Customer Reviews

Unabomber: The Secret Life of Ted Kaczynski

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

See the title? Well with this book you get to know an awful lot (repeatedly) about how the author new the forests betterthan the unabomber...ad nauseam. This is a book about the author, about 85% and very little about Ted Kaczynski. When you have tired for the umpteenth time of how but for the author we may never have found "Ted's Secret Cabin" you will have to seek out other books to find out about the unabomber.
Is it me but why have the last two books I bought from American authors (last one supposed to be about Tim McVeigh) all about themselves and not the subject matter? Very very tedious book and to be avoided if you want to know much about the unabomber but great if you want to learn how skillful and terrific the author is.

"Unabomber: The Secret Life of Ted Kaczynski" was a thoroughly engaging and enlightening read from start to finish.

Authored by Dave Shors and Chris Waits, the book examines Kaczynski's 25 years living in Montana as a true 'mountain man'. The text reveals, among other things, the fascinating details of Kaczynski's encampments, secret cabin, and buried muinitions cashes on Waits' heavily-wooded land.

Offering a glimpse into the mind of the Unabomber are excerpts from his journals. These meticulously kept (and often eloquently written) pages show the reader a man technologically paranoid and vengeful and, at the same time, in love with and in awe of his natural surroundings.

I highly recommend this intelligent and exciting book to anyone in search of first-hand insight into the life and mind of Ted Kaczynski.

I learned a lot about Ted Kaczynski from this book. I thought the author tried to make himself the hero of the story. He helped the FBI with certain aspects of the case. Midway through the book, it was no longer about Ted but about the authors involvement in the case. I wanted more info on Ted and less information on the authors's grandstanding.

This review is in reference to the review by Strauss (It's An OK Book). Strauss's main point is that the book presents a good picture of Kaczynski. He should be familiar with the letter from Kaczynski that was published in the Helena Independent Record (Waits's publisher) that claimed Waits was lying about knowing Kaczynski, how is it possible for him to write about him. Answer: Not very. This book is hokum, and Waits is after the money, not truth.

I was in Lincoln recently and spent a number of days visiting with the townspeople, who were quite informative about Chris Waits book. I found that the FBI were in Lincoln gathering evidence for 2 months after Kaczynski's arrest, and that the FBI were friendly towards the townspeople, even having their pictures taken with them and around the town. Therefore, it is no big deal that Chris Waits had his picture taken with them. Your statement " the FBI would never allow indiscriminate photographs of themselves to be taken unless it was truely important" seems not to be true, as does Chris Waits assumption having his picture taken with the FBI is proof his book has to be true. In fact, the FBI's pictures were in the newspaper and on TV with the Lincoln people. I did read the book and on page 224 Chris Waits said " if the FBI wasn't going to gather and perserve evidence, then I would.", so he and his wife went to the cabin and put the evidence in a plastic bag. On page 252 Chris Waits wrote that when the FBI agents came to collect the evidence he would not turn it over to them, so he kept it. I have seen two television interviews where Chris Waits still has the evidence in his possession and was showing it on those interviews. The latest interview was in the last 2 months on CBS. Chris Waits was holding the rubber gloves, hooded sweatshirt, showing the blue jeans, and showing the writ- ing that maybe was Ted's on the brown board. Clearly, the FBI NEVER collected Waits "important evidence" from Ted's "secret cabin" On page 259 Waits admits what he knows (?) is no longer important since Kaczynski's plea bargin and the book is still UNBELIEVABLE..

I have raised dogs most of my life and after reading this book I have sat and tried to visualize the incident Chris Waits describes in his book about Ted abusing Chris's dogs. I just cannot accept the fact that a dog would let someone catch it and then jab it with a sharp instrutment and that it would stand still and let someone do this to it, without causing major damage to the person who is hurting it. I find it really hard to believe that a dog would let someone do this especially if the dogs hated Ted as much as Chris says they did. My dog who is a good size dog would not even let someone he knew grab him and then proceed to let that person hurt him and not bite that person and break loose from their hold. He is a very mild mannered dog but he would not let someone hold him down and I don't think that you could. He would snarl and bite at you and wiggle until you would loose your grip on him. Once I started questioning this statement I then re-read the book with a more open mind. I found other statements that bothered me. One was Chris says that he was a miner and logger and that he was Ted's best friend. I find this hard to believe for the simple fact that Chris would represent to Ted everything he did not like. I cannot accept the fact that Ted, an environmentalist would have a common ground for friendship with a logger or a miner.

Aside from the obvious interest Mr. Waits attracts by virtue of having been TK's only real friend (and the man who, completely unwittingly, provided shelter, instruction, and supplies that made the bombing campaign possible), he's also a bred-in-the-bone Lincoln local who knows the town, the landscape, and its history intimately. He's also a terrific nature writer--through him, I could not only see and imagine the land, but also feel the texture of the life, from the point of view of a man who can, for example, see a trail scar on a tree and not only name the tree and its history but tell you the exact age of the scar. He's a man with formidable tracking abilities and intelligence whose sweet and accepting nature kept him in denial, for 20-some years, that his friend the eccentric hermit could be up to no good. A surprisingly engaging and interesting account: I couldn't put it down.

I have just read this book. The only life I see here is Chris Waits. He does not tell many stories as to how he knew Ted, he only goes on and on how he helped the FBI who seemed to be too dumb to take his evidence. Was his evidence real.

I borrowed this book and am I ever glad I didn't waste $14.95 on buying it. This book is full of conjectures, implications, but little proof for the things Waits claims. There are many instances where Waits says he found a campsite or an old mine Ted used on Waits property, but gives no proof any of them were actually Teds. Anybody, hunters or hikers, could have used them and not been seen if the area is as remote and dense as Waits claims. Waits certainly likes himself----I found----I reasoned----I thought----I did----espically statements or implications where he thought he was invaluable to the FBI----they couldn't have done the investigation without him. I can't believe he was that important to the FBI, therefore I have doubts about the most of the rest of the book.

The content of this book is thin, if you want a full picture of Kaczynski. This is only about the Kaczynski that the author slightly knew during his 25 years of reclusive Montana living, and there is a great deal more detail about Waits' life in the mountains, and his competition with the FBI about uncovering Unabomber clues, than I cared to know. The NEW YORK TIMES at the time of Kaczynski's capture really gave more biographical information overall, and that was not a lot.