Unabomber profile: smart, mid-aged loner

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man whose Montana home was searched after relatives suspected he might be the Unabomber fits the psychological profile investigators drew up to help them identify the elusive killer.

The bomber, thought responsible for three deaths and 23 injuries during a 17-year bombing spree, is believed to be a white male of middle age, meticulous and antisocial. He is also thought to be well-educated and take great pride in his destructive art.

The man taken into custody yesterday in Montana, identified as Ted John Kaczynski, is a former University of California at Berkeley assistant math professor who graduated from Harvard at the age of 20. He is white, late middle-aged and neighbors described him as a hermit.

Kaczynski was taken into custody so he would not interfere with the search of his home, but he was not placed under arrest.

“He does seem to fit the profile,” San Francisco State University criminology professor Michael Rustigan, who has followed the case closely, said yesterday.

“(The Unabomber) is perhaps the most intellectual serial killer the nation has ever produced, much different from the sexual sadists, the Ted Bundys, die Dahmers, the Night Stalkers,” Rustigan added.

Manifesto

One of the most obvious clues to the Unabomber’s intelligence was the 35,000-word manifesto entitled “Industrial Society and Its Future” that he mailed to several media organizations last summer.

It showed him to have specialized knowledge of certain bodies of academic work. For example, it mentions a relatively obscure historian of crime and urbanization, Roger Lane of Pennsylvania’s Haverford College.

The document also appeared to be fairly well organized, filled with quotations and citations. But while it was thoughtful, the logic often seemed immature and he made jumps and connections that were not readily apparent to other people, according to postal inspector Don Davis.

Wood fixation

Agents also were looking into whether the bomber is a health or environmental fanatic because he appeared to have a fixation on wood. Some of his bombs are made of wood or boxed in wood and many of the return addresses he used when he mailed them also mentioned wood.

One of his victims, advertising executive Thomas Mosser, lived on Aspen Drive. Another, then-United Airlines President Percy Wood, lived in Lake Forest. The phony return addresses on the bombs included Ravenswood and Forest Glen Road.

Pride in work

His bombs are not exotic but he takes obvious pride in his work. He could easily buy the electrical switches he uses. Instead, he painstakingly builds them himself.

When the hellish devices are built, the bomber polishes them carefully.

In the beginning, the Unabomber was casual about delivering his bombs. He mailed some, but placed a few personally in parking lots, classrooms and stores.

When he tried that approach in Salt Lake City, though, he was spotted and a composite drawing flashed across the nation.

That apparently frightened him. He was not heard from for six years and when he resumed his bombings in 1993, he made sure to mail them.

Rural surprise

The only surprise to Rustigan is that a suspect was traced to Montana. He would never have expected the Unabomber to move to such a rural location.

“He’s a university type of guy. He’s got an academic-type ego,” Rustigan said. “He’s not the kind of guy to shrink into obscurity in rural Montana. He’s an urbane type.”