Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore Kaczynski, born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, was an exceptionally intelligent individual who entered Harvard University at the age of sixteen. After earning a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan, he worked briefly as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1969, Kaczynski abruptly quit his academic career and retreated to a remote cabin in Montana, where he began a series of increasingly violent bombings starting in 1978. His attacks targeted individuals associated with modern technology, which he blamed for societal issues and personal unhappiness.
Kaczynski became known as the "Unabomber," a nickname derived from the FBI's code name for the investigation into his crimes. Over nearly two decades, he evaded capture, launching a bombing campaign that resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries. His notoriety was further amplified when he successfully pressured major newspapers to publish a manifesto outlining his anti-technology beliefs. Ultimately, Kaczynski was apprehended in 1996 after his brother recognized his writing style. He pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty and served life in prison until his death in 2023. Kaczynski's actions have left a lasting impact on discussions around domestic terrorism and the consequences of radical ideologies.
Theodore Kaczynski
Mathematician
- Born: May 22, 1942
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- Died: June 10, 2023
- Place of death: FMC Butner, North Carolina
Also known as: The Unabomber; Theodore John Kaczynski (full name)
Major offenses: Murder and attempted murder
Active: 1978–1982, 1985, 1987, 1993–1995
Locale: Illinois; Washington, DC; Utah; Tennessee; California; Washington State; Michigan; Connecticut; and New Jersey
Sentence: Life in prison without the possibility of parole
Early Life
Theodore Kaczynski (KA-zihn-skee) was born in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, the eldest of two children. From an early age he demonstrated that he was an exceptionally bright and gifted child. His intelligence allowed him to skip two grades in school and eventually enter Harvard University at the age of sixteen to study mathematics. While at Harvard he became part of a psychological experiment linked to mind control that may have been a contributing factor to his future criminality.
After completing his undergraduate degree, he went to the University of Michigan in 1962, where he would finish a PhD in mathematics. His brilliance was acknowledged again with awards, and he soon found himself with a job teaching mathematics at the University of California at Berkeley. Two years after beginning the job in 1967, he suddenly quit and never again held a full-time position.
Criminal Career
Over the following nine years, Kaczynski drifted through menial jobs and began living in a primitive shack on land in Montana that he and his brother had bought in 1971. In 1978, Kaczynski launched his bombing campaign, which would continue, off and on, for the following seventeen years. The focus of his attacks would be on those tied in some way to modern technology, which he blamed for, in effect, enslaving individuals and depriving them of freedom and happiness.
His first target in May 1978, was Northwestern University, where a bomb left in a parking lot injured one person. The following year a bomb exploded in the hold of a passenger jetliner, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. A major police investigation into the case under the code name “Unabomb” (from “university and airline bomber”) was under way by 1980, when another attack targeted an airline executive. Eventually, Kaczynski would be nicknamed the Unabomber. He proved elusive because he built his own bombs, bombed geographically dispersed targets, and allowed lengthy intervals between attacks.
In December 1985, his attacks reached a new level of seriousness when one of his bombs killed a Sacramento computer dealer. In 1987, Kaczynski made his first major mistake when a woman spotted him planting a bomb outside a Salt Lake City computer store. Her testimony led to the creation of a composite drawing of the Unabomber, but, fortunately for Kaczynski, sunglasses and a hooded tracksuit obscured his visage.
Then, for reasons that are still not known, Kaczynski went into a hiatus for six years before beginning his attacks again in June 1993, with two separate bombings. In the following two years his bombs killed two more people. By then he had also begun to attempt to publicize his reasons for committing his crimes by contacting the media. Through the threat of further attacks, Kaczynski pressured both The Washington Post and The New York Times into publishing a thirty-five-thousand-word manifesto he had written.
Among the readers of this work was his brother, David Kaczynski. Based on the ideas in the manifesto, David suspected that it was the work of Ted and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with this information. On April 3, 1996, the FBI arrested the suspected Unabomber at his cabin in Montana.
Legal Action and Outcome
Soon after his arrest, Kaczynski was officially indicted for the Unabomber attacks. The trial was set to begin in January 1998, but Kaczynski soon found himself at odds with his defense lawyers, who sought to argue that he was not guilty on the grounds of insanity. Kaczynski, on the other hand, wanted to defend his case on political grounds and attempted to fire his lawyers. Eventually, he made a deal with the prosecution and pleaded guilty in order to avoid the death penalty. He later tried to change his mind with respect to his plea, but this was rejected, and he began serving a life sentence. He is housed at ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado. His Montana cabin is on display at Washington, DC's Newseum. Kaczynski died in prison of a reported suicide on June 10, 2023
Impact
In addition to the deaths of innocent people caused by Ted Kaczynski’s violence, his crimes had a complex impact. Each one generated widespread publicity and fear because of its detailed planning and the mystery surrounding the attacker. Kaczynski’s bombings sparked a major police effort that, in the end, demonstrated the powerlessness of the authorities. They did not catch Kaczynski—he was apprehended because his own writings led his brother to turn him in. Finally, his crimes drew more public attention to the issue of terrorism, although his attacks would pale in comparison to those carried out by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma in 1995 and by the September 11, 2001, hijackers.
Further Reading
Chase, Alton. Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist. New York: Norton, 2003. Print.
Freeman, Jim R., Terry D. Turchie, and Donald Max Noel. Unabomber: How the FBI Broke Its Own Rules to Capture the Terrorist Ted Kaczynski. Palisades: History, 2014. Print.
Gelernter, David. Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber. New York: Free, 1997. Print.
Graysmith, Robert. Unabomber: A Desire to Kill. New York: Regnery, 1997. Print.
Kaczynski, Theodore. The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future. New York: Jolly Roger, 1995. Print.