Evil man, or tortured soul?

(CNN) -- It is a disturbing portrait of loneliness and secrecy; obsessions and contradictions.

Theodore John Kaczynski -- accused of being the shadowy Unabomber who bedeviled authorities during an 18-year-long spate of bombings -- acquired a Harvard degree at age 20. He could have had a dazzling academic career at one of the nation's top mathematics departments. But he chose another path: that of a recluse who shunned family and friends.

Some 18 months after Kaczynski's arrest at his remote, book-filled Montana cabin, the suspect has remained as silent in his prison cell as he had been during his 25-year-long, self-imposed exile.

To the FBI, Kaczynski, 55, was the prize at the end of the nation's longest, most expensive hunt for a serial killer. Officials point to the mountain of evidence uncovered at the cabin -- including the master copy of the Unabomber manifesto and the typewriter used to create it. In the eyes of federal investigators, Kaczynski is a cold, calculating, evil man whose contempt for technological advances led him to mastermind the bombings that killed three and injured 29.

To his family, Kaczynski is a sad, tortured man -- a mathematical genius who swiftly climbed the academic ladder even as he became an emotional cripple. He had penetrated the mysteries of a complex science but never savored the simple joys of love and friendship.

The real Ted Kaczynski may forever remain an enigma, but to the brother who made the painful decision to turn him in, one memory from nearly a decade ago stands out: In an interview with the New York Times, David Kaczynski recollected the time when he came emotionally close to his only brother:

It was during a visit to the Montana cabin. David was sawing wood when the work table collapsed, taking him down with it. Ted ran over, asking, "Are you OK?" David replied that he was concerned about the saw, one of his brother's few tools. "'The hell with the saw. Are you OK?'" David quoted his brother as saying.

"He touched my shoulders ... It was incredible, and touching, and human."

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