Bomb evidence unsealed (Centennial park bombing)

At least 15 witnesses have told investigators that a 911 caller who warned of an impending bombing at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Games sounded like Eric Robert Rudolph, and experts say his handwriting is similar to four letters taking credit for other Atlanta bombings, according to court documents unsealed Friday.

The documents -- unsealed by a federal judge in Atlanta -- contain much more evidence linking Rudolph to three bombings in Atlanta than had been reported before. At the request of The Associated Press, the court released an October 1998 affidavit written by federal authorities seeking an arrest warrant for Rudolph on charges related to the Atlanta bombings.

Federal authorities said the evidence linking Rudolph to the bombings also included fibers found in the bombs that match material taken from his truck and allegedly incriminating statements from confidants.

A friend of Rudolph's told authorities that, shortly after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people, Rudolph commented about "how it seemed like there were going to be more terrorist incidents."

"Rudolph said something to the effect of 'yeah, something like the Olympics,' and indicated that the Olympics would be a prime target . . . because the whole world would be watching," FBI special agent Tracey A. North wrote in the search warrant affidavit. The affidavit had been sealed since it was submitted Oct. 13, 1998. The name of Rudolph's friend was not included in the affidavit.

The unsealed documents also suggest that Rudolph may have researched bomb construction during the spring before the 1996 Olympics.

A book order sent from Rudolph's address in Topton, N.C., for "Kitchen Improvised Fertilizer Explosives" was not filled because the manual was out of print. The order was accompanied by payment in the form of a postal money order. Another book, "Ragnar's Homemade Detonators," was sent to Rudolph's address on March 8, 1996, according to the affidavit.

The document states that agents found three videotapes at Rudolph's residences, at his storage unit near Murphy, N.C., and in his truck. On one tape Rudolph is said to have recorded a July 27, 1997, newscast that included a story on the first anniversary of the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.

Rudolph's defense lawyer, Richard Jaffe, said Friday he had not seen the documents unsealed by federal Magistrate Judge Joel M. Feldman.

"Its hard to have a reaction to something we haven't seen or heard about," Jaffe said. "But what you are reading is a document for the purpose of finding probable cause. You haven't seen any scientific documents or scientific testing."

Rudolph, 36, a former soldier and a survivalist, was taken into custody May 31 in the same wilderness region of North Carolina where he long had been suspected of living on the run.

He remains jailed in Birmingham, where he has pleaded innocent to the Jan. 29, 1998, bombing of the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic in which an off-duty police officer was killed and a nurse was maimed.

Rudolph also is accused of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta in which a woman was killed and more than 100 people were injured, and two bombings in Atlanta in 1997 -- at a nightclub frequented by lesbians and at a building that housed a clinic where abortions were performed.

Jaffe, who is defending Rudolph in the Birmingham case, said he questions whether the evidence referred to in the Atlanta cases would prove damaging to Rudolph.

"If this is anything like the whole ream of documents we're just receiving, we'll be having questions that we'll be raising," the lawyer said.

• Smokeless gunpowder found in five reloaded shells in Rudolph's storage unit was similar to powder residue found among debris in the Olympic park after the bombing. An unidentified witness is quoted in the document as telling agents he watched as Rudolph used similar powder to reload shells. The witness is quoted as saying "as Rudolph was putting the powder away, he was showing . . . how much he had left, and he said that he had enough to reload a certain amount, or to make a bomb."

• The Centennial Olympic Park bomb was assembled similarly to a method learned by Rudolph in the military. A wooden dowel was inserted like a handle across the top of a backpack used to carry the Olympic bomb. Investigators say the technique was commonly used at the Air Assault School at Fort Campbell, Ky., where Rudolph served in 1988. One soldier told police he saw Rudolph rig his Army pack in the same manner.

• All the Atlanta bombs used small Rubbermaid plastic containers and Westclox timers, the documents say. One such container was found in a locker Rudolph rented in Murphy.

Authorities previously said they found nails like those used in the clinic bombings in the locker.

The documents also seem to connect Rudolph to letters mailed to news organizations in 1997 claiming responsibility for the bombings of the Atlanta clinic and the Otherside Lounge on behalf of a shadowy group identified as the "Army of God."

The handwritten letters said the targets of the bombs were supporters of abortion and homosexuality. The letters also said a second bomb that exploded at the clinic was "aimed at agents of the so-called federal government." The letters closed with the phrase "Death to the New World Order," the affidavit said.

The documents say experts determined the handwriting on the letters was similar to Rudolph's handwriting, and friends told investigators the phrasing in the letters was similar to "rhetoric and phrases" used by Rudolph.

While 15 witnesses familiar with Rudolph's voice were said to identify him as the caller who dialed the emergency 911 number from a pay phone on Spring Street a few blocks from Centennial Olympic Park, the affidavit also says that other witnesses were not so sure.

"Three witnesses have stated, with varying degrees of certainty, that the caller does not sound like Rudolph," the affidavit says.

The caller warned police that a bomb was to explode in the park 30 minutes after the call. The bomb exploded 22 minutes later, according to the document.

Since Rudolph was arraigned on Tuesday, prosecutors have been providing documents from the investigation to defense lawyers, but the materials collected during searches haven't been provided to them.

"We'll have plenty of opportunity for our experts to conduct independent testing of any materials they have," said Jaffe, the defense attorney.

He also raised questions about whether the evidence links Rudolph to the bombings in Atlanta and Birmingham.

"Already there has been one person in Atlanta said to be a prime suspect in the bombing and that turned out to be false," he said, referring to Centennial Olympic Park security guard Richard Jewell, who was initially suspected by authorities and later cleared in the bombing.

"So we'll have to see what we find when we have our own experts who aren't employed by the government examine what they have," he said.

The Birmingham News story has a few more details:

Rudolph evidence revealed

06/07/03VAL WALTON
News staff writer

Traces of an explosive believed used to bomb the Southside abortion clinic were found in Eric Robert Rudolph's pickup truck and his rented North Carolina mobile home, according to court documents filed in Birmingham's federal court.

The documents an affidavit compiled by the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms give more details of evidence that authorities contend links Rudolph to the Jan. 29, 1998, bombing that killed off-duty Police Officer Robert "Sande" Sanderson and critically injured nurse Emily Lyons.

Investigators have said the Birmingham bomb used dynamite, which contains nitroglycerin. The affidavit detailed evidence found at the blast site, including either intact or fragmented nails, batteries, wires, a possible clockwork mechanism, green plastic and electrical wire fragments.

The documents said ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN) the primary explosive ingredient in nitroglycerin-based dynamite was found on a towel taped to the doorway bottom in Rudolph's master bedroom, on a turquoise and black baseball hat found on a dresser in that bedroom and on a cushion from a rocking chair in the room. They were found during a Feb. 4, 1998, search of Rudolph's home.

The filings also said EGDN was found on his truck's steering wheel cover and a brown paper Bi-Lo shopping bag in the truck bed.

"The finding of EGDN on items in a vehicle or residence demonstrates primary or secondary contact with dynamite," the affidavit said. "Specifically, either dynamite was present at that location or dynamite residue was transferred to those locations via contact with someone or something contaminated by dynamite."

The affidavit was used to obtain a complaint and arrest warrant for Rudolph, who became a material witness then a suspect in the bombing. Police arrested Rudolph last Saturday in Murphy, N.C., after a five-year manhunt.

The U.S. Marshals Service transferred Rudolph to Birmingham, where he is being held in the Jefferson County jail. He is accused of detonating the bomb that exploded outside the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic at 7:30 a.m.

Inadmissable in court:

Rudolph has pleaded not guilty to the two-count indictment charging him in the crime. His attorney, Richard Jaffe, has said that Rudolph is the subject of speculation and innuendo, should be presumed innocent and be judged in court. The U.S. attorney has said she will request the death penalty.

Jaffe said Friday he had received the documents, but had not had the chance to study them.

"It appears to be affidavits, which are by nature hearsay and inadmissible in court, " Jaffe said.

Rudolph also is charged with setting off the bomb that killed a woman and injured more than 100 people in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. He also is charged in a pair of 1997 bombings of an Atlanta gay nightclub and an office building.

On Friday, unsealed documents in Atlanta were released at the petition of The Associated Press that show at least 15 witnesses have said the person who called 911 warning of the impending bombing at the Olympics sounded like Rudolph, and his handwriting and punctuation pattern are very similar to four letters taking credit for other blasts.

Also, the documents say, the FBI lab determined that five shell casings found in a storage locker belonging to Rudolph contained powder chemically consistent with the debris from the Olympic bomb.

A Rudolph sibling told authorities that, shortly after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Rudolph speculated that the Olympics would be a prime target for a future terrorist attack because the whole world would be watching. "Rudolph said something to the effect of `Yeah, something like the Olympics,'" FBI special agent Tracey A. North wrote in the previously sealed search warrant affidavit.

Witnesses followed:

The Birmingham affidavit gives a detailed description of how authorities tracked Rudolph through a description of a gray Nissan truck registered to him seen by witnesses near the bombed clinic.

The affidavit also details how a witness who heard the explosion looked out a window in the clinic's direction and saw a white male walking away.

The affidavit said the witness's attention was drawn to the man because, unlike everyone else, he was walking away from the blast area. The man had shoulder-length brown hair, wore a thigh-length coat, dark trousers and a black, fitted baseball hat and carried a black knapsack that appeared to be empty.

That witness got in his vehicle and followed the man, and saw him again, now wearing sunglasses but not a jacket or baseball cap. He was carrying a full large blue shopping-type bag. The affidavit also details how a separate witness saw a man wearing a black baseball cap and sunglasses on a day that was not sunny. Both witnesses followed the pickup truck.

Six days later, authorities searched Rudolph's mobile home. The affidavit said no visible explosives were found, but an explosive detection dog indicated the presence of explosives at a red tool box, the hat, the cushion, sunglasses, some items of clothing and a towel.

Rudolph's truck was found abandoned Feb. 7, 1998, in a heavily wooded area outside Murphy, N.C. Agents found numerous items, including a Bi-Lo grocery bag and a Jan. 30, 1998, Bi-Lo receipt. Rudolph's fingerprint also was detected on the receipt, the affidavit showed

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.