'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, who grew up in the Chicago area, dies in prison
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the man known as the "Unabomber" for sending mail bombs to scientists and other professionals, was found dead in his prison cell Saturday morning.
Kaczynski grew up in Chicago and south suburban Evergreen Park.
He was serving eight life sentences after pleading guilty to bombings that killed three people and injured 23 others between 1978 and 1995.
After graduating from Evergreen Park High School at age 16, Kaczynski studied at Harvard and ultimately became an assistant professor at the University of California-Berkely.
He then dropped out of society, built and lived in a rural Montana cabin and began sending bombs.
Many of his early victims were from the Chicago area. In May of 1978, a mail bomb injured a Northwestern University Police Officer. One year later a Northwestern graduate student was hurt. Six months later, 12 passengers on an American Airlines flgith from Chicago to Washington were injured when a bomb exploded. Then, in June of 1980, Percy Wood, the president of United Airlines, was hurt after opening a bomb sent to his Lake Forest home.
Kaczynski was 81 years old.
