Ted Kaczynski#Investigation

File:Unabomber Auction 07.jpg and several of his driver's licenses|left]]

Theodore John Kaczynski was born in Chicago on May 22, 1942, to working-class parents Wanda Theresa (née Dombek) and Theodore Richard Kaczynski, a sausage maker.{{cite news |title=The Unabomber's family photo album |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-080302ted-photogallery-photogallery.html |access-date=May 19, 2019 |archive-date=April 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421174901/https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-080302ted-photogallery-photogallery.html |url-status=live }} The two were Polish Americans who were raised as Roman Catholics but later became atheists. They married on April 11, 1939.

From first to fourth grade (ages six to nine), Kaczynski attended Sherman Elementary School in Chicago, where administrators described him as healthy and well-adjusted.Chase (2004), p. 161. In 1952, three years after his brother David was born, the family moved to suburban Evergreen Park, Illinois, and Ted transferred to Evergreen Park Central Junior High School. After testing scored his IQ at 167,{{cite web |url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-ted_add009t20080226125454-photo.html |title = The Kaczynski brothers and neighbors |website = Chicago Tribune |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170817162052/http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-ted_add009t20080226125454-photo.html |archive-date = August 17, 2017 |access-date=February 23, 2021}} he skipped the sixth grade. Kaczynski later described this as a pivotal event: previously he had socialized with his peers and was even seen as a leader, but after skipping ahead of them he felt he did not fit in with the older children, who bullied him.Chase (2004), pp. 107–108.

Neighbors in Evergreen Park later described the Kaczynski family as "civic-minded folks", one recalling the parents "sacrificed everything they had for their children". Both Ted and David were intelligent, but Ted was exceptionally bright. Neighbors described him as a smart but lonely individual.{{cite news |url = https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/una24.htm |title = Kaczynski: Too smart, too shy to fit in |website = USA Today |agency = Associated Press |date = November 13, 1996 |access-date = July 5, 2017 |archive-date = November 11, 2020 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201111022916/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/una24.htm |url-status = live }}

File:Kaczynski merit club.png

Kaczynski attended Evergreen Park Community High School, where he excelled academically. He played the trombone in the marching band and was a member of the mathematics, biology, coin, and German clubs.{{cite news |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/07/the-profile-of-a-loner/82b4e96d-4fc1-4b69-82c8-9d95293a2be3/ |title = The Profile of a Loner |first1 = Joel |first2 = Serge F. |last1 = Achenbach |last2 = Kovaleski |newspaper = The Washington Post |date = April 7, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170811111033/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/07/the-profile-of-a-loner/82b4e96d-4fc1-4b69-82c8-9d95293a2be3/ |archive-date = August 11, 2017 }} In 1996, a former classmate said: "He was never really seen as a person, as an individual personality{{nbsp}}... He was always regarded as a walking brain, so to speak." During this period, Kaczynski became intensely interested in mathematics, spending hours studying and solving advanced problems. He became associated with a group of like-minded boys interested in science and mathematics, known as the "briefcase boys" due to their penchant for carrying briefcases.{{cite web |last1=Martin |first1=Andrew |last2=Becker |first2=Robert |date=April 16, 1996 |title=Egghead Kaczynski Was Loner in High School |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/04/16/egghead-kaczynski-was-loner-in-high-school/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811104324/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-04-16/news/9604160124_1_ted-kaczynski-theodore-kaczynski-briefcase |archive-date=August 11, 2017 |website=Chicago Tribune}}

Throughout high school, Kaczynski was ahead of his classmates academically. Placed in a more advanced mathematics class, he soon mastered the material. He skipped the eleventh grade, and, by attending summer school, he graduated at age 15. Kaczynski was one of his school's five National Merit finalists and was encouraged to apply to Harvard University. While still at age 15, he was accepted to Harvard and entered the university on a scholarship in 1958 at age 16.Hickey (2003), p. 268. A high school classmate later said Kaczynski was emotionally unprepared: "They packed him up and sent him to Harvard before he was ready{{nbsp}}... He didn't even have a driver's license."

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Kaczynski matriculated at Harvard College as a mathematics prodigy. During his first year at the university, Kaczynski lived at 8 Prescott Street, which was intended to provide a small, intimate living space for the youngest, most precocious incoming students. For the following three years, he lived at Eliot House. His housemates and other students at Harvard described Kaczynski as a very intelligent but socially reserved person.{{cite web |url = https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/5/21/ted-kaczynski-unabomber-math/?page=single |title = Theodore J. Kaczynski |first = David |last = Song |website = The Harvard Crimson |date = May 21, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170819055048/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/5/21/ted-kaczynski-unabomber-math/?page=single |archive-date = August 19, 2017 }} He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Harvard in 1962, finishing with a GPA of 3.12.{{cite web |url = https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/23/harvard-alumni-directory-contains-bizarre-entry-for-ted-kaczynski-unabomber/Cjhy7Hu4Na7lakHdU7N11J/story.html |title = Unabomber lists self as 'prisoner' in Harvard directory |first1 = Alli |last1 = Knothe |first2 = Travis |last2 = Andersen |website = The Boston Globe |date = May 23, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170901023316/https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/23/harvard-alumni-directory-contains-bizarre-entry-for-ted-kaczynski-unabomber/Cjhy7Hu4Na7lakHdU7N11J/story.html |archive-date = September 1, 2017 }}{{cite web |url = https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-18198679 |title = Unabomber in Harvard reunion note |date = May 24, 2012 |publisher = BBC |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170901031938/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-18198679 |archive-date = September 1, 2017 }}{{cite web |url = https://www.michigandaily.com/content/he-came-ted-kaczynski-he-left-unabomber |title = He came Ted Kaczynski, he left The Unabomber |first = Karl |last = Stampfl |website = The Michigan Daily |date = March 16, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170114062259/https://www.michigandaily.com/content/he-came-ted-kaczynski-he-left-unabomber |archive-date = January 14, 2017 }}

In his second year at Harvard, Kaczynski participated in a study led by Harvard psychologist Henry Murray. Subjects were told they would debate personal philosophy with a fellow student and were asked to write essays detailing their personal beliefs and aspirations. The essays were given to an anonymous individual who would confront and belittle the subject in what Murray himself called "vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive" attacks, using the content of the essays as ammunition. Kaczynski spent 200 hours as part of the study.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2003/03/02/a-dangerous-mind/b003b569-3159-47da-bf95-17bef527f8bb/ |title=A Dangerous Mind |first=Todd |last=Gitlin |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=March 2, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180508185636/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2003/03/02/a-dangerous-mind/b003b569-3159-47da-bf95-17bef527f8bb/ |archive-date=May 8, 2018 }}{{Cite web |title=PROJECT MK-ULTRA {{!}} CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov) |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/06760269 |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=www.cia.gov |language=en}}

Kaczynski's lawyers later attributed his hostility towards mind control techniques to his participation in Murray's study.{{cite news |magazine=The Atlantic Monthly |last1=Alston |first1=Chase |date=June 2000 |title=Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber |url=http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/?single_page=true |url-status=live |volume=285 |issue=6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024101112/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/?single_page=true |archive-date=October 24, 2014 |access-date=November 4, 2022 }} Kaczynski stated he resented Murray and his co-workers, primarily because of the invasion of his privacy he perceived as a result of their experiments. Nevertheless, he said he was "quite confident that [his] experiences with Professor Murray had no significant effect on the course of [his] life".Sperber (2010), p. 41.

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In 1962, Kaczynski enrolled at the University of Michigan, where he earned his master's and doctoral degrees in mathematics in 1964 and 1967, respectively. Michigan was not his first choice for postgraduate education; he had applied to the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago, both of which accepted him but offered him no teaching position or financial aid. Michigan offered him an annual grant of $2,310 ({{inflation|US|2310|1962|r=-3|fmt=eq}}) and a teaching post.

At Michigan, Kaczynski specialized in complex analysis, specifically geometric function theory. Professor Peter Duren said of Kaczynski, "He was an unusual person. He was not like the other graduate students. He was much more focused about his work. He had a drive to discover mathematical truth." George Piranian, another of his Michigan mathematics professors, said, "It is not enough to say he was smart."{{cite news |url = https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19960404/2322396/unabomber-suspect-is-charged----montana-townsfolk-showed-tolerance-for-the-hermit |title = Unabomber Suspect Is Charged – Montana Townsfolk Showed Tolerance For 'The Hermit' |work = The Seattle Times |date = April 6, 1996 |author = Ostrom, Carol M. |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081227045157/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19960404&slug=2322396 |archive-date = December 27, 2008 }} Piranian taught Kaczynski function theory and recalled, "he was very persistent in his work. If a problem was hard, he worked harder. He was easily the top student, or one of the top". Professor Allen Shields wrote about Kaczynski in a grade evaluation that he was the "best man I have seen".{{cite web |last=Stampfl |first=Karl |date=March 16, 2006 |title=He came Ted Kaczynski, he left The Unabomber |url=http://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/he-came-ted-kaczynski-he-left-unabomber/ |access-date=March 21, 2022 |website=The Michigan Daily |language=en-US |archive-date=March 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321010658/https://www.michigandaily.com/uncategorized/he-came-ted-kaczynski-he-left-unabomber/ |url-status=live }} Kaczynski received one F, five B's and twelve A's in his eighteen courses at the university. In 2006, he said he had unpleasant memories of Michigan and felt the university had low standards for grading, considering his relatively high grades.

For a period of several weeks in 1966, Kaczynski experienced intense sexual fantasies of being female and decided to undergo gender transition. He arranged to meet with a psychiatrist but changed his mind in the waiting room and discussed other things instead, without disclosing his original reason for making the appointment. Afterward, enraged, he considered killing the psychiatrist and other people whom he hated. Kaczynski described this episode as a "major turning point" in his life.{{Cite journal | last= Magid | first= Adam K. | date= August 29, 2009 | title= The Unabomber Revisited: Reexamining the Use of Mental Disorder Diagnoses as Evidence of the Mental Condition of Criminal Defendants | journal=Indiana Law Journal | s2cid= 142388669 }}{{cite journal | last1= Magid | first1= Adam K. | date= January 1, 2009 | title= The Unabomber Revisited: Reexamining the Use of Mental Disorder Diagnoses as Evidence of the Mental Condition of Criminal Defendants | journal= Indiana Law Journal | series= Supplement 1 (2009) | volume= 84 | issue= 5 | at= Article 1 | url= https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol84/iss5/1 | issn= 0019-6665 | language= en | access-date= July 17, 2024 | format= Abstract | archive-date= July 11, 2024 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240711085625/https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol84/iss5/1/ | url-status= live }} Wiehl (2020), pp. 78–79. He recalled: "I felt disgusted about what my uncontrolled sexual cravings had almost led me to do. And I felt humiliated, and I violently hated the psychiatrist. Just then there came a major turning point in my life. Like a Phoenix, I burst from the ashes of my despair to a glorious new hope."{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/12/gender-confusion-sex-change-idea-fueled-kaczynskis-rage-report-says/eb33b946-8595-427d-af4c-9ccaada45935/|title=Gender Confusion, Sex Change Idea Fueled Kaczynski's Rage, Report Says|first=William|last=Booth|date=September 12, 1998|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=July 31, 2020|archive-date=August 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818170216/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1998/09/12/gender-confusion-sex-change-idea-fueled-kaczynskis-rage-report-says/eb33b946-8595-427d-af4c-9ccaada45935/|url-status=live}}

In 1967, Kaczynski's dissertation, Boundary Functions, won the Sumner B. Myers Prize for Michigan's best mathematics dissertation of the year.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/us/prisoner-of-rage-a-special-report-from-a-child-of-promise-to-the-unabom-suspect.html |title = Prisoner of Rage – A special {{not a typo|report.;}} From a Child of Promise to the Unabom Suspect |work = The New York Times |date = May 26, 1996 |author = McFadden, Robert D. |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170809214216/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/26/us/prisoner-of-rage-a-special-report-from-a-child-of-promise-to-the-unabom-suspect.html |archive-date = August 9, 2017 |author-link = Robert D. McFadden }} Allen Shields, his doctoral advisor, called it "the best I have ever directed", and Maxwell Reade, a member of his dissertation committee, said, "I would guess that maybe 10 or 12 men in the country understood or appreciated it."File:Young theodore kaczynski.jpeg in 1968|alt=A man in a suit faces the camera while he stands in front of a building.]]In late 1967, the 25-year-old Kaczynski became an acting assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught mathematics. He assumed the position of the youngest assistant professor in the history of the university.{{Cite news |date=June 11, 2023 |title=Who was Ted Kaczynski? Know about the 'Unabomber' and his crimes |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/who-was-ted-kaczynski-know-about-the-unabomber-and-his-crimes/articleshow/100918770.cms |access-date=November 11, 2023 |issn=0013-0389}} By September 1968, Kaczynski was formally appointed to an assistant professorship, a sign that he was on track for tenure. His teaching evaluations suggested he was not well-liked by his students—he seemed uncomfortable teaching, taught straight from the textbook, and refused to answer questions.

Without any explanation, Kaczynski resigned on June 30, 1969.{{cite web |url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-07-21-mn-26363-story.html |title = Kaczynski's Dissertation Would Leave Your Head Spinning |first = Matt |last = Crenson |website = Los Angeles Times |date = July 21, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161104013041/http://articles.latimes.com/1996-07-21/news/mn-26363_1_doctoral-dissertation |archive-date = November 4, 2016 }} In a 1970 letter written by John W. Addison Jr., the chairman of the mathematics department, to Kaczynski's doctoral advisor Shields, Addison referred to the resignation as "quite out of the blue".{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-suspect-memories-his-brilliance-shyness-but-little-else.html |title = On the Suspect's Trail: the Suspect; Memories of His Brilliance, And Shyness, but Little Else |work = The New York Times |date = April 5, 1996 |author = Perez-Pena, Richard |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170819055049/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-suspect-memories-his-brilliance-shyness-but-little-else.html |archive-date = August 19, 2017 |author-link = Perez-Pena, Richard }}Graysmith (1998), pp. 11–12. He added that "Kaczynski seemed almost pathologically shy", and that, as far as he knew, Kaczynski made no close friends in the department, noting that efforts to bring him more into the "swing of things" had failed.{{cite web |last=Felde |first=Marie |date=April 10, 1996 |title=04.10.96 – Unabomber Suspect Left Little Trace |url=https://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1996/0410/una.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220501002735/https://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/1996/0410/una.html |archive-date=May 1, 2022 |access-date=May 1, 2022 |website=UC Berkeley |publisher=The Regents of the University of California |format=Plain text |via=Office of Public Affairs at UC Berkeley}}{{Cite news |last=Lee |first=Henry K. |date=April 5, 1996 |title=Kaczynski's Shyness Recalled by UC Berkeley Colleagues |no-pp=y |work=San Francisco Chronicle |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kaczynski-s-Shyness-Recalled-by-UC-Berkeley-2987363.php |access-date=May 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220501004316/https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Kaczynski-s-Shyness-Recalled-by-UC-Berkeley-2987363.php |archive-date=May 1, 2022}}

In 1996, reporters for the Los Angeles Times interviewed mathematicians about Kaczynski's work and concluded that Kaczynski's subfield effectively ceased to exist after the 1960s, as most of its conjectures had been proven. According to mathematician Donald Rung, if Kaczynski had continued to work in mathematics, he "probably would have gone on to some other area".

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After resigning from Berkeley, Kaczynski moved to his parents' home in Lombard, Illinois. Two years later, in 1971, he moved to a remote cabin he had built outside Lincoln, Montana, where he could live a simple life with little money and without electricity or running water,{{cite news |title=125 Montana Newsmakers: Ted Kaczynski |newspaper=Great Falls Tribune |url=http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers6/kaczynski.html |access-date=August 28, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130715114044/http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers6/kaczynski.html |archive-date=July 15, 2013 }} working odd jobs and receiving significant financial support from his family.

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Kaczynski's original goal was to become self-sufficient so he could live autonomously. He used an old bicycle to get to town, and a volunteer at the local library said he visited frequently to read classic works in their original languages. Other Lincoln residents said later that such a lifestyle was typical in the area.{{cite news |first=John |last=Kifner |date=April 5, 1996 |title=On the suspect's trail: Life in Montana; gardening, bicycling and reading exotically |newspaper=The New York Times

|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-life-montana-gardening-bicycling-reading-exotically.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151104225521/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-life-montana-gardening-bicycling-reading-exotically.html |archive-date=November 4, 2015 }} Kaczynski's cabin was described by a census taker in the 1990 census as containing a bed, two chairs, storage trunks, a gas stove, and lots of books.

Starting in 1975, Kaczynski performed acts of sabotage including arson and booby trapping against developments near his cabin.{{cite news |first=James |last=Brooke |date=March 14, 1999 |title=New portrait of Unabomber: Environmental saboteur around Montana village for 20 years |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/14/us/new-portrait-unabomber-environmental-saboteur-around-montana-village-for-20.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904020809/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/14/us/new-portrait-unabomber-environmental-saboteur-around-montana-village-for-20.html |archive-date=September 4, 2017 }} He also dedicated himself to reading about sociology and political philosophy, including the works of Jacques Ellul. Kaczynski's brother David later stated that Ellul's book The Technological Society "became Ted's Bible".Chase (2003), p. 332 Kaczynski recounted in 1998, "When I read the book for the first time, I was delighted, because I thought, 'Here is someone who is saying what I have already been thinking.'"

In an interview after his arrest, Kaczynski recalled being shocked on a hike to one of his favorite wild spots:{{cite web |last1=Kingsnorth |first1=Paul |title=Dark Ecology |url=https://orionmagazine.org/article/dark-ecology/ |website=Orion Magazine |date=December 21, 2012 |access-date=February 27, 2021 |language=en |archive-date=March 15, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315060735/https://orionmagazine.org/article/dark-ecology/ |url-status=live }}

{{blockquote|text=It's kind of rolling country, not flat, and when you get to the edge of it you find these ravines that cut very steeply in to cliff-like drop-offs and there was even a waterfall there. It was about a two days' hike from my cabin. That was the best spot until the summer of 1983. That summer there were too many people around my cabin so I decided I needed some peace. I went back to the plateau and when I got there I found they had put a road right through the middle of it{{nbsp}}... You just can't imagine how upset I was. It was from that point on I decided that, rather than trying to acquire further wilderness skills, I would work on getting back at the system. Revenge.}}

During the 1980s and 1990s, Kaczynski's neighbors suspected him of attacking and poisoning their dogs on multiple occasions. After his arrest, the FBI found poisons in his cabin, and in later letters, he admitted to killing at least one dog.{{cite web|author=David Moye|title=Unabomber Ted Kaczynski's Neighbor Reveals Eerie Detail About His Death|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/unabomber-ted-kaczynski-death-neighbor_n_6489c7d3e4b0756ff8618863|website=HuffPost|date=December 14, 2024|access-date=December 15, 2024}}{{cite web|title=Ted the Menace and Killer|url=https://missoulian.com/ted-the-menace-and-killer/article_36a3e5b2-10b1-5e01-9edc-9047d68c658e.html|website=Missoulian|date=December 13, 1998 |access-date=December 18, 2024}}{{cite web|title=Kaczynski Blasts Unabomber Book|url=https://missoulian.com/kaczynski-blasts-unabomber-book/article_061cde39-ad8a-5dee-86b0-a2793ed92f16.html|website=Missoulian|date=February 2, 1999 |access-date=December 18, 2024}}

Kaczynski was visited multiple times in Montana by his father, who was impressed by Ted's wilderness skills. Kaczynski's father was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1990 and held a family meeting without Kaczynski later that year to map out their future. On October 2, 1990, Kaczynski's father shot and killed himself in his home.Kaczynski (2016), p. 50.

Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski mailed or hand-delivered a series of increasingly sophisticated bombs that cumulatively killed three people and injured 23 others. Sixteen bombs were attributed to Kaczynski. While the bombing devices varied widely through the years, many contained the initials "FC", which Kaczynski later said stood for "Freedom Club", inscribed on parts inside. He purposely left misleading clues in the devices and took extreme care in preparing them to avoid leaving fingerprints; fingerprints found on some of the devices did not match those found on letters attributed to Kaczynski.{{efn|As stated in the "Additional Findings" section of the FBI affidavit, where a balanced listing of other uncorrelated evidence and contrary determinations also appeared, "203. Latent fingerprints attributable to devices mailed and/or placed by the UNABOM subject were compared to those found on the letters attributed to Theodore Kaczynski. According to the FBI Laboratory no forensic correlation exists between those samples."{{cite web |url = http://www.courttv.com/archive/casefiles/unabomber/documents/affidavit.html |title = Affidavit of Assistant Special Agent in Charge |publisher = Court TV |access-date = February 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081218190755/http://www.courttv.com/archive/casefiles/unabomber/documents/affidavit.html |archive-date = December 18, 2008 }}}}

Kaczynski's first mail bomb was directed at Buckley Crist, a professor of materials engineering at Northwestern University. On May 25, 1978, a package bearing Crist's return address was found in a parking lot at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The package was "returned" to Crist, who was suspicious because he had not sent it, so he contacted campus police. Officer Terry Marker opened the package, which exploded and caused minor injuries.{{cite web |access-date = July 5, 2008 |url = http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/chron_7882.html |title = The Unabomber: A Chronology (1978–1982) |publisher = Court TV |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080720061945/http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/chron_7882.html |archive-date = July 20, 2008 }} Kaczynski had returned to Chicago for the May 1978 bombing and stayed there for a time to work with his father and brother at a foam rubber factory. In August 1978, his brother fired him for writing insulting limericks about a female supervisor Ted had courted briefly.{{cite web |title = Ted Kaczynski's Family on 60 Minutes |url = https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ted-kaczynskis-family-50129994/ |publisher = CBS News |access-date = July 31, 2015 |date = September 15, 1996 |archive-date = January 24, 2016 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160124164000/https://www.cbsnews.com/videos/ted-kaczynskis-family-50129994/ |url-status = live }}{{cite news |url = https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/una45.htm |title = Kaczynski was fired '78 after allegedly harassing co-worker |website = USA Today |agency = Associated Press |date = November 13, 1996 |access-date = July 19, 2017 |archive-date = February 5, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210205092054/https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/una45.htm |url-status = live }} The supervisor later recalled Kaczynski as intelligent and quiet but remembered little of their acquaintanceship and firmly denied they had had any romantic relationship.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/19/us/woman-denies-romance-with-unabomber-suspect.html |title = Woman Denies Romance With Unabomber Suspect |first = Dirk |last = Johnson |website = The New York Times |date = April 19, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150526165057/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/19/us/woman-denies-romance-with-unabomber-suspect.html |archive-date = May 26, 2015 }} Kaczynski's second bomb was sent nearly one year after the first one, again to Northwestern University. The bomb, concealed inside a cigar box and left on a table, caused minor injuries to graduate student John Harris when he opened it. File:Ted Kaczynski drivers license Illinois (cropped).jpg

In 1979, a bomb was placed in the cargo hold of American Airlines Flight 444, a Boeing 727 flying from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The bomb released smoke, which caused the pilots to carry out an emergency landing. Authorities said it had enough power to "obliterate the plane" had it exploded. "Kaczynski had used a barometer-triggered device, and it had succeeded only in setting some mailbags on fire and forcing an emergency landing; in a letter written years later, the Unabomber expressed relief that the airline bomb had failed since its target had been too indiscriminate."{{Cite magazine |last=Finnegan |first=William |date=March 8, 1998 |title=Defending the Unabomber |language=en-US |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/03/16/defending-the-unabomber |access-date=October 22, 2023 |issn=0028-792X |archive-date=October 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029014926/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/03/16/defending-the-unabomber |url-status=live }} Kaczynski sent his next bomb to the president of United Airlines, Percy Wood. Wood received cuts and burns over most of his body.{{cite web |last1=Marx |first1=Gary |last2=Martin |first2=Andrew |title=Survivors See Little Sense Behind the Terror |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-04-05-9604050280-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |date=April 5, 1996 |access-date=December 12, 2020 |archive-date=January 28, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128051758/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1996-04-05-9604050280-story.html |url-status=live }}

Kaczynski left false clues in most bombs, which he intentionally made hard to find to make them appear more legitimate. Clues included metal plates stamped with the initials "FC" hidden somewhere (usually in the pipe end cap) in bombs, a note left in a bomb that did not detonate reading "Wu—It works! I told you it would—RV," and the Eugene O'Neill one-dollar stamps often used as postage on his boxes.{{cite news |access-date = July 5, 2008 |url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/lrb/articles/0,6109,537856,00.html |title = The end of anon: literary sleuthing from Shakespeare to Unabomber |work = The Guardian |date = August 16, 2001 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080905005427/http://books.guardian.co.uk/lrb/articles/0%2C6109%2C537856%2C00.html |archive-date = September 5, 2008 }} He sent one bomb embedded in a copy of Sloan Wilson's novel Ice Brothers. The FBI theorized that Kaczynski's crimes involved a theme of nature, trees, and wood. He often included bits of a tree branch and bark in his bombs; his selected targets included Percy Wood and Leroy Wood. The crime writer Robert Graysmith noted his "obsession with wood" was "a large factor" in the bombings.Graysmith (1998), pp. 286, 289.

File:Unibomber bomb.JPG in Washington, D.C.|alt=A bomb with wires in a wooden box]]

In 1981, a package bearing the return address of a Brigham Young University professor of electrical engineering, LeRoy Wood Bearnson, was discovered in a hallway at the University of Utah. It was brought to the campus police and was defused by a bomb squad.{{cite news |last1=Dougall |first1=Courtney |last2=Jackson Thomson |first2=Lisa Ann |title=English Grad Student Plays Detective in Unabomber Case |url=https://magazine.byu.edu/article/english-grad-student-plays-detective-in-unabomber-case/ |access-date=June 10, 2022 |work=Y magazine |publisher=Brigham Young University |date=Fall 1998 |archive-date=January 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122215312/https://magazine.byu.edu/article/english-grad-student-plays-detective-in-unabomber-case/ |url-status=live }} The following May, a bomb was sent to Patrick C. Fischer, a professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University. The package exploded when Fischer's secretary, Janet Smith, opened it, and Smith received injuries to her face and arms.{{cite web |title=Patrick Fischer dies at 75; target of Unabomber |url=https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-xpm-2011-sep-03-la-me-patrick-fischer-20110903-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=September 3, 2011 |access-date=February 4, 2021 |archive-date=November 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101045457/http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/03/local/la-me-patrick-fischer-20110903 |url-status=live }}

Kaczynski's next two bombs targeted people at the University of California, Berkeley. The first, in July 1982, caused serious injuries to engineering professor Diogenes Angelakos. Nearly three years later, in May 1985, John Hauser, a graduate student and captain in the United States Air Force, lost four fingers and the vision in one eye.{{cite web |url = http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/chron_8587.html |title = The Unabomber: A Chronology (1985–1987) |publisher = Court TV |access-date = February 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090226014430/http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/chron_8587.html |archive-date = February 26, 2009 }} Kaczynski handcrafted the bomb from wooden parts.{{cite news |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/11/kaczynski-beard-may-confuse-witness/db6f9094-88bd-473b-bc01-9c3018dc8a25/ |title = Kaczynski Beard May Confuse Witness |newspaper = The Washington Post |date = April 11, 1996 |first = William |last = Claiborne |access-date = January 19, 2021 |archive-date = April 19, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210419032928/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/11/kaczynski-beard-may-confuse-witness/db6f9094-88bd-473b-bc01-9c3018dc8a25/ |url-status = live }} A bomb sent to the Boeing Company in Auburn, Washington, was defused by a bomb squad the following month. In November 1985, professor James V. McConnell and research assistant Nicklaus Suino were both severely injured after Suino opened a mail bomb addressed to McConnell.

In late 1985, a nail-and-splinter-loaded bomb in the parking lot of a computer store in Sacramento, California, killed the 38-year-old owner of the store, Hugh Scrutton. On February 20, 1987, a bomb disguised as a piece of lumber injured Gary Wright in the parking lot of a computer store in Salt Lake City, Utah; nerves in Wright's left arm were severed, and at least 200 pieces of shrapnel entered his body. Kaczynski was spotted while planting the Salt Lake City bomb. This led to a widely distributed sketch of the suspect as a hooded man with a mustache and aviator sunglasses.{{cite news|url =https://apnews.com/article/085c91d1ddae4c6dc663f34cd7b6d683|title =Not Knowing Where to Look, Unabomber Hunters Looked Everywhere|first =Michelle|last =Locke|work =Associated Press News|date =April 7, 1996|access-date =October 5, 2020|archive-date =October 9, 2020|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20201009015627/https://apnews.com/article/085c91d1ddae4c6dc663f34cd7b6d683|url-status =live}}{{cite web|url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-23-mn-11362-story.html|title =Recap of the Unabomber Case|first =Nona|last =Yates|website =Los Angeles Times|date =January 23, 1998|access-date =October 5, 2020|archive-date =October 9, 2020|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20201009083946/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-jan-23-mn-11362-story.html|url-status =live}}

In 1993, after a six-year break, Kaczynski mailed a bomb to the home of Charles Epstein from the University of California, San Francisco. Epstein lost several fingers upon opening the package. On the same weekend, Kaczynski mailed a bomb to David Gelernter, a computer science professor at Yale University. Gelernter lost sight in one eye, hearing in one ear, and a portion of his right hand.{{cite web |url = http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/chron_8895.html |title = The Unabomber: A Chronology (1988–1995) |publisher = Court TV |access-date = February 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090226014431/http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/chron_8895.html |archive-date = February 26, 2009 }}

In 1994, Burson-Marsteller executive Thomas J. Mosser was killed after opening a mail bomb sent to his home in New Jersey. In a letter to The New York Times, Kaczynski wrote he had sent the bomb because of Mosser's work repairing the public image of Exxon after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.{{cite web |url = http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/transcripts/012298.html |title = U.S. v. Kaczynski Trial Transcripts |publisher = Court TV |access-date = February 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090312001957/http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/transcripts/012298.html |archive-date = March 12, 2009 }} This was followed by the 1995 murder of Gilbert Brent Murray, president of the timber industry lobbying group California Forestry Association, by a mail bomb addressed to previous president William Dennison, who had retired. Geneticist Phillip Sharp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology received a threatening letter shortly afterward.

{{clear}}

{{main|Industrial Society and Its Future{{!}}Industrial Society and Its Future}}

{{see also|Ship of Fools (short story)|Technological Slavery|Anti-Tech Revolution}}

{{Anarchism US |expanded=people}}

File:Unabomber Auction 03.jpg

In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters{{cite web |url = https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-the-communiques-of-freedom-club-ted-kaczynski#toc7 |title = The Communiques of Freedom Club – Letter to Warren Hoge of the New York Times (1995) |author = Ted Kaczynski |website = the anarchist library |access-date = June 13, 2023 |archive-date = June 13, 2023 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230613101058/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-the-communiques-of-freedom-club-ted-kaczynski#toc7 |url-status = live }} to media outlets outlining his goals and demanding a major newspaper print his 35,000-word essay Industrial Society and Its Future (dubbed the "Unabomber manifesto" by the FBI) verbatim.{{cite web |last= Kaczynski |first=Theodore |title=Industrial Society and Its Future |url=http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111111222852/http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf |archive-date=November 11, 2011 |access-date=January 17, 2021 |website=editions-hache.com}}Chase (2004), p. 84. He stated he would "desist from terrorism" if this demand was met.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/26/us/bombing-sacramento-letter-excerpts-letter-terrorist-group-fc-which-says-it-sent.html |title = Excerpts From Letter by 'Terrorist Group', FC, Which Says It Sent Bombs |work = The New York Times |date = April 26, 1995 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170807022138/http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/26/us/bombing-sacramento-letter-excerpts-letter-terrorist-group-fc-which-says-it-sent.html |archive-date = August 7, 2017 }}{{cite web |url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-06-30-mn-18891-story.html |title = Unabomber Sends New Warnings |author1=Boxall, Bettina |author2=Connell, Rich |author3=Ferrell, David |work = Los Angeles Times |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110501080103/http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-30/news/mn-18891_1_los-angeles-international-airport |date = June 30, 1995 |archive-date = May 1, 2011 }}{{cite web |url = http://www.newsweek.com/delicate-dance-176482 |title = A Delicate Dance |author= |website = Newsweek |date = April 21, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170812201910/http://www.newsweek.com/delicate-dance-176482 |archive-date = August 12, 2017 }} There was controversy as to whether the essay should be published, but Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh recommended its publication out of concern for public safety and in the hope that a reader could identify the author. Bob Guccione of Penthouse volunteered to publish it. Kaczynski replied Penthouse was less "respectable" than The New York Times and The Washington Post, and said that, "to increase our chances of getting our stuff published in some 'respectable' periodical", he would "reserve the right to plant one (and only one) bomb intended to kill, after our manuscript has been published" if Penthouse published the document instead of The Times or The Post.{{cite magazine |url = http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983142,00.html |title = Murderer's Manifesto |magazine = Time |date = July 10, 1995 |author = Elson, John |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130925060232/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,983142,00.html |archive-date = September 25, 2013 }} The Washington Post published the essay on September 19, 1995.{{cite news |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.decsn.htm |title = Unabomber Manuscript is Published: Public Safety Reasons Cited in Joint Decision by Post, N.Y. Times |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110504021131/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.decsn.htm |archive-date = May 4, 2011 |newspaper= The Washington Post |last= Kurtz |first= Howard |date= September 19, 1995}}{{cite news |last1=Graham |first1=Donald E. |last2=Sulzberger |first2=Arthur O. |date=September 19, 1995 |title=Statement by Papers' Publishers |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.pubs.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504021145/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.pubs.htm |archive-date=May 4, 2011}}

Kaczynski used a typewriter to write his manuscript, capitalizing entire words for emphasis, in lieu of italics. He always referred to himself as either "we" or "FC" ("Freedom Club"), though there is no evidence that he worked with others. Donald Wayne Foster analyzed the writing at the request of Kaczynski's defense team in 1996 and noted that it contained irregular spelling and hyphenation, along with other linguistic idiosyncrasies. This led him to conclude that Kaczynski was its author.{{cite journal |journal = Lingua Franca |year = 1998 |pages = 29–39 |title = The Bard's fingerprints |last = Crain |first = Caleb |author-link=Caleb Crain |url = http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9807/crain.html |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160624190030/http://linguafranca.mirror.theinfo.org/9807/crain.html |archive-date = June 24, 2016 }}

Industrial Society and Its Future begins with Kaczynski's assertion: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race."{{cite web |url = http://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/09/19/Excerpts-from-Unabomber-document/4579811483200/ |title = Excerpts from Unabomber document |work = United Press International |date = September 19, 1995 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170812101002/http://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/09/19/Excerpts-from-Unabomber-document/4579811483200/ |archive-date = August 12, 2017 }}Kaczynski, "Industrial Society and Its Future" (1995), paragraph 1. He wrote that technology has had a destabilizing effect on society, has made life unfulfilling, and has caused widespread psychological suffering.{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Brooke |date=April 11, 1996 |title=From His Tiny Cabin to the Lack Of Electricity And Water, Kaczynski's Simple Lifestyle in Montana Mountains Coincided Well With His Anti-Technology Views |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/482903/UNABOMBER--FROM-HIS-TINY-CABIN-TO-THE-LACK-OF-ELECTRICTY-AND-WATER-KACZYNSKIS-SIMPLE-LIFESTYLE-IN.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812133958/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/482903/UNABOMBER--FROM-HIS-TINY-CABIN-TO-THE-LACK-OF-ELECTRICTY-AND-WATER-KACZYNSKIS-SIMPLE-LIFESTYLE-IN.html |archive-date=August 12, 2017 |website=Deseret News}} Kaczynski argued that most people spend their time engaged in ultimately unfulfilling pursuits because of technological advances; he called these "surrogate activities", wherein people strive toward artificial goals, including scientific work, consumption of entertainment, political activism, and following sports teams. He states people do "surrogate activities" to satisfy the "power process" in which people strive to be independent and to achieve power over themselves. He predicted that technological advances would lead to extensive and ultimately oppressive forms of human control, including genetic engineering, and that human beings would be adjusted to meet the needs of social systems rather than vice versa. Kaczynski stated that technological progress can be stopped, in contrast to the viewpoint of people who he said understand technology's negative effects yet passively accept technology as inevitable.{{cite magazine |url = https://www.wired.com/1998/04/the-unabombers-legacy-part-i/ |title = The Unabomber's Legacy, Part I |first = Jon |last = Katz |magazine = Wired|date = April 17, 1998 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170813224708/https://www.wired.com/1998/04/the-unabombers-legacy-part-i/ |archive-date = August 13, 2017 }} He called for a revolution to force the collapse of the worldwide technological system,Kaczynski, "Industrial Society and Its Future" (1995), paragraph 4. and held a life close to nature, in particular primitivist lifestyles, as an ultimate ideal. Kaczynski's critiques of civilization bore some similarities to anarcho-primitivism, but he rejected and criticized anarcho-primitivist views.{{cite journal|first1=Paweł|last1=Malendowicz|title=The Concept of 'the Return to the Past' as an Inspiration for the Anti-Civilization Project of Utopian Primitivist Thought|url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-b1f4b000-bb85-45e1-ae58-fc6a8c8607b9|journal=Studia Politologiczne|year=2020|issn=1640-8888|pages=200–214|volume=53|doi=10.33896/SPolit.2019.53.11|doi-access=free|quote=Kaczynski himself negated primitivist thought, claiming that all primitive communities fed on some kind of animal food, none of them was vegan, there was no gender equality in most of them ... there was rivalry, which often assumed violent forms, some communities protected nature, but others devastated it through excessive hunting or careless use of fire.|access-date=May 28, 2021|archive-date=April 1, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401194533/http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-b1f4b000-bb85-45e1-ae58-fc6a8c8607b9|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|first1=Sean|last1=Fleming|title=The Unabomber and the origins of anti-tech radicalism|journal=Journal of Political Ideologies|date=May 7, 2021|volume=27 |issue=2 |issn=1356-9317|pages=207–225|doi=10.1080/13569317.2021.1921940|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|first1=Ole Martin|last1=Moen|title=The Unabomber's ethics|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bioe.12494|journal=Bioethics|date=August 23, 2018|issn=1467-8519|pages=223–229|volume=33|issue=2|doi=10.1111/bioe.12494|pmid=30136739|hdl=10852/76721|s2cid=52070603|hdl-access=free|access-date=May 28, 2021|archive-date=April 1, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401200034/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bioe.12494|url-status=live}}

Kaczynski argued that the erosion of human freedom is a natural product of an industrial society because, in his words, "the system has to regulate human behavior closely in order to function", and that reform of the system is impossible.{{cite news |title = Is There Method in His Madness? |date = September 25, 1995 |first = Kirkpatrick |last = Sale |magazine = The Nation |page = 306 }} He said that the system has not yet fully achieved control over all human behavior and is in the midst of a struggle to gain that control. Kaczynski predicted that the system would break down if it could not achieve significant control and that it is likely this issue would be resolved within the next 40 to 100 years. He stated that the task of those who oppose industrial society is to promote stress within and upon the society and to propagate an anti-technology ideology, one that offers the counter-ideal of nature. Kaczynski added that a revolution would be possible only when industrial society is sufficiently unstable.

A significant portion of the document is dedicated to discussing political leftism as a manifestation of related psychological types, with Kaczynski attributing the prevalence and intensity of leftism in society as both a negative symptom of psychological pressures induced by technological conditions as well as an obstacle to the formation of an effective anti-tech revolution.Kaczynski, "Industrial Society and Its Future" (1995), paragraphs 6, 10–32, 213–230. He defined leftists as "mainly socialists, collectivists, 'politically correct' types, feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists and the like".{{cite magazine |url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1998/04/23/varieties-of-madness/ |title = Varieties of Madness |first = Joan |last = Didion |author-link=Joan Didion|magazine = The New York Review of Books |date = April 23, 1998 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170813223357/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1998/04/23/varieties-of-madness/ |archive-date = August 13, 2017 }} He believed that over-socialization and feelings of inferiority are primary drivers of leftism, and derided it as "one of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world". Kaczynski added that the type of movement he envisioned must be anti-leftist and refrain from collaboration with leftists as, in his view, "leftism is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom and with the elimination of modern technology".

Although Kaczynski and his manifesto has been embraced by ecofascists,{{sfn|Wilson|2019}} he rejected fascism,{{sfn|Hanrahan|2018}} including those whom he referred to as "the 'ecofascists{{'"}}, describing ecofascism as "an aberrant branch of leftism".{{cite web |title=Ecofascism: An Aberrant Branch of Leftism |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-ecofascism-an-aberrant-branch-of-leftism |access-date=February 21, 2022 |website=The Anarchist Library |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221192854/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-ecofascism-an-aberrant-branch-of-leftism |archive-date=February 21, 2022 }}{{cite thesis |url=https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/96491/1/Master-s-thesis-by-Vilde-Skauge-Monsen.pdf |title="Save the bees, not refugees": Far-right environmentalism meets the Internet (A comparative content analysis of Nazi Germany's environmentalism and four self-proclaimed ecofascist channels on Telegram) |type=Master's |first=Vilde |last=Skauge-Monsen |publisher=University of Oslo, Department of media and communication |date=June 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221211194212/https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/96491/1/Master-s-thesis-by-Vilde-Skauge-Monsen.pdf |archive-date=December 11, 2022}} In "Ecofascism: An Aberrant Branch of Leftism", he wrote: "The true anti-tech movement rejects every form of racism or ethnocentrism. This has nothing to do with 'tolerance,' 'diversity,' 'pluralism,' 'multiculturalism,' 'equality,' or 'social justice.' The rejection of racism and ethnocentrism is{{snd}}purely and simply{{snd}}a cardinal point of strategy." Kaczynski wrote that he considered fascism a "kook ideology" and Nazism as "evil".{{sfn|Hanrahan|2018}} Kaczynski never tried to align himself with the far-right at any point before or after his arrest.{{sfn|Hanrahan|2018}} He also criticized conservatives, describing them as "fools who whine about the decay of traditional values, yet... enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth"—things he argues have led to this decay.

James Q. Wilson, in a 1998 New York Times op-ed, wrote: "If it is the work of a madman, then the writings of many political philosophers—Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Karl Marx—are scarcely more sane."{{Cite magazine|first=William|last=Finnegan|date=May 20, 2011|title=The Unabomber Returns|url=http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-unabomber-returns|access-date=August 31, 2021|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-US|archive-date=April 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170428012228/http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-unabomber-returns|url-status=live}} He added: "The Unabomber does not like socialization, technology, leftist political causes or conservative attitudes. Apart from his call for an (unspecified) revolution, his paper resembles something that a very good graduate student might have written."{{cite news|last=Wilson|first=James Q.|author-link=James Q. Wilson|date=January 15, 1998|title=Opinion: In Search of Madness|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/opinion/in-search-of-madness.html|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=The New York Times|language=en|archive-date=June 15, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615220147/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/15/opinion/in-search-of-madness.html|url-status=live}}

Alston Chase, a fellow alumnus at Harvard University, wrote in 2000 for The Atlantic that "it is true that many believed Kaczynski was insane because they needed to believe it. But the truly disturbing aspect of Kaczynski and his ideas is not that they are so foreign but that they are so familiar." He argued: "We need to see Kaczynski as exceptional—madman or genius—because the alternative is so much more frightening."{{cite web|last=Chase|first=Alston|date=June 1, 2000|title=Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/|access-date=August 31, 2021|website=The Atlantic|language=en|archive-date=August 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821120634/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/|url-status=live}}

University of Michigan–Dearborn philosophy professor David Skrbina wrote the introduction to Kaczynski's 2010 anthology Technological Slavery, which includes the original manifesto, letters from Kaczynski to Skrbina, and other essays.{{Cite journal |last1=Young |first1=Jeffrey R. |title=The Unabomber's Pen Pal |journal=The Chronicle of Higher Education |publisher=The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. |volume=58 |issue=37 |pages=B6–B11 |date=May 25, 2012 |url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Unabombers-Pen-Pal/131892 |language=en-US |issn=0009-5982 |access-date=November 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009110626/http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Unabombers-Pen-Pal/131892/ |archive-date=October 9, 2017 |url-status=live }} Two further editions have been published since 2010, one in 2019 and another in 2022.{{Cite web |title=Technological Slavery, Volume One (2022)Theodore John Kaczynski |url=https://fitchmadison.com/product/technological-slavery-volume-one-2022/ |access-date=October 22, 2023 |website=Fitch & Madison |language=en-US |archive-date=October 29, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231029014927/https://fitchmadison.com/product/technological-slavery-volume-one-2022/ |url-status=live }} Kaczynski also wrote a second book in 2016 titled, Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, that does not include the manifesto, but delves deeply into an analysis of why technological society cannot be reformed and the dynamics of revolutionary movements.{{Cite web |last=Li |first=Ivy |title=A neo-Luddite manifesto? |url=https://thetech.com/2016/11/10/anti-tech-revolution-book-review |access-date=October 22, 2023 |website=The Tech |language=en |archive-date=December 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220205401/https://thetech.com/2016/11/10/anti-tech-revolution-book-review |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=MBR: Reviewer's Bookwatch, June 2018 |url=http://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/jun_18.htm#paul |access-date=October 22, 2023 |website=www.midwestbookreview.com |archive-date=May 26, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526215742/https://www.midwestbookreview.com/rbw/jun_18.htm#paul |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2020)Theodore John Kaczynski |url=https://fitchmadison.com/product/anti-tech-revolution-2020/ |access-date=October 22, 2023 |website=Fitch & Madison |language=en-US |archive-date=April 23, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423213429/https://fitchmadison.com/product/anti-tech-revolution-2020/ |url-status=live }}

According to a 2021 study, Kaczynski's manifesto "is a synthesis of ideas from three well-known academics: French philosopher Jacques Ellul, British zoologist Desmond Morris, and American psychologist Martin Seligman".{{Cite journal|last=Fleming|first=Sean|year=2021|title=The Unabomber and the origins of anti-tech radicalism|journal=Journal of Political Ideologies|volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=207–225|doi=10.1080/13569317.2021.1921940|issn=1356-9317|doi-access=free}}

File:FBI Reward poster Unabomber.jpg

Because of the material used to make the mail bombs, U.S. postal inspectors, who initially had responsibility for the case, labeled the suspect the "Junkyard Bomber".Graysmith (1998), p. 74. FBI Inspector Terry D. Turchie was appointed to run the UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber) investigation.{{Cite news|url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/New-Details-Of-Stakeout-In-Montana-3006937.php|title=New Details Of Stakeout in Montana|last=Taylor|first=Michael|date=May 5, 1998|work=San Francisco Chronicle |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180914203452/https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/New-Details-Of-Stakeout-In-Montana-3006937.php|archive-date=September 14, 2018|url-status=live}} In 1979, an FBI-led task force that included 125 agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service was formed. The task force grew to more than 150 full-time personnel, but minute analysis of recovered components of the bombs and the investigation into the lives of the victims proved of little use in identifying the suspect, who built the bombs primarily from scrap materials available almost anywhere. Investigators later learned that the victims were chosen indiscriminately from library research.{{cite web |title=Unabomber |url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/unabomber |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=February 15, 2021 |language=en-us |archive-date=February 21, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221210113/https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/unabomber |url-status=live }}

In 1980, chief agent John Douglas, working with agents in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, issued a psychological profile of the unidentified bomber. It described the offender as a man with above-average intelligence and connections to academia. This profile was later refined to characterize the offender as a neo-Luddite holding an academic degree in the hard sciences, but this psychologically-based profile was discarded in 1983. FBI analysts developed an alternative theory that concentrated on the physical evidence in recovered bomb fragments. In this rival profile, the suspect was characterized as a blue-collar airplane mechanic.{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/07/22/1996_07_22_026_TNY_CARDS_000375118|title=Don't Shoot|last=Franks |first=Lucinda|date=July 22, 1996|magazine=The New Yorker|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081226231551/http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/07/22/1996_07_22_026_TNY_CARDS_000375118|archive-date=December 26, 2008|url-status=live }} The UNABOM Task Force set up a toll-free telephone hotline to take calls related to the investigation, with a $1 million (equivalent to approximately ${{Inflation|US|1|1993|r=2}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) reward for anyone who could provide information leading to the Unabomber's capture.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/07/us/clue-and-1-million-reward-in-case-of-the-serial-bomber.html|title=Clue and $1 million Reward in Case of the Serial Bomber|last=Labaton|first=Stephen|date=October 7, 1993|work=The New York Times |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819150007/http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/07/us/clue-and-1-million-reward-in-case-of-the-serial-bomber.html|archive-date=August 19, 2017|url-status=live}}

Before the publication of Industrial Society and Its Future, Kaczynski's brother, David, was encouraged by his wife to follow up on suspicions that Ted was the Unabomber.{{cite news |url = http://www.rte.ie/radio1/whistleblowers/1160076.html |publisher = RTÉ Radio 1 |date = September 9, 2007 |author = Kaczynski, David |title = Programme 9: 9th September 2007 |access-date = February 4, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013215553/http://rte.ie/radio1/whistleblowers/1160076.html |archive-date = October 13, 2007 }} David was dismissive at first, but he took the likelihood more seriously after reading the manifesto a week after it was published in September 1995. He searched through old family papers and found letters dating to the 1970s that Ted had sent to newspapers to protest the abuses of technology using phrasing similar to that in the manifesto.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-investigation-long-twisting-trail-led-unabom-suspect-s-arrest.html |title = On the Suspect's Trail: the Investigation; Long and Twisting Trail Led To Unabom Suspect's Arrest |work = The New York Times |date = April 5, 1996 |author = Johnston, David |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170810092553/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/05/us/suspect-s-trail-investigation-long-twisting-trail-led-unabom-suspect-s-arrest.html |archive-date = August 10, 2017 }}

Before the manifesto's publication, the FBI held many press conferences asking the public to help identify the Unabomber. They were convinced that the bomber was from the Chicago area where he began his bombings, had worked in or had some connection to Salt Lake City, and by the 1990s had some association with the San Francisco Bay Area. This geographical information and the wording in excerpts from the manifesto that were released before the entire text of the manifesto was published persuaded David's wife to urge him to read it.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/07/us/tapestry-of-links-in-the-unabom-inquiry.html |title = Tapestry of Links in the Unabom Inquiry |work = The New York Times |date = April 7, 1996 |author = Perez-Pena, Richard |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170810092748/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/07/us/tapestry-of-links-in-the-unabom-inquiry.html |archive-date = August 10, 2017 }}{{cite news |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/trialstory.htm |title = FBI Gives Reward to Unabomber's Brother |newspaper = The Washington Post |date = August 21, 1998 |author = Claiborne, William |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110504021134/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/trialstory.htm |archive-date = May 4, 2011 }}

File:Unabomber - FBI Sketch 1987.jpg

After the manifesto was published, the FBI received thousands of tips. While the FBI reviewed new leads, Kaczynski's brother, David, hired private investigator Susan Swanson in Chicago to investigate Ted's activities discreetly.{{cite news |last1=Kovaleski |first1=Serge F. |last2=Thomas |first2=Pierre |title=Brother Hired Own Investigator |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/09/brother-hired-own-investigator/6df04cc2-ac90-47c8-8908-17b6a6e47b16/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 9, 1996 |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=April 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419032929/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/04/09/brother-hired-own-investigator/6df04cc2-ac90-47c8-8908-17b6a6e47b16/ |url-status=live }} David later hired Washington, D.C. attorney Tony Bisceglie to organize the evidence acquired by Swanson and contact the FBI, given the presumed difficulty of attracting the FBI's attention. Kaczynski's family wanted to protect him from the danger of an FBI raid, such as those at Ruby Ridge or Waco, since they feared a violent outcome from any attempt by the FBI to contact Kaczynski.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/10/us/in-unabom-case-pain-for-suspect-s-family.html |title = In Unabom Case, Pain for Suspect's Family |work = The New York Times |first = Pam |last = Belluck |date = April 10, 1996 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170810092506/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/10/us/in-unabom-case-pain-for-suspect-s-family.html |archive-date = August 10, 2017 }}{{cite news |last1=Kovaleski |first1=Serge F. |title=His Brother's Keeper |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/2001/07/15/his-brothers-keeper/ffde75cc-311c-4054-aff6-4e187b7e0986/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=July 15, 2001 |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=July 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220706163343/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/magazine/2001/07/15/his-brothers-keeper/ffde75cc-311c-4054-aff6-4e187b7e0986/ |url-status=live }}

In early 1996, an investigator working with Bisceglie contacted former FBI hostage negotiator and criminal profiler Clinton R. Van Zandt. Bisceglie asked him to compare the manifesto to typewritten copies of handwritten letters David had received from his brother. Van Zandt's initial analysis determined that there was better than a 60 percent chance that the same person had written the manifesto, which had been in public circulation for half a year. Van Zandt's second analytical team determined a higher likelihood. He recommended Bisceglie's client contact the FBI immediately.

In February 1996, Bisceglie gave a copy of the 1971 essay written by Kaczynski to Molly Flynn at the FBI. She forwarded the essay to the San Francisco-based task force. FBI profiler James R. Fitzgerald{{cite news |url = http://www.fbinaa.org/FBINAA/Associate/Historian%20JF.aspx |title = Historian Spotlight – James Fitzgerald |work = The FBI National Academy Associates Inc. |first = Pat |last = Davis |date = January–February 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180222213710/http://www.fbinaa.org/FBINAA/Associate/Historian%20JF.aspx |archive-date = February 22, 2018 }}{{cite news |url = https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=545122205&t=1536617392507 |title = FBI Profiler Says Linguistic Work Was Pivotal in Capture Of Unabomber |publisher = National Public Radio, Inc.|first = Dave |last = Davies|date = August 22, 2017|url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180910222629/https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=545122205&t=1536617392507 |archive-date = September 10, 2018 }} recognized similarities in the writings using linguistic analysis and determined that the author of the essays and the manifesto was almost certainly the same person. Combined with facts gleaned from the bombings and Kaczynski's life, the analysis provided the basis for an affidavit signed by Terry Turchie, the head of the entire investigation, in support of the application for a search warrant.

Kaczynski's brother, David, had tried to remain anonymous, but he was soon identified. Within a few days, an FBI agent team was dispatched to interview David and his wife with their attorney in Washington, D.C. At this and subsequent meetings, David provided letters written by his brother in their original envelopes, allowing the FBI task force to use the postmark dates to add more detail to their timeline of Ted's activities.{{cite news |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/05/us/17-year-search-an-emotional-discovery-and-terror-ends.html |title = 17-Year Search, an Emotional Discovery and Terror Ends |work = The New York Times |date = May 5, 1998 |author = Johnston, David |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170819190143/http://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/05/us/17-year-search-an-emotional-discovery-and-terror-ends.html |archive-date = August 19, 2017 }}

David had once admired and emulated his older brother but had since left the survivalist lifestyle behind.{{cite magazine |url = http://stephenjdubner.com/journalism/101899.html |title = I Don't Want To Live Long. I Would Rather Get The Death Penalty Than Spend The Rest of My Life in Prison |magazine = Time |date = October 18, 1999 |author = Dubner, Stephen J. |access-date = February 4, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20021204180406/http://www.stephenjdubner.com/journalism/101899.html |archive-date = December 4, 2002 }} He had received assurances from the FBI that he would remain anonymous and that his brother would not learn who had turned him in, but his identity was leaked to CBS News in early April 1996. CBS anchorman Dan Rather called FBI director Louis Freeh, who requested 24 hours before CBS broke the story on the evening news. The FBI scrambled to finish the search warrant and have it issued by a federal judge in Montana; afterward, the FBI conducted an internal leak investigation, but the source of the leak was never identified.

FBI officials were not unanimous in identifying Ted as the author of the manifesto. The search warrant noted that several experts believed the manifesto had been written by another individual.

File:Tk arrest.jpg

FBI agents arrested an unkempt Kaczynski at his cabin on April 3, 1996. A search revealed a cache of bomb components, 40,000 hand-written journal pages that included bomb-making experiments, descriptions of the Unabomber crimes, improvised firearms, and one live bomb.{{Cite web |date=2007-03-15 |title=cbs5.com – Unabom Case: Exhibits & Evidence |url=http://cbs5.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_332010422/view?slide=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315180754/http://cbs5.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_332010422/view?slide=1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2007-03-15 |access-date=2024-11-08 }} They also found what appeared to be the original typed manuscript of Industrial Society and Its Future.{{cite news |url = http://edition.cnn.com/EVENTS/1996/year.in.review/topten/unabomb/unabomb.index.html |title = Unabomber suspect is caught, ending eight-year man-hunt |publisher = CNN |year = 1996 |url-status=dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081008015428/http://edition.cnn.com/EVENTS/1996/year.in.review/topten/unabomb/unabomb.index.html |archive-date = October 8, 2008 }}{{Cite web|title=Video: Unabomber captured in 1996 after 17 years on the run|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/unabomber-captured-1996-17-years-run-58740351|access-date=May 2, 2021|website=ABC News|language=en|archive-date=May 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502074304/https://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/unabomber-captured-1996-17-years-run-58740351|url-status=live}} By this point, the Unabomber had been the target of the most expensive investigation in FBI history at the time.{{cite web |last=Howlett |first=Debbie |date=November 13, 1996 |title=FBI Profile: Suspect is educated and isolated |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/una12.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602125224/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/index/una12.htm |archive-date=June 2, 2016 |access-date=July 13, 2017 |website=USA Today |quote=The 17-year search for the bomber has been the longest and costliest investigation in FBI history. }}{{cite news |url = http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/unabomb/ |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060618112917/http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/unabomb/ |archive-date = June 18, 2006 |title = The Unabomb Trial |publisher = CNN |year = 1997 }} A 2000 report by the United States Commission on the Advancement of Federal Law Enforcement stated that the task force had spent over $50 million (equivalent to approximately ${{Inflation|US|50|2000|r=1}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) on the investigation.{{cite web|url =https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/law-enforcement-new-century-and-changing-world#additional-details-0|title =Law Enforcement in a New Century and a Changing World|year =2000|author =Federal Commission on the Advancement of Federal Law Enforcement|id ={{NCJ|181343}}|access-date =March 11, 2021|archive-date =April 14, 2021|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210414013545/https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/law-enforcement-new-century-and-changing-world#additional-details-0|url-status =live}}

After his capture, theories emerged naming Kaczynski as the Zodiac Killer, who murdered five people in Northern California from 1968 to 1969. Among the links that raised suspicion were that Kaczynski lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1967 to 1969, that both individuals were highly intelligent with an interest in bombs and codes, and that both wrote letters to newspapers demanding the publication of their works with the threat of continued violence if the demand was not met. Kaczynski's whereabouts could not be verified for all of the killings. Since the gun and knife murders committed by the Zodiac Killer differed from Kaczynski's bombings, authorities did not pursue him as a suspect. Robert Graysmith, author of the 1986 book Zodiac, said the similarities are "fascinating" but purely coincidental.{{cite news |url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1996/05/14/MN44704.DTL&type=printable |title = Kaczynski, Zodiac Killer – the Same Guy? |last1 = Fagan |first1 = Kevin |last2 = Wallace |first2 = Bill |date = May 14, 1996 |work = San Francisco Chronicle |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110429204619/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F1996%2F05%2F14%2FMN44704.DTL&type=printable |archive-date = April 29, 2011 }}

At one point in 1993, investigators sought someone whose first name was "Nathan" because the name was imprinted on the envelope of a letter sent to the media.{{cite news |title = Death in the Mail – Tracking a Killer: A special report.; Investigators Have Many Clues and Theories, but Still No Suspect in 15 Bombings |first1 = Ralph |last1 = Blumenthal |first2 = N. R. |last2 = Kleinfield |work = The New York Times |date = December 18, 1994 |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/18/nyregion/death-mail-tracking-killer-special-report-investigators-have-many-clues-theories.html |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170810092635/http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/18/nyregion/death-mail-tracking-killer-special-report-investigators-have-many-clues-theories.html |archive-date = August 10, 2017 }}

File:Ted Kaczynski full mugshot.jpg mugshot of Kaczynski, 1996]]

A federal grand jury indicted Kaczynski in June 1996 on ten counts of illegally transporting, mailing, and using bombs.{{cite web |last1=Gladstone |first1=Mark |title=Kaczynski Indicted in 4 Unabomber Attacks |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-19-mn-16496-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=June 19, 1996 |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=April 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413224329/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-06-19-mn-16496-story.html |url-status=live }} Kaczynski's lawyers, headed by Montana federal public defenders Michael Donahoe and Judy Clarke, attempted to enter an insanity defense to avoid the death penalty, but Kaczynski rejected this strategy. On January 8, 1998, he asked to dismiss his lawyers and hire Tony Serra as his counsel; Serra had agreed not to use an insanity defense and instead promised to base a defense on Kaczynski's anti-technology views.{{cite web |url = https://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/010898unabomb-trial.html |title = Kaczynski Tries Unsuccessfully to Dismiss His Lawyers |first = William |last = Glaberson |website = The New York Times |date = January 8, 1998 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131205120721/http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/010898unabomb-trial.html |archive-date = December 5, 2013 }}{{cite news |url = https://www.wired.com/1998/01/kaczynski-demands-to-represent-himself/ |title = Kaczynski Demands to Represent Himself |magazine = Wired | agency = Reuters |date = January 8, 1998 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171003075535/https://www.wired.com/1998/01/kaczynski-demands-to-represent-himself/ |archive-date = October 3, 2017 }}{{cite news |newspaper = The New York Times |last1 = Glaberson |first1 = William |date = January 8, 1998 |title = Kaczynski Can't Drop Lawyers Or Block a Mental Illness Defense |url = https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/08/us/kaczynski-can-t-drop-lawyers-or-block-a-mental-illness-defense.html |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130524110859/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/08/us/kaczynski-can-t-drop-lawyers-or-block-a-mental-illness-defense.html |archive-date = May 24, 2013 }} After this request was unsuccessful, Kaczynski tried to kill himself on January 9.{{cite news |url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/45938.stm |title = Suspected Unabomber in suicide attempt |work = BBC News |date = January 9, 1998 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171003080016/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/45938.stm |archive-date = October 3, 2017 }} Sally Johnson, the psychiatrist who examined Kaczynski, concluded that he suffered from "paranoid" schizophrenia, though the validity of this diagnosis has been criticized.{{cite web |last1=Suzanne |first1=Marmion |title=Unabomber's Psychiatric Profile Reveals Gender Identity Struggle |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-09-12-9809120119-story.html |website=Chicago Tribune |date=September 12, 1998 |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=December 15, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201215092919/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1998-09-12-9809120119-story.html |url-status=live }}

Forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz said Kaczynski was not psychotic, but had a schizoid or schizotypal personality disorder.{{cite web |url = https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evil-deeds/200804/terrorism-resentment-and-the-unabomber |title = Terrorism, Resentment and the Unabomber |first = Stephen A. |last = Diamond |website = Psychology Today |date = April 8, 2008 }} In his 2010 book Technological Slavery, Kaczynski said that two prison psychologists who visited him frequently for four years told him they saw no indication that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and the diagnosis was "ridiculous" and a "political diagnosis".Kaczynski (2010), p. 42. Some contemporary authors suggest that people (notably Kaczynski's brother and mother) purposely spread the image of Kaczynski as mentally ill intending to save his life.{{cite news |magazine = The Atlantic Monthly |last1 = Alston |first1 = Chase |date = June 2000 |title = Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber |url = http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/?single_page=true |url-status=live |volume = 285 |issue = 6 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141024101112/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/06/harvard-and-the-making-of-the-unabomber/378239/?single_page=true |archive-date = October 24, 2014 |access-date = November 4, 2022 }} "Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School, is the author of He and William Finnegan, a writer for The New Yorker, have suggested that Kaczynski's brother, David, his mother, Wanda, and their lawyer, Tony Bisceglie, along with Kaczynski's defense attorneys, persuaded many in the media to portray Kaczynski as a paranoid schizophrenic. To a degree this is true. Anxious to save Kaczynski from execution [...]"

On January 21, 1998, Kaczynski was declared competent to stand trial by federal prison psychiatrist Johnson "despite the psychiatric diagnoses" and prosecutors sought the death penalty.{{cite web |url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/01/21/doctor-says-kaczynski-is-competent-for-trial/ |title = Doctor Says Kaczynski Is Competent For Trial |first = Maurice |last = Possley |website = Chicago Tribune |date = January 21, 1998 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171003075440/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1998-01-21/news/9801210055_1_dr-sally-johnson-quin-denvir-unabomber-defendant-theodore-kaczynski |archive-date = October 3, 2017 }} Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all charges on January 22, 1998, accepting life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He later tried to withdraw this plea, claiming the judge had coerced him, but Judge Garland Ellis Burrell Jr. denied his request and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld that denial.{{cite web |last1=Weinstein |first1=Henry |title=Retrial Rejected for Unabomber |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-13-mn-24748-story.html |website=Los Angeles Times |date=February 13, 2001 |access-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-date=April 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413224138/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-13-mn-24748-story.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |access-date = July 5, 2008 |url = http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/ |title = The Unabomber: A Chronology (The Trial) |publisher = Court TV |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080630232503/http://www.courttv.com/trials/unabomber/chronology/ |archive-date = June 30, 2008 }}

In 2006, Burrell ordered that items from Kaczynski's cabin be sold at a "reasonably advertised Internet auction". Items considered to be bomb-making materials, such as diagrams and "recipes" for bombs, were excluded. The net proceeds went toward the $15 million (equivalent to approximately ${{Inflation|US|15|2006|r=2}} million in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}) in restitution Burrell had awarded Kaczynski's victims.{{cite news |url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/12/BAG1AKHEHF1.DTL |title = Unabomber's journal, other items to be put up for auction online |work = San Francisco Chronicle |date = August 12, 2006 |author = Taylor, Michael |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081227011117/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2006%2F08%2F12%2FBAG1AKHEHF1.DTL |archive-date = December 27, 2008 }} Kaczynski's correspondence and other personal papers were also auctioned.{{cite journal |last1=Prendergast |first1=Catherine |title=The Fighting Style: Reading the Unabomber's Strunk and White |journal=College English |year=2009 |volume=72 |issue=1 |pages=10–28 |doi=10.58680/ce20097950 |jstor=25653005 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25653005 |issn=0010-0994 |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=April 3, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210403023832/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25653005 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Perrone |first=Jane |date=July 27, 2005 |title=Crime Pays |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2005/jul/27/theunabombert |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113085745/https://www.theguardian.com/news/blog/2005/jul/27/theunabombert |website = The Guardian |archive-date=January 13, 2017 }}{{cite web |last1=Hong-Gong |first1=Lin II |last2=Lee |first2=Wendy |date=July 26, 2005 |title=Unabomber 'Murderabilian' for Sale |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jul-26-me-unabomber26-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160124164000/http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jul/26/local/me-unabomber26 |archive-date=January 24, 2016 |website=Los Angeles Times}} Burrell ordered the removal, before sale, of references in those documents to Kaczynski's victims; Kaczynski unsuccessfully challenged those redactions as a violation of his freedom of speech.{{cite news |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081202660.html |title = Unabomber Objects to Newseum's Exhibit |newspaper = The Washington Post |date = August 13, 2008 |author = Trescott, Jacqueline |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080910123538/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081202660.html |archive-date = September 10, 2008 }}{{cite news |url = http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/09/BABJ1573QM.DTL |title = Unabomber's items can be auctioned |work = San Francisco Chronicle |date = January 9, 2009 |first = Bob |last = Egelko |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090715234753/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2009%2F01%2F09%2FBABJ1573QM.DTL |archive-date = July 15, 2009 }} The auction ran for two weeks in 2011, and raised over $232,000

(equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|232000|2011|r=-2}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{Inflation/fn|US}}).{{cite magazine |url = https://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/unabomber-online-auction/ |first = David |last = Kravets |title = Photo Gallery: Weird Government 'Unabomber' Auction Winds Down |date = June 2, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120609212718/http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/06/unabomber-online-auction/ |magazine = Wired |archive-date = June 9, 2012 }} Following Kaczynski's sentencing to life without parole, he gifted his cabin to Scharlette Holdman, an anti-death penalty activist and mitigation specialist who played a role in preventing him from receiving the death penalty. The U.S. government refused to allow Holdman to keep the shack.{{Cite magazine |last=Toobin |first=Jeffrey |date=2011-05-02 |title=The Mitigator |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/09/the-mitigator |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230610231602/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/09/the-mitigator |archive-date=2023-06-10 |access-date=2023-06-10 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}

File:Kaczynski in prison.jpg

Almost immediately after being convicted, Kaczynski began serving his life sentences{{efn|name=sentences}} without the possibility of parole at ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.{{cite news |work = The New York Times |date = January 22, 2007 |title = Unabomber Wages Legal Battle to Halt the Sale of Papers |author = Kovaleski, Serge F. |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/us/22unabomber.html |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090424180323/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/us/22unabomber.html |archive-date = April 24, 2009 }}{{cite web |title=Theodore John Kaczynski Register Number: 04475-046 |url=http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=04475-046 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430044737/http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=04475-046 |archive-date=April 30, 2011 |access-date=January 17, 2021 |publisher = Federal Bureau of Prisons}} Early in his imprisonment, Kaczynski befriended Ramzi Yousef and Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, respectively; they discussed religion and politics and formed a friendship which lasted until McVeigh's execution in 2001.{{Cite news |url = https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-unabomber-s-not-so-lonely-prison-life-210559693.html |title = The Unabomber's not-so-lonely prison life |last=Bailey|first=Holly |publisher= Yahoo! |date=January 29, 2016 |language = en-US |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171011022315/https://www.yahoo.com/news/the-unabomber-s-not-so-lonely-prison-life-210559693.html |archive-date = October 11, 2017 }} Kaczynski stated about Timothy McVeigh: "On a personal level I like McVeigh and I imagine that most people would like him," but also stated, "assuming that the Oklahoma City bombing was intended as a protest against the U.S. government in general and against the government's actions at Waco in particular, I will say that I think the bombing was a bad action because it was unnecessarily inhumane."{{Cite web |title=Ted Kaczynski's Comments on Timothy McVeigh |url=https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-ted-kaczynski-s-comments-on-timothy-mcveigh |access-date=June 12, 2023 |website=The Anarchist Library |language=en |archive-date=June 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612103059/https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ted-kaczynski-ted-kaczynski-s-comments-on-timothy-mcveigh |url-status=live }}

In October 2005, Kaczynski offered to donate two rare books to the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, the location of his first two attacks. The library rejected the offer because it already had copies of the works.{{cite web |last=Pond |first=Lauren |date=October 31, 2005 |title=NU rejects Unabomber's offer of rare African books |url=http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2005/10/31/Campus/Nu.Rejects.Unabombers.Offer.Of.Rare.African.Books-1919796.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024184507/http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2005/10/31/Campus/Nu.Rejects.Unabombers.Offer.Of.Rare.African.Books-1919796.shtml |archive-date=October 24, 2008 |work=The Daily Northwestern}} The Labadie Collection, part of the University of Michigan's Special Collections Library, houses Kaczynski's correspondence with over 400 people since his arrest, including replies, legal documents, publications, and clippings in their own sub-collection titled, "Ted Kaczynski Papers, 1996–2014 (majority within 1996–2005)".{{Cite web |last1=Herrada |first1=Julie |last2=Klopfer |first2=Lisa |last3=Keen |first3=Sarah |last4=Barrett |first4=Laura |last5=Lovick |first5=Will |last6=Pal |first6=Rosemary |last7=Bourbeau-Allard |first7=Ève |last8=Huang |first8=Jackson |date=December 1999 |title=Ted Kaczynski Papers, 1996–2014 (majority within 1996–2005) |url=https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-scl-kaczynski |access-date=December 7, 2024 |website=University of Michigan Library}}{{cite journal |last1=Herrada |first1=Julie |date=2003–2004 |title=Letters to the Unabomber: A Case Study and Some Reflections |url=https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/45968/MA28_1_4.pdf?sequence=3 |url-status=live |journal=Archival Issues |location=Madison, Wisconsin |publisher=Midwest Archives Conference |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=35–46 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221162800/https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/45968/MA28_1_4.pdf?sequence=3 |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |access-date=January 19, 2021}}{{cite news |last1=Bailey |first1=Holly |date=January 25, 2016 |title=Letters from a serial killer: Inside the Unabomber archive |newspaper=Yahoo News |url=https://news.yahoo.com/letters-from-a-serial-killer--inside-the-unabomber-archive-234543736.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125105935/http://news.yahoo.com/letters-from-a-serial-killer--inside-the-unabomber-archive-234543736.html |archive-date=January 25, 2016 |quote=It has been almost 20 years since Ted Kaczynski's trail of terror came to an end. Now a huge trove of his personal writings has come to light, revealing the workings of his mind—and the life he leads behind bars. }} His writings are among the most popular selections in the University of Michigan's special collections. The identity of most correspondents will remain sealed until 2049.{{cite web |title=Labadie Manuscripts |url=http://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/Record/004130546/Description#summary |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223072703/https://mirlyn.lib.umich.edu/Record/004130546/Description |archive-date=February 23, 2017 |access-date=August 27, 2013 |publisher=University of Michigan Library |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan }} In 2012, Kaczynski responded to the Harvard Alumni Association's directory inquiry for the fiftieth reunion of the class of 1962; he listed his occupation as "prisoner" and eight life sentences as "awards."{{efn|name=sentences}}{{cite web|url=https://www.boston.com/uncategorized/noprimarytagmatch/2012/05/23/ted-kaczynski-the-unabomber-lists-himself-in-harvard-1962-alumni-report-says-awards-include-eight-life-sentences|title=Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, lists himself in Harvard 1962 alumni report; says 'awards' include eight life sentences |website=The Boston Globe |first=Alli |last=Knothe |date=May 23, 2012 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426131046/https://www.boston.com/uncategorized/noprimarytagmatch/2012/05/23/ted-kaczynski-the-unabomber-lists-himself-in-harvard-1962-alumni-report-says-awards-include-eight-life-sentences |archive-date=April 26, 2020 }}

In 2011, Kaczynski was a person of interest in the Chicago Tylenol murders. Kaczynski was willing to provide a DNA sample to the FBI but later withheld it as a bargaining chip for his legal efforts against the FBI's private auction of his confiscated property.{{cite web |last1=Ryan |first1=Jason |title=FBI Probes Unabomber Connection to Tylenol Murders |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-probes-unabomber-connection-tylenol-killings/story?id=13638602 |website=ABC News |publisher=Walt Disney Television |access-date=April 12, 2022 |archive-date=April 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412054127/https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-probes-unabomber-connection-tylenol-killings/story?id=13638602 |url-status=live }} The U.S. government seized Kaczynski's cabin, which they put on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., until late 2019, when it was transferred to a nearby FBI museum.{{cite web |title=Newseum – Unabomber |url=https://www.newseum.org/exhibits/current/abc-news-changing-exhibits-gallery/unabomber/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141201060916/http://www1.newseum.org/exhibits-and-theaters/temporary-exhibits/g-men-and-journalists/unabomber/index.html |archive-date=December 1, 2014 |access-date=April 1, 2015 |publisher=Newseum }}{{cite news |last=Manning |first=Tyler |date=April 4, 2021 |title=Unabomber's cabin remains on display in DC |newspaper=Independent Record |url=https://helenair.com/news/local/unabombers-cabin-remains-on-display-in-dc/article_2aa2b951-6264-5e18-86c4-c193e4e01dfb.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404140520/https://helenair.com/news/local/unabombers-cabin-remains-on-display-in-dc/article_2aa2b951-6264-5e18-86c4-c193e4e01dfb.html |archive-date=April 4, 2021 }}

In March 2021, Kaczynski was diagnosed with rectal cancer.{{cite web |last1=Ortiz |first1=Erik |last2=Kosnar |first2=Michael |title='Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski had late-stage rectal cancer and was 'depressed' before prison suicide, autopsy says |date=April 17, 2024 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/unabomber-ted-kaczynski-late-stage-rectal-cancer-was-depressed-prison-rcna147819 |publisher=NBC News |access-date=April 18, 2024}} Kaczynski complained of rectal bleeding in March 2021, and on December 14, 2021, he was transferred to Federal Medical Center, Butner, in North Carolina.{{cite news |last=Zapotosky |first=Matt |date=December 23, 2021 |title=Ted Kaczynski, the 79-year-old Unabomber, transferred to prison medical facility |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/unabomber-kaczynski-hospital-ill/2021/12/22/4f773f82-6367-11ec-8ce3-9454d0b46d42_story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211222222821/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/unabomber-kaczynski-hospital-ill/2021/12/22/4f773f82-6367-11ec-8ce3-9454d0b46d42_story.html |archive-date=December 22, 2021 |access-date=December 23, 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post}} Kaczynski was receiving biweekly chemotherapy until March 2023, when he began to decline all treatment due to unpleasant side effects and his poor prognosis. In May 2023, Kaczynski was noted by a prison oncologist to be "depressed" and was referred for a psychiatric evaluation.

At 12:23 a.m. on June 10, 2023, Kaczynski was found in his cell unresponsive with no pulse after hanging himself from a handicap rail with a shoelace. Prison employees immediately began resuscitation measures, including chest compressions. He was taken to Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, where his blood pressure remained low until he was pronounced dead at 8:07 A.M. EDT.

Kaczynski has been portrayed in and inspired artistic works in popular culture.{{cite news |last1=Gabriel |first1=Trip |title=Popular Culture Sets Sights on Unabomber |url=https://nytimes.com/1996/04/21/style/popular-culture-sets-sights-on-unabomber.html |website=The New York Times |date=April 21, 1996 |access-date=March 2, 2021 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414012534/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/21/style/popular-culture-sets-sights-on-unabomber.html |url-status=live }} These include the 1996 television film Unabomber: The True Story, the 2011 play P.O. Box Unabomber, the 2012 documentary Stemple Pass, Manhunt: Unabomber, the 2017 season of the television series Manhunt, the 2020 miniseries Unabomber: In His Own Words and the 2021 film Ted K.{{cite web |last1=Canton |first1=Maj |title=Unabomber: The True Story |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/film/wht6/unabomber-the-true-story/ |website=Radio Times |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=April 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413223944/https://www.radiotimes.com/film/wht6/unabomber-the-true-story/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=P.O. Box Unabomber |url=https://www.36monkeys.org/en/projects/p-o-box-unabomber/ |website=36 Monkeys |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=April 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414011424/https://www.36monkeys.org/en/projects/p-o-box-unabomber/ |url-status=dead }}{{Citation |last=Benning |first=James |title=Stemple Pass |date=October 1, 2012 |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2652874/?ref_=kw_li_tt |type=Documentary |access-date=October 22, 2023 |publisher=James Benning}}{{cite web |last1=Pedersen |first1=Erik |title='Manhunt: Unabomber' Trailer: FBI Profiler Hunts An Unusual Serial Killer |url=https://deadline.com/2017/06/manhunt-unabomber-trailer-sam-worthington-paul-bettany-discovery-1202107790/ |website=Deadline Hollywood |date=June 5, 2017 |access-date=March 21, 2021 |archive-date=June 5, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170605231119/https://deadline.com/2017/06/manhunt-unabomber-trailer-sam-worthington-paul-bettany-discovery-1202107790/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/wellington/ted-k/|title=Ted K|publisher=NZIFF|access-date=November 19, 2021|archive-date=November 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211119113143/https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/wellington/ted-k/|url-status=live}} He was portrayed by Sharlto Copley and Paul Bettany in Ted K and Manhunt respectively. The moniker "Unabomber" was also applied to the Italian Unabomber, a terrorist who conducted attacks similar to Kaczynski's in Italy from 1994 to 2006.{{cite news |title=Italian 'Unabomber' strikes again |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2978509.stm |website=BBC News |date=April 26, 2003 |access-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125204640/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2978509.stm |url-status=live }} Prior to the 1996 United States presidential election, a campaign called "Unabomber for President" was launched with the goal of electing Kaczynski as president through write-in votes.{{cite web |last1=Winokur |first1=Scott |title=The 'Unabomber for President' campaign |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-Unabomber-for-President-campaign-3123958.php |website=San Francisco Chronicle |date=September 17, 1996 |access-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-date=February 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205092008/https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-Unabomber-for-President-campaign-3123958.php |url-status=live }}

In his book The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), futurist Ray Kurzweil quoted a passage from Kaczynski's manifesto Industrial Society and Its Future.{{cite magazine|url =https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/flashback-unabomber-publishes-his-manifesto-125449/|title =Flashback: Unabomber Publishes His 'Manifesto'|first =Jason|last =Diamond|magazine =Rolling Stone|date =August 17, 2017|access-date =February 17, 2021|archive-date =April 13, 2021|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210413223942/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/flashback-unabomber-publishes-his-manifesto-125449/|url-status =live}} Kaczynski was referenced by Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, in the 2000 Wired article "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us". Joy stated that Kaczynski "is clearly a Luddite, but simply saying this does not dismiss his argument".{{cite magazine|url =https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/|title =Why the Future Doesn't Need Us|first =Bill|last =Joy|magazine =Wired|date =April 1, 2000|access-date =February 17, 2021|archive-date =March 18, 2014|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140318160824/http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy_pr.html|url-status =live}}{{cite web|url =https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-unabombers-pen-pal/|title =The Unabomber's Pen Pal|first =Jeffrey R.|last =Young|website =The Chronicle of Higher Education|date =May 20, 2012|access-date =February 23, 2021|archive-date =February 28, 2021|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210228214403/https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-unabombers-pen-pal/|url-status =live}} Professor Jean-Marie Apostolidès has raised questions surrounding the ethics of spreading Kaczynski's views.{{cite web |last1=Haven |first1=Cynthia |title=Unabomber's writings raise uneasy ethical questions for Stanford scholar |url=https://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/february1/unabomber-ethics-question-020110.html |website=Stanford University |date=February 1, 2010 |access-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-date=February 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208174522/https://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/february1/unabomber-ethics-question-020110.html |url-status=live }} Various radical movements and extremists have been influenced by Kaczynski. People inspired by Kaczynski's ideas show up in unexpected places, from nihilist, anarchist, and eco-extremist movements to conservative intellectuals.{{cite web | url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html | title=Children of Ted Two decades after his last deadly act of ecoterrorism, the Unabomber has become an unlikely prophet to a new generation of acolytes. | work=New York | date=December 11, 2018 | author=John H. Richardson | access-date=February 14, 2021 | archive-date=February 9, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209231754/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/the-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-new-generation-of-acolytes.html | url-status=live }} Anders Behring Breivik, the far-right perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks,{{cite news |last1=Hall |first1=John |title=Anders Breivik admits massacre but pleads not guilty claiming it was self defence |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anders-breivik-admits-massacre-pleads-not-guilty-claiming-it-was-self-defence-7647009.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anders-breivik-admits-massacre-pleads-not-guilty-claiming-it-was-self-defence-7647009.html |archive-date=May 26, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=The Independent |language=en |date=April 16, 2012}} published a manifesto which copied large portions from Industrial Society and Its Future, with certain terms substituted (e.g., replacing "leftists" with "cultural Marxists" and "multiculturalists").{{cite news |last = Hough |first = Andrew |title = Norway shooting: Anders Behring Breivik plagiarised 'Unabomber' |url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8658269/Norway-shooting-Anders-Behring-Breivik-plagiarised-Unabomber.html |newspaper = The Daily Telegraph |date = July 24, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724220459/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/norway/8658269/Norway-shooting-Anders-Behring-Breivik-plagiarised-Unabomber.html |archive-date = July 24, 2011 }}{{cite journal |last1=Van Gerven Oei |first1=Vincent W. J. |title=Anders Breivik: On Copying the Obscure |journal=Continent |year=2011 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=213–223 |url=http://www.continentcontinent.cc/index.php/continent/article/view/56 |access-date=March 15, 2019 |archive-date=July 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716125213/http://www.continentcontinent.cc/index.php/continent/article/view/56 |url-status=dead }}

Over twenty years after Kaczynski's imprisonment, his views had inspired an online community of primitivists and neo-Luddites. One explanation for the renewal of interest in his views is the television series Manhunt: Unabomber, which aired in 2017.{{cite magazine |last1=Hanrahan |first1=Jake |title=Inside the Unabomber's odd and furious online revival |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/unabomber-netflix-tv-series-ted-kaczynski |access-date=October 23, 2019 |magazine=Wired UK |date=August 1, 2018 |archive-date=May 13, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513064547/https://www.wired.co.uk/article/unabomber-netflix-tv-series-ted-kaczynski |url-status=live }} Another explanation is that a new generation has adopted Kaczynski's anti-tech philosophy because they believe his reasoning is sound and his "observations about technology and the environment have proven to be prescient".{{Cite journal |last=Oleson |first=James C. |date=November 9, 2023 |title=A requiem for the Unabomber |journal=Contemporary Justice Review |volume=26 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=171–199 |doi=10.1080/10282580.2023.2279312 |s2cid=265181918 |issn=1028-2580|doi-access=free }} Kaczynski is also frequently referred to by ecofascists online.{{cite web |last1=Wilson |first1=Jason |title=Eco-fascism is undergoing a revival in the fetid culture of the extreme right |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2019/mar/20/eco-fascism-is-undergoing-a-revival-in-the-fetid-culture-of-the-extreme-right |website=The Guardian |language=en |date=March 19, 2019 |access-date=February 23, 2021 |archive-date=January 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130064701/https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2019/mar/20/eco-fascism-is-undergoing-a-revival-in-the-fetid-culture-of-the-extreme-right |url-status=live }} Although some militant fascist and neo-Nazi groups idolize him, Kaczynski described fascism in his manifesto as a "kook ideology" and Nazism as "evil". Merrick Garland, who would later serve as United States Attorney General, has cited the Unabomber case as among the most important cases he worked on.{{Cite news |title=How the Oklahoma City bombing case prepared Merrick Garland to take on domestic terrorism |language=en-US |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/merrick-garland-oklahoma-city-bombing/2021/02/19/a9e6adde-67f2-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html |access-date=March 3, 2023 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=April 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409015842/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/merrick-garland-oklahoma-city-bombing/2021/02/19/a9e6adde-67f2-11eb-8468-21bc48f07fe5_story.html |url-status=live }}

• {{cite journal |jstor = 2312328|title = Another Proof of Wedderburn's Theorem |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = American Mathematical Monthly |volume=71 |issue=6 |pages=652–653 |date = June–July 1964 |doi = 10.2307/2312328 |ref=none }} A proof of Wedderburn's little theorem in abstract algebra
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |jstor = 2312349|title = Advanced Problem 5210 |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = American Mathematical Monthly |volume=71 |issue=6 |page=689 |date = June–July 1964 |doi = 10.2307/2312349|ref=none }} A challenge problem in abstract algebra
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |jstor = 2313887|title = Distributivity and (−1)x = −x (Advanced Problem 5210, with Solution by Bilyeu, R.G.) |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = American Mathematical Monthly |volume=72 |issue=6 |pages=677–678 |date = June–July 1965 |doi = 10.2307/2313887|ref=none }} Reprint and solution to "Advanced Problem 5210" (above)
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |url = http://www.iumj.indiana.edu/IUMJ/FULLTEXT/1965/14/14039 |title = Boundary Functions for Functions Defined in a Disk. |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Journal of Mathematics and Mechanics |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=589–612 |date = July 1965 |ref=none }}
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |url = http://projecteuclid.org/download/pdf_1/euclid.mmj/1031732782 |title = On a Boundary Property of Continuous Functions |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Michigan Mathematical Journal |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=313–320 |date = November 1966 |doi=10.1307/mmj/1031732782|doi-access = free |ref=none }}
• {{cite thesis |author-mask = 2 |title = Boundary Functions |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |type=PhD |publisher= University of Michigan |date = 1967 |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_John_Kaczynski_-_Boundary_functions_(1967).pdf }} Kaczynski's doctoral dissertation. Complete dissertation available for purchase from ProQuest, with publication number 6717790.
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |jstor = 2689056|title = Note on a Problem of Alan Sutcliffe |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Mathematics Magazine |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=84–86 |date = March–April 1968 |doi = 10.2307/2689056|ref=none }} A brief paper in number theory concerning the digits of numbers
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |url = http://www.ams.org/journals/tran/1969-137-00/S0002-9947-1969-0236393-5/S0002-9947-1969-0236393-5.pdf |title = Boundary Functions for Bounded Harmonic Functions |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Transactions of the American Mathematical Society |volume=137 |pages=203–209 |date = March 1969 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170116001149/http://www.ams.org/journals/tran/1969-137-00/S0002-9947-1969-0236393-5/S0002-9947-1969-0236393-5.pdf |archive-date = January 16, 2017 |doi=10.2307/1994796|jstor = 1994796 |ref=none |doi-access = free }}
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |url = http://www.ams.org/journals/tran/1969-141-00/S0002-9947-1969-0243078-8/S0002-9947-1969-0243078-8.pdf |title = Boundary Functions and Sets of Curvilinear Convergence for Continuous Functions |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Transactions of the American Mathematical Society |volume=141 |pages=107–125 |date = July 1969 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170812205557/http://www.ams.org/journals/tran/1969-141-00/S0002-9947-1969-0243078-8/S0002-9947-1969-0243078-8.pdf |archive-date = August 12, 2017 |doi=10.2307/1995093|jstor = 1995093 |ref=none |doi-access = free }}
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |url = http://www.ams.org/journals/proc/1969-023-02/S0002-9939-1969-0248339-X/S0002-9939-1969-0248339-X.pdf |title = The Set of Curvilinear Convergence of a Continuous Function Defined in the Interior of a Cube |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=323–327 |date = November 1969 |url-status=live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170802123408/http://www.ams.org/journals/proc/1969-023-02/S0002-9939-1969-0248339-X/S0002-9939-1969-0248339-X.pdf |archive-date = August 2, 2017 |doi=10.2307/2037166|jstor = 2037166 |ref=none |doi-access = free }}
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |jstor = 2688865|title = Problem 787 |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Mathematics Magazine |volume=44 |issue=1 |page=41 |date = January–February 1971 |doi = 10.2307/2688865|ref=none }} A challenge problem in geometry
• {{cite journal |author-mask = 2 |jstor = 2688646|title = A Match Stick Problem (Problem 787, with Solutions by Gibbs, R.A. and Breisch, R.L.) |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |journal = Mathematics Magazine |volume=44 |issue=5 |pages=294–296 |date = November–December 1971 |doi = 10.2307/2688646|ref=none }} Reprint and solutions to "Problem 787" (above)

• {{cite news |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |title = Industrial Society and Its Future |url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm |year = 1995 |newspaper = The Washington Post |ref= none}}
• {{cite book |first=Theodore |last=Kaczynski |date=2008 |title=The Road to Revolution |title-link=Technological Slavery |publisher=Éditions Xenia |isbn=978-2-888920-65-6 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |author-mask=2 |first=Theodore |last=Kaczynski |date=2010 |title=Technological Slavery |edition=revised and expanded 2nd |publisher=Feral House |isbn=978-1-932595-80-2 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |author-mask=2 |first=Theodore |last=Kaczynski |date=2019 |title=Technological Slavery: Volume 1 |edition=revised and expanded 3rd |publisher=Fitch & Madison Publishers |isbn=978-1-944228-01-9 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |author-mask=2 |first=Theodore |last=Kaczynski |date=2022 |title=Technological Slavery: Volume 1 |edition=enhanced 4th |publisher=Fitch & Madison Publishers |isbn=978-1-944228-03-3 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |date = 2016 |title = Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How |publisher = Fitch & Madison Publishers|isbn=978-1-944228-00-2 |ref= none}}
• {{cite book | author-mask = 2 | first = Theodore |last = Kaczynski |title = Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How | year = 2020 |edition=revised and expanded 2nd|publisher = Fitch & Madison Publishers|isbn=978-1-944228-02-6|ref= none}}

{{Portal|Politics|Mathematics|United States|Biography}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

• {{Annotated link |Downshifting (lifestyle)|Downshifting}}
• {{Annotated link |Green Scare}}
• {{Annotated link |Oklahoma City bombing}}
• {{Annotated link |Operation Backfire (FBI)|Operation Backfire}}
• {{Annotated link |Philosophy of technology}}

{{div col end}}

{{Notelist}}

{{reflist|colwidth=32em}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last1=Chase |first1=Alston |title=A Mind for Murder: The Education of The Unabomber and the Origins of Modern Terrorism |date=2004 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-32556-0 |edition=1st |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Chase |first1=Alston |title=Harvard and the Unabomber: the education of an American terrorist |date=2003 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |location=New York |isbn=978-0-393-02002-1 |edition=1st|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Gautney |first1=Heather |title=Protest and Organization in the Alternative Globalization Era: NGOs, Social Movements, and Political Parties |date=2010 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York|isbn=978-0-230-62024-7 |edition=1st|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Graysmith |first1=Robert |title=Unabomber: A Desire to Kill |date=1998 |publisher=Berkley Books |location=New York City|isbn=978-0-425-16725-0 |edition=Berkley|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Haberfeld |editor1-first=M.R. |editor2-last=von Hassell |editor2-first=Agostino |title=A New Understanding of Terrorism: Case Studies, Trajectories and Lessons Learned |date=2009 |publisher=Springer|location=New York City |isbn=978-1-4419-0115-6|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |editor1-last=Hickey |editor1-first=Eric W. |title=Encyclopedia of Murder and Violent Crime 1st Edition |date=2003 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, California |isbn=978-0761924371|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kaczynski |first1=David |title=Every Last Tie: The Story of the Unabomber and His Family |date=2016 |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, North Carolina |isbn=978-0-8223-7500-5|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kaczynski |first1=Theodore John |title=Industrial Society and Its Future |date=1995 |publisher=Independently Published |isbn=979-8636242437|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kaczynski |first1=Theodore John |title=Technological Slavery |date=2010 |publisher=Fitch & Madison Publishers |location=Scottsdale, Arizona |isbn=978-1944228019|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Karr-Morse |first1=Robin |title=Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease |date=2012 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |isbn=978-0-465-01354-8 |edition=2nd|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Mahan |first1=Sue |last2=Griset |first2=Pamala L. |title=Terrorism in Perspective |date=2008 |publisher=SAGE Publications |location=Thousand Oaks, California |isbn=978-1-4129-5015-2 |edition=2nd|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Moreno |first1=Jonathan D. |title=Mind Wars: Brain Science and the Military in the 21st Century |date=2012 |publisher=Bellevue Literary Press |location=New York City|isbn=978-1-934137-43-7 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Sperber |first1=Michael |title=Dostoyevsky's Stalker and Other Essays on Psychopathology and the Arts |date=2010 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, Maryland |isbn=978-0-7618-4993-3|ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last1=Wiehl |first1=Lis W. |title=Hunting the Unabomber: the FBI, Ted Kaczynski, and the capture of America's most notorious domestic terrorist |date=2020 |publisher=Thomas Nelson |location=Nashville, Tennessee |isbn=978-0-7180-9234-4|ref=none}}

{{refend}}

{{Sister project links|d=Q222134|c=category:Ted Kaczynski|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|wikt=no|s=yes|n=no}}

• [https://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf Industrial Society and its Future] – Manifesto sent out to newspapers
• [https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ted-Kaczynski Ted Kaczynski], britannica.com
• [https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kaczynski-ted Kaczynski, Ted], encyclopedia.com
• [https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/unabomber-profile Unabomber (Profile)], The Canadian Encyclopedia
• [https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/unabomber Unabomber—FBI], fbi.gov
• [https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/ted-kaczynski Anarchist Library writings of Theodore Kaczynski]
• [https://www.karenfranklin.com/files/Kazynski-Johnson_Report-09.11.98.pdf Kaczynski's Psychiatric Competency Report]
• {{MathGenealogy|5470}}

{{Ted Kaczynski}}

{{Simple living}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaczynski, Ted}}

Category:1942 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:2023 suicides

Category:20th-century American criminals

Category:20th-century American mathematicians

Category:20th-century American philosophers

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Category:Eco-terrorism

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Category:Letter and package bombings

Category:Mathematicians from Illinois

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Category:Neo-Luddites

Category:People convicted of murder by the United States federal government

Category:People from Evergreen Park, Illinois

Category:People from Lewis and Clark County, Montana

Category:People with personality disorders

Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government

Category:Prisoners who died in United States federal government detention

Category:School bombings in the United States

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Category:University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty

Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni