“When the bomb detonated I remember distinctly feeling the heat and the rush of air come from behind me and it and basically just forced me to the ground. This bomb was built for one purpose to cause as much harm to personnel as possible. I remember the light and a lot of debris then the shock wave that hits you. Every hole that was in the building was a nail and they could tell where I had been standing because there was an outline of person on the glass here. All the nails that were going to be there were in my body instead. It’s one thing to set a bomb with a timer and walk away from it, it’s a whole another thing to stand across the street see someone lean over your device and click the button.”
“In the summer of 1996 millions of people descend on the Atlanta area for the 26th Olympic Games. A lot of vendors set up tents in here. Right along in this area here was the the AT&T Global Olympic Village. The park was fairly full; I would say probably in the neighborhood of 70 or 80,000 people in the park, a very festive time.”
“I was the assistant venue commander here in Centennial Park. My duties included supervising the intelligence detail teams that we had assigned to the park.”
“What was this about 12:50 that evening I was walking on the sidewalk up near the AT&T tower. Richard Jewell flagged me down and basically just said, ‘Look we got some drunks over here and they’re not paying any attention to me and they’re throwing beer cans in here and disrupting everyone would you mind you know taking care of it?’”
“And uh we tried to find the guys that were throwing the beer can. He looks at the bench and he said, ‘One of them must have left that bag there.’”
“It was fairly common for bags to be left unattended and in every situation where one was found we had to follow the protocol that was established. First police officers on the scene attempt to find the owner of the bag. When that fails they contact the FBI ATF bomb diagnostic team and clear the immediate area around the bench.”
“At 12:58 Atlanta police receive a 911 call: ‘Atlanta 911, there is a bomb in Centennial Park, you have 30 minutes.’”
“The severity of the situation became clear to me when the diagnostic team made the decision to bring in a render safety. I knew at that point that we had to evacuate that area, but moving tens of thousands of people out of a 100 square yard area is easier said than done. Some people became very uh resistant to moving and you got to remember that that part of the park right in front of the stage was a focal point and people didn’t want to give up their seat for something that may not turn out to be anything. Come on guys.”
“As security continues working to clear the area Alice Hawthorne a 44-year-old mother of two is posing for a picture. One, two.”
“When the bomb detonated it was of course a very loud explosion very forceful explosion. I remember distinctly feeling the heat and the rush of air come from behind me and it and basically just forced me to the ground. I looked around and people were screaming. There was many severely injured. Of course we were tending to our own people as well. Really up until the time that it exploded we still wasn’t sure that it was a bomb, cuz if I’d have known that it was a bomb I wouldn’t have been standing 18 steps from it.”
“The nail-filled bomb blasts shrapnel in a radius of several hundred yards. EMS units evacuate 96 victims to four hospitals. Alice Hawthorne dies instantly. Another victim Melih Uzunyol, a cameraman, dies of a heart attack while running to capture the scene.”
“Who would have thought that somebody would bring a bomb into Atlanta Georgia and detonate it while the Olympics was going on? I was surprised to be quite frank with you. The backpack that the device was placed in was a military-style backpack which is commonly called an Alice pack. That also gave us some suggestion that maybe our bomber had some experience in the military.”
“Once authorities secure the area the FBI, ATF and other agencies go to work. Investigators interview witnesses in an effort to piece together the events leading up to the explosion.”
“Richard Jewell the security guard who first spotted the pack tells authorities about the group of rowdy men last seen around him. FBI called the right away; a unit is dispatched to track them down for questioning while the rest of the team begins the painstaking task of deconstructing the scene. They do line searches, they sift through the dirt of the crater and they come up with everything that is to be found. Each fragment tells a story. What we can tell at the crime scene was the fact that it was a very large pipe bomb. We knew at that time before we left Atlanta that it was at least three pipes because we found six end caps.”
“The team collects over 500 bags of debris containing 5 to 600 individual pieces. All of the pieces are flown back to the FBI explosives unit in Quantico, Virginia. Within hours they identify at least one of the bomb’s components, a smokeless gunpowder. As we attempt to identify the explosive material that’s used in the device itself, this may give us uh valuable information if we identify a suspect. A complete analysis will take weeks or longer.”
“Back in Atlanta the media quickly declares security guard Richard Jewell a hero for discovering the pack in time. But just one day after the bombing the FBI hotline gets a provocative tip about the Centennial Park hero from one of his former co-workers.”
“As it turns out Richard Jewell had been accused of being an overzealous cop, a cop who overstepped his authority and his jurisdiction, and perhaps now he’s trying a little too hard to become a hero.”
“As agents in Atlanta question hundreds of witnesses and suspects in the Olympic Park bombings, examiners at the FBI lab in Quantico sift through the evidence. We will go through those 500 bags of debris determine what the components are and come up with a logical scenario for how the device was placed.”
“They determined that the bomb was made up of three 12-inch steel pipes. Each of the three pipes contained over a pound of smokeless powder and 160 nails. The bomb was powered by a 12-volt battery with a windup clock as a time delay detonator.”
“A steel plate focused the shrapnel in a concentrated area. A total of 480 nails were taped around the pipes with duct tape.”
“This statue’s probably about 40 yards from where the bomb exploded. You can actually see here where one of the nails struck the statute. Over in this area you can see other areas that were struck by by shrapnel and debris from the explosion. There’s no question in my mind that this bomb was built for one purpose and the purpose of that was anti-personnel device to cause as much harm to personnel in the vicinity of this bomb exploding as possible.”
“Back in Atlanta the group of rowdy young men initially seen in the vicinity of the backpack are quickly cleared of any wrongdoing. With precious little to go on the FBI doesn’t conduct an official profile on the bomber.”
“But it isn’t long before the media comes up with its own hero bomber theory and suspicions soon turn to the man that discovered the bomb, Richard Jewell. And the idea that this was similar to the fake bomb in the LA Olympics that happened a number of years before where the guard planted the fake bomb on a bus and then pretended to find it so he could then gain recognition. It’s not been uncommon that that person in the end was the person responsible because they wanted to look like the hero. Richard was fairly overzealous when we were trying to determine whether or not the package belonged to someone. He was very adamant about going from person to person. It was an urgent situation for him.”
“Determining whether that urgency stemmed from Jewell’s keen sense of duty or a twisted need to feel important requires a deeper look into his background. And investigators soon discover that Jewell’s work history is anything but spotless. As a part-time security guard at an apartment complex he once arrested a couple for making too much noise. ‘What seems to be the problem? You’re being serious right now?’ He was arrested for impersonating a police officer in order to seek psychological help. Let’s go.”
“On Saturday, July 30th, 1996, the same day Centennial Park reopens, an Atlanta newspaper breaks the Jewell story. That morning federal agents greet Jewell outside his mother’s home and ask him to come to Atlanta headquarters.”
“Ultimately you just want you you read the body language. ‘Okay Richard let me get you the sign right at the bottom down here.’ When they said you have the right to counsel and Richard’s antenna goes up. ‘I need to call my wife.’ He knows what this means. He said, ‘I want to call my lawyer.’ And at that point that’s when he started making phone calls to me and I called about. I said to him, ‘Have you seen the headlines in the newspaper? FBI suspects hero guard may have planted bombs so what the hell are you doing?’”
“Jewell is released and warned not to leave the city. On July 31st an army of FBI agents swarm in to execute a search warrant. They took nails, they took tape, they took basically common household things that could in some way be used in making a bomb. But most incriminating is a segment of corrugated fence from Centennial Park blown apart by the explosion. When law enforcement officers are involved in criminal investigations it is not a good practice to take anything from the scene, especially some type of memorabilia or keepsake.”
“Tired of unproven accusations and relentless media attention on August 4th Richard Jewell takes a voluntary polygraph test. ‘Did you tell me?’ The results are inconclusive. Good response starts right on time. But just as suspicions in the media are reaching a fevered pitch the FBI files for a court order to get voice samples from Jewell to analyze against the 911 call made the night of the bombing: ‘30 minutes.’”
“They also complete forensic testing on evidence collected from his home and what they uncover comes as a surprise to many. All the investigation conducted of Mr. Jewell failed to make any direct connections between him and any of the components used in the device. No real motivation could be found as to why he would have done that other than the the debatable issue about wanting to be the hero.”
“On October 26th, 1996, the FBI drops Richard Jewell as a suspect. Richard received no apology from the media and no apology from the government in any way. The FBI never said he was in fact the bomber. The FBI was just carrying out its job of of doing a legitimate investigation of a crime.”
“‘Park here, I got a bad.’ He’s a hero. He did his job well. Liable put his life at risk by moving the crowd away. This man’s attention to detail might have saved the Olympics.”
“Almost 3 months after the explosion at Centennial Park the authorities are back at square one, appealing to the public for help. The FBI releases the tape of the 911 bomb threat: ‘What’s your emergency?’ ‘There is a bomb in Centennial Park, you have 30 minutes.’ And a photo of a backpack similar to the one holding the bomb.”
“At this stage the only information they have to go on is that he’s a male with an American accent. Once Richard Jewell’s uh ruled out as being the suspect the investigation continues and that’s where a lot of these additional suspects grow out of. We got a fairly regular stream of tips about people who could possibly have been responsible for it.”
“The FBI collects photos and video footage taken at the event hoping that someone inadvertently captured an image of the bomber planting the knapsack, but no luck.”
“Well with the bomb being put in a place where you’ve got tens of thousands of people who you have to assume are innocent bystanders it certainly paints the picture of someone who really doesn’t care who his victims are when he detonates that device.”
“More than 500 suspects are questioned and released. These names could come from neighbors calling in about someone they were suspicious of who was angry about the Olympics being here, or a neighbor who blew up stumps with dynamite. We also talked to the military about anyone who would have gotten training through them but who might have some reason to have been involved in this type of activity.”
“The case goes cold, but the pressure on the investigative team doesn’t let up. There certainly was concern that this could happen again. There’s no reason to believe our bombers is going to do it one time.”
“My wife has a law office at the Sandy Springs Professional Building and on that particular morning we had our daughters in a makeshift nursery in the corner of the building. I called the office for my cell phone and uh asked the clerks to please have the girls ready to go in the lobby because I just wanted to have a quick pick up and go, and that turned out to be the most important phone call I think I ever made.”
“A render safe team is made up of highly skilled explosives experts who are brought in to assess a potential bomb and then move it or render it safe before it can cause harm.”
“For 173 days the FBI has been stymied in their hunt for a suspect in the deadly Olympic Park bombing. But 15 miles away in Sandy Springs, Georgia, an event is about to take place that could throw the entire investigation into question.”
“When we arrived at the Sandy Springs Professional Building walked in to upstairs to my wife’s law office on the third floor and there were the girls ready to go and I sat down on the couch in the main lobby of her office just for a second. I remember seeing light outside the windows and then the explosion and it was almost a huge shock wave. You could smell the odor of of explosives and the first thing that goes through your head number one is, ‘Everybody okay?’ My daughters were okay, the workers were okay, but obviously there have been some serious serious damage to the office and at that point you just want to get out.”
“It soon becomes clear that the target of the bomb was the North Side Family Planning Clinic on the first floor. The clinic has provided obstetric and gynecological services including abortions.”
“Once we were down in the parking lot we could see the smoke coming out from the family clinic window. I was just kind of billowing out. I went over to check out the damage and I could see the tremendous damage. Then I picked up the cell phone and called my wife. She was in court and I said, ‘I think a bomb went off downstairs from your law office.’ And she immediately got in her car and got to the scene. Then I picked up the cell phone and called the radio station.”
“Local police, emergency personnel and the fire department respond within minutes. The FBI and ATF are right behind them.”
“The device was placed on the outside wall against where the abortion clinic was located near a window. When the device detonated the blast went through the window causing a great deal of damage inside the clinic. At that time of the morning there really wasn’t anyone outside so we did not have any injuries outside. There weren’t any injuries inside either.”
“Investigators immediately get to work collecting as much information and evidence as they can. I stayed on the scene for probably the next hour and continued to report the story for my radio station and then my wife managed to jump the crime tape and came and joined me on the front lawn and we embraced and at that moment I said, ‘It’s over.’ I go, ‘Everything’s fine it’s all over.’”
“At 10:37 an hour after the first explosion a second bomb detonates. I remember the light and a lot of debris then the shock wave that hits you like if you’ve ever been too close to a fireworks display and you feel it in your chest, amplify that by about 100 times and the shock wave enters your skull and it’s the longest second in your life and travels through your head. It just blows out the back of your head and we saw shrapnel flying by us and at that point it was, ‘Let’s get out of here entirely, maybe there’s a third bomb.’”
“Luckily a line of parked cars absorbs much of the impact. Several people were down with injuries uh fortunately nobody killed but still injured and people were tending to them.”
“When we got word that another bombing had occurred certainly it crossed our minds that it it could be related, could be the same bomber. And I say that based on the fact that most metropolitan areas including Atlanta don’t tend to have a lot of major bombing. But the two targets, an Olympic concert and an abortion clinic, have no obvious connection. More importantly trace evidence on the scene suggests that the type of explosives used in the bombings were not at all similar.”
“A joint task force of FBI and ATF agents is formed to share information and resources as the news gets out. Investigators find their first lead.”
“‘A witness told us that he had been going by this location about 6:00 in the morning the day of the blast. He had observed an individual crouched down to where the secondary device had been located. He described the individual as a white male wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He also described the individual as having what he described as an entrenching tool which is a small collapsible military-style shovel.’”
“Security camera footage corroborates the witness account but fails to record the suspect’s face. A composite is released based on the vague description. For now it’s the best they’ve got.”
“Over the next 3 weeks federal investigators compare the devices from Centennial Park in Sandy Springs and it isn’t long before they make a frightening discovery.”
“Eventually the the review of the components did lead us to accept that it was the same bomber, but the similarities came about from the same types of clocks used as a timing device. A lot of the wiring and tape those types of things were were similar.”
“One bomber, two very different targets, a public event and an abortion clinic.”
“But as the FBI works the connection between the two bombing locations one link comes into focus. Them at the Sandy Springs bombing we had a very unique situation occur with a second device which had been placed at a location where the bomber assumed law enforcement and rescue personnel would be congregated having responded to the first device.”
“The question as to why he’s targeting law enforcement is is unanswered. Certainly gives us some sense of the mentality of the individual we’re looking for, but the question of why was certainly up in the air.”
“FBI examiners at Quantico replicate the explosion to see what kind of damage the bomb could have caused if it hadn’t been obstructed. This demonstration will show the explosive potential of 8 lb of high explosive with approximately 10 lb of additional fragmentation attached to the explosive charge. We’re going to place the explosive charge approximately where the sandbags are, be about 15 ft from a target vehicle and we’ll use the vehicle to pick up the fragmentation that comes off of the explosive charge.”
“Cars parked in the vicinity took the majority of the shrapnel and it didn’t cause as much damage to law enforcement personnel or first responders as the domestic terrorists would have liked to seen.”
“Investigators are still not clear on the bombers’s motive and so far his attempts have mostly failed. But the FBI knows they haven’t seen the last of them.”
“And so the bomb hit and I just went straight down here in the building. Every hole that was in the building was a nail and they could tell where I was standing because there was an outline of a person on this glass. All those nails got me instead.”
“Armed with only a vague description and no discernable motive the FBI, ATF joint task force alerts state and local authorities about the bomber and the potential for additional attacks.”
“Having a secondary device in bombings is is very rare, something that is taught to some degree in the military as a tactical maneuver, gave us yet another reason to think our bomber might in fact have a military background.”
“They interview and release hundreds of suspects. It was time-consuming and tedious but it’s the kind of thing that needs to be done in this type of investigation.”
“‘We received a phone call from our manager saying that there was a loud noise. He didn’t. He was real shook up. He thought that that something had gone off. He said, ‘I think something may have exploded.’’”
“When owner Dana Ford arrives at the Other Side Lounge, a popular Atlanta gay and lesbian nightclub, she’s relieved to learn that only five people had been injured in the blast. ‘I mean who thinks bomb? I mean now in today’s day we might but back then the terrorism wasn’t on everyone’s tongue.’”
“We got a phone call and had been advised that there had been yet another bombing, this one at the Other Side Lounge, and in fact that a secondary device had been found.”
“Bomb techs work through the night to stabilize the secondary device, but when a robot tries to disarm the bomb it explodes without warning.”
“The devices that that were used at Sandy Springs and at the Other Side Lounge were actually very similar. They all used the same type of timer, had the same type of wire, had the same type of electrical tape and duct tape.”
“And it’s not long before the authorities get a much-needed break in the case. A letter taking credit for the Sandy Springs and Other Side Lounge bombings is received by various media outlets. The author claims to be affiliated with a well-known extremist group called the Army of God.”
“There was enough detail about the devices in the letters that made it very clear this was in fact the person who had set the devices. Most of the letter was an attack against the government, an attack against abortion, an attack against homosexuality.”
“The writer felt compelled not just to attack those entities but the elements of the government that that the writer felt was protecting abortion and homosexual lifestyle and the FBI, the ATF and US Marshals.”
“A lot of times people project their hatred and blame onto different groups of people, whether they be lesbian and gays, whether they be African-Americans or anti-abortionist and our sense was that uh this anti-abortionist mission provided him with moral justification to carry out this underlying anger and express the anger that we think was sort of brewing inside of him. And we weren’t sure of exactly what the source of that was, but we felt that this was an underlying motivation.”
“The letters are sent to Quantico for trace analysis, but they’re clean of any identifiable prints or DNA and an investigation into the Army of God reveals no known leader or headquarters. Once again the case is at a standstill.”
“When I came into work that morning I always parked down here and Sandy always parked in the upper parking lot. We met and talked for a moment and he noticed something in the ground and he motioned for me to back up.”
“The nails of course went in, broke my left leg, blew the skin and muscle off my shins on both my knees. Had so many nails in them that they wouldn’t bend, they were literally nailed into place. My left eye is gone, my right eye was damaged, my face was broken, my intestines were hanging out.”
“‘This got a 20B at 1700 10th Avenue South, 1700 10th Avenue South by Birmingham Women’s Clinic.’ Birmingham police arrive along with the fire department and paramedics. Nurse Emily Lions is critically injured and a man is dead.”
“Officer Sanderson was a Birmingham police officer. He was a patrolman. He works an extra job at the clinic. You see the destruction of the bomb and then you learn that it was one of your officers that was killed. That was there, there’s a lot of emotion.”
“Police had already cordoned off about a block area in each direction from the site uh being cognizant of possible secondary devices. There was a very large crater right here when the bomb went off. It was directional in nature, meaning that the shrapnel was directed toward the clinic itself. But when the bomb went off the shrapnel went that way injuring Emily Lions, and Officer Sanderson was thrown that way up against that railing uh over there.”
“No secondary device is found, but they can’t help thinking that there must be a connection to the bombings in Georgia.”
“The more we talked the more that the crime scene investigators began to look at the the device itself and the bombing, the thought began to take place that, ‘Okay there’s enough similarities that perhaps uh they were built and and detonated to the same person.’”
“Investigators once again canvas the area for witnesses, but this time they hit pay dirt.”
“Shortly after the explosion a University of Alabama student notices a suspicious looking man in the vicinity of the clinic and takes it upon himself to follow him. The student continues following the individual for about four blocks. The individual then turns down an alley and momentarily after that he sees the same individual has changed his appearance somewhat but the student knows that’s the same guy I’ve been following.”
“But he loses the man and the student ducks into a restaurant to call 911.”
“The student finished talking with the police, he goes and gets in his vehicle, he sees the gray pickup truck and he recognizes the driver.”
“The license number, North Carolina KN&N117, gives the bureau their first break.”
“And a name, Eric Rudolph of Asheville, age 31.”
“But just because Eric Rudolph’s truck was seen in the Birmingham area on the day of the bombing doesn’t mean he’s the bomber. They’ll need more information, a lot more.”
“Rudolph’s address of record in Asheville, North Carolina is a dead end. The house belonged to his mother years ago.”
“Investigators run his name through their criminal databases but nothing comes up on the suspect. Their suspicions build when they realize how difficult it is to get any background on him at all. He didn’t have a bank account, paid most of his bills either with cash or with money orders. So when you have someone doing that type of thing it’s it’s hard to track them or to trace where they’ve been.”
“But the deeper they dig the more Rudolph seems to fit the profile. According to a number of witnesses Eric had since high school expressed anti-government, anti-Semitic and very racist sentiments.”
“Eric had spent 2 years in the US Army. When he came back he had changed that. There was something more sinister.”
“Eric was not unlike a lot of bombers, a very secretive individual, a very passive aggressive individual. The significance of that for us in the investigation is that people who are given to introversion lead compartmented lives; they don’t disclose to other people all aspects of their life.”
“Meanwhile an ATF explosives lab determines the device from Birmingham to be similar to the Atlanta bombs with one gruesome difference; this time a remote control was used.”
“‘It’s one thing to set a bomb with a timer and walk away from it, it’s a whole another thing to stand across the street see someone lean over your device and click the button and watch that device blow that person up right in front of your eyes.’ The FBI told us that it had been remote controlled. All I could do is cry. You know they’re telling me that this person stood across the street and pushed the button intentionally to kill us. Why? He wanted to actually see it and he was taking risks to see it. So this told us that he was escalating his his attacks.”
“But investigators soon get another break when they track Rudolph to an address in Murphy, North Carolina.”
“On January 30th, just one day after the Birmingham bombing, federal, state and local law enforcement officials descend on the small town. By 9:00 p.m. an FBI SWAT team takes position outside of his home. He was on his turf and we knew we were here for the long haul.”
“Almost a year and a half since the first in a series of bombs exploded in Atlanta’s Centennial Park, a multi-unit strike force prepares to raid the home of Eric Rudolph, the man they believe responsible for three murders and dozens of injuries.”
“When we went into the trailer we found somebody who left in a hurry. The door was open, the light was on. There was I think $1,600 cash. He definitely wasn’t planning on coming back.”
“Investigators uncovered dynamite residue, pieces of a model airplane remote control like the one used in Birmingham, and another grizzly connection to the homicide there.”
“During the autopsy of Officer Sanderson part of a radiator hose clamp was found inside his body. A receipt was found that showed that on December 24th, 1997, approximately one month before the bombing, that he had purchased the exact same hose clamp that had been identified.”
“Suspecting that Rudolph has fled into the surrounding mountains local and federal authorities begin combing the notoriously dense Nantahala forest.”
“‘That you could be standing four feet from someone and not see them and we knew we were in for a long haul.’”
“Investigators set up a makeshift FBI headquarters at the nearby National Guard Armory. Little do they know they’re not the only ones hunting in the forest.”
“On February 7th two men stumble upon Rudolph’s truck in the woods just south of Murphy. The search team beats the bushes looking for him but finds no trace.”
“Inside the truck they find more physical evidence linking him to the crimes.”
“Over the next few months investigators do all they can to locate Rudolph. In a normal fugitive case you talk to people and somebody along the way has seen the person you’re looking for. In this case nobody had seen him.”
“He had told several friends that if he ever got into trouble he was going into those mountains and no one would ever find him there.”
“In May 1998, 4 months after he was last seen in Birmingham, the FBI adds Eric Rudolph to its most wanted list. They offer a $1 million reward for anyone with information leading to his arrest. Frustrations grow as no one comes forward.”
“‘We came up with a program called the scout program where we hired folks who would work for us. They were outdoorsmen; they were poachers, trappers. And we would uh meet them up here every Monday. We would provide them with a grid that they would search, and then we would come back and meet them here at the armory on Friday where we would debrief them, and then we would do the same thing the next week.’”
“Months roll into years with no sign of Rudolph, but the bureau never gives up. ‘Going to be the key to I must admit it’s frustrating uh we’d heard every possible joke imaginable regarding uh how um bumbling we were.’”
“For 5 years, 3 months and 29 days their faith is tested as federal authorities hit one dead end after another.”
“There was major concerns that he would strike again. Our worst case scenario was that he would come out and he would plant another bomb or that he would shoot one of our SWAT team members as they scoured the woods looking for him. It was always very present in our mind that that he was out there, he was armed and uh still very dangerous.”
“Almost 7 years after the first bombing at the Olympics a Cherokee County deputy on routine patrol comes across a man lurking behind a grocery store. He suspects the man is planning a break-in and calls for backup.”
“‘I arrived on scene when I noticed his face and I got a real bad sick feeling and that cuz it just hit me that fast who it was.’”
“The suspect says his name is Jerry Wilson. He is taken into custody.”
“‘We got a hold of one of the wanted posters, printed it off and we went in there and started talking to him and then uh he finally said, ‘You know I’m Eric Robert Rudolph, you’ve got me.’’”
“He said he was tired of running. ‘I don’t think I really believed the report at first. Eventually I I talked to someone on scene and they indicated, ‘Yes it is in fact him.’’”
“They’d verified the fingerprints so it was both shocking but at the same time just an enormous relief. The day that Rudolph was captured was a Saturday and way too early in the morning the phone rang. It was a friend of ours telling us to turn the TV on and I said, ‘Rudolph?’ ‘Yep he’d been caught.’ I mean it was just unbelievable.”
“In custody Eric Rudolph cooperates fully, pointing out the locations of his well-concealed campsites in the stores he lived off of for so long.”
“On July 3rd, 2003, he is extradited to Birmingham where he pleads not guilty to the new women healthcare center bombing in 1998. Federal prosecutors announced they will seek the death penalty for the murder of Officer Robert Sanderson.”
“But Rudolph has one last card to play.”
“Eric had indicated he had explosives buried in various locations in North Carolina and that some of those locations were near businesses and main roads. Dynamite becomes more volatile over time and the amount of dynamite that we’re talking about, probably 250 lbs of dynamite that he had stashed in the mountains, became a threat to anybody who was in the area.”
“Rudolph agrees to reveal the location of the stashes in exchange for life in prison and the prosecution takes the deal.”
“‘We proceeded here to the National Guard Armory to await word on where those locations were and we were shocked to find out that the first location that came in was at the National Guard Armory. He said he’s planned to detonate it to kill the agents.’”
“But according to Rudolph one remaining spark of humanity kept him from doing it. Eventually all of the dynamite is disposed of and on April 13th, 2005, Eric Rudolph pleads guilty to the five bombings in Georgia and the bombing in Birmingham.”
“He was quite vindictive in his comments to people, indicating that they made themselves targets by being a part of of the abortion industry or uh living the homosexual lifestyle.”
“In his statement he says he regrets only one thing. He did not intend for the innocent bystanders to be heard at Centennial Park. He had meant the device to target the responders to the device, and that that is why he had made the 911 call advising of the device.”
“For his crimes and the deaths of Birmingham police officer Robert Sanderson, Olympic concert goer Alice Hawthorne and Turkish cameraman Melih Uzunyol, Eric Rudolph receives six consecutive life sentences.”
“He’s currently serving his time in ADX Florence Supermax Federal Prison. Having worked it for 9 years I was extremely satisfied to hear him stand in court and plead guilty to all of these incidents. Time being served at a Supermax facility, knowing what the conditions are there, I think his conditions there are probably in a number of ways worse than a death sentence.”
