By: Grace Gao
The explosions started out small, meant to startle the recipient without permanent effects. But over time, Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski grew craftier and more audacious. His handmade bombs, composed of easily accessible and untraceable materials, took lives and crushed dreams. Last Saturday, this man, known to the public as the Unabomber, went to his final resting place in his federal prison cell while serving four life sentences.
For almost two decades, Ted Kaczynski resourcefully crafted his handmade bombs in his 10-by-12-foot cabin near Montana’s Continental Divide. He used commonplace items or materials he gathered himself, making his bombs “virtually untraceable” (Chawkins).
During these years, Kaczynski’s name as the Unabomber spread and caused panic among citizens. In this period, his bombs took the lives of three people and injured 23 more (Chawkins).
One of his victims was Air Force Captain and aspiring astronaut John Hauser. It is not often that one is blown up by a bomb and lives to tell the story. When John Hauser unlatched the plastic box containing the bomb, he did not know the price of his curiosity. The bomb left him with a mangled right hand that ended his career as an Air Force Captain and blasted his dreams of going to space.
Hauser, who is now an electrical engineering professor at the University of Colorado and a successful researcher, says, “Do I feel cheated? Sure, sometimes. Flying a jet seven miles a minute, 200 feet above the ground--that was a pretty great way to make a living. But you know, what I’m doing now is OK too” (Warren).
Theodore John Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942, in Evergreen Park, Illinois. His mother and father recognized his brilliance from a young age and did their best to nurture it, discussing science articles with him.
Kaczynski easily skipped two grades and was described by his professor as “the smartest student he’d ever seen” (Chawkins). His brilliance went unquestioned. He published papers in respected journals without assistance from his professors and was accepted into Harvard on a scholarship.
His old classmate praised his brilliance: “Ted was quietly solving open problems and creating new mathematics. It was as if he could write poetry while the rest of us were struggling to learn grammar” (Chawkins).
After leaving Harvard, Kaczynski worked as an assistant professor at UC Berkeley. He resigned two years later and isolated himself in a cabin he built on land he purchased with his brother, David Kaczynski. There, he began his secret life as the Unabomber.
He rode around on a rickety bike. His unshaven beard hung halfway down his chest. He spoke little with the locals and made minimal contact with his neighbors. Nobody considered him violent, but those closest to him began to see some changes.
Kaczynski had begun to cut himself off from his family, sending them harsh letters. When his father committed suicide due to depression from having terminal cancer, Ted refused to attend the funeral.
Until then, the FBI had been unable to find any information on him. Their only clue to the identity of the Unabomber was a vague sketch made by a witness who saw him as he dropped off a bomb. In it, Kaczynski had a hood pulled up over his head and wore tinted sunglasses. The case seemed hopeless; Kaczynski had covered his tracks up too well.
In June 1995, Kaczynski made an offer with the FBI. He promised to stop all attacks if one of several newspapers published his manifesto titled Industrial Society and Its Future. The FBI doubted his attacks would cease but decided to go along, hoping that someone would recognize him.
David Kaczynski’s wife, Linda Patrik, read the manifesto and thought the article sounded like Ted. Linda had never met David’s brother, as Ted despised her and disagreed with David’s plans to marry her. However, she had seen some of Ted’s long, rambling letters to David, in which he predicted terrible outcomes of technology.
David was furious at such an accusation against his brother, but as he read the manifesto, he couldn’t dismiss that the words were undeniably his brother's. One phrase that caught his eye was “you can’t eat your cake and have it too,” a distinctive paraphrasing of the saying, “you can’t have your cake and eat it too.” David recognized these as the words of his brother. He was faced with a mind-wrenching dilemma. He could either turn his brother in, for which his brother would possibly be executed, or he could do nothing and live with the possibility that Ted may kill again.
With the possibility of having the blood of innocent citizens on their hands, David and his wife ultimately decided to turn Ted in. They sent a tip to the FBI and hired an attorney. When David first met with the FBI, he stated one condition. If his brother were caught and found guilty, he would not be sentenced to execution.
After receiving information from David Kaczynski, FBI agents stormed the cabin where Ted Kaczynski was living. There, they found much incriminating evidence, such as journal pages, bomb diagrams, and data on bomb chemistry. The cherry on top was a live bomb they found under his bed.
On January 21, 1998, Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all charges and received eight life sentences.
Years after, he responded to a Harvard questionnaire from the people who had organized his 50th Harvard alumni reunion. He wrote “prisoner” as his job occupation and noted his awards as “Eight life sentences, issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1998” (Chawkins).