Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Unabomber

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

Starting in the late 1970s and lasting for seventeen years, a series of bombings terrorized the American public.  Primarily targeting technology companies and universities, these attacks befuddled law enforcement officials for almost two decades. The bomber became one of the most wanted criminals in the history of American law enforcement.  When he was finally caught, the perpetrator wasn’t quite who anyone expected.  Learn about the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and his reign of terror on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.  Sponsors Newspapers.com Get 20% off your subscription to Newspapers.com Quince Go to quince.com/daily for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order! Mint Mobile Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com/eed Jerry Compare quotes and coverages side-by-side from up to 50 top insurers at jerry.ai/daily. Subscribe to the podcast!  https://everything-everywhere.com/everything-everywhere-daily-podcast/ -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Austin Oetken & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Disce aliquid novi cotidie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting in the late 1970s and lasting for 17 years, a series of bombings terrorized the American public. Primarily targeting technology companies and universities, these attacks befuddled law enforcement officials for almost two decades. The bomber became one of the most wanted criminals in the history of American law enforcement. When he was finally caught, the perpetrator wasn't quite who anyone expected. Learn more about the unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, and his reign of terror on this episode of Everything Everything Everything, Everywhere Daily. Did you ever hear about the selfie that solved a murder or the jury that used a Ouija board to speak to a victim?

If that made you pause, you need to listen to Morning Cup of Murder. I'm Karina Bimus Durfer, and every single day on Morning Cup of Murder, I tell one chilling true crime story tied to that exact day in history. With over 2,500 episodes to binge, you'll never run out of dark stories to start your morning with. Go listen to Morning Cup of Murder wherever you get your podcast. And remember, stay safe. Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, was an American domestic terrorist.

Kaczynski was born in Chicago on May 22, 1942. His parents were middle class workers, and by all accounts, they were a normal family. There was one instance of trauma within his childhood that some social psychologists believed could have contributed to his later antisocial behavior. Ted had experienced a severe allergic reaction that hospitalized him for months, leaving him socially isolated. Despite being socially awkward, Kaczynski was very intelligent. He skipped two grades and was especially skilled in mathematics.

However, this was a double-edged sword as his peers socially ostracized him. He did gain some social success in school when, in a very clear case of foreshadowing, he made a pipe bomb in a science class, but for the most part he was perceived as young and nerdy. This resulted in him spending more time with his brother and his father. The family would spend time camping, and during these trips, Kaczynski would develop a fondness for nature. Kaczynski would graduate from high school at the age of 15 and was accepted into Harvard University. Through a college, Kaczynski remained socially awkward, but excelled academically. He would graduate in 1962 and then go on to the University of Michigan, where he would receive his master's and PhD in mathematics.

In 1967, Kaczynski's graduate work gave him the opportunity to become an assistant professor at the University of of California Berkeley. He accepted this role and became the youngest assistant professor in the university's history, but he only worked there for two years. While working at Berkeley, Kaczynski struggled. He tried to relate and connect with his students, but found the atmosphere challenging and grew disillusioned with academia. Two years after leaving the university, Kaczynski moved to a remote cabin in Lincoln, Montana. The house had no running water, electricity, heat, or toilets. reportedly was a terrible neighbor. He would sabotage any developments near his cabin through

arson and booby traps and was accused of poisoning neighbor's dogs. While living in the cabin, Kaczynski would work odd jobs and volunteer at the town's library. While working at the library, he would write in notebooks detailing the destructive evils of technology. During this time, Kaczynski would occasionally return to Illinois for work. One instance of this was when he worked underneath his brother at a factory. his brother David had to dismiss him because a female employee claimed that Ted had aroused her. After being dismissed by his brother in 1978, Kaczynski's bombings began. On May 26, 1978, a package was delivered to the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Not recognizing the package, it was sent to its return address at Northwestern University. The package was returned to an engineering professor named Buckley Christ. Chris obviously knew that he didn't send the package. package, so he reported it to a campus security official. The officer opened the package, and it detonated, resulting in minor injuries. Roughly one year after the first bombing, Kaczynski hit Northwestern University again. This time the bomb was opened by a graduate student. This bomb was disguised as a present and concealed inside a cigar box. The student who opened the box had some minor injuries. Later that year, Kaczynski carried out his next attack. This time the target was an

airline. A bomb was placed within the cargo of American Airlines Flight 444 and would have been deadly if the bomb had gone off as intended. Fortunately, the bomb aboard the flight malfunctioned due to a timer issue. However, the bomb caused smoke and resulted in some luggage being set on fire, and this caused the plane to make an emergency landing. There were no deaths caused by this bombing, but 12 people were injured by smoke inhalation. The FBI investigated the attempted bomb, and found that if the bomb had exploded as intended, the entire plane would have been destroyed. The FBI connected the university and airline bombings and designated the case Unabom, UNA for University, and Bomb for Bomber. The perpetrator was designated as the Unabomber.

The case would then be given its own task force. As they investigated the bombings, they found no forensic evidence. They were able to determine that the bombs were made of everyday scrap materials and profiled that the bomber was intelligent, potentially an academic. Seven months later, Kaczynski would send another bomb. This bomb targeted the president of United Airlines and was hidden inside a book called Ice Brothers by Sloan Wilson. This bombing was even more severe, and the airline president was left with severe cuts and burns on most of his face and body. The book Kaczynski chose led the FBI to conclude that the bombings were motivated by themes of nature. The theory was further supported by the fact that the bombs often included tree bark and branches. Kaczynski's next bomb wasn't sent

out until 1981. The bomb was discovered at the University of Utah outside a computer mainframe room. Fortunately, a student found the suspicious package and reported it to security. The authorities determined it was a pipe bomb and managed to detonate it safely. They then contacted the Unabom Task Force. Kaczynski's next attack was more successful. He targeted a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University, and the attack resulted in another serious injury. The professor's secretary had opened the package, which caused it to explode, causing trapnel wounds and severe burns to her hands. The next two bombs were sent to Kaczynski's former place of employment, the University of California, Berkeley. The first bomb was once again disguised as a package and was sent to the electrical engineering building, Corey Hall. The bomb's explosion resulted in an engineering professor suffering from severe burns and

trapnel wounds to both his hands and face. Kaczynski didn't send another bomb until three years later. This bomb targeted Corey Hall at Berkeley once again, and this time injured an engineering student. The injuries to the student were worse than those of the previous bombings, with him losing four fingers, severing an artery in his right arm, and losing part of his vision. Kaczynski's next bombing target was another failure. He once again was targeting airlines and had sent a package to the Boeing airline

manufacturing facility in Washington. The package sat there for a month before being opened. As the bomb had been sitting for a long period of time, it never detonated. The bomb squad was able to take pictures before safely detonating it. From there, Kaczynski targeted his former school, the University of Michigan. The package was delivered to a psychology professor at the university. This bomb injured two people, the professor and one of his grad students. The professor suffered from temporary hearing loss and the grad student had trapnel wounds and burns.

Up until this point, the bombs had caused a great deal of damage and harm, but they hadn't killed anyone. But that streak ended in 1985. A bomb was delivered to a computer store in Sacramento, California. The owner of the store, Hugh Scrutton, was leaving work when a bomb detonated outside of his store killing him. him. Kaczynski then waited roughly another year to send out his next bomb. Disguising this bomb as a piece of lumber, Kaczynski placed the weapon outside of a computer store in Salt Lake City. Though the bomb didn't kill anyone, Kaczynski once again severely injured the store owner with at least 200 pieces of shrapnel that needed to be removed from his body. This specific

bombing marked the one time the Unabomber was actually seen. A witness watched Kaczynski leave the bomb in person. He described the man to law enforcement as wearing a hooded sweatshirt and aviator sunglasses and help create a composite sketch for authorities. Kaczynski didn't deliver another bomb that we know of for six years, but when he returned, he returned with a bang. He sent out two bombs on the same weekend, one to a medical genetics professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and the other to a computer science professor at Yale University. Neither of these bombings resulted in deaths, but both targets suffered severe injuries from the bombings. One professor lost multiple fingers and the other lost vision, hearing, and part of their hand. Kaczynski would send out two final bombs,

one in 1994 and one in 1995. Both of these final two bombs would result in the death of the recipient. The first bomb was sent to an advertising executive in New Jersey. Along with the bomb, Kaczynski sent a letter to the New York Times. In this letter, Kaczynski would claim that the executive, was targeted because he had helped repair Exxon's reputation after an oil spill. The second bomb was sent to the president of the California forestry industry. This group lobbying on behalf of the timber industry, making them a target. Unlike the previous bombing, no letter accompanied the murder. Five months after the murder of the California forest industry president,

the Unabomber would send a series of letters to the New York Times and Washington Post. In these letters, he stated that he would stop the bombings, if the papers printed his manifesto titled Industrial Society and Its Future, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto. There was some debate, but ultimately it was decided by both the Attorney General and the FBI director that it should be published. The publishing in the manifesto was allowed for two reasons. The first reason was that they needed to protect public safety.

So if the Univomber claimed that he would stop sending up bombs, then it was worth the risk to stop more people from falling victim. The second reason was that they were hopeful the public would recognize the writing. The manifesto was roughly 35,000 words and argued that technology was destroying humanity. Within the manifesto, he claimed the FC, or the Freedom Club, was behind the bombings, presenting the manifesto and attacks as a piece of group work. But there's no evidence to suggest that Kaczynski had anyone behind him, despite his references to the group. One of the things the FBI didn't reveal at the time was that Kaczynski was leaving clues within the bombs.

None of the clues held any significance and were intended just to mislead the investigators. However, the letters, FC was engraved inside multiple bombs, which they now learned stood for Freedom Club. He made numerous claims within the manifesto, but the primary purpose was to argue that technology would render life unfulfilling and erode human freedoms. Kaczynski used the manifesto to call for a revolution that would destroy worldwide technology. According to him, by decoupling from technology, humans would be able to live closer to nature and achieve an ideal society.

As the Unabomber case continued, the FBI became more desperate to catch the culprit. They had set up a hotline and offered a $1 million reward for any information leading to the Unabomber's capture. As there was little forensic evidence, the FBI had to rely on a witness sketch, the profile, and a theory based on location. They believed that the Unabomber was from Chicago or the surrounding area, as that was where the bombing started, had worked or lived in Salt Lake City, and had a connection with California's Bay Area.

They released this geographic profile to the public before the manifesto was published, hoping that the information, along with the manifesto's writings, would lead someone to recognize the Unabomber. And they were right. Kaczynski's brother, David, began to suspect his brother could be the unabomber. After reading the manifesto, he found old papers his brother had sent regarding technology that were eerily similar.

He decided to hire a private investigator to investigate his brother. As evidence was being collected, he hired an attorney in Washington, D.C. to help organize evidence for when he would contact the FBI. David was fearful that if he wasn't careful in gathering evidence, the FBI would raid his brother's home, and if they were to raid the house, an explosive outcome could occur. During the private investigator's investigation, it was determined that the manifesto had a 60% chance of being written by Kaczynski. The results were submitted to the FBI, and it was determined that Kaczynski was almost certainly the unibomber through linguistic analysis.

Ted Kaczynski was arrested on April 3, 1996. When searching his house, the FBI found 40,000 handwritten journals on bomb-making experiments. descriptions of his crimes, firearms, a bomb, and a collection of bomb-making materials. The FBI was confident that they had found their man. While in custody and awaiting sentencing, Kaczynski was given a psychiatric evaluation. In this evaluation, he was determined to suffer from paranoid schizophrenia. Kaczynski's lawyers wanted to use this to try to get an insanity plea, but Kaczynski refused to use the strategy.

He wanted his defense to be based on his anti-technology. views. Later examinations found the initial diagnosis to be false. If anything, he had a schizoid or schizo-typical personality disorder, but not full-blown schizophrenia. To avoid the death penalty, Kaczynski ended up pleading guilty to all charges. He instead was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole. While in prison, he befended the perpetrators of both the 1993 World Trade Center bombings and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Kaczynski would stay in prison for the rest of his life. He ended up committing suicide on June 10, 2023.

The Unabomber's 17-year bombing campaign led to one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. While in his mind, he believed that his bombings would somehow lead to his vision of a perfect society, but it had the opposite effect. In fact, most people had no clue why they were happening until his manifesto was published, and even then, most people thought that it was the right. of a madman. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer.

Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you two can have it run on the show.