Author Jamie Gehring describes growing up next to the Unabomber
Serial bomber Ted Kaczynski died in a federal prison earlier this month. Known to the world as the Unabomber, author Jamie Gehring knew him first as just "Ted" or "Teddy." Gehring grew up a quarter mile from Kaczynski's cabin in the woods near Lincoln, Montana. The man who built bombs in his cabin also painted rocks for Gehring and shared meals at her family's table. Gehring spent the years after Kaczynski's arrest reconciling the neighbor she knew with the man she learned killed three and injured nearly two-dozen, and recorded her experiences in a book published in 2022. She joined Montana Public Radio's Austin Amestoy to reflect on Kaczynski's death and legacy.
Austin Amestoy: Jamie, thanks so much for being here.
Jamie Gehring: Thank you so much for having me.
Austin Amestoy: So Ted Kaczynski died June 10, serving a life sentence in federal prison. Jamie, what were your first thoughts when you heard that news?
Jamie Gehring: I have to be honest, I knew this day was coming. This death was coming. Kaczynski was in his eighties. I also knew that he had cancer and had started treatment for that, but I still felt a bit of shock, to be honest.
Austin Amestoy: And, Jamie, how old were you when you were neighbors with Kaczynski growing up? You know, run us through that time period — what do you recall about that time, and who he was?
Jamie Gehring: So, my family sold David Kaczynski and Ted Kaczynski 1.4 acres in 1971, and I was born in 1980, so my entire childhood between 1980 and 1996 at the time of his arrest. When I was 16 years old, I was sharing a backyard with the Unabomber. So, as a child, I definitely felt that this man was odd, and he was definitely different than many other neighbors and members of the community. However, there was no part of any of us that could have connected this seemingly innocent, harmless person with the Unabomber. And definitely, like I said, as the years went on, our ideas changed of him a bit, but still, never in a million years could we imagine that he was the longest-running domestic terrorist in United States history.
Austin Amestoy: And, I want to read a couple of lines from your book and from the preface, if that's all right.
Jamie Gehring: Yes.
Austin Amestoy: So in the preface, you write, "I viewed a serial killer through the eyes of a child. There was a kindness in Ted in those early years. I saw it firsthand. How did Ted extinguish that compassion in order to kill?" And I think, you know, you ask a few questions more after that, sort of getting at the theme of the book here and a major theme of your life. But I'm wondering, Jamie, in all your research, did you ever find an answer to that core question?
Jamie Gehring: I think it's a combination of things, and it took me years to really unearth all that is Kaczynski, as much as I could possibly find. There was an incident when he was only nine-months-old where he was separated from his mother. I think that definitely had an effect on him and his development. Years later, he was advanced in school because he was so intelligent and he had such an IQ. He was brilliant, but then he wasn't quite socially ready for that change and that really isolated him. And then, we have his entrance into Harvard, and the Harvard experiments that really did kind of attack his intellect, which is what he truly prided himself on. And so, you look at the whole picture, and you can really understand what created this person.
Austin Amestoy: I think there's an interesting distinction here, and I'm wondering if this ever came up as you were conducting all your research, between knowing someone in a personal sense, and then knowing about someone through research and whatnot. And, I'm wondering if at any point during this process, you ever felt — even as a child, now as an adult — that you knew Ted Kaczynski as a person, or if he sort of became more of like an object of your fascination after you discovered who he actually was?
Jamie Gehring: Yeah, that's an interesting question, because especially when I was writing the book, it was as though there were two people in my mind. There was the person that I had known, the person that brought me gifts and did show kindness. And then there was this other person inside of this 10-by-12 cabin, no running water, no electricity, writing of his victims as “experiments” and conducting these horrific crimes. And, that was difficult to reconcile and put those two people together in my own mind.
Austin Amestoy: Do you feel that you were ever successful in reconciling those two people?
Jamie Gehring: I do believe that I was able to, but it definitely took me years of writing and processing.
Austin Amestoy: Jamie, in the book, you write a lot about how much you loved growing up in the woods in Montana. We were just talking, before we came on here, about Montana sort of becoming its own character in the story. Tell me about that relationship to Montana. And, I'm wondering, after you discovered who Kaczynski was, was your view of that area and your home colored in a different way?
Jamie Gehring: I'll answer that first, my memories were colored in a different way. My home was never colored in a different way. And, you know, just on the outskirts of where Kaczynski lived on that 1.4 acre parcel, our property surrounded his. And so, there were many times I would visit it after the arrest, and it does feel different there. It feels darker, it feels more ominous, but my home never changed.
Austin Amestoy: Jaime, how will you remember the Unabomber? This person who you first just knew as “Ted?”
Jamie Gehring: I believe that Ted is inextricably tied to my childhood and my upbringing, and so there will always be some fond memories attached to him, but what outweighs that are the numerous horrific events, not just on a national level, but also in our own backyard. The way I remember him is definitely layered, but I remember him as a very complicated neighbor with a tragic history that did unforgivable things.
Austin Amestoy: You know, the world is going to remember Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, through the headlines and through the media frenzy and the miniseries and all of these different writings and pieces of media about him. What do you think is the number one thing you would share from your experiences with someone to sort of add another dimension to their perspective on Ted?
Jamie Gehring: I think it's important to remember that he was a human being, complex, had a story, and just like everybody. The story behind the person is incredibly important.
Austin Amestoy: Jamie Gehring is the author of "Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber." Jamie, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with me today.
Jamie Gehring: Thank you so much for having me.
