Ted Kaczynski, Known as the ‘Unabomber,’ Dead at 81

Ted Kaczynski, the convicted terrorist known as the Unabomber, was found dead in his prison cell early Saturday.

via: CNN

Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, the Harvard-trained math professor who unleashed a deadly bombing campaign from a shack in rural Montana and became known as the “Unabomber,” has died, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. He was 81.

Kaczynski was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, around 12:25 a.m., Saturday morning, the bureau said in a statement.

“Responding staff immediately initiated life-saving measures,” the bureau said. “Staff requested emergency medical services (EMS) and life-saving efforts continued. Mr. Kaczynski was transported by EMS to a local hospital and subsequently pronounced deceased by hospital personnel.”

Kaczynski had been serving eight life sentences after he pleaded guilty in 1998 for sending mail bombs that killed three people and wounded 23 others through the mail from 1978 to 1995.

He was arrested in 1996 at a small, remote cabin in western Montana.

In 2021, Kaczynski was moved to the federal medical center in North Carolina, according to the bureau. He had been held at Supermax in Florence, Colorado, before he was transferred to FMC Butner on December 14, 2021.

Portrayed by prosecutors as a vengeful loner, Kaczynski published 30,000-word treatise that became known as the Unabomber Manifesto.

In the document, Kaczynski claimed a moral high ground for his deadly campaign, justifying the attacks in the name of preserving humanity and nature from the onslaught of technology and exploitation.

“I believe in nothing,” Kaczynski wrote. “I don’t even believe in the cult of nature-worshipers or wilderness-worshipers. (I am perfectly ready to litter in parts of the woods that are of no use to me – I often throw cans in logged-over areas.)”

A sentencing memorandum quoted extensively from Kaczynski’s journals, in which he wrote of a deep hatred of people.

Since a tip from his brother David led to Kaczynski’s arrest in April 1996, the family has claimed the writings reflected the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic, not a cold-blooded killer. A federal prison psychiatrist agreed, opening the way for prosecutors to drop their demand for the death sentence and allow a plea bargain.

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