James R. Fitzgerald, a retired FBI agent, was the one who oversaw the agency’s 18-year manhunt for Theodore John Kaczynski, one of modern history’s most renowned criminals (The Unabomber).
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The two decades of terror came to an end with the Unabomber’s capture, but it also had an effect on Fitzgerald and Ellie Fitzgerald’s marriage.
The Unabomber Case Made Marriage Difficult
James Fitzgerald wed Ellie Fitzgerald in 1976, and the couple went on to have three boys. His family, however, was hampered by the nature of his employment, notably the Unabomber case. His employment required him to travel to different places and stay away from home for days at a time.
This damaged his relationship with his wife. His and his wife’s divorce followed his team’s successful conclusion of the lawsuit. They chose to co-parent their children after their amicable divorce.
In 2017, the Discovery documentary Manhunt: Unabomber came back to public consciousness my new girlfriend Natalie Schilling Fitzgerald. The Unabomber’s unmasking was based on real-life events, on which the series was based. It also included Natalie Schilling, his new fiancée.
Fitzgerald was portrayed by Sam Worthing, while Lynn Collins as Natalie Schilling, who helped Fitzgerald comprehend Kaczynski’s writing.
Natalie is a linguist at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, specializing in Forensic Linguistics and ethnic, stylistic, and gender differences in American English dialects.
Despite the lack of fanfare in the media, Schilling and Fitzgerald have not yet tied the knot.
At press conferences for programs like Manhunt and Criminal Minds, they were frequently sighted. At a Criminal Minds news conference in September 2014, they made their debut in front of the public.
How was Kaczynski captured by him?
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as Ted Kaczynski, was a math prodigy and a cunning domestic terrorist. He never left any physical traces of the 23 persons he injured and 23 people he killed with his mailed explosives between 1978 and 1995. He referred to them as his manifesto, yet he included deliberate red herrings in them.
The criminal mastermind was found after a thorough analysis of the manifestos. From the Unabomber’s manifestos, Fitzgerald inferred precise details about the cold-blooded killer, including the fact that he was “obsessively meticulous” while writing, regularly making small errors like a coma after a sentence or an exclamation mark that should have been a question mark.
The results were shown live to the entire world on national television. Eventually, Ted Kaczynski’s sister-in-law picked up on the writings and let the FBI know who he was. At first, her husband didn’t think she was telling the truth, but Ted’s academic term for a rational person—”cool-headed logician”—finally won him over.
Fitzgerald had a more laid-back attitude toward his career after the Unabomber. Kaczynski was captured on April 3, 1996, after discovering his cabin. He is currently serving eight consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole.
After the infamous capture, the FBI profiler helped create training materials and techniques to strengthen the FBI’s threat evaluation capabilities. Additionally, he managed to avoid much media attention, instead appearing as a consultant on crime dramas like Criminal Minds and Sleepy Hollow.
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