not here.
Actually, I came to see you.
Dad.
How well do you
know Matt Stirling?
Is this an official visit?
Come on.
How'd you meet him?
At a local church.
I was, uh, organizing voters.
You know, we had people
from all walks of life there.
We had students and teachers...
Dad, Matt Stirling.
Matt Stirling was a lawyer
devoted to non-violent protests.
And he was a good speaker, too.
That's what got him
in trouble with the FBI.
You see, he could
speak their language.
He could use it against them.
That's it, huh?
Am I a suspect, too?
Come on, don't be ridiculous.
It's just that Stirling got help
from someone, we think, and...
Oh, I see.
And I knew the people he knew.
Credit to your mother, she
loved to organize things.
You know, keep records.
Yeah. What's this?
Oh, that's called a phone tree.
Uh, before e-mail, that's
how we organized things.
Each person was assigned
a list of people to call.
Oh. Schedules,
committee rosters.
Oh, Dad, this is
definitely gonna help.
You know, Donny,
I'd hate to see anyone
found guilty by association.
Well, you can trust me.
It's not you I'm worried about.
Dad, I know a lot of the guys
who were in the Bureau in the '70s.
These are good people.
I mean, they truly believe
what they were
doing was right, so...
Yeah? So did we.
You read my file, haven't you?
I mean, all that crap they
have in there about me?
Yeah, I read some of it.
Donny, they said that my work,
registering voters
in South Central,
was part of a conspiracy
to instigate racial tensions.
Now, how can you defend that?
I don't have to.
I don't see stuff like
that goin' on today, Dad.
And I see a lot.
Things have changed.
I think you believe
that. I do believe it.
I'm not sure that I do.
These are Alan Eppes'
records of the group.
Names, committees. Wow.
And these ones are
those sales records
of local chemical
companies from '69 to '71.
Everything we
could dig up, anyway.
A lot of them don't
exist anymore.
And I bet a lot of them
didn't use their real names.
That's why we been
looking into street addresses.
Nothing there.
And they might be stolen.
Maybe the bomber didn't
buy the raw materials.
He had access to 'em,
through a job or somethin'.
But what kind of companies
would have these
materials on hand?
Lots of 'em would
have one or two,
but the only ones that
actually have all three
of the chemicals are companies
that specifically
make explosives.
The bigger issue is,
most industrial uses of nitric
acid only require a solution
that's between 52 and
68 percent concentrated.
For nitroglycerin, you
need over 86 percent.
Yeah, but if none of these people
had access to the chemicals...
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
There's always grain alcohol.
What?
When we were in college,
my buddies and I would
wanna make a
grain alcohol punch,
and couldn't get
our hands on some,
we talked to a premed student
and see if we could have him
swipe some pure lab alcohol.
Premed students.
Let's take a look.
Take a look.
Look who was
premed at UCLA in '71.
Dr. Sarah Kemple.
She knew advanced chemistry.
And she'd have access
to a university lab.
She has everything.
She has motive,
she has knowledge,
and she has the materials.
Why didn't the Bureau put this
evidence together back then?
Because they were
so focused on Stirling,
they didn't bother
looking at anybody else.
Dr. Kemple?
You need to come with us.
It's all right. I'm ready.
I've been waiting
35 years for you.
Turn around, please.
I was premed.
I made the nitroglycerin myself.
Took what I needed
from the university labs.
The police and the FBI,
they never even questioned me.
And after Matty disappeared,
it was just so easy
to let it end there.
Well, it didn't.
The families of the kids you
killed couldn't let it end there.
Where were you the night of the
bombing at the recruitment center?
At a medical conference
in San Francisco.
I would never have
set another bomb.
Not after what happened.
Do you know where
Matthew Stirling is?
I told you, I have no idea.
He helped you plan
the ROTC bombing?
No, Matty didn't
know anything about it.
Then where did
the idea come from?
There was this one
guy in the group.
We called him Cisco.
I read some stuff he wrote.
He was charming, passionate.
Cisco was his first
or his last name?
I don't know.
I didn't really know him.
He was Matty's friend.
I'm so very sorry.
She was covering for Stirling.
She was pretty specific
about the making of the bomb,
how it was planted...
She was out of town.
She couldn't have done the second
bombing. How do you explain that?
A copycat. Tom...
Look, I'm tellin' you,
Stirling put her up to it in '71,
and he's the guy
behind the new ones.
Let me ask you this,
did you ever even look
at anybody else besides him?
Have you ever had a hunch?
Have you ever known deep in
your gut who the bad guy was?
What about Cisco?
You ever hear that name?
I had a report.
Yeah, and what happened?
Drifter, outside agitator.
Operated locally
for a few months,
and we never heard
anything more about him.
A nobody. Not to Sarah Kemple.
She claims she got the whole
idea for the bombing from him.
You know, Tom, I've had a
few wrong hunches in my time.
This analysis says which
members of this group
got along, and which didn't,
and who linked up with
people in other antiwar groups.
Boy, you know, people don't
like to think that their lives
can be tracked so
accurately, but, uh,
human action isn't very
different than any other data, is it?
Network analysis
quantifies relationships.
It reveals substructures
in networks,
like cliques and romances,
even secret alliances.
However, there's
something odd here. What?
Matt Stirling was a connector
between Californians for
Peace and another group,
but that group wasn't
the Weather Underground.
My SNA graph indicates
that that group was the FBI.
How can that be?
The FBI's investigation
into the group.
I mean, there are dates here,
key steps into the investigation
which coincide with the
activities of this subset.
Only, look, they
predate the events.
But that means that the FBI
wasn't just investigating this group.
It was somehow inside it.
We now know unequivocally
that your husband wasn't
responsible for the ROTC bombing.
It was a woman
named Sarah Kemple.
Sarah? Yeah.
I told you people
Matty wasn't capable
of hurting anyone.
Well, can you tell me if you've
ever heard of a man named Cisco?
Are you actually
asking for my help?
Yes, Mrs. Stirling, I'm
asking for your help, okay?
A man died on Sunday.
I got two letters promising
more of the same.
These are innocent people
we're talking about here.
Cisco. I never met him.
But you heard of him?
Matty was afraid of him.
Afraid of how far he might go.
But I told the FBI all of this.
They wouldn't listen. All
right, well, I'm listenin' now.
All I know is,
the night that Matty
disappeared, he was scared.
Of what? I don't know.
But because of it
I've always thought that something
must have happened to him.
Only the FBI decided that
he was a fugitive. All right.
And that was that!
Well, again, I am sorry,
and I appreciate
you talking to me.
Thanks.
Now, this seems
very strange to me.
Although the analyses,
it is fairly definitive.
Uh, we've analyzed
patterns of meetings,
groupings, actions, and
we're seeing correlations
with the FBI's
investigation into this group.
What type of correlations?
I-I-It seems decisions that
were made by the Bureau
predate related activities
by the protest group.
So, I mean, it's almost as if
Californians for
Peace and the Bureau
were overlapping organizations.
I mean, that's... that's
not possible, is it?
Suddenly a lot about this
case seems more possible.
Who was Cisco?
I told you, he was a drifter.
I think he was an
undercover agent
who you put inside.
Those records are sealed.
In order to get at them, you'd
need a special court order,
and I think I still got enough
juice to keep you from doin' that.
Why didn't you say something?
I told you, Sarah Kemple
said Cisco was the one
that convinced her
to plant the bomb.
Nonsense.
Well, all right, fine. Let's
go talk to her, come on.
I don't need to talk to her.
What is your problem? I
mean, I can't figure you out.
Why are you such an ass?
I don't need to talk
to Sarah Kemple
because she never
ever spoke to Cisco.
So, you knew
about him all along.
So, who else did he talk to?
Cisco's contact was Stirling.
What, that's the only
person he spoke to?
How are you so sure about that?
I'm certain of it.
Well, I wanna talk to him.
You just did.
I was Cisco.
I was operating under orders.
We believed that Stirling and his
group were capable of violence.
Based on what? See, that's
the thing I'm not clear about.
It was the
consensus at the time.
Maybe you had to be there.
That's not good enough, Tom.
You said your undercover work
was mostly with Stirling, right?
I met him at a protest
march, got to know him.
We talked about the role
of violence in the movement.
Who brought it up? I
did. I was instructed to.
Did you give anyone in Stirling's
group instructions on bomb-making?
We talked about
what kind of chemicals
were readily available.
We talked about chemical
processes one could use.
Did you provide any materials?
No.
I mean, was there even
the slightest concern
that innocent people
could get hurt?
We followed Stirling
day and night for months.
This guy was a lawyer.
In order to nail him, we
had to catch him in the act,
which I would have done,
except the press got involved.
Somebody blew the whistle,
there was an
article in the Times,
and then I was
ordered off undercover.
Two months later, the
ROTC was bombed.
Which is when
Stirling disappeared.
Fled from prosecution.
You still think he's the bomber.
Maybe he put Kemple up to it,
but he's involved.
You realize, without you,
there might not even have
been an ROTC bombing?
A person doesn't become violent
because you talk to him, Eppes.
You're either a
terrorist or you're not.
Something's been bothering
me about Sarah Kemple's bomb.
What's that?
These are the records from UCLA.
The quantity of chemicals
that was stolen from there
was enough to make about three
times the amount of explosives
that were used in the bombing
at the ROTC center in '71.
You're right.
So what happened
to the rest of it?
We got lucky. No major injuries.
Well, it's the first bit of
luck we've had on this thing.
Prelim on the bomb indicates
it's the same composition
as the one used on
the recruitment office.
And you know we
got another e-mail.
Yeah. Similar wording,
more attacks to come.
Blah, blah, blah.
Here's the kicker.
Just came in from the
Bomb Data Center in D.C.
Confirms our initial thoughts.
These explosives have
the same chemical signature
as the '71 ROTC bomb.
So you tell me how two people,
35 years apart, use
the same process.
Not likely.
Don, they use the
same exact process.
Same amounts, both used
a commercially available
sodium carbonate, baking soda.
Yeah, we know it
ain't Sarah Kemple.
Someone else has this formula.
Definitely, definitely.
You said you figured out the
formula for the bomb yourself.
That's right. I did.
That's not gonna fly, Sarah.
Someone else is using the
same process to make new bombs.
That's impossible.
You're a doctor. You know
that lab reports don't lie.
Someone else had to be aware
of the chemical mix that you used.
The book. What book?
It was a copy of
Essays on Revolution.
The formula was
written on the flyleaf.
I assumed it was Matty's.
But later, when I
asked him about it,
he didn't seem to know
what I was talking about.
Where's the book now?
I don't know.
I haven't seen it for 35 years.
And where are the
rest of the explosives?
I know you had more than
you used at the ROTC bombing.
I hid them in a shed behind a
weekend place my parents owned.
A few weeks later, I
went back to get them.
But they were gone.
They were gone.
And who else knew
they were there?
Matty was the only one.
I've shown you every
book in the house.
I have never owned a copy
of Essays on Revolution.
Okay, how about your husband?
I don't know.
We cleaned out his office
and I gave most
of his stuff away.
What's so important
about this book?
Well, we believe
that it contained
the chemical signatures for
the explosives used in... in,
not only the '71 bombing,
but the one the other night.
The chemical signatures? Yeah.
Mrs. Stirling, has your
husband ever mentioned
anything about explosives
he might have come across?
No, but if Matty had, he
certainly wouldn't have
brought 'em in the house and
exposed his family to danger.
And the night he disappeared,
you told the FBI he said
he was leaving to... to prevent
a, quote, "terrible mistake."
That's what he said.
Excuse me.
Swept the house.
There's no sign of any
book, no explosives.
Sarah Kemple said
Stirling was the only one
who knew about the explosives.
30 years, they
could be anywhere.
He said he was trying
to prevent a mistake.
Which, at the time, the FBI
assumed meant him being arrested.
So what if he was trying to stop Sarah
Kemple from making another bomb?
You think he was going
after the explosives?
Sarah said, by the
time she got back here,
the explosives were gone.
But how's he gonna
move nitro without...
Wait, so if he's out to stop
Kemple and he never leaves L.A.,
we should be looking at routes he
would have taken out of here, right?
I just found a bunch
of my old maps,
which should show us what
roads were not around in 1971.
Terrific.
I ran a preliminary analysis
to find the most likely route
between Stirling's
home and his destination.
You rock.
Okay, so we take
this information,
we run it against that map
which shows areas
of dense vegetation.
The result should
be a shortlist of places
to find a man
hidden in plain sight.
Yeah, there's a wreck down here!
It's a... It's an
old Volkswagen.
Can you tell what color it is?
Yeah, it's yellow. There's
a lot of damage, though.
That's Stirling's car.
All right, I'm gonna come
down and take a look.
Okay.
Oh, yeah. I got a human skull!
Looks like the damage came
from an explosion inside the car.
Yeah, I'd say he was drivin'
away from the cabin, right?
That nitro was pretty unstable.
Well, I mean, he's got
a trunkload of the stuff.
You know, he hits a pothole.
That means all the explosive
material from '71 is gone.
Yeah, with Stirling dead,
that effectively eliminates him
as a suspect in the
current bombings.
Yeah, but our current bomber
is using the same recipe
and the same wording in all
the letters claiming responsibility.
We got a copycat who
got ahold of that book.
The Revolution book's not
at Hester Stirling's house,
it's not at Dr. Kemple's
home or her office.
All right, well, what
about Stirling's daughter?
She's got a place, right? Yeah.
So check that out. Bank records on
that protest group finally came through.
That American Peace Movement?
Guess who donated
$1,000 last year?
Jack Bennett?
GOP poster boy.
Give money? Me?
To a bunch of radical
nutcases like that? No way.
You used to be a
radical nutcase yourself.
I learned my lesson. I
believe in this country.
I'm not looking to tear it down.
That's your company's
name, isn't it?
Yeah, but that's...
that's gotta be a forgery.
Look, you can check
my handwriting, right?
You have experts
who can do that?
Yeah, we got armies of them.
'Cause I'm telling you, I would not
give money to an organization like that.
All right.
I mean, what about his company?
If they use explosives, we might
be able to tie the bombings to him.
Now, Bennett hires a
contractor for demolition work.
Those would be
commercially-made explosives.
Yeah, and our
bomber's makin' his own.
Well, the basic chemicals, we
might be able to tie them to him.
Yeah, they'll need
more than ingredients.
They'll need a
knowledge of chemistry.
No luck. Bennett flunked
high school chemistry.
There's three
invoices in this file.
Bennett's company from
a, uh, chemical wholesaler.
One of them's for sulfuric
acid, one's for nitric acid,
and then the third
one is for glycerin.
Let me see those checks again.
Think he's right
about the forgery
of his signature,
though, on these checks.
This handwriting doesn't match.
All right, so what are we missing
here? What are we missing?
We're missing a dimension.
Hey, check this out.
Okay, figure this is our
antiwar group, just this, in 1971.
Now, we can analyze
the various connections
and patterns
for just this social
group, for just that year.
But see, time creates
new connections,
the offspring of
the old network.
We're looking at the
wrong generation?
Are you out of your
minds? I'm a Republican!
H-Hold on a second. Just
relax, we're not here for you.
We're here for your son.
My son? All right, this
has gone far enough.
He's the one who forged
your name to buy chemicals
so he could make nitro... No,
I know my son! This is absurd!
You can search my home.
You will not find anything!
Actually, they will!
Hey!
He's got blasting gelatin,
made with nitroglycerin.
That's right. And it's a lot
more powerful than dynamite.
Shoot me and find out.
Clear the area, everyone
with a hard hat, step back!
Get out of here! Back off!
- Adam, for God's sake, please.
- What happened to you?
You used to
believe in something.
Now innocent kids are dying, and all you
could do is keep voting the same guys back
to office who send
them off to a war!
This is not an
answer. It worked once.
The war went on for years!
Not this war, Dad, not
while I can still do something!
Guess you do know a
little about explosives, huh?
Yeah, that's right.
Like blasting gel's more
powerful than dynamite,
but it's a lot more stable, too.
Where did you get this?
It was in a box of things
that belonged to my dad
back when he was an activist.
Actually, it doesn't
belong to your father.
It belonged to someone else.
No, I don't know, Tom.
I'm havin' a hard time gettin'
my head around the fact
that you guys started
a chain reaction
that lasted through two wars.
Had no choice. We
had to be proactive.
Three people are dead.
And how many more are
alive because of what we do?
The formula for the
bombs are in here.
Is it your handwriting
in the margins?
We had to stop these
people from killing Americans.
When that happens, no one cares
how you do it. Terrorists, bottom line.
Our job is to protect,
by any means.
I don't know about that, Tom.
At a certain point, t-there's
a cost. There's gotta be.
You know, that's the kind of thing that
gives us a bad name around the world,
and... and it comes back
to haunt us. Just like it did.
Just like it did.
It seems that your
father died while,
um, attempting to
do a very good thing.
I'm not sure if knowing
that helps at all.
No, it does help a lot.
I guess I probably knew
my father was dead,
but what I really couldn't face
would have been if he was guilty.
You know, my father
was a peace activist,
and he knew your father.
He says that your father was a
man committed to helping people.
And he never believed the
charges against your father were true.
Hmm. It's good to hear.
Finally, after all these years,
we're gonna have
a memorial service.
Maybe your father
would like to come
and you, too, if you want.
I think my father and I
would like that very much.
Good.
Dad?
Hi.
So, Charlie did a
good job on this, huh?
Yeah, I like it.
Look, you know, I'm aware
that the Bureau has
some bad history.
Is that an apology?
I'm just sayin', it was a different
time, you know? And... And I know that.
Donny, I'm the
same guy I was then.
I still believe in
the same things.
Yeah, well, good.
You know, when you told me
you were gonna join the FBI,
you know... you know what
the first thought I had was?
"Where did I go wrong?"
Honestly, yes.
Because I thought you wanted to
do something as different from Charlie
and the rest of us as possible.
No, I knew it was something
I was going to be good at.
And you are.
Yeah, thanks. No, I mean it.
You are, Donny.
Maybe it's because your
mother and I brought you guys up
to do the kind of work that
really matters in this world.
And, you know, look,
I didn't have to
read the file, okay?
'Cause... 'Cause I
knew that ultimately,
I would respect anything that
you or Mom were involved with.
Commie.
G-man.
All right, big shot, where are
you gonna take me to dinner?
All right, well, there's
a new Italian place,
supposed to have a
great steak pizzaiola.
Red meat, let's eat.
Hey, at least it's good to know,
when it comes to food, you're
still both your father's sons.
♪ Saturday night
I was downtown ♪
♪ Working for the FBI ♪
♪ Sitting in a nest of bad men ♪
♪ Whisky bottles piling high ♪
♪ Bootlegging boozer
on the West Side ♪
♪ Full of people who
are doing wrong ♪
♪ Just about to call
up the DA man ♪
♪ When I heard this
woman singing a song ♪
♪ A pair of .45's made
me open my eyes ♪
♪ My temperature
started to rise ♪
♪ She was a long cool
woman in a black dress ♪
♪ Just a 5'9", beautiful tall ♪
♪ With just one look
I was a bad mess ♪
♪ 'Cause that long
cool woman had it all ♪
I'm pretty sure there's an
ATM around here somewhere.
I don't wanna wander around
downtown at this time of night.
Don't worry. If we don't
find one here, we'll go back.
Ah, here's one.
You never listen to me.
Hey, guys. DON: Hey.
It's an Army recruiting office.
We had the victim
standin' here at the ATM.
He died on the scene.
His wife's in shock,
but she's stable.
Bomb looks to be homemade.
We'll need the chem
workup to know more.
It's an interesting
choice of target.
High-profile and
low risk of casualties.
Antiwar protest?
Maybe just somebody with an
axe to grind against the Army.
Well, someone's definitely
gonna take responsibility for this.
You were right.
This came in last night,
just before the bomb went off.
You having any
luck tracing this?
It's been routed
through so many servers,
I can't promise anything.
"This act is in retaliation
"for an illegal war
begun at the behest
"of U.S. imperialists."
Wait. It's signed the
Weather Underground?
The protest group from the '70s?
Maybe somebody's
havin' a flashback.
Weather Underground
were radicals
disguised as patriots.
They were willing to use
any means necessary
to accomplish their ends.
Today we call them terrorists.
Uh, Agent Thomas
Lawson. Retired.
Back in my day, uh,
all we had was a
couple of IBM Selectrics
and a telephone.
I'm sorry. Can we help
you with something?
Chief of Criminal Division
called me this morning.
Why is that?
You had a bombing
at a recruitment center.
We had an identical
bombing at an ROTC office
35 years ago to the day.
And you think it's
the same people?
Same person.
Matthew Stirling?
He was a member
of a local radical group
from '69 to '71.
He was responsible
for three bombings,
including the one at the
ROTC which killed two people.
Where is he now?
Never apprehended.
His current whereabouts were
unknown until this morning.
We all use math every day.
To predict
weather, to tell time,
to handle money.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's logic.
Math is more than
formulas and equations.
It's rationality.
It's using your mind to solve
the biggest mysteries we know.
The e-mail is almost identical
to a letter received
by the FBI in '71,
except, uh, instead of Vietnam,
the new letter reads Iraq.
Bomb materials, composition
and placement are all similar.
Yeah. I know you guys didn't
use math consultants back then,
but, uh, meet my
brother Charlie.
He's gonna do a statistical
assessment of crimes from back then
and compare it to this one here.
Given the length of time
between these bombings.
This is going to be
a great challenge.
Maybe, if you were looking
for a different perpetrator.
We haven't ruled out the
possibility of a copycat yet.
You're wasting time.
Time you haven't got.
We're gonna look
into Stirling as well as
some current groups
with similar profiles, so...
The day after Stirling
was questioned
about the ROTC bombing,
he went underground.
He abandoned a wife and baby.
The bomb he set
killed two people.
Thomas O'Keefe, 17.
Albert Whitetower, 16.
I was the one that had to
knock on their parents' door
to tell 'em their kid was dead.
Next time, it'll be you.
Somebody blew up a car
and that's an antiwar act?
A military vehicle,
parked outside of an
Army recruiting office
where somebody was killed.
American Peace Movement.
You might wanna round up
some of the local
high school parents.
I understand a lot of
them aren't too happy
with the Army's on-campus
recruitment tactics.
Your organization called for
resistance against the United States.
The war on Iraq is illegal,
and any resistance is
protected by international law.
Vandalism and violence aren't.
We're gonna need to
take a look at all the e-mails
coming and going
into your office.
Then you're gonna
need a warrant.
Maybe.
Look, try to pull any
of that Patriot Act stuff,
and you'll get plenty of press.
I don't doubt it.
You're wasting your time.
We didn't have
anything to do with it.
Really? Cross your
heart and hope to die?
Hey!
So, what do you think of this?
Wow.
You got it done fast.
Yeah. I found it in
the original designs.
The people who owned
the place before us,
they... they tore 'em out.
I can't imagine
why they did that.
Well, people did a lot of
stupid things in the '70s.
I take it you're not just
talking about home remodeling.
Here are the files from the
ROTC bombing. Oh, great.
So you think this guy Stirling
was involved with these
recent bombings, huh,
after all these years?
Stirling?
You're talking
about Matt Stirling?
Yeah. Why?
Well, I knew him.
We worked together.
You did? At City Hall?
No. Californians for Peace.
We organized volunteers.
Matty worked with
the local colleges.
You were an antiwar protester?
I participated in peaceful
demonstrations, so did Matt.
Dad, Matt Stirling is the one
who blew up the ROTC Center.
He killed two innocent kids.
Matt Stirling's guilt was
never proven in a court of law.
Yeah, because he took off.
Look, I knew Matt Stirling.
He had a wife, he had a child.
What are you talking about?
I'm talking about evidence.
What evidence?
Those files right
there, to begin with!
Oh, come on. You guys probably
had twice that much on the man
you mistakenly accused of
the Madrid train bombings.
We're trying to stop someone
from killing innocent people here.
So were we!
Hey. Hey.
I didn't know Dad was so
active back then.
Yeah, well, I kind of forgot about
it until I was joining the Bureau.
Came out in my background check.
Was he ever arrested?
Oh, yeah. Twice.
Twice? Sit-ins.
I was, like, three. Mom and
Dad both took me to a march.
LAPD hauls Dad off in cuffs.
Dad has an FBI file.
Uh-huh. What's in it?
Well, that's the thing. It's
funny. You know, I mean,
I never wanted to
read it that closely.
By the time I was
born, the war was over.
Yeah. Well, lucky you.
All right, Don.
What about this
bomb investigation?
Well, I mean, Stirling's
our prime suspect,
but 35 years,
that's a long time.
You know, you've got a lot
of data here from the old case,
and I might be able to run
an application of math called
social network analysis, which
analyzes the structure of groups.
Might tell us how Stirling fit
into Californians For Peace,
and who he worked with.
Could it tell if he was involved with
something like the Weather Underground?
Oh, quite possibly.
And if it was a copycat?
The analysis might very
well identify likely suspects.
We're coming up empty with
e-mails and phone records.
There's nothing to indicate that
any of the local antiwar groups
were planning
anything like this.
LAPD's anti-terrorist
surveillance indicates
these groups are
organizing demonstrations
to mark the start of
the war this spring.
So we're back to
lookin' at a copycat.
Well, either that, or Lawson's
right and Stirling's resurfaced.
It's possible. Serial
bombers often claim
political motivations,
but it's a sociopathic drive.
It's the same as serial killers.
They can go underground for
years, and then return to violence
if circumstances bring
up old obsessions.
Circumstances like a new
war, new climate of protest?
You got it, but if it is him,
more than likely, he's gonna
contact somebody from his past.
Yeah, Matt and I were
very good friends back then.
But that was back then.
You worked together
in the peace movement.
And I admired
Matt, I really did.
But the things we did,
I don't believe in them anymore.
Are you saying you
were involved in violence?
No, no, none of us were.
No, it's just those protests,
when the troops
needed our support,
comin' back from that hellhole.
Yeah. That's something I
wish I'd never been a part of.
Dad. Hey, Wilkie's
at the Culver City site.
He says the concrete
hasn't shown up yet.
Uh, Agent Sinclair,
this is my son, Adam.
Is everything all right?
Yeah, everything's fine.
They just have some
questions about a guy
that I knew a
very long time ago.
Well, do you wanna
talk to the foreman or...
No, no. You can handle
it. I'll be right there.
My son.
Smart kid. He's got
a business degree.
Me, I studied sociology.
Mr. Bennett, if you
think of anything,
or if you hear from anyone,
give us a call.
Hey, Tom.
Hi.
Some of my old files.
I'm going through
and annotating them.
Look, uh, I gotta tell you,
we really appreciate
all you're doing.
Somewhere in me, I still
think of this as my case.
Yeah. I understand.
I mean, they get
under your skin, huh?
Then maybe you'll understand
if I speak to you frankly
about something.
Yeah, sure.
Are you sure
you're the right guy
to be heading up
this investigation?
You read my father's file.
I thought your name
sounded familiar.
Checked up on him.
Your father was a leader, Eppes.
He organized radical activities,
and he knew Matt Stirling.
I just wanna be sure that
we're all on the same team here.
We just got the
prelim on the bomb.
Looks like a non-industrial
grade nitroglycerin.
It's probably homemade.
Back to basics, sulfuric,
and nitric acid, glycerin,
sodium carbonate,
sawdust was the stabilizer.
Were there any
signature elements?
Yeah, there was one.
The sodium carbonate was
sodium carbonate decahydrate.
In other words, baking soda.
Stirling's bomb. To the letter.
Why are you asking
me about Matt Stirling?
Because you were closely affiliated
during the antiwar movement,
and we had a bombing
at a recruitment center
on the anniversary
of the bombing
at the ROTC center in '71.
Right. I remember.
The FBI blamed
that one on Matty.
You think he's come back
after 35 years to do it again?
We haven't come to
any conclusions yet.
Sounds like you have.
But you don't really know anything
about the ROTC bombing, do you?
I know that two young men
were killed in the explosion.
And 18-year-old boys
were used as cannon fodder
in a war we had
no business fighting.
Do you have any information on
Matthew Stirling's current whereabouts?
None.
Would you tell me if you did?
That's the same question
they asked me in 1971.
And what was your answer?
Over 2,000 troops
are dead in Iraq.
That's not an
answer. The point is,
the more things change,
the more they stay the same.
Nearly 35 years later,
you're still chasing
the wrong man.
Mom, please, maybe they
have something they can tell us.
Trust me, they don't.
You don't know that.
Do either of you
know where he is?
We haven't seen him since
the day he disappeared.
You people hounded him,
and threatened him with jail.
Forced a loving
husband and father
to leave his family, or face
prison for a crime he didn't commit.
If he was innocent, why didn't
he stay and defend himself?
You were gonna railroad him.
The government wanted
to discredit the peace effort,
what better way than indict
a local leader for murder.
The effort, as you called it,
was riddled with terrorists,
people who hated this country.
Look, there was a... a bombing at
an Army recruiting office recently.
You know anything about that?
Of course not.
Have you had any contact with your
husband since his disappearance?
No.
You realize he's
probably married again.
New wife, kids.
Probably, he's got some nice
house in the suburbs somewhere.
Tom. Tom, Tom, Tom.
My mother filed a
missing persons report.
Nobody ever did
anything about it.
Okay. What if something
happened to him?
What if he was hurt?
What if he needed help?
I want you to leave, now.
All right. Both of you.
Get out of my house.
Agent Lawson? Hi.
I'm here looking for my brother.
They said he might be with you.
No, he just left.
We're taking a little
break from each other.
A little disagreement
over methods employed
in this investigation.
I can relate to that.
Yeah. My day, witness
refused to cooperate,
we didn't coddle them.
My brother coddled someone.
You sure we're talking
about Don Eppes here, right?
You know, you have
a lot of data here.
I investigated
Californians for Peace
and violent protest
groups for five years.
A lot of data.
That's actually what I'm trying to
verify through social network analysis.
See, you know when
you're getting old.
I never heard of that.
Humans form social networks,
from bridge clubs
and church groups,
to universities and
federal agencies.
Now, mathematically, we can
analyze these organizational structures
to reveal who the
true leaders are.
Now, these various
antiwar groups in 1971
were also social networks.
Now, using bipartite
network analysis,
I can identify who the
true connectors are.
See, in my day, we, uh...
We didn't work much
with college professors.
We didn't think
we could trust 'em.
I have National
Security clearance.
Well,
here's to you.
So what happened to your
social network analysis?
I'm still working on it.
But this e-mail the FBI
received promises more violence,
and Don would like me
to analyze past attacks
to see what can be expected.
So, we're working
on recurrence plots.
I mean, hundreds of
these events happened,
many happened here at CalSci.
Oh, the school had
defense contracts back then.
I mean, there were antiwar
demonstrations right here on campus.
Bad news is, three
of those 12 events
rank high as possible repeats.
Really?
Two were vandalisms that
destroyed research for defense work,
and the third was a fire
that damaged a sculpture
right out in front
of this building.
And they all happened
around this time in 1971.
1971.
You know, all these
things were in the headlines.
Pentagon Papers, My Lai
massacre, Charles Manson murders.
And do you have any
idea how little press
the Apollo 15
mission was getting?
I need more current data.
You do have a problem.
You have one single recent event
with which to base
your comparisons.
Which means that you
need more bombings.
That's right. The constant
quandary of crime analyses,
to get more data,
you need more crimes.
Why is everyone running?
Oh, no. Oh, my
God. They hit it again.
The same globe that
was burned in 1971.
Well, now you have more data.
So the fire at CalSci
does in fact match a fire
that the FBI linked to Stirling.
Linked it to him, because
he was the one that set it.
We have an e-mail
claiming responsibility
identical to a note nailed
to a tree back in 1971.
Reads, "There can be no
peace for the masters of war."
That's a reference
to a Bob Dylan song.
Stirling used
politics as an excuse.
Now with the antiwar movement
revived, he's back in his element.
Based on the evidence,
we're not letting go
of the possibility
that it was a copycat.
The sculpture burned due to a creosote-based
substance that somebody put on it.
There's only about a dozen places
in the area where you can buy it.
All right, so why don't you
get a list of recent buyers,
run that against anyone
who bought chemicals
used in the recruitment
office bombing.
Wait a minute,
we've got a match.
The language in the letters.
The construction of the bomb.
The sculpture.
We need to quit chasin'
around and drag in
Stirling's wife, his daughter,
anybody he's associated with.
These people all have
careers, they got mortgages.
Believe me, they'll talk to us.
Well, I disagree.
And I think our best shot is
following the leads from today, Tom,
not from 35 years ago.
All right, guys, let's just
continue with what we're doing.
This is exactly what
I was worried about.
Pardon me?
Divided loyalties.
"Subject is active in groups
"associated with the overthrow
of the U.S. government,
"violent political unrest
and social agitation."
Uh-huh. And your point?
Your commitment
to this investigation.
Your father knew Stirling,
he worked with him.
All right, look, let's just
clear this up right now.
Are you actually
suggesting that my father
had something to do with
these bombings? Of course not.
But your father knew the
people that Stirling knew.
Your father's a
source of information.
A source which you
are choosing not to use.
Hi. Hi, can I help you?
I'm Laura Stirling.
My father was Matthew Stirling.
Your brother's working
on a case involving him.
Okay. I cannot discuss
my brother's work.
I did an internet
search on your brother
and I found out that
sometimes he works with you.
If you have questions,
if you have concerns,
you need to take
them directly to the FBI.
I know, but...
My mother's still
angry with the FBI.
She'd never cooperate with them,
and she wouldn't want me
cooperating with them, either.
If I went to their offices,
she'd never forgive me.
I'm sorry, then
why are you here?
Um...
This hairbrush
was my father's.
The FBI might be
able to match his DNA.
You understand
that if they match
this to a crime scene,
it might prove that your father
was involved in these bombings.
It's a chance I'm
willing to take.
I barely got to know my father.
But, if he's proved
innocent, then maybe, finally,
he can come home.
Hey. Charlie's not here.
Actually, I came to see you.
Dad.
How well do you
know Matt Stirling?
Is this an official visit?
Come on.
How'd you meet him?
At a local church.
I was, uh, organizing voters.
You know, we had people
from all walks of life there.
We had students and teachers...
Dad, Matt Stirling.
Matt Stirling was a lawyer
devoted to non-violent protests.
And he was a good speaker, too.
That's what got him
in trouble with the FBI.
You see, he could
speak their language.
He could use it against them.
That's it, huh?
Am I a suspect, too?
Come on, don't be ridiculous.
It's just that Stirling got help
from someone, we think, and...
Oh, I see.
And I knew the people he knew.
Credit to your mother, she
loved to organize things.
You know, keep records.
Yeah. What's this?
Oh, that's called a phone tree.
Uh, before e-mail, that's
how we organized things.
Each person was assigned
a list of people to call.
Oh. Schedules,
committee rosters.
Oh, Dad, this is
definitely gonna help.
You know, Donny,
I'd hate to see anyone
found guilty by association.
Well, you can trust me.
It's not you I'm worried about.
Dad, I know a lot of the guys
who were in the Bureau in the '70s.
These are good people.
I mean, they truly believe
what they were
doing was right, so...
Yeah? So did we.
You read my file, haven't you?
I mean, all that crap they
have in there about me?
Yeah, I read some of it.
Donny, they said that my work,
registering voters
in South Central,
was part of a conspiracy
to instigate racial tensions.
Now, how can you defend that?
I don't have to.
I don't see stuff like
that goin' on today, Dad.
And I see a lot.
Things have changed.
I think you believe
that. I do believe it.
I'm not sure that I do.
These are Alan Eppes'
records of the group.
Names, committees. Wow.
And these ones are
those sales records
of local chemical
companies from '69 to '71.
Everything we
could dig up, anyway.
A lot of them don't
exist anymore.
And I bet a lot of them
didn't use their real names.
That's why we been
looking into street addresses.
Nothing there.
And they might be stolen.
Maybe the bomber didn't
buy the raw materials.
He had access to 'em,
through a job or somethin'.
But what kind of companies
would have these
materials on hand?
Lots of 'em would
have one or two,
but the only ones that
actually have all three
of the chemicals are companies
that specifically
make explosives.
The bigger issue is,
most industrial uses of nitric
acid only require a solution
that's between 52 and
68 percent concentrated.
For nitroglycerin, you
need over 86 percent.
Yeah, but if none of these people
had access to the chemicals...
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
There's always grain alcohol.
What?
When we were in college,
my buddies and I would
wanna make a
grain alcohol punch,
and couldn't get
our hands on some,
we talked to a premed student
and see if we could have him
swipe some pure lab alcohol.
Premed students.
Let's take a look.
Take a look.
Look who was
premed at UCLA in '71.
Dr. Sarah Kemple.
She knew advanced chemistry.
And she'd have access
to a university lab.
She has everything.
She has motive,
she has knowledge,
and she has the materials.
Why didn't the Bureau put this
evidence together back then?
Because they were
so focused on Stirling,
they didn't bother
looking at anybody else.
Dr. Kemple?
You need to come with us.
It's all right. I'm ready.
I've been waiting
35 years for you.
Turn around, please.
I was premed.
I made the nitroglycerin myself.
Took what I needed
from the university labs.
The police and the FBI,
they never even questioned me.
And after Matty disappeared,
it was just so easy
to let it end there.
Well, it didn't.
The families of the kids you
killed couldn't let it end there.
Where were you the night of the
bombing at the recruitment center?
At a medical conference
in San Francisco.
I would never have
set another bomb.
Not after what happened.
Do you know where
Matthew Stirling is?
I told you, I have no idea.
He helped you plan
the ROTC bombing?
No, Matty didn't
know anything about it.
Then where did
the idea come from?
There was this one
guy in the group.
We called him Cisco.
I read some stuff he wrote.
He was charming, passionate.
Cisco was his first
or his last name?
I don't know.
I didn't really know him.
He was Matty's friend.
I'm so very sorry.
She was covering for Stirling.
She was pretty specific
about the making of the bomb,
how it was planted...
She was out of town.
She couldn't have done the second
bombing. How do you explain that?
A copycat. Tom...
Look, I'm tellin' you,
Stirling put her up to it in '71,
and he's the guy
behind the new ones.
Let me ask you this,
did you ever even look
at anybody else besides him?
Have you ever had a hunch?
Have you ever known deep in
your gut who the bad guy was?
What about Cisco?
You ever hear that name?
I had a report.
Yeah, and what happened?
Drifter, outside agitator.
Operated locally
for a few months,
and we never heard
anything more about him.
A nobody. Not to Sarah Kemple.
She claims she got the whole
idea for the bombing from him.
You know, Tom, I've had a
few wrong hunches in my time.
This analysis says which
members of this group
got along, and which didn't,
and who linked up with
people in other antiwar groups.
Boy, you know, people don't
like to think that their lives
can be tracked so
accurately, but, uh,
human action isn't very
different than any other data, is it?
Network analysis
quantifies relationships.
It reveals substructures
in networks,
like cliques and romances,
even secret alliances.
However, there's
something odd here. What?
Matt Stirling was a connector
between Californians for
Peace and another group,
but that group wasn't
the Weather Underground.
My SNA graph indicates
that that group was the FBI.
How can that be?
The FBI's investigation
into the group.
I mean, there are dates here,
key steps into the investigation
which coincide with the
activities of this subset.
Only, look, they
predate the events.
But that means that the FBI
wasn't just investigating this group.
It was somehow inside it.
We now know unequivocally
that your husband wasn't
responsible for the ROTC bombing.
It was a woman
named Sarah Kemple.
Sarah? Yeah.
I told you people
Matty wasn't capable
of hurting anyone.
Well, can you tell me if you've
ever heard of a man named Cisco?
Are you actually
asking for my help?
Yes, Mrs. Stirling, I'm
asking for your help, okay?
A man died on Sunday.
I got two letters promising
more of the same.
These are innocent people
we're talking about here.
Cisco. I never met him.
But you heard of him?
Matty was afraid of him.
Afraid of how far he might go.
But I told the FBI all of this.
They wouldn't listen. All
right, well, I'm listenin' now.
All I know is,
the night that Matty
disappeared, he was scared.
Of what? I don't know.
But because of it
I've always thought that something
must have happened to him.
Only the FBI decided that
he was a fugitive. All right.
And that was that!
Well, again, I am sorry,
and I appreciate
you talking to me.
Thanks.
Now, this seems
very strange to me.
Although the analyses,
it is fairly definitive.
Uh, we've analyzed
patterns of meetings,
groupings, actions, and
we're seeing correlations
with the FBI's
investigation into this group.
What type of correlations?
I-I-It seems decisions that
were made by the Bureau
predate related activities
by the protest group.
So, I mean, it's almost as if
Californians for
Peace and the Bureau
were overlapping organizations.
I mean, that's... that's
not possible, is it?
Suddenly a lot about this
case seems more possible.
Who was Cisco?
I told you, he was a drifter.
I think he was an
undercover agent
who you put inside.
Those records are sealed.
In order to get at them, you'd
need a special court order,
and I think I still got enough
juice to keep you from doin' that.
Why didn't you say something?
I told you, Sarah Kemple
said Cisco was the one
that convinced her
to plant the bomb.
Nonsense.
Well, all right, fine. Let's
go talk to her, come on.
I don't need to talk to her.
What is your problem? I
mean, I can't figure you out.
Why are you such an ass?
I don't need to talk
to Sarah Kemple
because she never
ever spoke to Cisco.
So, you knew
about him all along.
So, who else did he talk to?
Cisco's contact was Stirling.
What, that's the only
person he spoke to?
How are you so sure about that?
I'm certain of it.
Well, I wanna talk to him.
You just did.
I was Cisco.
I was operating under orders.
We believed that Stirling and his
group were capable of violence.
Based on what? See, that's
the thing I'm not clear about.
It was the
consensus at the time.
Maybe you had to be there.
That's not good enough, Tom.
You said your undercover work
was mostly with Stirling, right?
I met him at a protest
march, got to know him.
We talked about the role
of violence in the movement.
Who brought it up? I
did. I was instructed to.
Did you give anyone in Stirling's
group instructions on bomb-making?
We talked about
what kind of chemicals
were readily available.
We talked about chemical
processes one could use.
Did you provide any materials?
No.
I mean, was there even
the slightest concern
that innocent people
could get hurt?
We followed Stirling
day and night for months.
This guy was a lawyer.
In order to nail him, we
had to catch him in the act,
which I would have done,
except the press got involved.
Somebody blew the whistle,
there was an
article in the Times,
and then I was
ordered off undercover.
Two months later, the
ROTC was bombed.
Which is when
Stirling disappeared.
Fled from prosecution.
You still think he's the bomber.
Maybe he put Kemple up to it,
but he's involved.
You realize, without you,
there might not even have
been an ROTC bombing?
A person doesn't become violent
because you talk to him, Eppes.
You're either a
terrorist or you're not.
Something's been bothering
me about Sarah Kemple's bomb.
What's that?
These are the records from UCLA.
The quantity of chemicals
that was stolen from there
was enough to make about three
times the amount of explosives
that were used in the bombing
at the ROTC center in '71.
You're right.
So what happened
to the rest of it?
We got lucky. No major injuries.
Well, it's the first bit of
luck we've had on this thing.
Prelim on the bomb indicates
it's the same composition
as the one used on
the recruitment office.
And you know we
got another e-mail.
Yeah. Similar wording,
more attacks to come.
Blah, blah, blah.
Here's the kicker.
Just came in from the
Bomb Data Center in D.C.
Confirms our initial thoughts.
These explosives have
the same chemical signature
as the '71 ROTC bomb.
So you tell me how two people,
35 years apart, use
the same process.
Not likely.
Don, they use the
same exact process.
Same amounts, both used
a commercially available
sodium carbonate, baking soda.
Yeah, we know it
ain't Sarah Kemple.
Someone else has this formula.
Definitely, definitely.
You said you figured out the
formula for the bomb yourself.
That's right. I did.
That's not gonna fly, Sarah.
Someone else is using the
same process to make new bombs.
That's impossible.
You're a doctor. You know
that lab reports don't lie.
Someone else had to be aware
of the chemical mix that you used.
The book. What book?
It was a copy of
Essays on Revolution.
The formula was
written on the flyleaf.
I assumed it was Matty's.
But later, when I
asked him about it,
he didn't seem to know
what I was talking about.
Where's the book now?
I don't know.
I haven't seen it for 35 years.
And where are the
rest of the explosives?
I know you had more than
you used at the ROTC bombing.
I hid them in a shed behind a
weekend place my parents owned.
A few weeks later, I
went back to get them.
But they were gone.
They were gone.
And who else knew
they were there?
Matty was the only one.
I've shown you every
book in the house.
I have never owned a copy
of Essays on Revolution.
Okay, how about your husband?
I don't know.
We cleaned out his office
and I gave most
of his stuff away.
What's so important
about this book?
Well, we believe
that it contained
the chemical signatures for
the explosives used in... in,
not only the '71 bombing,
but the one the other night.
The chemical signatures? Yeah.
Mrs. Stirling, has your
husband ever mentioned
anything about explosives
he might have come across?
No, but if Matty had, he
certainly wouldn't have
brought 'em in the house and
exposed his family to danger.
And the night he disappeared,
you told the FBI he said
he was leaving to... to prevent
a, quote, "terrible mistake."
That's what he said.
Excuse me.
Swept the house.
There's no sign of any
book, no explosives.
Sarah Kemple said
Stirling was the only one
who knew about the explosives.
30 years, they
could be anywhere.
He said he was trying
to prevent a mistake.
Which, at the time, the FBI
assumed meant him being arrested.
So what if he was trying to stop Sarah
Kemple from making another bomb?
You think he was going
after the explosives?
Sarah said, by the
time she got back here,
the explosives were gone.
But how's he gonna
move nitro without...
Wait, so if he's out to stop
Kemple and he never leaves L.A.,
we should be looking at routes he
would have taken out of here, right?
I just found a bunch
of my old maps,
which should show us what
roads were not around in 1971.
Terrific.
I ran a preliminary analysis
to find the most likely route
between Stirling's
home and his destination.
You rock.
Okay, so we take
this information,
we run it against that map
which shows areas
of dense vegetation.
The result should
be a shortlist of places
to find a man
hidden in plain sight.
Yeah, there's a wreck down here!
It's a... It's an
old Volkswagen.
Can you tell what color it is?
Yeah, it's yellow. There's
a lot of damage, though.
That's Stirling's car.
All right, I'm gonna come
down and take a look.
Okay.
Oh, yeah. I got a human skull!
Looks like the damage came
from an explosion inside the car.
Yeah, I'd say he was drivin'
away from the cabin, right?
That nitro was pretty unstable.
Well, I mean, he's got
a trunkload of the stuff.
You know, he hits a pothole.
That means all the explosive
material from '71 is gone.
Yeah, with Stirling dead,
that effectively eliminates him
as a suspect in the
current bombings.
Yeah, but our current bomber
is using the same recipe
and the same wording in all
the letters claiming responsibility.
We got a copycat who
got ahold of that book.
The Revolution book's not
at Hester Stirling's house,
it's not at Dr. Kemple's
home or her office.
All right, well, what
about Stirling's daughter?
She's got a place, right? Yeah.
So check that out. Bank records on
that protest group finally came through.
That American Peace Movement?
Guess who donated
$1,000 last year?
Jack Bennett?
GOP poster boy.
Give money? Me?
To a bunch of radical
nutcases like that? No way.
You used to be a
radical nutcase yourself.
I learned my lesson. I
believe in this country.
I'm not looking to tear it down.
That's your company's
name, isn't it?
Yeah, but that's...
that's gotta be a forgery.
Look, you can check
my handwriting, right?
You have experts
who can do that?
Yeah, we got armies of them.
'Cause I'm telling you, I would not
give money to an organization like that.
All right.
I mean, what about his company?
If they use explosives, we might
be able to tie the bombings to him.
Now, Bennett hires a
contractor for demolition work.
Those would be
commercially-made explosives.
Yeah, and our
bomber's makin' his own.
Well, the basic chemicals, we
might be able to tie them to him.
Yeah, they'll need
more than ingredients.
They'll need a
knowledge of chemistry.
No luck. Bennett flunked
high school chemistry.
There's three
invoices in this file.
Bennett's company from
a, uh, chemical wholesaler.
One of them's for sulfuric
acid, one's for nitric acid,
and then the third
one is for glycerin.
Let me see those checks again.
Think he's right
about the forgery
of his signature,
though, on these checks.
This handwriting doesn't match.
All right, so what are we missing
here? What are we missing?
We're missing a dimension.
Hey, check this out.
Okay, figure this is our
antiwar group, just this, in 1971.
Now, we can analyze
the various connections
and patterns
for just this social
group, for just that year.
But see, time creates
new connections,
the offspring of
the old network.
We're looking at the
wrong generation?
Are you out of your
minds? I'm a Republican!
H-Hold on a second. Just
relax, we're not here for you.
We're here for your son.
My son? All right, this
has gone far enough.
He's the one who forged
your name to buy chemicals
so he could make nitro... No,
I know my son! This is absurd!
You can search my home.
You will not find anything!
Actually, they will!
Hey!
He's got blasting gelatin,
made with nitroglycerin.
That's right. And it's a lot
more powerful than dynamite.
Shoot me and find out.
Clear the area, everyone
with a hard hat, step back!
Get out of here! Back off!
- Adam, for God's sake, please.
- What happened to you?
You used to
believe in something.
Now innocent kids are dying, and all you
could do is keep voting the same guys back
to office who send
them off to a war!
This is not an
answer. It worked once.
The war went on for years!
Not this war, Dad, not
while I can still do something!
Guess you do know a
little about explosives, huh?
Yeah, that's right.
Like blasting gel's more
powerful than dynamite,
but it's a lot more stable, too.
Where did you get this?
It was in a box of things
that belonged to my dad
back when he was an activist.
Actually, it doesn't
belong to your father.
It belonged to someone else.
No, I don't know, Tom.
I'm havin' a hard time gettin'
my head around the fact
that you guys started
a chain reaction
that lasted through two wars.
Had no choice. We
had to be proactive.
Three people are dead.
And how many more are
alive because of what we do?
The formula for the
bombs are in here.
Is it your handwriting
in the margins?
We had to stop these
people from killing Americans.
When that happens, no one cares
how you do it. Terrorists, bottom line.
Our job is to protect,
by any means.
I don't know about that, Tom.
At a certain point, t-there's
a cost. There's gotta be.
You know, that's the kind of thing that
gives us a bad name around the world,
and... and it comes back
to haunt us. Just like it did.
Just like it did.
It seems that your
father died while,
um, attempting to
do a very good thing.
I'm not sure if knowing
that helps at all.
No, it does help a lot.
I guess I probably knew
my father was dead,
but what I really couldn't face
would have been if he was guilty.
You know, my father
was a peace activist,
and he knew your father.
He says that your father was a
man committed to helping people.
And he never believed the
charges against your father were true.
Hmm. It's good to hear.
Finally, after all these years,
we're gonna have
a memorial service.
Maybe your father
would like to come
and you, too, if you want.
I think my father and I
would like that very much.
Good.
Dad?
Hi.
So, Charlie did a
good job on this, huh?
Yeah, I like it.
Look, you know, I'm aware
that the Bureau has
some bad history.
Is that an apology?
I'm just sayin', it was a different
time, you know? And... And I know that.
Donny, I'm the
same guy I was then.
I still believe in
the same things.
Yeah, well, good.
You know, when you told me
you were gonna join the FBI,
you know... you know what
the first thought I had was?
"Where did I go wrong?"
Honestly, yes.
Because I thought you wanted to
do something as different from Charlie
and the rest of us as possible.
No, I knew it was something
I was going to be good at.
And you are.
Yeah, thanks. No, I mean it.
You are, Donny.
Maybe it's because your
mother and I brought you guys up
to do the kind of work that
really matters in this world.
And, you know, look,
I didn't have to
read the file, okay?
'Cause... 'Cause I
knew that ultimately,
I would respect anything that
you or Mom were involved with.
Commie.
G-man.
All right, big shot, where are
you gonna take me to dinner?
All right, well, there's
a new Italian place,
supposed to have a
great steak pizzaiola.
Red meat, let's eat.
Hey, at least it's good to know,
when it comes to food, you're
still both your father's sons.