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re: Question about the Unabomber

Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:25 am to
Posted by jbgleason
Bailed out of BTR to God's Country
Member since Mar 2012
18929 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:25 am to
quote:

So if he had no electricity, how did he do all that fine soldering needed to make bombs? How did he do all the machining needed to make those complicated mechanisms without power tools? How did he afford to travel back and forth to San Francisco (where he mailed them all) on thirty-three bucks a month?


I have actually held one of the inert versions of one of his devices that a FBI EOD guy had. What made him hard to catch was that he made all of the components himself from scratch. There wasn't a lot of commercially purchased parts to track. He whittled a bunch of stuff out of wood, used scrap wire and pieces of metal he found in the trash. There wasn't a lot of what you would call "machining" and he presumably used a gas soldering iron.

As I understand it, his travel comprised a lot of walking, hitch hiking and bus rides. All paid for with cash. Which made tracking his movements almost impossible.
Posted by Uptowner
The OP
Member since Oct 2019
2030 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:28 am to
quote:

It runs forever on butane.


I was going to say, some kind of bottled gas.

Hank Hill could've hooked him up!
Posted by EA6B
TX
Member since Dec 2012
14754 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:33 am to
quote:

How did he get plans for bombs? Chemical recipes? He’s a mathematician, not Walter White.


Anyone with reasonable intelligence can find all the information needed to make explosives and fabricate a bomb at any public library. “Henry’s book of formulas” was the go to reference for making your own explosives in the 1960s
Posted by RT1941
Member since May 2007
30275 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:36 am to
quote:

I just watched the Manhunt series, which was pretty good.

I've seen it before, where'd you find the series? I'd like to watch it again.
Posted by JudgeHolden
Gila River
Member since Jan 2008
18566 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:40 am to
quote:

where'd you find the series?


I think it was Netflix. Could have been Amazon Prime. It was one of those.
Posted by jb4
Member since Apr 2013
12698 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:49 am to
Harvard class of 1962
Michigan PHD 1967
Cal Berkeley prof before

CIA mind control gone wrong
This post was edited on 7/27/20 at 10:56 am
Posted by Paluka
One State Over
Member since Dec 2010
10763 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:51 am to
quote:

Of course. He was brilliant.


A genius level IQ tends to allow one pluses and minuses. Ted was a lost soul.
Posted by moester75
Anne Arundel County, MD
Member since Oct 2018
1544 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 10:52 am to
quote:

His manifesto is pretty spot on


Exactly it is and I use it to get “environmentalists” to stfu about their power grab bullshite when I ask “ok so you’re a staunch progressive environmentalist right?”. They then say “why yes I am”.

I say “well then you’re still comfortable with allowing just any female to shat out as many kids as she wants and any ole man can just go on impregnating as many women as he wants unchallenged then”?

Yea, you’re an environmentalist and I’m a rocket scientist.
Posted by moester75
Anne Arundel County, MD
Member since Oct 2018
1544 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:01 am to
quote:

How did he do all the machining needed to make those complicated mechanisms


That’s just it Ted’s work wasn’t all that sophisticated or complicated at all. All those years the FBI marveled at how crudely made Teds bombs were but yet still getting more and more deadly.
Posted by JudgeHolden
Gila River
Member since Jan 2008
18566 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:04 am to
quote:

That’s just it Ted’s work wasn’t all that sophisticated or complicated at all. All those years the FBI marveled at how crudely made Teds bombs were but yet still getting more and more deadly.


Ok. Fair point.

But his second bomb was triggered by an altimeter, right? Where does a primitivist in nowhere Montana get an altimeter?

I’m sure you and the FBI are right. I just find it odd that he could have pulled all this off alone.
Posted by moester75
Anne Arundel County, MD
Member since Oct 2018
1544 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:11 am to
That one was supposedly stolen by Ted from somebody that worked in that line of business somehow. Im really not the one to ask technical questions too and I was asking all the same questions you are before I read the in-depth investigative article and saw the TV show. Its my incompetence that prevents me from ever being a Theodore J Kaczynski.
Posted by IAmNERD
Member since May 2017
19330 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:16 am to
quote:

Still some questions about his funds.

Pretty sure his parents were pretty well off. Seems like I remember them giving him some sort of allowance every year or every 6 months or so.

I'm sure he had squirrelled away a nice nest egg from his parents and from his teaching days. He didn't have to spend much at all.
This post was edited on 7/27/20 at 11:27 am
Posted by Fat Batman
Gotham City, NJ
Member since Oct 2019
1394 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:19 am to
quote:

The Unabomber lived in a tiny cabin in Montana with no utilities at all. He subsisted on wild things supplemented by what he grew, and lived on about $400 per year.


I think you're making a lot of assumptions here. No utility service does not mean he didn't have access to power/energy on site, i.e generator, batteries, gas, etc. Also, just because someone "lived off $400 a year" (cost of living) doesn't mean they don't have assets worth more than their average yearly cost of living.
Posted by JudgeHolden
Gila River
Member since Jan 2008
18566 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:26 am to
quote:

Its my incompetence that prevents me from ever being a Theodore J Kaczynski.


Maybe something more than incompetence. Maybe there is some morality to it. In the end, this man is amoral at best.
Posted by EA6B
TX
Member since Dec 2012
14754 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:29 am to
quote:

But his second bomb was triggered by an altimeter, right? Where does a primitivist in nowhere Montana get an altimeter?


Wrist altimeter used by sky divers easy to find, cheap, or he might have used a ordinary barometer which works the same as altimeter just labeled in inches of mercury or PSI instead of feet.
This post was edited on 7/27/20 at 11:36 am
Posted by RT1941
Member since May 2007
30275 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:42 am to
quote:

I think it was Netflix. Could have been Amazon Prime. It was one of those.


Thanks, I'll have to tag that and watch it later.
Posted by Salmon
On the trails
Member since Feb 2008
83650 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:44 am to
quote:

Its my incompetence that prevents me from ever being a Theodore J Kaczynski.



the only thing preventing you from killing people is being too dumb?

I guess this is a good thing...?
Posted by Planetarium
Member since Jul 2020
239 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:47 am to
The real question is, IF he hadn't released his manifesto, and IF his brother and sister in law hadn't seen it and connected the dots, how much longer would Ted have been free?

From what I understand, The FBI didn't have the slightest clue who they were looking for.
Posted by Salmon
On the trails
Member since Feb 2008
83650 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 11:50 am to
quote:

The real question is, IF he hadn't released his manifesto, and IF his brother and sister in law hadn't seen it and connected the dots, how much longer would Ted have been free?


he probably wouldn't have, but just like BTK, these type of guys always think they are smarter than everyone else and just can't help themselves when it comes to explaining their actions

Posted by jchamil
Member since Nov 2009
16579 posts
Posted on 7/27/20 at 12:02 pm to
quote:

most of the radicalism we see today was born in academia during the 60s



Robert Bork wrote a book in the 90's called Slouching Towards Gomorrah about this and how many of the people who were radicals in the 60's are turning into the leaders of the left
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