SHATTERED LIVES with Donna R. Gore, “LadyJustice”

Examining the effects of those who have survived violent crime and how it has impacted their lives.

Real people, real tragedy, real help.

Saturdays at 5pm ET Listen LIVE or podcast:

David Kaczynski, brother of Ted Kaczynski known globally as the “Unabomber,” is an enigma.  He’s soft spoken, dignified and a man who carries the weight of an anguished heart that will never heal.  David is also considered the traitor because he’s “the one” who turned in his brother  to the authorities  based on Ted’s writings.  David and his wife Linda saw Ted’s “Manifesto” published in the Washington Post, and noticed an eerie similarity in thought and language pattern using his personal correspondence as a comparison.

David subsequently became a vocal advocate for options to New York’s heretofore ineffective death penalty by starting the non-profit, “New Yorker’s for Alternatives to the Death Penalty” (NYADP);http://www.nyadp.org/. Currently the organization focuses on promoting community initiatives with lots of outreach to many sectors involved in the criminal justice spectrum, promoting restorative justice (an approach using dialogue, accountability and responsibility by offending parties to victims, in order to facilitate healing) and violence prevention.

“When it comes to the death penalty, some victims get more respect than others. It’s a system that picks and chooses, often arbitrarily. If the crime is high profile and the victim is high status, then the death penalty might be a possibility. Media and politics play a big part. Seemingly, most victims and their families aren’t important enough to merit the time, expense, and effort of a death penalty prosecution – prosecutors working tirelessly for months, placing other cases on the back burner, going that extra ten thousand miles in pursuit of ”ultimate justice.”  (from David Kaczynski blog)

David Kaczynski is a victim in his own right.  However, many crime victims cringe and often are uncomfortable in his presence, as some feel he “hasn’t earned his stripes” in the club of true crime victimization. Guilt by association, some detest him for his brother’s actions – a 17 year hunt and murder-maiming spree, until Ted was finally arrested in 1996.  Ted avoided the death penalty after the U.S. Justice Department was convinced by his family and others, that his delusions, (commensurate with paranoid schizophrenia) occurred prior to his violent behaviors.  The Unabomber: The World Was His Target Practice

Related articles

• Shattered Lives: Antoinette Bosco on Forgiveness of a Murderer (imaginepublicity.com)
• God is Good…. Punishment,NOT Death for Prisoners says Antoinette Bosco (donnagore.com)
• Death. It’s Never Fair. (michalecallahan.com)
• When Your Family Member Does The Unthinkable (wnyc.org)
• “A Crimson-faced Harvard Alumni Assn. says it regrets allowing [Ted] Kaczynski to use its so-called Red Book to update his profile.” (althouse.blogspot.com)