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View Full Version : Judge orders online sale of Unabomber goods


megalomania
August 17th, 2006, 06:53 PM
Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:59am ET
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski's journal, as well as axes, typewriters and books seized from his Montana cabin will be sold in an Internet auction to help pay restitution to his victims, a U.S. federal judge has ordered.

Judge Garland Burrell of the U.S. District Court in Sacramento issued the order on Thursday, directing the U.S. Marshals Service to arrange to sell the mail bomber's property through an online auction.

Proceeds from the sale would go toward a $15 million restitution order to pay victims and their families. The auctioneer would get no more than 10 percent of the proceeds to cover its costs.

The date and company that will handle the auction will be determined later.

Among the items on auction will be thousands of pages of writings by Kaczynski, a former math professor who withdrew from society and developed radical anti-technology beliefs. The San Francisco Chronicle said Kaczynski's journal was some 22,000 pages long and detailed his anti-social feelings.

Other personal items, which were seized in a 1996 raid of Kaczynski's cabin, on the block will be hand tools, shovels, saw blades, knives, bows and arrows, axes, clothing, typewriters and a briefcase containing his degrees from the University of Michigan.

Burrell also ordered some 200 books -- with titles ranging from "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" to "Axiomatization of the Theory of Relativity" -- to be sold.

The judge ruled that bomb-making materials found in Kaczynski's cabin not be part of the auction. Burrell also said weapons and bomb-making material would not be returned to Kaczynski as he had requested.

Kaczynski, 64, killed three people and injured more than 20 with homemade bombs sent through the mail from 1978 to 1995. He also threatened to blow up airplanes.

Federal agents seized Kaczynski's property in a raid of his cabin in 1996. His arrest followed a tip by his brother, who recognized Kaczynski's beliefs in his manifesto attacking modern life published by The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1995.

Kaczynski struck a plea bargain in 1998 that sent him to prison for life at the super-maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies."

megalomania
August 17th, 2006, 06:55 PM
He requested his bomb making materials back. HA! Well, you can’t blame the man for trying.

Who wants to do a group bid for his degrees? Now that would make a nice conversation piece on my wall.

Cobalt.45
August 18th, 2006, 02:16 PM
Say what you will about the sick fuck, but he did have the courage of his convictions, even if overly passive-aggressive.

What gets me is that he was done in by his choat- quaffing snitch of a brother.

I would enjoy examining one of his devices. Obviously, the JBT's would never allow one of them to be auctioned. What about the possibility of accessing anything through the FOIA?

In any event, he's another example of how blurred the line between genius and lunacy can become.

c.Tech
August 21st, 2006, 05:12 AM
Who wants to do a group bid for his degrees?
I would chuck in a bit of money going towards it. How much do you think the items would sell for? Is it worth it?

megalomania
August 21st, 2006, 01:27 PM
It's an auction, so who can say. I am willing to bet that someone, somewhere with way to much money to burn will pay a lot for his stuff. He has a $15 million bill to pay off. How many hours working in the prison kitchen would it take to pay that off anyway?

Diabolique
August 24th, 2006, 12:22 AM
I wonder if they would sell the paper cartridges, without the dynamite? That would make an interesting display next to the clock over your fireplace. Add a couple of wires between them ...

The problem is when the porcine types smash down the door, errr, pay a visit, they may get nervous and decide to 'blow in place' before asking questions.

nbk2000
August 24th, 2006, 04:06 AM
Ted didnt' use dynamite, he 'rolled his own'. :)

His notebooks would be the shit to have, since he was quite the experimenter and researcher.

Supposedly, he had found a way to increase lethality of his explosives by several times, for the same weight. Sounds like thermobaric or multi-point initiation to me.