(WSAU)- Theodore “Ted” Kacynski was born in Chicago on May 22, 1942. At just 15 years old, he was accepted into Harvard and went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. His former classmates described the man as very intelligent, however socially reserved. Little did they know, he would go on to become one of the most notorious bombers the U.S Nation has ever seen.
In 1969, Ted abandoned his astounding academic career to pursue a more primitive lifestyle. By the year 1971, he had settled down in rural Montana where he lived as a recluse in his remote cabin without any electricity or running water. As time and technology advanced, he witnessed the destruction of his beloved wilderness surrounding his home. This was a turning point for him, as he became adamant that he needed to fight industrialization and the destruction of nature with terrorism. His home soon turned into his main base for homemade bombs.
The first bombing took place in 1978, where Kacynski left a package for an engineering professor at Chicago’s Northwestern University. The package exploded, wounding a police officer. The second victim was a graduate student of the college who was holding the bomb in his hand when it went off.
In 1979, Ted attempted to bomb a plane from American Airlines. He placed the bomb in the cargo hold, and it gave off smoke forcing an emergency landing near Washington.
After the incident on the plane, the FBI became involved and would spend years trying to catch the bomber whom left no demands and little forensic evidence. The investigation went cold for a 6 year period between 1987 to 1993, as no bombs were sent, leaving investigators stumped.
In the year 1980, Ted sent a package to the United Airlines President Percy Wood at his home in Illinois. The package exploded injuring Wood.
The first fatal victim came in 1985 at a computer store in Sacremento California. The computer store owner, Hugh Scutton, died when a bomb, that had been loaded with nails and splinters, went off in his store’s parking lot.
As time went on, the intricacy of Kaszynski’s homemade bombs became more complex. In 1994, Thomas Mosser an executive advertiser, was killed by a mail bomb. Then in 1995, Gilbert Murray whom had been head of a California Timber industry lobbying group, was also murdered by a mail bomb. In total, Ted Kasynski set off 17 bombs which caused injury to 25 victims.
By 1995 though, the downfall of the Unabomber began. Kasynski wrote to the New York Times demanding they publish his 35,000- word manifesto titled “Industrial Society and its Future”. He promised to desist from terrorism if it was published in the Times or The Washington Post. The FBI and U.S Attorney General approved of the publication in the Washington Post, in hopes someone would recogize his work.
In the end, the move paid off as Ted’s brother David came forward recognizing the topics and phrases through out the piece and told the police it had been written by his very own brother, Theodore Kasynski. Agents arrested the Unabomber at his cabin in April of 1996.
Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all federal charges relating to the bombings in 1998, and was sentenced 4 life terms plus 30 years in prison.
This past Saturday, Kacynski who was 81, was found unresponsive at the Federal Medical Center in Butner North Carolina and was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Federal prison officials believe he died by suicide and an investigation will be conducted to determine an official cause of death.
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