August 2006 a Federal Judge ordered Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s personal belongings from his wilderness cabin auctioned off online in what he stipulated as "reasonably advertised Internet auction.” After years of challenges in court by lawyers for Kaczynski the online auction will be held this week.
There is his diploma from Harvard University, where he enrolled at 16, and his master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan. Unabomb44 shows a photo of a clean-cut Kaczynski standing proudly in a forest. Another snapshot captures Kaczynski with his father and brother, David, who later turned him in to the FBI.
But there are also the bow and arrows he used to hunt as he withdrew from society. There are axes and other tools he fashioned himself. Mostly there are papers — 20,000 pages of loose-leaf and notebooks filled with his slanting cursive that describe what he saw as a broken structure of power that Kaczynski took it upon himself to fix.
Between 1978 and 1995 Unabomber Kaczynski injured 23 and killed three people he was captured in 1996. Millions of dollars in court ordered victim restitution is owed by him and this week’s auction proceeds will go toward that debt after 10% for the auction house. No estimate of the value was offered but one US Marshal observed the ironic revenge aspect of the online auction: “We will use the technology that Kaczynski railed against in his various manifestos to sell artifacts of his life”.
Who buys this stuff? It is anticipated that the manuscripts (with all references to victims removed) might be purchased by museums or universities. Wonder if there isn’t a different way to fund compensation for victims of violent crime other than monetizing a madmen’s ephemeral as trophies and investments.
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