Ted Kaczynski Biography: Age, Cause of Death, Family, Net Worth

Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist.

Ted Kaczynski Cause of Death

Following his conviction, Theodore Kaczynski was sent to ADX Florence, a maximum-security prison in Florence, Colorado, where he began serving his eight life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Early in his imprisonment, Kaczynski befriended Ramzi Yousef and Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, respectively. The trio discussed religion and politics and formed a friendship that lasted until McVeigh’s execution in 2001.

In October 2005, Kaczynski offered to donate two rare books to the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston, Illinois, the location of his first two attacks. The Library rejected the offer on the grounds that it already had copies of the works.

The Labadie Collection, part of the University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library, houses Kaczynski’s correspondence with over 400 people since his arrest, including replies, legal documents, publications, and clippings. His writings are among the most popular selections in the University of Michigan’s special collections.

The identity of most correspondents will remain sealed until 2049. In 2012, Kaczynski responded to the Harvard Alumni Association’s directory inquiry for the fiftieth reunion of the class of 1962; he listed his occupation as “prisoner” and his eight life sentences as “awards.”

In 2011, it was reported that Kaczynski was a person of interest in the Chicago Tylenol murders. Kaczynski was willing to provide a DNA sample to the FBI, but later withheld it as a bargaining chip for his legal efforts against the FBI’s private auction of his confiscated property.

The U.S. government seized Kaczynski’s cabin, which they put on display at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., until late 2019, before it was transferred to a nearby FBI museum.

On December 14, 2021, Kaczynski was transferred from the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, to the Federal Medical Center, Butner, North Carolina, for health reasons. In January 2022, he stated in a letter that like his father, he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and given less than a year to live. During the mid-morning of June 10, 2023, prison staff discovered Kaczynski unresponsive in his North Carolina cell; he was pronounced dead upon being transported to a nearby hospital.

Ted Kaczynski Age

At the time of his death, he was 81 years old.

Ted Kaczynski Family

His parents are Theodore Richard Kaczynski and Wanda Dombek.

Ted Kaczynski Career

Born on May 22, 1942, he gained notoriety for his nationwide mail bombing campaign between 1978 and 1995, targeting individuals he believed were contributing to the advancement of technology and the destruction of the environment.

Kaczynski’s actions resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to 23 others. Alongside his criminal activities, he authored a manifesto titled “Industrial Society and Its Future,” advocating for a nature-centered form of anarchism and criticizing industrialization and leftism.

Kaczynski’s academic journey began when he enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1962. He completed his master’s and doctoral degrees in mathematics in 1964 and 1967, respectively. Although initially aiming for postgraduate education at other institutions, Kaczynski accepted an offer from the University of Michigan, which provided him with financial support and a teaching position. During his time at Michigan, Kaczynski specialized in complex analysis, specifically focusing on geometric function theory. His professors described him as an exceptional student, driven by a relentless pursuit of mathematical truth.

In 1967, Ted Kaczynski’s dissertation, titled “Boundary Functions,” was awarded the Sumner B. Myers Prize for the best mathematics dissertation of the year at the University of Michigan. His work received high praise from his advisor and other members of his dissertation committee. Following his time at Michigan, Kaczynski served as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he taught mathematics. However, his teaching evaluations suggested that he was not well-liked by his students, and he abruptly resigned in 1969, leaving colleagues and superiors surprised by his decision.

After leaving Berkeley, Ted Kaczynski returned to his parents’ home in Lombard, Illinois, before eventually settling in a remote cabin he had built near Lincoln, Montana, in 1971. Embracing a minimalist and self-sufficient lifestyle, he lived without electricity or running water, relying on odd jobs for income and receiving financial support from his family.

Ted Kaczynski’s cabin, described as modest, contained essential furnishings such as a bed, chairs, storage trunks, a gas stove, and a substantial collection of books. He led a solitary existence, occasionally using an old bicycle to travel to town and often spending time at the local library, where he immersed himself in reading classic works in their original languages.

Following his capture in 1996, Ted Kaczynski’s mathematical work was assessed by experts who concluded that his subfield had largely progressed beyond his contributions. Had he continued his career in mathematics, it is believed that he might have shifted his focus to other areas as the conjectures in his original field had already been proven.