Theodore Kaczynski

Dr. Theodore John Kaczynski, Ph.D., also known as the Unabomber (born May 22, 1942) is a Polish-American terrorist who attempted to fight against what he perceived as the evils of technological progress by sending mail bombs to various people over almost eighteen years, killing three and wounding 29. He was the target of the FBI's most expensive manhunt ever.

Bombings

The first mail bomb was sent in late May 1978 to Prof. Buckley Crist at Northwestern University. The package was found in a parking lot at the University of Illinois at Chicago, with Prof. Crist's return address (and a send to address of Prof. E.J. Smith at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute). The package was sent 'back' to Crist. Suspicious of a package he never sent, Crist notified campus police. A campus police officer by the name of Terry Marker opened the package, and it exploded; Marker sustained minor injuries.

Related Topics:
1978 - Northwestern University - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The initial 1978 bombing was followed by bombs to airline officials and in 1979 there was a bomb placed in the cargo hold of a commercial airplane. The bomb began smoking and the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing. Many of the passengers were treated for smoke inhalation. Only a faulty timing mechanism prevented the bomb from exploding. Authorities said it had enough firepower to obliterate the plane. The FBI became involved after this incident and came up with the code name UNABOM. They also called the suspect the Junkyard Bomber because of the material he used. The FBI at first thought the culprit was a disgruntled airline mechanic. FBI Agent John Douglas, the father of "profiling" criminals, disagreed with this. He claimed the bombs were much too sophisticated and that the bomber was most likely an academic. Profiling was a new investigative tool at the time and Douglas's theory was largely ignored. After Kaczynski's arrest, the FBI came under much criticism. It was pointed out that if they had only checked into the disgruntled academic theory, they could have easily caught this man many years earlier.

Related Topics:
1978 - 1979

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The first serious injury occurred in 1985, when a Berkeley graduate student lost four fingers and vision in one eye. Captain John Hauser had applied for astronaut training and only a few days after his injury he learned he had been accepted. The bombs were all hand crafted and carried the inscription "FC" — at one point reported to stand for "Fuck Computers," but later found to mean "Freedom Club." A California computer store owner was killed by a nail- and splinter-loaded bomb lying in his parking lot in 1985. A similar attack against a computer store occurred in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 20, 1987.

Related Topics:
1985 - John Hauser - Salt Lake City - Utah - February 20 - 1987

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After a six-year break, Kaczynski struck again in 1993, mailing a bomb to David Gelernter, a computer science professor at Yale University and developer of Linda, a distributed programming system. Gelernter has written a book on the subject, '. Another bomb in the same year maimed the geneticist Charles Epstein. Kaczynski wrote a letter to The New York Times claiming that his "anarchist group" called FC was responsible for the attacks.

Related Topics:
1993 - David Gelernter - Yale University - Linda - Charles Epstein - The New York Times - Anarchist

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1994, an advertising executive was killed by another mail bomb. In a letter, Kaczynski justified the killing by pointing out that the public relations field is in the business of developing techniques for manipulating people's attitudes. This was followed by the 1995 murder of California Forestry Association president Gilbert B. Murray in Sacramento, California.

Related Topics:
1994 - 1995 - California Forestry Association - Gilbert B. Murray - Sacramento, California

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~