Campus Alert Archive
Northwestern

The Mail Bomb That Started the Unabomber Case at Northwestern

ILsuspicious packageemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On May 25, 1978, a package addressed from a Northwestern University professor exploded when a campus security officer opened it, injuring the officer. It was the first device in the nearly 20-year Unabomber campaign by Ted Kaczynski. A year later a second bomb hurt a graduate student in a campus building. These 1978-79 incidents long predate campus mass notification.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
1
Institution
Northwestern University
Private R1 · IL
~16,000 students
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTother
Approximate reconstruction195 chars
A package returned to a Northwestern University professor exploded when a campus security officer opened it, injuring the officer; campus and Evanston police were called to investigate the blast.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

This 1978 incident predates campus mass notification entirely; response was an internal police/security mobilization, not a community-wide alert.
The package had originally been found in a parking lot at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle bearing a Northwestern return address, then was routed back to Northwestern, where it detonated on opening.
Reconstructed wording; the injury to officer Terry Marker and the package's path are documented by the FBI and the UNABOM chronology.
FOLLOW-UPother
Approximate reconstruction169 chars
A second explosive device left in a room at Northwestern detonated when a graduate student picked it up, injuring him; investigators began linking the two campus blasts.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The May 9, 1979 device injured a Northwestern graduate student and, with the 1978 package, established the 'university bombing' pattern that named the UNABOM case.
There was still no mechanism in 1979 to broadcast a warning to the campus community; the connection between incidents was made by investigators, not communicated as a public alert.
Reconstructed wording; the second-bomb circumstances are documented in the federal UNABOM chronology.
Context

Background

The Unabomber case began on a college campus. On May 25, 1978, a package bearing the return address of Northwestern University professor Buckley Crist Jr. exploded when campus public-safety officer Terry Marker opened it, injuring him. The device had first turned up in a parking lot at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle and was returned to Northwestern, where it detonated. Almost exactly a year later, on May 9, 1979, a second device left in a campus room injured a Northwestern graduate student. These two campus blasts gave the FBI's eventual UNABOM task force its name — UNiversity and Airline BOMbing — at the start of a nearly two-decade campaign by Ted Kaczynski that killed three people and injured 23 nationwide. As 1978-79 incidents, there was no campus mass-notification system: the response was a police and security mobilization, and the link between the two bombings was an investigative finding rather than a broadcast warning.
Analysis

Key Findings

The first Unabomber device exploded at Northwestern on May 25, 1978, injuring campus security officer Terry Marker
A second campus device on May 9, 1979 injured a graduate student, establishing the 'university bombing' pattern that named the UNABOM case
The incidents predate campus mass notification; response was an internal police mobilization, with the connection drawn by investigators
They marked the start of a nearly 20-year campaign by Ted Kaczynski that killed three and injured 23
Outcome
Northwestern public-safety officer Terry Marker was injured opening the package on May 25, 1978. A second device on May 9, 1979 injured a Northwestern graduate student. Both became part of the UNABOM (university and airline bombing) case, eventually attributed to Ted Kaczynski.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Unabomber — Federal Bureau of Investigation, Famous Cases
    fbi.gov
  2. Source
    A Chronology of the UNABOM investigation — Cornell Law School
    law.cornell.edu
  3. Student Paper
    Office Hours: Buckley Crist and the Unabomber — The Daily Northwestern
    dailynorthwestern.com
Tags
suspicious-packagebombingillinoisunabomberpre-cleryhistoric1970s
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion