Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber) Part 1

On April 3rd, 1996, three men approached a secluded cabin in Lincoln, Montana. The owner, 53-year-old Ted Kaczynski, opened the door and was quickly apprehended by the FBI. The agents celebrated the fact they’d finally caught him. They’d finally caught the Unabomber, the subject of the largest manhunt in the history of the United States.

It was estimated to cost approximately 50 million dollars. He was a man who’d terrorized the United States beginning in 1978. Through 17 years, Kaczynski had mailed or placed 16 bombs, injuring 23 people, and killing 3. He was finally caught when his own brother noted similarities in his Kaczynski’s letters to him and the manifesto that the Unabomber had published by The Washington Post.

Kaczynski became a cultural icon, with people wearing his suspect sketch printed on t-shirts. Many people agreed with his theories and ideas regarding technology’s toxic effect on society. After being caught, Kaczynski said that he wanted revenge, to get back at the system. Still, no one could understand what made a man murder three people and attempt the murder of countless others. Was he insane or was he simply a man who feared the death of society and wanted to get his ideas heard?

Who is the Unabomber?

Theodore John Kaczynski, better known as Ted, was born on May 22, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois as the oldest child to Wanda and Theodore. 7 and a half years later, his younger brother, David was born. During Ted’s childhood, his family moved out of the city and to a suburb area of Chicago called Evergreen Park. His parents pushed him to be successful in school and he even skipped two grades in elementary school. However, his success with his grades did not make him a popular student with his classmates. He was a small kid and they saw him as different. He participated in extracurricular activities, like the German club and the chess club. He even tested to have a genius IQ of 167. (Average is 85-115…This means the Unabomber is smarter than all of us.)

At the age of only 16, Ted was accepted to Harvard University on a scholarship. He studied mathematics and also was a participant in an experiment that was being conducted by one of the professors. In the experiment, those participating were subjected to extensive verbal abuse. Run by a respected psychologist named Henry A. Murray, the subjects were being evaluated on how they reacted to stress while being verbally abused. Two producers of a documentary about the Unabomber were able to get an audio tape from one of sessions experimenting on Ted. An unnamed person was recorded calling Ted’s ideas “asinise,” “insipid,” and “a lot of garbage.” There were several people who supposedly believed that these experiments had a significant effect on Ted’s personality. One of his friends at Harvard said that Ted withdrew from him after the experiments started. Even his brother, David, believes that the experiments “wounded” his brother.

In 1962, Ted graduated from Harvard with an undergraduate degree in Mathematics. He entered a graduate program at the University of Michigan. He assisted with teaching classes and working on his dissertation, which was praised by many others in his field. He earned a graduate degree and a doctoral degree in Mathematics and left Michigan in 1967 and headed west to begin teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. Despite being very knowledgeable in the subject he was teaching, Ted continued to struggle making connections with people. It was difficult for him to give lectures and he would even avoid having contact with his students. As his antisocial personality continued to worsen, Ted began to develop a strong contempt for technology and modern things. In 1969, 27-year-old Ted quit his teaching job and left Berkeley.

In the early 1970’s, Ted and his brother bought a large plot of land in Lincoln, Montana, where Ted built himself a small cabin with the help of his brother. He lived in almost complete isolation. The cabin was 10×12 feet, with no heat, electricity, or running water. He hunted rabbits and grew his own vegetables. He spent most of his time reading books from a local library and writing about his increasing anti-government and anti-technology thoughts. David was excited for his brother, that he was finally living the life he wanted and not conforming to anyone’s expectations. He felt that his brother had a very bright future ahead of him.

In 1978, Ted briefly moved back to Chicago to get a job working at his brother’s factory. He began a relationship there with a female supervisor that ended poorly. Angry at her, Ted wrote several inappropriate poems about her and was eventually fired by his own brother. Not long after, Ted left the city and moved back to his cabin in Montana.

“You Can’t Say Bomb on an Airplane”

On May 25, 1978, a package wrapped in a brown paper bag was found on the campus of the University of Illinois-Chicago. The return address on the package belonged to Professor Buckley Crist Jr., who taught at the nearby Northwestern University. School officials returned the package to the professor. He didn’t recognize it and called campus security. The package exploded upon opening and injured the security officer.

On May 9, 1979, a student at Northwestern University found a box inside of a room that looked like a present. When he opened it, it exploded, injuring him. On November 15th of the same year, a bomb exploded on American Airlines flight 444 that was headed from Chicago to Washington DC. Fortunately, the bomb did not work as it was intended and the plane landed safely, but multiple passengers were treated for smoke inhalation. This bomb had a different design from the bombs at Northwestern. It was set to be triggered by an altimeter that was constructed from a barometer. When the plane reached a certain altitude, it would cause an explosion. It was later determined that the package was inside the cargo area of the plane and had been mailed from Elgin, Illinois.

At this point, all of these bombings were being treated as seperate incidents. To the public’s knowledge, law enforcement had not connected them or attributed them to one person.

On June 3, 1980, Percy Wood, the President of United Airlines, received a mailed letter. The letter was signed “Enoch W. Fisher” and said that he would soon be mailed a book of “social significance.” One week later, June 10th, a package arrived for Wood. It contained a copy of the book “Ice Brothers,” by Sloan Wilson. When he opened the book, it exploded. The book had been hollowed out and a bomb placed inside. Wood was injured, but survived. The FBI was contacted by postal inspectors regarding the bombing. The FBI opened a case file titled “UNABOM.” The UN referred to the university bombings, and the A referenced the airline bombing. By this point, investigators had begun to notice design similarities between the Flight 444 bombing and the bomb that was sent to Percy Wood. The bombs were not technologically sophisticated. The initiator was homemade and the bombs seemed to have a “junkyard” appearance. The wood was low quality and all of the soldering appeared to be messy. These two bombings, as well as the two bombings at Northwestern University, were finally being attributed to one person: a serial bomber.

A joint task was formed between the FBI and the Postal Inspection Service. Soon after, the task force grew to include the Renssaeler Polytechnic Institute (this was the return address on the first mail bomb), Northwestern University, and United Airlines.

On October 8, 1981, a student at the University of Utah found a large package outside of a university computer mainframe room. The package was wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. It had been sitting there for quite a while. The student was suspicious of it and called university security. Security determined that the package contained a pipe bomb and a can of gasoline. They moved the device into a women’s restroom and blew it up. (How in the fuck did campus security do this?? It’s not clear if they contacted real police during this.) Afterwards, the UNABOM task force was contacted.

In May of 1982, Professor Patrick Fisher, a computer scientist, was working at his office at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee when he received a package in the mail. The package had originally been sent to his former address at Penn State University, where it was forwarded to his current office. He hadn’t worked at Penn State in about two years. The return address belonged to a professor at the University of Utah. Fisher’s secretary opened the package, which exploded. The secretary was injured, but survived.

On July 2nd, 1982, a professor of electronic engineering, Diogenes Angelakos at the University of California at Berkeley, picked up a package that was left in the teacher’s lounge. It exploded, injuring him. This bomb looked very complicated, however investigators state that it was simply another pipe bomb inside of gas can. The device included a note that said “Wu, it works. I told you it would. RV.” Investigators connected the note with the bomb because the paper that the note was typed on was the same type of paper used as electrical insulators in the device.

FBI??

By this time, it was clear that there was a dangerous person targeting people across the United States. Though most of the bombs were sent to professors at universities, there hadn’t been a clear pattern established and there wasn’t a solid connection between the intended victims. They had found many similarities between the devices, particularly, what seemed to be a signature from the bomber. (I couldn’t find if the initials were found in ALL devices or just most) Inside of the devices, the initials “FC” were either etched or stamped. It was designed so this piece would survive. White boards at the task force headquarters were covered in phrases that were abbreviated by FC, but they couldn’t find anything. Because this bomber continued to utilize homemade parts for his device, it made it extremely difficult to attempt to track him. The FBI and Postal Inspection Service decided that the FBI would handle devices that had been placed somewhere and the PIS would deal with mailed devices. The FBI’s attempts at profiling the bomber were fruitless. There wasn’t any reference of serial bombers to help assist with the profile building, so they referenced profiles of previous serial arsonists.

Bomb, bomb, ba bomb

After the bombing at UC Berkeley, the Unabomber seemed to fall off the face of the earth. The FBI took this time to compile everything they knew about the bomber, though it wasn’t much. They knew he had a manual typewriter and kit to make rubber stamps so he could mark packages. Most importantly though, his devices were getting increasingly more sophisticated.

In May of 1985, a student, John Hauser, in the same building as the previous bombing at UC Berkeley, picked up a package that was laying in a computer study area. It exploded when he picked it up and seriously injured him. The explosion was so severe that it blew several of Hauser’s fingers off, across the room, and into a wall. They hit the wall so hard that his Air Force academy ring imprinted letters into the wall. His screams alerted a professor nearby who used his necktie as a tourniquet on Hauser’s arm. The professor was Diogenes Angelakos, the same man who was injured from a bomb three years earlier in the same building. Hauser was left without several fingers, damage to his arm, and blind in one eye.

While inspecting the device, experts found that it was the first bomb that used metal caps, rather than wooden caps. The metal caps caused more destruction than wood. They also found the bomber’s signature FC inside. While investigators were on scene at the site of the UC Berkeley bombing, they were notifiied that the Boeing Corporation fabrication plant, near Seattle, Washington, had found a device in their receiving office. They said that the package had been sitting in their receiving office for almost a month until somebody just opened it. Fortunately, the batteries had dried up while sitting in the office and it did not explode. The responding bomb squad took photos and detonated the bomb safely.

The FBI had been focusing their investigation on suspects they’d compiled from employees from three different companies and students and alumni from at least five different universities. They were trying to narrow it down and made the decision to remove everyone that had been born before 1955. They remained very cautious about releasing any information they had to the public.

In November of 1985 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Professor James McConnell received a package along with a letter in the mail. The letter was said to be from Ralph Kloppenburg, who was a PhD candidate of the University of Utah. In the letter, it said that he wanted the professor to review his enclosed thesis, paying special attention to chapters 11 and 12. His student assistant, Nicklaus Suino opened the package and was injured when it exploded. Coincidentally, after mentioning chapters 11 and 12, the package had been mailed on November 12th.

Less than a month later, on December 11th, 1985, 38-year-old Hugh Scrutton, the manager of a computer rental store, picked up a package in the parking lot of the strip mall where his store was in Sacramento, California. The package exploded, killing him. Scrutton was the unabomber’s first fatality. Investigators began utilizing professionals to help with victimization and attempting to figure out why the bomber was choosing the individuals he chose. Profiles continued to place the bomber as a white male, between the ages of 35 and 45 years old, that likely was from around the Chicago area. They also knew that this person had to have been in Chicago, Salt Lake City, and Northern California since bombs had been sent or placed in those locations.

On February 20th, 1987, an employee at a computer store in Salt Lake City noticed some movement outside of the window of the store. She briefly made eye contact with a man before he looked away, sitting down a small piece of wood on the ground, and walking away. The store got busy and the employee didn’t think much of it. Gary Wright, the son of the owner of the store, saw the piece of wood sitting between the building and where cars were parked. There were four nails sticking out of the wood. Wright reached down and put his fingers on the end of the bottom piece. As he lifted it, he heard a sound that he described as a loud screech. The bomb exploded. Wright recalled everything happening in slow motion. There was a large amount of shrapnel in this device and Wright suffered several injuries, but survived. The bomb had detonated and hurt someone, but finally, there was a witness.

the sketch

Investigators immediately brought the witness from the computer store to meet with a sketch artist. This is when the infamous first sketch of the unabomber was created. He was described as a white male in his late 20’s. He was wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up and a pair of aviator sunglasses over his eyes. He had a mustache and his hair was reddish-blonde. The witness estimated him to be approximately 5’10 tall. The FBI immediately released this sketch and hoped that someone might recognize the man.

After this, the unabomber went silent. Again. The task force attributed this to him having been seen in Salt Lake City. Perhaps this had scared him into hiding. But unfortunately, he wasn’t finished.

You Da Bomb

On June 22, 1993, Dr. Charles Epstein, a geneticist at the University of California, opened a package at his house in Tiburon, California. His daughter had brought in the mail, then left the room. Upon opening the package, it exploded. Epstein survived, but lost several fingers, suffered major abdominal injuries, a broken arm, and permanent hearing loss.

Two days later, a computer scientist at Yale University, Professor David Gelernter, opened a similar package that he’d received in the mail at his office in New Haven, Connecticut. The package exploded, blowing off several of his fingers. He also survived.

Both of these packages had been mailed from Sacramento, California six days earlier. After a six year hiatus, the unabomber had returned. This brought new life into the case. The FBI made the decision to closely review each bombing again. They were assigned to pick a partner in the task force so they could bounce ideas off one another. Special Agent Terry Turchie was asked to take over the lead of the Unabomber case. A computer consultant was hired to clean up and compile all the data they had collected over the years. They made a file titled UNABOM Known Facts, Fictions, and Theory. They routinely added, deleted, and edited information in this as they investigated and assessed. Most importantly, Turchie felt they needed to have another look at the bomber himself, which included a fresh, updated profile. He asked Special Agent Kathleen Puckett to tackle it. Puckett was part of the counterintelligence team and working towards her PhD in clinical psychology.

A New Profile

Unfortunately, there was not much information available to help build the profile of the bomber. There had been no forensic evidence found on any of the packages or at any of the scenes. Nothing from the devices themselves could be traced. Batteries had been stripped so they couldn’t be tracked to where they were purchased from. The things used to build the bombs looked like junk and were impossible to trace

As the task force continued to reinvestigate each bombing, they noticed more. The first bombing, the device that had been found on the University of Chicago Campus and was returned to Northwestern University, caught their eye. The package appeared to have been intended for the mail. It had been addressed and stamped. There was even a mailbox nearby. Turchie theorized that perhaps the package had been too large to fit in the mailbox. The team recreated the size of the device and referenced records that showed the size of the mailbox on site at the time and found that the package wouldn’t have fit.

Around the same time as the two recent bombings, the New York Times receieved a letter in the mail, claiming to be from the Unabomber. It had been mailed the same day as the two bombs. Puckett summed up the letter as the writer taking credit for the bombs and claiming to be an anarchist group known as FC. Freedom Club. The writer said that by the time they would’ve received this letter, something significant would have occurred. The letter was short, a double-spaced paragraph, but the task force felt they had multiple opportunities to find real evidence from the letter. They studied the typeface, the typewriter used, the paper, the stamps, where it was mailed from, looked for fingerprints, saliva, and any type of DNA. NOTHING. They didn’t find anything. Despite the lack of forensic evidence, Puckett and Turchie could tell from his wording, the Unabomber had become more sophisticated. He was obviously older, but seemed to be more in control. They also felt confident that this was one person, not part of a group. Turchie said that there was no way a group could’ve stayed this tight-lipped for so long.

Upon further inspection of this letter, they found indented writing on it, as though someone had laid another piece of paper on top of it and wrote on that. It read “Call Nathan R. Wed. 7PM”. They felt like this could’ve been his first mistake. The task force began a search into every Nathan R. they could locate. (From what I could find, nothing came of this. I know on the Netflix show, Manhunt, it said they found some guy wrote on it in the mail room. I could not find any other information on this, as to whether it was true or false.) This didn’t produce any leads.

On December 10th, 1994, Thomas Mosser, an advertising executive, opened a package he received at his home in North Caldwell, New Jersey.

FOR PART TWO, CLICK HERE!