David Kaczynski sat by his mother's side, horrified, as his brother Ted was charged with historically-horrific crimes and the death penalty was sought by the prosecutor. Ted Kaczynski, popularly known as the Unabomber, had wreaked havoc on the United States for 17 years and had just been turned in by his own brother. After the largest man-hunt in the nation's history, Ted was caught when his brother recognized his writing style after the Unabomber published his manifesto in the newspaper. Ted, who had been living alone in the woods of Lincoln, Montana "Thoreau-style" was tracked down and arrested. Charged with being the mastermind behind bombs mailed across the country that injured 23 and killed 3, Kaczynski pled not guilty. The prosecutor, however, had an air-tight case with evidence including drafts of the Unabomber's manifesto along with Kaczynski's diary being found in his cabin. His defense attorneys sought the insanity defense after state and private psychologists examined Kaczynski and determined that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. His reaction? Outrage! Kaczynski raged furiously against his attorneys and petitioned to have them dismissed so that he could argue his own defense. The judge, upon reading the reports that Kaczynski was competent to stand trial but seriously ill, determined that he must keep his attorneys and Kaczynski attempted suicide as a result. He believed that in attempting to use the insanity defense, his attorneys were actually siding with the government and trying to discredit his beliefs and testaments. (More on this later) After many attempts at reasoning with him, Kaczynski's lawyers finally convinced him that only with a life in prison would he be able to remain influential. He gave in and pled guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance for parole.
The first question people need to ask when examining a case such as this is what drove the person to commit the crime that they did. Let's look at Ted's story from birth to the time of his imprisonment. Ted was the first-born of his loving parents. His mother described him as an energetic, joyful child that loved his parents. At 9 months old, baby Ted became seriously ill with hives covering his body. He was placed in isolation where his parents were not allowed to see or hold him. When he returned home, his mother noticed a drastic difference in her child. He took weeks to even look at her and was completely unresponsive to her loving embraces. He became a cold and isolated child, she explained, something he never grew out of. His parents entered him in pre-school at a young age, worried about his lack of socialization. Teachers were amazed at his seemingly mature demeanor as he declined to play with other children. By fifth grade, they noticed an amazing intellect and, after an IQ test revealed that Ted was brilliant, he began skipping grades. At age 16, Ted entered Harvard to study mathematics, graduating with a degree at age 20. It was his time at Harvard that many believe led to his further withdrawal from society. Coming from a small lower-middle class family, Ted sought out Harvard as a place to study vigorously in his choice subject. What he did not anticipate was the atmosphere. Ted was placed in Elliot House, a notoriously wealthy dorm at this time. He did not fit in at all and had serious trouble making any friends. He withdrew further and was later described as a messy isolationist who preferred studying independently to interacting with others. Then, during his sophomore year, Ted became part of a Psychology study run by Dr. Henry Murray. The experiment was to examine peoples' reactions to stress-inducing situations. Each candidate was told they would be debating their personal philosophy with another student and were asked to write a preliminary paper about their philosophy. In reality, they were put in a room and viciously belittled and interrogated by a professional attorney. It was this pivotal incident that experts believe made Kaczynski emotionally unstable. As this time was one of open psychological experiments without many of the safety measures in place today, there was no period of recovery or reprograming for those experimented on. Ted was sent back into society emotionally unstable and vulnerable. After graduating from Harvard, he went to the University of Michigan, a "hot spot" of liberal ideology during that time period. Few became close with Ted here but those that knew him failed to observe the drastic change in his personal philosophy. He adopted many of the liberal ideas the were swarming the campus. His greatest belief was in the adverse effects of technology. He believed the world he lived in was being destroyed by the technology that humans had created to improve it. He foresaw a future where humanity served technology-where technology was a critical part of every aspect of life and humans were completely dependent on it. This is what ultimately led to his targeting scientists and figure-heads of corporations that he believed were supporting this technology and the decline of nature.
Ted Kaczynski Biography
Ted Kaczynski has always been a fascinating case for curious psychologists and sociologists to study. They love to examine what factors in his life, from his family to his social encounters to his cultural upbringing, led to his heinous crimes. I personally enjoyed hearing about the psychology experiment and the subsequent imprinting of ideas from radicals around him. I was amazed to hear about the lack of support and recovery period after the experiment. I suppose it goes to show that blind research "for the sake of science" is not okay! I was also surprised by the grave consequences of such a brief period of isolation as a baby. It's amazing how such seemingly small things can come together to create such a huge tragedy. I think it is important to look at Ted's story after his arrest. His lawyers sought the insanity defense, which to many seemed like a logical path to take. But to Ted, this was a grave insult to his ideology and he would rather have died than seen his manifesto be discredited. He truly believed in what he fought against and, although psychologists determined him to have paranoid schizophrenia, he believed he was perfectly sane. I admire the attempts by his family to have him committed to a mental hospital, but I can understand why this would be such an issue. They were genuinely worried about him, but how could anybody have known what he was really capable of. The story of Ted is a testament to the power mental conditioning. Each of the factors that contributed to his ultimate departure from normalcy seemed trivial, but when compounded, they led to the creation of something nobody expected. This goes to show the intense power of one's surroundings on their character and decision-making process.
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