Fergie's Tech Blog

4 May 1998: UNABOMBER Sentenced to 4 Life Sentences (Plus 30 Years)

On this day in 1998, a federal judge in Sacramento, California, gives "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski four life sentences plus 30 years after Kaczynski accepted a plea agreement sparing him from the death penalty.

Theodore John (Ted) Kaczynski (born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber, is an American terrorist convicted of murder for sending mail bombs to various people over almost eighteen years, killing three and wounding 29. He justified his crimes as a fight against the evils of technological progress. He was the target of the FBI's most expensive manhunt in history.

Before his identity was known, the FBI referred to him as the UNABOM (from "university and airline bomber"). Variants of the code name appeared when the media started using the codename, including Unabomer, Unibomber, and Unabomber.

Kaczynski is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in ADX Florence, the Federal ADX Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

The Labadie Collection, part of the University of Michigan's Special Collection Library, is housing Kaczynski's correspondence from over 400 people since his arrest in April 1996, some of his carbon-copied replies as well as some legal documents, publications, and clippings. The collection is expected to grow. The names of most correspondents will be kept sealed until 2049.

posted by Fergie @ 5/03/2006 10:01:00 PM