He was a gifted mathematician. He entered Harvard on scholarship at 16, and in 1967 became the youngest assistant professor of math at Cal Berkley. Two years later, he chucked civilization, built a simple cabin in Montana, and lived without electricity or indoor plumbing. 

   He hunted, gardened and kept to himself. Then in 1978, he began sending bomb packages to people whose work enraged him.

The Una (university, airline targets) bomber was on a roll.

   Ted Kaczynski's 16 bombs killed three and injured 23. The FBI couldn't track him. In 1993 he began writing to newspapers, taunting his victims and threatening others.

   He pretended to be part of an anarchist group. Offering to cease bomb attacks, Kaczynski convinced the New York Times and Washington Post to publish his 35,000-word essay, "Industrial Society and its Future." 

   In it, he slammed the Industrial Revolution, technology, centralized control, and systems harmful to "freedom" and "wild nature." 

 

 There were people who took him seriously.

   Tomorrow: From self reliance to free food and lodging

Smithsonian magazine