Ted Kaczynski’s Correspondence with Andy

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.

Yours for Wild Nature,
Ted Kaczynski

Q&A

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

Pnobodyknows: 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😸

Pnobodyknows: 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?

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

All_Talk_Ai: How’d he get money

Pnobodyknows: 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?

Pnobodyknows: 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?

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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?

Pnobodyknows: 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

Pnobodyknows: 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

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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!

Pnobodyknows: 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?

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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?

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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.

Pnobodyknows: 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.