Unabomber Ted Kaczynski dies aged 81 in North Carolina prison

The infamous “Unabomber,” Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, passed away at the age of 81 on Saturday. Kaczynski, a Harvard-educated mathematician, was responsible for a 17-year bombing campaign that claimed the lives of three people and injured 23 others. He died at the federal prison medical centre in Butner, North Carolina, according to Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons. The cause of death remains unknown.

Kaczynski was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years in May 1998 for his crimes. He confessed to carrying out 16 bombings between 1978 and 1995, leaving some of his victims permanently maimed. Prior to his transfer to the prison medical facility, he had been held in the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Throughout his life, Kaczynski was a loner who targeted academics, scientists, and computer store owners in his fight against what he perceived as the evils of modern technology. He even attempted to blow up a commercial airliner, causing widespread fear and altering the way Americans mailed packages and boarded planes. In July 1995, his actions led to a near shutdown of air travel on the West Coast.

In September 1995, Kaczynski forced The Washington Post and The New York Times to publish his 35,000-word manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future. The manifesto argued that modern society and technology were causing feelings of powerlessness and alienation. However, this publication ultimately led to his capture, as his brother David and sister-in-law Linda Patrik recognized the treatise’s tone and alerted the FBI.

The FBI had been searching for the Unabomber for years in the nation’s longest and most expensive manhunt. In April 1996, authorities found Kaczynski in a small, makeshift cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients, and two completed bombs.

While Kaczynski was initially seen as an elusive criminal mastermind, drawing comparisons to Daniel Boone, Edward Abbey, and Henry David Thoreau, his image changed once he was revealed as a wild-eyed hermit. Living in a one-room shack with long hair and a beard, Kaczynski became more of a pitiable figure than a romantic anti-hero.