DANNEMORA – Former Schenectady school administrator Steven Raucci admits he waged a campaign of vandalism and bombings against colleagues, co-workers and strangers, confessing for the first time to a series of crimes that terrorized his perceived enemies and put him in one of the state's most notorious prisons.

In a recent two-hour interview at Clinton Correctional Facility, Raucci, 70, ended years of denial about part of his role in a bombing and intimidation campaign that went on for at least 15 years, vexed police and left colleagues shaken when school and union officials ignored their warnings about Raucci's on-the-job rage.

He acknowledged he might be a psychopath, saying it is a topic he often discusses with his wife. But he insisted he is able to "control my emotions when it comes to doing something that's going to hurt somebody."

LISTEN: Raucci's response when asked if he is a psychopath

The interview coincided with the 10th anniversary of his arrest on Feb. 20, 2009.

Raucci told the Times Union he placed a powerful explosive on the sport utility vehicle of then-Schenectady High School athletic director Gary DiNola; vandalized the home of Laura Balogh, a friend's ex-girlfriend; and poured paint on a vehicle owned by Harold Gray, a onetime friend. Raucci suspected Gray and his wife penned an anonymous letter about Raucci's activities to the regional head of the Civil Service Employees Association.

"Did we graffiti Laura Balogh's house? Yes," Raucci said.

"Did I put an M-80 on somebody's windshield in the driveway? Yes." He was referring to the DiNola incident.

LISTEN

Raucci said he targeted Balogh's Schodack home believing he was helping another woman "get even" with Balogh after the relationship soured.

"I drove over there and we graffitied the house," he said.

He also confessed to dumping paint on Gray's car. The two men were co-workers and friends but prosecutors said the relationship broke down over Gray's suspicion that Raucci was responsible for a mysterious bombing campaign that stretched back to 1993 and Raucci's suspicion Gray was behind the letter to CSEA officials.

At the time, Raucci oversaw the district's custodians but also served as their local CSEA leader.

Raucci openly admitted to many of the crimes a jury convicted him of in 2010. But he denied one of the most high-profile attacks: an explosion at the Rotterdam home of Stephen and Colleen Capitummino. The Schenectady County District Attorney's office contended at trial that Raucci intended to bomb the home of a police officer and set the explosive at the wrong home.

During the interview, Raucci clutched a color photo of the bomb-damaged front door of the Capitummino home and insisted he was innocent of that crime.

"I didn't know these people," he said. "Let's keep one thing in mind and in perspective: This was the wrong house."

That bombing led to the stiffest part of Raucci's punishment, a 23-year-to-life prison sentence. He won't be eligible for parole until he is 83.

Raucci's arrest on Feb. 20, 2009, set off a chain reaction in the city school district. It ended the tenure of Superintendent Eric Ely, who was accused of tipping off Raucci as police closed in. Several school board members left the board in the wake of the arrest and his conviction the following year.

Balogh said she was not surprised to learn Raucci, who has exhausted his legal appeals, finally confessed.

Police arrested him after matching DNA on an undetonated explosive to saliva on a fork Raucci used at a local diner

"I guess it's somewhat of a human nature to try to find forgiveness or redemption at the end of life," Balogh said, "but I didn't even need to know where the DNA came from, I knew the minute it happened who was behind it and who destroyed not only my home but me and my children's lives."

The vandalism at her Schodack home on Jan. 12, 2007, came after Balogh ended a relationship with another CSEA official in Schenectady County.

"I hope you respect the fact that he terrorized a lot of people," said DiNola, who on Nov. 30, 2006 found an explosive Raucci left on the windshield of one of the vehicles parked outside his Clifton Park home. "It's a chapter that none of us want to live through again and I'm sad that his family had to go through this."

The Grays, who were repeatedly targeted by Raucci, could not be reached for comment.

Raucci revealed during the interview that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer a year ago. Though he holds out hope Gov. Andrew Cuomo might commute his sentence because of the illness, Raucci said he has spoken to a doctor about forgoing treatment. "Why would I want to get treated to extend my life in a place like this if there's no hope of getting out?" he asked. "There's no reason for me to prolong my agony if I don't have to."

He knows commutation is a long shot, but said his 92-year-old mother thinks he'll come home someday. "If it weren't for her, would I think differently? Maybe, but I can't do that to her," he said.

In addition to arson, Raucci was convicted of conspiracy, weapons possession and a variety of other crimes. Schenectady County District Attorney Robert M. Carney handled the trial.

Raucci claimed he targeted DiNola because they clashed over who would get credit for installation of an AstroTurf athletic field. "When I told him what I was going to do for the high school, give them their AstroTurf, he wanted it to be all him. He was full of himself and he wanted it to go through him, and I was going to do it my way," Raucci said.

"I just figured this was property damage, graffitiing a house, throwing paint on a car, I didn't think of those as prison sentences," said Raucci. "I thought out that I wasn't going to hurt anybody, that's why it was a car, a driveway, a house, Laura's house."

LISTEN: Raucci says it was just property damage.

He said he has paid financial restitution to the victims and wants to be a free man.

"At what point have I not paid for this damage whether I did it or not?," he asked. "I was charged and convicted. OK! At what point do I have to continue paying for it. I'm paying for it with my life."

Alan Pierce, the Syracuse-based lawyer who has handled Raucci's appeals, said his client has long wanted to confess but the attorney blocked it while the case was being appealed.

"I describe him as a guy who did some vandalism that he knew was wrong, and in retrospect, he wishes he hadn't done it, but we're talking about vandalism," said Pierce. The lawyer and two prison guards sat in on the interview.

Clinton Correctional Facility was the scene of the notorious 2015 escape of killers David Sweat and Richard Matt. Sweat was recaptured in the Adirondacks and Matt was shot and killed when he confronted searchers.

"That escape thing changed a lot of things," said Raucci. "The more they come down on the [correction officers], the more the COs have to come down on us."

Raucci said he's been spit on and "smacked around" by other prisoners but tries to stay out of trouble to keep his phone privileges.

"I'm a different person here, I have to be," he said. "I'm not in the civilized world."

Raucci says he wakes early each day and exercises in his cell. He works as a custodian, has his own cell and enjoys other privileges.

He gets his food brought to him on a tray slid through an opening in his cell. Once other prisoners are in their cells, Raucci begins his work as a porter. He hands out water, sweeps and mops and delivers laundry before he's sent back to his cell at 2 p.m.

"I guess if you got to be in a maximum security prison, this is about as good as it can get," he said.

During the interview, he accused his trial attorney, Ronald DeAngelus, of bungling the case. He said the district attorney carried out an overzealous prosecution.

"All you ever heard about me was nothing but bad," Raucci complained. DeAngelus, he said, told him the defense didn't need to counter the prosecution's case with their own witnesses, saying "we're waiting for them to fumble."

Appeals courts rejected Raucci's argument that DeAngelus was ineffective.

"Several courts in appeal of this case all have vindicated me and I'll rest on that," said DeAngelus, who is now retired.

Raucci believes the district attorney targeted him because he was well-paid at the school district and held a position of prominence. "I can't help but feel that for whatever reason, there was a personal aspect in there."

Carney scoffed.

"I would say that he lacks insight into himself and to the impact of his crimes on other people and victims," Carney said. "The thing that motivated me in this case was always getting justice for those people."

"It was the whole way he conducted himself, there was always somebody that was the target of his anger and bullying," Carney said. "He used bombs so it was for the grace of God that nobody was injured."

Raucci grew emotional, taking time to compose himself before talking about his wife and his mother. He noted he and his wife have been together for 27 years. Their conversations, he said, keep him on the "straight and narrow."

A court ruled Raucci qualified for a $5,789 monthly pension, which allows his wife to live comfortably.

"It's like that movie 'Ghost,' I'm alive but actually I died 10 years ago because I'm not there for her, for my daughter or anybody else like that," he said.

"I'm able to support my wife, my family, so no matter what happens to me, she'll always be taken care of."

He speaks with his granddaughter frequently but won't let her visit him.

"My wife, my granddaughter, and that phone, I guess that's what keeps me going, I gotta take it hour by hour," he said. "How is it going to end? When is it going to end? I can't answer that."