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April 14, 2005 Bomber Offers Guilty Pleas, and Defiance By SHAILA DEWAN ATLANTA, April 13 - Declaring himself "bloodied but emphatically unbowed," Eric Robert Rudolph on Wednesday issued his first public explanation for a series of abortion clinic bombings and an attack at the 1996 Olympics, gloating that his plea deal with prosecutors "deprived the government of its goal of sentencing me to death." In the 11-page statement, devoid of remorse but rife with anti-abortion and antigay language, Mr. Rudolph said he had originally intended to bomb the Olympics every day to "confound, anger and embarrass" the government for legalizing...

AP) - Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty Wednesday to a 1998 abortion clinic bombing that killed a police officer, the first in a string of bombings that he has admitted to as part of a plea deal. Rudolph arrived at the federal court in Birmingham in a car surrounded by 10 marked and unmarked police vehicles. He was expected to plead guilty to three other bombings later Wednesday, including the blast at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Outside the courthouse before Rudolph arrived, Emily Lyons, who was critically injured in the Birmingham bombing, said she was "nauseated" that Rudolph's plea will...

Emily Lyons, the nurse who was critically injured and partially blinded by Rudolph’s 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing, also blasted the guilt-for-life-in-prison deal. [snip] In court in Birmingham, Lyons sat the closest to Rudolph among the victims and spectators. "It was chilling," she said. "Sitting that close to someone who is a murderer, an admitted killer. He was very proud of himself today." [snip] She and her husband believe Rudolph has once again used and abused the system of justice. The penalty for murder she says “should be clear.” Wednesday's hearing presented no sense of closure for Lyons. “Since [the...

ATLANTA — Excerpts from Eric Rudolph's written statement, handed out by his attorneys Wednesday after his guilty pleas to four bombings across the South, including the deadly blast at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The statement marked the first time Rudolph has offered a motive for the attacks. He entered the pleas in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty: "I have deprived the government of its goal of sentencing me to death." "The fact that I have entered an agreement with the government is purely a tactical choice on my part and in no way legitimates the moral authority...

MURPHY, N.C. - Kenny Jane Wade understands the anti-government sentiment that may have led some people here to help feed and shelter serial bomber Eric Rudolph during his years on the lam. Wade, who owns a cabin near where some of Rudolph's stash of explosives was found this week, said the mistrust has been part of mountain culture since the days of the so-called revenuers — federal agents who arrested people for making moonshine during Prohibition. "My grandfather owned a store," said Wade, a 58-year-old retiree. "He knew people that ran moonshine and he wouldn't turn them in because he...

The very same day that the Clintons go to Long Island to meet with the TWA Flight 800 families, security guard Richard Jewell is patrolling the grounds of Centennial Park in Atlanta. He's a little Barney Fife-ish, but a good guy and very observant. Right around midnight, Jewell spots a large, olive-green, military-style backpack, known as an Alice pack, under a bench. He immediately shares this information with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. When the GBI cannot find the pack's owner, the GBI officer and Jewell begin to clear an area around the pack. Soon afterward, the pack explodes. Two...

You'll hear the word "closure" a lot with regard to the Eric Rudolph case, and if you have no idea who Rudolph is, you're probably living a wonderful life. He's the humanoid who bombed Centennial Park at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, bombed a lesbian night club, bombed two abortion clinics, killed two people, maimed a nurse, and injured 120 folks unlucky enough to be caught on planet Earth in the same tiny sliver of lifetime as this unbridled loser. Now Rudolph has cut a deal with federal officials under which he will go to prison for the rest of his...

Eric Rudolph pleads guilty. Four life sentences.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Eric Rudolph has agreed to plead guilty to carrying out the deadly bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and setting off three other blasts in a deal that allows the anti-government extremist to escape the death penalty, Justice Department officials said Friday. "The many victims of Eric Rudolph's terrorist attacks ... can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said. Rudolph, 38, is scheduled to admit his guilt Wednesday in court. The plea deal calls for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Rudolph had...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Eric Rudolph has agreed to plead guilty in the deadly 1996 bombing at the Atlanta Olympics and three other blasts, The Associated Press learned Friday. A person who was briefed by the Justice Department on the agreement said Rudolph would receive four life sentences under the deal. Rudolph had faced a possible death sentence. The source spoke on condition of anonymity. A Justice Department official in Washington, also speaking on the condition of anonymity because the agreement has not been formally announced, confirmed the plea agreement. An announcement was expected later Friday. Neither U.S. Attorney Alice Martin...

A federal judge Thursday rescheduled Eric Robert Rudolph's trial from August to next year, allowing more time for preparation. U.S. District Court Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. set May 24 as the estimated date for opening statements, with jury selection to begin March 23. "The court finds that the ends of justice served by continuance outweigh the interests of the public and defendant in a speedy trial," Smith wrote. Rudolph is charged with the January 1998 bombing at a Southside abortion clinic that killed Robert "Sande" Sanderson and critically injured nurse Emily Lyons. He has pleaded not guilty to the...

Deal Reached on Trial for Eric Rudolph By JAY REEVES, Associated Press Writer HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - A federal judge approved a plan Tuesday to try serial bombing suspect Eric Rudolph in Birmingham but pick jurors from throughout northern Alabama, instead of just a three-county area around the state's largest city. U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith approved the joint proposal that had been agreed to by defense attorneys and federal prosecutors. Rudolph had been seeking a change of venue. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said she was glad the Rudolph trial will be in Birmingham. Rudolph is accused of setting the Jan....

    An audit of the Atlanta Police Department has concluded that it has consistently underreported crimes for years. The audit found evidence of negligence and deliberate efforts to improve the city's image for tourism, possibly including the Olympics in 1996.     The report, by the management consultant firm Linder & Associates, painted a picture of a department mired in disorganization and increasingly besieged by 911 calls, some of which never got a response.     "We've not seen this sense of a condition of being overwhelmed in any other major city," said John Linder, president of the consulting firm.     Several...

No one, so far as I know, ever publicly prayed for Timothy McVeigh or Terry Nichols after they were arrested for the Oklahoma City bombing. And certainly no one save a few lonely defense attorneys has come forward since the two sniper suspects were caught last fall to say that they deserve the presumption of innocence. But there are early suggestions that bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph already has elicited a measure of sympathy from a real-world jury of his peers. The front page of Monday's New York Times has a photo of a restaurant sign in Peachtree, N.C., that...

Eric Rudolph Slept Here The most wanted man in America survived five years in the North Carolina woods, eating salamanders, sleeping on the cold ground, and stalking deer. Or so he says. Spend a night in his secret mountain hideaway and you get the feeling there's more to this story.

Posted on Tue, Aug. 26, 2003 Gospel singer writes, records Rudolph ballad Associated Press ASHEVILLE, N.C. - A gospel singer has written a song about accused serial bomber Eric Rudolph that he says came to him from God. Gene Collett has released "The Ballade of Eric Robert Rudolph" to 1,270 gospel and country radio stations. Collett said he does not intend to glorify Rudolph. God gave him the "Rudolph song" on the morning of June 29, while he was praying about songs for his new album, he said. "Right or wrong in what he's done, his race is over, now...

ATLANTA -- A woman charged with firing a shotgun into an abortion clinic says she expects to be indicted on charges of helping serial bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph elude capture, according to a published report. Brenda Kay Phillips, 44, told FBI agents after her arrest in February she had helped Rudolph hide when she moved in 2001 to the town of Murphy, N.C., where Rudolph was arrested May 31. She would not discuss how she knew Rudolph or what she did to help him, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday. "I can't talk about Eric right now because the federal...

Eric Rudolph Owned Book On Timothy McVeigh During Years On Run Details Revealed Of Search For Eric Rudolph POSTED: 9:14 a.m. EDT June 26, 2003 UPDATED: 9:18 a.m. EDT June 26, 2003 ASHEVILLE -- Search warrant applications show alleged serial bomber Eric Rudolph made money off marijuana sales and owned a book on Timothy McVeigh during his five years on the run. The documents, made available Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Asheville, also credit a witness in the 1998 bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic as the crucial link that led to Rudolph's arrest last month near Murphy....

<p>Eric Rudolph made national headlines when he was captured May 31 in the western North Carolina town of Murphy. But the story took a new twist when reporters heard some Murphy residents say they felt sorry for him.</p> <p>Soon after his capture, a syndicated editorial cartoon by Stuart Carlson showed a potbellied male with one tooth, pointing to a bomb-laden Rudolph and saying, "Behold -- an American hero!!" Another cartoon showed two mountain men in a one-room shack offering refuge to Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Rudolph.</p>

Weblog: Is Eric Rudolph a Christian Terrorist? Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 06/03/2003 Was alleged Olympics bomber motivated by religion? Is Eric Rudolph a Christian terrorist? The Washington Post asks the question in yesterday's edition. "The question is not just whether Rudolph is a terrorist, or whether he considers himself a Christian," writes Alan Cooperman. "It is whether he planted bombs at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, two abortion clinics, and a gay nightclub to advance a religious ideology—and how numerous, organized and violent others who share that ideology may be." Syracuse University political science professor Michael Barkun,...