Almost 13 years after federal agents seized the contents of convicted Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's Montana cabin — including original writings he later sought to donate to the University of Michigan — a federal appellate court has approved an Internet sale of the material.
Revenue from the sale will be applied to the $15 million in restitution Kaczynski has been ordered to pay to the victims of his crimes.
Kaczynski had appealed a prosecutors' plan for disposal of the property that U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. of Sacramento endorsed, with a minor exception, in August 2006.
"The government's proposal and the district court's order approving that plan fully comply" with an earlier opinion by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the same panel ruled Friday.
Citing federal statutory law in its 23-page opinion, the panel states, "The district court properly noted that an order of restitution may be enforced by all 'available and reasonable means.' "
Prosecutors propose a well-publicized Internet sale, including personal items, books, letters, and manuscripts and journals written by Kaczynski, a prolific scribe, especially on the evils of technological and industrialized society. The writings will be redacted to exclude all information that could be used to identify actual and intended victims and their families.
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