Netflix’s new movie Unabomber dramatizes the life of Ted Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who became one of the most notorious criminals in U.S. history.
His 17-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23, setting off a massive FBI manhunt that ended after his own family helped investigators identify him.
The crime drama, which airs Friday, stars Jacob Tremblay as a young Kaczynski and Russell Crowe as Harvard psychologist Henry Murray, whose controversial experiments Kaczynski participated in as a student. Shailene Woodley plays a fictional FBI agent who leads the manhunt for the killer.
Netflix describes Unabomber as a drama “inspired by true events,” rather than a documentary account of Kaczynski’s life. So which parts of the movie really happened? Here’s the true story behind Unabomber.
Who was Ted Kaczynski?
Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski was born May 22, 1942, in Chicago to working-class Polish American parents. An exceptionally bright student, he skipped two grades and attended Harvard University at 16.
He later attended the University of Michigan, earning a doctorate in mathematics in 1967 before becoming an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
In 1971, he bought land several miles outside Lincoln, Mont., and built a small plywood-and-tarpaper cabin without plumbing or electricity. He learned to grow food, hunt and make tools.
The cabin later became the base for a bombing campaign that lasted from 1978 to 1995.
What did the Unabomber do?
Kaczynski admitted carrying out 16 bombings that killed three people and injured 23. Many of his targets were academics or people associated with transportation and technology.
The first attack came in 1978, when a package bearing the name of a Northwestern University engineering professor exploded after he alerted campus security, injuring an officer.
In 1979, a bomb Kaczynski had placed aboard an American Airlines flight began smoking, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. Several people suffered smoke inhalation.
The FBI named the investigation “Unabomb” because Kaczynski’s early targets included universities and airlines. The unidentified bomber became known as the “Unabomber.”
Kaczynski proved difficult to identify. His explosives were carefully constructed, and the wooden boxes containing them were sanded to eliminate fingerprints. The FBI described him as “a twisted genius who aspires to be the perfect, anonymous killer.”
What happened to Ted Kaczynski at Harvard?
While at Harvard, Kaczynski spent about three years participating in psychological experiments led by professor Henry Murray.
The research put student volunteers under intense psychological pressure, including confrontational sessions in which their personal beliefs were aggressively challenged The experiments were designed to study how participants responded to stress
The experiments have prompted debate about the possible effect they may have had on Kaczynski. But, while his participation is documented, no causal connection between the research and his later crimes has been established.
Tremblay told <a href="https://comicvibe.com/hometown-entertainment-dolly-day-and-other-weekend-events-fill-hometowns/” title=”HOMETOWN ENTERTAINMENT: Dolly Day and other weekend events fill hometowns”>Entertainment Weekly, “It’s definitely interesting to look at it and think that maybe it had something to do with the outcome of what Ted became.”
What was the Unabomber’s essay?
In 1995, after years of eluding investigators, Kaczynski demanded that a major publication print a roughly 35,000-word essay titled “Industrial Society and Its Future.”
The essay attacked industrialization and modern technology, arguing that technological development had harmed society and the natural world. Kaczynski said he would stop his attacks if a national publication printed it.
Federal authorities ultimately supported publication in hopes that someone would recognize the author’s language or ideas. The Washington Post published the essay in September 1995 following a joint decision with The New York Times.
How did Ted Kaczynski’s brother help catch him?
Kaczynski’s younger brother, David, and David’s wife, Linda Patrik, noticed similarities between the published essay and Kaczynski’s earlier writing.
The couple showed some of Kaczynski’s letters to Susan Swanson, a private investigator. She shared the material with former FBI expert Clint Van Zandt, who said there was “a significant probability” that the letters and the Unabomber writings were by the same person.
In April 1996, federal agents arrested Kaczynski, bringing a nearly two-decade manhunt to an end. Inside his cabin, investigators found journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients and a live bomb.
What happened to Ted Kaczynski after he was caught?
Kaczynski pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the bombings in 1998 and was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years in prison.
He spent more than two decades at the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., before being transferred in 2021 to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, N.C., which treats incarcerated people with serious health problems.
Kaczynski died by suicide on June 10, 2023, at 81. He had late-stage rectal cancer.
If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental or emotional health, help is available. Call or text 988 to reach the 988 Lifeline, or go to988lifeline.org.
