They Call It Luddite Love

Laura Woodswalker — a pseudonym for a 45-year-old Pennsylvania woman who would only “speak” to us via the Internet — admits to feeling a strong “emotional identification” with Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabom suspect, but denies she’s in love. “My interest is purely platonic,” she writes. O.K., but it sounds fairly torrid. Woodswalker, who agrees with many of the Unabomber’s anti-industrial-society views (even though, like many Unabuffs, she’s a computer user), has written short stories about Kaczynski and has sent him several letters with self-addressed stamped envelopes. (No reply.) Her husband isn’t pleased. “[He] resents me spending my time writing Internet postings,” she admits, “that ‘glorify a serial killer.’”

But then, why shouldn’t she? In our notoriety-addled times, it seems that every major criminal defendant attracts groupies — most recently Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, who inspired puppy-love outbursts from teen-age Israeli girls. With Kaczynski, though, the appeal usually seems to begin and end with his Luddite mind. Another typical example of infatuation is the Unabomber Political Action Committee, a Boston-based group that is pushing the Unabomber for President. Chris Korda, a campaign worker and member of a related group called the Church of Euthanasia, is completely serious. For him, the Unabomber’s appeal comes from his theoretically strict rumblings about mankind-as-pox. (The church’s slogan is “Save the Planet — Kill Yourself.”)

As for Woodswalker, she says she’ll stand by her guarded feelings, even though she’s taking heat at home and on the Net. “People say nasty things about me,” she complains. Such persecution only puts her more in touch. “This must have been how Ted felt,” she says. “What drove him to be like he was.”