Sought for over 17 years in connection with a series of mail bombs, which mathematician was arrested in April, 1996 as the so-called Unabomber? full credit if spelled right.

Theodore Kaczynski, a brilliant but troubled mathematician, was indeed the man behind the infamous Unabomber attacks. Born in 1942, he was a child prodigy who entered Harvard University at age 16 and later earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Michigan, even becoming an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley. However, he abandoned his academic career in the early 1970s, retreating to a remote cabin in Montana. It was from this isolated existence that he launched a terrifying 17-year campaign of mail bombings, finally apprehended in April 1996 after one of the longest and most expensive manhunts in FBI history.

Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski sent 16 bombs that killed three people and injured 23 others. His targets primarily included universities and airlines, leading the FBI to coin the moniker "Unabomber" (UNiversity and Airline BOMber). Later, he also targeted technology executives and others he believed were advancing industrial society, which he vehemently opposed. His homemade devices were often meticulously crafted and difficult to trace, leaving investigators baffled for nearly two decades.

A crucial turning point in the investigation came with Kaczynski's demand that his 35,000-word manifesto, "Industrial Society and Its Future," be published. When it appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1995, his brother, David Kaczynski, recognized the distinctive writing style and ideas, leading him to alert the FBI. This courageous act ultimately led to Theodore Kaczynski's arrest and the end of a terrifying era, confirming the identity of the elusive domestic terrorist.