Squiz Shortcuts: Who was the Unabomber?

Who was the Unabomber?

A new film about Ted Kaczynski, an American man who went from a teenage maths genius to a serial bomber, is about to be released on Netflix. He came to be known as ‘the Unabomber’ and his 17-year campaign against the advancement of modern technology killed 3 people and injured dozens more. So with the case back in the news, we thought it might be helpful in this Squiz Shortcut to get you across:

• Who the Unabomber was

• How he was unmasked

• And why there’s been some criticism of the new movie…

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Larissa Huntington

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Squiz the Shortcut

Let’s assume I don’t know this case… When did this all happen?
Over the course of 17 years from 1978 through to 1995, Kaczynski sent through the post or hand-delivered 16 increasingly sophisticated homemade bombs to the computing and engineering departments of universities, 2 airlines, computer stores and some corporate executives working for companies he took issue with. 

What was the toll?
All up, 3 people died and 23 others were hurt - some lost fingers or were badly burnt - so the injuries inflicted were very serious. Reports say that for over a decade, Americans were terrified to open packages delivered in the post. 

What does the name Unabomber mean?
UNABOM was the name of the FBI taskforce assigned to the case. It’s an acronym made up of UN for universities, A for airlines, and BOM for bombing. From that, the media coined the name for the mystery bomber as ‘the Unabomber’. But it wasn’t ever what Kaczynski referred to himself as. Instead, he signed his correspondence ‘FC’ and etched the initials into bomb parts. 

What does FC stand for?
A fictitious anarchist group ‘the Freedom Club’. It baffled investigators for years and ultimately it was a red herring, but it was a clue into Kaczynski’s mindset or his motivation, which was to wage a terror campaign against universities and companies he saw as advancing or promoting modern technology. 

So he was opposed to it?
Yes… He viewed the industrial revolution as a disaster for humanity that was destroying the environment. As to how he formed that hardline stance, there are a lot of different opinions going around, but many of them point to his formative years. 

What was his childhood like?
Kaczynski was born in 1942 in Chicago to a stable, working-class family. His parents were second-generation Polish-Americans and reports say they worked hard to provide a good life for Ted and his younger brother David. But there are a couple of things that stand out about his early years to people who’ve studied this case.

What are they?
The first is that when he was 9 months old, he had a severe case of hives after an allergic reaction and doctors put him in strict hospital isolation for around a week - his parents were hardly allowed to see him. His mother said when he came home, he was a changed baby; he was withdrawn and sullen and rarely made eye contact. 

And the second thing?
His IQ score of 167 in primary school (that’s in the 99.99th percentile and considered profoundly gifted) meant that he skipped Year 6 and Year 11 which he later said made him feel socially isolated, and he was bullied by the older, bigger kids. 

How did that affect him?
Well, he didn’t have many mates, but he was considered something of a genius, particularly with numbers, and by the time he was 16yo he was at Harvard University studying maths. During his time there he was part of a controversial psychological study - one that has since been described as cruel and abusive. 

Tell me about the study…
In his second year at Harvard, when he was 17yo, Kaczynski took part in a social experiment led by psychologist Professor Henry Murray. Students were asked to write a highly personal essay all about their world view, their beliefs and their deepest aspirations. They didn’t really know what they were in for, but the study was designed to test how human beliefs and egos held up under extreme stress. 

How was that measured?
The students were brought into a brightly lit room, hooked up to electrodes and monitoring equipment, and forced to sit in front of a hidden camera. Then, an interrogator (often a trained law student) used the contents of the student's own essay as ammunition to launch a "vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive" (that’s how it’s been described) verbal assault, systematically mocking, tearing down and belittling the participant's inner beliefs and sense of self-worth.

Not a fun day at school then…
Nope… And if that wasn’t enough, they were made to watch recordings of their own reactions. All up, Kaczynski spent around 200 hours as a participant, and later described it as “the worst experience” of his life. And even though he said the experiment had no significant effect on the course of his life, experts say it was a form of trauma and contributed to his resentment of authority and what he saw as mind control.

What did he do after graduating?
He gained a Masters and PhD in Mathematics, and went on to teach it at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was the youngest assistant professor to be appointed in its history. But from all accounts, he wasn’t a very well-liked teacher, and he soon resigned and moved back in with his parents. A couple of years after that, he went off-grid. 

Where did he go?
He bought some remote land in Montana, built a cabin on it and moved there without electricity or running water. And for about 5 years, he lived there without incident. But in 1975, he started carrying out acts of sabotage and booby-trapping developments near his cabin. Reports say he was reading books that fuelled his own theory that technology was the enemy of freedom for humankind. And in his own words, he said that, as the bulldozers moved into the wilderness around him, he decided he couldn’t escape the industrial system so he’d have to fight it. 

How did he do that?
He addressed the first of his bombs to an engineering professor at Northwestern University in Illinois. The professor thought it looked suspicious so called campus security, and when security officer Terry Marker opened it, it went off, inflicting minor burns and cuts. From there, the devices became more complex and, as we mentioned, 3 people were eventually murdered by Kaczynski's terror campaign. And it could’ve been many more, had the bomb he sent in the hold of an American Airlines plane exploded as intended. 

Could authorities trace the components back to him?
No… He was meticulous in leaving behind no fingerprints or identifying markers. And in the end, it wasn’t a bomb that unmasked him. It was his own turn of phrase. 

Just explain that bit more…
In 1995, he sent 3 letters to media outlets demanding that a major newspaper like The New York Times or The Washington Post print a 35,000-word manifesto titled Industrial Society and its Future. If they did, he said the bombs would stop. After some debate, The Washington Post published it on 19 September. 

What happened after that?
The FBI then got swamped with tips about who the author might be - but there was one that stood out. It was from David Kaczynski whose wife Linda recognised the rantings of his brother, Ted. She was a philosophy professor and she’d read letters that he’d sent to her husband over the years, including a 23-page essay raging against the modern world. David alerted the FBI through a lawyer that Ted could be the Unabomber and gave them some letters and documents he’d written, and FBI linguistics experts found the writing style matched the manifesto. 

How was Kaczynski caught?
Police arrived at his Montana cabin in April of 1996 with a search warrant and arrested him. Inside, they found bomb components, 40,000 handwritten journal pages that included bomb-making experiments and descriptions of his crimes, and one live bomb, ready for mailing.

Was there a trial?
He ended up in a disagreement with his legal team (who wanted him to use the defence of insanity). Long story short, he pleaded guilty to 13 federal charges relating to transporting and mailing explosive devices with intent to kill. In doing so, he avoided the death penalty in favour of life imprisonment without parole. But even from prison he continued to write.

What did he write from prison?
Several books and essays, and he corresponded with pen pals across the US and the world. That was up until he died from suicide in 2023 after he’d been being treated for late-stage rectal cancer. In 1999, a publisher planned to release one of his books with the royalties going to his victims' families, but the deal fell through. Then in 2011, a court-ordered online auction of his belongings - including his handwritten journals and his manifesto - raised money for his victims as compensation. 

And now there’s a new movie about the case…
Yep… The subject has been covered in numerous films, TV series and documentaries, but the new Netflix movie Unabomber alternates between Kaczynski's years at Harvard (with a focus on that controversial study) and the FBI investigation.

Who’s in it?
It stars Russell Crowe as Henry Murray, the professor overseeing the study, and Jacob Tremblay as Kaczynski. You might know Tremblay from the movie Room with Brie Larson (although he was pretty young at just 8yo). Still, it was his breakout performance and his acting was widely acclaimed even then. And the other big name attached is Shailene Woodley (star of Divergent and Big Little Lies) who plays FBI Agent Joanne Miller. 

What has the reaction been to previews?
While there’s buzz around the performances, the movie has copped some criticism from the victims and their families. Jonathan Epstein, the son of Dr Charles Epstein, one of the professors seriously injured by a mail bomb sent by Kaczynski in 1993, has been particularly vocal. 

What has he said?
He’s accused Netflix of humanising a terrorist and taking liberties with the truth under the label of ‘inspired by true events’. He said: “At the end of the day, the Unabomber and his actions accomplished nothing but death and injury. It's time to put this story to bed”. But the film’s creators, including director Janus Metz, say the movie is designed to examine the psychology of extremism rather than excuse or justify Kaczynski’s actions.

How can I watch it?
Unabomber premieres globally on Netflix on 25 September. Going by the millions of views the trailer has racked up, there’s still a lot of interest in the case and audiences are keen to see how Metz will approach it.

Onto our Recommendations

Reading/watching: This article breaks down the actors in Unabomber and who they’re all playing, just in case you want to put some faces to names. And here’s the trailer…

Reading:  This piece from The Conversation that was published after Kaczynski’s death in 2023 goes into the linguistic tells we all have in our written expression that give clues to our identity.

Need help? Here are some resources if this episode has brought up any issues for you.

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