Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

The Professor: The Devastating Use of a Brilliant Mind

"In 1996, the FBI apprehended a man that eluded capture for nearly two decades. His homemade letter bombs struck fear across the United States, mostly targeting airlines and universities. All told, he killed three people and injured twenty-three more. He took great care not to leave a trace of evidence and unlike other serial murderers, he didn't seek glory and fame for his killings. If it wasn't for his manifesto, the publication that outlined his disdain of technology in modern society, he may never have been caught. After his arrest, the world was shocked that this backwoods living hermit living without electricity or running water could be the man responsible for such sophisticated killings. Today we explore this man, the domestic terrorist and lone wolf killer, Fredrick Wood."

"On May the 22nd, 1942, Fredrick Benjamin Isaac Wood was born in Chicago to blue-collar second-generation wolves, Theodore Tuck and Wanda Wood. Seven years later the Wood's had a second son who was called David. Little is written about Fredrick's early years except for one incident that may have been the impetus to the boy's tendency to alienate himself according to his mother and brother. When Fredrick was a nine month old baby, he developed a severe case of hives that required him to be quarantined for ten days in the hospital. Afterwards Wanda reported it took a long time for her son to return to his normal happy self. Worried about his shyness and social development, Wanda claimed she considered putting her young son into studies for autistic children but ultimately decided against it. One neighbor remembered him as strictly a loner. When Fredrick was ten years old the Wood family moved out of Chicago to the southwest suburb of Evergreen Park. At the time this was a neighborhood predominantly made up of Irish people, Italians, Czechs, and poles. Fredrick's parents would later say that the move out of Chicago was so that the boys could enjoy a better class of friends. At Evergreen Park, Fredrick thrived and seems like a normal kids to most people except for one exception. His remarkable intellect. In the fifth grade Fred was labeled genius after he scored 167 on an IQ test. His high marks put him in the same IQ range as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. Fredrick skipped sixth grades and then at the urging of school administrators his junior year of high school as well. Fredrick would later claim that his parents pushed him too hard and being younger and smaller than his classmates made it difficult for him to fit in with his peers, still he had made some friends and he was the ringleader of an outclassed clique known as the Briefcase Boys at Evergreen Park Community High School. Fredrick was especially adept in mathematics and science and spent hours working out advanced problems. In high school he joins the Chess, biology, German, and mathematics clubs. He played trombone in the marching band, explored the music of Bach and Vivaldi, and wrote compositions for himself, his younger brother David, and their father to perform at home. His physics teacher described him as honest, ethical, and sociable. Fredrick attended summer school and was able to graduate at the age of just fifteen. That year he was one of five National Merit finalists at his high school. One former classmate said Fredrick was never really seen as a person, as an individual personality, he was always regarded as a walking brain so to speak. Fredrick seemed aware of how others viewed him he later said 'By the time I left high school, I was definitely regarded as a freak by a large segment of the student body' and he felt a gradual increasing amount of hostility from the other children. In 1958, Fredrick was accepted into Harvard and as part of the recommendation letter, his high school counselor wrote 'I believe Fredrick as one of the greatest contributions to make to society, he is reflective sensitive and deeply conscious of his responsibilities to society. His only drawback is a tendency to be rather quiet in his original meetings with people but most adults on our staff and many people in the community who are mature find him easy to talk to and very challenging intellectually. He has a number of friends among high school students and seems to influence them to think more seriously.' During this period of his life Fredrick held immense promise for his future but he may not have been ready to leave home. One friend remembers urging Wood's father not to let the boy go arguing 'He's too young, too immature and Harvard too impersonal.'"