Unabomber Ted Kaczynski found dead in US prison cell

Ted Kaczynski, pictured in 1996, hasn't been captured in almost 20 years. Credit: John Youngber/AP

Theodore «Ted» Kaczynski, the convicted terrorist known as the Unabomber, was found dead in his jail cell on Saturday morning.

81-year-old Kaczynski was considered America's most prolific terrorist and led a campaign that left three people dead and 23 injured. between 1978 and 1995.

The FBI branded him the «Unabomber» because his first targets were universities and airlines.

He went almost 20 years without being captured until he was arrested in 1996 in the longest and most costly manhunt in the country. .

In a 35,000-word manifesto, he stated that modern society and technology lead to feelings of powerlessness and alienation. This eventually led to his capture.

A psychiatrist who spoke to Kaczynski in prison diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia. Photo: Elaine Thompson/AP

Following his guilty verdict, Kaczynski was sentenced in 1998 to four life terms plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that had brought universities across the country to a standstill. .

He was held in a maximum security facility in Colorado until 2021, when he was transferred to a medical facility in North Carolina due to poor health.

A gifted student, he entered Harvard at the age of 16, and his papers were published in prestigious mathematical journals.

He later got a job teaching mathematics at UC Berkeley, but found the job difficult for him and quit. abruptly.

He moved to a shack in a remote Montana wilderness, where he carefully tested the explosives and sent them in elaborately handcrafted wooden boxes.

Later bombs were signed «FC» for «Club freedom.»

Ted Kaczynski's cabin in the wilderness of Montana. Photo: Elaine Thompson/AP

His victims were Hugh Scrutton, owner of a computer rental shop; Thomas Mosser, advertising specialist; and Gilbert Murray, a lumber industry lobbyist.

A psychiatrist who spoke to Kaczynski in prison diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and said he suffered from delusions that were «mostly persecutory».

< p> «Major themes revolve around his belief that he is vilified and persecuted by family members and modern society,» wrote Sally Johnson.

Kaczyński hated the idea of ​​being considered mentally ill. He eventually pleaded guilty rather than let his defense team continue on the grounds of insanity.

«I'm sure I'm sane,» Kaczynski told Time magazine in 1999. and so on.”

Christy Breshers, spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said Kaczynski was found unconscious in his cell early Saturday morning.

He was pronounced dead around 8 morning. . The cause of death has not yet been confirmed.