Fallout: The Unabomber’s Crimes and Manifesto (with Candice DeLong)

The Unabomber, responsible for a terror campaign over a span of 17 years, used deadly bombings as a means to target universities and airlines. His actions resulted in three fatalities and injuries to dozens.

The Unabomber's Reign of Terror

The Unabomber, whose campaign of violence began with a detonation in 1978, caused increasingly harmful explosions at academic institutions and other venues over the years.

The Rise in Bombing Complexity and Fatalities

Over the course of 17 years, the Unabomber carried out 14 attacks by the fall of 1994, demonstrating a deadly progression in the sophistication of his homemade explosives. The first known attack injured a security guard at Northwestern University in 1978. Then, in 1987, Gary Wright encountered a wooden object with protruding, shiny nails in his company’s parking lot. When he attempted to move it, the object exploded, throwing him 22 feet and leaving him severely wounded.

The FBI's ...

The FBI's investigation into the Unabomber was extensive and challenging, dominated by a growing suspect list and lack of concrete evidence. It wasn't until Ted Kaczynski’s brother came forward that the FBI was able to make a significant breakthrough.

The FBI launched an extensive investigation, compiling a suspect list of around 2,000 names, but struggled to find concrete evidence linking any of them to the Unabomber's crimes.

Candice DeLong, who became an FBI agent assigned to the Unabomber case after relocating to San Francisco, explained that their suspect list had swollen to around 2,000 names. However, the FBI could not place any suspect at all the right locations at the right times. DeLong highlighted that Ted Kaczynski's name was not in the FBI's databases, nor was he in a suspect file. She candidly stated that if Ted's brother David had not turned him in, the FBI might still be searching for the Unabomber.

The investigation remained stalled until the Unabomber sent a 35,000-word manifesto to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Penthouse Magazine. David Kaczynski and his wife grew suspicious upon recognizing ideas and phrases in the manifesto akin to letters from David's brother, prompting them to contact the FBI.

The investigation stalled for years until the Unabomber mailed a 35,000-word manifesto to media outlets, which eventually led the Unabomber's brother David to contact the FBI and identify him as the likely author.

Candice DeLong had initially heard of the Unabomber when she was head nurse at the Institute of Psychiatry at Northwestern University, the site of the first attack. DeLong recalled the specific criteria used to narrow down the suspect list, which included geographic markers based on where the Unabomber had historically been active. They were able to rule out names as they came in, using these criteria.

In 1996, FBI agent Candice DeLong went undercover in the remote town of Lincoln, Montana, with the objective of gathering evidence to arrest Ted Kaczynski.

In 1996, FBI agent Candice DeLong went undercover in the remote town of Lincoln, Montana, where she and other agents were able to gather enough circumstantial evidence to obtain a search warrant and arrest Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber.

DeLong and other FBI agents followed leads while undercover, visiting various locations to amass a mountain of circumstantial evidence. They found a letter containing two critical dates aligning with significant events in the Unabomber's history. By April 1996, the evidence compiled into a 100-page affidavit convinced a magistrate to issue a search warrant.

Around 100 FBI agents prepared for the search warrant in Lincoln. They had a local agent, Jerry Burns, whom Kaczynski trusted, lure him out of his cabin by asking to show where his property line was. When Kaczynski opened the door to retrieve hi ...

The Unabomber case, involving Ted Kaczynski, raised significant questions about the relationship between mental health and criminal responsibility. Kaczynski’s lawyers attempted to mount an insanity defense by suggesting he was schizophrenic, but this assessment was contested by professionals, including Candice DeLong.

Kaczynski's lawyers tried to mount an insanity defense, arguing that he was schizophrenic, but Candice DeLong and others disagreed with this assessment.

Candice DeLong, a former psychiatric nurse, strongly disagreed with the characterization of Ted Kaczynski as a paranoid schizophrenic. DeLong stated that Kaczynski was a very organized thinker, which was at odds with the typically disorganized thought processes seen in paranoid schizophrenia. In the case of Kaczynski, however, a psychiatrist named Sally Johnson and four other doctors found him to have schizophrenia after a 22-hour interview. Despite their findings, the prosecution's doctors challenged this assessment.

Several psychiatrists determined that Kaczynski was fit to stand trial, though his family maintained his crimes were the result of mental illness stemming from childhood experiences.

Kaczynski's family advocated for him, arguing that his criminal behavior was a consequence of mental illness, possibly exacerbated by a mind control study he participated in at Harvard. They fought hard to ensure the death penalty was taken off the table.

Kaczynski ultimately accepted a plea deal, receiving four life sentences without the possibility of parole, and was forced to listen to impact statements from his victims, including Gary Wright, who forgave him.

In an e ...

The Unabomber's manifesto, despite its origins in a campaign of terror, has gained notable mainstream resonance, appealing to a wide and varied readership and provoking discussions about the intersections of technology, society, and personal freedoms.

The Unabomber's manifesto, which criticized industrialization and technology's impact on society, has gained increased mainstream popularity and resonance in the decades since its publication.

The manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski criticizes the technological society, focusing on how it destroys nature, infringes personal freedoms, and negatively impacts health, leading to a range of mental health issues. Kaczynski believed that technology is uncontrollable and would eventually need to be destroyed, even suggesting through violence. The manifesto has become mainstream with even the Wall Street Journal noting that it combines ideas from both the left- and right-wing political spheres.

The manifesto's blend of left- and right-wing ideas has appealed to a diverse range of readers, from those struggling with the effects of social media to extremist groups.

Kaczynski's manifesto has found a diverse readership including those affected by social media and extremist groups. It was reported to be one of Amazon's top 10 best-selling books in the radical political thought category. This wide-ranging appeal is in part due to its criticism of modern technological impacts, which aligns with concerns across the political spectrum.

While some see value in the manifesto's insights, others caution against minimizing the Unabomber's violent actions and warn against the dangers of idolizing or radicalizing his ideas.

...