In the 1980s, Hugh Scrutton he ran a business that by then could have been an idea straight out of a science fiction novel. In Sacramento, California, he ran a store where he rented computers, an industry that was just beginning to flourish with the technological developments of the time.
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On December 1, 1985, Scrutton, 38, went to work like any other day at his store, but on that date he found a strange box that looked like garbage abandoned in the parking lot of the establishment.
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As he bent down to pick it up, the inside of the package exploded in his hands, blasting into the air the shrapnel made of small steel nails that was meticulously assembled in the box. bomb package.
The fledgling computer entrepreneur had been “blown to pieces,” as he coldly described afterward. Theodore Kaczyński in his diary upon learning that his “bomb” had killed Scrutton. Although Kaczynski had been sowing terror in the United States for eight years with the package bombs that he sent by mail, Scrutton became his first fatality in 1985.
Kaczynskia mathematical gifted with a high IQ, between 1978 and 1996 he launched an entire crusade in the United States to end everything that had to do with technology, blaming it for “dehumanize” and “enslave” to humanity. All his victims during those long 18 years were people related to that world: scientists, astronauts, executives, geneticists, among other professions.
He was the most careful serial bomber anyone had ever seen
Hence his fixation on Scrutton, who had also studied mathematics at university and at that time was dealing with those disruptive artifacts that were revolutionizing the time.
unabomber -as the authorities baptized this serial killer- perpetrated 16 attacks with bomb packagestime in which he murdered three people and wounded and mutilated another 23. His name remained anonymous for almost two decades due to the meticulous way in which he sent his explosive devices and the few clues he left when committing the crimes.
In addition, Kaczynski lived off the radar of the authorities, after spending his days cloistered in a remote and small cabin in an uninhabited and lonely region of Montana, where he had no light or power, and from where he designed his explosives with scrap metal. that was found His particular life as a hermit and the way in which he committed his attacks cost the FBI -by that time- the most expensive hunt and criminal search in its history.
It was then, in 1995, when the Unabomber left a loose end that the authorities were able to take advantage of to arrest one of the most feared serial killers in history months later. Today, Kaczynski is serving four life sentences in ADX Florence, a maximum-security federal prison that houses the worst criminals in USA.
The mind behind the Unabomber
The history Theodore Kaczyński It has been the subject of numerous films and television series. His extensive academic preparation, the way in which he eluded the authorities for two decades and his open and declared war against technology are still topics today to talk about what is behind his criminal mind.
One of the aspects that most caught the attention of researchers and reporters of the time was his particular lifestyle. Out of town, unabomber he lived for decades secluded in the mountains of the state of Montana with limited contact with other human beings.
His own fecal matter was used as fertilizer in his garden, and the few people who had contact with him during that time described him wearing dirty overalls or pants, according to a 1996 Washington Post article.
“Like Kaczynski himself, the cabin looked rough and wild on the outside; garbage cans were overflowing with waste and beer cans were scattered around the patio, ”says that medium. It was in this particular environment that he wrote his well-known manifesto ‘Industrial society and its future’, which was a “declaration of war” against industrialized society and technology.
“The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life expectancy of those of us who live in ‘advanced’ countries, but they have destabilized society, they have made life unsatisfactory”, reads the 35,000-word text that was sent in 1995 to the editorial offices of The Washington Post and The New York Times For publication.
According to press reports and authorities at the time, at least three psychiatrists who interviewed the Unabomber when he was captured concluded that he “suffers from grandiose fantasies and the delusional rage of a paranoid schizophrenic in deep denial.” His obsession with destroying technology led him to commit the 16 attacks with his explosive devices.
Thus, in fact, Andrés Cavalier remembers him, who was a correspondent for EL TIEMPO in the United States during the 1990s and who broke the news in the pages of this newspaper in 1996 when the Unabomber was finally captured.
“Many years have passed, but I remember that this serial killer, in particular, allowed many years to pass between each shipment of bombs, which is why he was on the loose for a long time. His profile was very particular because he was a person who was educated at Harvard. His sending of bombs through the postal system was also unusual, ”says Cavalier.
And he adds that something that is striking about his case is that “he had the ability to isolate himself from the world and survive for years isolated from society and survive literally disappeared from the face of the earth, something totally contrary to today, when we live so hyper-communicated”.
The Unabomber had a wide impact because he created the possibility to attack at any time. In addition, the Americans love his postal service very much, which was where he sent his packages
But perhaps it was his ‘modus-operandi’ that most terrified the United States at the time was the sending of his package bombs through the country’s postal system, a service much loved and used by citizens.
This is how the anthropologist and writer Esteban Cruz explains it: “The Unabomber had a wide impact because he created the possibility of attacking at any moment. In addition, Americans love their postal service very much, which was where they sent their packages.”
But although the postal system was his “favorite way” to terrorize, this serial killer also managed to send one of his package bombs on a plane. In fact, on November 15, 1979, one of the explosive devices exploded in the cargo hold of a plane during an American Airlines flight, injuring 12 people and forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
In an article published on the FBI website in 2021, special agents who participated in the hunt for the Unabomber said that despite the fact that the criminal had been active for two decades, “the Unabomber was meticulous in leaving no evidence that could trace him.”
“He was the most careful serial bomber anyone had ever seen,” said Special Agent Kathleen Puckett, who worked on the Unabomber task force and led efforts to profile the bomber.
What finally brought about his downfall was precisely the manifesto he sent to the well-known media outlets of the Times and the Post. The document was the beginning of the end for him, as his only brother, David, recognized the way Kaczynski wrote, which gave authorities clues to his whereabouts.
“Sure enough, a few months after the manifesto was released, an attorney representing David Kaczynski called the FBI. He provided them with a 23-page essay that the brother of his client, Theodore Kaczynski, wrote in 1971. The agent who first read it immediately noticed similarities, ”explains the FBI.
After doing the grammatical analysis of the way he wrote, the authorities finally found the remote rustic cabin in Montana after having interviewed thousands of suspects, followed hundreds of wrong leads and even consulted clairvoyants. The arrest put an end to one of the most costly and exhausting criminal cases that the federal bureau has faced.
“The Unabomber could have been a great scientist. I think it is a reflection of how our society, especially the North American, does not usually attend to people who have mental conflicts in time, and many of their skills are wasted,” says Cruz.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
TIME
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