Ted Kaczynski has once again made headlines with the release of Netflix’s true-crime film Unabomber. The movie follows the man who anonymously killed and injured Americans across the country using homemade explosives for 17 years, starting in 1978. His bombing spree led to three people losing their lives and at least 23 injured.
However, when the authorities grew suspicious that Ted Kaczynski was the killer, they reached out to his brother, David Kaczynski. And now, while we know Ted died by suicide in prison in June 2023, the Netflix film has brought questions about where David is.
Who is Ted Kaczynski’s brother David Kaczynski?
David is seven years younger than Ted. According to The New York Times, they grew up in Evergreen Park and were raised by first-generation Polish Americans. David aspired to be a writer and graduated from Columbia University in 1970 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In one of his letters, David called Ted the best big brother he could have growing up.
While Ted was a wonderful big brother, David often questioned why he didn’t have any friends. In a 2009 NPR interview, he recalled how his mother had told him that Ted developed abandonment issues after he was hospitalized at nine months old. Their bond continued well into adulthood, and when David left to work at a zinc smelter in Montana, he and Ted purchased the land Ted built his cabin on outside of Lincoln, according to the outlet. David lived in a different city about 90 miles away.
David later worked as an English teacher in Iowa before taking time off to write a novel in Texas and eventually moved to New York to live with Linda Patrik, whom he planned to marry. David’s marriage plans allegedly set Ted off, prompting the big brother to cut off all communication.
What led to Ted and David Kaczynski’s estrangement?
While David and Ted initially stopped speaking because the big brother didn’t want the former to get married, David told The New York Times that their division deepened after David and Patrik helped authorities identify Ted as the “Unabomber.” For those unfamiliar with the case, the “Unabomber’s” manifesto was published on September 19, 1995, in The Washington Post and The New York Times.
David’s wife encouraged him to read it and brought up Ted as a potential suspect. He admitted that if it wasn’t for Linda, he wouldn’t have given the manifesto another thought. However, because of her, he could help the police catch Ted. The criminal was arrested on April 3, 1996, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to several charges. In an interview in September 2025, David recalled when Ted was arrested and said:
“I was just devastated. There aren’t gonna be any innocent victims now, but maybe gonna have to go through the rest of my life with my brother’s blood on my hands.”
David claimed that he wrote to Ted in prison shortly after, to which the latter responded by calling being imprisoned for life “a fate far worse than death.” He added, “The real reason why you informed on me is that you hate me.” In the letter shared by David, Ted slammed David and said:
“And what you hate me for is your own gnawing sense of inferiority. Your suspicion that I was the Unabomber at last gave you your opportunity to get a crushing revenge on big brother for being smarter and more capable than you are.”
David eventually apologized to Ted, often deposited money into his commissary account, and sent him books. Over the three decades that Ted was in prison, he also kept sending letters reminiscing about their shared memories. However, Ted rarely replied and refused to add David to his visitors list. Nonetheless, David kept trying, especially after he learned that Ted had terminal cancer.
Where is David Kaczynski now?
After what David and his wife faced, they decided to work at a Buddhist monastery, from where they retired in 2015. Following that, he and Linda moved to Texas, where David gave several lectures on mental illness at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. In 2016, he even wrote a memoir titled Every Last Tie: A Memoir of the Unabomber and His Family.
In the months after Ted’s arrest, David and his wife tried to connect with some of Ted’s victims to apologize and help them cope. While most survivors didn’t respond, Gary Wright, who was injured in 1987 when Ted left a bomb outside of his computer store, got back to the couple. He admitted he had plenty of time to process what had happened before David reached out, and that he had redefined forgiveness for himself.
David and Gary have allegedly kept in touch over the years. Not long after Ted’s death in 2023, the pair appeared at a Yom Kippur event together in California, where David reportedly said he was grieving his brother’s death, according to The New York Times. However, while he lost his blood sibling, he called Gary his brother in spirit.
What are your thoughts on the whereabouts of Ted Kaczynski’s brother, David Kaczynski?
PC: FBI, ABC News, Humankind, Times Union
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