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You are here: Home / Science & Technology / Tech News & Issues / Open Thread: The Unabomber Is Dead, At 81

Open Thread: The Unabomber Is Dead, At 81

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Apparently by his own hand, although the clock was ticking down — “‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in prison medical center, AP sources say”:

Ted Kaczynski, known as the “Unabomber,” who carried out a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died by suicide, four people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina, around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. Emergency responders performed CPR and revived him before he was transported to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later Saturday morning, the people told the AP. They were not authorized to publicly discuss Kaczynski’s death and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity…

Kaczynski had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims…

While awaiting trial, in 1998, Kaczynski attempted to hang himself with a pair of underwear. Though he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as a paranoid schizophrenic, he was adamant that he wasn’t mentally ill. He eventually pleaded guilty rather than allow his attorneys to present an insanity defense…

During his decades in prison, Kaczynski maintained regular correspondence with the outside world, becoming an object of fascination – and even reverence – among those opposed to modern civilization.

“He’s turned into an iconic figure for both the far-right and far-left,” said Daryl Johnson, a domestic terrorism expert at the New Lines Institute, a nonprofit think tank. “He definitely stands out from the rest of the pack as far as his level of education, the meticulous nature in which he went about designing his bombs.”

Of course, the God-Emperor of Angry Incels wants to make Kaczynski’s death all about Elon…

Per Forbes:

… Kaczynski, who lived in a sparse cabin in Montana, explained his motivation for the killings as being rooted in hatred of the modern world and technology. This hatred has made Kaczynski a kind of folk hero for some people on both the far left and the far right, who see his worldview as fundamentally correct. But it’s certainly odd to see someone like Musk, who’s made his fortune selling the promise of futuristic technology, agree with the Unabomber on anything…

St. Clair linked to an article about Kaczynski’s death in prison published at a website run by Tim Pool, a right-wing YouTuber known for having sometimes controversial guests like Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. The obituary, written by Cassandra MacDonald, quotes Kaczynski’s writings on technology and morality. MacDonald, who simply tweeted “NOOOOOO” in response to news of his death, paints the Unabomber’s views in a sympathetic light, framing tech as a danger to a free society…

What Musk ‘hates’ about the Industrial Revolution is that it gave the filthy proles a weapon against the elite — i.e., Musk’s people. He wouldn’t make it through a long weekend without the labor of a great many ‘lesser’ humans, but he’s endlessly bitter that he can’t treat those humans the way his old man in South Africa had the ‘right’ to treat non-White people under apartheid.

I’ve seen nervous snark about Musk ‘buying a compound in Guyana‘, but he’d never want to hang around IRL with his most fervent believers. Should he ever snap, my prediction would be a (hopefully unsuccessful) attempt at a new, upgraded Heaven’s Gate ending.

Reader Interactions

41Comments

  2. 2.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    I see “Open Thread: The Unabomber is Dead” and my first thought, this comment section’s second thought, was this was an attempt at being cutesy by rhyming.

    @Baud: I think Penthouse is more respectable than the New York Times, at least these days.

    My entire adult life…

  5. 5.

    brantl

    Were I religious, I would say of Ted Kazynski, may he rot in hell. Not being religious, having been thrown into prison, defeated, was probably hell for this shitforbrains.

  6. 6.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @brantl: Were I religious, I would say of Ted Kazynski, may he rot in hell.

    I mean I know he did truly horrible things, but does he really deserve to have Pat Robertson inflicted on him?

  7. 7.

    Nelle

    Two degrees of separation…one of my students (I taught one year at a university in Butte, MT) was hunting when he lost his dogs.  They ended up at a cabin where the guy who lived there had them.  Said he knew someone would come looking for them.  Real nice guy, my student said.  After Ted K was arrested, my student realized that he had encountered the Unibomber.  (All my students, apparently, were hunters.  I read essays on hunting, making bullets, skinning and cooking game.  I got an education.)

  8. 8.

    James E Powell

    @Baud:

    I did not know that Penthouse was still in business. One of my roommates first year in college had a subscription. Used to read the letters out loud dramatically. Hilarious stuff.

  9. 9.

    Anne Laurie

    @brantl: Were I religious, I would say of Ted Kazynski, may he rot in hell. Not being religious, having been thrown into prison, defeated, was probably hell for this shitforbrains.

    Agree with your second sentence.  If Kaczinski was actually a paranoid schizophrenic, he had a better excuse than most of his would-be ‘followers’.

  11. 11.

    sab

    I know he killed good people. I am sorry, so was his brother. But he was so mentally phucked up and he didn’t choose to be that way. Such a sad waste of a life and a brilliant mind because of mental illness. Amd so many good people he killed.

  12. 12.

    sab

    @sab: I feel so sorry for his brother who turned him  in to save the rest of us, knowing that his disturbed, nature loving brother would spend the rest of his life in prison.

    ETA Count yourself extremely blessed if you have never had mental illness in your family.

  14. 14.

    TheOtherHank

    I know a retired FBI agent who was on the Find The Unabomber team. I’ll note that they didn’t catch him until Ted’s brother ratted him out.

  15. 15.

    Redshift

    @NotMax: Per Wikipedia:

    The FBI used the case identifier UNABOM (University and Airline Bomber) before his identity was known, resulting in the media naming him the “Unabomber”.

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax: FBI.gov:

    In 1979, an FBI-led task force that included the ATF and U.S. Postal Inspection Service was formed to investigate the “UNABOM” case, code-named for the UNiversity and Airline BOMbing targets involved.

    Cornell.edu:

    Postal Inspectors responded to the Wood bomb, having little or no knowledge about Flight 444. They contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the Wood bombing. A case file was opened, and the case was called “UNABOM,” according to the FBI’s six-letter naming convention. “UNA” stood for “United Airlines.” Because of design similarities between the Wood bomb and the Flight 444 bombing, they attributed the two bombs to the same actor. Eventually, they also included the two Northwestern bombings to the UNABOMber as well.

    I guess the 6 letters stuck, but the meaning of the 6 letters morphed over time.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Gin & Tonic

    He’s always associated in my mind with another Bay Area mathematician named Ted, Streleski. He killed his thesis adviser (Stanford, not Berkeley) with a hammer. Tried and convicted, of course, he was apparently a model prisoner but refused any kind of early release because he did not want any conditions placed on him once he had served his sentence. So he did the full term.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    Fat Bastard would have given him the Presidential Medal of Freedom for the chaos he caused.

  21. 21.

    RSA

    “He’s turned into an iconic figure for both the far-right and far-left,” said Daryl Johnson, a domestic terrorism expert at the New Lines Institute, a nonprofit think tank.

    WTH?  He was an archetypical terrorist who murdered and maimed people to try to force political change. People who argue that the ends justify the means, in defense of their actions, typically end up being the bad guys.

  22. 22.

    ColoradoGuy

    A lot of similarities between him, bin Laden, and Pol Pot. Highly educated, intelligent, and stone-cold psychopaths completely comfortable with destroying many people’s lives for an absurd, pie-in-the-sky model of “how the world should be”.

    Actual living, breathing people with families that love them don’t matter at all, compared to the magnificent castle in the sky they have dreamed up.

  23. 23.

    Almost Retired

    I had completely forgotten about the Unabomber.  In retrospect, the threat he posed seems sort of quaint or old school.  Lone Psycho not embraced by any movement.

    If he’d waited 35 years, his manifesto would be incorporated into the Florida High School curriculum, and he’d be appearing on Fox in his capacity as the former Secretary of the Interior.

  24. 24.

    pluky

    I’ve come to think the only thing more dangerous to one’s mental stability than higher math is the Necronomicon.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    @Baud: ​
    “Dear Penthouse ForumNew York Times editorial department,

    “I never thought it could happen to me, until the day recently when I walked into that Ohio diner. You’ll never believe what happened next.”

  26. 26.

    phdesmond

    @Gin & Tonic:

    in 1983 i dated an MIT grad student who had a newspaper article about Streleski pinned to her office bulletin board.   i believe she claimed her officemate put it up.  :-)

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @Mike in NC: Kaczynski’s death is good news for DeSantis, Christie, and other Republican candidates, who now do not have to announce whether they will issue him a presidential pardon.

  29. 29.

    The Kropenhagen Interpretation

    @Ken: Kaczynski’s death is good news for DeSantis, Christie, and other Republican candidates, who now do not have to announce whether they will issue him a presidential pardon.

    Nay, Veep.

  30. 30.

    Anne Laurie

    @pluky: I’ve come to think the only thing more dangerous to one’s mental stability than higher math is the Necronomicon.

    As someone who had to take high-school introductory algebra three times (failed the first time, passed after summer-school repeat, then had to take it again as a college intro), I’ve always wondered:  Does higher mathematics make people crazy, or do only crazy people understand higher maths?

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    @Anne Laurie:

    Does higher mathematics make people crazy, or do only crazy people understand higher maths?

    I think that Algebra is still basic math. Most people use some Algebra in their daily life without really thinking about it.

    ETA. Most math people I know are ridiculously down to earth, well grounded people.

  32. 32.

    The Moar You Know

    One of his bombs blew the hands off an acquaintance of mine, who in additional to being an “evil geneticist”, was also a world class cellist.

    I wish I believed there was a Hell.

  33. 33.

    Anne Laurie

    @Brachiator: Most math people I know are ridiculously down to earth, well grounded people.

    I’m dyslexic.  With words, you can eventually manage to memorize most of the possible tricky combinations.  But in my head (literally!), numbers are just flickering squirmy problems.

    (Used to drive my math teachers crazy that I could do word problems, and even trigonometry.  Just not *numbers*!)

  34. 34.

    Urza

    @pluky: No, I know several people that read the Necronomicon who are far more mentally stable than the crazy Republicans.

  37. 37.

    Aussie Sheila

    @Anne Laurie:

    If he was properly diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic he was mentally ill. I understand he wanted to plead as if he knew what he was doing, but it is somehow shocking that such an obviously mentally ill person wasn’t confined securely to a treatment facility.
    What would prevent a similar person/situation being executed in the US?
    Truly awful for all of his victims first of all, but also a terrible way to deal with severe mental illness.

  38. 38.

    Aussie Sheila

    @TheTruffle:

    Yes. He did the right thing, but it must have been terrible for him and his family that his brother did such an abominable thing.

  39. 39.

    evodevo

    @MattF: Yes…what IS it about physics and math majors??”  A  female TA of mine had a female physics major roommate go nuts on her with a meat cleaver…luckily my TA had karate training and was in good shape and escaped harm…probably more careful about screening roommates after that…

  40. 40.

    Paul in KY

    Some of the things he railed about are coming true and he did have some good points in his screed. However, he was a murdering POS who should have been executed.

    So glad his family figured out it was him & notified law enforcement.

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