ShortHand: The Unabomber vs Forensic Linguistics

RedHanded

Wondery | RedHanded

True Crime

4.5 • 18.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ted Kaczynski’s 18-year campaign of domestic terrorism was the most expensive FBI investigation in its history. Bombs went off seemingly at random, across the US and sometimes years apart. After almost two decades, investigators were still at a loss. But when the Unabomber sent his 35,000-word manifesto to national newspapers, the FBI turned to one of the most unlikely branches of criminal investigation out there: forensic linguistics.

This is the story of how word choice, syntax and even the subtleties of a person’s accent have been used through the years to bring killers to justice.

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Sources:
https://www.thecritegal.com/post/the-unabomber-case-foundation-of-forensic-linguistics
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/23/words-on-trial
https://www.npr.org/2017/08/22/545122205/fbi-profiler-says-linguistic-work-was-pivotal-in-capture-of-unabomber?t=1655714817892
https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/25/us/lobbyist-is-killed-in-letter-bombing-tied-to-15-others.html
https://www.netflix.com/title/81002216
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm
http://www.rogershuy.com/pdf/Linguistic_Profiling.pdf
https://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/DARE/profiling/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjFtIg-nLAA

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Red Handed Shaw Hand.
0:17.6	Welcome back, welcome home.
0:19.6	We've missed you.
0:20.9	If you're new to Red Handed Shaw Hand we have another show called Red Handed which comes
0:24.3	out on Thursdays but this is your Tuesday show and it is short and sweet.
0:27.9	Just like.
0:28.9	Let me.
0:29.9	Jail.
0:33.3	We actually have a linguist on our staff here at Red Handed HQ and he hasn't shot up
0:40.0	about this or being allowed to do something on linguistics so we've actually got incredibly
0:44.4	interesting forensic linguistic case for you for this week's Red Handed Shaw Hand.
0:49.7	On the 24th of April 1995 Gilbert Murray received a parcel to his office in Sacramento.
0:57.0	The package was small and heavy wrapped in brown paper and it sat on the doorstep of the
1:01.3	officers for the California Forestry Association.
1:04.9	Gilbert Murray picked up this strange little package and opened it and the package exploded
1:11.9	in his hands.
1:13.5	It killed Murray instantly, destroying doors and windows and shooting debris down the hallway.
1:20.9	It was soon attributed to a domestic terrorist that the FBI had labelled the Unibomber who
1:27.1	by then had been terrorising the country with letter bombs for almost 18 years.
1:32.2	I want to pick up that package.
1:35.2	18 years of blowering sharp.
1:37.4	I'm scared.
	...

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