Podcast Episode Details
Back to Podcast EpisodesTed Kaczynski AKA The Unabomber (Part One)
Possessing a 167 IQ, admitted to Harvard University at age 16, a uniquely talented mathematician, this former Berkeley college professor became the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history.
As a youngster, Ted did develop a precocious interest in reading, math and science, his mother reading to him articles from Scientific American that he could comprehend by the time he was six. He excelled in grade school but even at this young age was determined to avoid contact with others, usually spending time by himself in his room with the door shut, especially when visitors came to his home.
Kaczynski moved on to Evergreen Park Community High School. On paper, he might have seemed to be the model student. He joined the school band playing the trombone, and became a member of the math, coin, biology and German clubs. Classmates described him as the smartest kid in his class. But his inability to fit in socially and his self imposed isolation from any normal high school activities like sock hops and athletic events underlined his almost stereotypical profile as the quintessential nerd, complete with glasses, pencil pocket protector, slight physical stature, and painfully shy personality.
Ted Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Theodore, Ted, Sr. spent much of his adult working life as a sausage maker in a factory owned by a relative.