Actions

Ted 'Unabomber' Kaczynski found dead in prison cell

"Covering Kaczynski" - the Unabomber case, 25 years later

'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski found dead in federal prison

By: Cara Tabachnick, Kerry Breen, Arden Farhi - CBS News; MTN News

Posted

and last updated

Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, known as the "Unabomber" for a series of bombings that targeted scientists and killed three people and injured 23 others, was found dead in his prison cell on Saturday, June 10, 2023, a spokesperson for the federal Bureau of Prisons told CBS News.

Kaczynski was found unresponsive in his prison cell just after midnight Saturday morning, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release. Staff "immediately initiated life-saving measures," and Kaczynski was taken to a hospital.

He was declared dead there at around 8 a.m. The cause of death has not been released.

At the time of his death, Kaczynski was being held at the U.S. Bureau of Prison's FMC Butner medical center in eastern North Carolina, where he had been transferred in Dec. 2021. The reasons for his transfer were not made public.

Previously, he was serving a life sentence at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison in Colorado.

Kaczynski terrorized the nation with a mail bombing campaign that ran from 1978 to 1995. He sent homemade bombs to victims, CBS San Francisco previously reported, cumulatively killing three people and injuring 24.

The Harvard-trained mathematician and former UC Berkeley math professor targeted anyone having to do with the advancement of technology.

Kaczynski was captured on April 3, 1996, after an almost two-decade search. He was found living in a cabin in the backwoods of Montana near the town of Lincoln in 10-by-14 foot plywood and tarpaper cabin, where he'd been living since the 1970s.

His brother David Kaczynski and sister-in-law Linda Patrik turned him in to the FBI. David recognized his brother's handwriting in an anti-technology manifesto, titled "Industrial Society and Its Future," that was published in several national newspapers.

Kaczynski pleaded guilty to charges including transportation of an explosive with intent to kill or injure, mailing an explosive device with the intent to kill or injure, and use of a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence.