Can criminal behavior of “Serial Bombers” be predicted?Could the writings of Ted Kaczynski’s “manifesto” given any indication that he would become a serial bomber? Were there “predictors” present in his writings.
Could Kaczynski’s behavior be a result of Juvenile delinquency as a youth? Were his actions a result of a Compulsive Disorder? Could these or other theories predict who would become a Serial Killer or a Serial Bomber. Could the picture that these theories paint provide a basis or capability to “profile” the serial killers of the future. Serial MurderIncidents in which an individual (or individuals) kill a number of individuals (usually a minimum of three) over time. A reclusive eccentric named Theodore Kaczynsky was arrested in Montana. He is charged only with possession of ‘an unauthorized weapon’, a collection of junk alleged to be the makings of a bomb.
His arrest, however, was reported throughout the international news media, because he is suspected of being the ‘Unabomber’, the terrorist who mailed and planted sixteen bombs in seventeen years, killing three and injuring more than twenty persons in the United States. It took the longest, most complex and costly (6 million and climbing) manhunt in the nations history more than 17 years to conclude. He had many nicknames such as the junkyard bomber, University bomber, the New York Times bomber, and finally the Unabomber. The Unabomber spread fear from coast to coast, striking at airlines, universities (not the mighty Webster’s University!), computer stores, geneticist, Nobel recipients, great scholars and psychologists, computer geniuses, and people that either crossed his path or crossed him. In 1995 the Unabomber declared he would cease to commit acts of terrorism if the New York Times and the Washington Post agreed to publish a long statement of his anarchistic principals. The Post printed the Unabomber’s manifesto in September 1995, leading to a critical breakthrough in the case: in April 1996 federal agents arrested Ted Kaczynski, a 53 year old Harvard University graduate and former mathematics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Kaczynski’s brother had turned federal authorities after noticing similarities between the Unabomber’s manifesto and letters his brother had written over several decades. Kaczynski pled guilty in 1998 to committing the bombings. The guilty plea allowed him to avoid the death penalty. Behavioral and social scientists for the most part believe that behavior traits result from an interaction of heredity and environmental factors. Both are involved in a complex way. But no criminal behavior is as complex as that of the serial murderers.
(Bartol, 1999) The dream of every law enforcement officer is to one day be able to predict who will be a criminal. Then we may be able to predict what the next step in the serial murderers plot would be. Each type of serial murderer that chooses a particular method to commit criminal homicide has its distinct signature. Serial bombers are no different. Criminal homicide investigators examine in depth the different features of an offender’s behavior.
They examine; (1)modus operandi ; (2) the personation or signature; and (3) staging. But these criminal investigation tools alone will not assist in predicting behavior. These indicators in the past, although contributed pieces to the puzzle in solving serial murders, it is behavior that will solve the puzzle of prediction in serial crimes. The case of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber enters the realm of the serial killers labeled as the “mission oriented” type. Can you predict a serial bomber by examining his childhood? Ted Kaczynski had his own views of adolescence as seen in this quote from his Unabomber Manifesto:The system HAS TO force people to behave in ways that are increasingly remote from the natural pattern of human behavior.
It isn’t natural for an adolescent human being to spend the bulk of his time sitting at a desk absorbed in study. A normal adolescent wants to spend his time in active contact with the real world. UNABOMBER MANIFESTODid Ted Kaczynski’s problems begin as a result of his childhood? There are many theories as to where a person begins to go bad. Are there links to Ted’s past? It’s quite evident that Ted displayed antisocial behavior. Ted Kaczynski’s poor social skills as a youth, particularly in regard
