Ted Kaczynski was a bright guy who graduated from Harvard University and went on to teach at the University of California, Berkeley at just 25 years old, making him the youngest professor, per History. Just two years after taking the job, he resigned and moved back to his hometown near Chicago, where he lived with his parents.
Then, in the early 1970s Kaczynski moved to Montana. There he lived in a small cabin near Lincoln, Montana, and it was there that he started making bombs. The first mail bomb sent by Kaczynski was in 1978 through the United States Postal Service. Its recipient was Buckley Crist, an engineering professor at Northwestern University. Crist was spared but the package injured a security guard. Several bombs were sent to universities. Then with his fourth, Kaczynski altered course and sent a package to the president of United Airlines.
Kaczynski’s habit of targeting universities and airlines was the basis for his nickname, the Unabomber, stemming from the FBI’s name for the investigations — UNABOM, for university and airline bomber. This was the only name by which the attacker was known for 15 years, though a composite sketch was released of a suspect wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a hoodie, and seen leaving an explosive device in Salt Lake City Utah (via FBI).
