Introduction€¦ · Web viewIntroduction In 1979 , an FBI-led task force was formed in order to...

UNABOMER - Full Report 1

UNABOMERM. MacDougall

FBI

UNABOMBER - Full report 2

Introduction

In 1979, an FBI-led task force was formed in order to investigate the “UNABOM” case,

which was code-named for the UNiversity and Airline BOMbing targets that were involved. The

task force grew to include more than 150 full-time investigators, analysts, and others. The team

made every possible forensic examination of recovered bomb components and studied the lives

of victims in detail in order to obtain information about the elusive Unabomber, however these

efforts proved to be of little use when identifying the bomber, who was careful to leave no

forensic evidence behind while building his bombs essentially from “scrap” materials available

almost anywhere.

The Unabomber, later identified as Ted Kaczynski, resided in the mountains of Lincoln,

Montana in a small 10-by-12 foot cabin in search of a simplistic and survivalist lifestyle. It was

this single-roomed cabin that allowed for Kaczynski to terrorize U.S. citizens through sending

hand-made bombs through the U.S. postal service.

The Unabomb attacks were carefully planned by Kaczynski, and used to create a strong

message to the public. Written in his very own manifesto Industrial Society and its Future,

Kaczynski (or referred to as “FC”) details his complaints against the “industrial-technological

system” and his desire to destroy it and spark a revolution. This idea shaped Kaczynski’s career

as a domestic-American terrorist, as his will to set humanity free from the grasps of modern

technology drove Kaczynski to mail and plant a total of 16 explosive packages, on which killed 3

and injured 23. His manifesto was later published in the Washington Post as the result of a

choice offered by Kaczynski: if they published his manuscript, he would stop harming people. If

they refused, he said he would “start building our next bomb”.

After the manuscript was published, Kaczynski’s brother, David, read The Washington

Post at the urging of his wife, Linda Patrik. David was struck by how similar the writing’s of FC

and his brother, Ted, had been, and turned to Anthony P. Bisceglie, a Washington attorney.

Bisceglie then approached the FBI to discuss the findings.

Ted Kacznski was arrested at his Montana cabin on April 3, 1996, and was tried in

Sacramento, California. Kaczynski was accused of 10 counts of bomb-related activity and 3

counts of murder. His lawyers urged him to plead insanity to avoid facing the death penalty, but


he refused to do so. He instead chose to plead guilty to all charges on January 22, 1998, and was

sentenced to 8 life terms without parole to the super-maximum security prison facility in

Florence, Colorado.


Biography of Ted Kaczynski

(1942 - )

Theodore “Ted” John Kacyznski, best known as the ‘Unabomber’, is a prodigal

mathematician and domestic American terrorist. Before retreating into the woods of Montana in

order to pursue a simplistic and primitive lifestyle, Kaczysnki was a mathematics professor at

California University, Berkeley. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski mailed bombs to

universities and airlines which killed three people and injured 23 in an attempt to start a

revolution against modern technology.


Early LifeChildhood

Ted Kacyznski was born on May 22, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, and was the oldest child

(David, being his younger brother) of Wanda and Theodore Kacyznski.

Kacysnski attended Sherman Elementary School in Chicago from first to fourth grade,

where he was “well adjusted” and “healthy”as described by administrators and teachers. In 1952,

three years after his younger brother, David, was born, the family moved to Evergreen Park,

Illinois, and Ted transferred to Evergreen Park Central Junior High School. With a tested IQ of

167, he skipped the sixth grade, as to which Kaczysnki later described as a crucial moment in his

life. Previously, he was well socialized with his peers and demonstrated leadership qualities, but

was bullied and felt like an outcast after skipping a grade.

Neighbours to the Kaczynski family described them as kind people. Both children were

extremely intelligent, but Ted stood out. One neighbor said she had "never known anyone who

had a brain like he did", while another said that Ted was "strictly a loner". His mother recalled

Ted as being a shy child who would become unresponsive if pressured into a social situation.

In 1990, Ted's father Theodore, while suffering from terminal cancer, committed suicide.


HighschoolKaczynski attended Evergreen Park Community High School

where he played the trombone in the marching band and was a member

of the mathematics, biology, coin, and German clubs. Kaczynski became

extremely interested in mathematics during this period. He became

associated with a group of boys interested in science and mathematics,

known as the "briefcase boys", named for the fact that they were always

seen carrying briefcases.

Throughout high school, Kaczynski was ahead of his classmates

academically. He skipped the eleventh grade, and graduated at age 15.

He was one of his school's five National Merit finalists, and was encouraged to apply to Harvard

College. In 1958, Kaczysnki entered Harvard on a scholarship at the age of 16.

Harvard College

During his first year at Harvard, Kaczynski

lived at 8 Prescott Street, which was designed to

accommodate the youngest freshmen in a small,

intimate living space. Kaczynski earned his Bachelor

of Arts degree in mathematics in 1952 from Harvard.

He finished with a 3.12 GPA, but had been expected

to perform better.

As a sophomore, Kaczynski participated in a

study which was described as a "purposely brutalizing psychological experiment", led by

Harvard psychologist Henry Murray. In the experiment, subjects were asked to write an essay on

their personal philosophies. Later, while hooked up to electrodes to measure their physiological

response, the study subjects were subjected to hours of insults and personal attacks. The

experiment lasted three years, with someone verbally abusing and humiliating Kaczynski each

week. Kaczynski spent 200 hours as part of the study.

Some sources have suggested that Murray's experiments were part of Project MKUltra, or

the Central Intelligence Agency's research into mind control. Others have also suggested that this

experience may have motivated Kaczynski's criminal activities.


After completing his education at 25, Kaczynski became the youngest assistant professor

in the history of the University of California at Berkeley, when he was hired to teach

undergraduate geometry and calculus in 1967. However, he resigned, without providing a reason,

two years later.

Unabomber Manifesto

Industrial Society and its Future

In his manifesto, Kaczynski (or referred to as FC in the document) outlines and explains

that technology has made life unfulfilling and has caused widespread psychological torment. The

manifesto begins with: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for

the human race”, and later argues that the deterioration of human freedom is a natural product of

an industrial society. He predicts that technological advances will lead to extensive human

genetic engineering, and that human beings will adapt to meet the needs of the social systems.

Kaczynski wrote the document on a typewriter and capitalized entire words to provide

emphasis. He always referred to himself as either "we" or "FC" ("Freedom Club"), though there


is no evidence that he worked alongside other people. Donald Wayne Foster analyzed the writing

and he noted that it contains irregular spelling and other irregularities, which led him to the

conclusion that Kaczynski was the author.

In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters to The

New York Times and The Washington Post outlining his

goals and demanding that his 35,000-word manifesto be

printed by a major newspaper. He argued that his

bombings were extreme but necessary to attract attention

to the erosion of human freedom and dignity by modern

technology. He stated that, if this demand was met, he

would stop harming people, but if it was refused, the next

bomb would be built. At the end of June, The Post and

the Times received copies of the 56-page text, as well as

11 pages of footnotes and other material. The Unabomber

said he would wait three months for a decision. Both

papers turned the material over to the FBI. Some media

analysts have said that publishing 35,000 words is a small

price to pay for the possibility that the killer would stop

his attacks. Others have warned that the newspapers have

no way of knowing whether the terrorist will keep his

word, and that accepting his terms could encourage

violent groups to make similar demands.

There was controversy as to whether the essay should be published, but Attorney General

Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh encouraged publication out of concern for the safety of

the public and in hope that a reader could identify the author. Bob Guccione of Penthouse

volunteered to publish it, but Kaczynski replied that Penthouse was less "respectable" than the

other outlets. The New York Times and The Washington Post published the manuscript on

September 19, 1995.


● The copy of Industrial Society And Its Future which was sent to newspapers

Victimology

Kaczynski became overwhelmed by the need to send the message that his very own manifesto

had laid out. By hurting the people behind these corporations, Kaczynski thought he could put

an end to the use of modern technology and free humanity.

MurdersHugh Scratton - December 11th, 1985, Sacramento, California.

Computer store owner.

Thomas J. Mosser - December 10th, 1994, North Caldwell, New Jersey.

Advertising executive.

Gilbert Murray - April 24th, 1995, Sacramento, California.

Timber industry lobbyist.


Other victims & bombings● Terry Marker - May 25th, 1978 Illinois, Northwestern University.

University police officer (suffered only mild cuts and burns).

● John Harris - May 9th, 1979 Illinois, Northwestern University.

Graduate student (suffered only mild cuts and burns).

● American Airlines Flight 444 (Chigaco to Washington, D.C.) - November

15th, 1979 Illinois

Twelve passengers (suffered non-lethal smoke inhalation).

● Percy Wood - June 10th, 1980, Illinois: Lake Forest

President of United Airlines (suffered severe cuts and burns over most of the body and face).

● University of Utah - October 1981, Utah

Bomb defused - no victims.

● Janet Smith - May 5th, 1982, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

University secretary (suffered severe burns to hands and shrapnel wounds to body).

● Diogenes Angelakos - July 2nd, 1982, University of California, Berkeley,

California

Engineering professor (suffered severe burns and shrapnel wounds to hands and face).

● John Hauser - May 15th, 1985, University of California, Berkeley, California

Graduate student (lost four fingers and suffered a severed artery in his right arm; partial vision

loss in left eye).

● The Boeing Company in Auburn - June 13th, 1985, Washington

Bomb defused - no victims.

● James V. McConnell & Nicklaus Suino - November 15th, 1985, University of

Michigan, Michigan.

James: Psychology professor (suffered temporary hearing loss).

Nicklaus: Research assistant (suffered burns and shrapnel wounds).

● Gary Wright - February 20th, 1987, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Computer store owner (suffered severe nerve damage to left arm).

● Charles Epstein - June 22nd, 1993, Tiburon, California.

Geneticist (suffered severe damage to both eardrums and the loss of three fingers).


● David Gelernter - June 24th, 1993, Yale University, Connecticut.

Computer science professor (suffered severe burns and shrapnel wounds, damage to right eye,

and the loss of his left hand).

Victim Analysis Kaczynski’s victims were scattered across the country and unknown to each other, as

well as Kaczynski himself, except as names in outdated directories, newsletters and other publications. Some of the victims' names have been found on handwritten notes and other documents in Kaczynski's Montana cabin. The victims of the Unabomber had all worked for the very thing that Kaczynski had set out to revolt against, and Kaczynski believed that if he eliminated the figure-heads of technology-driven corporations, he could send his message to the rest of the world.

The UNABOMBER’s Cabin


For almost two decades, Ted Kaczynski lived inside a 10-by-12-ft. shack he built near

Lincoln, Montana, in an attempt to live out a survivalist lifestyle and become completely self-

sufficient. He taught himself survival skills such as tracking game, edible plant identification,

organic farming, bow drilling and other primitive technologies.

Kaczysnski later decided it was impossible to live peacefully as real estate developments

and industrial projects began to destroy the wilderness and wildlife surrounding his cabin. In

response, he began to sabotage nearby developments in 1975, and dedicated himself to his own

anti-technology philosophy.

On April 3, 1996, investigators arrested Kaczynski and combed his cabin where they

found a multitude of bomb components, 40,000 handwritten journal pages that included bomb-

making experiments and descriptions of Unabomber crimes, and one live bomb.

The one-room cabin, which included books, a pot bellied stove, a workbench, and plenty

of explosive-making materials, was almost destroyed after Kaczynski was arrested in 1996. But

at the last minute, it was saved and put on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., just

blocks from the FBI headquarters

where the Unabomber

investigation took place.

● Inside the Unabomber

cabin - Newseum,

Washington, D.C.


● Unabomber’s bomb-making

materials & workspace

- FBI

The Investigation


Kaczynski was the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in the history

of the FBI. Because of the material used to make the mail bombs,

Kaczynski was first labeled the "Junkyard Bomber" by the U.S. Postal

Inspectors who were initially responsible for the case. In 1979, an FBI-

led task force that included 125 agents from the FBI, the Bureau of

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), and U.S. Postal Inspection

Service was formed.The task force grew to include more than 150 full-

time personnel, but analysis of recovered bomb components and

investigations of the lives of the victims were of little use in identifying

the Unabomber.

Kaczynski left false clues in every bomb, which he made hard

to find to make them believable. The first clue was a metal plate stamped with the initials FC

hidden somewhere (usually in the pipe end cap) in every bomb. Another clue was the Eugene

O'Neill $1 stamps used to send his boxes. The FBI theorized that Kaczynski had a theme of

nature, trees and wood in his crimes, as he often included bits of tree branch and bark in his

bombs

The FBI felt confident that the Unabomber had been raised in Chicago and later lived in

the Salt Lake City and San Francisco areas, which turned out to be true. His occupation was

more ambiguous, with theories ranging from aircraft mechanic to scientist. Even the gender was

not certain, although investigators believed the bomber was most likely male, they also

investigated several female suspects. A hotline was set up by the UNABOM Task Force to take

calls related to the investigation, with a $1 million reward for anyone who could provide any

information on the whereabouts or identity of the Unabomber.

In 1995, the Unabomber sent a 35,000 word essay claiming to explain his motives and

views of the ills of modern society. Before the publication of the manifesto, Ted's brother, David

Kaczynski, was encouraged by his wife to follow up on suspicions that Ted was the Unabomber.

David was dismissive at first, but he began to take the idea 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 the manifesto.


After the manifesto was published, the FBI received over a thousand calls a day for

months in response to the offer of a $1 million reward for information regarding the

identification of the Unabomber. Letters claiming to be from the Unabomber were also sent to

the UNABOM Task Force, which created thousands of new suspect leads.

David Kaczynski hired private investigator Susan Swanson in Chicago to discreetly

investigate Ted’s activities. David then hired Washington, D.C. attorney Tony Bisceglie to

organize and deliver the evidence acquired by Swanson to the FBI. In early 1996, former FBI

criminal profiler Clinton R. Van Zandt was contacted by an investigator working with Bisceglie.

Bisceglie asked Van Zandt 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 a 60

percent chance that the same person had written the manifesto, but Van Zandt's second analytical

team determined an even higher likelihood.

In February 1996, Bisceglie gave a copy of the 1971 essay written by Ted Kaczynski to

Molly Flynn at the FBI, which was forwarded to the San Francisco-based task force. FBI Profiler

James R. Fitzgerald recognized the similarities in the writings using linguistic analysis and

determined that the author of the essays and the manifesto were the same. The analysis provided

the basis for a search warrant when combined with facts compiled from the bombings and Ted’s

life, which was signed by Terry Turchie who was head of the entire investigation.

David had tried to remain anonymous but he was soon identified, and 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 other following 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.

David 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. Afterwards, an internal leak

investigation was conducted by the FBI, but the source of the leak was never identified.


The Arrest

FBI agents arrested Kaczynski at his cabin on April 3, 1996. By this point, the Unabomber had been the target of the most expensive investigation in FBI history.

Theories emerged pinning Kaczynski as the Zodiac Killer, as among the many links that raised suspicion, Kaczynski lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1967 to 1969 (the same period that most of the Zodiac's confirmed killings occurred in California). Both individuals were highly intelligent and shared an interest in bombs and codes, and both wrote letters to newspapers demanding the publication of their works with the threat of continued violence if the demand was not met. However, Kaczynski's whereabouts could not be verified for all of the


killings, and the gun and knife murders committed by the Zodiac Killer differ from Kaczynski's bombings, so he was not pursued as a potential suspect.

The early hunt for the Unabomber portrayed a perpetrator far different from the actual suspect. Industrial Society and Its Future consistently uses "we" and "our" throughout, and at one point in 1993, investigators looked for an individual whose first name was "Nathan" because the name was imprinted on the envelope of a letter sent to the media.

After his arrest in 1996, Kaczynski tried to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers because they wanted him to plead insanity in order to avoid the death penalty, but he did not believe that he was insane. Instead, he chose to plead guilty to all charges on January 22, 1998. Kaczynski was sentenced to 8 life terms without parole to the super-maximum security prison facility in Florence, Colorado.

While in prison, Kaczynski has written and published two books – Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. “The Unabomber” and Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How – both of which expand on the ideas included in his original manifesto.


Analysis of Ted Kaczynski

“You can’t eat your cake and have it too. To gain one thing you have to sacrifice another.” – Ted Kaczynski

Ted Kaczynski, infamous for being the target of the FBI-conducted UNABOM investigation, was a highly intelligent individual who became captivated by his own personal philosophy against the industrialization of society, and became known for a series of bombings all while living a survivalist lifestyle in the woods of Lincoln, Montana.

As presented in his very own manifesto, Industrial Society and its Future, Kaczynski’s distrust of modern technology, as well as further advancements, is a keystone into Kaczynski’s character. Not only is Kaczynski keenly aware of the fast-developing and submissive society that we live in, but he is dedicated to the release of


humanity and regaining full autonomy. Kaczynski’s campaign was designed to bring the epidemic to the public, and to ensure that his beliefs were understood. His bombings were used to send a strong message: we rely on our social-systems for the sake of safety and comfort, and blindly obey orders from machines we built with our own hands. By sending his bombs through the U.S. Postal service, Kaczynski was able to demonstrate exactly how submissive we become; as a society, we don’t hesitate to open our mail, we obey traffic lights even if we are the only ones on the road, and allow our autonomy to deteriorate with every technological advancement. As written by Kaczynski, "Freedom means being in control (either as an individual or as a member of a SMALL group) of the life-and-death issues of one's existence; food, clothing, shelter and defense against whatever threats there may be in one's environment." -- the manifesto, paragraph 93.

Kaczynski’s high intellect and dedication is what allowed him to remain in hiding for 17 years, as his extreme elusivity translated into an attempt to revolt against modern societal expectations. Kaczynski was unlike other domestic-American terrorists, where instead of perpetuating hate against the human race or specific groups, his eagerness for human salvation and return to wilderness shaped his bombing career. By inserting himself into a primitive and crude lifestyle, Kaczynski was able to pursue the FBI for 17 years by only using the resources and knowledge that was readily available to him.

It wasn’t the bombings themselves that made Kaczynski infamous, it was his extreme devotion to his own personal philosophy that made him dangerous. Kaczynski’s bombing methods and crave for full autonomy drove him to become one of the most cryptic and vicious criminals in American history.


Bibliography

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