Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, transferred to Butner prison medical facility in NC
Theodore Kaczynski — who came to be known as the “Unabomber” for killing three people and injuring many more in a series of mail bombings over 17 years — was transferred this week to the federal Butner prison in North Carolina, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said Wednesday.
Kaczynski was transferred on Dec. 14 from the supermax prison in Florence, Colo., where he was serving multiple life-in-prison sentences, said spokeswoman Kristie Breshears. FMC Butner is a federal prison medical facility known for treating inmates with significant health problems.
She declined to provide details of Kaczynski’s condition.
The Bureau of Prisons website confirmed that Kaczynski is an inmate at the Butner medical facility, which houses about 770 inmates with special health needs. The prison is in Granville County, about 15 miles north of Durham.
David Kaczynski, Ted Kaczynski’s brother, said he had been told recently by someone who corresponds with his brother that he had been moved to a different facility, but the Bureau of Prisons declined to tell him why that was. David Kaczynski, who tipped the FBI to his brother as a possible suspect, said his brother does not respond to his letters.
Kaczynski, 79, pleaded guilty in 1998 to carrying out a series of mail bombings in a deranged campaign against modern technology.
Living in a cramped, crude cabin in the Montana woods, he eluded investigators for years until his brother recognized some of the themes in a manifesto sent to the New York Times and The Washington Post. The brother then notified authorities that the Unabomber might be Ted Kaczynski.
Among the victims of Kaczynski’s 16 bombs were a Yale computer scientist, an astronaut candidate, a Sacramento forestry lobbyist, a public relations executive and the president of United Airlines.
His plea deal allowed Kaczynski to avoid the death penalty, though his sentence did not allow for the possibility of his release. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who worked in the Justice Department in a lower capacity when Kaczynski was arrested and helped supervise the prosecution, has said it was one of the most important cases of his career.
High-profile inmates at Butner prison
Butner prison has been home to high profile inmates in recent years, including the late Bernie Madoff, who was imprisoned for conducting a vast Ponzi scheme that took billions of dollars over at least 17 years, McClatchy reported.
More recently, Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as “Joe Exotic,” was transferred to Butner in November, The News & Observer reported.
Maldonado-Passage is the star of the Netflix series “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.” In a news release, his attorney said Maldonado-Passage was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
In 2019, a federal jury found him guilty on two counts of hiring someone to murder a woman in Florida, along with multiple counts of falsifying wildlife records and violating the Endangered Species Act.
Maldonado-Passage was sentenced to serve 22 years in prison, but in July a federal appeals court ruled that the trial court had improperly calculated sentencing guidelines, The Associated Press reported.
The court has ordered that he receive a new sentence.
Maldonado-Passage, who has maintained his innocence, has continued to seek his freedom.
Staff writer Julian Shen-Berro contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 23, 2021 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, transferred to Butner prison medical facility in NC."