Students revisit memory of Unabomber

By Sarah Swan
J-school Web reporter

photo by Kelsey Steorts

Journalism students exploring the 10-year anniversary of the arrest of the Unabomber received prison letters from Ted Kaczynski.

On April 3, 1996, the quiet town of Lincoln, Mont., exploded into a frenzy of media and police when Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber who had plagued the country with packaged bombs since the 1970s, was arrested at his tiny cabin outside of town. 

Kaczynski planted his first bomb in 1978 at the University of Chicago. The bombings continued until 1995, injuring 23 people and killing three.

Now, 10 years later, students at the University of Montana School of Journalism are revisiting Lincoln, its people and the memory of Kaczynski.

Professor Sheri Venema said she got the idea when the J-school received a student magazine from the University of Nebraska focusing on the 40-year anniversary of the publication of  “In Cold Blood” by  Truman Capote.

Dean Jerry Brown showed the magazine to the faculty at the end of the fall semester and asked if any professors were willing to take on a similar project about the Unabomber.

“I thought about it over the break, and I thought it’s just a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Venema said. She approached photography professors Teresa Tamura and Keith Graham about the project, and they decided to go ahead.

When she told students in her feature writing class about the Unabomber anniversary project, Venema said the students' reactions weren’t what she had hoped.

“The kids, they all kind of looked at me blankly when I first said we’re going to do this cool thing,” Venema said. “I don’t think some of them even knew what the Unabomber was, especially if they were from out of state.”

Graduate student Dan Testa was unsure about the project.

“I guess I was sort of reluctant at first,” Testa said. “I didn’t know much about the Unabomber, and my take on it was that these sort of things were covered to death when they happened.” Testa said he wasn’t sure if the class would be able to get good enough stories.

But that wasn’t a problem. Students looked at media coverage, interviewed Kaczynski’s acquaintances in Lincoln, recreated the FBI manhunt and examined current attitudes toward Kaczynski’s 35,000-word Manifesto.

"I thought it was going to be something that would be really good for my future just because it's such a great story," said Brenna Moore, a print junior. "Everyone knows who the Unabomber is, and everyone knows what he did."

photo by Amanda Determan

Feature writing students in Sheri Venema's spring 2006 class wrote about the 10-year anniversary of Ted Kaczynski's arrest.

As the semester wore on, students got more excited about the project. “They saw their stories coming together, and that they could work together and talk with other people,” Venema said.

Testa undertook the challenge of contacting the Unabomber and wrote to Kaczynski, who is being held in Colorado's ADX "Supermax" facility. Testa said he never thought Kaczynski would reply, but he checked the J-school’s office every day for a letter. On March 3, a thick envelope, which Testa called daunting, arrived.

In the envelope was a handwritten letter from Kaczynski on nine pages of legal-size paper, including footnotes.

“He talked a lot about his distrust of the media and how he found journalists to be dishonest,” Testa said. Kaczynski also wrote that he didn’t expect much from the class project.

“He didn’t think that the direction of the project with the class was a good direction to go in because of what he called ‘the clouding of people’s memory,’” Testa said. “After 10 years, people wouldn’t be able to provide truthful accounts.”

Kaczynski said the class should, instead, investigate a book about him that he said was full of lies. “And then [he said] at the end of it all, ‘I would be a fool to grant an interview to you,’” Testa said.

Instead of interviewing the Unabomber, Testa focused on his life in prison.

Moore wrote about media coverage of the arrest, interviewing journalists from Montana newspapers. “It was interesting seeing what kind of impact that story had on their lives," she said.

Student photojournalist Tyler Wilson faced a challenge in getting a photo for the project. Unable to set foot on the land where Kaczynski’s cabin had stood, Wilson snapped a shot of the road.

“It was all dreary and snowy,” Wilson said.

Students worried that Lincoln residents would be unwilling to talk. “A lot of people out there said they just didn’t want to bring it up again,” Venema said.

photo by Teresa Tamura

Photo students in Professor Teresa Tamura's advanced photography class took the photos for the Unabomber project.

But several people in the town warmed up to the J-school students and their pursuit of the story.

“We had people talk to us that said they had not given very many interviews in the last 10 years,” Venema said. “I think the kids were just persistent and they were nice.”

With the writing and photo portions of the project complete, Venema and Tamura handed the project over to Graham, whose class will design the 56-page magazine. The magazine will be printed during the summer. The stories and photos also are posted on the Web.

The project will benefit students, Venema believes. “It’s having real life stories. They aren’t just writing for class; they’re going to be published,” she said. “I think it’s been good practice for them.”

Tamura says the Unabomber project is significant for the people of Montana, and anyone else affected by Kaczynski.

“The Unabomber is certainly a name or a title that people haven’t forgotten,” Tamura said. “I think it’s good to revisit it to see what’s happened to people as a result of it, or as a result of him being here in Montana.”

Back to J-School main page