Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist and convicted murderer known as the "Unabomber," was found dead in federal prison on Saturday at the age of 81.
Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons, confirmed to the Associated Press that Kaczynski was found unresponsive on Saturday morning, and was pronounced dead at around 8 a.m. local time. A cause of death is not yet known.
Newsweek reached out to the bureau via email for comment.
From 1978 to 1995, Kaczynski conducted an anonymous terror campaign, sending homemade bombs through the mail to numerous academics, engineers, and scientists. Over the years, he killed three people and injured a further 23 with this method, resulting in one of the longest and most expensive investigations in FBI history.
A mathematics prodigy early in life, Kaczynski abandoned his pursuit of an academic career in the late 1960s, having become disillusioned with modern society and planning to live out a self-sufficient life in a cabin in the wilderness of Montana. In the late 1970s, however, he turned to violence after claiming to have witnessed industrial practices destroying the woods near his home, targeting individuals he saw as responsible for the industrialization of society.
In 1995, Kaczynski mailed copies of his 35,000-word anti-industrialist manifesto to the offices of The New York Times and The Washington Post, demanding that it be printed by them in its entirety. If this was done, he claimed that he would cease his mail-bombing scheme.
Ultimately, the Post, with assistance from the Times, did publish the manifesto after consultation with leaders at the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ), who said that doing so might help generate tips about the Unabomber's identity. This hunch ended up bearing fruit, as Kaczynski's writing style and tone were recognized by his younger brother, David.
Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in April 1996, seven months after his manifesto was published. Officers investigating the spare 10-by-14-foot cabin found numerous notebooks full of Kaczynski's writings, 40,000 pages in all, documenting his bomb-making procedures and other aspects of his mail-bombing plot. Two finished bombs were also found. The investigation into his terror campaign was later estimated to have cost $50 million.
Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all charges against him in 1998, having refused to plead insanity to receive a lighter sentence. He was given eight consecutive life sentences in prison, serving his first 23 years at the ADX Florence super-maximum security prison in Colorado. In 2021, he was transferred to the Federal Medical Center prison in Butner, North Carolina, which specializes in inmates with certain medical requirements.
Update 6/10/2023, 3:14 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
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Thomas Kika is a Newsweek weekend reporter based in upstate New York. His focus is reporting on crime and national ... Read more
