My Neighbor, the Madman
A woman puzzles over a notorious killer who was kind to kids.
Updated October 23, 2025 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
Dogs disliked him. One had a special bark reserved just for Ted Kaczynski—mostly vicious. But his neighbors considered him a harmless (if unpleasant) hermit. One of them was Jamie Gehring, whose grandfather had sold Kaczynski the piece of property in Montana for his 10x12-foot cabin. The recluse was an irascible oddball, Gehring knew, but he sometimes brought her gifts he’d made himself. They’d talk about gardening. When her dog died from poison, she never suspected him. So, when Gehring heard years later that Kaczynski was the deadly Unabomber who’d killed 3, injured 23, and intended far greater harm, she couldn’t grasp it.
Her book, Madman in the Woods , documents her process of piecing together this puzzle of a man who’d lived a contradiction. Her painstaking research, coupled with her reaction to each discovery, offers a rich narrative for those who study “doubled” offenders—or those who live parallel lives of normalcy and depravity. It can be difficult for close associates to admit their failure to see the signs. However, some of these doublers are quite skilled at hiding their secrets. Kaczynski knew how to operate under the radar.
Gehring hoped to find some goodness in the man or at least a “greater good” justification for his bombings. She said, “...then I thought I could recognize a part of the man I saw as a child.” Yet all she discovered during her psychological excavation was Kaczynski’s lust for revenge . As he wrote in the journals she read, “I don’t pretend to have any philosophical or moral justification.”
The man was a genius, Gehring learned. He’d earned a Ph.D. in mathematics and had been a professor with a promising future. She wanted to know what had so enraged him that he’d voluntarily shrink his life into the space of that cramped cabin. He wasn’t an environmentalist. He’d cared about no cause and no person. He was just an angry man who wanted to harm random people.
Among the things Gehring discovered was Kaczynski’s three-year stint as an experimental subject at Harvard for the noted psychologist Henry A. Murray. Plenty of journalists have tried and failed to get full access to these records, but a few things have leaked. In a documentary that pairs well with Gehring’s book, Unabomber—In His Own Words , a biographer of Murray's dismisses any causal connection between Murray’s experiment and Kaczynski’s violence. Kaczynski did as well. However, they’re both biased against the notion. It seems more likely, given Kaczynski’s entry to Harvard at age 16 and his inability to fit in socially, that having authority figures repeatedly denigrate his budding ideas would have affected him. Dunleavy (2018) makes such a case.
The “ humiliation experiment” was presented as personality research. Murray administered a series of questionnaires and assessments before selecting a couple dozen undergraduates for the long-term study. The subjects were asked, “Would you be willing to contribute to the solution of certain psychological problems (parts of an on-going program of research in the development of personality), by serving as a subject in a series of experiments or taking a number of tests (average about 2 hours a week) through the academic year (at the current college rate per hour)?”
They were to write a careful exposition of their philosophy of life. They would then be wired to electrodes under a harsh bright light and subjected to ridicule of their ideas. The purpose was to get them stressed . No matter what the subjects said to defend their positions, they were challenged and verbally assaulted. Later, they were asked to comment on a film of themselves undergoing this experience.
While only Kaczynski out of all these subjects later became a killer, this doesn’t negate the experiment’s effect specifically on him . Dunleavy states that Kaczynski described the Murray experiment as “the worst experience of my life.”
He'd disliked his time at Harvard for several reasons. One friend had watched him grow increasingly more withdrawn. Since Kaczynski was diagnosed later with paranoid schizophrenia, he might have been in its first stages. He most certainly did not fit in with the Harvard elite.
Lois Skillen, Kaczynski's high school counselor, views the Murray experiment as a turning point. Ralph Meister, a psychologist who’d known Kaczynski since childhood , agrees. According to Dr. Sally Johnson’s 1998 competency report on the Unabomber, his TAT results suggest that at the outset of the experiment, he’d been mentally healthy, but by its end, he’d shown emotional distress, including terrible nightmares. Around this time, he’d developed his first fantasies about taking revenge against society.
As a girl, Gehring knew nothing about the dangerous hermit’s background. She didn’t know that he resented her family even as he asked for regular favors, or that he sabotaged their livelihood and sometimes envisioned killing them. But her father, Butch, had seen Kaczynski’s bursts of rage. In 1997, Butch became the eyes and ears for the FBI task force as they closed in on the Unabomber’s hut.
What Gehring learned during her quest constantly disoriented her. She effectively grounds readers in her rural Montana world as she shows a side of Kaczynski few others saw. He was complicated. “He had times of beautiful clarity and truth; however, the darkness that lurked inside of him proved to be a powerful force.” His anger and madness had fueled an obsessive agenda. It had seemingly eroded whatever he might have felt once—perhaps just fleetingly—for a little girl. There was little for her to salvage.
Chase, A. (2000, June). Harvard and the making of the Unabomber. The Atlantic .
Dunleavy, B. (2018). What happened to Ted Kaczynski at Harvard? www.History.com moz-extension://b5537cd6-57a0-4c54-88b6-983345b88888/data/reader/index.html?id=1&url=https%3A%2F%2F www.history.com%2Farticles%2Fwhat-happened-to-the-unabomber-at-harvard
Gehring, J. (2022). Madman in the woods: Life next door to the Unabomber . Diversion Books.
Johnson, S. (1998, Sept. 11). Psychiatric competency report for the eastern district of California. https://www.karenfranklin.com/files/Kazynski-Johnson_Report-09.11.98.pdf
Share this post Facebook Bluesky Linkedin Email
There was a problem adding your email address. Please try again.
By submitting your information you agree to the Psychology Today Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy
Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D., is a professor of forensic psychology at DeSales University and the author of 69 books.
Get the help you need from a therapist near you–a FREE service from Psychology Today.
This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.