Claim: Ted Kaczynski excelled academically.

Theodore John Kaczynski -LRB- -LSB- kəˈzɪnski -RSB- born May 22 , 1942 -RRB- , also known as the `` Unabomber '' , is an American serial killer , domestic terrorist , and self-professed anarchist . A mathematical prodigy , he abandoned a promising academic career in 1969 , then between 1978 and 1995 killed three people , and injured 23 others , in a nationwide bombing campaign targeting people involved with modern technology . In conjunction with this campaign he issued a wide-ranging social critique opposing industrialization and modern technology , and advancing a nature-centered form of anarchism .   Kaczynski was born and raised in Evergreen Park , Illinois . While growing up in Evergreen Park he was a child prodigy , excelling academically from an early age . Kaczynski was accepted into Harvard University at the age of 16 , where he earned an undergraduate degree . He subsequently earned a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan . He became an assistant professor at the University of California , Berkeley in 1967 at age 25 . He resigned two years later .   As a Harvard undergraduate , Kaczynski was among twenty-two students who were research subjects in ethically questionable experiments conducted by psychology professor Henry Murray from late 1959 to early 1962 .   In 1971 , he moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water in Lincoln , Montana , where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills in an attempt to become self-sufficient . Seventeen years after beginning his mail bomb campaign , Kaczynski sent a letter to The New York Times on April 24 , 1995 and promised `` to desist from terrorism '' if the Times or The Washington Post published his manifesto , Industrial Society and Its Future -LRB- the `` Unabomber Manifesto '' -RRB- , in which he argued that his bombings were extreme but necessary to attract attention to the erosion of human freedom necessitated by modern technologies requiring large-scale organization .   The Unabomber was the target of one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation 's costliest investigations . Before Kaczynski 's identity was known , the FBI used the title `` UNABOM '' -LRB- UNiversity & Airline BOMber -RRB- to refer to his case , which resulted in the media calling him the Unabomber . The FBI -LRB- as well as Attorney General Janet Reno -RRB- pushed for the publication of Kaczynski 's `` Manifesto '' , which led to his sister-in-law , and then his brother , recognizing Kaczynski 's style of writing and beliefs from the manifesto , and tipping off the FBI . Kaczynski tried unsuccessfully to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers because they wanted to plead insanity in order to avoid the death penalty , as Kaczynski did not believe he was insane . When it became clear that his pending trial would entail national television exposure for Kaczynski , the court entered a plea agreement , under which he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole . He has been designated a `` domestic terrorist '' by the FBI . Some anarcho-primitivist authors , such as John Zerzan and John Moore , have come to his defense , while also holding some reservations about his actions and ideas .