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UNABOMBER

UNABOMBER. From 1978 until April 1996, Theodore John Kaczynski, the Unabomber, conducted a campaign of letter-bomb terror against people symbolizing technology. Kaczynski, a Harvard-trained mathematician, left academia for the seclusion of a shack near Helena, Montana. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski's bombs killed three and wounded twenty-three. In 1995 he threatened a reign of terror if his 35,000-word manifesto against science and technology was not published in the national media. The New York Times and Washington Post complied to save lives. David Kaczynski, his brother, recognized similarities between the language of the manifesto and his brother's letters. His tip led to an arrest and a search of his brother's cabin. The search yielded substantial evidence, and in April 1996 Kaczynski was indicted on ten counts of illegal transportation, mailing, and use of bombs, as well as murder. Because of conflicts between Kaczynski and his lawyers, the trial in Sacramento, California, which began in November 1997, was a confused proceeding. Ultimately Kaczynski entered a plea of guilty to thirteen federal charges in exchange for the government dropping its demand for the death penalty. In February and August

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2001 Kaczynski lost federal appeals for a new trial, and as of 2002 he remains incarcerated.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gelernter, David Hillel. Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber. New York: Free Press, 1997.

Mello, Michael. The United States of American versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power and the Invention of the Unabomber. New York: Context Books, 1999.

Gordon Morris Bakken

See also Terrorism.