Crimes Attributed to "The Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Plus His Motives

If read Elmore Leonard's crime fiction, you realize that a lot of criminals are not all that bright. Of course the showdowns nearly always come to a head with the very smartest and most lethal bad guy facing off with the quick-thinking hero who's notches on his gun were put their with brains, not brawn. 

Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, was obviously a criminal very different from the dimwit pattern. In addition to smarts, he was evidently very patient. 

In addition to being a domestic terrorist, Kaczynski was a mathematician. He was responsible for a series of bombings between 1978 and 1995. Here are the results of his actions:

• 16 Bombing Incidents: Kaczynski mailed or hand-delivered 16 bombs targeting individuals and institutions associated with technology, universities, and airlines.
• Fatalities: Three people were killed:
• Hugh Scrutton (1985), a computer store owner, killed by a bomb in Sacramento, California.
• Thomas Mosser (1994), an advertising executive, killed by a mail bomb in North Caldwell, New Jersey.
• Gilbert Murray (1995), president of the California Forestry Association, killed by a bomb in Sacramento, California.
• Injuries: 23 people were injured across various incidents, including:
• A security officer injured at the University of Illinois in 1978 (first known Unabomber attack).
• A researcher injured at Northwestern University in 1979.
• Passengers suffering smoke inhalation from a bomb on an American Airlines flight in 1979.
• United Airlines President Percy Woods, injured by a bomb in 1980.
• Dr. Charles Epstein and Dr. David Gelernter, severely injured by mail bombs in 1993.
• Federal Charges: Kaczynski was indicted on 10 counts, including:
• Transportation, mailing, and use of bombs.
• First-degree murder for the deaths of Scrutton, Mosser, and Murray.
• Mailing explosives with intent to kill or injure (e.g., Epstein and Gelernter cases).
• Other Impacts: His campaign caused widespread fear, disrupted air travel, and led to heightened mail security measures.

These crimes, spanning nearly two decades, targeted individuals Kaczynski believed were advancing technology and industrialization, to which he was opposed. These were his crimes, but why did he do them? The answer was made public in a 1995 manifesto published in the New York Times. 

This week, as I reflected on our somewhat chaotic times, I wondered what the concerns of The Unabomber were. Here's a summary generated by X.com's LLM AI Grok.

New York Times' Published Statement on Kaczynski’s Motives

Ted Kaczynski's handwritten manifesto

Ted Kaczynski's 35,000-word manifesto was titled Industrial Society and Its Future. In it Kaczynski argued that the Industrial Revolution and modern technology were eroding human freedom and autonomy, creating a society where individuals are subservient to machines and systems. He believed industrialization dehumanized people, destroyed the natural environment, and imposed a sociopolitical order that suppressed individual agency. 

His primary motive was to spark a revolution against this technological system, which he saw as a threat to humanity’s future. He rejected both leftism and fascism, advocating for a return to a primitive, pre-industrial way of life through violent means if necessary. Kaczynski justified his bombings as a way to draw attention to these issues and destabilize the technological society he despised, believing his actions could save humanity from the unchecked growth of technology and lead to a more natural, peaceful existence.

The publication of the manifesto, while controversial, proved pivotal to his capture, as it led to Kaczynski’s identification and arrest in 1996 after his brother recognized his writing style and alerted the FBI.

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Related Link
The Unabomber’s Brother Turned Him In. Then Spent 27 Years Trying to Win Him Back. (NYTimes, April 2025)