Unabomber Ted Kaczynski ‘died by SUICIDE’ in his federal prison cell
Domestic terrorist “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski died by suicide in his federal prison cell, according to insiders familiar with the situation.
Kaczynski was found dead in his cell at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina around 8 a.m. He turned 81 years old.
While the formal cause of death has not been disclosed, sources say he died by suicide, the New York Times.
After committing 16 bombings during a 17-year reign of terror, Kaczynski was serving life without the possibility of parole when he was finally caught in 1996.
Ted Kaczynski (pictured) was behind a 17-year bomb explosion that killed three people and injured 23 others. According to sources, he committed suicide in prison
The domestic terrorist insisted he was not crazy when he carried out the series of bombings
Kaczynski was captured after years of manhunt led him to a primitive cabin in Montana’s western forest where he built the explosives that killed three people and wounded 23 others between 1978 and 1995.
He had been transferred to the North Carolina Federal Penitentiary Medical Facility after spending two decades in a Colorado federal Supermax prison.
Kaczynski was a Harvard-educated mathematician who later retreated to the Montana wilderness after coming to believe that technology would mean the end of civilization.
He enacted a sinister plan to detonate explosives at universities and airports, which he would often mail to his victims.
Years before the September 11 attacks and the anthrax mailing, the deadly homemade bombs of the Unabomber changed the way Americans shipped packages and boarded planes, virtually shutting down air traffic on the West Coast in July 1995.
He published an extensive 35,000-word manifesto called “Industrial Society and Its Future,” in which he argued that modern society was plagued by the increasing role of technology in everyday life.
While the fear he sparked led The Washington Post and The New York Times to make the agonizing decision to publish the manifesto in September 1995, it ultimately led to his downfall.
Kaczynski’s brother David and David’s wife, Linda Patrik, recognized the bizarre belief system in the tome and tipped off the FBI.
The tip led to the end of the nation’s longest manhunt, and in April 1996, authorities found him in a 10-by-15-foot wooden cabin outside Lincoln, Montana.
A sign can be seen outside the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina
The domestic terrorist had been transferred to the North Carolina federal prison medical facility after spending two decades in a Colorado federal Supermax prison
In April 1996, authorities found Kaczynski in a 10-foot-4-foot wooden cabin outside of Lincoln, Montana.
One of his potential victims, Buckley Crist Jr., who received a bomb package from the terrorist but wisely never opened it, has now said he felt sympathy for Kaczynski.
He told the New York Post: ‘It just smelled really bad. I immediately knew something was not right. Kaczynski wasn’t very good at his job then.’
He added, “I have some sympathy for him. We are about the same age. He went to Berkeley. We had similar backgrounds. I really like his brother David. But apparently the man has done terrible things.’
One of his potential victims, Buckley Crist Jr., who received a bomb package from the terrorist but wisely never opened it, has now said he felt sympathy for Kaczynski.
Viewed by many as a criminal mastermind plagued by mental illness and a bitterness against society, Kaczynski became notorious as one of the most prolific murderers in recent American history.
A psychiatrist who interviewed Kaczynski in prison diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic.
‘Mr. Kaczynski’s delusions are usually haunting in nature,” Sally Johnson wrote in a 47-page report. “The central themes are his belief that he is being slandered and harassed by family members and modern society.”
Instead of admitting insanity in his murder trial, Kaczynski famously fired his own defense team and pleaded guilty instead of allowing his lawyers to claim he had lost his mind.
The terrorist killed three and wounded 23 by sending explosives across America. Pictured: An FBI reproduction of one of Kaczynski’s bombs
Kaczynski was eventually captured living a hermit-like life in the Montana wilderness after retreating to a lonely cabin.
“I’m convinced I’m healthy,” Kaczynski told Time magazine in 1999. “I don’t get delusional and so on.”
Before falling into madness, Kaczynski was a brilliant mathematician and scholar who skipped two grades to attend Harvard at age 16.
His explosives were carefully tested and came in carefully handcrafted wooden boxes that were sanded to remove any possible fingerprints. Later bombs bore the signature ‘FC’ for ‘Freedom Club’.
He earned the nickname “Unabomber” from the FBI because his early targets often included universities and airlines.
In 1979, an altitude-triggered bomb exploded on board an American Airlines flight, causing a dozen passengers to inhale smoke.
While most of his victims were mutilated by the bombs, Kaczynski also killed computer rental company owner Hugh Scrutton, advertising executive Thomas Mosser, and timber industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray.
California geneticist Charles Epstein and Yale University computer expert David Gelernter were maimed by bombs two days apart in June 1993.
Mosser was murdered at his home in North Caldwell, New Jersey, on December 10, 1994, a day when he was supposed to pick out a Christmas tree with his family. His wife, Susan, found him badly injured by a barrage of razor blades, pipes, and nails.