UNABOM
Definition
The FBI case designation for the Unabomber investigation (Universities and Airlines BOMbing). The case ran from 1978 to 1996 and is one of the longest bomb-investigation series in U.S. history.
- Full form
- UNiversity and Airline BOMbing
- Duration
- 1978 to 1996
- Agency
- FBI, with USPIS and ATF involvement
- Resolution
- Ended by Ted Kaczynski's identification after manifesto publication
Common questions
How did stylometry contribute to closing the UNABOM case?+
Investigators compared the writing style of the published manifesto against letters submitted by the suspect's brother, and linguistic analysis of word choice and phrasing patterns supported the identification alongside traditional forensic evidence.
Why is UNABOM cited as a landmark case for bombing investigations?+
Its length, the number of jurisdictions involved, and the eventual role of behavioural and linguistic profiling alongside physical device analysis made it a reference point for how forensic disciplines can combine on a serial case.
Related terms
- Authorial Profiling
- The production of demographic and psychological inferences from a text's language, as opposed to attribution, which names a specific author. The UNABOM...
- Confirmatory Evidence
- Evidence that increases the probability of a hypothesis already suggested by other means. In UNABOM, the linguistic analysis served this role: it...
- FBI Linguistic Analysis Unit (LAU)
- The FBI division responsible for linguistic profiling, author identification, and threat assessment. The LAU produced the authorial profile used in the UNABOM...
- Idiolectal Feature
- A linguistic habit characteristic of one specific person rather than a group. In the Unabomber case, phrase patterns such as 'feelings of...