Unmasking the Unabomber

Article Tools

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Kaczynski: Once contact was made with the FBI, I was told by the agents a number of things that led me to believe that the government really appreciated our cooperation, that they too identified Ted as a mentally ill person. I was told a couple of things that I found very reassuring. One was that it was clear from Ted's letters that he was mentally disturbed, and that—considering how much emotional duress he had been in for so long—he might be much, much happier spending the rest of his life in prison than he would be living the way he was. There was no mention of the death penalty at that point.

I was also told by an FBI agent who was a specialist in behavioral sciences that for my own piece of mind, she wanted to let me know Ted did not fully appreciate the harm he was inflicting on others. We talked about Ted as a human being. I definitely had the sense that this investigation was prioritized within the FBI task force, that it was closely monitored from above, and that the agents were representing to me the way the case would be handled—in other words, with gratitude to the family, with some kind of understanding and compassion about my brother's illness. So, when a year and some months later the government announced that it would seek the death penalty, I felt a tremendous violation. I felt they had been dishonest with me.

I think that I am going to be processing my role in this for my whole life. I don't think any of this would have happened without [Linda's] being on the scene. I think I would have found a way to put it in a drawer and not look at it just because it was so painful, so frightening. A big part of this process for me was a fundamental trust in Linda and in our relationship. I trusted that we were together in this, and our wrestling with it was deeply respectful to each other. Without the trust I felt in her, or the respect I felt she had for me and my love for my brother, I never could have begun to go through with it.

Adapted from the Journal of Family Life (Vol. 4, No. 3). Subscriptions: $24/yr. (4 issues) from 72 Philip St., Albany, NY 12202. E-mail: jflmag@aol.com.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print