Ted Kaczynski (better known as the Unabomber) received an invitation in 2012, while incarcerated at ADX Florence, to his Harvard graduating class’s 50th anniversary reunion. He RSVPed, noting his occupation as “prisoner” and his eight life sentences as “awards.”
As a sophomore, Kaczynski participated in a study described by author Alston Chase as a “purposely brutalizing psychological experiment” led by Harvard psychologist Henry Murray. Subjects were told they would be debating personal philosophy with a fellow student, and were asked to write essays detailing their personal beliefs and aspirations. The essays were turned over to an anonymous attorney, who in a later session would confront and belittle the subject – making “vehement, sweeping, and personally abusive” attacks – using the content of the essays as ammunition, while electrodes monitored the subject’s physiological reactions.
