I was writing a novel about Mr. Kaczynski. I grew up in Missoula, about 80 miles from the Unabomber’s shack in the Montana wilderness and was 11 at the time of his capture. I didn’t know who the Unabomber was or what he had done, but I could tell it was important — and dark. So much so that my home state was suddenly the center of national attention. Western Montana in the 1990s was not a place that made the national news, save for an occasional environmental disaster and the annual Testicle Festival — a days-long debauch of fried steer genitals that attracted seedier press.

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Persons: Ted Kaczynski, Kaczynski, I’d Locations: Butner, N.C, Missoula, Montana, Western Montana