The Unabomber: Ted Kaczynski

Kevin Konzelman

Childhood

• Born Theodore John Kaczynski on May 22, 1942 to Polish immigrants Wanda and Richard Kaczynski

• Had a younger brother named David• Spent childhood in the Chicago, IL suburb of Evergreen Park,

in an averagesuburban 1960’s home

• Was very smart as a child – IQ of170

• Attended Evergreen Park HighSchool

• Was antisocial in high school and was“regarded as a freak by…the student body”

• Skipped 6th and 11th grades

Kaczynski’s childhood home

College Life

• Began study at Harvard at age 16• Attended graduate school at the University

of Michigan from 1962-1967, where he received a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in mathematics

• Lived in isolation at both schools (participated in no sports or clubs

Early Career• Soon after receiving his Ph.D., he was

given an assistant professorship at UC-Berkeley

• However, he quit at the end of the 1969 school year after receiving a number of complaints that he was antisocial towards students

Kaczynski as a professor > at Berkeley

Into Isolation• In 1971, after abandoning his job at UC-Berkeley,

Kaczynski pursued the life of Henry David Thoreau (a 19th Century writer) and sought to buy land in the woods of Canada

• After the Canadian government rejected his claim to buy land in Canada, Kaczynski settled for an empty plot of land in the woods near Lincoln, Montana

• On this plot, he built a little wood cabin that would become his residence until his arrest

< Kaczynski’s cabin in Lincoln Lincoln, Montana >

Development of Motives

• Kaczynski’s lack of social skills led to the develop “acute sexual starvation”, according to Adam Magid, who published a court-ordered psychological evaluation of Kaczynski after his arrest

• While in the height of his disorder, he read Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society, an anti-technology book

• This book and its anti-industry beliefs provided a scapegoat for Kaczynski’s anger and frustration with being antisocial

• He developed a hatred of modern technology and allowed it to become the subject of many of his bombings

Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society

His Methods

• Kaczynski always used the same tactics when planning an attack

• He would send a package, containing the bomb, to his intended victim with a faulty return address or the same address as the recipient, as if the package had been returned back

• When the intended target opened the package, the bomb would explode.

• Kaczynski’s bombs became more powerful, effective, and complex as he went on with his bombing spree

• Some of his bombs would include a letter signed by “FC” – the Freedom Club (a fictional group Kaczynski made up that supported his beliefs)

Model bomb< Made by the FBI

His VictimsYea

rVictim’s Name Description of Victim Location Injuries

1978 Terry Merker Campus Policeman Northwestern Univ. Evanston, IL Minor injuries

1979 John Harris Graduate Student of Civil Engineering

Northwestern University Minor injuries

1979 12 plane passengers

American Airlines flight Chicago, IL Smoke inhalation

1980 Percy Wood United Airlines President Chicago, IL Minor cuts

1982 Janet Smith Secretary Vanderbilt Univ. Nashville, TN Severe hand injuries

1982 Diogenes Angelikos Professor of Engineering UC – Berkeley Berkeley, CA Injury to right side of body

1985 John Hauser Graduate Student UC - Berkeley Partial loss of vision, loss of 4 fingers

1985 none Bomb defused Boeing in Auburn, WA none

1985 Nick Suino Assistant to a professor of psychology

Univ. of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI Shrapnel cuts

1985 Hugh Scrutton Computer store owner Sacramento, CA death

1987 Gary Wright Computer Store Owner Salt Lake City, UT Severe nerve damage

1993 Charles Epstein Genetics professor Univ. California Tiburon, CA Loss of hearing and part of 3 fingers

1993 David Gelertner Computer science professor Yale New Haven, CT Injury to right hand and eye

1994 Thomas Mosser Advertising executive North Caldwell, NJ death

1995 Gilbert Murray Timber industry lobbyist Sacramento, CA death

Unabomber VictimsThe Unabomber’s three murders (left to right):Hugh Scrutton, Thomas Mosser, Gilbert Murray

The Unabomber Manifesto• In 1995, Kaczynski anonymously mailed a copy of his

35,000-word “manifesto” to the New York Times, demanding it be published if his bombings were to end

• The manifesto was titled “Industrial Society and Its Fate”• In the work, Kaczynski provides his views on the faults of

contemporary society and his belief that humans should return to a pre-Industrial Revolution lifestyle

• The New York Times, fearing for other possible

victims, published the manifesto soon after it

was received

Article annoucing the publishing of the manifesto

Capture of the Unabomber

• In 1980, soon after Percy Wood was targeted, the FBI acknowledged the connection between all previous bombings by Kaczynski and dubbed the case file the Universities and Airline Bombings (UNABOM).

• In the 1990’s Attorney General Janet Reno authorized the forming of the UNABOM Task Force, comprising of FBI, Treasury Department, and US Postal Service agents, to capture the Unabomber

• One of the first plans of action for the task force was to set up a profile of the suspect. They concluded on a middle-aged white male, who was familiar with campus life, liked bombs, and had ties to both California and Chicago.

• Immediately after the manifesto was published in 1995, the FBI offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the bomber’s arrest.

Capture of the Unabomber• Upon reading the manifesto in the paper, David Kaczynski realized the manifesto

was extremely similar to the letters his brother had written him over the years.• Feeling an urge to save the lives of more victims, David approached the FBI with

the evidence. FBI forensic analysts saw an almost perfect match between writing styles

• On April 13, 1996, the FBI task force arrived in Lincoln, Montana, to arrest Ted Kaczynski. They used a false dispute with a neighbor to lure him out of the house to make the arrest.

• After his arrest, the FBI searched his little cabin, recovering over 700 pieces of evidence, ranging from diary entries and constructed bombs to the original script of his manifesto, the typewriter used to create it, and a hit list of potential victims

• By the end of the investigation, the FBI had consulted over 900 photos, 12,000 documents, and 82 million records in an attempt to find leads

• The FBI also found, upon the arrest, that Kaczynski perfectly fit the profile created by agents earlier in the decade

Trial/Imprisonment• Before his trial began, Dr. Sally Johnson conducted a psychological

evaluation of Kaczynski to see if he was able to stand trial.• Although she diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia, she deemed

him able to stand trial• His trial never progressed far because he pleaded guilty to 13 attacks in

three states and 3 murders• He was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences at Colorado’s

“Supermax” prison, with no possibility for parole• It is fortunate for the prosecution that he pleaded guilty because the FBI

agents at the arrest poorly handled the evidence collected and much of it would have been rejected from use in court

- David Kaczynski received the reward

and donated it to the families of victimsSupermax prison

where Kaczynskiis currently jailed