Is it true that Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber, at one point planned to undergo a male-to-female sex change operation? If so, did he want to do this because he had always felt like a female trapped inside a male body, or did he have some other motivation? What role did his decision not to have the operation play in fueling his murderous rage?
The “he always felt as if he were a woman trapped inside of a man’s body” explaination doesn’t seem to fit here, as this supposedly occurred while he was in a graduate program in mathematics. That wouldn’t be considereed a particularly “girlish” field of study by today’s standards, much less those of the early 1960’s.
Why did he want a sex change?
Thanks.
What does being a transsexual (or a woman) have to do with a person’s field of study? I had female math teachers in the late 50s.
Tell me you didn’t just haul out the Barbie “math is hard!” card to analyze the state of mind of a serial killer.
To get to the other side?
Anyway, after a tiny bit of research there’s relatively little about this online. Newsweek from May 11, 1998 had something relevant:
[New York, NY: 6 May 98] THIS WEEK'S ISSUE OF
Newsweek (11 May 98) reports that convicted
unabomber Ted Kaczynski first had fantasies
about murder after he was unable to summon the
courage to talk to a University of Michigan
psychiatrist about his desire for a sex-change
operation.
This comes from court-appointed Dr. Sally
Johnson, who interviewed Kaczynski at the court's
request to determine his mental capacity to stand
trial. Kaczynski also related to Johnson dreams
in which "some psychologist... would either be
trying to convince me that I was 'sick' or would
be trying to control my mind..."
No further information was related about
Kaczynski's feelings about his gender or whether
he made further remarks about it. Dr. Johnson's
47-page report was submitted to the court in
January.
Aside from that, there’s other short mentions, like like here and here. Not that much to go on.