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Unabomber suspect held

Kaczynski earned 2 mathematics degrees from `U'

Theodore John Kaczynski, the man the FBI believes to be connected with the Unabomber case, lived in East Quad for two years and earned two degrees in mathematics from the University during the 1960s.

FBI agents raided Kaczynski's Lincoln, Mont., home yesterday and took him into custody. Kaczynski's detainment follows 17 1/2 years of investigation into the mysterious bombings, some of which targeted university professors around the country.

University officials confirmed that Kaczynski earned a master's degree in mathematics from the University in 1964 and finished his doctorate in mathematics in 1967. While not listed in the Michiganensian yearbooks for 1963-67, Kaczynski is in the Rackham graduation register for summer commencement in August 1967.

Mathematics Prof. Peter Duren, who worked with Kaczynski on his doctoral thesis, described Kaczynski as individualistic and meticulously neat.

"He was very independent, very serious and very smart. A real analytical mind," Duren said.

Duren said Kaczynski dedicated his life to his studies while he was at the University.

"At that time, he was really wrapped up in mathematics. I don't think he was involved in anything else," Duren said.

Duren also said Kaczynski never gave any mention of political beliefs.

"When he was at Michigan, I don't think he was political," Duren said. "If he's the Unabomber, that's a different person than the one I knew."

Duren said Kaczynski was not overly sociable, but was not unfriendly to other students.

"He was a loner," Duren said. "I don't think he really avoided people. He could talk to people in the usual types of conversations."

Kaczynski's 80-page dissertation, titled "Boundary Functions," was published in January 1968. Current mathematics Prof. Paul Federbush said the phrase "boundary functions" is a very broad term.

"It arises in all sorts of things," Federbush said. "It's often associated with applied mathematics."

Former mathematics Prof. Wilfred Kaplan, who taught graduate courses when Kaczynski was at the University, said Kaczynski might have been involved in complex analysis studies.

"It is by far the most important application in physics and engineering," Kaplan said. "It is a complex analysis that involved complex equations using imaginary numbers."

The Unabomber has been connected with mail bombs that have killed three people and injured 23. His spree began at Northwestern University in May 1978, and one of the bombs was sent to University psychology Prof. James McConnell in 1985. The Michigan Daily reported Sept. 18, 1985, that McConnell was not hurt in the Sept. 15 blast, but that his assistant, Nicklaus Suino, sustained "flesh wounds to his arms and superficial wounds to the abdomen."

University spokesperson Bernie DeGroat said that as of last night no connection had been made between Kaczynski and McConnell, but that officials would try to obtain his course records sometime today.

The Unabomber, in his "Manifesto" published last year, mentioned the Industrial Revolution as leading to "widespread psychological suffering" and said that advancing technology would cause "social disruption and psychological suffering." The Unabomber may have targeted McConnell because of McConnell's views expressed in his textbook, "Understanding Human Behavior."

Psychology Prof. Charles Morris said McConnell performed an extensive experiment involving genetics and behavior. In the 1960s, McConnell performed a series of experiments on flatworms which he believed connected genetics with intelligence.

McConnell, who died in 1990, was considered a leader in the psychological area of behavioralism.

"It (behavioralism) takes the view that human beings are largely controllable," Morris said. "The Unabomber might have taken that as offense to his philosophy."

In his manifesto, the Unabomber condemned "genetic engineering" that could "begin to invade our sphere of freedom." He also referred to "the manipulation of an individual to adjust him to the system."

Morris said McConnell was very outspoken about his beliefs, and that the Unabomber might have strongly disagreed with them.

"At the time it happened, it was totally out of the blue," Morris said, noting that "someone could have been mightily offended" by McConnell's outspoken approach.

The Unabomber also spoke out against the advancement of technology, saying in his manifesto that "technology is a more powerful social force than the aspiration for freedom."

In the manifesto, the Unabomber said leftists, including those in high positions at universities, will use technology "to oppress everyone else if they get it under their own control."

Allen Shield, who passed away in 1989, also advised Kaczynski on his dissertation while he was at the University. Shield was associated with a group of mathematics professors who urged those in the field not to take jobs that would benefit war research.

Shield, along with 73 other professors from around the country, signed a Sept. 16, 1967, statement that said, "We urge you to regard yourselves as responsible for the uses to which your talents are put. We believe this responsibility forbids putting mathematics in the service of this cruel war."

Retired mathematics Prof. Maxwell Reed, who also served on Kaczynski's doctoral committee, said he had no memory of Kaczynski's dissertation.

Reed said he served on approximately 50 doctoral committees in 50 years, and remembered all but ten of the dissertations.

"(Kaczynski) was working on a very tough area that did not interest me," Reed said.

He said Kaczynski's field of study has no application in the creation of bombs and weaponry.

"This is the purest of the pure," he said.

Kaczynski was born in Chicago in 1942 and attended 200-student Evergreen Park High School in the city's suburbs. He graduated one year early, with the class of 1958, and went on to get an undergraduate degree from Harvard University in 1962.

In the 1962-63 school year, Kaczynski lived in East Quad's Prescott House, Room 300. In 1963-64, he lived in Prescott Room 239. Kaczynski also lived at 408 Thompson St. and 529 South Forest Ave. while at the University.

-- Daily Staff Reporters Matthew Buckley, Laurie Mayk, Alice Robinson and Will Weissert contributed to this report.