Unabomber Victim Checks In The Mail

AUGUST 3--A federal judge in California yesterday divided up the proceeds from the two-week online auction of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s possessions among four of the madman's victims and ruled that six insurance companies still owed over $1.6 million get nothing.

According to an order signed by Judge Garland Burrell, Jr., the individuals--referred to in court papers as ”the Named Victims” and owed more than $13.4 million as a result of the decades-long killing spree--will divide up $225,735.56 netted at auction.

That amount, which comes to just over 1.6 percent of what the victims are due, will be divided as follows:

Susan Mosser, who has the largest single judgment against the Unabomber--$11 million--and whose husband was killed in December 1994, will receive $185,177.23; Connie Murray, owed $2 million after the April 1995 murder of her husband, will receive $33,648.05; Gary Wright, a Utah businessman who survived a February 1987 bombing, will get $3545.47 of the $211,000 he is due; and Lois Epstein, widow of California geneticist Dr. Charles Epstein who passed away in February, will receive $3364.81 of his $200,000 judgment.

The auction’s top selling item was Kaczynski’s personal journals, fetching over $40,000. Also up for sale were keepsakes such as the killer’s driver's licenses, academic transcripts, typewriters, sunglasses, and his infamous manifesto, which went for over $20,000.

Records also show that the auctioneer, contracted by the U.S. Marshals Service to conduct the sale, was authorized by the court to take a fee of up to ten percent of the sale, but the company was only was paid about two percent of the gross receipts.

The judge has ordered the court clerk to have the checks in the mail by Friday. (3 pages)