Book Review – Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber

This is an interesting read, but it’s more of a memoir than a true crime story. The book concentrates as much – or more – on her own life and her parents’ lives as it does on Ted Kaczinsky’s, bringing us not just details about the Unabomber case, but her own personal interactions with “Teddy” when she was a small child, details about the town, the Montana mountains, her parents and how it affected all of them to learn the truth about their harmless hermit neighbour. 

There isn’t a whole lot in here about Kaczinsky that I didn’t already know, but it was interesting to get her take on this serial killer she’d known her whole life. I appreciate and commend the author’s dedication in trying to understand her old neighbour, to understand what motivated him, what caused his anger, and to acknowledge his pain – not in excusing his murders, but in understanding why. 

Madman in the Woods: Life Next Door to the Unabomber by Jamie Gehring available April, 2022