Theodore Kaczynski

Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, a.k.a. "The Unabomber", is an American serial bomber responsible for a series of mail-bombings, taking the lives of three and injuring 23 others.

History
Theodore Kaczynski was born in 1943 the son of second-generation Polish-Americans Theodore and Wanda Kaczynski. He was a child prodigy, excelling at mathematics at an early age. When he studied at Evergreen Park Central School, he was allowed to skip sixth grade and advance to seventh when it was determined that he had an IQ of 167. Being with older children, Kaczynski frequently felt like he didn't fit in and was frequently bullied. He also had a fear of people and buildings. In high school, Kaczynski became obsessed with mathematics, preferring solving equations rather than socializing. At the age of 16, he was accepted into Harvard University, graduating in 1962. He then enrolled into the University of Michigan, earning a PhD in mathematics.

At one point, he taught undergraduate courses in geometry and calculus at the University of Berkeley, California. Many students noticed that he was uncomfortable in a teaching environment, frequently stuttering and mumbling in class. In 1969, he resigned for no obvious reason. In 1971, he moved back with his parents in Lombard, Illinois before moving to a small remote cabin he built himself outside Lombard, Montana. Funding himself with odd jobs and financial support from his family, Kaczynski studied survival skills such as edible plant identification, tracking, and primitive construction. Over time, he grew to realize that this way of life was not possible due to modern urbanization.

The final straw was when he found that one of his favorite wild spots had been covered with a road. At this point, he decided to take revenge on the system and began a series of mail bombings which lasted for almost 20 years. They came to the FBI's attention in 1978. They later named the case UNABOM (University Airline Bomber), a nickname the media eventually found out about and changed to "the Unabomber". John Douglas and the Behavior Science Unit profiled the offender as being of above-average intelligence and with connections to academia. The theory was refined to the offender being a neo-Luddite holding an academic degree in hard sciences. The FBI countered this theory with one based on the physical evidence from the bombs, which led them to believe the offender was a blue-collar airplane mechanic. He also wrote a 50+ page manifesto titled Industrial Society and Its Future and sent it to the media, demanding that it be published in some major news journal, promising to end his campaign if his demand was met. It was eventually published as a pamphlet by the New York Times and Washington Post in September 1995.

A week later, Kaczynski's brother, David, informed the authorities about his brother's behavior. His lifestyle combined with a linguistic analysis granted the authorities a search warrant for his cabin. Inside, they found several bomb making components, 40,000 handwritten manifesto pages, and one live bomb. After being arrested, Kaczynski was briefly considered a suspect for being the Zodiac Killer, but the theory was dismissed as he had been living in Illinois during most of the killings. He is currently serving life in prison with no possibility of parole at a supermax prison in Colorado, where he still writes essays. In 2010, a corrected version of his manifesto and some of his essays were published in a book.

Profile
Early in the investigation, the FBI made an inaccurate profile of the Unabomber, in which he was profiled as a male, approximately 18 to 22 years of age. A college student, with some education in physics or engineering. Most likely upper middle class. However, this profile was wrong. Kaczynski had an education in mathematics. He was in his 40s, broke, but smarter than anyone in the investigation.

Another inaccurate profile said that the Unabomber possibly lived in Chicago, was in his 20s, lived with his mother, had a white collar job and took very good care of his car. He would be very precise and clean. However, Kaczynski did fit this profile. He didn't even have a car, he delivered his bombs on a bicycle.

After reading Kaczynksi's manifesto, FBI behavioral psychologist Kathleen Puckett said that the Unabomber was very narcissistic and very convinced of his superiority and his superior intellect. From the manifesto, Puckett realized that the Unabomber had an unhappy childhood. The grievances that he had, had been projected onto the "technological society". But the problems were personal.

Against his will, Kacyznski's lawyers pleaded the insanity defense. After being interviewed and interrogated for 22 hours through a week, he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, saying that while the schizophrenia was in remission, he was still mentally ill. Psychologist Xavier Amador said of Kaczynski:

"His brain was tricking him into believing he was somebody vitally important to the course of history."

During a hearing, when Kaczynski heard about the insanity defense, he was apparently outraged. His body shook and he slammed a pencil hard on the table, then muttered to his defense lawyer(s): "Is that what you have been telling them?"

Modus Operandi
Kaczynski's bombs were handmade pipe bombs and always contained handcrafted parts of wood. Also, bits of wood or barch were often included in the constructions. In order to throw off the authorities, Kaczynski often left false clues and red herrings in the bombs, such as a carved-in "FC", disguising with a novel and using Eugene O'Neill $1 stamps for the mail bombs. The bombs were commonly sent to people at universities, airline companies, and computer stores. In his last two bomb attacks, Kacyznski increased his bombs' lethality by adding razor blades for shrapnel.

Known Victims

 * May 25-26, 1978: Terry Marker
 * 1979:
 * May 9: John Harris
 * November 5: Twelve unnamed American Airlines passengers
 * June 10, 1980: Percy Wood
 * October 8, 1981: No victims, the bomb was defused
 * 1982:
 * May 5: Janet Smith
 * July 2: Diogenes Angekalos
 * 1985:
 * May 15: John Hauser
 * June 13: No victims, the bomb was defused
 * November 15: James V. McConnell and Nicklaus Suino
 * December 11: Hugh Scrutton
 * February 20, 1987: Gary Wright
 * 1993:
 * June 22: Charles Epstein
 * June 24: David Gelerneter
 * December 10, 1994: Thomas J. Mosser
 * April 24, 1995: Gilbert P. Murray

Criminal Minds Comparison
Kaczynski has been referenced a number of times on Criminal Minds. The most notable time was in Empty Planet, whose UnSub, Kenneth Roberts, appears to have been heavily based on him. Like Kaczynski, Roberts was an anti-technology activist who wrote a manifesto and demanded that it be published. Also, they both only directly intended to kill some of their victims and targeted universities or members of their staffs during some bombings. In Amplification, Kaczynski was also mentioned along with the Amerithrax perpetrator as an example of homegrown terrorists who target locations that have personal significance to them.

Source

 * Wikipedia's article about Kaczynski