Doug Oswell made this observation at http://www.unazod.com :
The Wagnerian Connection: New Information and a Vindication
by Doug on Sun May 15, 2011 6:59 am
As all may be aware, the U.S. government is prepared to auction off the possessions found in Kaczynski’s cabin, and has established May 18 as the date when the auction will begin. Prior to the auction, the government provided a "sneak peak" at some of the auction lots on its Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/usmarshals/ . Some of these images afford glances at pages from Kaczynski’s writings that have not as yet been publicly seen. Among them is one which I believe vindicates my theory that Kaczynski leaned heavily on the elements of Wagnerian opera in making literary allusions to himself and his motivations.
On page 111 of The Unabomber and the Zodiac, I wrote:
Moreover, this theme of sexual renunciation, so manifest in Parsifal, has its parallel in The Ring. In Das Rheingold, the dwarf Alberich is obliged to forswear love in order to take possession of the golden treasure and master the magic by which he may forge it into the Ring. Mocked and humiliated by the Rhine Maidens, whom he tries in vain to woo, the ugly Alberich immediately makes the deal, renouncing love in favor of the power that the Ring will confer. For Alberich, the bargain is an easy one to make, not only because he is both inwardly and outwardly unlovely, but because his amorous advances have been thoroughly scorned by the beautiful objects of his desire. Like Klingsor, his supposed virtue is nothing more than a necessity.
This parallels the words of Kaczynski on page 102 of his biography:
To take just one example, from Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold, Scene One: ‘He who should shape, from the Rheingold, a ring that would give him measureless power, would win for his own the world-inheritance (or, would inherit the world for his own?) … [But] only he who forswears the power of (sexual) love, only he who drives out the joy of (sexual) love, only he attains the magic to overcome the gold so as to make it into a ring.’
Not only does this passage vindicate my belief that Kaczynski was strongly influenced by the text of Wagner’s operas, but it serves to strongly buttress my theories that (1) Kaczynski used Wagnerian symbolism to offer teasing clues to the authorities as to his personal motivations; and (2) shows that such clues contained a strong theme of sexual frustration. If we take these as granted (as we certainly may) it requires no stretch of the imagination, as outlined in The Unabomber and the Zodiac, to favorably contrast Kaczynski’s Wagnerian themes with those of Zodiac in his use of The Mikado and The Exorcist, with their own strong themes of sexual renunication.
And of course, it goes without saying (although many still need it stated) that both The Ring and The Mikado are forms of OPERA.
Here’s hoping that whoever is fortunate enough to purchase these materials at auction will deign to make their complete texts available to the public.
AK WILKS: I have heard that a publisher may try to buy all the Kaczynski writings, then release it in the form of a book. I hope it happens.
Ted has fought against this auction for 2 years. Perhaps there will be some interesting evidence in there he does NOT want to come out.
For 2 years I have told the detectives I was communicating with that this was going to happen, and that they should request certain items (like rope and masks) before they are sold. I don’t know if they did.
I very much want to see the black hood that is listed among Ted’s effects (Zodiac prototype?), also the green canvas face mask (matches description of EAR/ONS mask).
This newly released info from Ted’s journals does indeed confirm that Doug Oswell was totally right about his theory that Ted was influenced by the Wagner opera cycle.
And the Wagner opera Ring Cycle was heavily influenced by and basically based on NORSE MYTHS AND LEGENDS.
This confirms the ideas of Doug, myself and others, about Ted being influenced by NORSE.
Zodiac wrote a letter about the Norse word "SLA".
The NORSE legends emphasize NATURE, in particular TREES, WOOD, MOUNTAINS, WATER and ANIMALS like the RAVENS OF THE WOODS.
Ted used RAVENWOOD as an address on a letter to a victim, and whoever killed Judge Vance with a mailbomb (designed exactly like Unabomber bombs) also used RAVENWOOD as an address.
In the picture below, labeled by the newpaper as Zodiac sketches on a SFPD detectives desk we see dark wrap around type glasses. They must either be unreleased Zodiac sketches, or sketches of another murder suspect perhaps thought to be linked to Zodiac? Or maybe even just another murder suspect in that time frame.
Compare to dark wrap around type glasses found in Ted Kaczynski’s cabin.
One would hope…
The FBI just turned down my request for the report on the DNA from stamps in the Judge Vance mailbomb murder. Well, they didn’t exactly turn it down. Despite giving them the date of the report and despite even giving them the FBI file number, their response to me is "it cannot be located".
I have encountered obstacles from the start on anything related to Kaczynski. They have for two years refused to do a DNA draw on him, despite it being required by federal law, despite requests from Zodiac and EAR/ONS detectives, despite letters from US Congressman.
Now all the evidence is being sold to the public, rendering it useless in court.
We will learn a lot from this material. But no justice. I tried.
Kaczynski Items Notes Raw Code and Code Key Also Destruction List
Kaczynski Items Licenses and ID Cards
Noted by our member Ricardo Gomez at unazod:
In viewing the auction items, I saw Theodore Kaczynski’s passport photos dated March 27, 1971, according to the description.
Douglas Oswell’s essay refers to Kaczynski’s activities during this 1971 time period.
In the book “Unabomber: A Desire to Kill”, Robert Graysmith mentions that Kaczynski had a passport around that time.
It is known that after Kaczynski resigned from his job as assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley on June 30, 1969, he was thinking about moving to Canada.
At that time, a passport was not required for a U.S. citizen to travel to Canada or Mexico.
The existence of the passport photos dated March 27, 1971, raises the possibility that Kaczynski may have been planning to travel to a country other than Canada or Mexico sometime around the end of March, 1971.
This may be an interesting coincidence because the time would have been not too long after the March 13, 1971, letter to the Los Angeles Times (which was mailed from Pleasanton) and the March 22, 1971, postcard to the San Francisco Chronicle.
AK: Good find by Ricardo Gomez!
Can you provide a link to the page that has the passport photo? And any other info visible on it? Is it in the picture above? Where?
Is there anything to indicate WHERE the passport photo was taken, or where the passport itself was issued? If it was in Los Angeles or San Francisco, that would be of great interest, because as you note, the date itself is between two Zodiac letters, so if Ted Kaczynski can be placed on the west coast, it is very relevant and telling IMO.
Ricardo Gomez: The passport photos are listed with the other auction items at gsaauctions.gov.
The website does not seem to allow linking directly to each item.
The description states that the passport photos are dated March 27, 1971, which is after the two Zodiac-related correspondences of March, 1971.
The description does not mention where the passport photos were taken, so maybe that is unknown.
Wish we had more information!
LINDA:
This does give you a few chills thinking how much this home-made hood reminds of you of another… Wonder what Ted used this for… It looks quite old to me. Stitching around the eyes is interesting. Hand stitches maybe? How about the lining…wonder what that’s made of.
LUKE 68:
What the hell would a distance killer like the Unabomber, need a hood like that for? It’s not like he would have used it to hunt his favourite snowshoe rabbits.
Linda and Luke, I agree! I can think of NO USE for this hood for Ted as the Unabomber or as a hunter. Makes no sense.
Azazel, it does look flat on top!
Ricardo, I saw this listed in the FBI inventory 2 years ago, but this is the first time the image has been released to the public. The inventory also lists a BLACK "face mask" but says it is similar to a "Ski Mask", thus it would be like a hood as in it covers the whole head. No image on that one yet, that I have seen.
And yes the iconic sketch image of Ted in glasses and sweatshirt hoodie conjures up images of the Zodiac at Lake Berryessa, with his dark glasses and hood, doesn’t it?
The existence of the hood found in Kaczynski’s cabin shows that Ted, like Zodiac, wanted and could make a decent hood.
There is also a BLACK HOOD reported as found in Ted’s cabin, but as yet no image I have seen.
NOW…
I am going to engage in a little speculation here, just exploration and asking a question.
Looking at the pictures of Zodiac in costume, it appears the hood has a box shape, like there might be a welding mask type structure. It also appears the hood is connected to the dickey that comes over the chest. So that it is one unit. It also appears in the police drawing that the hood has RECTANGULAR EYE SLITS.
Is it POSSIBLE that he may have wanted to wear a partial face mask hood UNDERNEATH the bulky hood-dickey structure? Perhaps in case it got knocked off during a struggle, so his face would still be partially covered?
Because it does look like the rectangular eye slits on the Kaczynski hood line up quite well with the Zodiac hood.
And they are both flat on top.
This item is being sold to the public. If there is even a 1% chance this could be something Zodiac wore, I wish it could be tested for DNA. With the bloody scene at Lake Berryessa, when Zodiac removed his hood with his hands, tiny microscopic specks of blood from the victims could have got on the hood.
Just re-read the description that Bryan Hartnell gave regarding what Zodiac was wearing.
"…Man wore a light weight blue-black windbreaker over a reddish-black wool shirt…"
Windbreakers have hoods… Could this blue-black lining from the hand-made hood be the hood of a windbreaker?
At the Stine murder scene, Zodiac was also described wearing a "dark blue waist length zipper type jacket (navy or royal blue)".
Try to contact Mr. Hartnell and show him the hood.
Ted did own a navy blue windbreaker, a dark blue waist length zipper jacket and a blue ski jacket parka. Show those to him as well.
Saw some other interesting things in the video Cimm alerted me to.
VR/EAR/ONS was described as wearing green Army style fatigues as well as camo. Compare the camo shirt/jacket of the VR/EAR/ONS with one owned by Ted Kaczynski. Also see Ted wore fatigues.
This is described as a list of names. I think it is what Ted called his "Hit List". This may have been made fuzzy intentionally by US Marshall’s or FBI. Can anyone get a blow up of this, or clarify image, so we can read the names??????
MODERATOR
Can anyone make out what this says???
"Nitric —–"????
These are the infamous poems/limericks that Ted wrote about a woman he liked then hated after she said she did not want to go out with him again. For those who say Ted could only write in a dry academic style, this shows he can – like Zodiac- be funny, poetic, rhyming, sarcastic and "nasty".
MODERATOR
Can anyone make out what this says???
"Nitric —–"????
Nitric Reagent. It’s nitric acid.
-glurk
——————————–
I don’t believe in monsters.
Can anyone make out what this says???
"Nitric —–"????Nitric Reagent. It’s nitric acid.
-glurk
Thanks! Yes I agree that is what it says.
In this post TK uses two words Z used "fat ass" and "nasty". More important I think it shows that he does write in other than the dry academic style of the manifesto. He can – like Zodiac – use poetry, rhyme and sarcastic humor.
MODERATOR
Echoing Glurk, this is from AweShucks: "Nitric reagent "re-agent"….. Or nitric acid basically as my research concludes. Used for gold mining or for etching metals also interestingly…… to age wood. From what I have read it would be the perfect solution to wipe prints from metal or wood…"
AK WILKS: I am particularly interested in the use of Nitric Acid in gold mining, which fits with other items Ted had indicating he did some silver and/or gold mining. Cyanide is also used in these types of mining. The woman killed in New York in 1986 was poisoned by cyanide with silver traces in it, as if it had been used in mining.
This is Ted writing about girls and sex. Doug already noted the Wagner section of this writing and how that confirms early work he did on the case. See http://www.unazod.com/odds.shtml . I have to agree with Doug Oswell, to the extent this writing is genuine, it somewhat weakens any case for Ted as a suspect in the EAR/ONS case. It does show a sexual obsession, but manifesting as a dedication to celibacy, with the sexual tension coming out as violent acts against those he was envious of – first college kids making out in lovers lanes, later professors. But think about Zodiac, and WHY he attacked couples in spots known for love making. Think about the possible envy and hatred Zodiac felt towards love making couples. This writing from Ted IMO fits perfectly with the psychology of Zodiac. If anyone has good eyes and wants to help, I would love to see a transcription of this page.
These pages reflect Ted’s thoughts on birth, his hospitalization (his mother reports he was tied to the bed) and going to Harvard. He uses a Zodiac term "busy work".
MODERATOR
Thanks to GLURK who made an effort at transcription that seems very good! Broken into paragraphs by me for clarity, emphasis on "mildly attractive" added by me and any help on the few unknown words is appreciated.
Ted Kaczynski Journal:
"proved that my ego was serving a (unknown) over sex,
But this was a bitter and painful pride, because I wanted very
badly to have a girlfriend. Thus, I regretted afterward having been
cowed by a pretty girl.
The very strength of my desire for girls
made it much harder for me; I didn’t find it hard to be friendly
with a girl whom I found only mildly attractive. But in any case, I
didn’t understand when or how to * ask for a date. In high
school. my personal situation was such that I learned nothing
about dating conventions, and, being Largeley isolated socially at Harvard,
I never understood any such information there, either.
Also, the fact that I had no interest in most of the common **
entertainments meant that it was hard for me to think of any
place where I could ask a girl to go with me. Dancing
and (unknown) with utmost contempt.# Movies bored me.
I might add that, while some men seem proud of their sexual activities
with women and regard it as proof of their virility, I have
never looked upon sex ******* or the "conquest" of women
as something to be proud of. To me it is nothing to take pride
in any more than eating candy, watching television, or
any other soft pleasure.
On the contrary, I’ve always considered
sex a weakness. Thus, while pride and ego helped me to steel
my will to overcome, say, a mathematical problem, pride and ego
did not steel my will to overcome my shyness with girls.
Let me illustrate all this with a few examples. When
I first got to Harvard, there was a good-looking Miss Beer who used to"
———————————
IMO the thinly disguised envy of the sexually active and the expressed dislike of sexual activity, of men who brag about their conquests and virility, fits PERFECTLY with the MO of the Zodiac killing young couples in spots known for making out or sex.
KITE and I noted numerous word and phrase matches to Zodiac which I detail in the thread "Kaczynski and Zodiac – Shared Words, Phrases and Handwriting". See:
viewtopic.php?f=102&t=250&p=1000#p1000
MODERATOR
Zodiac was described as wearing "clip on sunglasses" at Lake Berryessa.
Is the item on the lower right clip on sunglasses?
MODERATOR
Bumped for WC question.
MODERATOR
Echoing Glurk, this is from AweShucks: "Nitric reagent "re-agent"….. Or nitric acid basically as my research concludes. Used for gold mining or for etching metals also interestingly…… to age wood. From what I have read it would be the perfect solution to wipe prints from metal or wood…"
AK WILKS: I am particularly interested in the use of Nitric Acid in gold mining, which fits with other items Ted had indicating he did some silver and/or gold mining. Cyanide is also used in these types of mining. The woman killed in New York in 1986 was poisoned by cyanide with silver traces in it, as if it had been used in mining.
This is Ted writing about girls and sex. Doug already noted the Wagner section of this writing and how that confirms early work he did on the case. See http://www.unazod.com/odds.shtml . I have to agree with Doug Oswell, to the extent this writing is genuine, it somewhat weakens any case for Ted as a suspect in the EAR/ONS case. It does show a sexual obsession, but manifesting as a dedication to celibacy, with the sexual tension coming out as violent acts against those he was envious of – first college kids making out in lovers lanes, later professors. But think about Zodiac, and WHY he attacked couples in spots known for love making. Think about the possible envy and hatred Zodiac felt towards love making couples. This writing from Ted IMO fits perfectly with the psychology of Zodiac. If anyone has good eyes and wants to help, I would love to see a transcription of this page.
These pages reflect Ted’s thoughts on birth, his hospitalization (his mother reports he was tied to the bed) and going to Harvard. He uses a Zodiac term "busy work".
I was born on May 22, 1942 to working class parents whose interests and attributes resembled the interest and attitudes of liberal intellectuals more than those of ordinary working class people. We lived in Chicago until I was 10 years old.
I am told that I has three bad experiences before I was old enough to remember. I pulled a pot of boiling water off the stove and was scalded very (badly?). I fell on my chin with my tongue between my teeth that my tongue was badly injured and needed a great deal of stitching up . I had an diagnosed allergy to eggs which caused me to swell up enormously all over my body.
I was hospitalized for, I think, a week, with the allergy.
Apparently I took the hospitalization very badly. I am told that my parents were not permitted to spend much time visiting me, that I was much tormented (inadvertently?) by inquisitive doctors, and that I was made extremely frightened and miserable by all this. My parents say that by the time I came out of the hospital I had become completely inert and would neither smile, nor cry, nor respond to situation in any other way. I conjecture that this experience is responsible for my stubbornness and for my high resistance to physical and especially psychological pain.
I have frequent memories reaching back to the times when I was 3 years old. For example, I remember my father carrying me in his arms in a sunlit living room in our first house on Marshfield street. In the same house I remember finding in my toy box a paper stick from a sucker, which I stuck in my mouth, pretending it was a cigarette. After we moved to our second house on Marshfield I remember playing outside with another little boy who bragged about being 4 years old, telling me that I was "only three".
I know that I was not as old as 4 nor as young as 2 but under the circumstances I was not willing to admit to myself or anybody else that I was only three. Later I asked my mother about this and she …
At age 16, in Fall of 1958, I went to Harvard. I had had a particular enthusiasm for going there, but once I got there it was a tremendous thing for me. I got something that I had been needing all along without knowing it, mainly, hard work requiring self discipline and strenuous (??) of my abilities. I threw myself into this with great enthusiasm. Not that it was fun, you understand – It was under tremendous pressure and tension. But I thrived on it. I spend most of my time studying, and almost no time on recreation. I forced myself to keep studying long after I should have gone to sleep. I considered myself negligent if I went to bed before 2 AM, and I often stayed up until 3.
I would get by for a month on 6 hours of sleep a night, then overcome by sleepiness, I would flop down and sleep for, maybe, 10 solid hours. I never felt homesick at all.
Feeling the strength of my own will, I became enthusiastic about will power. Besides the original physical training sessions, I began doing push ups an other exercises on my own.
Unlike my high school math courses, the calculus courses I took at Harvard paid a good deal of attention to the fine points of the logic underlying calculus. I learned a good deal about (?) thinking in general from these courses, and I became enthusiastic about careful analytical thinking.
In high school, getting an A in a course didn’t mean much to me. It was just a matter of grinding out all the busy work. At Harvard, I really has to (?) myself to get an A and that grade gave me a real sense of achievement. There was an atmosphere of excellence at Harvard. Of Course, I had no respect…
Thanks very much for the transcription!
MODERATOR
how many "hoods" can we place with certainty with any other POI..i dunno but it (hood) just gives me the willy’s
how many "hoods" can we place with certainty with any other POI..i dunno but it (hood) just gives me the willy’s
Exactly! Not just the hood, but the handwriting, the fact that he often wrote to the Chronicle, his codes/ciphers etc. I’m not sold on him murdering people in person, but he very well could have played a role in the crimes. Honestly, I have always thought Kaczynski was in charge of the ciphers, Fred Manalli wrote the letters and then there was the murderer and maybe a person or two pulling the strings. A person/people with power but hated society and used Kaczynski and co. to do some dirty work.
A few minutes ago on a toilet not very far, far away….
ophion – I am not much inclined to group theories, though I do not dismiss them. But I agree the total package on Ted is damning – the letters to the SF Chronicle demanding to be on the front page, the codes and ciphers, the crossed lines in a circle, the bomb threats – all shared elements of TK and Z. The up close killing remains the stumbling block for many, but Ted did shoot a worker at a mine site with a rifle, and built a wood pistol for use as a "homicide weapon".
how many "hoods" can we place with certainty with any other POI..i dunno but it (hood) just gives me the willy’s
Exactly! It is amazing to me that he had a very Z like hand made hood, and we know that Z had a hand made hood.
LINDA:
This does give you a few chills thinking how much this home-made hood reminds of you of another… Wonder what Ted used this for… It looks quite old to me. Stitching around the eyes is interesting. Hand stitches maybe? How about the lining…wonder what that’s made of.
LUKE 68:
What the hell would a distance killer like the Unabomber, need a hood like that for? It’s not like he would have used it to hunt his favourite snowshoe rabbits.
Linda and Luke, I agree! I can think of NO USE for this hood for Ted as the Unabomber or as a hunter. Makes no sense.
Azazel, it does look flat on top!
Ricardo, I saw this listed in the FBI inventory 2 years ago, but this is the first time the image has been released to the public. The inventory also lists a BLACK "face mask" but says it is similar to a "Ski Mask", thus it would be like a hood as in it covers the whole head. No image on that one yet, that I have seen.
And yes the iconic sketch image of Ted in glasses and sweatshirt hoodie conjures up images of the Zodiac at Lake Berryessa, with his dark glasses and hood, doesn’t it?
The existence of the hood found in Kaczynski’s cabin shows that Ted, like Zodiac, wanted and could make a decent hood.
There is also a BLACK HOOD reported as found in Ted’s cabin, but as yet no image I have seen.
NOW…
I am going to engage in a little speculation here, just exploration and asking a question.
Looking at the pictures of Zodiac in costume, it appears the hood has a box shape, like there might be a welding mask type structure. It also appears the hood is connected to the dickey that comes over the chest. So that it is one unit. It also appears in the police drawing that the hood has RECTANGULAR EYE SLITS.
Is it POSSIBLE that he may have wanted to wear a partial face mask hood UNDERNEATH the bulky hood-dickey structure? Perhaps in case it got knocked off during a struggle, so his face would still be partially covered?
Because it does look like the rectangular eye slits on the Kaczynski hood line up quite well with the Zodiac hood.
And they are both flat on top.
This item is being sold to the public. If there is even a 1% chance this could be something Zodiac wore, I wish it could be tested for DNA. With the bloody scene at Lake Berryessa, when Zodiac removed his hood with his hands, tiny microscopic specks of blood from the victims could have got on the hood.
MODERATOR
FBI prolly tested it (hood and that may be too much credit I am giving to the fbi since they seem to fumble the ball) and if they did we shall more than likely never know…did TK ever have a girlfriend??..if so I wonder what his "type" was..may be CJB was that girl that turned him "on" and TK with whatever was in his mind had to dispose of her and those feelings…I totally agree hartnell should be shown the hood..if that has not been done well shame on the fbi..another thing i would do is be talking to TK daily as it appears he may have many characteristics of the unknown Z..what could it hurt…ramblings off-god speed
Was there an address book found in the cabin and if so, was everyone in it investigated?
