Abstract. Let Tn be the kernel of the natural map Out(Fn) → GLn(Z). We use combinatorial Morse theory to prove that Tn has an Eilenberg-MacLane space which is (2n − 4)-dimensional and that H 2n−4 (Tn, Z) is not finitely generated (n ≥ 3). In particular, this recovers the result of Krstić-McCool that T 3 is not finitely presented. We also give a new proof of the fact, due to Magnus, that Tn is finitely generated.