By: Nathan Geng
Ted Kaczynski, the famous criminal who planted bombs across America died in his cell on Saturday. His first bombs were crude affairs, but over time, Ted Kaczynski became a craftsman. In his, primitive cabin near the Continental Divide in Montana, he made killing devices from easily obtainable items such as chemicals, lamp cords, and roof nails- materials that were common but dangerous.
When Kaczynski needed switches for his devices, he hand-carved them from a hickory tree. He glued materials together with epoxy from the deers he shot. In his little, primitive, cabin near the Continental Divide in Montana, he filed polished parts to erase his fingerprint. He even peeled off the battery skins to eliminate the lot numbers that could serve to identify his whereabouts.
He fed investigators false clues to confuse them. Once, he put random hairs between layers of electrical tape on the bomb’s wire connections, hoping to initiate a wild goose chase.
In 1985, his first lethal bomb killed Hugh Scutton, a computer store owner in Sacramento. In 1994, Public Relations Thomas Mosser was killed when he opened a box that contained Kaczynski’s bomb. In the following year, Gilbert Murray was killed the same way as the first.
He planted many bombs elsewhere, such as on the American Airlines Flight to Chicago. Fortunately, the bomb failed to explode, but thick smoke forced an emergency landing. Twelve people onboard were treated for smoke inhalation. He engineered 16 bombs in total, either dropping them off in person or mailing them to distant cities.
Before his arrest, the serial bomber had told the New York Times and the Washington Post to publish his 35,000-word manifesto on the dehumanizing influence of technology. The manifesto, as it was known, began: “The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.” It was published as an eight-page special section in the Washington Post on Sept. 19, 1995.
In one paragraph, he detailed the terrifying method of his madness. “If we had never done anything violent and had submitted the present writings to a publisher, they probably would not have been accepted,” he wrote. “In order to get our message before the public with some chance of making a lasting impression, we’ve had to kill people.”
In 1996, after murdering three people and injuring twenty-three others Kaczynski was finally arrested. By the time of his capture, Kaczynski had become one of the most feared individuals. The FBI spent over 50 million dollars in tracking him down and offered 1 million dollars to whoever could track him down. Over 150 analysts and agents worked to track him down.
Known as the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski at a correctional medical facility in North Carolina. His cause of death was not mentioned in the report.