KACZYNSKI AT MICHIGAN

Convicted mail-bomber and U-M grad Ted Kaczynski has filed a request asking the federal government turn over his belongings to the University’s Labadie Collection, which already holds over 6 linear feet of material related to him: “The papers include Kaczynski’s correspondence from over 400 people since his arrest in April 1996, some of his carbon-copied replies as well as some legal documents, publications, and clippings.” Since he has been convicted to life without parole and the evidence no longer needed, I don’t think that his request is unreasonable. However, the Associated Press doesn’t seem to think it will be approved.

Also, according to a recently published biography I was thumbing through at a bookstore last spring, Kaczynski’s mental health deteriorated rapidly from 1962 to 1967, years he lived in Ann Arbor as a mathematics graduate student. During this time he was living in an apartment at 524 South Forest, where the biography says he was increasingly tormented by the sounds of his next-door neighbor having sex. I suppose the truth is stranger than fiction. And yes, he really did win an award from the Mathematics Department his senior year: check out the year 1967 on this plaque in a display case in East Hall.