Womack, who worked as a library assistant, evaded not only numerous surveillance cameras but also officers who took turns doing stakeouts in the stacks. Routine door checkers also did not appear to present a problem for the suspect.
Targeting books on religious subjects, Womack used a knife and his hands to rip out pages. Instead of sneaking the book or torn pages out of the library, he copied the books onto microfilm.
When he was caught, Womack allegedly had 300 rolls of microfilm. Each roll had approximately 15 different texts.
Johnson said the Widener slasher had been on the department's "short list" of the 20 most wanted suspects as early as 1991. Harvard police spent more than $50,000 on expensive closed-circuit TVs and video recording equipment. Some cameras were even set up to look like books.
The slasher, however, was able to elude police monitoring devices and was never seen exiting the library with stolen items.
Ultimately, Harvard's investigation took four years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But it was information developed by the Northeastern University police which broke the case.
During a monthly meeting of officials from local university police departments. Northeastern officers mentioned that they had experienced a series of book thefts and mutilations at their libraries. The perpetrator often left threatening notes.
Harvard police investigators at the meeting immediately suspected a connection to the slasher, who had left several notes at the University. One note said he would continue cutting out the insides of books "until the voices tell me to stop."
After an intense few weeks of investigating the case 12 hours per day, police identified Womack as a suspect.
At his home in Arlington Wednesday, authorities said they found a cache of stolen books, manuscripts, typewriters, photography equipment, cutting implements and other objects allegedly stolen from the University.
All had been taken while Womack was being paid to do Harvard's work.
'Anyone who works for Harvard should be scrutinized carefully.' Harvard Police Chief Paul E. Johnson