TED KACZYNSKI: DEATH AND THE MATHEMATICIAN

Theodore John Kaczynski, better known as the “Unabomber” had a reign of terror stretching from 1978, until his capture in 1996. What sets Mr. Kaczynski apart from many serial killers is that he had an I.Q of 167, was a mathematician and a college professor. Mentally, Theodore Kaczynski was the bomb. Early in life his parents noticed that he had social problems, playing alongside other children, instead of playing with them.

Ted Kaczynski was a genius that evaded police capture for nearly two decades. The popular nickname “Unabomber,” comes from the FBI codename of “UNABOM” which is short for “University and Airline bomber.” Theodore Kaczynski was so sought after by authorities, the FBI had a taskforce specifically created to find the elusive Unabomber. Before we get into the proverbial meat and potatoes of the Unabomber, I’d first like to examine a bit about the life of Theodore Kaczynski.

Theodore John Kaczynski was born on May 22nd, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois (the windy and explosive city). His parents Theodore Richard Kaczynski and wife Wanda Theresa Kaczynski were second-generation Polish-Americans. Even at a very young age Ted Kaczynski was noticed as being exceptionally bright and still very disconnected from other kids.

Kaczynski was known to have only one friend growing up, a mentally handicapped boy. Theodore Kaczynski skipped several grades of schooling and graduated high school at fifteen years old. By age sixteen, Ted Kaczynski was enrolled at Harvard University and was soon studying and excelling (scoring 98.9% on his final grade) in a class taught by noted Logician Willard Quine.

Theodore Kaczynski’s life began changing when he underwent a psychological stress test under the guise of debate, conducted by Henry Murray. Before the stress test, it was said that Kaczynski showed a normal mental/psychological state. The stress test was said to be an extremely stressful and prolonged psychological attack by an attorney, where Kaczynski was placed in front of a mirror with lights blared into his face.

Kaczynski graduated from Harvard in 1962 and followed up, earning a masters degree and PhD in Mathematics at the University of Michigan.  Theodore seemed to excel at geometric function theory a highly complex study in the geometric properties of analytic functions.  Staying at Michigan, Ted Kaczynski held a national science foundation fellowship, teaching undergraduates for three years and writing dissertations for numerous journals.

Kaczynski was formally hired on as an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkley in 1967. Lasting only two years as a professor at Berkley, Kaczynski resigned his position, much to the dismay of most of the schools faculty. If he had taught Spherical bomb theory, perhaps he’d still be teaching today. J

In the summer of 1969, Kaczynski moved back with his parents in Lombard, Illinois for a short stint and then into his own hand built cabin in Montana. While living in his rustic cabin, Theodore Kaczynski lived off the land, hunting for food and gathering what he’d needed from the earth around him. I wonder if he had hunted with explosives?

Then in May of 1978, Kaczynski’s life took a major turn, when he’d mailed his first bomb to a fellow professor Buckley Crist of Northwestern University. The package was left with Crist’s return address and upon being delivered to Kaczynski’s intended victim, Crist knew he hadn’t sent the package and became suspicious. A campus police officer Terry Marker arrived on the scene and opened the box, which exploded causing only injuries to the officer’s hand.

His first bomb was crude; it was a work in progress and a learning process for Kaczynski. I’ll bet even Ted Kaczynski graded himself a “D” on his first effort.

Following up on his initial attack, Kaczynski sent numerous bombs to airline officials and in 1979, he had even managed to have one of his bombs placed aboard American Airlines flight 444, a Boeing 747. The bomb on the plane had a faulty timer and caused smoke to fill the plane and an emergency landing by the pilot. Kaczynski once again botched a bombing attempt, definitely a D- effort.

Kaczynski’s strikes on the airline industry prompted the FBI to get involved, forming a taskforce called UNABOM. The anonymous bombing attempts continued regardless of FBI involvement. The FBI Behavior sciences unit (BSU) released a psychological profile on the Unabomber stating that it was a man of above average intelligence with a connection to academia.

The profile by the BSU later called the Unabomber a “Neo-Luddite,” rejecting technological advancements. The FBI didn’t know exactly how right they were…

1985 was the year of the first serious injury caused by one of Kaczynski’s mailed bombs. John Hauser a Berkley graduate and Air Force Captain lost four fingers and an eye in a blast caused by one of Kaczynski’s explosives. The bombs were all hand crafted out of wood and some pieces were inscribed with the initials “FC” which later Kaczynski called his “group” that he called the “Freedom Club.”

Ted Kaczynski’s first fatality came in 1985, with the death of California computer storeowner Hugh Scrutton via a crude nail and splinter bomb left lying in his parking lot. The terrorist professor’s grade then shot up to a “C” average. The next victim was yet another computer storeowner in Salt Lake City, Utah named Gary Wright. Wright survived the attack with some injuries and later actually became good friends with Theodore Kaczynski’s brother.

By this time, Kaczynski needed a vacation and took a six-year break from the incendiary sending game. In 1993, Kaczynski was back at it again, sending a bomb to David Gelernter a Computer Sciences Professor from Yale, who was severely injured but later recovered. In the same week as the Gelernter attack, Kaczynski sent another explosive package to geneticist Charles Epstein, who lost several fingers in the blast. Kaczynski then called Gelernter’s brother, a behavioral geneticist, threatening him saying, “You are next” in his message.

Kaczynski then began sending letters to potential victims, including Geneticist Phillip Sharp of MIT. It was around this time that Kaczynski sent a letter to the New York Times claiming that the bombings were the work of a group called “FC.” Kaczynski’s correspondences continued, sending another letter to the New York Times after the bombing and death of Thomas Mosser. In his letter to the Times about the bombing, Kaczynski claimed the bomb was sent to Mosser because of his help with cleaning up Exxon’s image after the Exxon Valdez accident.

Kaczynski also claimed that Mosser was in the business of developing techniques for manipulating people’s attitudes. Kaczynski’s New York Times letters came after the murder of Gilbert Murray who was the President of the timber industry lobby group, yet the bomb was sent to his predecessor who had recently retired. 

Over the course of his criminal and terrorist history, Kaczynski sent 23 bombs, 16 people were injured and three were killed. Some fingerprints recovered from his bombs did not match all of the letters supposedly sent by Theodore Kaczynski. The FBI officially stated;

“203. Latent fingerprints attributable to devices mailed and/or placed by the UNABOM subject were compared to those found on the letters attributed to Theodore Kaczynski. According to the FBI Laboratory no forensic correlation exists between those samples."

Kaczynski was however known to leave false clues to lead FBI investigators on proverbial “wild goose” chases. In every bomb, the end cap was stamped with “FC” and Kaczynski sent a letter to the CIA revealing that he was in the Sierra Mountains when in fact, Kaczynski lived in the mountain range of Montana. Kaczynski even sent a bomb hidden inside of a copy of Sloan Wilson’s novel Ice Brothers.

Theodore Kaczynski is possibly most famous for what most know as the Unabomber manifesto, which was actually titled “Industrial society and its future.” Kaczynski often sent letters demanding that his manifesto be published by a major publication or journal. Kaczynski even stated that he’d end his terrorism run if a publication printed his manifesto verbatim.

On September 19, 1995 the New York Times and the Washington Post carried Kaczynski’s pamphlet, hoping someone would recognize who’d wrote it. Penthouse magazine also carried the manifesto, but Kaczynski said it was less then a respectable publication and he reserved the right to plant just one more fatal bomb.

David Kaczynski, Ted’s brother, recognized his brothers writing style from letters Ted sent to their mother and consequently turned his brother in. On April 3, 1996 agents arrested Ted Kaczynski and said they’d found him in an unkempt state with a live bomb and original copies of the Unabomber manifesto. David Kaczynski received a 1$ million dollar reward, which he donated to his brothers victims families.

Theodore Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Theodore Kaczynski’s prisoner identification number is 04475-046.