'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, 81, Dies In NC Prison: Report

NORTH CAROLINA — Theodore “Ted" Kaczynski, branded as the "Unabomber" by the FBI, has died in federal prison, according to reports. He was 81.

Kaczynski died at a medical facility in North Carolina, where he was moved in December 2021 due to health issues, ABC News reported. He was previously held at a maximum security facility in Colorado.

By late Saturday night, ABC reported that his death was being investigated as a suicide.

Kaczynski was found unresponsive in his cell early Saturday morning and was pronounced dead around 8 a.m. His cause of death is unknown.

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In 1998, Kaczynski was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge. He admitted to committing 16 bombings between 1978 and 1995, killing three people and injuring 23 others.

Years before the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax mailing, the Unabomber’s deadly homemade bombs changed the way Americans mailed packages and boarded airplanes, even virtually shutting down air travel on the West Coast in July 1995.

After The Washington Post and The New York Times were forced to publish his 35,000-word manifesto in September 1995, Kaczynski's brother and sister-in-law recognized the writer's tone and tipped off the FBI to his identity.

In April 1996, authorities found him in a 10-by-14-foot plywood and tarpaper cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, that was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients, and two completed bombs.

Kaczynski was born in Evergreen Park in 1942. Described as a shy boy who spent much of his childhood indoors reading science magazines, he graduated from Evergreen Park High School at age 16 before attending Harvard University.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Patch editor Ellyn Santiago contributed reporting.