Spring Break
David Kaczynski shares story of turning in the "Unabomber"
Crowd listens to emotional story of Kaczynski family
Natalie Jurgen
Issue date: 10/23/08 Section: News
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Sponsored by the Student Activities Board, Kaczynski felt he was invited to ECU to provide a lecture about an important and personal issue: mental illnesses' link with capital punishment.
In 1995, David Kaczynski and his wife, Linda, found themselves considering the possibility that David's brother, Ted, could be responsible for 17 years worth of placing and sending through mail 16 bombs that injured dozens and killed three.
The couple's nightmare began when Linda approached David with the question of whether or not he thought his brother could be the "Unabomber."
"I was taken aback and asked her, 'how could you ever think something like that?'" David said.
However, after Linda explained the reasons for her suspicions, the possibility began to run through David's mind as well. Linda had found articles that believed the Unabomber was born in Chicago and had a connection with the University of California at Berkeley because bombs had been sent to each. Ted also was born in Chicago and had been a professor of mathematics at UC Berkeley.
After that, evidence continued to solidify David and Linda's suspicions. After reading the "Unabomber's" Manifesto, which was a critique of modern technology and had been published in The Washington Post, David said that some parts did sound like his brother who lived alone in a cabin in Montana with no electricity, but he still only believed it was a one in one thousand chance.
David continued to weigh the possibilities, but said the turning point came to him in a dream.
"I woke up the next morning with the deepest depression I have ever felt," David said. "I was considering that my only brother is a serial murderer, the most wanted person in America."
David and Linda then realized that they had a responsibility, however, any decision they made could result in someone's death and quite possibly, the death of his only brother.
"I questioned myself, what would it be like to go through my life with my brother's blood on my hands?" David said.
David and Linda went to the police with their suspicions, and over time the FBI placed Ted at the top of their subject list. Eventually David realized he needed to tell his mother and that the FBI needed to question her.
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