Unabomber Note: 'Ready to Speak' After 20 Years

But the letter-writer has conditions
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2016 12:47 PM CDT
Unabomber Note: 'Ready to Speak' After 20 Years
In this April 4, 1996, file photo, Ted Kaczynski, better known as the "Unabomber," is flanked by federal agents as he leaves the federal courthouse in Helena, Mont.   (AP Photo/John Youngbear, File)

The Unabomber is apparently ready for a prison interview for the first time in 20 years—as long as a few conditions are met. "I am ready to speak to someone from the media regarding my brother's recent comments and to discuss how they are being used to torment me," reads a handwritten note purported to be penned by Ted Kaczynski and delivered to Lawrence Wright, a staff writer for the New Yorker, per CBS News. Wright tweeted a picture of the letter, which included the address at the Colorado federal prison where Kaczynski is housed and emphatically noted, "I am only granting one interview to one person." The letter-writer also lists Kaczynski's supposed conditions for agreeing to a prison interview with Wright, including that the writer get back to him "affirming that you understand that I am NOT mentally ill," as well as that Wright fill him in on "who you are" and "why I should trust you."

Brother David Kaczynski helped investigators nab Ted Kaczynski in 1996 after he and his wife suspected he may have been behind the the mail-bomb attacks that killed three and injured dozens over nearly 20 years. David Kaczynski now has a memoir out that talks about growing up with his older brother and his gradual decline into mental illness. In an apparent attempt to be funny, Wright tries to "meet" one of Kaczynski's conditions and notes in his tweet that "Ted, you're not nuts at all"; he tells CBS he was joking and has no intention of doing an interview—a flip response that's getting its own pushback on Twitter. CBS notes that Kaczynski's note "has likely been sent to several other journalists" as well. (Kaczynski reportedly fell in love with a pen pal.)

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