Ted Kaczynski, nicknamed "Unabomber" and whose parcel bomb attacks traumatized America between 1978 and 1995, was found dead in his cell at 81, announced Saturday, June 10, US media, citing the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Beginning in 1978 and for 18 years, this Harvard graduate had sent sixteen bombs, concealed in postal packages, to various people and companies, causing a total of three deaths and 23 injuries. After a long hunt, he was arrested in 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998.

According to the New York Times, citing the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was found unconscious in his cell early Saturday morning and the cause of his death was not yet known.

Long held in the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado, known for housing famous prisoners like drug lord El Chapo, he was transferred in 2021 to a correctional health facility in North Carolina.

Sixteen bombs in packages

In the late 1970s in the United States, a mysterious terrorist sent parcel bombs packed with explosives. The first two were aimed at university professors, the third targeted an airliner, while the fourth targeted the president of United Airlines. This earned him the nickname "Unabomber", for "University and Airline Bomber".

A brilliant mathematician, Harvard graduate and hermit, Theodore Kaczynski had embarked on a crusade against progress and technology, making his bombs in a cabin in the mountains of Montana without running water or electricity.

Unabomber's manifesto

In September 1995, promising to stop his bomb shipments, he got the New York Times and the Washington Post to publish a long manifesto in which he expressed a hatred of technology and the modern world.

Reading it, a resident of the east coast of the United States, David Kaczynski, sees a similarity with old writings of his brother Theodore, cut off from his family for years. He then alerted the FBI and allowed his arrest in April 1996.

A diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia did not prevent Theodore Kaczynski from being tried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998.

The series "Manhunt: Unabomber", released in 2017, traces his hunt that lasted several years.

With AFP

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