38). Another source sets the figure at about 10,000 "hard-core" militia members (Dority, 1995, p. 13). Experts concur, however, that separatist activity is concentrated in the lower-income, rural, white communities of the Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and West.
Ted Kaczynski, the suspected Unabomber, defies the stereotype of the low-income, rural, white separatist. Kaczynski is highly educated. He was accepted at Harvard University at age 16 and received his doctorate in math from the University of Michigan. After graduation, Kaczynski worked as a math professor for the University of California, Berkeley. He then became increasingly disgruntled with technological changes in society, withdrew into the Montana wilderness, and subsequently masterminded a do-it-yourself bombing operation.
Kaczynski's campaign of terror began in 1978 and lasted for 18 years. His misdeeds claimed three lives and 23 injured victims. Kaczynski targeted academicians, corporate executives, and computer store owners, among others. The FBI investigation into the Unabomber case was the longest in its history: "federal agents had spent more than $50 million as well as a million work hours trying to catch the killer" (Thomas, 1996, p. 37). The special 80-person task force tracking the Unabomber included a multidisciplinary team from the FBI, the ATF (the Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), and the Postal Service. Despite the vast computer system of information compiled on Kaczynski, the suspected criminal's own mistake--insisting that his 35,000-word manifesto be published in the national press--led to his arrest. On reading the diatribe, Kaczynski's brother contacted the FBI through his personal lawyer, launching the investigation that led to the eventual arrest of the Unabomber.
If Ted Kaczynski deviates from the white separatist mode, the Freemen of Montana provide the classic example of the ilk. As of mid-1996, t...