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Archive on 4: The Unabomber

The Unabomber

09/04/2016

BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, The Unabomber

How a reclusive maths prodigy terrorised America - and how the media amplified his cause.

Between 1978 and 1995, a reclusive maths prodigy terrorised America. Then the Washington Post published his 35,000 word manifesto - a decision that remains highly controversial.

Twenty years ago the FBI ended their longest-running domestic terrorism investigation with the arrest of the Unabomber, a notorious serial bomber obsessed with technology. It's a story of a devastating fraternal dilemma, a 17-year manhunt and a controversial media decision to publish the bomber's demands.

Between 1978 and 1995, Theodore Kaczynski lived in a remote cabin in rural Montana, from where he planned the downfall of industrial society. A former Harvard scholar and the youngest-ever professor at University of California, Kaczynski was motivated by a desire to punish proponents of technology - from a senior geneticist to a junior computer salesman. 

Kaczynski made 16 bombs that killed three people and injured 23, some severely.

Then, controversially, America's two most prestigious newspapers, on the advice of the FBI, agreed to publish his 35,000-word manifesto - triggering a debate about media ethics that persists to this day. The gamble paid off in a most unexpected way.

Two decades on, as terror dominates the news agenda and we continue to debate the relationship between technology and security, Benjamin Ramm re-visits the extraordinary story of the Unabomber.

Benjamin meets some of the key figures in the hunt for one of America's most wanted - those he hurt, those who knew him and those who tried to capture him. And, alongside media reports of his crimes, we hear some of the words of the Unabomber himself, through excerpts from his extensive notes and writings.


Produced by Rebecca Maxted
A Wise Buddah production for BBC Radio 4.

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