SAN FRANCISCO – The very technology that the Unabomber railed against during his murderous spree was used Thursday to help some of his victims.
An unusual online auction of Ted Kaczynski’s personal items that ended Thursday garnered about $190,000 for his victims and their family members. They want the so-called Unabomber to pay for the 16 explosions he set off that killed three and injured 23 others across the country.
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Kaczynski’s personal journals fetched $40,676; the iconic hooded sweat shirt and sunglasses depicted in police sketch artist renderings accounted for $20,025; and his handwritten “manifesto” sold for $20,053. Other popular items included $22,003 for the Smith Corona typewriter seized from the cabin and $17,780 for his autobiography.
The auction was a culmination of a seven-year legal battle designed to block Kaczynski from regaining ownership of the property seized from his remote Montana cabin during a 1996 raid.
Kaczynski, representing himself in court, demanded return of the property so he could donate it to the University of Michigan, his alma mater. But because Kaczynski was ordered to pay his victims $15 million, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the property auctioned.
John Hickey, a consignment director at Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, said that several types of collectors could be expected to compete for the items.
“People who deal in historical events and lean toward the bad guys will be interested in this stuff,” said Hickey, whose company auctioned off a poem written by Lee Harvey Oswald and the infamous wooden gun John Dillinger used to break out of jail.
Kaczynski “has also crossed over into pop culture and will attract those collectors,” he said.
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