Ted Kaczynski’s Correspondence with Andy

Letter from Ted to Andy #1 — Unknown Date

Dear Mr. [REDACTED]

Morethan two months ago I sent you a letter in response to your letter to me …

This shows the prison staff never delivered the letter … you would hardly believe the level of dishonesty, incompetence, and deliberate indifference to prisoners’ constitutional rights that the Bureau of Prisons has reached in recent years.

So I’ll try again. I hope my letter will reach you this time, though I’m not sending it as certified mail, because of the expense.

Letter from Ted to Andy #2 — December 27, 2021

... about what the media might do if they were to get hold of the news of my impending death.

If you haven’t done so already, you might want to read my books Technological Slavery and Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, which you can get from the publisher at www.fitchmadison.com or from amazon.com.

Wishing you the best now and forever, I remain

Q&A

bruhdudeTM: May I ask why you exchange letters with him?

Andy: I used to rehabilitate wildlife (mostly opossums and racoons) and I did an interview for a local newspaper which published the interview in an article. I guess Ted read the article and wrote me a letter saying he admired my work. We ended up talking back and forth for over a decade up until his recent death. We became pretty close and I was the last person to speak to him before he died with the exception of his attorney and girlfriend.

Ok_Birthday_8951: See this, folks? Even the Unabomber had a girlfriend… so what’s your excuse fellas😸

Andy: Yeah they dated for years lol. Every year before her birthday he’d write me a letter telling me what birthday present to buy her on Amazon (always a book) and I’d order it and have it shipped to her.

I always thought it was ironic that a guy who was so against technology, computers and the internet would specifically ask me to order stuff on Amazon.

All_Talk_Ai: You just bought his stuff ? He didn’t pay you for it?

Andy: Yes I was paid once a year through his attorney

All_Talk_Ai: How’d he get money

Andy: I’m not 100% sure. I know his books sell a ton of copies. One of his best friends is his attorney/book publisher. I’m pretty sure they had some type of sneaky work around where Ted signed the rights to his book over to his Attorney/publisher and that keeps his victims from being able to sue him because he technically doesn’t own the rights. Then his attorney just buys him everything with the money from his books.

Thats the situation from what I gathered.

I know he’s not allowed to speak to anyone on the phone in prison with the exception of his attorney. So he just listed his friend as his attorney (I think he’s a real attorney but im not 100% sure) and then he gets to BS on the phone with his buddy for an hour a week or however long it is. Since its his attorney the prison isn’t allowed to listen to the conversations either so they can talk about crazy stuff and scheme lmao

All_Talk_Ai: So interesting. Why didn’t he just get his attorney to buy the stuff then?

So I have a question and im not judging but I know lots of people are. Do you feel like he deserved to have you as a friend?

I mean he’s a monster. Do you think he doesn’t blow that building up if you were in it? What if your mom/dad someone you care about was a victim how would that change your previous answer?

Idk the answer to those questions but im curious to how you feel about it now you’ve got to know the guy.

mambiki: Are you sure you’re not confusing unabomber with Oklahoma City bomber?

Andy: To be fair he did some monstruous things. He contemplated murdering a young boy before changing his mind. He put a bomb on an airplane filled with hundreds of innocent men, women and children but it didn’t go off by some fluke. Most of the people he killed were completely innocent. One of the guys he killed was just sone guy who owned a computer store. He could have went after corrupt politicians or judges or even oil executives or something but he didn’t. He just mostly killed normal everyday people. I don’t even really believe that he necessarily committed his crimes to bring attention to his manifesto. I think he was just angry at the world and wanted to get some kind of revenge on society and then realized after a certain point that he could use it to get his message out. It had nothing to do with society crumbling because of technology. He just wanted to kill people and then tried to make it about politics after the fact.

flipflopsnpolos: Has your friendship with him affected you in any way? Does it come up in background checks? Have you been able to be approved for TSA Precheck/Global Entry/etc?

Andy: I mean it’s not illegal to write somone in jail. Everything sent to him is read and cataloged so as long as you don’t say craxy extreme shit you’ll be fine

phillyfanjd1: Do you happen to remember which books? Was it his books he was asking you to send to her? It’s a fascinating question of which books the Unabomber’s girlfriend was reading.

Andy: I’d have to dig through the letters first but i remember the last book he asked me to send her was called “The Female Brain” by Luann Brizendine. I think the book is basically about how women think differently than men because of all the different hormones they have in their brain lol

rodrigo34891: Did you ever go and visit him?

Andy: No. His prison didn’t allow visits and he was only allowed very rare telephone calls. I was only able to speak to him over the phone after he was transferred to a prison hospital near the end of his life.

mantellaaurantiaca: Can you post more letters? Or summarize others? I find it interesting, thanks for sharing by the way

Andy: I’m not sure if this subbreddit allows pictures in the comments do I’d have to make a different post. He wasn’t really allowed to talk about his crimes directly in detail but he was very interested in poetry and Shakespeare in particular. His favorite non fiction book that he read the most in prison was called “Horace Kepharts Classic Book of Camping and Woodcraft” his favorite quote from the book was:

“To the multitude, whether city or country bred, the bare ideas of faring alone in the wilds for days or weeks at a time is eerie and fantastic: it makes their flesh creep. He who does so is certainly an eccentric, probably a misanthrope, possibly a fugitive from justice, or, likely enough, some moonstruck fellow whom authorities would do well to follow up and watch.”

Sorry there was a lot more to the quote that is too long to type out. I’m sure if you Google it you can find the rest. He first read that book when he was 16 and it was what first inspired him to leave society and go live in the forrest.

I could dig through the letters and look for interesting ones if you want. He quoted a lot of poetry and books. The most interesting thing he ever sent me was a letter talking about a convict who was housed in the cell across the hall. There was a domestic terrorist named Tim McVeigh who blew up the Oklahoma City building and murdered a lot of innocent people. Ted became very good friends with him while they were housed together and he transcribed all of their conversations. They debated and discussed all kinds of things like philosophy and morality.

One interesting fact is Ted gave Tim a note before he was moved to be executed and that had a poem on it called “invictus”. Tim was so moved by the Poem that he actually recited part of it as his last words.

Here’s the Invictus poem:

bacon_farts_420: Man thank you for sharing… so interesting. Wasn’t he a bit notorious for denying most interviews? It must be a pretty weird feeling that you have more time with this person than all of the press combined

Andy: He did deny interviews but that’s because he did a very long interview after he was first arrested and he felt that giving more interviews would be redundant as he felt like he had already said everything he wanted to say.

nobleskies: Poor Ted. The US Government fucked him up so badly.

Andy: Yeah they did. Honestly his victims should be able to sue the federal government for contributing to his crimes.

TheAwesomeAtom: Wait, you were the Unabomber’s best friend? I want an AMA!

Andy: Definitely a close friend but definitely not his best friend. He was extremely close to his attorney/book publisher. He talked to him more than anyone else by far.

Atoms_Named_Mike: You gave the unabomber your address?

Andy: No. He got it from his attorney. Also he was in the most secure prison on earth so why would it matter?

ineedt0move: Fascinating. Do you have a link to the article that you wrote? I understand it was a while back..you didn’t say how long ago. It may not be something I could access online..but if so I’d love to read it.

Andy: It was a long time ago. Probably around 2012.

I didn’t write the article I was just interviewed for an article about wildlife rehabilitation and how wildlife centers get almost no government money because all the goverment money is given to shelters who only care for domestic animals like cats and dogs.

So most wildlife center who care for native wildlife get absolutely nothing as far as government funding and rely completely on public donations.

Its very sad and frustrating when a beautiful native animal like a great horned owl or fox have to get put down because of lack of funding because all the money is spent on spaying or neutering 10,000 feral cats a month that are destroying natural wildlife and don’t belong in the wild to begin with.

BerIsBeast: That’s incredibly interesting. Based on this note, he seems to be a bit peculiar and perhaps someone that has autism or Asperger’s. I am of course assuming a ton here but I would like to know if he was pleasant in your interactions? He seems very intelligent and not a bit hostile in this letter.

Edit: aside from starting sentences with conjunctions.

Andy: He was extremely pleasant and thoughtful. He would constantly send me things that he read and thought I’d like. He’d always say things like “I was reading this book and read this part and thought of you”. He’d always send a letter on every holiday without fail and always seemed genuinely interested and concerned about me. I could go on and on. I remember something he said one time that was very revealing in regards to his personality. He told me once that “the things I need the most are the things im most afraid of” (human interaction and love).

He also absolutely adored his brother. He talked about his brother constantly and clearly missed him. His brother turning him in was definitely more upsetting to him than being in jail. He talked about his brother as if he was two completely separate and distinct people.

The brother who turned him in was a complete monster who he hated but his brother from his youth was his best friend and hero who he loved more than anyone. He never allowed the one brother to contaminate or corrupt the idea of the other.

It was literally like they were two separate people to him. It was extremely sad.

bubbajack8: Have you considered writing a book with his collection of letters and what you learned about him through your communication?

Andy: I signed a release for his publisher to use some of my letters in an upcoming book but that was two years ago and I haven’t heard anything since

Dry_Jellyfish641: I’d buy this off of you. You got a letter from a guy who sent mail bombs who was complaining about prison staff not mailing his letters.

Andy: There’s a website thats selling one of his letters with an envelope for $1700. But that honestly seems excessive. I’d probably sell the one on this post for $700

Dry_Jellyfish641: Was he writing you from Butner or from AdMax in Florence, CO? I see 2 envelopes.

Andy: The letter I posted came from ADX Florence. I was going to originally posts two different letters but changed my mind and didn’t feel like taking another picture without the other envelope.

GlitteringHousing3: You can’t just say you have transcripts of the conversations between the Unabomber and OKC bomber and not post them!

Derelictirl: He didn’t say he has them.

Andy: I have about a dozen of their conversations transcribed but most are edited by Ted and kind of hard to understand because they are inserted into a letter he wrote to me so the context can be confusing. I do have about three of their conversations in full but they are extremely long conversations probably 20–30 pages with almost no spaces and the pages are covered front and back. Maybe I’ll post them on imigur but there’s zero chance of me posting all that shit. If someone wants to transcribe the whole thing I could send them copies but I’m not gonna do it lol.

leftoverrpizzza: He was experimented on in a mind control study when he was a like 16 at Harvard

BerIsBeast: Any good source on that?

Vik_Stryker: It references it on Wikipedia. Kaczynski says that the experiment had no significant impact on his life.

Andy: It 100% had a profound impact. He would obviously never admit it though because his biggest fear was to be seen as crazy. He wanted people to take him and his beliefs seriously. Its silly to even suggest that it wouldn’t impact him. He’s still responsible for his actions but I’m willing to bet he wouldn’t have become the Unabomber if that experiment never happened.

Annabelle-Surely: I’m most interested in the exact conspiracy theory he believed in. I know he read the book behold a pale horse, did he become obsessed with it and was his conspiracy the exact, entire, behold a pale horse conspiracy? Or, did he have a huge pile of different conspiracy books? Can you say what his own conspiracy belief was?

Andy: This is the first I’m hearing about this conspiracy theory or the book. I’m not saying he didn’t believe it but he never spoke to me about it and I highly doubt he was obsessed with it. The only thing he ever shared with me that would border on conspiracy theory is the treatment of Tim McVeigh by the prison system.

Ted became good friends with Tim McVeigh while they were in prison together are were housed beside each other. They spoke and debated all kinds of topics like morality, philosophy and their personal beliefs on the US government. Ted was EXTREMELY fastidious and transposed all his conversation he had with everyone including Tim.

Ted became very suspicious of the way Tim was treated in the prison. He had visitors at all hours of the night and was allowed to walk with the guards without restraints AFTER lock down to different rooms on the prison. He also found it odd that someone who supposedly hated the US government as much as Timothy McVeigh would be so friendly and casual with people who clearly worked for 3 letter agencies.

He eventually sent me the transcripts of their conversations but was only able to do it through his attorney because the letters kept getting confiscated at the post office. There’s a lot more to the story involving the government trying to intimidate me that I’ll touch on when the AMA actually starts.

Annabelle-Surely: Can you say anything about what McVeigh believed?

Andy: The transcripts I was sent are extremely dense. (Hundreds of double sided pages)

Shorty after Ted died I was told by his attorney that the transcripts were being sorted through and being made into a book containing a lot of the correspondence Ted had while in prison. This was either right before or right after Ted died so its been a few years and I’d imagine it will be released soon.

There’s also a 60 minutes interview that Tim did before he was executed that’s heavily edited but still worth watching.

There’s also a YouTube channel that I’m a huge fan of called “Forgotten History” that made a series on Timothy Mcveigh. It goes into extreme detail and discusses things that you’ll never hear from mainstream media.

MyGruffaloCrumble: Did you read his manifesto? Did he continue to fully believe in it, and how did he respond to the crazy stuff he actually predicted coming true? Did he have remorse for those he hurt?

Andy: Yes. He sent me a copy of his book. He absolutely believed in it even though in my opinion his killings had nothing to do with his political beliefs.

It’s my opinion that he was just bitter and wanted to kill people and then after a while he realized he could use the publicity he was getting from the murders to bring attention to his political beliefs.

The first two people he considered killing was a woman that he knew when he was a teenager and a small boy that lived on the property that bordered his cabin. It had nothing to do with politics. I will admit I think his views on technology and its effects on our society are completely correct but this whole revisionist idea that he was some kind of antihero is insane.

adawk5000: Did he have any opinions on MK Ultra?

Andy: Yes. It was an EXTREMELY sensitive subject for him.

Teds biggest fear was being perceived as crazy.

So he would never admit that it had any influence on his beliefs or behavior. He would always downplay it but it was clear that he was very bitter about it. It’s one of the reasons why he got along with Timothy mcveigh so easily. They both hated the intelligence community for legitimate and justified reasons. He never spoke to me much about it but he discussed it with Tim McVeigh on multiple occasions

adawk5000: Whoa! I wasn’t expecting a response. Thank you!

For those that don’t know, Ted Kaczynski participated in a psychological study at Harvard University run by Dr. Henry Murray that was later connected to the CIA’s Project MK-Ultra. It’s my personal opinion that played a significant role in his future actions and crimes, but it’s just a theory.

I completely forgot about him being in prison with McVeigh! There were a few other bombers at the same prison at that time if I remember correctly. I mean I have to ask did he have any in depth conversations with McVeigh about the OKC bombing that he relayed to you? I’m also convinced there was a larger conspiracy behind that event.

Andy: I already made a comment on this post about Tim McVeigh and the very strange way Tim was treated in prison which you can read on the bottom of this page.

They discussed both of their crimes in extreme detail as well as tons of other stuff. Ted transposed every conversation he had with anyone in EXTREME detail word for word. Every conversation he had with Tim was documented and after a lot of hassle their entire correspondence was sent to me through his attorney. Its incredibly dense. Hundreds of pages.

Shortly after Ted died I was told by his attorney that a book was being written that will contain most of their interesting conversations but Its been a few years and I haven’t heard anything about it since.

There’s such an overwhelming amount of information in the transcripts that I just put it away in storage.

IwanPetrowitsch: Did he ever reflect himself in the letters? Like did he ever talk about his social status and how he was not accepted and how this maybe turned him towards hatred against society instead of the inherent dysfunctionality of it?

Andy: Ted and his brother both dreamed of living alone in the wilderness since childhood. They were supposed to live in a cabin together but his brother got married so Ted had to go himself. They were both obsessed with a book called:

“Horace Kepharts Classic Book of Camping and Woodcraft”

It was a camping and wilderness survival book that they read when they were children and it’s where Ted got the idea of living alone in the wilderness. Even in prison Ted read it constantly.

his favorite quote from the book was:

“To the multitude, whether city or country bred,the bare ideas of faring alone in the wilds for days or weeks at a time is eerie and fantastic: it makes their flesh creep. He who does so is certainly an eccentric, probably a misanthrope, possibly a fugitive from justice, or, likely enough, some moonstruck fellow whom authorities would do well to follow up and watch.”

So the idea that the MK Ultra program is why he ran away isn’t completely true. He was always planning to run away

FaithlessnessTop1505: What specifically about your work rehabilitating animals interested him? Was he interested in conservation?

Andy: I was interviewed by a newspaper and spoke about how all the state and federal funding that’s given to take care of wildlife is split between all animal shelters including shelters for domestic cats and dogs. So wildlife sanctuaries that care for native and endangered wildlife receive basically nothing because all the money is spent on cats and dogs. Most wildlife sanctuaries survive completely on donations and mostly donations by the volunteers who work at the sanctuaries. I love cats and dogs but I argued that native and endangered wildlife should be given number one priority over domestic animal shelters when it comes to federal and state funding. Ted read the article and sent me a letter telling me he really liked what I said.

Friendly_Arm3738: Did he ever talk ideology when around you?

Andy: Yes. But there’s nothing ideology wise that he shared with me that isn’t publicly available in his books