The Unabomber Essay, Research Paper

I. Life

Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942 to Wanda and Theodore Kaczynski of Evergreen Park Ill, a tidy and middle class suburb of Chicago. The second son Ted s brother, David was born in 1950. As children, both kids were very reclusive, not playing with any neighbor children and rarely seen outside of the house. At a young age Ted started to show signs of being a gifted learner, he skipped a year in elementary school and his junior year in high school. Ted spent most of his early life studying math and science alone instead of being social in any kind of way. Ted had a different side to him though, he had a love of explosives which he homemade with his know how in the fields that he studied. Kaczynski was accepted into Harvard at 16 years old but he was finished before turning 20. Next he became a professor at Berkley university. In 1969 Ted gave up the job to live with his parents. He became fed up with his family and left for Montana in 1971 to live on the 1.4-acre plot of land he and his brother had bought near Lincoln . Once there, Ted built a small one-room shack on this parcel of land surrounded by dense deciduous forest. The shack measured 10 feet by 12 feet and lacked electricity and plumbing. Kaczinski lived by farming a few vegetables in his small garden and venturing into town only when necessary.

It is unknown when Kaczynski started to make his bombs for the purpose of killing but his motives, the FBI believe are his beliefs about today s society being destroyed by technology. Kaczynski wrote a paper of 35,000 words in length stressing his views of the subject the FBI called the manifesto. The first bomb was found in 1978 up until the last bomb was discovered in 1995 a terrorism span of 17 years. The name unabomber was given to him during the 80 s because of his favorite targets being universities and airlines. The investigation to find the unabomber was the largest and most expensive at 17 years. The FBI were looking for a junkyard bomber it is said because of his contraptions made of lamp cords, bits of pipe, recycled screws, and match heads. This is one reason why it took so long to catch the terrorist, the bombs were made of untraceable elements. Like most terrorist bombers, the unabomber had certain trademarks to his work, his contraptions were made on wood platforms with more care given to the wood block, which was sanded smoothly, instead of the bomb itself. His cuts were not straight or at 90-degree angles but each component was carefully numbered to make sure the device would work correctly. Using his math and science skills he was able to fashion some new devices never seen before. One such device was used on a bomb used on an airplane. The timing device used was an altimeter designed to trigger the bomb when the plane reached a certain altitude. In 1995 after he had been outdone by the Oklahoma City bombing, the unabomber started making pranks and threats to taunt the FBI. One such letter described how busy he was working on dangerous chemicals and another taunt threatened to blow up a Los Angeles Airliner. These taunts were also the demise of his most wanted terrorist label. Kaczynsi sent his 35,000 word manifesto to the publishers of the Times and Post demanding that they publish it in there magazines or more killing would be done. The companies were willing to publish it in hopes of saving lives and the FBI hoped that if the right person saw it there may me some light shed upon the case. After recognizing some of the same ideas seen in family letters, Ted s younger brother, David contacted the FBI. Through this information, the FBI began staking the Unabomber s cabin out. When the investigators raided the cabin and arrested Kaczynski on suspicion, his cabin was found to be a small bomb-making factory. Ten three ring binders were found containing writing and diagrams for explosive devices, sketches of boxes for containing the devices, notes on explosive chemical compounds, logs of experiments to determine the optimal design for bombs in various weather conditions, a library of books on electrical circuitry and chemistry. A finished live package bomb was also found and disarmed. Many tools that could be used to make bombs, metal pipes with pipe bomb modifications already made, chemicals, which could be used to make explosives, and batteries, wire and many others tools which could be used in the process. With more than enough evidence against him, Kaczinski was sentenced to 4 consecutive life terms in prison.

Kaczynski showed much social deviance in his reign as America s most wanted serial bomber. This man lived in a 10 by 12 shack as a hermit while he experimented to find the perfect bomb. There were 23 victims in all including 3 fatalities during his attacks. Usually one would need much rage or anger against society during a tragic time of his life inorder to have a motive such as the unabomber s. He had no such tragedies to cause this but with his genius like mind, bomb making would have been an easy occupation, which would earn him the notoriety he felt he deserved and he could kill his enemies of his philosophy of technology. :Bibliography,Newsweek, April 15, 1996, Time, April 15, 1996,The Associated Press, January 22, 1998.