1996 : UNABOMBER ARRESTED:
At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John
Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the
Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed
three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period.
Kaczynski, born in Chicago in 1942, won a scholarship to study
mathematics at Harvard University at age 16. After receiving his Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan, he became a professor at the
University of California at Berkeley. Although celebrated as a
brilliant mathematician, he suffered from persistent social and
emotional problems, and in 1969 abruptly ended his promising career at
Berkeley. Disillusioned with the world around him, he tried to buy
land in the Canadian wilderness but in 1971 settled for a 1.4-acre
plot near his brother's home in Montana.
For the next 25 years, Kaczynski lived as a hermit, occasionally
working odd jobs and traveling but mostly living off his land. He
developed a philosophy of radical environmentalism and militant
opposition to modern technology, and tried to get academic essays on
the subjects published. It was the rejection of one of his papers by
two Chicago-area universities in 1978 that may have prompted him to
manufacture and deliver his first mail bomb.
The package was addressed to the University of Illinois from
Northwestern University, but was returned to Northwestern, where a
security guard was seriously wounded while opening the suspicious
package. In 1979, Kaczynski struck again at Northwestern, injuring a
student at the Technological Institute. Later that year, his third
bomb exploded on an American Airlines flight, causing injuries from
smoke inhalation. In 1980, a bomb mailed to the home of Percy Wood,
the president of United Airlines, injured Wood when he tried to open
it. As Kaczynski seemed to be targeting universities and airlines,
federal investigators began calling their suspect the Unabomber, an
acronym of sorts for university, airline, and bomber.
From 1981 to 1985, there were seven more bombs, four at universities,
one at a professor's home, one at the Boeing Company in Auburn, Wash.,
and one at a computer store in Sacramento. Six people were injured,
and in 1985 the owner of the computer store was killed--the
Unabomber's first murder. In 1987, a woman saw a man wearing aviator
glasses and a hooded sweatshirt placing what turned out to be a bomb
outside a computer store in Salt Lake City. The sketch of the suspect
that emerged became the first representation of the Unabomber, and
Kaczynski, fearing capture, halted his terrorist campaign for six
years.
In June 1993, a lethal mail bomb severely injured a University of
California geneticist at his home, and two days later a computer
science professor at Yale was badly injured by a similar bomb. Various
federal departments established the UNABOM Task Force, which launched
an intensive search for a Unabomber suspect. In 1994, a mail bomb
killed an advertising executive at his home in New Jersey. Kaczynski
had mistakenly thought that the man worked for a firm that repaired
the Exxon Company's public relations after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill. In April 1995, a bomb killed the president of a timber-industry
lobbying group. It was the Unabomber's last attack.
Soon after, Kaczynski sent a manifesto to The New York Times and The
Washington Post, saying he would stop the killing if it were
published. In 1995, The Washington Post published the so-called
"Unabomber's Manifesto," a 35,000-word thesis on what Kaczynski
perceived to be the problems with America's industrial and
technological society. Kaczynski's brother, David, read the essay and
recognized his brother's ideas and language; he informed the FBI in
February 1996 that he suspected that his brother was the Unabomber. On
April 3, Ted Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in Montana, and
extensive evidence--including a live bomb and an original copy of the
manifesto--was discovered at the site.
Indicted on more than a dozen federal charges, he appeared briefly in
court in 1996 to plead not guilty to all charges. During the next year
and a half, Kaczynski wrangled with his defense attorneys, who wanted
to issue an insanity plea against his wishes. Kaczynski wanted to
defend what he saw as legitimate political motives in carrying out the
attacks, but at the start of the Unabomber trial in January 1998 the
judge rejected his requests to acquire a new defense team and
represent himself. On January 22, Kaczynski pleaded guilty on all
counts and was spared the death penalty. He showed no remorse for his
crimes and in May was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.
history.com/tdih.do
1860 : Pony Express mail service begins
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4885
1882 : Jesse James shot in the back
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4886
1948 : Truman signs Marshall Plan
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4888
At his small wilderness cabin near Lincoln, Montana, Theodore John
Kaczynski is arrested by FBI agents and accused of being the
Unabomber, the elusive terrorist blamed for 16 mail bombs that killed
three people and injured 23 during an 18-year period.
Kaczynski, born in Chicago in 1942, won a scholarship to study
mathematics at Harvard University at age 16. After receiving his Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan, he became a professor at the
University of California at Berkeley. Although celebrated as a
brilliant mathematician, he suffered from persistent social and
emotional problems, and in 1969 abruptly ended his promising career at
Berkeley. Disillusioned with the world around him, he tried to buy
land in the Canadian wilderness but in 1971 settled for a 1.4-acre
plot near his brother's home in Montana.
For the next 25 years, Kaczynski lived as a hermit, occasionally
working odd jobs and traveling but mostly living off his land. He
developed a philosophy of radical environmentalism and militant
opposition to modern technology, and tried to get academic essays on
the subjects published. It was the rejection of one of his papers by
two Chicago-area universities in 1978 that may have prompted him to
manufacture and deliver his first mail bomb.
The package was addressed to the University of Illinois from
Northwestern University, but was returned to Northwestern, where a
security guard was seriously wounded while opening the suspicious
package. In 1979, Kaczynski struck again at Northwestern, injuring a
student at the Technological Institute. Later that year, his third
bomb exploded on an American Airlines flight, causing injuries from
smoke inhalation. In 1980, a bomb mailed to the home of Percy Wood,
the president of United Airlines, injured Wood when he tried to open
it. As Kaczynski seemed to be targeting universities and airlines,
federal investigators began calling their suspect the Unabomber, an
acronym of sorts for university, airline, and bomber.
From 1981 to 1985, there were seven more bombs, four at universities,
one at a professor's home, one at the Boeing Company in Auburn, Wash.,
and one at a computer store in Sacramento. Six people were injured,
and in 1985 the owner of the computer store was killed--the
Unabomber's first murder. In 1987, a woman saw a man wearing aviator
glasses and a hooded sweatshirt placing what turned out to be a bomb
outside a computer store in Salt Lake City. The sketch of the suspect
that emerged became the first representation of the Unabomber, and
Kaczynski, fearing capture, halted his terrorist campaign for six
years.
In June 1993, a lethal mail bomb severely injured a University of
California geneticist at his home, and two days later a computer
science professor at Yale was badly injured by a similar bomb. Various
federal departments established the UNABOM Task Force, which launched
an intensive search for a Unabomber suspect. In 1994, a mail bomb
killed an advertising executive at his home in New Jersey. Kaczynski
had mistakenly thought that the man worked for a firm that repaired
the Exxon Company's public relations after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill. In April 1995, a bomb killed the president of a timber-industry
lobbying group. It was the Unabomber's last attack.
Soon after, Kaczynski sent a manifesto to The New York Times and The
Washington Post, saying he would stop the killing if it were
published. In 1995, The Washington Post published the so-called
"Unabomber's Manifesto," a 35,000-word thesis on what Kaczynski
perceived to be the problems with America's industrial and
technological society. Kaczynski's brother, David, read the essay and
recognized his brother's ideas and language; he informed the FBI in
February 1996 that he suspected that his brother was the Unabomber. On
April 3, Ted Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in Montana, and
extensive evidence--including a live bomb and an original copy of the
manifesto--was discovered at the site.
Indicted on more than a dozen federal charges, he appeared briefly in
court in 1996 to plead not guilty to all charges. During the next year
and a half, Kaczynski wrangled with his defense attorneys, who wanted
to issue an insanity plea against his wishes. Kaczynski wanted to
defend what he saw as legitimate political motives in carrying out the
attacks, but at the start of the Unabomber trial in January 1998 the
judge rejected his requests to acquire a new defense team and
represent himself. On January 22, Kaczynski pleaded guilty on all
counts and was spared the death penalty. He showed no remorse for his
crimes and in May was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years.
history.com/tdih.do
1860 : Pony Express mail service begins
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4885
1882 : Jesse James shot in the back
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4886
1948 : Truman signs Marshall Plan
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=4888
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