The use of forensic linguistics analysis in the Unabomber case was praised, and even adopted, throughout the country. It brought about a new appreciation for creating a profile based on a person’s words, ideas, and thoughts. Encouraged by the Unabomber case success, the FBI continued to ask for linguistic analyses from Professor Robert Shuy, who in one notable case aided in the apprehension of an anonymous writer who threatened to send bombs to a Women’s Medical Clinic in Gary, Indiana. Fitzgerald also continued to contribute to the largely booming field of forensic linguistics, mainly through creating the FBI’s Communicated Threat Assessment Database, a system that contains over 4 million words and processes over thousands of criminally associated communication.
Interview with Fitzgerald (right)
Newsy, 2018
In fact, of what has been exposed to the public, this database played a prominent role in solving the famous 2011 Christopher Coleman trial, by indicating the distinctiveness of certain vocabulary and keyword positions in the emails he wrote. Courses in forensic linguistics are now actually being taught in distinguished colleges and universities, and some FBI agents are required to take forensic linguistics training lessons. Through these widespread impacts, it is clear to see that the success of the Unabomber case validated the science of this process, as well as saved countless lives that an unashamed Unabomber would have taken if given the opportunity.
"I think forensic linguistics has a great future. I believe it is on the cutting edge of forensic science, in terms of its applicability to real world situations. It can solve cases, it can help corporations understand what their employees are saying, sometimes anonymously, and it can solve language related crimes. Where, before forensic linguistics, there were just lucky guesses involved now science backs it up, which makes it so much more accurate and so much more efficient."
- James R. Fitzgerald, 2009.
What started out as scattered ideas, developed into a full field of study with now hundreds of techniques to study linguistics. Without a doubt, the success of the Unabomber led to this revolution, now acknowledged across the globe.