The National Museum of Crime and Punishment’s newest permanent exhibit feature’s artifacts from Unabomber Theodore Kacynski’s Montana cabin.
Kaczynki is one of the nation’s most infamous domestic terrorists. Between 1978 and 1995, he mailed 16 bombs that killed three people and wounded 23. The for-profit private museum purchased the artifacts for $1,766 during an auction in early June and proceeds go directly to the victims and their families.
In 2006, when Kacynski was sentenced to life in prison without chance of parole, the government auctioned off his seized property. Items were sold to the public in an effort to pay off the $15 million restitution order to Kaczynski’s victims and their families.
Items considered to be bomb-making materials, such as writings that contain diagrams and “recipes” for bombs, were excluded from the sale. Items purchased by the museum include his hand bowed wood saw, a Hanson model 1509 scale (both used in his bomb creation), and Kaczynski’s passport photo.
“We put the new display in our CSI lab of the museum to talk about forensic linguistics, (which were) used to actually catch Ted Kaczynski,” curator Rachael Penman said.
The scale featured was used by Kaczynski to weigh explosives. His own handwriting is on the side of the scale and describes how to calibrate accurately.
The passport photos at the museum show Kacyznski as a young man.
“The passport photos were taken only a couple months before Ted and his brother David bought the land in Montana and he built the cabin,” Penman said. “You almost wonder why he had passport photos taken at the same time he was going into isolation,” Penman said.
The exhibit is designed after Kaczynski’s workbench and gives a realistic view of where he created and planned his bombings. Museum staff worked alongside David Kaczynski, the Unabomber’s brother, when putting together the exhibit.
“One of the reasons we were interested in getting these Unabomber items is our educational initiative at the museum,” Penman said.
Part of the museum’s mission is to encourage careers in law enforcement and forensic science.
Kaczynski’s remaining possessions, drafts of his manifesto, his journals, bomb plans and other items, are in the hands of private collectors.