The Unabomber

Podcast Transcript

Starting in the late 1970s and lasting for seventeen years, a series of bombings terrorized the American public.

Primarily targeting technology companies and universities, these attacks befuddled law enforcement officials for almost two decades. The bomber became one of the most wanted criminals in the history of American law enforcement.

When he was finally caught, the perpetrator wasn’t quite who anyone expected.

Learn about the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and his reign of terror on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Ted Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, was an American Domestic Terrorist.

Kaczynski was born in Chicago on May 22, 1942. His parents were middle-class workers, and by all accounts, they were a normal family.

There was one instance of trauma within his childhood that some social psychologists believe could’ve contributed to his later anti-social behavior. Ted had experienced a severe allergic reaction that hospitalized him for months, leaving him socially isolated.

Despite being socially awkward, Kaczynski was very intelligent. He skipped two grades and was especially skilled in mathematics. However, this was a double-edged sword as his peers socially ostracized him.

He did gain some social success in school when, in a very clear case of foreshadowing, he made a pipe bomb in a science class, but for the most part, he was perceived as young and “nerdy.”

This resulted in him spending more time with his brother and father. The family would spend time camping, and during these trips, Kaczynski would develop a fondness for nature.

Kaczynski would graduate from High School at fifteen and was accepted into Harvard University. Throughout college, Kaczynski remained socially awkward but excelled academically.

He would graduate in 1962 and then go on to the University of Michigan, where he would receive his master’s and PhD in mathematics.

In 1967, Kaczynski’s graduate work gave him the opportunity to become an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He accepted this role and became the youngest Assistant Professor in the University’s history, but only worked there for two years.

While working at Berkeley, Kaczynski struggled. He tried to relate and connect with his students, found the atmosphere challenging, and grew disillusioned with academia.

Two years after leaving the University, Kaczynski moved to a remote cabin in Lincoln, Montana. This house had no running water, electricity, heat, or toilet facilities.

He was reportedly a terrible neighbor. He would sabotage any developments near his cabin through arson and booby traps, and was accused of poisoning neighbors’ dogs.

While living in the Cabin, Kaczynski would work odd jobs and volunteer at the town’s library. While working at the library, he would write in notebooks detailing the destructive evils of technology.

During this time, Kaczynski would occasionally return to Illinois for work.

One instance of this was when he worked underneath his brother at a factory. However, his brother, David, had to dismiss him because a female employee claimed Ted had harassed her.

After being dismissed by his brother in 1978, Kaczynski’s bombings began.

On May 26, 1978, a package was delivered to the University of Illinois, Chicago. Not recognizing the package, it was sent to its return address at Northwestern University.

The package was returned to an Engineering Professor named Buckley Crist. Crist obviously knew he didn’t send the package, so he reported it to a campus security officer.

The officer opened the package, and it detonated, resulting in minor injuries.

Roughly one year after the first bombing, Kaczynski hit Northwestern University again.

This time, the bomb was opened by a graduate student. This bomb was disguised as a present and concealed inside a cigar box. The student who opened the box had minor injuries.

Later that year, Kaczynski carried out his next attack. This time, the target was airlines. A bomb was placed within the cargo of American Airlines Flight 444 and would’ve been deadly if the bomb had gone off as intended.

Fortunately, the bomb aboard the flight malfunctioned due to a timer issue. However, the bomb caused smoke and resulted in some luggage being set on fire. This caused the plane to make an emergency landing.

There were no deaths caused by the attempted bombing, but twelve people were injured by the smoke.

The FBI investigated the attempted bombing and found that if the bomb had exploded as intended, the entire plane would’ve been obliterated.

The FBI connected the University and airline bombings and designated the case, “UNABOM.” “UNA” for University and “BOM” for bomber. The perpetrator was designated the “Unabomber.”

The case would be given to a task force.

As they investigated the bombings, they found no forensic evidence. They were able to determine that the bombs were made of everyday “scrap materials,” and profiled that the bomber was intelligent, potentially an academic.

Seven months later, Kaczynski would send another bomb. This bomb targeted the President of United Airlines and was hidden inside a book called Ice Brothers by Sloan Wilson.

This bombing was more severe, and the Airline President was left with severe cuts and burns on most of his body and face.

The book Kaczenski chose led the FBI to conclude that the bombings were motivated by themes of nature. The theory was further supported by the fact that his bombs often included tree bark and branches.

Kaczenski’s next bomb wasn’t sent out until 1981. The bomb was discovered at the University of Utah outside a computer mainframe room. Fortunately, a student found the suspicious package and reported it to security.

The authorities determined it was a pipe bomb and managed to detonate it safely. They then contacted the UNABOM task force.

Kaczenski’s next attack was more successful. His next target was a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University. This attack resulted in another serious injury.

The professor’s secretary had opened the package, which caused it to explode, causing shrapnel wounds and severe burns to her hands.

The next two bombs were sent to Kaczynski’s former place of employment, the University of California, Berkeley.

The first bomb was once again disguised as a package and was sent to the electrical engineering building, Cory Hall.

The bomb’s explosion resulted in an Engineering Professor suffering from severe burns and shrapnel wounds to both his hands and face.

Kaczynski didn’t send his next bomb until three years later.

This bomb targeted Cory Hall once again, and this time injured an engineering student. The injuries to the student were worse than the previous bombings, with him losing four fingers, severing an artery in his right arm, and losing part of his vision.

Kaczynski’s next bombing attempt was another failure. He once again was targeting airlines and had sent a package to the Boeing Airline Manufacturing Plant in Washington.

The package sat for a month before being opened. As the bomb had been sitting for a long period of time, it did not detonate. The bomb squad was able to take pictures before safely detonating the bomb.

From there, Kaczynski then targeted his former school, the University of Michigan. The package was delivered to a psychology professor at the University.

This bomb injured two people: the professor and one of his grad students. The professor suffered from temporary hearing loss, and the grad student had shrapnel wounds and burns.

Finally, later in 1985, one of Kaczynski’s bombs had a fatal result.

A bomb was delivered to a computer store in Sacramento, California. The owner of the store, Hugh Scrutton, was leaving work when a bomb detonated outside his store, killing him.

Kaczynski waited roughly a year to send out his next bomb.

Disguising the bomb as a piece of lumber, Kaczynski placed the weapon outside a computer store in Salt Lake City.

Though the bomb did not kill anyone, Kaczynski once again severely injured the store owner with at least 200 pieces of shrapnel that needed to be removed from his body.

This specific bombing marked the one time the Unabomber was seen. A witness watched Kaczynski leave the bomb. He described the man to law enforcement as wearing a hooded sweatshirt and aviator sunglasses and helped create a composite sketch for the authorities.

Kaczynski didn’t deliver another bomb for six years. But when he returned, he returned with a bang.

He sent out two bombs on the same weekend, one to a medical genetics professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and the other to a computer science professor at Yale University.

Neither of these bombings resulted in deaths, but both targets suffered severe injuries from the bombings. One of the professors lost multiple fingers, and the other lost vision, hearing, and part of their hand.

Kaczynski would send out two more bombs. One in 1994 and one in 1995. Both of the final bombs would result in the death of the recipient.

The first bomb was sent to an advertising executive in New Jersey. Along with the bomb, Kaczynski sent a letter to the New York Times.

In this letter, Kaczynski would claim that the executive was targeted because he had helped repair Exxon’s reputation after an oil spill.

The second bomb was sent to the president of the California Forestry Industry. This group lobbied on behalf of the timber industry, making them a target. Unlike the previous bombing, no letter accompanied the murder.

Five months after the murder of the California Forest Industry president, the Unabomber would send a series of letters to the New York Times and Washington Post.

In these letters, he stated that he would stop the bombings if the papers printed his manifesto, titled “Industrial Society and Its Future,” also known as the “Unabomber Manifesto.”

There was some debate, but it was ultimately decided by both the Attorney General and the FBI Director that it should be published.

The publishing of the manifesto was allowed for two reasons.

The first reason was that they needed to protect public safety. So, if the Unabomber claimed he would stop sending out bombs, then it was worth the risk to stop more people from falling victim. The second reason was that they were hopeful the public would recognize the writing.

The manifesto was roughly 35,000 words and argued that technology was destroying humanity.

Within the manifesto, he claimed that “FC” or the “Freedom Club” was behind the bombings, presenting the manifesto and attacks as a piece of group work.

There is no evidence to suggest that Kaczynski had anyone behind him, despite his references to this group.

One of the things the FBI didn’t reveal at the time was that Kaczynski would leave “clues” within the bombs.

None of the clues held any significance and were intended to mislead the investigators; however, the letters FC was engraved inside multiple bombs, which they now leared stood for “Freedom Club.”

He made numerous claims within the manifesto, but the primary purpose was to argue that technology would render life unfulfilling and erode human freedoms.

Kaczynski used the manifesto to call for a revolution that would destroy worldwide technology. According to him, by decoupling from technology, humans would be able to live closer to nature and achieve an ideal society.

As the Unabomber case continued, the FBI became more desperate to catch the culprit.

They had set up a hotline and had offered a $1 million reward for any information leading to the Unabomber’s capture.

As there was little forensic evidence, the FBI had to rely on a witness sketch, the profile, and a theory based on location.

They believed that the Unabomber was from Chicago or the surrounding area, as that was where the bombings started, had worked or lived in Salt Lake City, and had a connection with California’s Bay Area.

They released this geographical profile to the public before the manifesto was published, hoping that the information, along with the manifesto’s writings, would lead someone to recognize the Unabomber.

And they were right.

Kaczynski’s brother, David, began to suspect his brother could be the Unabomber.

After reading the manifesto, he found old papers his brother had sent regarding technology that were eerily similar. He decided to hire a private investigator to investigate his brother.

As evidence was being collected, he hired an Attorney in Washington, DC to help organize evidence for when he would contact the FBI.

David was fearful that if he was not careful in gathering evidence, the FBI would raid his brother’s home, and if they were to raid the house, an explosive outcome could occur.

During the private investigator’s investigation, it was determined that the manifesto had a 60% chance of being written by Kaczynski. The results were submitted to the FBI, and it was determined that Kaczynski was almost certainly the Unabomber through linguistic analysis.

Kaczynski was arrested on April 3, 1996.

When searching his house, the FBI found 40,000 handwritten journals on bomb-making experiments, descriptions of his crimes, firearms, a bomb, and a collection of bomb-making materials.

The FBI was confident they found their man.

While in custody and awaiting sentencing, Kaczynski was given a psychiatric evaluation. In this evaluation, he was determined to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia.

Kaczynski’s lawyers wanted to use this to try to get an insanity plea, but Kaczynski refused to use the strategy. He wanted his defense to be based on his anti-technology views.

Later examinations found the initial diagnosis to be false. If anything, he had a schizoid or schizotypical personality disorder, but not schizophrenia.

To avoid the death penalty, Kaczynski ended up pleading guilty to all charges. He was instead given a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

While in prison, he befriended the perpetrators of both the 1993 World Trade Center Bombings and the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.

Kaczynski would stay in prison for the rest of his life. He ended up committing suicide on June 10, 2023.

The Unabomber’s 17-year bombing campaign led to one of the largest manhunts in FBI history.

While in his mind, he believed his bombing would somehow lead to his vision of a perfect society, but it had the opposite effect. In fact, most people had no clue why they were happening until his manifesto was published, and even then, most people thought it was the writings of a madman.