Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, infamously known as the "Unabomber," has reportedly died by suicide at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Butner in Butner, North Carolina.
Although the official cause of death has not been disclosed, The New York Times cited three sources who confirmed Kaczynski's suicide. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, in response to the Times report, stated that they do not share specifics regarding the cause of death for any inmate for safety, security, and privacy reasons. The medical examiner determines the official cause of death, not the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).
Kaczynski, an 81-year-old Harvard-educated mathematician, was convicted of running a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others. He was found unresponsive at FMC Butner at approximately 12:25 a.m. on Saturday. Responding staff immediately initiated life-saving measures, and emergency medical services were requested. Kaczynski was transported to a local hospital but was subsequently pronounced dead by hospital personnel. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified, and no staff or other inmates were injured. At no time was the public in danger.
Kaczynski was serving a life sentence for Transportation of an Explosive with Intent to Kill or Injure, Mailing an Explosive Device with Intent to Kill or Injure, and Use of a Destructive Device about a Crime of Violence. He had been in custody at FMC Butner since December 14, 2021.
FMC Butner is an administrative security facility that currently houses 833 male offenders. Before his transfer to the prison medical facility, he had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge.
Kaczynski admitted committing 16 bombings between 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several victims. His homemade bombs changed how Americans mailed packages and boarded airplanes, even virtually shutting down air travel on the West Coast in July 1995. The Washington Post, in conjunction with The New York Times, published his 35,000-word manifesto, "Industrial Society and Its Future," in September 1995, at the urging of federal authorities.
The manifesto claimed that modern society and technology were leading to a sense of powerlessness and alienation. Kaczynski's brother, David, and David's wife, Linda Patrik, recognized the treatise's tone and tipped off the FBI, searching for the Unabomber for years in the nation's longest, costliest manhunt.
Authorities found Kaczynski in a 10-by-14-foot plywood and tarpaper cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, in April 1996. The house was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients, and two completed bombs. The FBI called him the "Unabomber" because his early targets seemed to be universities and airlines.
An altitude-triggered bomb he mailed in 1979 went off as planned aboard an American Airlines flight, and a dozen people aboard suffered from smoke inhalation. Kaczynski killed computer rental store owner Hugh Scrutton, advertising executive Thomas Mosser, and timber industry lobbyist Gilbert Murray. California geneticist Charles Epstein and Yale University computer expert David Gelernter were maimed by bombs two days apart in June 1993.
The New York Times noted the controversy surrounding the August 2019 death of Jeffrey Epstein at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City in light of Kaczynski's death. Widespread speculation suggested that Epstein was murdered while facing federal sex trafficking charges. Still, authorities insisted he died by suicide, citing lax patrol practices and staffing shortages that allegedly allowed the disgraced financier to kill himself.
The death of Ted Kaczynski marks the end of a chapter in American history that saw the Unabomber terrorize the nation with his homemade bombs. Despite his death, the legacy of his crimes and their impact on American society will continue to be felt for years.
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