About David

David Kaczynski is executive director of New Yorkers For Alternatives to the Death Penalty (NYADP), www.nyadp.org, and the brother of Theodore Kaczynski – the so-called Unabomber – who was arrested in 1996 after David and his wife Linda Patrik approached the FBI with their suspicions that Theodore might be involved in a series of bombings that caused three deaths and numerous injuries over 17 years.

It was Linda who first suspected David’s brother as the Unabomber and Linda who pressed David to search for the truth after the Unabomber’s “Manifesto” was published in the Washington Post. In the autumn of 1995, the couple undertook a careful comparison of language and ideas in the Manifesto with letters that David had received from his brother over many years. In ethical and emotional partnership, David and Linda confronted their moral responsibility to stop the violence and ultimately shared their suspicions with the FBI, leading to Theodore’s arrest on April 3, 1996. David and Linda discuss their ethical dilemma in an article “Family Responsibility for Stopping Violence,” published in the anthology Ruminations on Violence, ed. Derek Pardue, Waveland Press.

Despite his diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, Theodore was charged capitally and only avoided the death penalty after his family waged a two-year campaign to convince the US Justice Department that Theodore’s delusions had precipitated his violent behavior.

Subsequently, David formed close friendships with Gary Wright, who was nearly killed by one of his brother’s bombs, and with Bill Babbitt, who saw his brother executed 18 years after he turned him in to the Sacramento police. A documentary film,  An American Life: The Journey from Violence to Hope, featuring the three friends and Bud Welch, whose daughter Julie was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing, is currently under production.

After leading a successful statewide campaign to end New York’s flawed and ineffective capital punishment system, David has focused NYADP’s work on promoting community initiatives that address the root causes of violence and that provide meaningful assistance to those directly affected by violence.

Prior to joining NYADP, David was assistant director of the Equinox shelter for runaway and homeless youth in Albany, where he counseled and advocated for troubled, neglected and abused youth in the Capital District.

David’s other writings include an essay on his relationship with his brother, “Missing Parts,” published in the anthology Brothers – 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry, ed. Andrew Blauner, Jossey-Bass; and a regular blog on the Albany Times Union newspaper website: http://blog.timesunion.com/kaczynski .