Ted Kaczynski Biography

Terrorist

Name at birth: Theodore John Kaczynski

In May of 1998 Ted Kaczynksi was sentenced to life in prison for being the "Unabomber," an anti-technology terrorist who in 1978 began a series of sporadic bombings across the United States. His first bomb was found in May of 1978 at the University of Chicago: a package sent through the mail to a professor, it exploded and injured a university police officer. Over time the bombs became more sophisticated and fatal, but there was still little known about the bomber's identity besides a widely-circulated sketch of a man wearing sunglasses and a hood. In 1994 the Unabomber began demanding publication of his "Manifesto," a 35,000 word document railing against technology. The document's eventual publication by the mainstream media led David Kaczynski to suspect that his brother Ted was the Unabomber, and he turned him in. Ted Kaczynski was arrested in April of 1996, surprised by federal agents at his one-room shack outside of Lincoln, Montana, where he had been living as a recluse since 1971.

Extra credit: At first he was called the "Junkyard Bomber" because of his crude, hand-fashioned bombs. After 1980 he was dubbed the "Unabomber," a reference to what seemed to be his primary targets: universities and airlines.

Kaczynski joins Howard Hughes and Thomas Pynchon in our loop Recluses!.

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