The United States of America Versus Theodore John Kaczynski: Ethics, Power and the Invention of the Unabomber [Hardcover]

Michael Mello (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

On January 22, 1998, Theodore John Kaczynski, Montana recluse and accused Unabomber, pled guilty and received three life sentences after a dramatic behind-the-scenes legal struggle. Kaczynski was written off by most as a vicious sociopath or Luddite eco-terrorist, and revered by a few as a modern-day John Brown defending a utopian vision at all costs.

In this provocative analysis, Professor Michael Mello, who informally advised the Unabomber defense team, sifts through the media circus, court transcripts, and his own friendship with Kaczynski to expose the conflicts of interest and ideological forces that led to one of the most famous non-trials in legal history. Mello's book is an up-close look at a man who got lost in a system that could not accommodate him because it could not imagine him.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Unabomber case both captivated and worried Americans, prodded by extensive media coverage of his 17-year-long spree of terrorist "anti-technology" attacks. Few of us were prepared to deal with the likes of a Ted Kaczynski--who he was, what he did, what he believed in and stood for. When Kaczynski emerged from hiding in his absurd shack in the mountains with his piles of anti-technology literature, the image of the unruly bearded man in a bright orange jumpsuit burned into our collective unconscious. We haven't yet been able to shake the sight. Such is Michael Mello's thesis, which he elaborates in this masterful account of the legal side of the Unabomber story. Mello, both an accomplished journalist and a notorious defense attorney (he represented serial killer Ted Bundy), actually spent time as an advisor to the Kaczynski defense team during pretrial proceedings; his perceptions are, he freely admits, skewed toward the defense in this case, particularly in matters of procedure. Yet the book never reads like propaganda. Instead, Mello opens up new lines of inquiry into the manner in which the United States government handled its prosecution of the case. With a biting, trenchant approach, he unfolds layer upon layer of the fascinating case and opens it to public view. He also constructs an eerie parallel between Kaczynski's case and abolitionist John Brown, who was executed by the government in the 19th century after his raid on Harpers Ferry. Is it fair, Mello asks, that we should remember Brown as a civil rights martyr and Kaczynski as a comical, albeit defanged, monster? This is fascinating reading, regardless of whether or not you agree with Mello's take on the case. --Tjames Madison

From Publishers Weekly

The Unabomber described in these pages is not the terrorist who killed three and maimed two others. Rather, he's a frustrated defendant who was unable to exercise all the legal options available to him, because his lawyers kept him in the dark about their insanity-defense strategy until it was too late. Mello (Dead Wrong, etc.), a law professor and outspoken critic of capital punishment, corresponded with the imprisoned Theodore Kaczynski. He argues that Kaczyinski's lawyers were selective in presenting evidence in order to support a viewpoint highly prejudicial to their client's best interest. For example, they brought Kaczynski's cramped cabin from Montana to California so they could show it to a jury as proof of their client's dementia. What they did not bring, as one observer pointed out, was the beautiful mountain landscape the cabin inhabited. By entering a guilty plea in exchange for three life sentences, Kaczynski's legal team may have saved him from a death sentence, Mello writes, but they also kept him from getting his day in court and publicizing his ideas about the evils of technology and environmental degradation. Having made his point, Mello tries to draw a parallel between Kaczynski and John Brown. But it is hard to imagine Sierra Club members flocking to a Sacramento courtroom to defend Kaczynski's assaults on professors and businesspeople only vaguely associated with environmental destruction. Kaczynski, despite Mello's sympathy, comes across as someone who believes himself to be superior to anyone who doesn't subscribe to his anti-technology agenda. Mello is a penetrating critic of the legal system. However, though he doesn't try to make Kaczynski a hero, he will have hard time convincing most readers to take Kaczynski seriously as a social critic. (June) FYI: Context Books will publish Kaczynski's own manifesto, Truth Versus Lies, in August.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Context Publications; Cloth edition (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893956016
• ISBN-13: 978-1893956018
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #319,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Law > Legal Theory & Systems > Judicial System

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars We need real information... July 26, 1999

By A Customer

Has anybody ever seen a complete list of the contents of Ted's cabin? I need to know the books he had. I've heard he had hundreds of books. What were they? Can anyone tell me what books Ted was reading? Have you noticed how the press squashed that aspect of this man's life?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An eyeopener of extreme magnitude September 20, 1999

By A Customer

This book gives a revealing view into he frailties of the US justice system, while being unsympathetic, and rightly so, to an individual who undoubtedly committed unspeakable acts on the obviously innocent, regardless of the readers sympathies to the motive. We can all, I think, sympathise with an anti technology outlook regardless of whether we are users, or rather dependants on said technology. I think everyone of us feel a certain technological duress. The point that struck me after reading this book, and certainly some of the reviews, was a certain unawareness as to the fact that this occurance is not unusual on a world stage. Also that the US justice system is as some pristine model to be held up for all the world to admire, and hold in awe, and this is somehow a breach of norm. In high profile cases of this type, where there is a public indignation, there has always been a urgency to see justice done. Henceforth, there is a zelousness on the part of the prosecution to satisfy the public wish to see a "head in the noose". In all such circumstances it may, can, and does breed a certain departure from ethics, even if it isn't obvious in the midst of the cry for blood. However, in retrospect it is easy to see, and critisize, especially when those breaches are pointed out as eloquently as in this offering. There are legal systems as good and better than that of the US, elsewhere in the world, and those systems are subject to the same influences, especially when an event filled with such horror, and given such media attention is presented to the people. In short, my belief is that we all share the blame for the short comings and lack of ethics in these types of cases. Two cases that spring to mind are those that occurred in the UK during the early seventies.... I refer to the case of the Birmingham Six, and the Guilford Four, where innocent men were sent to jail for IRA terrorist crimes, on the basis of obviously coersed confessions, and circumstantial evidence, because of a raging public's thirst for blood. The upside of the UK case was that it was overturned and the errors were at least partially admitted. I don't think this would occur in a US context. The above narrative doesn't seek to claim that Ted Kaczynski was in anyway innocent, which we all believe he was not, and we all believe he should be punished. The point is that, negative bias exists in the face of media hyped horror perpetrated by an individual, and that its created by the paper buying, TV watching public, which vents its anger through a politic motivated by popular opinion. The law, judicary, and prosecuion are just the representitive "Lynching Party". The real question is: Is Uncle Sam Man Enough To Admit His Shortcomings When They Are pointed Out". Read more ›

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Points, Redundant Messages January 13, 2000

By G. Larkin

The author well states legal points of debate regarding the "non-trial" of Dr.Kaczynski. Provides interesting insight to the legal system and inparticular Dr. Kaczynski's plight. However, the book could have been reduced to 2-3 chapters if such points/observations were concisely and clearly stated once.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars About Time September 27, 1999

By A Customer

If there is a particular strength to this book, it is in the revelation that the man who dared to judge Kaczynski, one of the fed's premier affirmative action judges, failed to understand the processes of his own courtroom. Unwilling to become a joke like Brother Lance, this judge decided that his courtroom would not become a soap box for Ted's deranged philosophies, forgeting, along the way, that the Constitution requires that the courtroom become a soap box for the defendant, his one chance to speak his defense, and for the people to weight that defense. Thank you Michael Mello for reminding us that everyone is entitled to his day in court. Top notch book.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly powerful. July 13, 1999

By A Customer

I was expecting a somewhat dry recountal of judicial process and courtroom manuevers when I began reading this title, and was completely surprised to find a book which raises a multitude of thought provoking issues. Mello presents Kaczynski's case clearly and intelligently, and provides a strong argument to support his belief that Kaczynski was unfairly manipulated by his attorneys and Judge Burrell. Yet along the way, Mello also tackles significant topics such as the definition of insanity, media misguiding, euthanasia vs. state assisted suicide vs. consensual execution, personal agenda/ethics in the legal field, diaries and the right to privacy, et cetera. Many of these issues are intelligently discussed within the context of very interesting historical cases. Mello's writing style came across to me as somewhat lacking in personality, at first, yet I soon realized that his straightforward voice is most effective in communicating the issues at hand. In choosing a no-nonsense style, the author does well to include numerous quotes and excerpts from disparate notables such as Anne Frank, Camus, Walt Whitman, Nietzsche, Bram Stoker, Rilke, Socrates, et cetera to pepper the reading with a chorus of voices. By concluding the book with victim descriptions from the Government's Sentencing Memorandum, Mello provides a complete and haunting plot twist....rather unsettling. This book offers not only an incredibly fair, edifying and intriguing view of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of the judicial players, but also solicits the reader into contemplation of important issues. I highly reccommend this book not only to those interested in the specifics of Kaczynski's experience, but to anyone interested in reading an evolved, well thought and thought-provoking book.

3.0 out of 5 stars Publish or Perish August 17, 1999

By A Customer

"Chutzpah" comes to mind - a lawyer makes up the facts. Mello claims privileged conversations with a man whom the US legal system defied the Constitution to silence , but Mello himself blots out the most elementary realities of the "Unabomber" story. When Kaczyinski fled Berkeley the university was under the thumb of a rogue cop who went on the become US Attorney General; Niixon had signed an order suspending civil rights in California and "Operation Cable Splicer" was shooting up the University community. Corrupt corporate interests had gained control of at least one environmentally vital professional school. Who would listen to alarms from this ataciturn, over-educated young math professor? Now that's a story worth telling; I don't think Mello bothered to find out what was going on those days in Berkeley.