Also referred to as the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski is an anarchist who is notorious for the mail bombings which killed 3 people and hurt 23 others. He mailed bombs to a lot of airlines and universities during the latter months of 1970 to the early 90’s.
Theodore Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. His parents, Theodore Richard Kaczynski and Wanda Theresa Dombek, were Polish Americans. He studied at Chicago’s Sherman Elementary School from kindergarten to 4th grade. From 5th to 8th grade, he transferred to the Central School of Evergreen Park. When he was in 5th grade, a test showed that he could skip 6th grade thus he enrolled along with seventh graders. According to his test results, he had a high IQ and his parents were informed that Kaczynski was a genius. His IQ had been in the range of 160 to 170.
However, for Kaczynski, while he skipped to another grade, his life veered towards a great change. Oddly enough he did not fit in with the other children who were older than him. He was always teased and abused verbally. Worrying about his future, his mother was so concerned about his interaction with his peers that she put him along with autistic kids to study. He feared buildings and people, he did not talk with other children and he just played by himself. The only person with whom he created a bond was a mentally handicapped child.
Kaczynski did his high school at the Community High School of Evergreen Park. He performed very well academically, although he had a hard time when it came to mathematics when he was a sophomore. Subsequently, he was assigned to a math class which was more advanced and he did well there too. During this time, he skipped another level. Because of this, he graduated from high school two years early. He was told to apply for an education at Harvard and was accepted in the fall of 1958. Kaczynski was only sixteen years old.
When he was in Harvard, Kaczynski joined a personality study group. The conductor of the study, Dr Henry Murray, was said to have compared the profile of Kaczynski’s to that of Adolf Hitler. This personality study had affected Kaczynski and the other subjects to a great extent. His records that relate during the beginning of the study, showed that he was stable emotionally. The lawyers who presented him in his case, associated the instability to his emotions and his anxiety over mind control to the study which he had participated in.
Kaczynski graduated from college in 1962 and took a Master’s degree and Doctorate in mathematics at the University of Michigan. He earned his doctorate degree when he solved a mathematical problem, which was deemed almost impossible to solve. His specialty was on the function theory of geometry. For three years, he taught undergraduates and he wrote two papers. Once he left Michigan, he wrote four other papers.
In 1967, he was employed at Berkeley’s University of California as a mathematics assistant professor. Two years later, he resigned without explaining why and was not able to find proper employment after this. He lived simply in a distant shack, with a meager income. He worked on odd jobs and was sometimes supported by his family.
The start of Kaczynski’s crime
Kaczynski carried out his first crime in May 1978, when he sent a mail bomb to a Northwestern University professor, Buckley Crist. The mail package was located at University of Illinois’ parking lot, bearing the return address of Crist. When it was returned to the professor, he noticed that the handwriting was different. He was suspicious and called the campus security. Terry Marker, the policeman of the campus, opened the mail package and it blew up. Although, the injury was not grave due to the poor construction of the bomb, Marker was sent to the hospital.
The bomb that Kaczynski made was from metal pieces, which were later suspected to be from his workshop. A piece of pipe metal, its length measuring nine inches and its diameter one inch was used. Inside it were explosive powders which were smokeless, while its ends were sealed with wood which had been crafted by hand. The bomb did not have a strong effect because of the wood, since it did not allow great pressure to build up inside the pipe.
After the initial bombing, there were other bombs that were sent to officials of airlines. In 1979, a bomb was put within the cargo holder of Flight 444 of American Airlines. The bomb started to emit smoke, which prodded the pilot to attempt an emergency landing and the passengers underwent treatment for inhalation of smoke. The timing mechanism of the bomb was faulty, which was why it was not able to blow up. Had it been successful, it would have destroyed the whole plane.
Since Kaczynski had attempted to destroy an airline, the FBI got involved with the case. They decided to call him by the code name of UNABOM, which meant university and airline bomber. Part of their suspicion was that the bomber was a junkyard bomber, which implied that he was making bombs from junk materials. By 1980, the chief agent who was investigating with other agents issued a profile of the suspect. He identified the bomber as a highly intelligent man who had knowledge over academics. Later on, the profile was modified, stating that the bomber was a neo-luddite, who may have had a degree in different sciences. The profile which they made up was based on a theory taken from the recovered fragments of the bomb.
In 1985, Kaczynski finally injured someone seriously. John Hauser, a graduate student from Berkeley and an Air Force captain, lost his four fingers and eyesight in one eye. The man was greatly devastated as he had applied for training as an astronaut and had been selected. He had lost his chance of becoming an astronaut because of the fatality. The bombs which had been recovered were crafted by hand, and some parts were made out of wood. It contained some parts which had “FC” inscription. At one instance, it had been reported to imply “Fuck Computers”, however, it was discovered that it meant “Freedom Club”.
The first death because of Kaczynski’s bombing was of Hugh Scrutton, an owner of a computer store in California. The bomb which killed him, contained a splinter and a nail, this was found in the parking lot of his store. On February 20, 1987, the same kind of attack happened in another computer store in Utah.
In 1994, Thomas Mosser, an executive in advertising, was also killed from a bomb that was mailed to his home. in 1995, Gilbert Murray, a president of the association on California Forestry, was murdered.
A total of 16 bombs have been associated to Kaczynski having killed three people and injuring twenty-three others. His bombs were different over the years; however, a few of them had the “FC” initials. The latent fingerprints which were found on some of the bomb devices were incomparable to the fingerprints which had been located on the letters which were said to be associated to him. Retrato robot de Theodore Kaczynski.
The strategy of Kaczynski was to leave false hints in each of the bombs which he built. He saw to it that they were difficult to locate, in order to mislead the investigators. The first false hint which he used was the “FC” inscription, which he kept hidden within the bomb. Another hint was the supposedly accidental revelation that he stayed in the mountains of Sierra. Another clue which he left was on bomb that did not blow up. Other clues were stamps which were used to mail the packages.
The brother of Theodore Kaczynski, David Kaczynski, was the person who pointed out to the FBI investigators where his older brother was living. During this time, Ted Kaczynski was staying in a cabin within the mountain range of Montana. He was referred to by his brother as a paranoid schizophrenic, estranged from the family.
On April 3, 1996, Ted Kaczynski was arrested outside his cabin. His lawyers tried to plead insanity, in order to save him, however, he rejected it. A psychiatrist, who had been appointed by the court to assess him, had diagnosed that Kaczynski was ailed with paranoid schizophrenia, although he was still competent to stand trial.
He was charged with a lot of federal offenses because of his campaign on mail bombing. In order to prevent himself from being charged with the death penalty, he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, without the chance of parole.
By Carlos Cabezas López
