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Disaster Transbian episode 11
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00:00Are you ready to tell him that?
00:03Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber,
00:32was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist.
00:36He was a mathematics prodigy,
00:38but abandoned his academic career in 1969
00:41to pursue a primitive lifestyle.
00:44Between 1978 and 1995,
00:47Kaczynski murdered three individuals
00:49and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail-bombing campaign
00:54against people he believed to be advancing modern technology
00:58and the destruction of the natural environment.
01:00He authored Industrial Society and Its Future,
01:05a 35,000-word manifesto,
01:08and social critique opposing industrialization,
01:12rejecting leftism,
01:13and advocating a nature-centered form of anarchism.
01:17In 1971, Kaczynski moved to a remote cabin
01:21without electricity or running water
01:23near Lincoln, Montana,
01:25where he lived as a recluse
01:27while learning survival skills to become self-sufficient.
01:32After witnessing the destruction of the wilderness surrounding his cabin,
01:36he concluded that living in nature was becoming impossible
01:39and resolved to fight industrialization
01:42and its destruction of nature through terrorism.
01:45In 1979, Kaczynski became the subject of what was,
01:50by the time of his arrest in 1996,
01:53the longest and most expensive investigation
01:56in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
01:59the FBI used the case identifier Unabomb,
02:02University and Airline Bomber,
02:05before his identity was known,
02:07resulting in the media naming him the Unabomber.
02:11In 1995, Kaczynski sent a letter to the New York Times
02:14promising to, quote,
02:16desist from terrorism
02:18if the Times or the Washington Post
02:20published his manifesto
02:22in which he argued that his bombings were extreme
02:25but necessary in attracting attention
02:28to the erosion of human freedom and dignity
02:31by modern technologies.
02:33The FBI and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno
02:36pushed for the publication of the essay,
02:39which appeared in the Washington Post in September 1995.
02:44Upon reading it,
02:45Kaczynski's brother David recognized the prose style
02:48and reported his suspicions to the FBI.
02:51After his arrest in 1996,
02:54Kaczynski, maintaining that he was sane,
02:57tried and failed to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers
03:01because they wished him to plead insanity
03:03to avoid the death penalty.
03:06He pleaded guilty to all charges in 1998
03:09and was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms
03:12in prison without the possibility of parole.
03:15In June 2023,
03:17Kaczynski committed suicide in prison.
03:24Theodore John Kaczynski was born in Chicago
03:28on May 22, 1942,
03:31to working-class parent Wanda Teresa
03:33and Theodore Richard Kaczynski,
03:35and Theodore Richard Kaczynski, a sausage maker.
03:38The two were Polish Americans
03:39who were raised as Roman Catholics
03:41but later became atheists.
03:44They married on April 11, 1939.
03:47From first to fourth grade,
03:49ages six to nine,
03:50Kaczynski attended Sherman Elementary School in Chicago
03:53where administrators described him as healthy and well-adjusted.
03:58In 1952, three years after David was born,
04:02the family moved to suburban Evergreen Park, Illinois,
04:05and Ted transferred to Evergreen Park Central Junior High School.
04:09After testing scored his IQ at 167,
04:13he skipped the sixth grade.
04:15Kaczynski later described this as a pivotal event.
04:19Previously, he had socialized with his peers
04:21and was even a leader,
04:23but after skipping ahead of them,
04:25he felt he did not fit in with the older children
04:28who bullied him.
04:30Neighbors in Evergreen Park
04:31later described the Kaczynski family as
04:34civic-minded folks,
04:36one recalling the parents
04:37sacrificed everything they had for their children.
04:40Both Ted and David were intelligent,
04:43but Ted was exceptionally bright.
04:46Neighbors described him as a smart but lonely individual.
04:50Kaczynski attended Evergreen Park Community High School
04:53where he excelled academically.
04:56He played the trombone in the marching band
04:58and was a member of the mathematics,
05:00biology, coin, and German clubs.
05:03In 1996, a former classmate said
05:06he was never really seen as a person,
05:09as an individual personality.
05:11He was always regarded as a walking brain,
05:14so to speak.
05:15During this period,
05:17Kaczynski became intensely interested in mathematics,
05:20spending hours studying and solving advanced problems.
05:24He became associated with a group of like-minded boys
05:27interested in science and mathematics,
05:31known as the Briefcase Boys,
05:32for their habit of carrying briefcases.
05:36Throughout high school,
05:37Kaczynski was ahead of his classmates academically.
05:40Placed in a more advanced mathematics class,
05:43he soon mastered the material.
05:45He skipped the 11th grade,
05:47and, by attending summer school,
05:49he graduated at age 15.
05:52Kaczynski was one of his school's
05:54five national merits finalists,
05:55and was encouraged to apply to Harvard University.
06:00While still at age 15,
06:02he was accepted to Harvard
06:03and entered the university on a scholarship
06:06in 1958 at age 16.
06:09A classmate later said,
06:10Kaczynski was emotionally unprepared.
06:13They packed him up and sent him to Harvard
06:14before he was ready.
06:16He didn't even have a driver's license.
06:18Kaczynski matriculated at Harvard
06:20as a mathematics prodigy.
06:23During his first year at the university,
06:25Kaczynski lived at 8 Prescott Street,
06:28which was intended to provide a small,
06:31intimate living space
06:32for the youngest,
06:33most precocious incoming students.
06:34For the following three years,
06:38he lived at Elliott House.
06:40His housemates and other students at Harvard
06:42described Kaczynski as a very intelligent,
06:45but socially reserved person.
06:48Kaczynski earned his Bachelor of Arts degree
06:51in mathematics from Harvard in 1962,
06:55finishing with a GPA of 3.12.
06:57In his second year at Harvard,
06:59Kaczynski participated in a study
07:02described by author Alston Chase
07:04as a purposefully brutalizing
07:06psychological experiment
07:08led by Harvard psychologist Henry Murray.
07:12Subjects were told they would debate
07:13personal philosophy with a fellow student
07:16and were asked to write essays
07:18detailing their personal beliefs
07:19and aspirations.
07:21The essays were given to an anonymous individual
07:23who would confront and belittle the subject
07:26in what Murray himself called
07:28vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive attacks,
07:32using the content of the essays
07:33as ammunition.
07:35Electrodes monitored the subject's
07:37physiological reactions.
07:39These encounters were filmed,
07:41and subjects' expressions of anger and rage
07:44were later played back to them repeatedly.
07:47The experiment lasted three years,
07:49with someone verbally abusing
07:50and humiliating Kaczynski each week.
07:53Kaczynski spent 200 hours
07:55as part of this study.
07:57Kaczynski's lawyers later attributed his hostility
08:01towards mind control techniques
08:03to his participation in Murray's study.
08:06During the Second World War,
08:08Murray had worked with the Office of Strategic Services,
08:12a U.S. intelligence agency,
08:14often referred to as the predecessor
08:16to the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA,
08:19where he conducted psychological experiments.
08:22Some sources have suggested that Murray's experiments
08:26were part of Project MKUltra,
08:29the CIA's program of research into mind control.
08:32Chase and others have also suggested
08:35that this experiment may have motivated
08:38Kaczynski's criminal activities.
08:41Kaczynski stated he resented Murray and his coworkers,
08:45primarily because of the invasion of his privacy
08:47he perceived as a result of their experiments.
08:51Nevertheless, he said he was quite confident
08:53that his experiences with Professor Murray
08:56had no significant effect on the course of his life.
09:00In 1962, Kaczynski enrolled
09:03at the University of Michigan,
09:05where he earned his master's and doctoral degrees
09:08in mathematics in 1964 and 1967, respectively.
09:12Michigan was not his first choice
09:14for postgraduate education.
09:15He had applied to the University of California,
09:19Berkeley, and the University of Chicago,
09:21both of which accepted him,
09:23but offered him no teaching position or financial aid.
09:27Michigan offered him an annual grant of $2,310,
09:32equivalent to $22,348 in 2022.
09:38At Michigan, Kaczynski specialized in complex analysis,
09:42specifically, geometric function theory.
09:46Professor Peter Duren said of Kaczynski,
09:49he was an unusual person.
09:51He was not like the other graduate students.
09:53He was much more focused about his work.
09:56He had a drive to discover mathematical truth.
09:59George Perrhenian,
10:00another of his Michigan mathematics professors,
10:03said,
10:04it is not enough to say he was smart.
10:06Professor Alan Shields wrote about Kaczynski
10:09in a grade evaluation that he was,
10:12quote,
10:12the best man I have seen.
10:14Kaczynski received 1F, 5Bs, and 12As
10:18in his 18 courses at the university.
10:21In 2006,
10:22he said he had unpleasant memories of Michigan
10:25and felt the university had low standards for grading,
10:29considering his relatively high grades.
10:31For a period of several weeks in 1966,
10:35Kaczynski experienced intense sexual fantasies
10:38of being female
10:40and decided to undergo gender transition.
10:43He arranged to meet with a psychiatrist,
10:46but changed his mind in the waiting room
10:48and discussed other things instead,
10:50without disclosing his original reason
10:52for making the appointment.
10:54Afterwards, enraged,
10:56he considered killing the psychiatrist
10:59and other people whom he hated.
11:02Kaczynski described this episode
11:04as a major turning point in his life.
11:07He recalled,
11:08I felt disgusted about what my uncontrolled
11:11sexual cravings had almost led me to do,
11:14and I felt humiliated,
11:16and I violently hated the psychiatrist.
11:19Just then, there came a major turning point
11:21in my life.
11:22Like a phoenix,
11:23I burst from the ashes of my despair
11:25to a glorious new hope.
11:28Golly, girls,
11:29could transitioning have saved her?
11:31Am I right?
11:32In 1967,
11:34Kaczynski's dissertation,
11:36Boundary Functions,
11:37won the Sumner B. Myers Prize
11:39for Michigan's best mathematics dissertation
11:42of the year.
11:43Alan Shields,
11:44his doctoral advisor,
11:45called it,
11:46the best I have ever directed.
11:48And Maxwell Reed,
11:49a member of his dissertation committee,
11:51said,
11:52I would guess that maybe
11:5310 or 12 men in the country
11:55understood or appreciated it.
11:57In late 1967,
11:59the 25-year-old Kaczynski
12:01became an acting assistant professor
12:04at the University of California, Berkeley,
12:06where he taught mathematics.
12:09By September 1968,
12:11Kaczynski was appointed
12:12as an assistant professor,
12:14a sign that he was on track for tenure.
12:17His teaching evaluation suggested
12:19he was not well-liked by his students.
12:22He seemed uncomfortable teaching,
12:25taught straight from the textbook,
12:27and refused to answer questions.
12:29Without any explanation,
12:31Kaczynski resigned on June 30, 1969,
12:34in a 1970 letter written by
12:37John W. Addison, Jr.,
12:39the chairman of the mathematics department,
12:41to Kaczynski's doctoral advisor,
12:44Shields.
12:45Addison referred to the resignation as,
12:47quote,
12:48quite out of the blue.
12:49He added that
12:50Kaczynski seemed almost pathologically shy,
12:54and that,
12:54as far as he knew,
12:55Kaczynski made no close friends
12:57in the department,
12:59noting that efforts to bring him more
13:00into the swing of things
13:02had failed.
13:03In 1996,
13:04reporters for the Los Angeles Times
13:06interviewed mathematicians
13:08about Kaczynski's work
13:10and concluded that
13:11Kaczynski's subfield
13:12effectively ceased to exist
13:14after the 1960s,
13:16as most of its conjectures
13:17had been proven.
13:19According to mathematician
13:20Donald Rung,
13:21if Kaczynski had continued
13:23to work in mathematics,
13:24he probably would have gone on
13:26to some other area.
13:28After resigning from Berkeley,
13:30Kaczynski moved to his parents' home
13:32in Lombard, Illinois.
13:34Two years later,
13:35in 1971,
13:37he moved to a remote cabin
13:38he had built
13:39outside Lincoln, Montana,
13:41where he could live a simple life
13:43with little money
13:44and without electricity
13:45or running water,
13:47working odd jobs
13:48and receiving significant
13:49financial support
13:50from his family.
13:52Kaczynski's original goal
13:53was to become self-sufficient
13:55so he could live autonomously.
13:57He used an old bicycle
13:58to get to town
13:59and a volunteer
14:00at the local library
14:02said he visited frequently
14:03to read classic works
14:05in their original languages.
14:07Other Lincoln residents
14:08said later
14:09that such a lifestyle
14:10was typical in the area.
14:13Kaczynski's cabin
14:14was described
14:15by a census taker
14:16in the 1990 census
14:18as containing a bed,
14:20two chairs,
14:20storage trunks,
14:22a gas stove,
14:23lots of books.
14:24Starting in 1975,
14:26Kaczynski performed
14:27acts of sabotage,
14:28including arson
14:29and booby-trapping
14:30against developments
14:32near his cabin.
14:33He also dedicated himself
14:34to reading about sociology
14:36and political philosophy,
14:38including the works
14:39of Jacques Ellul.
14:41Kaczynski's brother, David,
14:43later said that Ellul's book,
14:45The Technological Society,
14:47became Ted's Bible.
14:49Kaczynski recounted in 1998,
14:51when I read that book
14:52for the first time,
14:53I was delighted
14:54because I thought,
14:55here is someone
14:56who is saying
14:57what I have already
14:58been thinking.
14:59In an interview
15:00after his arrest,
15:01Kaczynski recalled
15:02being shocked
15:03on a hike
15:04to one of his favorite
15:05wild spots.
15:06It's kind of a rolling country,
15:08not flat,
15:09and when you get
15:10to the edge of it,
15:11you find these ravines
15:12that cut very steeply
15:14into cliff-like drop-offs,
15:15and there was
15:16even a waterfall there.
15:18It was about
15:18a two-day's hike
15:19from my cabin.
15:20That was the best spot
15:22until the summer of 1983.
15:24That summer,
15:25there were too many people
15:26around my cabin,
15:27so I decided
15:28I needed some peace.
15:29I went back
15:30to the plateau,
15:31and when I got there,
15:33I found they had put a road
15:34right through the middle of it.
15:35You just can't imagine
15:37how upset I was.
15:38It was from that point on,
15:39I decided that
15:40rather than trying to acquire
15:42further wilderness skills,
15:44I would work on getting back
15:45at the system.
15:47Revenge.
15:58I bite at the hand
16:01that feeds me,
16:02slap at the face
16:04that eats me.
16:06She must have been
16:07out of her head.
16:09Oh, oh, oh, oh.
16:17Here it is.
16:20There's my favorite perfume
16:23We've been looking for everywhere.
16:32Why don't you buy one
16:34for me, too,
16:36and I'll meet you
16:38at the door.
16:41Okay.
16:44Okay.
16:47Bye-bye.
16:48Bye-bye.
16:51Bye-bye.
16:54Possibly in Michigan.
16:57In some strange department store.
17:03We won't see him anymore.
17:08Who knows how some people
17:11turn to strange ones.
17:13Is it up to me
17:16to make them
17:18into dead ones?
17:21Kaczynski was visited
17:23multiple times in Montana
17:24by his father,
17:26who was impressed
17:26by Ted's wilderness skills.
17:29Kaczynski's father
17:30was diagnosed
17:31with terminal lung cancer
17:32in 1990
17:33and held a family meeting
17:35without Kaczynski
17:36later that year
17:37to map out their future.
17:38On October 2, 1990,
17:40Kaczynski's father
17:41shot and killed himself
17:43in his home.
17:44Between 1978 and 1995,
17:47Kaczynski mailed
17:48or hand-delivered
17:49a series of increasingly
17:50sophisticated bombs
17:52that cumulatively killed
17:54three people
17:54and injured 23 others.
17:5716 bombs were attributed
17:59to Kaczynski.
18:00While the bombing devices
18:02varied widely
18:03through the years,
18:04many contained
18:05the initials FC,
18:07which Kaczynski later said
18:08stood for Freedom Club,
18:10inscribed on parts inside.
18:13He purposely
18:14left misleading clues
18:16in the devices
18:17and took extreme care
18:18in preparing them
18:19to avoid leaving fingerprints.
18:22Fingerprints found
18:23on some of the devices
18:25did not match those
18:26found on letters
18:27attributed to Kaczynski.
18:29Kaczynski's first mail bomb
18:31was directed
18:32at Buckley Christ,
18:34a professor of materials engineering
18:36at Northwestern University.
18:38On May 25, 1978,
18:40a package bearing
18:41Christ's return address
18:43was found in a parking lot
18:45at the University of Illinois
18:47at Chicago.
18:48The package was returned
18:50to Christ,
18:51who was suspicious
18:52because he had not sent it,
18:54so he contacted campus police.
18:56Officer Terry Marker
18:58opened the package,
19:00which exploded
19:01and caused minor injuries.
19:03Kaczynski had returned
19:04to Chicago
19:05for the May 1978 bombing
19:07and stayed there
19:08for a week
19:09to work with his father
19:10and brother
19:11at a foam rubber factory.
19:13In August 1978,
19:15his brother fired him
19:16for writing insulting limericks
19:18about a female supervisor
19:20Ted had courted briefly.
19:21The supervisor later recalled
19:24Kaczynski as intelligent
19:26and quiet,
19:27but remembered little
19:28of their acquaintanceship
19:29and firmly denied
19:31that they had had
19:31any romantic relationship.
19:34Kaczynski's second bomb
19:35was sent nearly one year
19:37after the first one
19:38again to Northwestern University.
19:41The bomb,
19:42concealed inside a cigar box
19:44and left on a table,
19:46caused minor injuries
19:47to graduate student
19:48John Harris
19:49when he opened it.
19:50In 1979,
19:52a bomb was placed
19:53in the cargo hold
19:54of American Airlines
19:56Flight 444,
19:58a Boeing 727
19:59flying from Chicago
20:01to Washington, D.C.
20:02A faulty timing mechanism
20:04prevented the bomb
20:05from exploding,
20:07but it released smoke,
20:08which caused the pilots
20:09to carry out
20:10an emergency landing.
20:12Authorities said
20:13it had enough power
20:14to obliterate the plane
20:15had it exploded.
20:17Kaczynski sent
20:18his next bomb
20:19to the president
20:20of United Airlines,
20:21Percy Wood.
20:23Wood received cuts
20:24and burns
20:25over most of his body.
20:27Kaczynski left
20:28false clues
20:28in most bombs,
20:30which he intentionally
20:31made hard to find
20:32to make them appear
20:33more legitimate.
20:35Clues included
20:36metal plates
20:37stamped with the initials
20:38FC hidden somewhere,
20:40usually in the pipe
20:41end cap,
20:42in bombs.
20:44A note left in a bomb
20:45that did not detonate,
20:47reading,
20:48woo, it works.
20:50I told you it would.
20:51RV and the Eugene O'Neill
20:53$1 stamps,
20:55often used as postages
20:56on his boxes.
20:58He sent one bomb
20:59embedded in a copy
21:01of Sloan Wilson's novel
21:02Ice Brothers.
21:04The FBI theorized
21:05that Kaczynski's crimes
21:07involved a theme
21:07of nature,
21:09trees,
21:09and wood.
21:10He often included
21:11bits of a tree branch
21:12and bark
21:13in his bombs.
21:14His selected targets
21:16included Percy Wood
21:17and Leroy Wood.
21:18Oh my god, wow.
21:20The crime writer,
21:21Robert Graysmith,
21:22noted his obsession
21:23with wood
21:24was a large factor
21:25in the bombings.
21:27Ooh, you know,
21:28he would have loved
21:28Twin Peaks.
21:29Tonight,
21:30I would like to
21:31speak about wood.
21:35There are many times
21:37in the world
21:37when the phone rings
21:39and someone is inquiring
21:41about wood.
21:44This happens primarily
21:45at lumber yards
21:46and in this case
21:48it is necessary
21:49to have a phone.
21:52It is only natural
21:53that trees are growing
21:55and that they are made
21:57of wood.
21:58Much happiness
21:59can come from
22:01observing a tree
22:02and the same can be said
22:04about observing
22:05the many shapes
22:07fashioned out of wood.
22:08Quite often
22:10when we are talking
22:11about beauty
22:12we are talking
22:14about wood.
22:15Thank you very much.
22:19In 1981,
22:20a package bearing
22:21the return address
22:22of a Brigham Young
22:24University professor
22:25of electrical engineering
22:27Leroy Wood Burnson
22:28was discovered
22:29in a hallway
22:30at the University of Utah.
22:33It was brought
22:33to the campus police
22:34and was diffused
22:36by a bomb squad.
22:37In May of the following year
22:39a bomb was sent
22:40to Patrick C. Fisher
22:42a professor
22:43of computer science
22:44at Vanderbilt University.
22:46When Fisher's secretary
22:47Janet Smith
22:48opened the package
22:50it exploded
22:51and Smith received
22:52injuries to her face
22:53and arms.
22:55Kaczynski's next
22:56two bombs
22:56targeted people
22:57at the University
22:58of California, Berkeley.
23:00First,
23:01in July 1982
23:02caused serious injuries
23:04to engineering professor
23:05Diogenes Angelacos.
23:08Nearly three years later
23:10in May 1985
23:11John Houser
23:12a graduate student
23:14and captain
23:14in the United States Air Force
23:16lost four fingers
23:18and the vision
23:19in one eye.
23:20Kaczynski handcrafted
23:21the bomb
23:22from wooden parts.
23:23A bomb sent
23:24to the Boeing company
23:25in Auburn, Washington
23:27was diffused
23:28by a bomb squad
23:29the following month.
23:31In November 1985
23:32Professor James V. McConnell
23:34and research assistant
23:36Niklas Sueno
23:37were both severely injured
23:39after Sueno
23:40opened a mail bomb
23:41addressed to McConnell.
23:43In late 1985
23:45a nail and splinter
23:47loaded bomb
23:48in the parking lot
23:49of a computer store
23:50in Sacramento, California
23:52killed 38-year-old
23:54owner of the store
23:55Hugh Scruton.
23:57On February 20th, 1987
23:59a bomb disguised
24:01as a piece of lumber
24:02injured Gary Wright
24:04in the parking lot
24:05of a computer store
24:06in Salt Lake City, Utah.
24:09Nerves in Wright's
24:10left arm were severed
24:11and at least 200 pieces
24:13of shrapnel
24:14entered his body.
24:16Kaczynski was spotted
24:17while planting
24:18the Salt Lake City bomb.
24:20This led to a widely
24:21distributed sketch
24:22of the suspect
24:23as a hooded man
24:25with a mustache
24:25and aviator sunglasses.
24:28In 1993
24:30after a six-year break
24:32Kaczynski mailed a bomb
24:33to the house
24:34of Charles Epstein
24:35from the University
24:36of California
24:37San Francisco.
24:39Epstein lost several fingers
24:40upon opening the package.
24:42In the same weekend
24:43Kaczynski mailed a bomb
24:45to David Galerntor
24:46a computer science professor
24:48at Yale University.
24:50Galerntor
24:51lost sight
24:52in one eye
24:53hearing in one ear
24:54and a portion
24:55of his right hand.
24:58In 1994
24:59person Marsteller
25:00executive
25:01Thomas J. Mosser
25:03was killed
25:04after opening
25:05a mail bomb
25:05sent to his home
25:07in New Jersey.
25:09In a letter
25:10to the New York Times
25:11Kaczynski wrote
25:12he had sent the bomb
25:14because of Mosser's work
25:15repairing the public image
25:17of Exxon
25:18after the Exxon
25:19Valdrez oil spill.
25:21It's not only
25:21the worst oil spill
25:22in U.S. history
25:23it's by far
25:24the largest
25:25in such a remote
25:26pristine area.
25:27The tanker
25:28the Exxon Valdez
25:30had just loaded
25:30more than a million
25:31barrels of Alaskan crew.
25:33It was about 25 miles
25:34from the Valdez terminal
25:36and was apparently
25:37trying to dodge
25:38ice flows
25:38from the nearby
25:39Columbia Glacier
25:40when it ran aground.
25:42I want to assure
25:43everyone that Exxon
25:44is mobilizing
25:45all available resources
25:46to mitigate the impact
25:48from this incident.
25:51Exxon has assumed
25:52full financial responsibility
25:54for the incident.
25:55Exxon has come
25:56under heavy criticism
25:57for not moving
25:58more rapidly
25:59to clean up the spill.
26:01The crews have not
26:02arrived yet
26:02to begin cleaning
26:03the slime
26:04off the island's
26:04beaches and rocks.
26:06That probably won't
26:06happen until next week.
26:08Exxon says
26:09it cannot do the job
26:10in a hasty
26:11haphazard manner.
26:13And there's no doubt
26:14that this is
26:15a major tragedy
26:16both for the environment
26:18and for the people
26:19up there.
26:20Day 10 of the oil spill
26:22crisis and the cleanup
26:23effort still just beginning.
26:26A few crews are on
26:27a few beaches
26:28removing a little bit
26:29of oil.
26:29But there are hundreds
26:30of miles of affected
26:31coastline.
26:33Exxon, which is running
26:34the operation,
26:35is coming under heavy
26:36criticism from state
26:37and federal officials.
26:38Where the existing
26:40management structure
26:41of this cleanup
26:42is not adequate
26:45to the past
26:46than we're going
26:47to do it ourselves
26:48independent of that.
26:51Jay Hare,
26:52president of the
26:53National Wildlife
26:54Federation,
26:55watched the work
26:55for a while
26:56and then just muttered.
26:58I appreciate these
26:58folks doing it,
26:59but quite frankly,
27:00I don't see that
27:00it's doing a hell
27:02of a lot of good.
27:03Hare calls this
27:03futile,
27:04and he says
27:05oil rubbed into
27:06the rocks will take
27:07longer to evaporate.
27:09He intends to push
27:10for a new
27:10national energy policy,
27:12hoping that a
27:13national sense of
27:14outrage will add
27:15to his political
27:16muscle.
27:17After the Exxon
27:19Valdez ran aground,
27:20Exxon spent
27:21$3.8 billion
27:22on cleanup,
27:24but the crews
27:25only scratched
27:26the surface.
27:27If you just let
27:27the water stand
27:28for even just a minute,
27:29then the oil
27:30plog will start
27:31to show.
27:31Still there,
27:3221 years after
27:34the spill.
27:34This was followed
27:43by the 1995
27:44murder of
27:46Gilbert Brent
27:47Murray,
27:48president of the
27:49timber industry
27:50lobbying group
27:50California Forestry
27:52Association,
27:53by a mail bomb
27:55addressed previous
27:56president,
27:57William Dennison,
27:58who had retired.
27:59geneticist Philip Sharp
28:03at the Massachusetts
28:04Institute of Technology
28:06received a threatening
28:07letter shortly
28:08afterwards.
28:10In 1995,
28:11Kaczynski mailed
28:12several letters
28:12to media outlets
28:14outlining his goals
28:15and demanding
28:16a major newspaper
28:17print his 35,000-word
28:19essay,
28:20Industrial Society
28:21and Its Future,
28:23dubbed the
28:23Unabomber Manifesto
28:25by the FBI,
28:26verbatim.
28:27He stated
28:30he would desist
28:31from terrorism
28:32if this demand
28:33was met.
28:34There was controversy
28:35as to whether
28:36the essay
28:36should be published.
28:39Attorney General
28:39Janet Reno
28:40and FBI Director
28:42Louis Freed
28:43recommended its
28:44publication
28:45out of concern
28:46for public safety
28:47and in the hope
28:47that a reader
28:48could identify
28:49the author.
28:52Bob Guccione
28:54of Penthouse
28:55volunteered to publish
28:56it.
28:56Kaczynski replied
28:57Penthouse
28:58was less respectable
28:59than the New York Times
29:01and the Washington Post
29:02and said that
29:03to increase our chances
29:04of getting our stuff
29:06published
29:06in some respectable
29:07periodical,
29:09he would reserve
29:09the right to plant
29:10one and only one bomb
29:12intended to kill
29:13after our manuscript
29:15has been published
29:16if Penthouse
29:17published the document
29:18instead of the Times
29:19or the Post.
29:20The Washington Post
29:22published the essay
29:23on September 19,
29:251995.
29:27Kaczynski used a typewriter
29:29to write his manuscript,
29:31capitalizing entire words
29:32for emphasis
29:33in lieu of italics.
29:37He always referred to himself
29:40as either
29:40We or FC Freedom Club,
29:44though there is no evidence
29:45that he worked with others.
29:47Donald Wayne Foster
29:49analyzed the writing
29:51at the request
29:51of Kaczynski's defense team
29:53in 1996
29:54and noted
29:55that it contained
29:56irregular spelling
29:57and hyphenization
29:58along with other
29:59linguistic idiosyncrasies.
30:01This led him to conclude
30:03that Kaczynski
30:04was its author.
30:07Industrial society
30:08and its future
30:09begins with Kaczynski's assertion,
30:12the industrial revolution
30:13and its consequences
30:14have been a disaster
30:15for the human race.
30:17I sure agree with that.
30:18He wrote that technology
30:19has had a destabilizing effect
30:21on society,
30:22has made life unfulfilling,
30:25and has caused widespread
30:26psychological suffering.
30:28Preach it, girl!
30:28Kaczynski argued
30:30that most people
30:30spend their time
30:31engaging in useless pursuit
30:33because of technological advances.
30:36He called these
30:37surrogate activities,
30:39wherein people strive
30:40towards artificial goals,
30:42including scientific work,
30:44consumption of entertainment,
30:46political activism,
30:48and following sports teams.
30:49Uh, now,
30:50let me transfer you, okay?
30:58Yeah, it's self-over there.
31:10Self-over.
31:17Nice.
31:18Well, can I just take
31:43one of my credit cards out?
31:44Okay.
31:44Yeah.
32:00In the lock.
32:00Oh, I thought
32:01there was no lock.
32:04In the ring of the gun.
32:06Okay.
32:06He predicted that further technological advances would lead to extensive human genetic engineering
32:34and that human beings would be adjusted to meet the needs of social systems rather than vice versa.
32:41Kaczynski stated that technological progress can be stopped,
32:45and in contrast to the viewpoint of people who he said understand technology's negative effects,
32:51yet passively accept technology as inevitable, he called for a return to primitivist lifestyles.
32:58Kaczynski's critiques of civilization bore some similarities to anarcho-primitism,
33:04but he rejected and criticized anarcho-primitivist views.
33:09Kaczynski argued that the erosion of human freedom is a natural product of an industrial society because,
33:16in his words, the system has to regulate human behavior closely in order to function,
33:21and that reform of the system is impossible as drastic changes to it would not be implemented because of their disruption of the system.
33:31He said that the system had not yet fully achieved control over all human behavior
33:35and is in the midst of a struggle to gain that control.
33:40Kaczynski predicted that the system would break down if it cannot achieve significant control,
33:46and that it is likely this issue would be decided within the next 40 to 100 years.
33:53He stated that the task of those who oppose industrial society is to promote stress within and upon the society
34:01and to propagate an anti-technology ideology, one that offers the counter-ideal of nature.
34:08Kaczynski added that a revolution would be possible only when industrial society is sufficiently unstable.
34:15A significant portion of the document is dedicated to discussing left-wing politics,
34:20with Kaczynski attributing many of society's issues to leftists.
34:26He defined leftists as mainly socialists, collectivists, politically correct types,
34:32feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists, and the like.
34:38He believed that over-socialization and feelings of inferiority are primary drivers of leftism
34:46and derided it as one of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world.
34:52Kaczynski added that the type of movement he envisioned must be anti-leftist
34:57and refrained from collaboration with leftists as, in his view,
35:02leftism is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom,
35:08and with the elimination of modern technology.
35:12Although Kaczynski and his manifesto has been embraced by eco-fascists,
35:17he rejected fascism, including those whom he referred to as the eco-fascists,
35:24describing eco-fascism as an aberrant branch of leftism.
35:29In Eco-fascism, an aberrant branch of leftism, he wrote,
35:33Kaczynski wrote that he considered fascism a kook ideology and Nazism as evil.
36:02Kaczynski never tried to align himself with the far right at any point before or after his arrest.
36:09He also criticized conservatives, describing them as fools who whine about the decay of traditional values,
36:16yet enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth.
36:22Things, he argues, have led to this decay.
36:26Wow.
36:26James Q. Wilson, in a 1998 New York Times op-ed, wrote,
36:32If it is the work of a madman, then the writings of many political philosophers,
36:37Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine, Karl Marx, are scarcely more sane.
36:42He added,
36:43Apart from his call for an unspecified revolution, his paper resembles something that a very good graduate student might have written.
36:59Alston Chase, a fellow alumnus at Harvard University, wrote in 2000 for The Atlantic that it is true that many believed Kaczynski was insane because they needed to believe it.
37:12But the truly disturbing aspect of Kaczynski and his ideas is not that they are so foreign, but they are so familiar.
37:19He argued,
37:21He argued,
37:21We need to see Kaczynski as exceptional madman or genius because the alternative is so much more frightening.
37:29University of Michigan Dearborn philosophy professor David Scribna helped to compile Kaczynski's work into the 2010 anthology Technological Slavery,
37:42including the original manifesto, letters between the original manifesto, letters between Skierbna and Kaczynski, and other essays.
37:49Kaczynski updated his 1995 manifesto as anti-tech revolution, why and how, to address advances in computers and the internet.
38:00He advocates practicing other types of protest and makes no mention of violence.
38:05According to a 2021 study, Kaczynski's manifesto is a synthesis of ideas from three well-known academics, French philosopher Jacques Galou, British zoologist Desmond Morris, and American psychologist Martin Seligman.
38:22Because of the materials used to make the mail bombs, U.S. postal inspectors, who initially had responsibility for the case, labeled the suspect the junkyard bomber.
38:33FBI Inspector Terry D. Turchie was appointed to run the Unabomb investigation.
38:41In 1979, an FBI-led task force that included 125 agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, ATF.
38:51Whoa! Alcohol and tobacco?
38:55Yes! And firearms!
38:58Cigarettes and beer kick ass.
39:00Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're in the Bureau of Beer and Fire and Cigarettes.
39:05And the U.S. Postal Inspection Service was formed.
39:08The task force grew to more than 150 full-time personnel, but minute analysis of recovered components of the bombs, and the investigation to the lives of the victims, proved of little use in identifying the suspect, who built the bombs primarily from scrap materials available almost anywhere.
39:29Investigators later learned that the victims were chosen indiscriminately from library research.
39:35In 1980, Chief Agent John Douglas worked with agents in the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, issued a psychological profile of the unidentified bomber.
39:48It described the offender as a man with above-average intelligence and connections to academia.
39:56This profile was later refined to characterize the offender as a neo-Luddite, holding an academic degree in the hard sciences.
40:04But this psychologically-based profile was discarded in 1983.
40:08FBI analysts developed an alternative theory that concentrated on the physical evidence in recovered bomb fragments.
40:16In this rival profile, the suspect was characterized as a blue-collar airplane mechanic.
40:22The unabomber task force set up a toll-free telephone hotline to take calls related to the investigation with a $1 million reward for anyone who could provide information leading to the unabomber's capture.
40:42After the manifesto was published, the FBI received thousands of tips, while the FBI reviewed new leads, Kaczynski's brother David hired private investigator Susan Swanson in Chicago to investigate Ted's activities discreetly.
40:58David later hired Washington, D.C. Attorney Tony Pescegly to organize the evidence acquired by Swanson and contact the FBI, given the presumed difficulty of attracting the FBI's attention.
41:13Kaczynski's family wanted to protect him from the danger of an FBI raid, such as those at Ruby Ridge or Waco, since they feared a violent outcome from any attempt by the FBI to contact Kaczynski.
41:26In early 1996, an investigator working with Buscegly contacted former FBI hostage negotiator and criminal profiler, Clinton R. Van Zandt.
41:39Buscegly asked him to compare the manifesto to typewritten copies of handwritten letters David had received from his brother.
41:48Van Zandt's initial analysis determined that there was better than a 60% chance that the same person had written the manifesto.
41:56which had been in public circulation for half a year.
41:59Van Zandt's second analytical team determined a higher likelihood.
42:04He recommended Buscegly's client contact the FBI immediately.
42:08In February 1996, Buscegly gave a copy of the 1971 essay written by Kaczynski to Molly Flynn at the FBI.
42:18She forwarded the essay to the San Francisco-based task force.
42:25FBI profiler James R. Fitzgerald recognized similarities in the writings using linguistic analysis and determined that the author of the essays and the manifesto was almost certainly the same person.
42:37Combined with facts gleaning from the bombings and Kaczynski's life provided the basis for an affidavit signed by Terry Turchie, the head of the entire investigation, in support of the application for a search warrant.
42:52Kaczynski's brother David had tried to remain anonymous but he was soon identified.
42:59Within a few days, an FBI agent team was dispatched to interview David and his wife with their attorney in Washington D.C.
43:07At this and subsequent meetings, David provided letters written by his brother in their original envelopes, allowing the FBI task force to use the postmark dates to add more detail to their timeline of Ted's activities.
43:22David had once admired and emulated his older brother, but had since left the survivalist lifestyle behind.
43:29He had received assurances from the FBI that he would remain anonymous and that his brother would not learn who had turned him in.
43:37But his identity was leaked to the CBS News in early April 1996.
43:43CBS anchorman Dan Rather called FBI Director Louis Frihey, who requested 24 hours before CBS broke the story on the evening news.
43:54The FBI scrambled to finish the search warrant and have it issued by a federal judge in Montana.
44:01Afterwards, the FBI conducted an internal leak investigation, but the source of the leak was never identified.
44:08FBI officials were not unanimous in identifying Ted as the author of the manifesto.
44:14The search warrant noted that several experts believed the manifesto had been written by another individual.
44:20FBI agents arrested and unkempt Kozinski at his cabin on April 3rd, 1996.
44:29A search revealed a cache of bomb components, 40,000 handwritten journal pages that included bomb-making experiments, descriptions of the Unabomber crimes, and one live bomb.
44:43They also found what appeared to be the originally typed manuscript of industrial society and its future.
44:51By this point, the Unabomber had been the target of the most expensive investigation in FBI history at the time.
44:57A 2000 report by the United States Commission on the Advancement of Federal Law Enforcement stated that the task force had spent over $50 million throughout the course of its investigation.
45:10After his capture, theories emerged naming Kozinski as the Zodiac Killer who murdered five people in Northern California from 1968 to 1969.
45:22Among the links that raised suspicion was that Kozinski lived in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1967 to 1969, the same period that most of the Zodiac's confirmed killings occurred in California.
45:36That both individuals were highly intelligent with an interest in bombs and codes and that both wrote letters to newspapers demanding the publication of their works with the threat of continued violence if the demand was not met.
45:51Additionally, Kozinski's whereabouts could not be verified for all the killings.
45:56Since the gun and knife murders committed by the Zodiac Killer differed from Kozinski's bombings, authorities did not pursue him as a suspect.
46:05Robert Graysmith, author of the 1986 book Zodiac, said the similarities are fascinating but purely coincidental.
46:14At one point in 1993, investigators sought an individual whose first name was Nathan because the name was imprinted on the envelope of a letter sent to the media.
46:25A federal grand jury indicted Kozinski in June 1996 on 10 counts of illegally transporting, mailing, and using bombs.
46:36Kozinski's lawyers, headed by Montana federal public defenders Michael Donahoe and Judy Clark, attempted to enter an insanity defense to avoid the death penalty, but Kozinski rejected this strategy.
46:50On January 8, 1998, he asked to dismiss his lawyers and hire Tony Serra as his counsel.
46:59Serra had agreed not to use an insanity defense and instead promised to base a defense on Kozinski's anti-technology views.
47:08After his request was unsuccessful, Kozinski tried to kill himself on January 9.
47:14Sallie Johnson, the psychiatrist who examined Kozinski, concluded that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
47:22Forensic psychiatrist Park Diets said Kozinski was not psychotic but had a schizoid or schizotypical personality disorder.
47:31In his 1910 book, Technological Slavery, Kozinski said that two prison psychologists who visited him frequently for four years told him they saw no indication that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and the diagnosis was, quote, ridiculous and a political diagnosis.
47:51Some contemporary authors suggested that multiple people, most notably Kozinski's brother and mother, purposefully spread the image of Kozinski as mentally ill with the aim to save him from execution.
48:05On January 21, 1998, Kozinski was declared competent to stand trial by federal prison psychiatrist Johnson, despite the psychiatric diagnoses and prosecutors sought the death penalty.
48:19Kozinski pled guilty to all charges on January 22, 1998, accepting life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
48:29He later tried to withdraw this plea, claiming the judge had coerced him, but Judge Garland Ellis Burrell Jr. denied his request and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the denial.
48:43In 2006, Burrell ordered that items from Kozinski's cabin be sold at a reasonably advertised internet auction.
48:51Items considered to be bomb-making materials such as diagrams and recipes for bombs were excluded.
48:59The net proceeds went towards the $15 million in restitution Burrell had awarded Kozinski's victims.
49:07Kozinski's correspondence and other personal papers were also auctioned.
49:13Burrell ordered the removal before sale of references in those documents to Kozinski's victims.
49:20Kozinski unsuccessfully challenged those redactions as a violation of his freedom of speech.
49:26The auction ran for two weeks in 2011 and raised over $232,000.
49:33Almost immediately after being convicted, Kozinski began serving his eight life sentences without the possibility of parole at the ADX Florence, a supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
49:46Early in his imprisonment, Kozinski befriended Ramzi Youssef and Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, respectively.
50:01They discussed religion and politics and formed a friendship which lasted until McVeigh's execution in 2001.
50:12Kozinski stated about Timothy McVeigh,
50:14On a personal level, I like McVeigh and I imagine that most people would like him, but also stated, assuming that the Oklahoma City bombing was intended as a protest against the U.S. government in general and against the government's actions at Waco in particular, I will say that I think the bombing was a bad action because it was unnecessarily inhumane.
50:38I may have gone too far in a few places.
50:43Kozinski responded to the Harvard Alumni Association's directory inquiry for the 50th reunion of the class of 1962.
50:52He listed his occupation as prisoner and his eight life sentences as awards.
50:58Wow, that's kind of cool, actually.
51:01In 2011, Kozinski was a person of interest in the Chicago Tylenol murders.
51:06Kozinski was willing to provide a DNA sample to the FBI, but later withheld it as a bargaining chip for his legal efforts against the FBI's private auction of his confiscated property.
51:18The U.S. government seized Kozinski's cabin, which they put on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. until late 2019, when it was transferred to a nearby FBI museum.
51:32On December 14th, 2021, the 79-year-old Kozinski was transferred to the Federal Medical Center, Butner, North Carolina, Butner, North Carolina.
51:44At 1223 a.m. on June 10th, 2023, Kozinski was found in his cell unresponsive.
51:51He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
51:55Prison officials concluded his death to be a suicide resulting from neglect and lax patrol practices.
52:03He was also in the late stages of cancer.
52:06The prison guards unit blamed the death on insufficient staffing.
52:10Kozinski has been portrayed in and inspired multiple artistic works in the realm of popular culture.
52:18These include the 1996 television film Unabomber The True Story, the 2011 play P.O. Box Unabomber, Manhunt Unabomber, the 2017 season of the television series Manhunt, and the 2112 film Ted K.
52:37The moniker Unabomber was also applied to the Italian Unabomber, a terrorist who conducted attacks similar to Kozinski's in Italy from 1994 to 2006.
52:49Prior to the 1993 United States presidential election, a campaign called Unabomber for President with the goal of electing Kozinski as president through write-in votes.
53:02Various radical movements and extremists have been influenced by Kozinski.
53:07People inspired by Kozinski's ideas show up in unexpected places from nihilist, anarchist, and eco-extremist movements to conservative intellectuals.
53:20Anders Beric Breivik, the far-right perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks, published a manifesto which copied large portions from industrial society and its future, with certain terms substituted, e.g. replacing leftists with cultural Marxists and multiculturalists.
53:43Over 20 years after Kozinski's imprisonment, his views had inspired an online community of primitivists and neo-Luddites.
53:52One explanation for the renewal of interest in his views is the television series Manhunt Unabomber, which aired in 2017.
54:01Kozinski is also frequently referred to by eco-fascists online.
54:07Although some militant fascist and neo-Nazi groups idolize him, Kozinski described fascism in his book as a kook ideology and Nazism as evil.
54:18Merrick Garland, who would later serve as United States Attorney General, has cited the Unabomber case as among the most important cases he worked on.
54:27Merrick Garland, who do not hàngish will notulos
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