TORONTO — After premiering last weekend on Netflix, the four-hour docuseries Unabomber: In His Own Words will air in its entirety on Discovery Channel tonight at 8 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. PT.
Starting March 4, the series (4×60) will then re-air one episode at a time Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery, and will begin streaming on Crave on April 3, the 25th anniversary of the Unabomber’s capture.
Domestic terrorist Ted J. Kaczynski is a Harvard-educated math prodigy and University of California-Berkeley professor who infamously led the FBI on a $50-million, 17-year-long manhunt and inspired a new generation of ecoterrorists.
During their three-year investigation, executive producers Elliott Halpern and Elizabeth Trojian of Toronto-based Yap Films had unprecedented access to the Unabomber, corresponding with Kaczynski as well as his brother David, who provided them with Ted’s journals as well as the Kaczynski family archives for an intimate perspective on the killer. They also explored the deeply personal decision by David and his wife Linda to turn his brother in to the authorities.
“While it was difficult to relive those harrowing times, Elizabeth and Elliott have managed the most thorough and balanced documentary on the Unabomber saga that has been produced, underscoring not only the complexity of Ted Kaczynski’s character but of the human character generally, with its extraordinary mixtures of cruelty and kindness, altruism and blind violence,” says David Kaczynski, in the Yap Films news release.
While researching the documentary, the filmmakers uncovered audiotapes of then-teenaged Kaczynski undergoing CIA-funded Harvard psychology experiments, something long rumoured by that had remained unconfirmed before now. The Yap Films producers also gained exclusive access to 18 hours of audiotapes from a previously unrevealed prison interview with Green Anarchy magazine, given exclusively to writer Theresa Kintz just three years into Kaczynski’s multiple life sentences where he outlines the detailed vision behind his reign of terror in his own voice.
“These new revelations provide dramatic new context into Kaczynski’s mindset as he goes from child prodigy to anti-technology domestic terrorist,” says Halpern, president of Yap Films, in the news release.
“This is an extremely personal and detailed look into the mind of a serial killer and hearing it all in Ted Kaczynski’s voice, first as a Harvard undergrad at age 16 and then 35 years later as an inmate, makes for chilling television,” adds Trojian, chief creative officer at Yap Films.
Titled The Lost Unabomber Tapes on Reelz in the U.S. and Unabomber: In His Own Words on Discovery/Crave in Canada and on Netflix internationally, the series was made with the participation of Bell Media, Rogers Documentary Fund, Rogers Cable Network Fund, and the assistance of The Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. The series is being distributed internationally by Cineflix Rights and Connect3 Media.
