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Ted Kaczynski, Known as the 'Unabomber,' has Died in Prison at Age 81 (npr.org) 126

Posted by EditorDavid from the dying-in-prison dept.
Because he targeted universities and airlines, the FBI had dubbed him the Unabomber, reports the Associated Press: Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died Saturday. He was 81... Kaczynski died at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina, Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, told The Associated Press. He was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8 a.m., she said. A cause of death was not immediately known.

Before his transfer to the prison medical facility, he had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims. Years before the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax mailing, the "Unabomber's" deadly homemade bombs changed the way Americans mailed packages and boarded airplanes, even virtually shutting down air travel on the West Coast in July 1995.

He forced The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, to make the agonizing decision in September 1995 to publish his 35,000-word manifesto, "Industrial Society and Its Future," which claimed modern society and technology was leading to a sense of powerlessness and alienation. [The Post published it "at the urging of federal authorities, after the bomber said he would desist from terrorism if a national publication published his treatise."] But it led to his undoing. Kaczynski's brother David and David's wife, Linda Patrik, recognized the treatise's tone and tipped off the FBI, which had been searching for the "Unabomber" for years in nation's longest, costliest manhunt.

Authorities in April 1996 found him in a 10-by-14-foot (3-by-4-meter) plywood and tarpaper cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, that was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients and two completed bombs.
A psychiatrist who interview him in prison said Kaczynski suffered from persecutorial delusions, the article points out. "I certainly don't claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the 'good' (whatever that is) of the human race," Kaczynski wrote on April 6, 1971. "I act merely from a desire for revenge."

A stand-up comic once joked that the only technology that Kaczynski didn't have a problem with....was bombs.
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Ted Kaczynski, Known as the 'Unabomber,' has Died in Prison at Age 81 More

Ted Kaczynski, Known as the 'Unabomber,' has Died in Prison at Age 81

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  • Good riddance (Score:5, Interesting)

    by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @03:44PM (#63591782)

    I know one of the guys he sent a bomb to. Lost his hand in the explosion. Totally nice guy who never did anything to anyone. Just did civilian STEM work.

    Fucking psycho.

  • From the manifesto (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Ada_Rules ( 260218 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @03:50PM (#63591794) Homepage Journal
    "216. Some leftists may seem to oppose technology, but they will oppose it only so long as they are outsiders and the technological system is controlled by non-leftists. If leftism ever becomes dominant in society, so that the technological system becomes a tool in the hands of leftists, they will enthusiastically use it and promote its growth. In doing this they will be repeating a pattern that leftism has shown again and again in the past. When the Bolsheviks in Russia were outsiders, they vigorously opposed censorship and the secret police, they advocated self-determination for ethnic minorities, and so forth; but as soon as they came into power themselves, they imposed a tighter censorship and created a more ruthless secret police than any that had existed under the tsars, and they oppressed ethnic minorities at least as much as the tsars had done. In the United States, a couple of decades ago when leftists were a minority in our universities, leftist professors were vigorous proponents of academic freedom, but today, in those of our universities where leftists have become dominant, they have shown themselves ready to take away from everyone else's academic freedom. (This is "political correctness.") The same will happen with leftists and technology: They will use it to oppress everyone else if they ever get it under their own control."

    His methods may have been immoral but his diagnosis had some merit.

    • Re:From the manifesto (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @04:00PM (#63591814)

      The desire for power and control has less to do with the political side and more to do with your sense of superiority and lack of understanding on the overall system.
      "i know better than everyone else" can even spawn on something as petty as some poodle club and the results are always horrible.

      • Re:From the manifesto (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Nrrqshrr ( 1879148 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @06:40PM (#63592116)

        Sadly, "I know better than everyone else" also applies to everyone else. That's how you end up with the Stanford's List of Bad Words, with people telling you what you should or should not say and how to say it. Because they know better.
        Ted's fundamental thesis, if my understanding is correct, is that the more intertwined the system gets, the less personal freedom and power of choice you have, "for the greater good". He might have equated it a little too much with the left, but the heart of the idea is still there.
        Technological progress gives the tools of control to the exact people you DON'T want to have control. The people who think they know better and will do everything to prove that.
        Whether it's the right or the left is irrelevant. No one started a war thinking that they're on the wrong side of history.

      • Unfortunately, Ted K did know better than everyone else. Go read his works (he continued writing). His early works are downright prophetic. His dire social predictions could have been used as an instruction manual.

        Its an off catch-22⦠we would likely never have known of his genius and insight if he had not done such wretched things.

    • Hey what are you complaining about. If you go far enough left you get your guns back.

    • Re:From the manifesto (Score:4, Insightful)

      by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @04:05PM (#63591832)

      Ironically, it was him that's like that. He talks about ruthlessness of the secret police, yet he himself carried out ruthless acts against others. Kind of like murderers in prison complaining that the food is bad. They expect everyone to be sensitive to their petty wants and act morally, but refuse to do the same for others.

      • Re:From the manifesto (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @04:15PM (#63591874)

        Ted was a brilliant kid and math prodigy. Attended Harvard at 15. Then things probably started going sideways then. He was involved in a psychological experiment involving verbal emotional abuse, with the experiment going on for 3 years. Suggestions this was part of mkultra but it's unclear and no evidence of it. Ted denied it but I think it likely lead to his hating the academic establishment, even though he was later an assistant professor. Still an unknown how different things would have been if the teenager had been treated humanely.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      That's true everywhere, when you don't have power you have to play nice to try and gain support. Once you have power, you don't need to play nice since you can use the power to strengthen and retain your position.

    • Re:From the manifesto (Score:4, Insightful)

      by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @05:04PM (#63591946) Journal

      I read part of the manifesto back in the day when it was published by the Washington Post, IIRC at the request of agents who thought somebody might recognize the writing style and help crack the case. I think his brother actually did, based on that. Anyway, I too thought he had some real insight and I got as far as a line that said, "that's why we have to kill people" and I was instantly snapped back to reality. That one word, "kill" that some people might gloss over, made me realize how documents like that can lure people in and help form the foundation of extremist political movements. I didn't know anybody who wrote like that, expressed such ideas, or had the means to carry out the bombings. Also, it was rather long, so I stopped reading a few lines after that.

      • That one word, "kill" that some people might gloss over, made me realize how documents like that can lure people in and help form the foundation of extremist political movements.

        Someone using the word "kill" implies people form extremist political movements?

        AFAIK, the Unabomber party never wins. I blame Big Academy.

      • Kill is only mentioned once in the entire manifesto:

        In order to get our message before the public with some chance of making a lasting impression, we've had to kill people.

        https://docs.google.com/viewer... [google.com] And he is actually correct. This was before the internet with the mainstream press controlling everything. Do not think his manifesto would ever have been accepted as an op-ed.

      • You remember correctly. The person that recognized the writing style and tipped offf the FBI was his brother, David.

    • The same could be said of Engels and Marx. Thing is, it's almost infinitely easier to observe a problem than to theorize a good solution. It's the difference between diagnosing cancer and curing it. On the internet there is a never-ending stream of people who assume that since they noticed things aren't perfect, the solution must be the first alternative that popped into their mind.

      • The true and useful part of Kaczynski's diagnosis can also be found in Dilbert: It sucks to be a worker in a cubicle. It sucks to have no control over your working life. These are true statements.

        Coincidentally(?), he also hated the same collection of leftists that Scott Adams does, and agreed with Scott Adams that if people fighting for racial justice had just asked more nicely there wouldn't be so much racism.

        Naively, he thought that people would be happier if they lived like pioneers, struggling fo

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Modern dentistry, cancer drugs and other pharmaceuticals, anti-viral drugs, vaccines, modern medical practice, sewage plants, modern water treatment plants, etc.

      So go back to 1700s, they are waiting for you to enjoy a short life. As for leftists, they don't want a dog-eat-dog world which is the right winger's wet dream.

      • Big Brother only wants the best for you.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by kqs ( 1038910 )

          Big Brother is an asshole, but if you assume Big Brother didn't exist before 1700, you're... not very bright.

          Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. The problem is technology is people, not technology. People are always the problem. Technology causes and solves problems; destroying the technology removes the "solves" part but doesn't affect the "causes" part since those in power still have the technology.

    • He wrote the Incel Bible
    • There is more to leftism than the *4* usual example the American usually use : Cuba, China, North korea, and Russia/udSSR. There is the Nordic countries for example, with a leftism embracing the technology and capitalism AND offering as much social protection and strengthening of society as it can. There are plenty of example of "Leftist" or socialist politic in many country having huge positive effect :e.g. collectivism of social health care in many country lead to a superior result than the US, in spite o

    • Crazy people are just like all of us; they are human too the DIFFERENCE is a few aspects are outside what is considered healthy. The crazy aspect can be quite minor and simply be 1 delusional premise in an otherwise sound chain of logic. I'm not saying this was in his case, his view of leftist , liberalism was far more delusional than a few errors and sadly has spread to many American simpletons. The liberal / conservative BS has become way more delusional and combined with modern psychology and now is

  • Cell available (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 10, 2023 @04:04PM (#63591828)

    Just in time for Donald Trump

    • Trump and his sycophants complain about a 2-tiered justice system, and then demanding Trump be part of the exempt-from-breaking-the-law tier, and not the regular-people tier. I can't wait for that defense strategy in court.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dryeo ( 100693 )

        It might work given the right Judge and jury.

        • > It might work given the right Judge and jury.

          Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon and 12 Florida jurors?

          I've lost all hope at this point of Trump getting prison from that prosecution case. Now I'm only hoping that Cannon gets removed from the bench, or the arbitrary judicial ridiculousness just pitches Florida into tangible chaos.

  • Hmmm.... Robert Hanssen, the FBI spy and guilty party for the most massive leak of confidential information in the US intelligent community, died a few days ago. Now Ted Kaczynski is dead and died at the exact same prison. *Puts Tin Foil Hat On* Hmmm... perhaps there is something in the food and the US Bureau of Prisons is trying to save some money in housing these very-expensive-to-house prisoners.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mendax ( 114116 )

      Okay, okay. I didn't RTFA before I posted this. He died in the medical facility in Butner, NC. But he spent most of his time at the supermax in Florence, CO. Tin foil hat theory still applies.

    • Not really.

      The BOP has recently claimed the title worst federal agency to work for (after a fairly lengthy campaign of driving their already mediocre reputation into dust). Most cited reasons- criminally understaffed and woefully incompetent management. I occasionally run across news stories of the department being sued for negligence that is near Kafkaesque.

      Butner was maybe the most up-to-date and advanced medical center in the prison system. Expect more of these stories in the future.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mendax ( 114116 )

        I write letters to prisoners, including prisoners in federal prison. It's amazing what one can learn from them about their part of the world. I know quite a lot about the conditions in federal prisons from my correspondents. Also, a close friend of mine served some time in federal prison at Butner, although not in the medical section of the prison. You are correct that BOP has an awful reputation. Dismal isn't a strong enough word to describe it. There may not be an adjective in the English language a

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by kqs ( 1038910 )

          That's mostly Working As Intended, though. In the US we tend to want prisons to be punitive rather than reforming. And we get what we pay for. It's a terrible idea, but as long as we assume that only Those People are in prison, it's exactly what we want!

          We get the government we choose. It's shitty, but it's true.

      • Worse than TSA??? Impossible.

    • the US intelligent community

      I get so sick of those Mensa creeps!

    • Hey, there's only so many supermax cells. Really odd they kept both in supermax into their old age...it's the closest version to hell society has ever invented. I have wondered why they didn't transfer these two .. Terry Nichols and Aldrich Ames (parallel cases to both Kacynzski and Hannsen) both got transferred out a long time ago.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mendax ( 114116 )

        Actually, if I remember correctly (I read it somewhere but don't remember the source), the Florence supermax has plenty of empty cells. It's nowhere near its designed capacity.

    • Are you saying that UNABOM didn't kill himself?

  • Actually, the FBI did not call him the Unabomber. They called him the UNABOMER. All caps, no second B. It's the media that was like "That's dumb, we're putting it in lowercase and adding the other b."

  • He had no credit rating.

  • The psychological torture of Kaczynski (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Saturday June 10, 2023 @11:20PM (#63592520)
    When he was an undergrad at Harvard, Kaczynski was a subject in an extremely brutal psychological experiment. [wikipedia.org]

    In his second year at Harvard, Kaczynski participated in a study described by author Alston Chase as a "purposely brutalizing psychological experiment" led by Harvard psychologist Henry Murray. Subjects were told they would debate personal philosophy with a fellow student and were asked to write essays detailing their personal beliefs and aspirations. The essays were given to an anonymous individual who would confront and belittle the subject in what Murray himself called "vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive" attacks, using the content of the essays as ammunition. Electrodes monitored the subject's physiological reactions. These encounters were filmed, and subjects' expressions of anger and rage were later played back to them repeatedly. The experiment lasted three years, with someone verbally abusing and humiliating Kaczynski each week. Kaczynski spent 200 hours as part of the study.

    Although Kaczynski himself denied that this experience had any impact on his later life, it's hard to believe that his later violence was unrelated to what happened to him then. It should also be noted that Murray had ties with the OSS, the predecessor to the CIA, during WW2. Some have suggested that the experiment was a part of CIA sponsored mind control experiments being run at schools like Harvard and Stanford at that time.

  • I wonder if we could have found him if he wasn't as special when the manifesto was published. I mean 1995 was just before the internet became really big (right?). When anyone could "publish" their manifesto online for people to read and share.

    Or would he have done a similar stunt to provoke attention?

    I don't know him or the situation a ton, but it seems like he was wanting to be heard and this was how "important" people did. If he'd had a smaller amount of attention from people who agreed (or hated his i

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