Possessing a 167 IQ, admitted to Harvard University at age 16, a uniquely talented mathematician, this former Berkeley college professor became the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history.
Ted’s high school yearbook photo.
As a youngster, Ted did develop a precocious interest in reading, math and science, his mother reading to him articles from Scientific American that he could comprehend by the time he was six. He excelled in grade school but even at this young age was determined to avoid contact with others, usually spending time by himself in his room with the door shut, especially when visitors came to his home.
Math Club in high school, second from left, standing.
Kaczynski moved on to Evergreen Park Community High School. On paper, he might have seemed to be the model student. He joined the school band playing the trombone, and became a member of the math, coin, biology and German clubs. Classmates described him as the smartest kid in his class. But his inability to fit in socially and his self imposed isolation from any normal high school activities like sock hops and athletic events underlined his almost stereotypical profile as the quintessential nerd, complete with glasses, pencil pocket protector, slight physical stature, and painfully shy personality.
With Ted, Sr. and David.
Ted Kaczynski was born on May 22, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Theodore, Ted, Sr. spent much of his adult working life as a sausage maker in a factory owned by a relative.
The 1994 composite that intrigued the nation.
The most distinct aspect of this particular attack was that, for the first time, an eyewitness observed the Unabomber in the act. An FBI sketch artist immediately put together a composite that was deemed unsatisfactory. Then a freelance artist was hired to try again. Both of these sketches were only used on a local Sacramento and very limited national basis, the FBI still insisting on not publicizing a potential serial bomber. The secretary also continually maintained that the two original sketches did not really resemble the man she saw. It would not be until 1994, when public awareness was already rampant and the FBI, still no closer to solving the case and knowing that the sketches they had were inaccurate, that a third sketch was developed and released, this time the much more familiar composite, which became a popular culture icon. This rendition, by veteran criminal sketch artist Jeanne Boylan featured a hooded, grim looking man, with curly hair, a strong chin and very large, aviator sunglasses. Her Unabomber would quickly become ubiquitous and greatly add to the criminal’s mystique.
Possessing a 167 IQ, admitted to Harvard University at age 16, a uniquely talented mathematician, this former Berkeley college professor became the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in FBI history.
Kaczynski’s drivers license.
But Kaczynski had another motive for heading to Chicago. Before he left Montana on a Greyhound bus, he constructed the first of his explosive devices. He meant to send it to a professor at RPI, but when he got to Chicago in late May of 1978, the box wouldn’t fit in a mailbox so he merely left it at the University of Illinois-at Chicago in between two parked cars, the device eventually returned to the professor believed to have mailed via the professor’s presumed return address at Northwestern University. But Kaczynski was disappointed when there was not any media mention of what happened with this device. After leaving the device he showed up at his parents’ house without any specific notice.
Unabomber wanted poster.
Because a fatality finally occurred, the FBI would not have sole jurisdiction in the ensuing investigation. The homicide division of the Sacramento police department also became involved but immediately found the situation frustrating. Despite their belief that the more publicity about the bomber that was released to the public the better, the Sacramento police were told that, no, the FBI did not want to alert the Unabomber to the fact that they knew of his existence. The local police felt that the FBI was more concerned with the fact that after ten years of bombings, the FBI had no idea who the perpetrator was. The Bureau’s explanation was illogical in that by stamping FC on each bomb the killer was trying to let them know that he was responsible for numerous attacks. This would not be the first FBI investigation that was driven as much by public relations as it was by criminal investigation. Within weeks Sacramento homicide found themselves being excluded from meetings and ignored. Both they and the FBI got nowhere in trying to even begin to figure out who killed Hugh Scrutton.
David Kaczynski as an adult.
In Schenectady, in mid-1995, David Kaczynski was now the assistant director of the Equinox Youth Shelter, an institution that catered to teenagers. In the summer of 1995, With the high profile of the Unabomber pervading popular media, his wife began suggesting that Ted might have something to do with the bombings. She read that the FBI maintained that the Unabomber grew up in Chicago, spent time in Berkeley and had at least recently travelled to Salt Lake City. Linda Patrik had never met Ted, but was aware of his extreme animosity towards her, had read his correspondence with David and had lengthy conversations with her husband, attempting to convince him that Ted was mentally ill. At first he dismissed the notion, but, as much out of curiosity, he eventually got a hold of the manifesto to see if it resonated in any way. At the same time, Linda got a copy of the initial portion of the manifesto online as the Union College library’s printed copies had been stolen. After the pair read even a small part of the screed, they were both alarmed. Subsequently, unable to dismiss Ted as the perpetrator of these acts, David then went back and documented when he had sent Ted money for loans. It turned out that the devices that killed Thomas Mosser and Gilbert Murray were sent within one month and three months respectively from when checks were sent to Ted.
Kaczynski minutes after his arrest at a cabin rented by the FBI.
Kaczynski had a habit of not letting strangers inside his cabin, usually stepping outside if necessary and shutting the door behind him. This time, he did not even fully emerge but hesitated with the door open while Burns distracted him with conversation. The Forest Service agent was close enough to grab him by the wrist and after a brief struggle all three men were able to get Kaczynski into handcuffs. He was immediately conveyed to a nearby rented cabin and although talkative, refused to answer any questions about the Unabomber case.
Mug shot.
Ted Kaczynski was indicted by a grand jury in June of 1996, on ten counts concerning four of the bombings, including the fatal bombings of Hugh Scrutton, Tom Mosser and Gilbert Murray. Because these bombs either exploded in or were sent from Sacramento, California, Ted was transported to Sacramento, where he would stand trial after being pronounced mentally fit. If convicted, Kaczynski was potentially subject to the death penalty an outcome that his two public defenders were desperate to avoid.
Prison photo taken at Supermax
Predictably, Ted Kaczynski, unlike most of his Florence counterparts, including Timothy McVeigh, Ramzi Youssef, Eric Rudolph, shoe bomber Richard Reid, and Zacarious Moussauai, almost seemed to flourish in his new environment. His cell is small, but still larger than the freezing, soot filled shack that was home for 25 years. He has published several book length collections of essays and commentary with the aid of University of Michigan-Dearborn philosophy professor David Skrbina. His correspondence with over 400 individuals and materials relevant to his case was donated to the University of Michigan and is archived in a special collection. Unlike the photographs at the time of his arrest, current official mugshots depict him as well groomed with a pleasant demeanor.
DB Cooper, the man behind the most notorious airplane hijacking in American history
The infamous sketches of DB Cooper
On November 24, 1971, a man walked up to the Northwest Orient ticket counter at the Portland, Oregon International Airport. After waiting on line for a few moments, he paid $20 dollars in cash for a ticket for Flight 305 to Seattle, a scheduled 30 minute trip leaving at 2:50 PM.
The actual ticket used by “Dan Cooper” to fly from Portland to Seattle
He gave his name as “Dan Cooper” for the purposes of ticketing but he was not required to show identification. Dressed in a dark suit, black tie and white shirt with a black raincoat he looked identical to any number of business travelers anxious to make it home for the following day’s Thanksgiving celebration. He was assigned seat 18C, an aisle seat in the last row and boarded the plane with 36 other passengers, not including the crew.
Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr.
On April 7, 1972, a man flying under the alias “James Johnson” boarded flight 855 in Denver, Colorado. The plane’s flight began on the East coast and was supposed to fly from Denver to Los Angeles. It was a Boeing 727, the identical craft hijacked by D. B. Cooper. James Johnson was actually a Mormon, national guard member , ex-Green Beret BYU student named Richard Floyd McCoy, Jr. He sat in the last row on the aisle in the exact location used by Cooper. Heavily made up and wearing a wig, McCoy hijacked the plane to San Francisco, claiming to have explosives, a grenade and a pistol, which he brandished at the flight attendants and some passengers who became aware of the situation when the plane rerouted to San Francisco. McCoy demanded 500,000 dollars in different denominations and four parachutes. He got the money and the chutes and got off the ground before agents could storm the plane. A duffel bag filled with the ransom money was attached to his parachute harness. This time, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies were better prepared for such an eventuality.
DB Cooper, the man responsible for the most notorious air hijacking in US history.
The areas where Cooper may have landed in the state of Washington
On Thanksgiving morning, A Portland FBI investigator involved in the case, Ralph Himmelsbach, took it upon himself to use his own single engine plane to fly over the area where it is believed that Cooper might have bailed out. He spends much of Thanksgiving Day flying back and forth over Vector 23, the route that flight 305 took through the area, trying to spot some trace of the hijacker. A parachute, clothing, a campfire, even a body. He comes up with nothing and, because of the poor weather and visibility, a full scale search on foot will not begin until Friday, November 26. D. B. Cooper’s hijacking is the lead national network news story, beginning a public fascination with the case that will only increase over time.
The JC Penny tie, tie tack and ransom money recovered at the Tena Bar
In the immediate aftermath of the hijacking, the FBI, the chief law enforcement agency charged with investigating the case completely searched the airplane and meticulously interviewed witnesses, the flight crew and especially the two stewardesses who interacted with Cooper. They uncovered numerous fingerprints ultimately determined to be useless, two of the four parachutes the hijacker left behind, a clip on tie that will turn out to be from Penney’s Department store, a pearl festooned tie clasp and eight cigarette butts of the brand “Raleigh”, a cheaper alternative to more high profile tobacco brands.
Ken Christiansen
Another notorious potential Cooper emerged in a 2007 New York Magazine article which identified a former deceased Northwest Orient purser named Kenneth Christansen as the hijacker. Christiansen was implicated by his brother, Lyle, who repeatedly told the FBI and various investigators of his suspicion. Along with the usual secretive deathbed confession while dying in 1994 of cancer, Chritiansen was an experienced paratrooper, a long time crew member with knowledge of a 727 and based out of Seattle. Christiansen bought a house with cash shortly after the hijacking. He died with an inexplicably large bank account, a valuable stamp collection, gold pieces and a strange, twenty year Northwest Orient scrapbook of news items that were related to the airline but ended right before the 1971 hijacking. He smoked, drank whiskey and when Florence Schaffner was shown photos of Christiansen she agreed that he was photographically the closest match to Cooper that she had subsequently seen. Unfortunately, Tina Mucklow, the flight attendant with the most contact with Cooper would eventually join a nunnery and refuse any interviews concerning the incident. Two books would be written alleging that Christiansen was the hijacker, but his age in 1971, 45, and his small stature at 5’ 8”, 150 pounds which contradicted most eyewitness accounts make him a poor possibility. The FBI ignored Christiansen from the start and Ralph Himmelsback personally ruled him out based on physical appearance alone. Strangely, though the bureau also said that Christiansen was too skilled a paratrooper to have attempted the jump, implying that anyone who knew what they were doing would never have planned such a hijack in such weather and such a remote location.
Robert Rackstraw
Unfortunately, the notoriety surrounding DB Cooper has also precipitated many journalistic attempts to cash in on the topic. This seems to be the case in the allegation that Robert Rackstraw, a former Vietnam veteran, helicopter pilot, ex-con and possible CIA operative is DB Cooper. Rackstraw is a former university instructor and arbitrator who seems to have gotten his life together after a checkered past in the military. In 2011, Thomas Colbert, a television journalist and law enforcement employee, began an extensively orchestrated investigation that concluded that Rackstraw is DB Cooper. Over a five year period, Colbert’s team of various former FBI agents, Marshals and prosecuting attorneys sifted through various leads that lead them to individuals who were allegedly connected to the hijack. It is Colbert’s allegation that three people colluded with Rackstraw and were waiting for him on the ground after Rackstraw jumped out of Flight 305. Colbert’s team searched an area that an anonymous source told them was where Cooper actually landed and unearthed a parachute strap and pieces of a backpack that they turned over to the FBI. In 2016, Colbert’s team also turned over information about Rackstraw and his accomplices that the bureau never investigated, instead officially closing the case on July 8, 2016, claiming that no new information had emerged and that the bureau did not have the resources to devote to a forty year plus cold case. The FBI had already investigated Rackstraw in 1979 and concluded that he was not Cooper. Colbert responded by maintaining that the FBI does not want to be embarrassed by a group of civilian investigators cracking the case and sued the FBI to release their files under the Freedom of Information Act. Among the subsequently released maerial were several letters mailed to newspapers from an individual who claimed to be the hijacker. One letter contains a numerical code that Colbert’s team claims Rackstraw would have known and utilized during his military service. The numbers were a coded reference to Rackstraw’s elite Vietnam Army intelligence unit and as late as 2018, Colbert was trumpeting this as additional proof of Rackstraw’s secret identity and conveniently using this information to fund his second History Channel documentary on the topic. Rackstraw’s alleged motive for the hijack was his anger over his discharge from the Army after falsifying his education and military exploits. A 1970 photograph of Colbert also bears a strong resemblance to the Cooper drawing. Rackstraw’s responses to Colbert’s investigation have ranged from threats to sue to elliptical statements neither confirming or denying his identity as DB Cooper. Rackstraw has even hinted that he is in talks to produce his own version of his connection to the case but currently refuses to publicly discuss any connection to the crime. Based on the FBI’s attitude, the best Colbert will ever be able to do is to convince a television audience that Rackstraw is DB Cooper and it is unlikely that this investigation will result in a prosecution. However, as long as somebody is willing to finance his investigation, Colbert seems amenable to pursuing the case.
Richard F. McCoy grave in North Carolina. Was Richard McCoy actually DB Cooper?
