Unabomber — Ted Kaczynski

Theodore John Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor who conducted a nationwide mail-bombing campaign targeting universities, airlines, and technology companies between 1978 and 1995. He killed three people and wounded 23 others. His case is one of the longest and most expensive investigations in FBI history, ultimately cracked not by technology but by his own writing. CNN

Born on May 22, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, Kaczynski was a child prodigy. He enrolled at Harvard at age 16, earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan, and briefly taught at UC Berkeley before abruptly resigning in 1969 and moving to a primitive cabin in Lincoln, Montana, where he lived off the land, mostly without electricity or running water.

Kaczynski's first bomb was placed at Northwestern University in May 1978 — a mail bomb that injured a security guard. He continued bombing sporadically through the late 1970s and 1980s. The FBI code-named the investigation UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber), and the Unabomber moniker entered public consciousness.

His first fatal bomb killed computer rental store owner Hugh Scrutton in Sacramento in December 1985. Over the following decade, his bombs grew more sophisticated and lethal, targeting executives at technology companies, computer scientists, and others he viewed as symbols of industrial civilization. The Guardian

In 1995, Kaczynski sent a 35,000-word manifesto — "Industrial Society and Its Future" — to The New York Times and The Washington Post, threatening to continue bombing unless the manifesto was published. After consultation with the FBI, both papers published it. The decision proved critical: Kaczynski's brother David recognized the writing style and contacted the FBI. Washington Post

Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in Lincoln, Montana on April 3, 1996. FBI agents found bomb components, a typed manuscript version of the manifesto, and detailed coded journals describing his crimes. NPR

Kaczynski was charged with ten counts of illegally transporting, mailing, and using bombs, and four counts of murder. His trial was scheduled to begin in January 1998. The case became complicated when Kaczynski dismissed his attorneys, who had planned to use a mental illness defense he found degrading.

Rather than be portrayed as mentally ill, Kaczynski sought to plead guilty without a mental defect clause. After negotiations, on January 22, 1998, he entered a guilty plea to all charges in exchange for the government dropping its pursuit of the death penalty. He admitted to 16 bombings from 1978 to 1995 that killed three and injured 23. AP News

On May 4, 1998, U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. sentenced Kaczynski to four life sentences plus 30 years in prison, with no possibility of parole. Several survivors and family members of victims addressed Kaczynski at sentencing, calling him a coward.

Kaczynski was incarcerated at ADX Florence, the federal government's highest-security prison in Colorado. He continued writing, corresponding with scholars and researchers. On June 10, 2023, he was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead at a hospital. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging. He was 81 years old. BBC