Murder, Mystery & Makeup - The Unabomber - Who Was Ted Kaczynski? Inside His Mind

Episode Date: February 1, 2022

Hi Friends! Hope you are having a wonderful day today so far. Today I wanted to talk about Theodore Kaczynski and his very smart brain but awful things he did.  Now I said a couple of times that I agreed with him on some points, but I forgot to say, hey man, I don’t agree with all the things he said. I started to skim parts of it and now I’m worried there’s some awful nonsense in there that now sounds like me saying “YA I AGREE!” haha.. im just agreeing with his thoughts on technology taking over society, blah blah.. you get it , I hope. Love and appreciate you guys so much and I hope to be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian P.S. If you haven't already, make sure to check out my YouTube @BaileySarian

Hi friends, how are you today? Question mark. My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's murder, mystery and makeup Monday. I hope you guys are having a wonderful day so far. So if you're new here, every Monday I sit down, I talk about a true crime case that's been heavy on my noggin

and I do my makeup at the same time. It doesn't really make sense, but we have already made it this far. This train isn't stopping anytime soon, baby. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you subscribe. So I actually already had today's story planned out, what I originally wanted to do,

but I saw one of your guys' comments on my YouTube video for last week. And it said, I'm gonna post it up here, so, cause I can't say this username, Hair by, you know, I'm not good at names. We all know this. But she said, Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, can you talk about this story?

And I was like, oh my God, I completely forgot about the Unabomber. So let's talk about it. Theodore Kaczynski was born in Chicago of 1942 to a working class family of Polish ancestry. He had a younger brother named David who would later become involved in his older siblings arrest.

And we'll get to that. So people who attended school with Ted noted that he was a loner who excelled academically. And I'm laughing because it's just like, he's a loner who excelled. Now growing up, Ted, we're gonna call him Ted, not Theodore. He was very, very smart. He skipped sixth grade.

And it said around this time is when he really started to get socially awkward and it really started to affect him his personality as well so he skipped sixth grade and then he just uh started getting picked on a lot because he's quote-unquote weird he was very smart and he didn't have any friends so let's be honest really easy target for middle schoolers, especially little assholes is what I call them. Many people would describe him as a shy kid and would become unresponsive if he was ever pressured into a social situation. So throughout high school, Ted was ahead of his classmates academically. He was placed in more advanced math classes and he soon mastered math. Like he killed it in math.

Numbers. So then Ted actually skipped 11th grade and then he actually finished high school by attending summer school and he graduated at the age of 15. Now Ted, he was one of his school's five national merit finalists and he was encouraged to apply at Harvard.

At the age of 16, in 1958, he entered Harvard on a scholarship, which is like, wow, amazing. I mean, that's a huge achievement. His family were so proud of him. He seemed a little off, he seemed a little socially awkward, but he could go so far. He had a lot of potential to do great things, you know? And it's funny because he went to Harvard

before he even got his driver's license. I mean, hilarious. Wow, that's so funny, Bailey. So while at college, that's the time to like, really make some friends and socialize and experiment. I don't know what they do at Harvard, but it's probably a bougier version of that. But while Ted was attending Harvard, he really didn't make any friends,

but he continued to perform very, very well academically. Now, when he was at Harvard, this is when he participated in a controversial study led by psychologist Henry Murray. Now, in this experiment, subjects were asked to write an essay on their personal philosophies. Later, while hooked up to electrodes, the study subjects were subjected to hours of insults

and personal attacks. They wanted to measure if it had an effect on the brain or if the brain responded in some kind of way. Obviously, it goes a lot deeper than that, but... The essays were used as a basis for the insults, and it's believed that Ted participated in this experiment for more than 200 hours, lasting for three years, beginning in 1959. His mental and emotional well-being suffered as a result. Now

some sources have suggested that this experiment were part of Project MKUltra, the CIA's research into mind control. It has also been suggested that this experience may have motivated Ted's criminal activities, which we can save MKUltra for another day, working on that one. Okay, so in 1962, Ted actually graduated from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. And then in 1964, he would earn his master's degree. 1967, he would earn his doctorates.

I don't know what you're thinking, but what I'm thinking is Ted is one smart cookie. Which, side note, have any of you guys noticed how the killers in the stories that we talk about here, they're always very smart. Well, not always, there's a lot of dummies. I'm sure there's some kind of case study done, right? I don't know.

Okay, anyways, so at the young age of just 25 years old, Ted had completed his education. And then he became the youngest assistant professor in the history of University of California at Berkeley, when he was hired to teach undergraduate geometry and calculus in the fall of 1967. 25, nuts. Now, just two years later, he actually ended up resigning

and he never really gave an explanation as to why he did so, but he did. So after leaving Berkeley, he actually moved back to Illinois to live with his mom. And I think his younger brother was still there at the time. And he was there for about two years before he decided to move out and to live in a cabin that he had built in the woods outside of Lincoln, Montana.

Now, this was in 1971. Moving to this cabin would allow him to live a simple life with little money and without electricity or without running water. So it was gonna get like real stinky in there, you know. He wanted to live like this and go after your goals in life. So Ted was really hoping to live self-sufficient by teaching himself survival skills,

such as like hunting and organic farming and received some financial support from his family as well. He used an old bicycle to get around and like get into town and whatnot. And he also would volunteer at a local library, which he would visit often, like all the time, to read classic works in their original languages. Show off.

Other local residents who in the area said that his lifestyle wasn't necessarily unusual in that area. And people just really didn't think twice about it and like what he was doing, living off the grid. So Ted is out there just living in his cabin and this was in 1975 and he started to grow more and more upset by the real estate and industrial development

in the area around his cabin. So like there was just free land surrounding him and he would say like beautiful hills, just lots of green. It was open. It was beautiful. It was fresh, clean air. And then slowly they were starting to destroy the land.

They were starting to build just crap. It was just really getting to Ted. So Ted had this great idea like, I'm gonna vandalize these construction sites in the Lincoln area, okay? If I like destroy them, spray paint them, whatever, I'm gonna sabotage this development and then they'll stop. So he would go out at night when nobody was there

and he would paint on them, he would try his best to just destroy it as best as he could. And this is where things just kind of really began for Ted. So Ted realized that trying to destroy the construction or whatever, it really wasn't working. He had to go after the big guys. So he decided to make his own bombs because that's all of our first thoughts. He's like, I'm gonna make these bombs

and then mail them to people, the people who are responsible for destroying the land. He would make these bombs and then he would send them through either the US Postal Service, or sometimes he would occasionally hand deliver the actual package or the mail bomb himself. So these bombs lasted over a period of 17 years and it started in 1978.

His first target was Northwestern University Professor of Engineering Buckley Christ, I think is his last name. Now I guess the package was left outside of his building, like out in the parking lot and it had his name on it. Somebody picked it up and handed it to Buckley. Right away, this professor, he was concerned because he knew that this package wasn't his and it was super suspish.

So he calls up the security guard and he lets them know, this is weird, you open it. So the security guard opens up the package and this bomb exploded. It was inside of the package and it wasn't like to its fullest and greatest potential. Luckily, the security guard only suffered a hand injury, but that was the first one.

Now, it's unclear why Ted targeted Buckley. Ted is back in Illinois, and he's working with his father and his brother, and shortly after, Ted actually got fired from that job for insulting a lady supervisor who he briefly had a romantic relationship with. He was bitter that it didn't work out. So there was no link happening to Ted from that first bomb.

It was so random and there was, yeah, nobody knew where the hell that came from and why. So then in 1979, a bomb was placed in the cargo hold, American Airlines flight 444, which was flying from Chicago to Washington DC. Now the bomb had a faulty timing mechanism, which prevented the bomb from exploding, but it released smoke, which forced an emergency landing. So they were like up in the air and smoke started coming up, dodged a bullet there, right? So once the plane landed, they were like up in the air and smoke started coming up. Dodged a bullet there, right?

So once the plane landed, they were able to get the bomb off of the plane. Everything, everyone was fine, thank God, right? So they're able to look at this bomb and they realized if the bomb had worked, it would have completely obliterated the bomb, the plane, the plane. So they got so lucky. And because bombing an airliner is a federal crime, the FBI became involved. Okay, so in these bombs he was making,

sorry, I was trying to get this open. In these bombs he was making, he would always leave some kind of clue. The first clue was like a metal plate and it was stamped with the initials FC hidden somewhere. And usually it was like in the pipe end cap. And he did this in almost every single bomb. So they knew it was like the same person

doing it over and over again. Another clue included a note left in a bomb that did not go off and it read, woo, it works. I told you it would, RV, end quote. That was a quote. The FBI was trying to profile who they think this person is, so they came up with this bomber person had a theme of like nature, trees and wood in his crimes.

Ted would often include bits of tree branch and bark in his bombs. So the FBI is like, yeah, nature. He's a nature guy. In December of 1985, there was a bomb that was sent to Sacramento computer store owner Hugh Scrutton. Hugh. And it exploded, because he opened it and it exploded. And it actually led to his death. The bomb itself was filled with nails and splinters.

So when he opened it up and it exploded, yeah, ouch. Now this would be the first fatality caused by these bombs. There had been no deaths yet. Okay, so let's just go over the table of bombings because there's a lot. And of course, if I go through one by one with all these stories, let's be real, we're all gonna get very confused.

So I will just briefly kind of touch on it. So May 25th, 1978, we have Terry Marker, who was a university police officer and the injuries were just minor cuts and burns. Then we have May 9th, 1979, we have John Harris. He was a graduate student, and he only got minor cuts and burns. November 15th, 1979, we have that American Airlines flight

had 12 passengers. Luckily it was just non-lethal smoke. Then June 10th, 1980, we have Percy Wood and he was the president of United Airlines. He got severe cuts and burns over most of his body and face. October 8th, 1981, the bomb went off early. So luckily it hurt nobody. May 5th, 1982, we have Janet Smith

and she was a university secretary. Severe burns to her hands. July 2nd, 1982, we have Dio Genis. He's an engineering professor. He had severe burns and wounds on his hands and his face. May 15th, 1985, we have John Houser. He was a graduate student. He lost four fingers, a severed artery in his right arm,

and he lost part of his vision in his left eye. June 13th, 1985, he went after an airline company. The bomb went off early, so nobody was hurt. November 15th, 1985, we have James McConnell, who was a psychology professor, and Nicholas, who was a research assistant. They were both together at this time. The bomb went off. One of them has temporary hearing loss.

December 11th, 1985, Hugh Scruton, which was the computer store owner, that was the first death. February 20th, 1987, Gary Wright. He was a computer store owner as well. Severe nerve damage to the left arm. June 22nd, 1993, we have Charles Epstein. He had severe damage to both eardrums

with some hearing loss, and he also lost three fingers. June 24th, 1993, David, last name Glettner, I don't know you guys, fuck. He lost his complete right hand. December 10th, 1994, Thomas, he died, and he was an advertising executive. April 24th, 1995, we have Gilbert Brent Murray and he was a timber industry lobbyist and he also died.

So that is the complete list. I was trying my best to like keep that kind of simple, but I feel like I made it really confusing. I'm really trying my best here. And that's all I can do. Now at this point, the FBI still had no idea who the Unabomber was. The FBI called the ongoing investigation Unabom,

U-N-A-B-O-M, for University and Airline Bomber. And then the media took that and they dubbed the attacker the Unabomber, and that's how he got his name. Still Ted's identity was unknown to authorities. Now, of course that all changed when Ted sent his now infamous manifesto to the media. And this happened in the summer of 1995. Ted sent letters demanding that his essay entitled,

quote, industrial society and its future, end quote, be published. He sent these letters to different media companies who ran newspapers, magazines, whatever, and said, you need to post this or more people are going to get hurt. Naturally, these people are kind of torn. What do we do?

Do we do what he says or do we ignore it? An FBI director agreed that the manifesto should be published. Now, this was a very controversial decision, but they decided to do it out of concern for public safety and mainly, mainly, they were really hoping that somebody out there, once it got published, could identify who this person was. Because it wasn't just like any other writing.

It was, they're just like our words being used that somebody had to recognize, somebody would know. In this manifesto, Ted would go on to argue that technology and industrialized society destroys human freedom because it needs to, quote, "'Regulate human behavior closely in order to function.'" End quote. So Ted wrote the manifesto on a typewriter without italics.

He capitalizes entire words to show emphasis, and he always refers to himself as either we or FC. FC stood for Freedom Club, though there's absolutely no evidence that he worked with anybody else, just fucking him by himself. Now, of course, you can read the manifesto. It's quite long,

but I'm gonna try my best and summarize it. So this is gonna be good. Ted, Ted, Ted. He writes that technology has had a destabilizing effect on society, has made life unfulfilling, and has caused widespread psychological suffering. He's got some points, he's got some points. He argues that most people spend their time engaged

in useless pursuits because of technological advances. He calls these surrogate activities, where people strive towards artificial goals, including scientific work, consumption of entertainment, and following sports teams. And I must say, I read this like, go on. Now he predicts the further technological advances will lead to extensive human genetic engineering

and that human beings will be adjusted to meet the needs of social systems rather than vice versa. He calls for a return to quote, wild nature, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now he was calling for a revolution against technology and it may be possible, but for the most part, his manifesto was all about how technology was ruining society.

And after reading that, because in my mind, this is a side note, has nothing to do with Ted, but I always thought as the Unabomber was just like reckless and like killing just random people because he thought it was fun. I read this, the manifesto thing, and I was like, dude, this guy, look, he had a great point.

He had such a great point. And look where we are today. We are completely controlled by the internet, by TV, by media. These companies are taking all of our data, selling it so they can potentially control us with it. That's a whole nother video in itself. And if you're not worried about that, then that's a big problem.

It's quite scary. Anyways, but what he was getting at is that this needs to be taken down. This system needs to be taken down. And I was like, wow. But but look the way he went about it bombing people obviously not smart would not suggest that and I do not stand by that of course I'm not here for that but he actually is making some great points now the feedback of this manifesto was actually kind of good you know not everybody understood quite what Ted was getting at,

kind of like flew completely over their head, but there was a lot of people who did agree with what he was saying, and there were several essays that were written and published in support of his ideas. Of course, they did not stand by what he was doing, like bombing people. In 1980, the FBI worked with a profiler to help identify the Unabomber. So when they issue a psychological profile, they create who they think this guy or girl is, and they describe the offender as a man with above average intelligence. They believed he was holding an academic degree in hard sciences, but this psychology based profile

was discarded in 1983. They thought, no, this guy probably works like for the airline company. Now, before the Unabomber's Manifesto went live, Ted's younger brother, David Kaczynski, was encouraged by his wife to follow up on the suspicions that Ted was the Unabomber. Ted's younger brother didn't wanna fully believe

that the Unabomber was his brother, but in the back of his mind, he was thinking, you know what, Ted really hated technology and where he thought this was all going. It made him very upset, but Ted has never showed any signs of aggression. There's no way this is him. Like it was just kind of a silly thought.

But David's wife who had never met Ted, she only heard about him and read some of his writings from her husband who was the younger brother, she was like, "'You have to read this manifesto.'" He told his wife, "'Okay, sure, I'll read it only just to prove to you "'that this isn't him. "'There's no way.'"

David, the younger brother, and Ted, they weren't really speaking at that time, the reason being is because Ted had disconnected from everyone and everything. It wasn't anything personal, it's just what Ted always wanted. So they just kind of let him be out there. Anyways, so David, the younger brother is like,

"'Okay, lady,' to his wife, "'I'm gonna read this manifesto "'and I'm just gonna prove to you it's not him. "'Like, it's just not him, but I'll read it.'" So he reads the manifesto and he's like, "'Oh shit.'" There's just a couple of phrases that Ted had used once before in a couple letters.

Of course, David's like, fuck, fuck. David goes through the garage and he's looking for letters written by Ted dating back to 1970. And Ted had sent letters to newspapers to protest the abuse of technology using phrases similar to the ones in the manifesto. It's fucking Ted. He hires a private investigator.

David then went on to hire an attorney to organize the evidence that was acquired by the private investigator and make contact with the FBI. The reason he was kind of like going around the situation is because if he went to the FBI, he would get bombarded by the news, media, and just really lose control of the situation. Plus David wanted to protect his brother from the danger.

He feared like a very violent outcome. It was also his brother and he felt a ton of guilt. David went to their mother and said, I think it's Ted, and kind of showed her all the evidence of why he was thinking this way. And their mother, well, yeah, their mother said, oh, David, please don't tell anybody.

And David told his mom, like, I'm sorry, I already did. Once the FBI was contacted, they showed them the comparison of the manifesto and the writings. Now, based off of this, they were allowed to get a search warrant, which would allow them to go and get or search the Unabomber's place. The FBI then contacted David and David asked the FBI to please keep this a secret. Don't tell anybody I told you.

Don't tell anybody about me, please. But of course, the information was leaked. It was put out there on CBS news, the media caught onto it and it completely just blew up. So then April 3rd, 1996, they got a search warrant to go into Ted's cabin. And they also got the location of the cabin. They got helicopters out there surrounding the area.

They went in and they got him. And there is where they found Ted in a very disheveled state. And he was surrounded by bomb making tools and parts. There was also like one live bomb ready for mailing. He was arrested and he was taken in. The media played the arrest like everywhere. So later that month he was indicted by federal grand jury on 10 counts of

illegally transporting, mailing and using bombs. He also was being charged with three counts of murder. Now his attorneys wanted him to enter an insanity plea, but Ted refused and instead just pleaded guilty to all charges. The media was calling him crazy. And once you get that crazy title by the media, that's when people stop taking you seriously. And he didn't want to say that he was crazy.

He's like, I'm not crazy. I'm not insane. I'm well-educated. My IQ was very high. I'm not going to consider myself insane. He was sentenced to eight life sentences with no chance of parole at the Supermax Security Prison in Florence, Colorado, and that's where he remains to this day. For some odd reason, I thought he had died by now, but he hasn't, he's still there. So David, the younger brother of Ted, who turned him in. He wrote a memoir called Every Last Tie, the story of the

Unabomber and his family, which talks about David's relationship with his brother and his parents and the difficult decision that David and his wife faced when they came to suspect Ted was the Unabomber. Says he has tried to reach out to Ted. He has wrote him many letters, at least one a month, and he has yet to get a response. This was back in 2015. Ted did not want to believe his brother turned him in. And when he found out it was true, it was heartbreaking to him. Ted said, quote,

"'My brother would never turn me in. He loves me.'" End quote. And then when it was true, Ted just has never spoke to him again. The latest I could find was 2015, so it may have changed. I think it was 2016, Ted actually wrote a letter to the media saying, I'm ready to talk and I would love to tell my side of the story and how I'm not crazy.

But nobody really cared. They were like, sorry, like you are crazy. I was watching a couple of interviews with David, Ted's brother, and you could really see the guilt he felt for turning his brother in. Like, they were such a loving and close family. And then he had to turn on him, which sucks. Like, that's your only sibling and that's your only family member. Yeah, but he had to do it. I mean, he had to.

That is the story about the Unabomber. Pretty much the Unabomber wanted an anti-tech revolution. And it's interesting because I always thought again that the Unabomber was this, there's a fly, was this like person who was targeting innocent people, which he did technically, but he had great points. He went about it the wrong way. If he didn't kill people,

he probably could have done some really great things with his mind, because he's a very smart man. Let me know your thoughts down below. I hope that you have a wonderful day today. You make good choices. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Other than that, I hope you have a very wonderful day today. You make good choices and I'll be seeing you guys later.

Bye.