Who Were Ted Kaczynski’s Victims? The Unabomber’s Targets and Crimes Explained

Ted Kaczynski was a serial bomber who became known as the “Unabomber.” During the course of his crimes, the mathematics prodigy and University of California at Berkeley assistant professor killed three people and injured more than two dozen others.Netflix’s latest true crime film, Unabomber, focuses on the life and crimes of Kaczynski, played by actor Jacob Tremblay. It follows the criminal’s anonymous mail-bombing campaign and the FBI’s work to capture him.In the early 1970s, Kaczynski moved to an isolated cabin near Lincoln, Montana. In 1978, his first, homemade bomb exploded at a Chicago university, kicking off 17 years of crimes and a massive manhunt to find the domestic terrorist.While Kaczynski’s crimes are well-documented, less is known about his victims and, in some cases, why he targeted them. Here’s what to know about the Unabomber’s targets, victims, and survivors.How Many People Did Ted Kaczynski Kill?Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski mailed or hand-delivered a series of homemade bombs, ultimately killing three people and injuring 23 others. Kaczynski, a Harvard graduate with a PhD in mathematics, mostly targeted people connected with universities, airlines, and modern science and engineering businesses.In his 35,000-word manifesto, “Industrial Society and Its Future”—published jointly by the New York Times and Washington Post—he laid out his beliefs that modern technology was ruining society.The three people Kaczynski killed were all male: Hugh Scrutton, Thomas Mosser, and Gilbert Murray.Hugh ScruttonHugh Scrutton was a 38-year-old owner of store RenTech Computer Rental, in Sacramento, California. Scrutton died on December 11, 1985, and was the first person Kaczynski killed. Kaczynski transported a bomb from Montana to Sacramento and placed it behind Scrutton’s store, according to a 1996 press release. Scrutton bent down to pick up the bomb, which he assumed was a piece of trash. It exploded into his chest, throwing him 10 feet and dispersing shrapnel 150 feet, ultimately killing him. Scrutton is buried in Sacramento.Thomas MosserThomas Mosser, 50, was an advertising executive at Young Rubicam in New York City. He was the second person killed by Kaczynski, who mailed a bomb to Mosser’s home in North Caldwell, New Jersey. The bomb, addressed to Mosser’s previous employer, sat on Mosser’s kitchen table for a day until it was opened on December 19, 1994, according to TIME. The blast nearly decapitated Mosser, who was married and had three children. His wife, two daughters, and a child from the neighborhood were in the home at the time the bomb detonated, but were not injured.“If you were a friend of Tom’s, you were a friend for life,” Mosser’s friend James Dowling told TIME. “With deaths by natural causes, it’s easier, because you think there is a reason for it. Here there is no reason.”Kaczynski explained his motive for killing Mosser in a letter sent to The New York Times. He blamed Mosser’s previous employment at public relations firm Burston-Marsteller: “We blew up Thomas Mosser last December because he was a Burston-Marsteller [sic] executive,” he wrote. “Burston Marsteller helped Exxon clean up their image after the Exxon Valdez incident.”However, Burston-Marsteller denied working on the spill for Exxon. And, Masser’s connection to the Exxon Valdez incident may have been misidentified by an environmental