Own a Piece of the Unabomber
By Chuck Sudo in News on May 16, 2011 7:30PM
Kaczynski used different methods to disguise his identity when he traveled to commit UNABOM crimes. He maintained several different pairs of sunglasses. Included among the sunglasses were these, strongly resembling those believed to have been worn by Kaczynski when he was seen in February of 1987 in Salt Lake City as he committed a UNABOM crime. A subsequent artist drawing based on the memory of the witness resulted in the infamous sketch of the mysterious Unabomber wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and aviator sunglasses. This was the only time during all of the UNABOM crimes that the subject was ever seen. The artist drawing became a universal symbol of the hunt for the UNABOMBER and has been circulated worldwide.\r\n
This is the L3 Smith-Corona portable manual typewriter that Kaczynski used to type most of his UNABOM documents, including the \"UNABOM Manifesto.\" This typewriter was seized by the FBI during the search of his cabin in April 1996.
This lot contains an individual picture of Theodore Kaczynski and another with Theodore, his brother David and their father.
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Despite his hatred of psychologists and psychiatrists, Kaczynski was acutely aware of his own unhappiness and on at least a couple of occasions sought professional assistance to deal with it. Much of his unhappiness he attributed to his social ineptness, especially regarding women and his lifelong inability to achieve a satisfying romantic relationship. This lot includes letters written by Theodore Kaczynski in regards to seeing a therapist and treating his anxiety and other issues.
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Kaczynski\'s Harvard degree and his PhD. from Michigan.
This was one of Kaczynski\'s home-made \"tool kits.\" Kaczynski kept small tools in several make-shift containers, including tools in the Tide box. Kaczynski\'s construction of UNABOM explosive devices was all done by hand, without assistance of power tools, and using where possible wood and metal scraps obtained from trash. He went to great lengths to create necessary parts himself, with the general exception of screws and nails. He cast some metal parts (including aluminum) by melting metal scraps on his cabin\'s wood burning stove. Parts he had to purchase, Kaczynski took pains to buy far away from home, sometimes while wearing disguises. He also made some of his own hand tools. These efforts were detailed in his writings.
Last August, U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell of the Eastern District of California ordered the sale of the personal effects of Theodore Kaczynski, aka "The Unabomber." The U.S. Marshals office will conduct an online auction of those personal effects beginning Wednesday and running through June 2. Proceeds from the auction will go to compensate Kaczynski's victims.
Kaczynski was a Chicago native and was a child prodigy. He was accepted into Harvard at 16 and later earned a PhD. in mathematics from the University of Michigan before he moved to a Montana cabin and began a 17-year campaign of sending bombs to targets including universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring 23. Kaczynski sent a letter to The New York Times on April 24, 1995 and promised "to desist from terrorism" if the Times or The Washington Post published his manifesto. Kaczynski's rambling manifesto acknowledged that his actions, while extreme, were necessary and designed to attract attention to the erosion of human freedom he felt was brought about by modern technologies requiring large-scale organization.
The FBI gave the investigation that eventually captured Kaczynski the acronym "UNABOM" ("UNiversity and Airline BOMber"). Kaczynski eventually pleaded guilty to all charges and is currently serving life in prison with no chance of parole.
