'Smoking Gun': Yale prof nearly blown up by Unabomber defends his Epstein emails



David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale University and chief scientist at Mirror Worlds Technologies, survived an explosive letter he received in 1993 from Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber.

It appears, however, that his reputation has taken a hit over letters he sent years later to Jeffrey Epstein — especially since he has emphasized he regrets "nothing" about his relationship with the child sex offender.

The package

Kaczynski targeted businessmen, scholars, and random civilians with homemade bombs from 1978 to 1995, injuring over 22 victims and ultimately killing three people. Among the Unabomber's victims was Gelernter.

'Gentlemen and ladies don't read each other's mail.'

On the morning of June 24, 1993, the Yale professor — who had just returned from a vacation in the national capital — sat down in his office in Arthur K. Watson Hall to catch up on his mail. Along with various envelopes, waiting for him was a package, which he reportedly thought was a Ph.D. dissertation.

Gelernter recalled that when he tore it open, he was greeted by smoke, a hiss, and a flash. Shocked, missing a few fingers, and under the impression that multiple bombs "must be going off all over campus," the professor fled the building, bleeding profusely.

"I saw the bones sticking out in all directions and the skin crumpled like paper," he later wrote.

According to the Yale Daily News, the computer professor suffered severe wounds to "his abdomen, chest, face and hand, and even today Gelernter does not have the use of his right hand."

The Unabomber later sent the professor a letter in April 1995 providing some insight into his animus toward technologists, writing, "People with advanced degrees aren't as smart as they think they are. If you'd had any brains you would have realized that there are a lot of people out there who resent bitterly the way techno-nerds like you are changing the world."

RELATED: Dear Uncle Ted

Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan/Getty Images

The threatening letters sent his way by the terrorist helped boost Gelernter's profile. The letters Gelernter later sent to Epstein now threaten to tear it down.

The letters

David Gelernter's name repeatedly shows up in the Epstein files released on Jan. 30 by the Department of Justice, specifically in emails sent from 2009 to 2015.

Blaze News has reached out to Gelernter for comment.

'I have no idea who my successor will be.'

Some of Gelernter's letters to and from Epstein — exchanged years after Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution — discuss meetups, a visit to Yale, architecture, business opportunities, and art shows.

The author of an especially questionable letter dated Oct. 11, 2011, and signed "David" — a letter Gelernter has reportedly defended writing — told Epstein about a female student he was recommending for a job in 2011, describing her as a "Yale sr, worked at Vogue last summ=r [sic], runs her own campus mag, art major, completely connected, v small goodl=oking [sic] blonde."

RELATED: Massie drops bombshell after review of unredacted Epstein files, helps put name to alleged co-conspirator

Photo by James Leynse/Corbis via Getty Images

Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart told CT Insider in an email last week that "the university does not condone the language used by the professor or the conduct he describes in his emails."

Gelernter told the CT Insider that at the time of writing, he had no idea about Epstein's status as a sex offender, that he was never exposed to Epstein's sex trafficking operation, and that he only became aware of the sex offender's criminal history around five years ago.

"From my standpoint, he was one of the two (maybe three) smartest men I'd ever met," Gelernter told the publication. "He was fun to talk to."

"Fondness for little girls is a perversion that runs way outside ordinary locker-room talk," the professor noted further. "No one would ever introduce it into normal conversation."

The professor subsequently stated in a Feb. 4, 2026, letter to Yale's engineering school Dean Jeffrey Brock that was forwarded to the Yale Daily News, "I was recommending her for a job I thought she'd like. When you do that — when you actually care about a rec letter — you keep the potential boss's habits in mind."

"So long as I said nothing that dishonored her in any conceivable way, I'd have told him more or less what he wanted. She was smart, charming & gorgeous. Ought I to have suppressed that info? Never!" continued Gelernter. "I'm very glad I wrote the note."

When asked the next day whether he regretted any part of his relationship with Epstein, Gelernter told the Yale Daily News, "Nothing."

Gelernter's latest statements defending his correspondence with Epstein have apparently already led to consequences.

In a message to his students obtained by the CT Insider, Gelernter reportedly indicated that he had been removed from the class.

"For now on I no longer teach CPSC 4500. I have no idea who my successor will be," wrote the professor, who has tenure at the university.

In his letter to students, Gelernter again defended his October 2011 letter to Epstein, claiming that the student referred to wanted to be recommended for a job working on the financial side of Epstein's private bank; stating that neither he nor the student were aware that Epstein was a sex trafficker; and condemning the university for taking issue with a personal email.

"The university's Smoking Gun is a personal, private email, dug out of the dump of Epstein files. (If someone handed you a a stack of other people's private correspondence, would you dive in and read them? Of course not. Gentlemen and ladies don't read each other's mail. (Courtesy 101.)," wrote Gelernter.

According to ratings from students on Yale's internal professor evaluation system, Gelernter reportedly ranked dead last among the 82 professors who have taught computer science courses at the university since 2020 and in the bottom 2% of all professors across the university.

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Alleged manifesto of murder suspect Luigi Mangione highlights lessons learned from Unabomber: Court docs



Police caught up with Luigi Mangione, 27, at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania, five days after he allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel last December. In addition to allegedly finding a 9mm handgun, a homemade silencer, multiple cartridges, a fake New Jersey ID, a passport, approximately $7,800 in cash, and a written admission of guilt on his person, police reportedly found a notebook detailing plans for the shooting.

Mangione's defense attorney asked the court overseeing the case to rule the notebook inadmissible, claiming the search of Mangione's backpack where it was located violated his Fourth Amendment rights. The defense also asked the court to dismiss his indictment altogether.

Prosecutors responded with a damning court filing on Wednesday containing entries from Mangione's alleged notebook, which they claim reveals "in unambiguous terms [the] defendant's intent and motive in deliberately assassinating the CEO of the country's largest health company."

'Yet another indirect victim of the long-term lunacy of Ted Kaczynski.'

In an Aug. 15, 2024, entry, Mangione allegedly wrote, "I finally feel confident about what I will do. The details are coming together. And I don't feel any doubt about whether it's right/justified. I'm glad — in a way — that I've procrastinated bc it allowed me to learn more about UHC. KMD [the initials of another apparent target considered] would've been an unjustified catastrophe that would be perceived mostly as sick, but more importantly unhelpful."

Prosecutors indicated that Mangione traveled to New York the first week of December 2024 to attend UHC's investor conference, where Thompson was scheduled to speak. Thompson was, however, shot outside the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan hours prior to his presentation.

The entries shared in the court documents indicate that the author initially contemplated killing many more people, possibly by way of bombing; however, he decided against it, citing lessons learned from Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, a domestic terrorist who targeted businessmen, scholars, and random civilians with homemade bombs from 1978 to 1995, injuring 23 victims and ultimately killing three people.

James R. Fitzgerald, a retired supervisory special agent with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit best known for his role in the Unabomber investigation, told Blaze News, "It seems Brian Thompson, after his December '24 execution-style murder by an unhinged, misguided, and misinformed young zealot, is yet another indirect victim of the long-term lunacy of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber."

RELATED: Dear Uncle Ted

Mugshot of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski. Photo by Bureau of Prisons/Getty Image

On Oct. 22, 2024, Mangione allegedly praised Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, but noted what he apparently got wrong.

"The problem with most revolutionary acts is that the message is lost on normies," says the entry. "For example, Ted K makes some good points on the future of humanity, but to make his point he indiscriminately mailbombs innocents. Normies categorize him as an insane serial killer, focus on the act/atrocities themselves, and dismiss his ideas."

'There's an implied sense of superiority in how he critiques Kaczynski’s failure to communicate his message.'

The Unabomber condemned all forms of technology and advocated for cultural primitivism in his 35,000-word manifesto titled "Industrial Society and Its Future," which he submitted to the Washington Post for publication. Whereas Mangione appears to enjoy standing in the spotlight, Kaczynski was a recluse who evidently preferred to remain planted in his remote Montana cabin.

"Most importantly — by committing indiscriminate atrocities — he becomes a monster, which makes his ideas those of a monster, no matter how true," continued the entry in the notebook attributed to Mangione. "He crosses the line from revolutionary anarchist to terrorist — the worst thing a person can be."

Dr. Kimberly Przeszlowski, assistant professor of criminal justice at Quinnipiac University, told Blaze News, "Mangione's reference to 'normies' misunderstanding Kaczynski as merely an insane serial killer reveals more than just admiration — it signals a detachment from mainstream society and a belief that he perceives the world more clearly than others."

"There's an implied sense of superiority in how he critiques Kaczynski’s failure to communicate his message, as if he believes he could do it better," continued Przeszlowski. "His alleged decision to avoid using bombings — unlike Kaczynski — seems deliberate, a way to present himself as a more focused and effective messenger."

Given the adoration of Mangione by elements of the American left, it appears he has been somewhat successful in this regard.

RELATED: ‘Saint Luigi’? America’s moral compass couldn’t be more broken

Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Przeszlowski suggested that the alleged author of the journal entries does not necessarily regard himself "as someone trying to refine an ideology, but as someone capable of packaging and delivering it in a way that gains broader acceptance or resonates with a larger audience."

Clinical psychologist Franklin Carvajal suggested to Blaze News that Mangione is neither a psychopath nor a serial killer but rather an individual desirous for a "new cultural norm to emerge based on what he sees as his idea of justice."

"When he says 'normies' he means the average person who has been indoctrinated in what he believes is a different cultural framework or perspective," said Carvajal.

The psychologist noted that Mangione shares in common with Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh the belief that "the end justifies the means."

Przeszlowski suggested that "while their tactics and time periods differ, [Mangione and Kaczynski's] underlying motivations share common threads — anti-modern views, deep distrust of institutions, and the belief that violence can serve as a wake-up call."

Mangione allegedly noted further in the notebook entry, "This is the problem with most militants that rebel against often-real injustices: They commit an atrocity whose horror either outweighs the impact of their message, or whose distance from their message prevents normies from connecting the dots. Consequently, the revolutionary idea becomes associated with extremism, incoherence or evil — an idea that no reasonable member of society could approve of."

The entry hints that the author contemplated bombing insurance companies' headquarters but ultimately determined that "bombs=terrorism" and would read as the "unjustified anger of someone who simply got sick/had bad luck and took their frustration out on the insurance industry."

Rather than engaging in bombing as Kaczynski had, the author of the entry suggested that one should instead "wack [sic] the CEO at the annual parasitic bean-counter convention," adding that the message the "greedy bastard ... had it coming" would be abundantly clear.

'These parasites simply had it coming.'

"As I had to constantly remind myself during my time on the UNABOM Task Force in the mid-1990s, while reading and rereading the 'Manifesto' day after day, one's actions greatly supersede one's words in any supposedly 'civilized' society," said Fitzgerald. "That is, in this context, unprovoked violence ultimately weakens one's argument. It certainly doesn't strengthen it. But to the unbalanced, that doesn't wholly register and/or guide them accordingly."

'The Kaczynskis and the Mangiones of the world are poor substitutes for great thinkers or philosophers," added Fitzgerald. "Their homicidal actions in the long run devalue their words — except to the also unhinged, misguided, and misinformed among us."

RELATED: Luigi Mangione-based shows to hit American stage, turning murder suspect into 'accidental folk hero'

Photo by Steven Hirsch - Pool/Getty Images

Prosecutors' Wednesday filing also included the note police reportedly found on Mangione at the time of his arrest, which states, "To the Feds, I’ll keep this short because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial, some elementary social engineering, basic [computer-aided design], and a lot of patience."

"I do apologize for any strife or trauma, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming," continued the note.

Mangione, who faces both New York state and federal charges in the murder of Thompson, has pleaded not guilty to murder as an act of terrorism as well as weapons charges.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has impressed upon federal prosecutors the need to seek the death penalty against Mangione, noting in an April 1 release, "Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America."

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'Uncle Ted' Kaczynski? Some in tech are rethinking the Unabomber’s legacy.



Theodore Kaczynski, known infamously as the Unabomber, gained notoriety for his DIY mailbombing campaigns. Throughout the late 20th century, his handmade bombs killed three and injured 23, including many academics, business executives, and the prominent theorist of technology David Gelernter. Bent on radical opposition to the unchecked advance of revolutionary postindustrial innovation, which he believed threatened human dignity and autonomy, he was at last captured in 1996. Last summer, at age 81, Kaczynski took his own life in prison.

Beyond his trail of terror, Kaczynski left little behind but a lengthy manifesto, the 35,000-word "Industrial Society and Its Future," and a 2008 follow-up, "Technological Slavery." A brilliant mathematics student and scholar before his turn to the dark side, Kaczynski’s critiques of technologized society have, over time, come to be seen as increasingly accurate. Now, amid growing fears that control of AI could swiftly become excessive or inadequate, even some experts in and around the tech industry are wrestling with Kaczynski’s warnings — and his legacy.

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Samuel Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, joined James Poulos to reconsider where and why Kaczynski went so wrong yet proved so prescient.

Critical of self-styled optimists measuring progress today by our comparably high living standards, Hammond acknowledges the risks of rapid technological innovation. But Kaczynski’s mistake, he argues, was to believe we could force ourselves backward into a great regress. “I’ll be the first person to go up against those degrowthers and population bomb people,” said Hammon, “to say no, you were just totally wrong … there are still many degrees of freedom in how we design ... and what futures we choose.”

To hear more of what Samuel Hammond has to say about the Unabomber, the secret globalist and Marxist agendas, and more, watch the full episode of "Zero Hour with James Poulos."

America was convinced tech would complete our mastery of the world. Instead, we got catastrophe — constant crises from politics and the economy down to the spiritual fiber of our being. Time’s up for the era we grew up in. How do we pick ourselves up and begin again? To find out, visionary author and media theorist James Poulos cracks open the minds — and hearts — of today’s top figures in politics, tech, ideas, and culture on "Zero Hour" on BlazeTV.

Ted Kaczynski’s Murderous Legacy Doesn’t Mean His Diagnosis Of The Post-Industrial West Is Wrong

Ted Kaczynski was a tremendously troubled man who shouldn't be celebrated, but he foresaw many of today's problems with clarity.

'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski, 81, found dead in prison cell



Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski, dubbed the "Unabomber" by the FBI, died Saturday at age 81, multiple outlets reported.

Kaczynski was found unresponsive in his cell at the federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina early in the morning, Kristie Breshears, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Kaczynski killed three Americans and injured 23 more during a 17-year spree of increasingly sophisticated bombings that began in 1978.

The FBI described Kaczynski as a "twisted genius who aspire[d] to be the perfect, anonymous killer. ... the ultimate lone wolf bomber."

He mailed or hand delivered his homemade bombs and threatened to blow up airliners. His first known attack was at a Chicago university. The "Unabomber" name was derived from the words "university" and "airline bombing."

More than 150 full-time investigators, analysts, and others were assigned to a task force to nab the elusive domestic terrorist.

In 1995, authorities caught their big break. Kaczynski sent a 35,000 word manifesto to the FBI describing his motives. The task force recommended taking the manifesto public. FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno gave the go ahead, and the manifesto was published in the Washington Post.

That publication in the Post ultimately netted the lead they needed from David Kaczynski, the Unabomber's brother.

David Kaczynski provided letters and documents written by his brother, and a linguistic analysis determined it those documents and the Unabomber's manifesto were likely written by the same person.

Investigators at last arrested Kaczysnki at a ramshackle, 10' x 14' cabin near Lincoln, Montana (see photo below provided by the FBI). Inside the cabin, they found bomb-making materials, 40,000 journal pages, and one live bomb prepped for mailing.

After pleading guilty in 1998, Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski spent most of the rest of his life in a Supermax prison in Colorado.

He was moved to the medical facility in North Carolina in December 2021, ABC News reported.

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