Ted Kaczynski(1942-2023)

Theodore John Kaczynski was born the May 22 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. At the age of 6 months he had to be hospitalized due to a severe allergic reaction to medication. His mother was not allowed to visit him during that time, a standard hospital policy in 1943. In his early years Ted Kaczynski was extraordinarily shy. Despite his parent's encouragements to go out and play with others, he remained aloof and a loner. Having an IQ of 170 (signifying genius intelligence) he skipped two grades going from the 5th directly to the 7th. In 1958 at the age of 16 he was entering Harvard University earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1962. He then earned a master and a Ph.D in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He had a successful research career here and taught undergraduate for three years though he continued to make few friends. He quit in the fall of 1967 and was hired as an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He resigned without explanation on June 30 1969. In June 1971 Ted and his brother David purchased a 1.4-acre lot in Lincoln, Montana. He built his infamous 10-by-12 wood cabin on the site by hand. In the mid-70s Kaczynski live and work in Salt Lake City.

On May 26, 1978 Professor Buckley Crist of Northwestern University received a package whose return address was not his but he had no recollection of sending the parcel. He became suspicious and called the campus police. When the police officer opened the package it exploded. He received minor injuries. That was the first bomb placed by whom the FBI later called "The Unabomber". Over the course of 18 years (1978-1995), the Unabomber, generally accepted to be Ted Kaczynski acting alone, placed or mailed 23 package bombs. These bombs killed 3 persons and wounded 16.

On September 19 1995, the New York Time editor received a letter. According to the text, the Unabomber suggest a "bargain": if his lenghty manuscript was published, he would cease sending bombs. The Washington Post and New York Times split costs and published the Unabomber's manuscript, known as the "Manifesto".

In 1996, David Kaczynski, Ted's brother, began to make connections between his brother's earlier writings and the manifesto. He contacted the FBI saying that he might know who the Unabomber was. Ted was arrested at his Montana cabin. Bomb-making material was found and a fully-functionnal live bomb was also found under his bed. In 1997 he was diagnosed suffering paranoid schizophrenia. In 1998, during his trial, the defense and the prosecutor reached a plea bargain: Ted would plead guilty to all charge and get a life sentence without possibility of parole, escaping the death penalty he might have received. He is currently serving his sentence at the supermax federal penitentiary of Florence, Colorado.