Unabomber's brother feels for the Hackings

One of the images inscribed on David Kaczynski's heart is of his brother, Ted, then about 10 years old, hammering a nail into the screen back door and affixing it with a thread and an empty wooden spool.

"He made me a makeshift handle, my brother, the Unabomber," said David Kaczynski, who at the time was younger than 3 years old and too small to reach the existing door handle.

"He loved me. He cared about me, and there was a goodness in him, however twisted he later became," said Kaczynski, who spoke to the Deseret Morning News Friday about his brother and the Mark Hacking case.

Warm memories of their Chicago childhood, however, didn't prevent David Kaczynski from going to federal authorities when he realized that his older brother might be responsible for 18 years of terror with bombings, killings and maimings.

"I think the struggle for me was in the realization of the impact of what I might or might not do," Kaczynski told the Morning News.

Telling police could either save the lives of the innocent — or perhaps sentence his brother to die. In the end, Ted Kaczynski, who suffers from schizophrenia, pleaded guilty to his crimes in 1998 and now serves a life sentence in a 10-foot by 12-foot federal prison cell.

Difficult choices

Lance and Scott Hacking faced a similar choice on Saturday, July 24, after their younger brother Mark allegedly confessed to them that he had killed his pregnant wife, Lori, as she slept and then left her body in a Dumpster.

"It was a difficult decision," Lance Hacking told the Morning News. "We felt it was the right decision for everyone, including Mark."

After the brothers gave their information to police, Mark Hacking was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of criminal homicide. Neither police nor prosecutors have released a possible motive for the crime.

But the Friday before Lori disappeared she allegedly found out that Mark had lied about his schooling and his acceptance to medical school in North Carolina.

The Salt Lake District Attorney's Office has until Monday at 5 p.m. to file charges against Hacking or release him from jail.

David Kaczynski understands the struggle the Hacking brothers faced in going to police.