← Going West: True Crime
Going West: True Crime
The Unabomber / Part 2 // 495
01:01:36
Part 2 of 2. Starting in 1978, a Montana man murdered three people and injured 23 others during a nationwide bombing campaign. Hiding behind a comfortable upbringing, mathematician degrees from prestigious universities, and his perspective of doing right by the environment, Ted Kaczynski violently opposed modern technology and industrial society. And through a 35,000-word manifesto and multiple horrific attacks -many of which were on innocent civilians- he plead his case. This is the story of the Unabomber.
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- [00:00]
Te
Foreign. What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Te.
- [00:17]
Daphne
And I'm your host, Daphne.
- [00:19]
Te
And you're listening to Going West.
- [00:21]
Daphne
Hello, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in to part two of the Unabomber. If you haven't listened yet, please go check out part one. We're going to do a tiny, tiny recap in the beginning of this episode. But there, I mean, that episode is almost an hour long. We dive into so many fascinating aspects of this story that you do not want to miss.
- [00:41]
Te
Yeah, and we only talked about three of his crimes out of 16. So we've got a long ways to go.
- [00:47]
Daphne
Yes, but it's not just like boring backstory stuff. It's all very fascinating and also super relevant to where the rest of the story goes. So check it out if you already did. Thank you so much. And without further ado, let's finish. Finish up this case.
- [01:02]
Te
All right, guys, this is episode 495 of Going West. So let's get into it. His bombing campaign killed three and injured more than 20 people. His calling card, a manifesto railing against technology in the modern world. But it would be those words that led to his capture.
- [01:52]
Daphne
Ted Kaczymski stands formally accused tonight of.
- [01:56]
Te
Being the so called Unabomber, the most.
- [01:58]
Daphne
Dangerous serial bomber in US history. 16 bombs in 17 years, 23 injuries, and now a third death. It's very frustrating because you were doing.
- [02:09]
Te
All the things that you thought you should do and you weren't any closer to solving the case than you had been two years previous. The Sacramento grand jury slapped Kaczynski with 10 charges of transporting, mailing, and using explosives with intent to kill or injure. He made it very clear, if you publish the manifesto in the New York Times or the Washington Post, the Terraskoop FC will desist from terrorism. When she said, well, I think maybe your brother's the Unabomber, I thought, well, this is not anything to worry about. Ted's never been violent. I've never seen him violent. They had posted the first few pages of the manifesto on the screen computer in the lobby of the library. So Dave went with me. And then as Dave read the first page, I was sitting at his side and his jaw dropped. It just sounded like my brother's voice.
- [03:24]
Daphne
In part one of the Unabomber, we discussed Ted Kaczynski's childhood, his behavior growing up, which many actually feel could show signs of undiagnosed autism. His brother David believes that he had Asperger's, which could explain his high intelligence. But Also his social detachment and obsessive traits. But I will say many believe it was much more complex. As we will get into later, we also dove into his 1962 Harvard graduation, which occurred when he was just 20 years old. As you'll recall, Ted Kaczynski earned his master's and PhD in mathematics at the University of Michigan. Though he found his time there deeply miserable, his personal life grew increasingly troubled. He struggled with gender dysphoria, isolation and intense feelings of rejection, particularly from women, as we really got into. Despite being briefly employed as the youngest professor at UC Berkeley, he left academia abruptly to pursue a reclusive life in the Montana wilderness, which is something he had been interested in for years at that point, saving up what he could from two measly years of working as a professor to support himself. Though you'll also recall that his parents supported him financially much of the time. Through his 20s, 30s and 40s, living in a remote 10 by 12 foot cabin, though some reports say it was 10 by 14 without modern utilities in Montana, Ted grew increasingly disturbed by the encroachment of technology and modern society. His anger festered into violence, targeting neighbors, animals and eventually the wider public. Because, as we ended in episode one, Ted Kaczynski's 17 year bombing campaign cost over $50 million in investigations and left three people dead and 23 people injured. Now he turned to bomb making. We didn't really get into this because it was like a calculated way to express his rage toward modern society and technological advancement, which he believed were eroding human freedom and destroying the natural world. Having always excelled in science and math, as we very much know, he taught himself how to construct increasingly sophisticated explosives, seeing bombs as a powerful, anonymous method of striking back at the institutions he hated without direct confrontation. So isolated in his Montana cabin, he experimented meticulously with materials and techniques in his early 30s, logging his progress in detailed journals. But for Ted, bombs weren't just tools of destruction. They were a symbolic rebellion against the system. They were a way to inflict fear and force society to reckon with what he saw as its own moral and existential failings. As we mentioned, his first attack occurred in 1978, when a bomb sent to the University of Illinois injured a security officer. The following year, he planted a bomb at Northwestern University, injuring a graduate student, escalating his efforts the following year, in 1979, he targeted air travel with a device that exploded aboard American Airlines Flight 444. Although the plane did not crash, a dozen passengers suffered lung damage from smoke inhalation and since we know he was a journal guy, his writings later revealed a chilling lack of remorse and a growing desire to cause more harm to the world at large. But, you know, it's really interesting because his reliance on the very tools of modern society to carry out his attacks, you know, combined with his dependence on his family's financial support, also undermined his ideal of self sufficiency, which I believe just revealed a deep hypocrisy within his so called philosophy.
- [07:36]
Te
Yeah, and it's like he hated modern systems, but he relied on a very modern system, AKA the postal service, which is a cornerstone of organized infrastructure and airplanes to deliver these bombs. But the real funny thing here is that Ted obviously knows that he doesn't want to get caught. Right. So it's like he knows he can't face society head on. He knows he has to be in this dark, dingy little cabin creating his bombs. That's the way he needs to do it. Because obviously he's. Like we mentioned in the first episode, he's very insecure. He thinks that he can attack society, but he's never gonna do it face on. That's why he has to do it in like this hidden way of sending bombs through the mail. It's not like he's out there having conversations with people, trying to make change, as you mentioned. Yeah, he's just in the background doing nothing.
- [08:29]
Daphne
And it's not like. Yeah, it's not like he is willing to put his message out there with his face and name on it and say, this is what I believe, or willing to go down with the ship.
- [08:40]
Te
Right.
- [08:41]
Daphne
It's almost like he still wants to live in this world and be a part of this world while making incredibly indirect changes in such a violent way. It's like he's trying to send these messages instead of putting boots on the ground and yet still wanting to remain a part of our planet.
- [09:00]
Te
Right. There's a little bit of this like, narcissistic streak in him where he doesn't want to get caught. He doesn't want people to know his name. He wants to create this destruction and read about it in a newspaper.
- [09:11]
Daphne
Yes. And we're going to get into that a lot in this episode about how he really worked hard to ensure that his identity would not be discovered and how he actually tried to pin it on other real people.
- [09:25]
Te
All right, so now that you guys are all caught up, let's talk about what happened next. 1979 was the year that Ted earned himself the moniker the Unabomber, which Is derived from being known as the university and airline bomber. The FBI teamed up with the Postal Inspection Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to investigate the extent of Ted's crimes. At its peak, the investigation employed 150 full time investigators for this nationwide manhunt. Meanwhile, in his next attack, Ted experimented for the first time with choosing a specific target for his criminal activity. Selecting the president of United Airlines, whose name was Percy Wood. On June 10, 1980, Percy received a package at his Lake Forest, Illinois home. And inside the box was a book entitled Icebrothers, which is about a member of the coast guard who was stationed in Greenland during World War II. The bomb was actually embedded inside this book and injured Percy upon its detonation, Leaving him with cuts and burns over a lot of his body. 39 year old Ted's next attempt was the first time that he branched out of his home state of Illinois. On October 8, 1981, a bomb wrapped with brown paper and secured with string was discovered in the hallway of a building on the University of Utah's Salt Lake City campus. So this is the first time he's stepping out of Illinois. Thankfully, this bomb was safely detonated without harming anybody. But investigators began to suspect that the Unabomber had been raised in Chicago and had subsequently spent some time in both San Francisco and Salt Lake City, Utah. All of which was true. Cause Ted actually did spend some time in Salt Lake City. While crafting his latest explosive, the FBI attempted to build out a profile of who the perpetrator was, Believing him to be a white male between the ages of 35 and 45 who was comfortable on college campuses, either having worked there or studied there.
- [11:40]
Daphne
Spot on.
- [11:41]
Te
Yeah, I mean, they really did build the perfect profile of this perpetrator. But the thing is, is Ted was very careful about concealing his identity, as Daphne just mentioned, and even made sure to remove the serial numbers of all the items that he used to make the bombs, as well as any fingerprints, hair or DNA that was left behind. At first, he was nicknamed the junkyard bomber because of his utilization of scrap metal and garbage, none of which were store bought in order to prevent the purchases from being traced back to him. Like he didn't even lick the stamps that he used to send the packages for fear of being found out at one point. Obviously law enforcement found out about this later, but he eventually carefully collected pubic hairs from a public restroom and sent those in with the bomb to throw law enforcement off. So he's really trying here.
- [12:35]
Daphne
I mean, that's like Such a disgusting thing to do. But also that is, that shows that he wants to pin this on some random person so that they can try to find the DNA of one of these hairs and connect it to somebody completely random who Ted doesn't even know.
- [12:51]
Te
But really what's going to happen is they're going to find this pubic hair and they're going to trace it back to the person who it belongs to and realize that they were just sent on a wild goose chase, which was.
- [13:02]
Daphne
Probably his exact goal. Well, then, starting with his fifth bomb, carved or pin pricked, somewhere in the divide were the initials FC, which Ted later admitted stood for Freedom Club. On May 5, 1982, just before his 40th birthday, Ted struck for a sixth time, targeting the head of the computer science department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. But the professor's secretary, Janet Smith, had opened the package instead and was injured from the blast. She remained in the hospital for three weeks and was treated for severe burns and cuts, but in the end, she was okay. Obviously, this was extremely traumatic. But just two months later, he struck again, this time back on the West Coast. On July 2, 1982, a package containing a bomb was left in the break room of Corey hall at Ted's former workplace. UC Berkeley aimed to harm a professor. Ted's goal was fulfilled when the blast sent Professor Diogenes Angelakos to the hospital with injuries to his face and hands. This one actually had a note, which was very likely a red herring because it read, quote, woo. Like wu Woo. It works. I told you it works. I told you it would. Rv. So investigators are thinking some guy named RV is trying to get this note to somebody named Woo. So investigators started to chase down anybody on campus with the surname Woo and anybody who possessed the initials R.V. but they came up empty. And this one is so chaotic, which obviously they all are chaotic, but he put this in the break room at UC Berkeley because he wanted to kill a professor. Nobody in particular. And it's like you were a professor, like that could have been you.
- [15:07]
Te
Yeah, And I think that this was a huge downfall for him because not only were they building this kind of perfect profile of who Ted really was, but now they're kind of tracing things back to somebody who went to the University of Illinois, somebody who had spent some time in Salt Lake City, somebody who was a professor at UC Berkeley.
- [15:27]
Daphne
It's just so strange because so much of his early life revolved around academia and higher education, and he's targeting both of those things, even though these are people that were like him. So it's so strange because he also, other than UC Berkeley, he also targeted the University of Michigan, which is where he received two of his degrees. But surprisingly, he left Harvard alone, despite obviously having undergone those experiments there, which some believe again may have contributed to him becoming the Unabomber.
- [16:03]
Te
That's kind of surprising to me because you would think that those crazy experiments that he went through at Harvard, you know, that that would be his first target, but it was never one of any of his targets.
- [16:14]
Daphne
His revenge plan is really confusing. Well, for the next three years, Ted laid low because he was so upset that none of his bombs had killed anybody yet. He's so disappointed in himself for not making a better, stronger, bigger bomb up until this point.
- [16:28]
Te
And thankfully, with all the bombs and all the things that he did, like obviously these three people were victims, but he could have injured so many more people with these bombs.
- [16:39]
Daphne
Yeah, because they were really experiments. He didn't know what was gonna happen, how strong they were going to be or not going to be because obviously he wanted to kill somebody. And it hadn't worked yet because they weren't as strong as he was hoping. He was still in the early stages of learning how to do this.
- [16:56]
Te
Yeah, because if that bomb that was on that plane, the United Airlines Flight 444 had actually done damage and that plane crashed, I mean there was what, like 80 people on that flight?
- [17:08]
Daphne
Yeah, dozens of people. Like we said before, innocent civilians could have been killed. But in 1985, after a few years hiatus, Ted Re emerged. On May 15, a second bomb was deposited at Corey hall at UC Berkeley, which did irreparable damage to the life of a 26 year old man. John Hauser was a graduate student and an Air Force captain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And he was attending special training at UC Berkeley when he came upon a white plastic box. Trying to pry it open, the bomb inside detonated and shattered his right hand and part of his arm. So John was rushed into surgery for this and doctors warned him that he would never regain full use of his right arm and his right hand, and that he may also lose the sight of his left eye, which sadly ended his career as a pilot.
- [18:09]
Te
On June 13, 1985, 43 year old Ted struck for a ninth time, again taking aim at the airline industry. He mailed a package to the Boeing Fabrication Division, which is a manufacturer of Boeing planes in Auburn, Washington. But it was safely detonated. A few months later, on November 15, 1985, he sent a bomb to his alma Mater the University of Michigan. The package arrived via mail to the home of psychology professor James McConnell, but it was instead opened by his assistant Nicholas Swino, and both of them were injured in this. James sadly sustained temporary hearing loss and Nicholas suffered wounds from shrapnel and a few burns. The bomb, which had been concealed inside a three ring binder, included a phony letter requesting that the professor review a student's master thesis. Less than a month later, on December 11, 1985, another bomb was sent and this one marked ted's first fatality. 38 year old Hugh Scrutton was the owner of Rentech Computer Rentals in the Century Plaza shopping Center in Sacramento, California. Shortly after noon on Wednesday, December 11, he was exiting his store from the back door and spotted what he thought was trash on the ground. But when he reached down to, I don't know, help the environment and discard a bit, the device exploded, shooting Hugh back 10ft. The first person to come to his aid recalled Hugh crying out, oh my God, help me. But sadly, he was pronounced dead within minutes. Hugh's obituary states that he was a kind and gentle person whose life had been full of adventure, academics and world travels. One former employee said, he was the best boss I ever had. He was an honest, kind person. And that really makes it harder because it's such a shame when someone that nice is taken from you. Now, the motive behind Ted's choice of Hugh as the victim was unclear, but their time at UC Berkeley overlapped. So it may have been a years long petty grudge which Ted was known for harboring, obviously. However, the head of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department Homicide Bureau announced after the murder, Mr. Scrutton was an exemplary citizen with an unblemished character. I am certain that he was not a specific victim of the bomber. Anyone who happened by the business could well have been the victim.
- [20:51]
Daphne
Well, this is what Ted wrote in his journals after his first murder. Experiment 97, December 11, 1985. I planted a bomb disguised to look like a scrap of lumber behind the rentech computer store in Sacramento. According to the San Francisco Examiner, December 20, the operator, owner, manager of the store was killed. Blown to bits. Excellent humane way to eliminate somebody. He probably never felt a thing. $25,000 reward offered.
- [21:26]
Te
Rather flattering, this piece of. He's getting so much excitement that this was his first murder.
- [21:32]
Daphne
But this is so fascinating to me. Humane way to eliminate somebody. Is that something he even cares about? You know? And also it wasn't because as we.
- [21:43]
Te
Know, he was crying on the ground.
- [21:44]
Daphne
Yeah. For asking for help. He was. He knew what had happened to him. Obviously, like you just said, he died after only a few minutes, so he probably passed out rather quickly. But he was still aware he wasn't just blown to bits in an instant. And there's no note of him saying that he was specifically targeting this man. So maybe he wasn't. But. Yeah, Again, it's just so weird that he's almost proud of himself for blowing somebody to bits in a quote unquote humane way, as if that's important to him at all. You're still killing somebody.
- [22:16]
Te
Yeah. And I think Ted would have probably taken a win had it been anybody who picked up that, that bomb, you know?
- [22:22]
Daphne
Well, after this, Ted waited over a year to strike again. In the meantime, back in Montana, he kept himself busy hunting and spending time outdoors. He was an avid reader and would frequently stop into the tiny Lincoln Library and sometimes even make trips to the larger city of Missoula to visit their library. Having a particular affinity for books about philosophy and anarchy. When he decided to travel to place a bomb at its target detonation site, he would take the bus from Helena in Montana and travel a straight shot south to Salt Lake City, Utah and transfer bus lines there. And this, by the way, would have been like a seven hour drive. But he wasn't driving. So depending on how many connections, it would take at least twice as long by bus, at least 14 hours. So this was a day's journey. Now, for his 12th attack, he visited another computer store, this time in Salt Lake City, where the bomb inside his nail studded wooden box injured 26 year old employee Gary Wright and left him with permanent nerve damage. But that day, February 20, 1987, Ted made a grave error and allowed himself to be seen depositing that package in the parking lot. Gary had then pulled up beside it while heading into work and was blasted with shrapnel that lacerated his face, legs and arms. Two other employees looked on in horror, but they actually managed to report Ted's appearance because, you know, it all happened so fast. So this brought about the first description of the Unabomber, who is depicted as having a mustache and curly hair and was wearing aviator sunglasses and a hooded jacket slash coat with jeans.
- [24:17]
Te
And this is like that famous photo that everybody. Or the famous police sketch that everybody knows about. The, the aviator sunglasses with the hood up that everybody's probably seen. This is that.
- [24:30]
Daphne
Yeah. And if it's not popping into your head, we will post it on our socials alongside all the other photos from this case today or this episode today. But they also, the witnesses noted that they believed he was 5 foot 10 inches tall, about 165 pounds. He was a white man, around 28 years old, with curly blonde or strawberry blonde hair, which is funny because that's really not his description.
- [24:54]
Te
That's not exactly what he looks like.
- [24:56]
Daphne
Yeah, he had brown hair. He was not 28 years old. He was in his early 40s. And I don't think the police sketch looks like him, but obviously it is a composite sketch. So a lot of times those aren't super accurate. Of course they're not working off of an image of the guy.
- [25:13]
Te
Especially when a witness only gets, you know, a couple seconds glance at this guy.
- [25:17]
Daphne
Yeah, and like you said, with his hood up, you really couldn't tell anything. And the sunglasses. So they did what they could.
- [25:24]
Te
So after this little mess up, probably because he knew that he had been seen, Ted abstained from acts of terrorism for over six years. Years. The next explosion came on June 22, 1993, when 51 year old Ted targeted a prominent geneticist and researcher for the University of California in San Francisco.
- [25:47]
Daphne
This was not a phase he is over a decade in at this point.
- [25:51]
Te
Yeah, I mean he started doing this stuff when he was in his 30s and 40s. Actually it really started in his 20s, but now he's 51 years old and he's still going. Well, Dr. Charles Epstein, no relation to that shitbag Jeffrey, was regarded as one of the foremost geneticists at this time. And he received the package, which was in a padded envelope directly at his home in Tiburon, California, which is just outside of San Francisco. It exploded inside his kitchen, shattering all of his windows and even ripping a table off its legs. From the explosion, Charles suffered the severing of three fingers, a broken arm, abdominal injuries and permanent hearing loss. Two days later, a second attack took place, but this time it was on the east coast, targeting a well known and regarded academic, Yale computer scientist David Galernter. Mere hours after the attack, another threat was called into the university implicating David's brother, Dr. Joel Galertner. And the menacing call came into the medical center's switchboard, simply saying, you are next. Which is obviously very, very horrifying. After the explosion on David, he ran straight from his office to the campus medical clinic, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Because the blow had destroyed four of his fingers and damaged the sight in his right eye.
- [27:27]
Daphne
In December of 1994, Ted claimed the life of his second victim, Thomas J. Mosser. Was a 50 year old advertising executive who lived in Caldwell, New Jersey. And nine days before his death, Thomas was actually promoted from general manager of the advertising agency to executive vice president. And this company was young and Rubicam. And Thomas was described as a devoted father and a selfless mentor. A lot of people love this man. He had two kids from a previous marriage and also shared 13 year old daughter Kim and 15 month old daughter Kelly with his second wife, Susan. Now, the bomb, which was recalled to be the size of about a VHS tape, was delivered on Friday, December 9, 1994, and was believed to originate from the San Francisco area. So this bomb would have had to have traveled across the country because remember, right now, we are in New Jersey. Now, that night, Thomas's daughter Kim was having a sleepover with a friend named Robin, and the family spent the night together at home. The following morning, which was Saturday, December 10th, just a couple weeks before the holiday, the Mossers were planning to go pick out a Christmas tree. Susan had just left the kitchen after handing Thomas the mail when the blast went off, blowing a hole through the kitchen counter and filling the house with smoke. So Susan immediately rushed Kim, Robyn and baby Kelly outside and waited in horror as the FBI was deployed to the house to remove her husband's remains and begin the investigation of yet another Unabomber attack. Thomas had been struck with a barrage of pipes, nails and razor blades when the blast went off. So it was really, really brutal. Sadly, his wife Susan later remembered tearfully, quote, he was moaning very softly. The fingers on his right hand were dangling. I held his left hand. I told him help was coming. I told him I loved him. Meanwhile, Ted wrote gleefully in his journal that this was a total satisfactory result.
- [30:19]
Te
Ted Kaczynski was so obsessed with himself that he couldn't stand to share the spotlight with another domestic terrorist. And investigators now believe that his increased taunts and threats in 1995 were Ted's effort to compete with the notoriety that the Oklahoma city bomber Timothy McVeigh was receiving, killing 168 people in a blast inside a federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. Timothy's carefully orchestrated act was the largest incident of domestic terrorism in this nation's history. Ironically, Ted would later befriend Timothy when they were housed in the same supermax prison in Colorado. So in order to put himself back in the spotlight, on April 24, 1995, just five days after Timothy's mass murder, the Unabomber struck yet again, claiming his third and final murder victim, Gilbert Brent Murray, was the president of the California Forestry association when he was targeted with a bomb that detonated in his Sacramento office. 47 year old Gilbert devoted his life to nature and forestation, starting with receiving his bachelor's degree of science in forestry, which he received from Ted's former employer, the University of California, Berkeley. Gilbert's sister, Barbara Murray, remembered of Gilbert, he really loved trees. He served as a marine in Vietnam before settling down with his wife Connie and having two sons, Gilbert Jr. And Wilson. He spent 16 years of his career working at a pine company in northern California before moving to Sacramento to serve as the vice president of the California Forestry association, being promoted to president in April of 1994. So just one year before his death, Gilbert is remembered for his kind and sensitive nature and his dedication to his family and to wildlife. Now, the package containing the bomb had been left outside the entrance to his office, and Gilbert's secretary brought it inside, but was unable to open it. So Gilbert took it into his office, where it exploded shortly thereafter. The bomb sent to Gilbert was so forceful and the devastation so instantaneous that only his feet remained.
- [32:46]
Daphne
That is insane.
- [32:48]
Te
Yeah. So it seemed like Ted was obviously getting a lot better at building these bombs because now they are completely blowing.
- [32:57]
Daphne
People apart, causing more and more destruction.
- [33:00]
Te
Exactly. And here's the thing. The bomb's original target had actually been Gilbert's predecessor, who had retired the year prior when Gilbert stepped into that position. So it wasn't even meant to be Gilbert.
- [33:13]
Daphne
Well, that same year, 1995, the FBI finally discovered another tangible clue. And this was in the form of an indentation from a typewritten letter. Now, though the letter was typed Ted or somebody, we know that Ted had a typewriter. Somebody or Ted had left the imprint of his own handwriting on top of the note. And the note said, call Nathan R. Wednesday, 1:00pm so obviously, the FBI frantically chased down this lead, interviewing more than 10,000 men with the name Nathan R. But this led nowhere.
- [33:52]
Te
Damn, that's a lot of Nathan R's out there.
- [33:53]
Daphne
This is a huge job to interview 10,000 people just for this one clue. They wanted to know who this person was so bad. And for those who watched Manhunt Unabomber, you may remember the added detail that the note had been written by an intern at the New York Times while jotting down like a personal to do list item on the top of Ted's letter. But the truth is that we will likely never know the origin of this scribble. We don't know if it was from Ted or if it was from somebody in the Mix of this letter getting sent. So it's kind of an interesting little thing there. Well, that same year, Ted also completed his magnum opus, which is now known as as the Unabomber Manifesto. Industrial Society and its Future. And Ted began to pressure major media outlets to publish it. Ted even swore that he would cease his terrorist activity if his manifesto was published. But in reality, he had no intention of slowing down. It's really given Zodiac.
- [34:54]
Te
Yeah, it really is.
- [34:56]
Daphne
But still, in a joint decision made by the FBI and the Washington Post, the manifesto was published in their September 19, 1995 issue.
- [35:06]
Te
They had to make sure that they got it out there because, you know, it's. It's like one of those things where they believed if, if they did what this person was telling them to do, then he would stop these crazy acts. But he was never going to do that. It just was never going to be that way.
- [35:20]
Daphne
Well, again, it's just like the Zodiac, they need to do whatever they can to make sure that they stop this guy, even if it's looking up 10,000 Nathan Rs. You know, they're really spending so much time, they're working so hard to find the perpetrator. And if publishing this means he's going to stop, they're going to give it a try.
- [35:40]
Te
No, absolutely. And as they should. But this is the first time that we're seeing Ted kind of step out and want to get some recognition for his crimes. Like, he's really reaching out to society and news outlets because he needs people to know who he is.
- [35:57]
Daphne
But this is really just another way of him to anonymously get his message out into the world without taking responsibility for his actions.
- [36:05]
Te
Well, let's talk a little bit about this manifesto, because Ted's 35,000 word essay, which is around 80 pages depending on the formatting, centers on proving how modern technology has been a disaster for society and our freedoms as Americans. In it, he again refers to himself as FC or Freedom Club, as he goes on to malign leftists who he categorized as socialists, that is the politically correct. So animal rights activists, disability activists, feminists, and the LGBTQ community. Ted warned of the downfall of civilization at the hands of modern technology and pushed for a revolution, the return to primitive lifestyle and nature centric anarchy.
- [36:52]
Daphne
You can go do that. Like, he can literally go do that and he's not even doing it himself.
- [36:57]
Te
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. It's like you can't force other people to live your lifestyle just because that's what you want for the world.
- [37:03]
Daphne
And Imagine being one person and thinking that you can change not only the entire country, but the entire world by murdering people and writing a manifesto about it. Like, as if everyone's gonna be like, he's right. Let's change that change would take so much time, so much action from every participant of this world. Like, that's just not realistic.
- [37:29]
Te
And also, on top of that, you're kind of pushing people away because when they find out that you're the guy that's been causing all this trouble and killing people, they're not going to want to align themselves with you. Yeah, well, his opening statement reads, the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life expectancy of those of us who live in advanced countries, but they've destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering and the third World to physical suffering as well, and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world. It will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering, even in advanced countries.
- [38:34]
Daphne
And like we are saying in episode one or part one of this story, like, we can understand where he's coming from in a lot of ways. The. The trajectory that technology has taken, the way the world is going is very dangerous in a lot of ways. So I understand his sentiment, but he's approaching it all wrong. He has some major conflicting views, and he's a total hypocrite, and he's hurting people in the process.
- [39:04]
Te
Yeah, the guy is just afraid of computers and what the future will bring with computers, which now. I mean, we all are. Yeah, I mean, of course, we have AI now and stuff like that, so he would definitely hate that. But he's no saint. It's not like he's doing anything good to combat this type of technology or.
- [39:24]
Daphne
Trying to start a real honest movement.
- [39:27]
Te
And strangely, despite his antics, which bred disgust on both sides of the political spectrum, TED rejected fascist ideals and Nazism and equally criticized conservatives as he did liberals. So he doesn't really. He hates both of them. He hates both sides of the political spectrum.
- [39:45]
Daphne
I mean, this manifesto really did share so much about the person behind the words. Right. So the Unabomber task force really hoped that the particular verbiage that the manifesto's writer used would result in a tip that would lead Investigators to his real identity. So sociolinguist Robert Schuey and FBI forensic linguist James R. Fitzgerald scoured the text, all 35,000 words, noting that he intentionally seemed to misspell willfully with only one l. And they also noticed that the word clue, you know, C, L, U, e was stylized as clue, C, L, E, W. And a lot of people know that C, L, E, W was the older way to spell clew. And Robert Schuey identified these as two words, which actually the Chicago Tribune had begun to change the spellings of in the 1940s and 50s. Remember, Ted was born in 1942. So they're really starting to pick up on these certain things. And this really just helped strengthen the idea that it was very likely that the Unabomber had childhood ties to Chicago. He also used a few more obscure words, like chimerical, which means unrealistic or fanciful, and anomic, which is an adjective meaning socially disoriented, which suggested to investigators that he was college educated. He tossed around words often employed by others from his generation classified as the silent generation, such as using chick and broad when referring to women, words which would later turn up in his journal entries. By this point, Ted's brother David and his wife Linda had relocated to upstate New York. And as we hinted to in part one, David and Ted had a falling out. When David got married with Ted, out of total bitterness and likely jealousy, refusing to attend the wedding, Ted told David that Linda didn't love him and that she was simply exploiting him. And he refused to even meet her. So he didn't know this woman and is saying all these things about her and how she feels about David.
- [42:03]
Te
Yeah, he's just such a crybaby.
- [42:05]
Daphne
Yeah, he is. You know, that's why I said I really think that he was jealous. And he's thinking, you're leaving me. You're getting married to a broad, to a chick. Because, as we know, Ted really only went out with one woman, and it was very brief, and all they did was kiss. So he had this deep seated hatred for women and really blamed his brother for even being with one. Also, by this point, Ted had already severed ties with his parents, too, despite living off of their generosity for a large portion of his life. He wrote in a letter to David at this time, quote, I've got to know that every tie to this stinking family has been cut forever. So, also going back to one of the very first things we talked about in part one, which was Ted's relationship with his family and kind of his distaste for his parents. It's really coming full circle, and we're kind of realizing doesn't seem like it's a them thing.
- [43:00]
Te
Yeah, he never liked them in the beginning, and he didn't like them throughout his life. He just used them because he needed their money.
- [43:07]
Daphne
But it also seems like because he's against the world, it's Ted against the world. He just dislikes everybody, Even his own family, because we know he dislikes his own brother just because he married somebody. So none of these reasons are rational.
- [43:23]
Te
Again, this is just Ted finding any little tiny reason to be mad at someone.
- [43:30]
Daphne
Well, in spite of his staunch disapproval of David's union with Linda and her limited knowledge of him, it was Linda who first suggested a link between the Unabomber and her estranged brother in law in reading his hateful, rambling letters to David, which is kind of interesting as well, that he wants to cut ties with the family, but he's still writing them letters. He wants to talk to anybody that will listen. So while reading these writings, Linda gently pointed out to her husband, David, that perhaps his brother was mentally ill. Whereas his family saw him as quirky and antisocial, Linda raised alarm bells at serious illness and potential for dangerous and erratic criminal behavior. So she was really on top of it. She also mused that the descriptions in the news of the Unabomber's ideology sounded synonymous with Ted's.
- [44:27]
Te
When this manifesto was published, Linda implored David to read it, and David admitted that both the syntax and the principles reeked of his brother. According to Linda, David's jaw actually dropped as he read it, like he thought it was eerily reminiscent of Ted. So they hired a Chicago based private investigator named Susan Swanson, who analyzed the letters that Ted sent to his family alongside the text sent to news outlets, and drew similarities between the two of.
- [44:58]
Daphne
Them, which was probably pretty easy to do, not to undermine her work. But I mean, the fact that he is rambling in his manifesto, he's rambling in his letters, and probably talking about the very same issues that he has because he's a fricking broken record.
- [45:12]
Te
Right. And then again, the old school verbiage that he likes to use when he's writing.
- [45:17]
Daphne
Yeah. So just the fact, though, that they're making this connection is wild. But that also goes to show you how big the Unabomber news was at the time.
- [45:25]
Te
While Susan also pointed out that if he was active in California, as the Unabomber had been, he would have needed to take the bus from Helena, Montana, which was routed through Salt Lake City, where there had also been bombings. Then at his mother's house, David found the prequel to his manifesto, a 23 page document he sent to his mother, outlining what he later fleshed out in the full length manifesto.
- [45:54]
Daphne
Dude, what, like you sent a first draft to your mom?
- [45:58]
Te
He did, yeah, he literally did. And by the way, in 1990, Ted's father Turk passed away. So he was very much not alive as these discoveries were being made, but with increased certainty that his brother was connected to the crime spree, David even retained an attorney in order to broker the exchange of information between them and the FBI. David and Linda actually contacted the FBI to tip them off, and it was considered their most credible lead thus far. However, they pleaded with authorities not to launch a sneak attack because they were scared that Ted would fight back and probably lose his life in the process. And they just, you know, they just wanted answers. With the FBI now closing in on Ted, investigators tapped his neighbors, including Butch Goering, for help, who recorded the surroundings of the cabin and gave them context for who their suspect really was.
- [46:52]
Daphne
Yeah, because he knew he lived right next to him. They had a lot of exchanges.
- [46:58]
Te
Yeah, they knew. Butch knew firsthand that Ted was crazy. So the day before the arrest, the FBI descended on the rugged landscape of Lincoln, Montana, surrounding Ted's cabin to prepare for a historic arrest and closure to a case that spanned nearly two freaking decades.
- [47:19]
Daphne
They must have been so done.
- [47:20]
Te
Yeah, they're just ready to get this over with. And finally, after the FBI's longest and most costly investigation in US history, they arrived at the front door of his cabin on April 3, 1996, just over a month before Ted's 54th birthday. Now, initially, the agents announced that they were from a drilling company.
- [47:43]
Daphne
Ah, Ted would love that.
- [47:45]
Te
Yeah, absolutely. He'd be real pissed. And they asked him to come outside. But after Ted put his shoes on, they pulled him outside to shackle him with handcuffs while a gun was pointed directly at him.
- [47:57]
Daphne
This was such big news. This arrest was huge. So naturally, it made global headlines. And we will post photos. But inside of his ramshackle cabin was the same typewriter that he typed up his manifesto with and the letters throughout his career. So his cabin was really interesting the way he had had it all. I want to say organized, but it wasn't organized. It was such a mess in there.
- [48:25]
Te
Yeah, it was a dump.
- [48:26]
Daphne
So we will post photos of the inside. So you guys can see now, inside, There were also 22,000 pages of handwritten journal entries. 22,000 pages. A diary written entirely in numerical code, as well as entries in both English and Spanish. An arsenal of homemade guns, books on politics, philosophy, and anarchy. Ingredients to build his explosives, and two completed bombs.
- [48:56]
Te
Probably the next bombs that he was gonna use.
- [48:59]
Daphne
Yep. For his next victims. Also recovered were two autobiographies, one of which Ted wrote at the request of Dr. Henry A. Murray, you know, during his time undergoing the Harvard experiments. And the other he wrote 20 years later in his 40s. He loves himself. He loves what he's doing. He thinks he's so smart. He thinks he's gonna make a huge difference.
- [49:22]
Te
And to be fair, he was very smart. He was just a piece of shit.
- [49:27]
Daphne
Yeah. Remember, this guy is a literal genius. Well, get this. Investigators even found the hoodie and the aviator sunglasses, which are believed to be what he was wearing when he was first spotted in the parking lot during his attack of the Salt Lake City computer store. And because it felt so vital, his cabin was deconstructed and shipped to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. for further investigation. Like I said in part one, that cabin is now a part of a true crime exhibit, like a traveling one. So.
- [50:01]
Te
Yes. And both you and I have seen it. Yeah.
- [50:03]
Daphne
And maybe you can, too, if you look it up. It's traveling with a bunch of other, like, true crime memorabilia and FBI documentation regarding a lot of really famous cases. In an interview, David Kaczynski, remember, this is Ted's younger brother. He's seven years younger. This is what he had to say of his brother Ted's arrest. Quote, I struggle with this because I don't know exactly what happened to Ted. I thought my brother was the best human being on Earth, that he would change the world and do a great deal of good. And it's really sad to know that David thought that. That originally he thought, wow, he has all these ideas, and he cares about the planet, and he cares about what's going to happen to the world and where society is going. Like, he can really make a difference. But Ted chose to go the route of evil and not the route of good.
- [50:55]
Te
But also, David saw the signs that Ted was kind of an evil person because just based on the letters that he was writing to his brother about his brother's wife. Yeah, that would be enough for me to be like, you're. You're a dick. Like, you're not a good person.
- [51:10]
Daphne
I'm sure he did. I think just as his brother, he probably had higher hopes for him and wanted him to kind of get out of that negative headspace and he didn't.
- [51:20]
Te
Yeah, absolutely. And it's, you know, it's completely normal to look up to an older sibling. And unfortunately, David just can't really do that now.
- [51:28]
Daphne
Well, it also goes to show you how amazing David and Linda were because there was of course, a massive reward for, for giving the FBI a tip that would lead to the arrest of the Unabomber. And it was a million dollars. So a million dollars went to David and Linda for turning Ted in. And instead of keeping that money, they donated the funds. They split all of the money between the families of Ted's victims. And not only that, but they also called each and every one of the victims and their families to apologize on Ted's behalf.
- [52:04]
Te
Damn. I mean, really huge w for those, for David and Linda, just to have the heart to do something like that when Ted could never.
- [52:13]
Daphne
It was. Must have been so devastating for them to really realize what their family member did and how many people he hurt. And they just want to do whatever they can to fix it in any small way that they can.
- [52:27]
Te
Well, let's get back into Ted's mind a little bit now, because after his arrest, he underwent, of course, psychological assessment and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Though many also believed that he was narcissistic and that he had a complex blend of mental illness that helped make him who he was. So with this, his defense attorneys hoped to push for an insanity plea. But Ted declined, not wanting to believe the diagnosis because he thought that it would affect his legacy.
- [52:57]
Daphne
So he's taking full accountability. He's saying, there's nothing wrong with me. I did all this willfully.
- [53:02]
Te
Yeah, I did this shit. Well, two months after his arrest in June of 1996, 54 year old Ted was indicted on charges of illegally mailing, transporting and detonating bombs. In pretrial motions, which took place In January of 1998, his defense team requested to input an insanity plea in order to spare Ted from the death penalty. But Ted interrupted his own defense to dispute this claim again and said that he resented that his lawyers were attempting to highlight his schizophrenia diagnosis as a scapegoat for his self proclaimed activism.
- [53:41]
Daphne
Whereas a lot of other criminals will say, yes, I'm crazy, give me less of a sentence.
- [53:46]
Te
Yeah, he did not want that. So, coming to the realization that this was his team's only strategy, Ted demanded new representation. Though with the trial underway already, his request was denied. And then Ted attempted to take his own life in his prison cell the very next day. But it did not work. But on January 22, 1998. Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty in an attempt to avoid being sentenced to death. And instead, on May 4th of that year, he was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus an additional 30 years. And he was also ordered to pay over $15 million to the victims families. And because this sum was so large, some of his belongings were later auctioned off to collectors to help pay these families. Now by the time he was arrested, Ted had basically been estranged from his family for about 10 years. But despite this and Ted's promise that he really didn't care to see or speak with them again after they aided in his capture, Wanda and David showed up in court. On the day that David watched his older brother defiantly proclaim to the judge that he was refusing the help of his defense attorneys and that he would act on his own, David claimed that he broke down in sobs in the courtroom remembering, quote, I was never a person who cried, but seeing Ted, the dam just broke. It was so sad because he was choosing his delusion and rejecting those who cared about him. He was so alone in the world and he was willing to die so senselessly. Wanda agreed, saying sadly, when I saw him, oh gosh, I figured, oh my God, he's really gone over the edge. Ted's gone. Despite his callous rejection of his family's support, Both David and 80 year old Wanda continued to show up to his trial. David recalled, quote, on the day he attempted suicide, we wanted to rush over there and throw our arms around him and say, we love you. You're not alone.
- [55:58]
Daphne
It's such a tough position they're in because they've seen the good sides of him. And just like you quoted from his mom, Ted's gone. They're like, who is this guy and where is my son? Where is my brother?
- [56:11]
Te
Yeah, I mean obviously they loved him, but they, they could not defend his.
- [56:16]
Daphne
Actions, not at all well. After the trial, Ted was sent to the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, better known as ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado. So about two hours south of Denver. And this is the country's only supermax prison. So it is very well known for being the final destination for the country's worst and most dangerous offenders, as well as those who require federal protections. Like for example, currently housed in ADX Florence are Jhar Tsarnaev. You guys probably know that name. If you don't, that is the Boston Bomber. Joaquin Guzman, better known as El Chapo, you know, the leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel and two of the perpetrators of the 1993 bombing attack on the World Trade center, among many others. So, I mean, really a lot of bombers in there. During his time there, Ted was described as an ideal inmate. Surprisingly, he continued to write in prison. And among his ramblings were protestations that he was of sound mind and that his mental health diagnosis was the result of political bias. Nearly three decades into his time there in March of 2021. So very recently, Ted was diagnosed with aggressive rectal cancer. After complaining of rectal bleeding that December, he was transferred from ADX Florence to the Federal Medical center in Butner, North Carolina, where he underwent chemotherapy for a year and a half. But in March of 2023. So just two years ago, citing, quote, negative side effects and poor prognosis, Ted ceased seeking treatment. His doctor noted that he seemed increasingly depressed in the month leading up to his death. And though he was in solitary confinement, Ted managed to obtain a pair of shoelaces, which, as you can imagine, are generally not permitted to high risk inmates. And on June 10, 2023, he hung himself in his cell. After Ted's death, Barbara Murray, who is the sister of Ted's third and final victim, Gilbert Murray, said in an interview, I have a goal that I want to accomplish. Because the Unabomber died, I want to outlive him. That was goal number one. Goal two, he was 81 and I'm 70, so I have 11 years on the next goal, But I will outlive him. The best revenge is a good life. Thank you so much, everybody for listening to part two of two of the Unabomber here on Going West.
- [59:12]
Te
Yes, thank you guys for listening to this episode. What a wild ride. I mean, just going through all the transitions in his life and all the crimes that he was committing over decades, and finally, through the help of his own brother and his brother's wife, he was finally convicted.
- [59:29]
Daphne
Which is amazing because as we said in the episode, how devastated his family was that this was the end result. They still knew that they had to get justice for their brother, their son's victims, and turn them in. And it's really all thanks to Linda, to David's wife, for really setting it in motion. It's just insane.
- [59:51]
Te
It is. It's definitely insane. And if you want to see photos from this episode, head on over to our socials. We posted some photos for our part one on the Unabomber, but we are going to post some more for part two. Two, all the stuff that we talked about in this episode, if you haven't listened to part one, go back and check it out. So you can get a little bit more of a rundown on the early life of Ted Kaczynski. And yeah, thanks again for tuning in.
- [60:16]
Daphne
Yes, thank you, guys. It's nice to see some comments on the cases we cover. Like, we got some comments from you guys saying you do, like two parters. We don't do them too often, as you guys know, probably a couple times a year at most. But this was such a fun, fascinating one to dive into.
- [60:30]
Te
Yeah. We also don't do a lot of the more well known cases, but we felt like we really had to dive into this one because we as podcasters were just very fascinated about this whole story.
- [60:41]
Daphne
It was about time. Well, we will see you guys again next Tuesday.
- [60:46]
Te
So for everybody out there in the.
- [60:48]
Daphne
World, don't be a stranger.