Olympic bomb suspect charged today
The man blamed for a string of attacks including a fatal bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games stared defiantly as he was taken under heavy guard to be charged in North Carolina today.
The FBI believes Eric Rudolph spent the last five years hiding out in the mountains as investigators scoured the world for him. A spokesman said the 36-year-old former soldier seemed “very calm” and relieved to have contact with other people again.
Today, he was taken to Asheville to face charges and for federal prosecutors to decide whether they want him moved to Alabama or Georgia.
Rudolph is accused of bombing abortion clinics in Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, a gay nightclub in Atlanta, and the explosion in the city’s Olympic Centennial Park during the 1996 Olympics.
He could face the death penalty if found guilty of carrying out the four attacks, which killed two people and wounded about 150 others.
He was last been seen in July 1998 at a North Carolina health food shop.
The FBI said he spent much of his spare time in the woods hiking and abseiling down the mine shafts and limestone caverns that complicated the search for him.
Investigators were today examining two campsites he recently used.
His former sister-in-law, Deborah Rudolph, who helped develop a profile for investigators, said Rudolph believed whites should further their race and opposed abortion because he said it was killing too many white babies.
Rudolph had been on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list, and the government had offered a one million dollar reward for information leading to his capture.
