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Dear Dr. Silva, June 2, 2005 This report is based on your input ratings and questions:
Theodore John Kaczynski (TK) and Eric Robert Rudolph (ER) are serial bombers, domestic terrorists who independently murdered and maimed and avoided capture for a combined period of 25 years. Their murderous bombings began after a series of social and occupational failures marked by an increase in cognitive-behavioral isolation. TK resigned from the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley in 1969, at the age of 27 years. In 1971 TK and brother David purchased 1.4 acres near Lincoln, Montana, where TK built and lived in a one room plywood shack with no electricity or plumbing. Approximately seven years later (May 25, 1978) the first of the Unabomber bombs was placed in a parking lot at the University of Illinois in Chicago. The Unabomber was captured almost 18 years later (April 3, 1996). Approximately three months after the capture of the Unabomber, Eric Robert Rudolph picked-up the bomber’s mantle by setting off the Olympic Centennial Park bomb in Atlanta (July 27, 1996), which was approximately seven years after he was discharged from the army at the age of 22. Eric Rudolph was finally arrested almost seven years later (May 31, 2003).
1.1. What is diagnostically similar about TK and ER? The BRACE Character Profiles™ of the domestic terrorists Theodore John Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, and Eric Robert Rudolph are dominated by matters of power and control and have an overall significant positive correlation (r = +0.60). In fact, they have significant positive correlations for each Domain (Cognitive, r = +0.73; Behavior, r = +0.41; Existential, r = 0.43) and for each prototypical character Type (Type A., r = +0.40; Type B, r = +0.63; Type C, r = +0.41). Note that the Cognitive Domain and Type B characteristics have the highest positive correlations.
With respect to the DSM-IV-TR™ personality disorders, the most outstanding cluster of characteristics for the profiles overall are by far those of Paranoid Personality Disorder. In fact, both TK and ER have significant positive correlations for Paranoid Personality Disorder for the overall profile and for each Domain (Cognitive, Behavioral, Existential). Both also have an overall significant absence of the characteristics of Borderline Personality Disorder, Histrionic Personality Disorder, and Dependent Personality Disorder. For the Type B characteristics, which dominate the profile, both have significant positive correlations for Paranoid Personality Disorder, Schizoid Personality Disorder, Schizotypal Personality Disorder, and Avoidant Personality Disorder.
In terms of characteristics, TK and ER very likely meet criteria for Paranoid Personality Disorder, but Delusional Disorder and Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, need to be considered, with Axis II listing Paranoid Personality Disorder (Premorbid) or Personality Disorder, NOS (Premorbid).
1.2. What is diagnostically different about TK and ER? The BRACE Character Profiles™ of the domestic terrorists Theodore John Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, and Eric Robert Rudolph differ most significantly in the following ways: TK has a significantly positive correlation for the characteristics of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and a prototypical 40-point Hare PCL-R, combined with a significantly negative correlation for the characteristics of Schizoid Personality Disorder. On the other hand, ER has a significantly positive correlation for the characteristics of Schizotypal Personality Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder.
The primary within Domain differences are that TK and ER are significantly negatively correlated in the Behavior Domain for Type A characteristics, due in large measure to TK’s significant negative correlation (r = -0.91) for characteristics of Antisocial Personality Disorder in this category. Additionally, there is a low, non-significant positive correlation for Type A and Type C characteristics in the Existential Domain and a zero correlation for Type B characteristics in the Existential Domain. In general, TK and ER are least alike in terms of their values and motivation; however, they are most similar in their paranoid characteristics and in the Cognitive Domain.
2. How likely is it that TK and ER are psychotic? What about BRACE particular results leads to your conclusions? The BRACE Character Profile™ is not designed to make clinical diagnoses, but rather to identify cognitive, behavioral and motivational characteristics which can be used to inform clinical opinion. That said, the BRACE Character Profile™ results for TK and ER are remarkably similar on the surface, but there are some significant differences in the underlying factors.
Type B characteristics clearly dominate both profiles and there is significant dysfunction for both TK and ER in each Domain. With respect to DSM-IV-TR™, Paranoid Personality Characteristics clearly dominate both profiles. But, neither TK nor ER have an overall positive correlation with Antisocial Personality Disorder; however, both do have characteristics consistent with Antisocial Personality Disorder in the Cognitive Domain, and TK also has narcissistic and psychopathic characteristics overall. In combination, these findings suggest that both TK and ER have a rather narrow range of criminal conduct, that TK’s psychopathic characteristics relate primarily to his self-centered world view, and that both TK and ER have good potential for having or developing a delusion-based psychosis. Based on the results of the BRACE Character Profile, it appears that TK may have had a significant psychological change as a young adult, most likely precipitated by the stressors of an academic community that would not entertain or accommodate his extreme paranoid characteristics. Since TK has a current significant negative correlation for Schizoid Personality Disorder and there are no indications of bizarre delusions or hallucinations, Delusion Disorder, Persecutory Type or Mixed Type, must be considered as a strong possibility. On the other hand, ER is younger and his paranoid characteristics are consistent with his sub-culture and lifestyle prior to his serial bombings. Consequently, ER is more likely to be in the processes of evolving from a Paranoid Personality Disorder to a Delusional Disorder.
In the final analysis, the BRACE Character Profile™ would have to recommend:
Theodore John Kaczynski Axis I: 799.9 Diagnosis or Condition Deferred on Axis I There are no indications of hallucinations or bizarre delusions, but there is insufficient information to rule out 297.1 Delusional Disorder, Mixed Type. Axis II: 301.0 Paranoid Personality Disorder
Eric Robert Rudolph Axis I: 799.9 Diagnosis or Condition Deferred on Axis I There are no clear indications of psychosis in Eric Rudolph’s BRACE Character Profile™, but there is insufficient information to rule out 297.1 Delusional Disorder, Mixed Type or 295.30 Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type. Axis II: 301.0 Paranoid Personality Disorder 301.22 Schizotypal Personality Disorder 301.4 Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
3.1. What is functionally similar about TK and ER? Try to think in terms of both generally adaptive and generally maladaptive functioning. TK and ER have simplistic world views which are shaped by simplistic generalizations and discriminations to fit their personal value structures and adaptive capacities. They both start from the position that the current world system, driven primarily by the US, is destructive, immoral, and insensitive to the point of being inhuman and worthy of destruction. Both stretch the bounds of reason to condemn the “establishment” and its value system while denying any intent to use violence against the individuals of which the system is made up. Both reason that for the “greater good” the current system of things must be radically changed and that violent, destructive acts are necessary to effect the government and the hearts and minds of the people. TK and ER see themselves as the special agents of such change, destined to start the change process, to save the world from itself. Following a series of social and occupational failures, TK and ER declared war against a system which did not adapt to their world view or satisfy their related desire for power and control, a war founded on after-the-fact values to justify murder.
Following their life long failure to successfully adjust in the current system, both went through several years of increasing cognitive and social isolation, which was followed by their violent acts. If they could not adjust to the world, the world would have to adjust to them. Their social isolation and survivalist lifestyle reduced the external complexities of life and made their time and circumstance generally more manageable. Their simplistic discriminations and generalizations made them increasingly godlike in the domain of their own imaginations, making the world seem simpler, less complex, less variable, more predictable, and thus more controllable by them. Alone, they were in total control, fighting the good fight with the forces of nature, struggling by the sweat of their brow just to survive and enjoying the fruits of their labor. Alone, there was no one to tell them what to do or what not to do. No one to judge their behavior and no one to challenge their thoughts or motives. Alone, they shaped their thoughts and skills and motives to become domestic terrorists.
For both TK and ER the bombings served dual functions, making the process highly reinforcing. Negatively reinforcing functions include decreasing anger and frustration, venting and vengeance. Positively reinforcing functions include increasing public recognition, a sense of social control, a confirmation of personal power.
3.2. . What is functionally different about TK and ER? Try to think in terms of both generally adaptive and generally maladaptive functioning.
Both built on destructive processes, with goals which are shaped by destructive processes in which they are the determining factor; however, TK thinks primarily in terms of inclusiveness and expansion, relying on deductive processes to cognitively build his new world order, while ER thinks primarily in terms of exclusiveness and contraction, relying on inductive processes to defend his old world order. TK is more abstract and theoretical, easily acknowledging and speculating about the exceptions on all sides of each dogmatic principle he establishes. ER is more concrete and practical, with rigid adherence to the black-white discriminations of his narrow-minded world view, more concerned with physical attributes and physical solutions than abstract ideas.
TK had an existential crisis of purposelessness and alienation which became so intense that he apparently became homicidal and suicidal, at which point he realized he had nothing to lose. ER had no existential crisis, just an antisocial, paranoid frame of mind and a pathological desire to vent his anger and impose his will on a system that had rejected him as a failure and an undesirable.
Developmentally, TK was taught that if he applied himself with diligent study and developed his mind and gained knowledge he would be accepted, successful, and happy. TK’s knowledge was valued by the academic community but he did not share the system’s values and could not share his values with others. TK always had poor interpersonal skills and a limited capacity to interact successfully with his peers, perhaps in part due to his early academic successes and related promotions. On the other hand, ER was taught to be self-sufficient because the world is hostile, threatening, and ultimately uncaring. ER was always an outsider, oppositional to legitimate authority, and never valued by the system. ER gained recognition, acceptance, and power through identification with small hate groups, but always as a follower wanting to be a leader. ER is a self-centered underachiever who has adequate social skills but has a strong cultivated distrust of others.
4. If you were told that both individuals had escaped and had managed to remain free for say approximately a year, what recommendations would you make that may result in their capture? I realize that in real life, this situation applied to ER but not TK. You should ask yourself a specific number of questions and answer these questions for BOTH individuals, even if some questions may be not applicable in some instances to one of them.
My first recommendation would be that the most knowledgeable members of the task force establish a consensus set of input ratings for a current BRACE Character Profile™. I would complete the profile analysis and then meet with those providing the input ratings to present the findings and focus on their specific interests. I am an expert in the BRACE Character Profile. The task force consists of a range of experts in LE who are familiar with a particular case. The interactive process would produce a series of strategies and tactics that the task force could take into consideration. The following was produced without a task force and without any interactive analysis:
1. Where would TK most likely be? TK would not trust anyone, not even family. TK would generally attempt to avoid technology and survive off of nature but his survival skills were acquired late in life and his general fund of survival knowledge is limited accordingly. He would attempt to isolate himself from society in a wilderness area similar in terms of climate, wild life and plants as that of the property he lived on in Lincoln, Montana. But, he would not return to his home area to live. He might eventually visit the area to get even with those he feels betrayed him.
2. What would TK be doing? TK would actively pursue his efforts to attack technology and its supporters, but he would take his time to think and plan. He would use his isolated freedom to develop new and more frightening and destructive weapons (e.g., biochemical bombs), perhaps even changing his method from bombs to more natural weapons, or perhaps changing his targets from people to the objects of technology itself, such as a nuclear power plant.
3. What is the best way to locate TK? I would have experienced investigators gather current information from prison staff and inmates and profile his interests during incarceration and how he accomplished his escape. TK would have actively avoided any type of psychological evaluation during incarceration but he would also have been willing to spread the message of his “mission” to select inmates and even staff. He would also have indicated what needed to be done to continue “the good fight” and very likely would have left behind written materials and documentation about his new interests before escape.
TK’s brother would be in danger and should be alerted to take measures to protect himself from bombs or anything unusual on his property. LE should monitor TK’s relatives and all mail to any of TK’s family, hopefully with their permission.
TK is highly motivated to have a forum to influence public opinion. Creating a line of communication that would appear failsafe to him related to his capture would be hard for him to resist.
In any case, TK would be willing to take high risks and would plan to kill himself before being captured again. Consequently, he would be at high risk for becoming a suicidal bomber, perhaps always being wired when “working for the cause”.
1. Where would ER most likely be? ER would return to the area he is familiar with, where he was previously successful in eluding capture. He considers his capture a stupid mistake on his part, not due to a lack of skills or a failed plan, but rather due to a personal weakness, giving in to a desire for a different variety of food. Given his military training and previous survival experience and mentality, ER would have established multiple contingency plans, including various base camps, during his prior years of avoiding capture and during his stays in west North Carolina, east Tennessee, and north Georgia. He would have every expectation of being able to outsmart LE again.
2. What would ER be doing? ER would be continuing his war with the government in general and LE in particular. He would attempt to contact extremists who publicly supported him during his incarceration. ER’s goal is to establish a subversive movement and he would be interested in networking and promoting himself as its leader.
3. What is the best way to locate ER? I would have experienced investigators gather current information from prison staff and inmates and profile ER’s interests during incarceration and how he accomplished his escape. ER would attempt to “network” with other hate groups while incarcerated, actively planning his escape and post-escape plans. ER does not view future incarceration as an unacceptable outcome. In fact, for him there is a romantic element to being a prisoner, incarcerated by the evil system and its LE, alone, defiant, and actively oppositional. He has mentally and physically prepared for capture and incarceration for years. Prisons are full of “supremacists” of all kinds and ER fantasizes being their leader. After a few years in isolation in the woods, prison life becomes increasingly appealing. ER’s prior capture was as much intentional as poor judgment on his part.
End of report.
Thank you for the opportunity, Russell L. Smith
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