Unabomber Ted Kaczynski committed suicide inside jail cell

Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber who was found dead in his jail cell Saturday, is believed to have committed suicide, according to a report. Kaczynski, who was 81 and had late-stage cancer, was serving four life terms in federal prison for a decades-long spree in which three people were killed and nearly two dozen others

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Ted Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber who was found dead in his jail cell Saturday, is believed to have committed suicide, according to a report.

Kaczynski, who was 81 and had late-stage cancer, was serving four life terms in federal prison for a decades-long spree in which three people were killed and nearly two dozen others hurt by 16 of his homemade bombs.

While officials at the federal medical prison in Butner, NC, did not say how he died, multiple sources told The New York Times that he committed suicide. Officials said said he was found unresponsive in his cell.

The Chicago native, who was educated at Harvard before becoming a hermit and living in a cabin in Montana, had been in a maximum security prison in Colorado but was moved to a medical facility in North Carolina in December 2021 because of ill health.

Kaczynski previously tried to kill himself in 1998 before trial — by hanging himself with his own underwear, according to reports at the time.

He left his first explosive in 1978 at a Chicago university, putting the name of  Northwestern University engineering professor Buckley Crist Jr. as the sender.

Kaczynski, 81, was serving four life terms in federal prison for a decades-long spree in which three people were killed and nearly two dozen others hurt. AP

“I never knew the guy, I never met him and I have no idea why he involved me,” Crist told The Post Saturday of Kaczynski.

After his arrest, he confessed to committing 16 bombings between 1978 and 1995, permanently injuring several of his victims.

One of the Kaczynski’s last bombs is seen ready to be mailed. ASSOCIATED PRESS

To some, he was a folk hero for his pro-Luddite views and ability to elude authorities for years. 

Kaczynski wrote a 35,000-word, anti-technology and anti-leftist manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” better known as the “Unabomber Manifesto,” which warned the world about how rapidly expanding technology would threaten and possibly ruin humans.

Ted Kaczynski is believed to have committed suicide. AP

The publication of the manifesto was Kaczynski’s undoing. His brother, David Kaczynski, now, 73, and his wife, Linda Patrik, recognized his writing style and called the FBI.

After a massive manhunt, Kaczynski was captured by police in his small plywood and tarpaper cabin in the woods outside Lincoln, Montana.

An undated file photograph shows Ted Kaczynskis hand written notes and a map with information on hidden food supplies. AP
Kaczynski was turned in by his brother, David Kaczynski who recognized the bomber’s handwriting from his manifesto. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The tiny home, smaller than the jail cell where he lived his final years, contained explosives, two finished bombs and a coded diary.

But in the decades since Kaczynski’s 1996 capture, a new generation began to revere him for his anti-technology manifesto, dubbing him “Uncle Ted.”

The phrase “Uncle Ted” briefly trended on Twitter as word spread of Kaczynski’s death.

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