Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski, who was dubbed the “Unabomber” by the FBI, was found dead in his cell at a federal prison medical center in North Carolina early Saturday morning at the age of 81.

A spokesperson for the federal prison system told The Associated Press that his cause of death hadn’t been determined yet.

Known "the Unabomber," he admittedly committed 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995 at airlines, universities, and computer stores, according to the Associated Press (UNABOM was an acronym for University and Airline Bomber). The bombings caused the deaths of three people and the permanent injuries of more than 20 others.

Kaczynski's story as a reclusive bomber who lived in a shack in the woods after becoming disillusioned with society and academia is relatively well-known — but he also had some Bay Area ties. He retreated to the one-room, hand-built shack in rural Montana with no running water following a stint as a teacher at UC Berkeley.

Originally, he was born in Chicago and was reportedly a child prodigy and went to Harvard at the age of 16. There, he participated in a volunteer psychological study in which he was subject to hours of extreme verbal and emotional abuse as a measure of how people could handle stress, according to Reuters.

He eventually earned a mathematics PH.D. from the University of Michigan. After that, according to the Berkeley Historical Plaque Project, he became the youngest professor ever hired at UC Berkeley at the age of 25. However, he was apparently wildly unpopular among undergraduates, who said he seemed nervous while teaching and was unresponsive during office hours. He resigned after two years, and in 1971 moved to a small plot of land in Montana.

There, he made and mailed deadly homemade bombs across the country — leading to major changes in how Americans mailed packages and boarded airplanes, as the Associated Press reported. He also sent a 35,000-word anti-technology manifesto called, “Industrial Society and Its Future,” to national newspapers in 1995 — which ended up leading to a tip from his brother.

FBI agents soon after found him in his Montana shack, which was filled with rambling journals, a coded diary, and explosives and bomb-making materials, ending what has been called "the longest and costliest manhunt" in American history.

The FBI described Kaczynski as "a twisted genius who aspires to be the perfect, anonymous killer," according to Reuters. But he refused to plead not guilty by way of an insanity, and eventually pleaded guilty instead. He was sentenced to four life terms plus 30 years in federal prison starting in 1998, where a psychiatrist diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. He was held in a federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, until his transfer to the prison medical facility in North Carolina.

Feature image of  mathematician Ted Kaczynski, later a domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber, at the University of California, Berkeley, June 1968. Photo by Sygma/Sygma via Getty Images.

The woman whose storage unit police discovered a massive stockpile of illegal weapons and ammunition in back in 2021 has been found guilty of felony possession of ammunition by a prohibited person. The 45-year-old SF resident, named Thor Kill, was sentenced to a two-year prison term, as the Chronicle reported.

According to District Attorney Brooke Jenkins' Office, Kill had accumulated an alarming arsenal in her home and in a SOMA storage unit that included a staggering thousands of rounds of live ammunition, 87 firearm magazines, 125 pounds of explosive powder, and various equipment used for ammunition manufacturing.

Court records also show that police also found bomb-making materials, body armor, and armbands with Nazi symbols, the Standard reported.

Kill had a previous misdemeanor assault conviction that rendered her ineligible to possess ammunition. As part of this recent conviction, Kill is now permanently barred from possessing firearms and ammunition

The Standard additionally reported that Kill's social media posts had raised concerns for law enforcement agents before they raided her home and ultimately arrested her in 2021. Her posts reportedly supported Nazis and mass shootings — full of antisemitic ramblings and conspiratorial reposts.

After her arrest, she reportedly served some jail time and has since been released and placed on probation.

Image via Unsplash/Jay Rembert.

We've been eagerly anticipating the release of The Circle, the Tom Hanks/Emma Watson film adaptation of Dave Eggers' dark Silicon Valley tale. But today we got word of a bad sign for the flick, as representatives for the studio say that critics will not get a look at the movie before it's released to paying customers — at least, not the critics who work in the Bay Area.

If the film, which was reportedly shot starting in September of 2015, follows Eggers' well-received 2013 novel, it tells the tale of Mae Holland (Watson), a recent college graduate who lands a job at a tech monopoly that's swallowed the likes of Facebook and Google and juuuust might be terrible and evil and all that. Other cast members include Patton Oswalt and John Boyega, and contains one of the last performances of the late, great Bill Paxton. The full trailer for the film dropped in February, with a reminder that the release date is April 28.

But don't expect a critical review, at least not a local one, to help you decide if you want to drop your Hamilton and change on the film. A rep with Allied Integrated Marketing, the PR agency responsible for arranging Bay Area advance and press viewings of movies, tells SFist that there are no plans to screen the film for the media.

Savvy movie goers know that such a decision is rarely a good sign for a film. As noted by The Bonus View after Independence Day: Resurgence (a legit stinker, I can say from bitter experience) denied itself to critics, "withholding a film from critics is considered a bad sign that the studio has lost faith in the movie and expects overwhelmingly poor reviews."

"Preventing those reviews from being published before release date is a desperate attempt to mitigate negative buzz," they write, "so that audiences won’t be scared off from seeing it."

Or, as TV Tropes puts it, "This is almost always a big warning sign about the quality of the movie," one that means "The review compilation sites also have very few reviews and can't compute a review score from it." As of publication time, for example, the Rotten Tomatoes page for The Circle reads that a Tomatometer score is not available. As critics often see films weeks (if not more) before they are released, this is a very bad sign, indeed.

The Circle's producers should know that at least one person in San Francisco will still go see their film, however: SFist's sole chronicler of The Circle (until today) and Emma Watson superfan Caleb Pershan.

When reached for comment on the breaking screening news, Pershan seemed resigned but ultimately upbeat. Acknowledging that Watson "was terrible in Beauty and the Beast, which was terrible," he says that nevertheless, "I'd watch Emma Watson take a dump."

"I'll definitely go see The Circle," Pershan said, "and the results could be similar."

It's been a wild month of bomb scares at East Bay BART stations! In the latest incident last night, their service was disrupted for about two hours while a bomb squad investigated a threat on an Alameda-Contra Costa Transit bus parked beneath BART tracks.

SF Gate reports that at around 7 p.m. Tuesday, a caller told police that an AC Transit bus parked underneath the BART tracks at Seventh and Chester streets had been packed with explosives.

That call sent the the Alameda County Sheriff's Office bomb squad and K-9 units to the scene, closing the West Oakland Station for over two hours.

The Transbay Tube was also closed during the scare, leaving large crowds of commuters on both sides of the Bay stranded.

According to SF Gate, one of the dogs "got a positive hit" on an area of the bus that bomb detection robots couldn't reach, so a human detection technician in full Hurt Locker garb had to search the area. However, no explosives were found.

"It's always better to have a false positive than a false negative," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. J.D. Nelson told Bay City News.

No explosives found, the West Oakland BART station reopened at around 9:15 p.m., with full service resuming by about 9:25.

Last night's event was just the latest in a recent spate of these types of threats against BART, especially in the East Bay. On July 17, a man reported a bomb on a BART train at the North Berkeley station, on July 25 the morning commute was snarled after rumors of a bomb at Oakland's Coliseum station, and on August 1, a "suspicious package" shut down BART's Dublin/Pleasanton station. In all cases, the threat proved groundless.

[SF Gate]
[Bay City News/ABC7]

Part of San Francisco International Airport was evacuated a little before noon today after authorities discovered a suspicious package in a screening area. The closure shut down Terminal One, boarding area C, the Delta Airlines terminal.

“The package went through one of the X-Ray machines,” airport spokesman, Mike McCarron told CBS 5. “The operator didn’t like what they saw as far as what was inside the package, asked for assistance, and it was very suspicious.”

According to AP, "passengers are being redirected to other boarding areas, then bussed to their Delta flights...some flights have been delayed because of the lockdown." And while a very serious manner, today's SFO closure isn't nearly as interesting as what happened at JFK Airport. According to Gothamist, "An individual who had been flagged by the TSA and was asked for a secondary screening apparently walked away around 5:20 a.m., causing security to shut down Terminal 7, clear it out, and then re-screen all the passengers." This caused The View's Sherri Shepherd to go on a delightful Twitter rant.

The package and the package's owner are now under investigation. SFO has yet to open the terminal. We'll update as soon as they do.

Below, CBS 5 report:

Update: The terminal has since reopened.

An elderly man in Vacaville was injured by an explosive device hidden in his Sunday newspaper yesterday. When the man went to retrieve the paper from his lawn the hidden device exploded, alerting neighbors who found him "bloodied and lying on the lawn in front of his house," according to KGO-TV. The injured man was airlifted to the hospital in Davis while police evacuated the quiet-looking suburban neighborhood and cautioned others against picking up their own Sunday papers. No other explosives were found nearby.

Authorities from nearby Travis Air Force Base, the ATF and the FBI have yet to release additional details on the explosive device, nor have they determined if this was a targeted attack on the unidentified victim, but the whole thing has an uneasy sort of Arlington Road feel to it. ABC7's video report below:

[ABC7/KGO-TV]
[NYDailyNews]
[Chron]

Grenades were discovered on the 600 block of Potrero Avenue this morning at around 7:15. According to BCN (via SFGate): "Potrero Avenue has been closed between Mariposa and 19th streets, and 18th Street has been closed between Hampshire and Utah streets during the investigation, Dangerfield said."

SF Appeal notes, "the 33 Stanyan bus is at a standstill, and the 9 San Bruno bus is being routed around the scene."

No word yet wether or not the explosives are fake, but you should stay out of the area this morning until further notice.

Update: All clear. Potrero Hill Avenue has reopened.

Around 7:10am during this morning's commute, a heavyset man in a Black SUV called in to the KCBS traffic tipline to alert them to a potential traffic jam: his own vehicle he had pulled over on the westbound deck of the Bay Bridge. According to reports the man explained he was armed and his vehicle was carrying explosives along with his 16-year-old daughter he was holding as a hostage. A negotiator was requested to speak to the man, described by CHP as "truly mentally unstable," as he exited the vehicle and threatened to jump off the bridge.

Police shut down westbound traffic at the Toll plaza just after 7am, and airborne KCBS traffic reporter Ron Cervi managed to tweet a photo of the back up on the upper deck of the Bay Bridge. By 8:10am the suspect was talked off the rail and taken in to custody by the Police before bomb squads searched the SUV and an officer removed the vehicle from the area.

As of 9am, traffic westbound traffic on the upper deck on the Bay Bridge had resumed although backups at the toll plaza were still jamming up East Bay freeways.

[Examiner]
[Appeal]
[KTVU]

The bomb squad arrived at Market and Front this morning after a "suspicious package" was found. We'll update as soon as we hear more. And, if we may add another dash of alarmist news to your Friday, this comes on the heels of suspicious packages found throughout the world this morning.

Update I: The blocks around Market & First are bring evacuated. Some worker bees are being forced to stay inside.

Update II: KRON 4 reports, "Authorities have now removed a suspicious package from the San Francisco Financial District which had prompted the closure of Market and Battery Streets." The package, found in front of Jamba Juice, was taken away for investigation by the bomb squad. "Things are now returning to normal in the area."

A reader, who sent in the above photo, tells us, "Most of Fort Funston is closed due to the discovery of an old, possibly active bomb." Twitter user fiercekitten reports: "Half of [Fort Funston] is closed because they found a live shell from the old fort."

We're also getting word that a bomb squad just detonated the old bomb.

SFist talked to someone at the Parks & Rec Department who explained that from time to time they "still do turn up WWII pieces and bombs" at Fort Funston, old explosives "covered with sand that nobody noticed."

We'll update as soon as we know more.

Update: According to the police, the area has reopened.

Oh oh. A suspicious looking package was discovered at 15th Street and San Bruno this afternoon -- well, 550 15th Street to be exact -- prompting the bomb squad to investigate. SFist reader Sean Manchester sent in the image of the squad in action. (We pray to God nothing happens to the Audi.)

SFist will update if we hear anything further details and/or a loud boom.

Alex Youshock, 17, has been identified as the former Hillsdale High School student who tried it set off pipe bombs at the San Mateo school yesterday. If you recall, ex-student Youshock, armed with a chainsaw, sword and makeshift bombs, tried to kill teachers and students Monday morning, prompting the school's evacuation. CBS 5's Joe Vazquez has word that "[a]gents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and local police searched the suspect's apartment on Casa de Campo Street in San Mateo on Monday evening." According to Vazquez, authorities "removed bags of evidence from the boy's apartment, including what San Mateo police Lt. Mike Brunicardi described as "bomb making materials." SFGate reports that Youshock planned "was to detonate the pipe bombs outside classrooms, then attack students with the chain saw and the sword as they fled. Youshock has been described as a "really quiet" boy who "didn't have that many friends" and "kept to himself." Which is to say, he was like most of us during our high school years. Anyway, Hillsdale remains closed today in order to repair the bomb damage.

Police are viewing the blast that shook San Francisco's Sunnyside neighborhood Monday night as an accident. Although illegal fireworks were found in the house's garage and rumors swirled about possible mischief, police still aren't sure what caused the explosion. The arson team at the scene ruled out any criminal activity. The blast - which blew off all but the top two steps on the staircase leading up to the second floor, as well as much of the lower front of the building - sent two residents to the hospital. Both are listed in critical condition.