This week’s Sinister Saturday focuses on Ted Kaczynski, also known as The Unabomber. This story is very interesting, as it follows a man as he terrorises many people to prove his point that technology is ruining society as we know it.
Kaczynski's Info / Picture Credit: Real Crime on YouTube
Who is Ted Kaczynski?
Theodore (later known as Ted) Kaczynski was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois.
His parents, Wanda and Theodore, were Polish-American.
Kaczynski was a very, very smart man and recognised as a math genius. He taught at the University of California at Berkley.
After this, he decided to live in solitude in some woods in Montana. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski committed acts of terror and his crimes did not just injure people, but killed them too.
Early life
When he was a child, Kaczynski spent some time in hospital after having an allergic reaction to some medicine he had been given. Some reports have stated that his personality seemed to change somehow after his time recovering in hospital.
The birth of his younger brother also seemed to change Kaczynski in some way, having a rather strong effect on him.
Kaczynski’s parents pushed him to achieve well academically, and he did. He even skipped two grades of his early education.
Despite some children in his classes thinking he was weird or a little odd, Kaczynski still involved himself in groups at school, such as German lessons and chess club.
Higher education
In 1958, when Kaczynski was 16, he entered Harvard on a scholarship where he studied maths.
He was also part of a psychological experiment, conducted by Professor Henry Murray, in which subjects would be victim to extensive verbal abuse.
Many believe that this experiment was a large factor in Kaczynski’s crimes later on in his life – which makes a lot of sense.
Kaczynski continued his studies at Harvard even after graduating and taught classes there. He began to struggle, however, and couldn’t manage to look at his students, which meant he had a hard time delivering lectures – he suddenly resigned in 1969.
The Unabomber
In the early 1970s, Kaczynski built a cabin in the woods of Montana, near Lincoln, to live a survivalist and reclusive lifestyle. He would hunt his own food such as rabbits, and would also grow his own vegetables.
While living in this cabin, Kaczynski developed his own anti-government and anti-technology philosophies. This could potentially have either begun, or been intensified by a dispute he had with some builders who were attempting to build on the land he lived on.
After moving back to Chicago in 1978, Kaczynski stayed for about a year after an altercation with his brother, Dave (who was his supervisor at work), which resulted in Kaczynski losing his job.
The same year was when Kaczynski decided things would begin. He left a homemade bomb in a package at the University of Chicago, addressed to a Professor. The package was however, opened by a security guard who, after an explosion caused by the package, left him with minor injuries such as cuts and burns.
The year after (1979), another bomb was sent to the same University and Kaczynski had returned to his Montana cabin – no one died but minor injuries were sustained from the explosion.
Kaczynski began to target airlines, as two bombs were sent to Airline companies. One bomb did not go off which was extremely fortunate as it was on board an aircraft which was about to take off. The other was sent to the president of United Airlines, who sustained cuts and burns over most of his body and face.
By 1982, Kaczynski’s bombs were much more vicious – which is when many agencies including the FBI got involved. That same year, two more bombs were sent and both a secretary and professor were injured.
The first death did not occur until 1985, when a computer owner was killed by a device outside his shop. Within the following decade, Kaczynski’s bombs killed two more people and injured over 20.
At this point, the case was known by the acronym UNABOM which stood for UNiversity and Airline BOMing. After some time, Kaczynski became known as The Unabomber.
Manifesto and detainment
Some luck was finally obtained by the investigation team in 1995, as Kaczynski had written a 35,000-word manifesto and sent it to media outlets. It discussed the problems with society, it was called ‘Industrial Society and Its Future’.
The paper was published by the media in 1995 when The Unabomber threatened to blow up a plane if the paper was not published like he wanted – it can still be found online, or in book form.
This was The Unabomber’s defining mistake, as Kaczynski’s brother David recognised his estranged brother’s handwriting. He voiced this concern to an FBI agent in early 1996.
In April 1996, Kaczynski was apprehended and arrested at his cabin home near Lincoln in Montana.
In the cabin they found one finished bomb, other bomb parts, and approximately 40,000 pages of his journals – detailing each of his crimes.
At his trial, Kaczynski was said to have turned his back on his family and did not acknowledge them at all. Supposidly since his brother, David, told authorities about Ted being The Unabomber, Kaczynski claimed he will never forgive his family as he felt betrayed - especially by his brother.
A couple of years later in May 1998, Kaczynski was given four life sentences, plus 30 years. He remains in the U.S Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado. He will never be eligable for parole.
This prison is used to confine the most dangerous criminals, and for a time, Kaczynski was housed with World Trade bomber Ramzi Ahmed Yousef.
Written by Melissa, who you can follow on Twitter @melissajournal
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