It’s a common saying that you can’t choose your family, and the same can be said for your neighbors. While most people might experience minor annoyances from those living nearby, few can claim to have grown up next door to the infamous Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Jamie Gehring, in Lincoln, Montana, had this unsettling experience, living in close proximity to Kaczynski before his arrest in 1996 for a series of mail bombings that terrorized the nation.
Growing up, Gehring’s family resided about half a mile from Kaczynski’s secluded cabin, the place where he meticulously crafted his bombs and harbored his anti-technology resentment. The dense woods separated their properties, creating a sense of isolation even within their small community. Lincoln, with its sparse population, was already remote, and their area even more so, dotted with only a few homes and hunting cabins. Initially, Kaczynski seemed to desire connection with this small community after abandoning his academic life for a simpler existence, and the Gehring family was among those he attempted to connect with, at least initially.
Gehring recounted to Oxygen.com that shortly after her birth in 1980, Kaczynski presented her with a hand-carved wooden cup as a gift. His gestures of kindness continued with small, painted rocks, delivered personally through the woods separating their homes. “He had a certain kindness toward me, the way he would speak to me,” Gehring remembered, reflecting on these early interactions. However, as time passed, she noticed a shift in him. “More disheveled and appeared agitated,” is how she described his evolving demeanor.
While Kaczynski was once a visitor to their family home, these visits became less frequent as Gehring grew into her teenage years. Despite the dwindling interactions, a semblance of civility remained. Her parents would occasionally offer Kaczynski rides into town. Yet, as the Netflix docu-series “Unabomber-In His Own Words” revealed, Kaczynski harbored resentment towards the Gehring family, particularly towards technology, which led him to acts of sabotage against her father Butch Gehring’s lumber mill machinery.
Despite these tensions, it was a particular encounter in the woods that left an indelible mark on Gehring. At 15, venturing into the woods between their properties near a familiar rock quarry, she unexpectedly crossed paths with Kaczynski, an encounter that filled her with an inexplicable dread.
“We almost literally ran into each other and there was just something about him and it’s hard to put into words,” she explained to Oxygen.com. “It’s just an intuition, a feeling that he had changed. For the first time I was terrified of him and scared to be in the woods alone.” A simple “hello” was exchanged, but Gehring admitted to fleeing the scene, constantly looking back over her shoulder, her unease palpable.
Contrasting with accounts of Kaczynski’s brother recalling his kindness to animals in his youth, Gehring’s experience painted a different picture. She recounted a darker side, aligning with a 1999 New York Times report detailing Kaczynski’s admission to shooting a dog. More disturbingly, Gehring alleged that Kaczynski poisoned her family dog.
Adding to the unsettling atmosphere, Gehring noted the strange behavior of her family’s pets. “[…] animals on her property “would get incredibly territorial when they saw Ted. It was obvious that they did not like him.” She interpreted this as a warning sign, stating, “Clearly they were trying to warn us.” The animals’ aversion, initially attributed to Kaczynski’s “smell of the wild,” now seemed like a more profound intuition.
In recent years, Gehring has channeled these experiences into a book, tentatively titled “Life With Ted K.” During her research, she uncovered tragic aspects of Kaczynski’s life, including a traumatic childhood hospital stay. “It didn’t excuse his horrific acts in any way but it helped me to understand him and provide a reminder that everyone has a story,” she conveyed to Oxygen.com, reflecting on the complexities of human lives, even those who commit terrible acts.
Ultimately, Gehring emphasized that her experiences underscored the importance of trusting one’s instincts and looking beyond the surface. “Take a deeper look” and “follow your gut,” she advised, lessons learned from an upbringing in the shadow of the Unabomber. Currently, Ted Kaczynski is serving a life sentence in a supermax prison in Colorado, convicted for his devastating bombing campaign.
