- Wikipedia

{"parse":{"title":"Ted Kaczynski","pageid":18621887,"text":{"*":"

\"Unabomber\" redirects here. For other uses, see Unabomber (disambiguation).

\n\n\n\n

Ted Kaczynski
$\"In$ Kaczynski after his arrest in 1996
Born	Theodore John Kaczynski (1942-05-22)May 22, 1942 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died	June 10, 2023(2023-06-10) (aged 81) Durham, North Carolina, U.S.
Other names	Unabomber FC
Education	Harvard University (BA) University of Michigan (MA, PhD)
Occupation	Mathematics professor
Notable work	Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)
Relatives	David Kaczynski (brother)

Conviction(s)	10 counts of transportation, mailing, and use of bombs; three counts of first-degree murder
Criminal penalty	Several consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole^[a]
Details
Span of crimes	1978\u20131995
Killed	3
Injured	23
Date apprehended	April 3, 1996
\n

Scientific career
Fields	Complex analysis
Institutions	University of Michigan University of California, Berkeley
Thesis	Boundary Functions (1967)
Doctoral advisor	Allen Shields
Other academic advisors	George Piranian
\n
Signature

\n

Theodore John Kaczynski (/k\u0259\u02c8z\u026anski/ ^\u24d8 k\u0259-ZIN-skee; May 22, 1942 \u2013 June 10, 2023), also known as the Unabomber (/\u02c8ju\u02d0n\u0259b\u0252m\u0259r/ ^\u24d8 YOO-n\u0259-bom-\u0259r), was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist.^[1]^[2] He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a reclusive primitive lifestyle.\n

Kaczynski murdered three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995 in a nationwide mail bombing campaign against people he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the natural environment. He authored Industrial Society and Its Future, a 35,000-word manifesto and social critique opposing all forms of technology, rejecting leftism, and advocating a nature-centered form of anarchism.^[3]\n

In 1971, Kaczynski moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water near Lincoln, Montana, where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills to become self-sufficient. After witnessing the destruction of the wilderness surrounding his cabin, he concluded that living in nature was becoming impossible and resolved to fight industrialization and its destruction of nature through terrorism. In 1979, Kaczynski became the subject of what was, by the time of his arrest in 1996, the longest and most expensive investigation in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI used the case identifier UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber) before his identity was known, resulting in the media naming him the \"Unabomber\".\n

In 1995, Kaczynski sent a letter to The New York Times promising to \"desist from terrorism\" if the Times or The Washington Post published his manifesto, in which he argued that his bombings were extreme but necessary in attracting attention to the erosion of human freedom and dignity by modern technologies.^[4] The FBI and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno pushed for the publication of the essay, which appeared in The Washington Post in September 1995. Upon reading it, Kaczynski's brother, David, recognized the prose style and reported his suspicions to the FBI. After his arrest in 1996, Kaczynski\u2014maintaining that he was sane\u2014tried and failed to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers because they wished him to plead insanity to avoid the death penalty. He pleaded guilty to all charges in 1998 and was sentenced to several consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.^[a] In 2021, he received a cancer diagnosis and stopped treatment in March 2023. Kaczynski hanged himself in prison in June 2023.^[10]^[7]\n

\n\n

Date\n	State\n	Location\n	Detonation\n	Victim(s)\n	Occupation of victim(s)\n	Injuries\n
May 25, 1978\n	Illinois\n	Northwestern University\n	Yes\n	Terry Marker\n	University police officer\n	Minor cuts and burns\n
May 9, 1979\n	Yes\n	John Harris\n	Graduate student\n	Minor cuts and burns\n
November 15, 1979\n	American Airlines Flight 444 from Chicago to Washington, D.C. (explosion occurred midflight)\n	Yes\n	Twelve passengers\n	Multiple\n	Non-lethal smoke inhalation\n
June 10, 1980\n	Lake Forest\n	Yes\n	Percy Wood\n	President of United Airlines\n	Severe cuts and burns over most of body and face\n
October 8, 1981\n	Utah\n	University of Utah\n	Bomb defused\n	\u2014\n	\u2014\n	\u2014\n
May 5, 1982\n	Tennessee\n	Vanderbilt University\n	Yes\n	Janet Smith\n	University secretary\n	Severe burns to hands; shrapnel wounds to body\n
July 2, 1982\n	California\n	University of California, Berkeley\n	Yes\n	Diogenes Angelakos\n	Engineering professor\n	Severe burns and shrapnel wounds to hand and face\n
May 15, 1985\n	Yes\n	John Hauser\n	Graduate student\n	Loss of four fingers and severed artery in right arm; partial loss of vision in left eye\n
June 13, 1985\n	Washington\n	The Boeing Company in Auburn\n	Bomb defused\n	\u2014\n	\u2014\n	\u2014\n
November 15, 1985\n	Michigan\n	University of Michigan\n	Yes\n	James V. McConnell\n	Psychology professor\n	Temporary hearing loss\n
Yes\n	Nicklaus Suino\n	Research assistant\n	Burns and shrapnel wounds\n
December 11, 1985\n	California\n	Sacramento\n	Yes\n	Hugh Scrutton\n	Computer store owner\n	Death\n
February 20, 1987\n	Utah\n	Salt Lake City\n	Yes\n	Gary Wright\n	Computer store owner\n	Severe nerve damage to left arm\n
June 22, 1993\n	California\n	Tiburon\n	Yes\n	Charles Epstein\n	Geneticist\n	Severe damage to both eardrums with partial hearing loss, loss of three fingers\n
June 24, 1993\n	Connecticut\n	Yale University\n	Yes\n	David Gelernter\n	Computer science professor\n	Severe burns and shrapnel wounds, damage to right eye, loss of use of right hand\n
December 10, 1994\n	New Jersey\n	North Caldwell\n	Yes\n	Thomas J. Mosser\n	Advertising executive at Burson-Marsteller\n	Death\n
April 24, 1995\n	California\n	Sacramento\n	Yes\n	Gilbert Brent Murray\n	President of the California Forestry Association\n	Death\n

v t e Ted Kaczynski
Targets	\n American Airlines Flight 444 (1979) \n Percy Wood (1980) \n Diogenes Angelakos (1982) \n Patrick C. Fischer (1982) \n James V. McConnell (1985) \n Charles Epstein (1993) \n David Gelernter (1993) \n
Works by	\n Industrial Society and Its Future (1995) \n \"Ship of Fools\" (1999) \n Technological Slavery (2008) \n Anti-Tech Revolution (2016) \n
Works about	\n Unabomber: The True Story (1996 biopic) \n P.O. Box Unabomber (2011 play) \n Manhunt (2017 TV series) \n Unabomber: In His Own Words (2020 documentary) \n Ted K (2021 biopic) \n
Related	\n David Kaczynski \n Unabomber for President \n

v t e Simple living
Practices	\n Barter \n Cord-cutting \n DIY ethic \n Downshifting \n Dry toilet \n Fasting \n Forest gardening \n Freeganism \n Frugality \n Gift economy \n Intentional community \n Local currency \n Low-impact development \n No frills \n Off-the-grid \n Permaculture \n Regift \n Sattvic diet \n Self-sufficiency \n Slow living \n Slow movement (culture) \n Subsistence agriculture \n Sustainable living \n Sustainable sanitation \n Veganism \n Vegetarianism \n War tax resistance \n WWOOF \n
Religious and spiritual	\n Amish \n Aparigraha \n Asceticism \n Detachment \n Distributism \n Jesus movement \n Mendicant \n Mindfulness \n Monasticism \n New Monasticism \n Plain dress \n Plain people \n Quakers \n Rastafari \n Temperance \n Testimony of simplicity \n Tolstoyan movement \n Twelve Tribes communities \n
Secular movements	\n Back-to-the-land \n Car-free \n Environmental \n Hippie \n Open Source Ecology \n Slow \n Small house \n Tiny house \n Transition town \n
Notable writers	\n Wendell Berry \n Ernest Callenbach \n G. K. Chesterton \n Duane Elgin \n Mahatma Gandhi \n Richard Gregg \n Tom Hodgkinson \n Harlan Hubbard \n Satish Kumar \n Helen Nearing \n Scott Nearing \n Peace Pilgrim \n Nick Rosen \n Dugald Semple \n E. F. Schumacher \n George Skene Keith \n Henry David Thoreau \n Leo Tolstoy \n Valluvar \n
Modern-day adherents	\n Mark Boyle \n Robin Greenfield \n Ted Kaczynski \n Pentti Linkola \n Jim Merkel \n Peace Pilgrim \n Suelo \n Thomas \n
Media	\n \"Anekdote zur Senkung der Arbeitsmoral\" \n Escape from Affluenza \n The Good Life \n The Moon and the Sledgehammer \n Mother Earth News \n The Power of Half \n Small Is Beautiful \n Walden \n
Related	\n Affluenza \n Agrarianism \n Amateurism \n Anarcho-primitivism \n Anti-consumerism \n Appropriate technology \n Bohemianism \n Consumerism \n Critique of work \n Deep ecology \n Degrowth \n Ecological footprint \n Food miles \n Front Porch Republic \n Green anarchism \n The good life \n Global warming \n Hedonophobia \n Intentional living\n commune \n Rainbow Gathering \n Itinerant \n Low-technology \n Nonviolence \n Peak oil \n Sustainability \n Work\u2013life interface \n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	Germany United States France BnF data Japan Czech Republic Spain Portugal Norway Greece Korea Poland Israel Catalonia
Academics	Mathematics Genealogy Project Scopus zbMATH MathSciNet
Artists	MusicBrainz
People	DDB
Other	IdRef

Early life

Childhood

High school

Harvard University

Psychological study

Mathematics career

Life in Montana

Bombings

Initial bombings

Airline bombing and clues

Later bombings

Manifesto

Summary

Contemporary reception

Other works

Investigation

After publication

Arrest

Guilty plea

Incarceration and death

Legacy

Published works

Mathematical

Philosophical

See also

Notes

References

Book sources

External links

Ted Kaczynski

Talks

19 September, 1995