My Neighbor, the Madman

Key points

Ted Kaczynski lived near Jamie Gehring as she grew up.

When she learned he was the Unabomber, she strove to make sense of his duality.

Her journey into Kaczynski’s mind offers unique insight for criminologists.

Dogs disliked him. One had a special bark reserved just for Ted Kaczynski—mostly vicious. But his neighbors considered him a harmless (if unpleasant) hermit. One of them was Jamie Gehring, whose grandfather had sold Kaczynski the piece of property in Montana for his 10x12-foot cabin. The recluse was an irascible oddball, Gehring knew, but he sometimes brought her gifts he’d made himself. They’d talk about gardening. When her dog died from poison, she never suspected him. So, when Gehring heard years later that Kaczynski was the deadly Unabomber who’d killed 3, injured