Who was Ted Kaczynski?

Theodore John Kaczynski may not be a name younger generations are especially familiar with, but his crimes are certainly something they will recognize.

Kaczynski terrorized the nation from 1978 until 1995 as he gave rise to one of the largest FBI manhunts in history. As bombs began appearing in unmarked mail packages, the country was paralyzed by fear, no leads, no seeming connection between the packages, and no known motive ensured the investigation remained stuck for years. Finally, in 1995, everyone could rest easy as Kaczynski was caught and the “Unabomber” – as he came to be known – was revealed. He struck fear into United States for decades, yet many don’t know who he is, or even his real name. So we decided to do a little digging to uncover who this man was, and what could have led him to commit these heinous crimes.

Kaczynski recently made headlines as he was found dead in his Federal Medical Facility cell. He had previously been diagnosed with cancer and given less than a year to live before being transferred to the North Carolina facility. He was 81 years old and serving four life sentences, plus 30 years for his other crimes; which included sending unmarked packages containing bombs to universities and airlines.

He was responsible for killing three people and injuring 23 others, ans while he was infamous as the Unabomber, few know anything about who he was before that title was applied, or what drove him to commit such atrocious crimes.

Who was Ted Kaczyński before the bombings?

Ted Kaczynski was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1942 to working-class Polish American parents. His early childhood years were reportedly uneventful until his genius began to be unveiled. Reportedly testing with an IQ of 167 (the norm is 100 by the way), he skipped a grade. While a seemingly innocuous event, Kaczynski actually reports it was a turning point in his life, and few would realize the chain reaction of events it would set into motion. While he allegedly got along with peers formerly, after skipping a grade he was now out of his depth socially. He found himself the target of bullying which would haunt him for his entire life. He became a very lonely individual pouring himself into his academics and graduated at just 15 years of age heading off to Harvard, yet while academically able to compete in college, he was still far behind his classmates socially.

Strangely enough, another piece of Kaczynski’s puzzle seems to fall into place at Harvard, as he participated in an unusual mind control study. The study was led by psychologist Henry Murray, who went on to conduct psychological experiments for the CIA. The experiment had one student sharing an essay of his personal philosophies, hopes, dreams, while another was meant to “brutally” attack the other, using the personal information as “ammunition.” Kaczynski, who was already emotionally fragile to this type of bullying, struggled after reportedly putting in over 200 hours.

Following his time at Harvard, he got a PhD in mathematics, and began his teaching career, although it was short-lived and he reportedly had no better luck interacting with his fellow teachers than he did his students. Things continued to deteriorate from there, and after moving back home to his parents’ house in Illinois, he built a small cabin in Lincoln, Montana where he aimed to live off the grid. The intense isolation, however, seemed to only heighten Kaczysnki’s bizarre beliefs and behavior. Shortly thereafter, the bombings began.

The crimes of Ted Kaczynski

The bombs always showed up unmarked except for the initials “FC” on them, which was later discovered to mean “Freedom Club.” They were sent to universities and airlines, causing major and minor injuries to 23, and killing three. Letters then began arriving at various newspaper and media outlets demanding the printing of a 35,000-word essay titled “Industrial Society and Its Future.” It would later become known as the “Unabomber Manifesto.”

It contained beliefs that industrial society had limited man instead of expanding him, forcing him to lose some of his personal freedom and destabilizing humanity as a whole. The Manifesto would eventually lead to Kaczynski’s demise, as after reading it, his brother David recognized similarities between the Manifesto and letters his brother had written to newspapers in the past. David hired a private investigator who followed his sibling and realized he was, in fact, the Unabomber.

Kaczynski was arrested and diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, harboring a belief the world was out to get him, and that he was polarized and ostracized by it. These beliefs began for him in childhood and only increased over time. While many refuted the diagnosis, there is still an ongoing debate over whether he was truly mentally ill.

Kaczynski attempted suicide on January 9, 1996, but was unsuccessful. He eventually pleaded guilty in exchange for life without parole. He was convicted to four life sentences plus 30 years, and he had served 25 years of that sentence at the time of his death. His recent demise in the prison medical facility is also thought to be the result of self-harm. His story has been captured in several TV and film projects both fictional and documentarian in style including Manhunt: Unabomber, Unabomber- In His Own Words, Ted K: The Unabomber, and more.

Ted Kaczynski was an odd man with a very bizarre and in many ways tortured life. Perhaps that is what led him to enact so much violence and terror onto the world around him. However, in cases like this, often the answers are multi-layered and far from granting us clarity. Although, while much about Kaczynski remains unknown, there are several things we do know for sure; he was a societal outcast, he was a mathematical prodigy, and he was a murderer.