Customer Reviews

The Unabomber and the Zodiac

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First let me suggest that if this is your first book on either subject I'd start with some other selections. My impression was that the author assumes the reader has a fundamental understanding of both criminal cases, so he does not go into detail explaining the grizzly events attributable to the killer/s. Again, this book is specifically about the similarities in the Unabomber and Zodiac and not about the actual crimes.


The books strength is that it paints a new and intriguing picture of the Zodiac's profile and puts it in a real context - that being Ted Kacynski. The author provides an interesting contrast to some other recent books that profiles Zodiac as nothing more than marginally clever and very lucky. However, I'd ultimately categorize this book as trivia as it frequently succumbs to drawing ludicrous connections and assumptions that strain credibility. Had the author stayed focused on the similar pathology of both men it probably would have been a stronger book.

This book is a remarkable analysis of the shared similarities of two high-profile killers; one of which (the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski) was captured after an 18-year hunt by authorities, but ONLY after being identified by a family member through his writings; the other (the Zodiac) still unidentified almost 40 years after his reign of terror, leaving behind a myriad of correspondences, coded messages and elusive clues to his mysterious identity.

Chapter by Chapter, Douglas Oswell breaks down the parallels of known works of the Zodiac and known works of Kaczynski offering the reader a clearer insight into each similarity. He covers both pro and con of each situation, allowing the reader the ability to decide for himself as to whether or not these two could possibly be one-in-the-same.

Of most particular interest and one that struck this reader with awe, is each killer's uniqueness for communicating through writing to the media (in some instances, the same media), the police and their victims; their knowledge and use of code; their need for public attention, their teasing ways of threatening the public (then withdrawing their threat) and their high-powered use of literary allusion.

Bottom line - not only is this book an outstanding examination of these two murderous legends as it relates to the unsolved murders of the Zodiac, it presents itself as an extremely well-written, highly-educated and exceptional tool for use in any classroom of criminology or psychology.

All credit to Douglas Evander Oswell. A thorough, meticulous (some would say obsessive) dissertation on what would at first appear to be a somewhat ludicrous proposition. The early chapters are less convincing in terms of Oswell's central idea that these two individuals could be one and the same. Many of the early examples supporting this theory (and Oswell is first to acknowledge that it is indeed simply a theory) do strain credibility and could easily be dismissed as simply coincidence.
However, as the book progresses, all bets are off as more compelling facts and evidence turn this into a classic, thrilling and utterly fascinating story. Without spoiling anything, there is one particular line of logic involving The Zodiac ciphers, Ted Kaczynski's mathematical formulations, and the theory of sets. Stunning!
I highly recommend this book.

I must confess that I began Doug Oswell's The Unabomber and The Zodiac with anything but an open mind. Having co-authored a book on the Zodiac case myself, the idea that Zodiac and the Unabomber might be the same person initially struck me as far fetched. From the very first chapter, however, Oswell's carefully reasoned, meticulous analysis put major dents in my skepticism. He reveals an amazingly detailed knowledge of both of these very complex cases. His reasoning is quite measured inasmuch as he does not assert in any final way that Zodiac and the Unabomber are one and the same. His analysis does succeed in revealing many startling and though-provoking similarities between Zodiac and the Unabomber. And, I must confess, his writing includes keen insights into the psychology of the Zodiac that I missed in my own analysis. While I'm still not fully convinced that the Unabomber is the Zodiac, I do now see the common threads in their underlying psychodynamics and I am far more open to the possibility that the Unabomber may be the Zodiac. Oswell's book is extremely well written and thought out. I recommend it without hesitation.

David Van Nuys, Ph.D.
co-author, This Is The Zodiac Speaking: Into The Mind of A Serial Killer

This is an excellent work. The depth of the research is amazing. The author puts together the evidence and facts showing incredible links between the psychology, MO, handwriting, word usage and physical descriptions of the Zodiac Killer and Ted Kaczynski. Forget about the several people falsely claiming their stepdad was the Zodiac, and the fruadulent cases against Allen and Gaikowski.

This book is careful in its approach and conclusions. It never overstates the case. In the end it cannot yet be proven beyond a doubt that Kaczynski was Zodiac, but it is the most convincing case yet, by far. I would urge anyone interested in the Zodiac case and sick of the nonsense to read this book.

You can also get new info at the author's website, [...].

A new edition of the book would be great, as a lot of new material on Kaczynski has come out, most of it verifying theories of the author, such as an interest in Wagner, opera, codes and other things.

This is a fascinating book about Ted Kcazinski and the Zodiac case.There are several books around written by people who claim ,'They knew the real Zodiac.'Here's another.Alston Chase wrote ,'Harvard and the Unabomber'.The MKULTRA project was long around before Ted ever went to Harvard.If you were to ask Doctor George Hodel how he would define 'Ted K'.Hodel would classify Ted Kcazinski as a 'Polish Hitler'.Hitler described himself as an atheist and anti-communist,and suspicious of all people.Hodel had age-old contacts with Chicago.Steve Hodel,Dr.Hodel's son,even suspects his father was the 'Lipstick killer'.If you look at the Zodiac letters face-value,many of the baby-boomer suspects,could have written it.Yet,Steve Hodel points out a deeper meaning in the Zodiac letters,that probably points back to Doctor George Hodel.I find it hard to believe that when Ted went to teach at Berkeley,he aquired mounds of California history and personal histories of other Zodiac suspects.He is also the one Zodiac suspect,who had no direct knowledge of the musical playwrites,Gilbert & Sullivan.I wonder what contact George Hodel had with Anton LaVey,the founder of the 'Church of Satan'.Both men,Hodel and LaVey,had dismissed Ted Kcazinski and Wojtek Frykowski,as Christianised pagans,who had strayed from the flock.Almost all the Zodiac victims had direct or indirect contact with the Church of Satan.Did Ted K have any contact with Richard 'the Goat' Giakowski? Seems unlikely.On Tom Voigt's web-site,it was pointed out that Ted was not into occult or black magic topics.I think when the final chapter of the Zodiac case is written,Ted Kcazinski was a victim,rather than the master-mind.Also Arthur Leigh Allen appears to have been the victim of a sophicated set-up.On his school's sign-out sheet,other teacher's noted a sqiggly 'Z',by his name slot.Somehow ,someone entered Allen's Santa Rosa grade school,and wrote that strange 'Z'.Again,it seems unlikely Ted was in California then.Even another Ted,Ted Bundy,who was familar with Santa Rosa,wasn't into occult or black magic topics.This book should be read as an addendum to the Zodiac case,yet not the final chapter,on perhaps the world's most complex criminal case.

Wow, I never would have even considered the possibility. Mr. Oswell has obviously performed a wealth of research in preparation for authoring this book. The many analogies, comparative data and statistical analyses were overwhelmingly convincing! It is hard to dismiss the possibility of the Unabomber and Zodiac killer being one in the same having read this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Unabomber and/or the Zodiac killings. It is packed full of detailed information and analysis on each notorious killer.

Instead of being a 250 page book, this would have been much better as a 5-10 page essay. I have read pretty much anything there is to read on The Zodiac. I was willing to read this with an open mind, but the author did little to impress me or make me believe in his theory. Could The Unabomberand the Zodiac be one and the same? Sure, anything is possible. To me the author himself came across as not open minded. It comes across as he has his opinion, and is out to prove it by twisting everything into one big giant piece of evidence to back up his beliefs. SOme of the things he says to use as proof is that both men used the word "statement" in their letters. Such as "in regards to the statement on the news". He says they used statement instead of "say, says, saying". WEll does the sentence " In regards to the saying on the news" make sense. They used the word "statement", because it was the logical word. Also his proof that both men were intellegent. Last i checked there were many intellegent people in the world. You can make many people look guilty of something if you try hard enough. This is what the author seemed to me to be doing here. Only using facts that would support his statement, and ignoring facts that would make it look less possible for them to be the same person. Also, i believe, in an attempt to make him look more intellegent, and therfor more qualified to author a book on this topic, the author seemed to go out of his way to use big words and intellegent sounding words, wich i feel slowed the book down, and would make people have to look up many of the words. Each paragraph was like reading the previous one. Just repeating the same thing over and over.
I give the author credit for his obvious hard and dilligent work in trying to prove his theory. He obviously did do a great deal of research and work, however i feel he was only willing to print the part of his work that attempted to prove his point. Very single minded. The book should have been more of a chacne for the reader to reach his own conclussion, instead it was an attempt to make you agree with his. But to me and the way he came up with this theory, i could just as easily make my neighbor in Cleveland Ohio look like a possible subject. ANyone can look like a subject with the right twisting of the facts, proper wording, and developing of illogical theories.
As i said at the begging i ahve read pretty much any thing that has been written on Zodiac, and read quit a bit on the Unabomber, though not hearly as much as Zodiac, and of all i have read on both subjects this by far the biggest waste of money i have spent.