Mugshots: Eric Rudolph | Forensic Files

[Music] Today, the federal government is charging Eric Robert Rudolph with the bombings of the 1996 Summer Olympic
Games, the Sandy Springs Professional Building, and the Other Side Lounge. If I had to use one word to describe him,
it would be a coward. Eric Robert Rudolph is still considered to be armed and dangerous. He has a specialized
knowledge that we think makes him especially dangerous in the heavily wooded areas in which we are looking.
These guys, they'd be better off just going home and living their lives. Quit looking for them cuz they're going to
find them. To these people, he's a god. As Eric's mother, I would like to say that he was more than a mug shot.
[Music] 19.8. [Music] The millennium dawned in mystery for the people who live in this rural
Appalachian community. A small army of FBI agents searched homes, barns, and the mountains that surrounded them. The
heavily armed force was on a manhunt. The target was Eric Robert Rudolph, a local man who was wanted in connection
with several deadly bombings in the South. Despite the efforts of this highly trained force, Rudolph, perhaps with
help from his Appalachian neighbors, managed to vanish into the mountains. The FBI vowed to capture Rudolph, and
the manhunt [Music] continued. In the early morning of January 29th, 1998, a pipe bomb
detonated in front of a Birmingham abortion clinic, killing an off-duty police officer and maming a nurse. It
was the latest deadly skirmish in America's 30-year civil war over abortion. It was also the first death
caused by a clinic bombing. [Music] Fire trucks was coming from this direction with police cars. It's coming
from that direction and this direction down here. They was coming from all directions. People started saying that
it had been a bomb that had exploded at the clinic down here. And I was in front
of the clinic on one side of the street and I could see where the bomb and exploded the windows out and it was real
bad that morning. Cars alarm was going off. Windows was broke all around. It was very large bomb. The blasts and
shock waves through Birmingham. Police, fire, and emergency response teams flooded the area. Smoke and sirens
filled the air. And as people in this deeply religious southern city showed up for work and school, they found
themselves in the newest battlefield of the war against abortion, people weren't
happy once they heard somebody had been killed and they weren't happy that someone had been hurt. But um but I
think that a lot of the the people think that it's okay to stop the action. It's
okay to to use violence to stop the abortions. I think it shook up a lot of different elements of this town, not the
least of which is the anti-abortion movement. Had to step back and take a breath and try to determine if they in
some way played a part. When I arrived at the scene, it was one of the worst things that I've had to cover. You could
see the front of the building completely shattered and you could tell this tragedy had happened there. And all of
these little pink strings showed exactly how the damage had been inflicted. It's
somewhat uh analogous to me of the uh the date that uh President Kennedy was assassinated. You'll you always remember
what happened that day. Workers at the abortion clinic already lived with fear. A federal restraining order kept
anti-abortion protesters across the street and Birmingham police officer Robert Sanderson was hired as a security
guard to protect the clinic. The bomb killed him instantly. Officer Sanderson was in the middle of the sidewalk uh
when uh when he was hit, the blast blew him back and nurse Lions had just walked
up was right about the to the door. I was standing about 12 ft from the bomb when it went off and it was a pipe bomb
and it had 1 and 1/2 in nails in it. So all the nails went into the building and
into my body. Um, it killed officer Sanderson. Uh, did a fair amount of, uh, building damage, broke my legs,
um, damaged my eye, destroyed my left eye, first, second, and third degree burns over the front of my
body. Um, tore the skin off my legs, holes in my abdomen, cuts everywhere, hundreds of
cuts all over my face. The FBI has told us it was detonated by remote control, which meant that
whomever set that bomb sat there and waited to make sure that bodies, people were in range.
In three decades of struggle over legalized abortion, violence has claimed seven lives. Buffalo, New York, 1998. A
sniper assassinated a doctor with one shot from a rifle. Pensacola, Florida, 1994. An assassin murdered a doctor in
front of a clinic. Both acts were prompted by extremist religious belief. Thus, the defense of abortion rights
became a high priority for the Clinton administration. Whoever committed the acts might kill again and must be
brought to justice, and we will not rest until that happens. Federal agents sifted through the rubble of the bombed
abortion clinic looking for clues. We need some cooperation from the media. We will try to keep you updated as much
as possible knowing that we cannot talk about facts. We cannot talk about potential suspects. The Justice
Department did have a suspect. A man disguised in a blonde wig was spotted by several witnesses leaving the scene in a
gray Nissan pickup truck. He was followed by a suspicious witness who noted the license plate number. The
number was traced to Eric Rudolph and a massive manhunt was soon underway. Reporter Tiffany Taylor covered the
explosion for Birmingham's local ABC station. The local police here in Birmingham had three witnesses. No one
could say for a fact that Eric Robert Rudolph was on the scene that day. What they could say, however, one witness
said he saw a man walking away from the clinic as it exploded and the man didn't
look back and that seemed suspicious to him. A second witness said she was driving in the area and a man on foot
was running away from the area and ran into her car mirror and she thought that was suspicious. We have issued the
warrant for a Mr. Eric Robert Rudolph, white male, age 31. January 30th, 1998, uh he made a purchase in a local store,
uh drove his truck, uh several hundred yards from his trailer where he was uh a recent residence, and at that point uh
disappeared. Local hunters found his pickup truck at the foot of a mountain. The Fed said
Rudolph had disappeared into the Nahala forest of western North Carolina where he grew up. The agents plunged into the
wilderness after him. We're currently using every means available, including air support, electronic,
uh, canine, and sophisticated evidence recovery techniques to assist us in this 24-hour day search. They were searching
150 square miles of remote wilderness with everything they had. The bombing in Birmingham had shaken the country and
Rudolph had to be found. We will be here until we develop credible evidence that
he is no longer here or we arrest him. The bomb is the weapon of choice of cowards. Those who fear facing their
victims prefer to remain in the shadows and only come out of the dark to deploy their bombs. While the FBI was
conducting one of the largest manhunts in history, the Justice Department prepared a case against a man they knew
very little about. The feds were reluctant to publicly discuss evidence and would only say that witnesses placed
him at the scene, and forensic lab results implicated Rudolph. The agencies involved never did release much official
information about what evidence they have linking Eric Rudolph to the Birmingham clinic bombing. However,
through our investigation, we learned a couple of different things about what they were focusing on. Our sources told
us that there was a shovel found in the back of the truck, that they had tested the dirt on the shovel, and that it
matched the dirt in front of the clinic. It wasn't long before federal authorities linked Rudolph to a string
of attacks in Atlanta, including the Centennial Park bombing during the Olympics in
1996, an abortion clinic bombing in the Sandy Springs Professional Building, and
yet another bomb at a lesbian bar in Atlanta. You'll see the the commonality in the letters of God. There's a common
target with respect to the clinic. We're not prepared to go into those details except to say he's wanted for
questioning with respect to the Atlanta bombings. The uh letter taking responsibility for the Birmingham bomb
was postmarked in Birmingham, sent to uh Reuters in Atlanta, which is where the uh letter claiming responsibility for
the two Atlanta bombings was also sent. Investigators in Atlanta almost immediately when the connection was made
between the Birmingham bombing and the Atlanta bombings, investigators in Atlanta were pretty forthright about the
nails matching in the bombs in Birmingham and Atlanta. I have approved a reward of up to $1 million for
information leading to the arrest of Eric [Music] Rudolph. When the Justice Department
took the unprecedented step of putting up a $1 million reward for Eric Rudolph, he became one of the most wanted men in
the world. Every detail of Eric's face, every image available to the FBI was immediately transmitted to the country.
But even the powerful forces of the FBI were soon to be tested by the clever fugitive hiding somewhere in the
mountains. [Music] The FBI set up a command center in Andrews, North Carolina, and sent 200
task force agents from the FBI, ATF, and state agencies into the mountains searching for the elusive Eric Rudolph.
They were equipped with flat jackets and automatic weapons and supported by airplanes and helicopters with infrared
heat sensing monitors and electronic eavesdropping devices to pick up his trail. But he grew up in these hills and
locals many openly rooting for Rudolph had turned a cold shoulder to the army of federal agents. I grew up in Georgia
and I've known that there's a different mindset in Appalachia and the FBI going into any part of Appalachia, whether it
be North Georgia, East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, is not going to get any assistance from these folks.
They don't trust the FBI. They don't trust anything having to do with the federal government. They got him tried,
convict, and everything, and they don't know for sure he'd done it or not. I think they're trying to find a scapegoat
for the Atlanta bombing. It's easy to set somebody up or plant something on somebody. We're safe as long as he's out
there. You turn him in, his, you know, you got to fear for your life cuz he's got friends. I wouldn't turn him in. Uh,
I mean, I'll put it to you straight. I wouldn't turn him in. I would, uh, feed him. You know, I would give him clothes.
I give him anything he want. I think if he were to come out, he'd get shot on the spot. If he catch him, it would be
by him making a mistake. The million-dollar reward for Eric Rudolph may not have convinced North
Carolina natives to give him up, but bounty hunters showed up for the million. And then came former Green
Beret Colonel James Boes leading a group of volunteers. I think he's very troubled emotionally and spiritually and
physically. And I think maybe his tanks are just about dry and it's time for him
to come in and get refueled. We're here for him. Great said he was there to bring Rudolph
out of hiding and provide safe passage for his surrender. Others speculated that Bo was there because of the
television coverage and to promote his radio talk show. After a week, Gres gave up and
went back west. According to reliable accounts, Eric Rudolph was last seen by a former
neighbor and friend, George Nordman, who runs a health food store in Andrews. It
was mid July of 1998. Nordman says Rudolph claimed innocence and asked for hideout supplies. Nordman says he
refused help, but admits that shortly after Rudolph showed up at his back door, a lot of durable supplies
disappeared and $500 was left as payment. Nordman waited 4 days before reporting the incident. beginning with
his sighting in July. There were several events uh of a particular nature between
July and September and then another of that same type on October the 23rd and another of that same type during the
first two weeks of January that we feel are are strongly indicative of his presence here. The FBI manhunt had
chased Rudolph into the Nahala forest and come up empty-handed. They had cut down the number of searchers to 30.
Rudolph's sighting was a spur to get bigger, more aggressive. The number of official manhunters grew to over 200 men
who were rotated in from all over the country every few weeks to keep the manpower supply fresh.
When Rudolph's truck was discovered, it was the middle of winter. There were not
a lot of leaves on the trees, and it was easier to see the terrain and what you were up against. By the time July came
and they got their first real hint that he was in fact still alive and still in the area, suddenly it was the middle of
summer, there were there were bugs and there were snakes and there were leaves on the trees and it was a totally
different terrain that they were now up against. And it presented quite a few challenges for them. The government was
sending its heavily armed agents into the woods in teams to sweep through dense wilderness that stretched over 150
square miles, looking for one man. The forest was so thick that an FBI agent might have been 5 ft from Rudolph and
never have known it. This is some of the most remote region ever. When you cross
the top of the ridge at the Nanahala and head north, there's a streak of about 15
mi to the left on a ridge that a major road does not cross. There's no paved road to the top of that ridge. And when
Rudolph was spotted in that part of North Carolina, I got down the relief map and said, "He won't be found in that
region." I think there's no way he would have survived up there, especially through the winter without the people
helping him. Welcome to Back Talk 1070, Talk Radio 1070, WAPI. How are you, Dennis? I believe he had help lasting
through the winter. Had to have. And I believe uh he may have even had help leaving the
area because if he had killed himself or even if a bear had a guy, that'd at least be bones. If it wasn't one of the
searchers stumbled across him, took pity on him or sympathized with him on his anti-gay, anti-abortion stances and
helped him out that way. I think it was people thinking that they were doing a good job for a for a legend. For the
FBI, Eric Rudolph was not a legend. He was a man on the run, a man they wanted. He's certainly an individual who can
survive for long periods of of time by himself in very rugged areas. He's an individual who is an accomplished hiker,
backwoods person, uh survivalist. How long did it take him to find the unbama? Let's see. It started in the mid70s,
didn't it? You bring up a good point. You know, when people talk about getting away with things, oh, you won't be able
to get away with it long. Once again, you know, DB Cooper, the uni bomber, who got away with it for a long, long time.
And if he had never insisted on that manifesto being printed, he would have continued to get away with it. Uh, his
brother recognized his handwriting and and recognized the phrasiology and everything about his handwriting, but
yes, Bob's got a complaint. Hi, welcome to Back Talk 1070. Bob, I've just got I've just got one complaint. You all
sound like you've already convicted Rudolph. You said he's guilty. He's guilty. He's guilty. So he hadn't
even trial. They can't even find him to try. You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. I believe I believe
that if anybody kills somebody, they should be tried, convicted, and hanged or whatever. But we got to catch him
first. You got to catch him first. For Patricia Rudolph, Eric's mother, the manhunt for her son became an endless
nightmare. She was a virtual prisoner in her home in Florida, hiding from the media. She decided to write her own
story about Eric, calling her work Man wanted, a mother's perspective. Her account of Eric's life
has never been told before. Coming up, Court TV's exclusive interview with Patricia Rudolph. She
says that the FBI is chasing the wrong man and that Eric is the victim of a conspiracy.
[Music] [Music] While Eric Rudolph continued to elude the FBI manhunted North Carolina, his
mother, Patricia, was quietly, almost secretly, living on the coast of Florida. As a boy, Eric Rudolph loved
the ocean. He spent most of his childhood near Miami [Music] Beach. Eric's mother tries to keep a low
profile and feels she too is a prisoner of events. It has been a trying time for
her. She has kept to herself these last years, refusing to talk to the media. But she's working on a book about the
most wanted man in America and spoke with Court TV in interviews taped both in New York City and Florida. There is a
million dollar reward and I would not like um to have my face on TV. You never know what someone would
attempt to do holding me as a hostage perhaps to um entice Eric out of the woods. She believes her son is innocent
and that the government has targeted him because of her left-wing radical past. He lives in a family that were
considered radical. We were pacifists and anarchists in our very early days and they know that they keep a list
of everybody. Now she wants to publish and publicly defend her son. I was living with him at the time of the
Olympics. In fact, we went to an Olympic event in Tennessee where they did the kayaking. There was no indication that
he was planning anything. There was no discussion about the Olympics other than we enjoyed that event.
[Music] When Eric Rudolph was born in South Florida, his father worked on the launchpad for NASA's Apollo project. And
when mother Patricia looks at pictures from those days, she sees an innocent young boy who was energetic and curious.
He was very inquisitive. Uh he loved um playing with the local children, taking walks. He was quite a walker even
then. It was hard for me to stay up with them. Eric's around um 10 years old here.
The coach was a brother of the coach at Miami University and he felt that Eric had so
much potential that he should go to Miami you. When Eric's father died of cancer
in 1980, Patricia moved the family to their summer cabin in the Nahala forest of North Carolina. It was a different
world than the one Eric grew up in as a child, but he took to the wilderness and
learned to love the simple pleasures of rural life. Eric had a special fondness for the Nanahala Gorge and went fishing
with our neighbor, an old-timer that showed him the little pools where the trout congregated.
The Rudolphs lived a self-sufficient backwoods life, growing their own food and working on projects around the
house. They stayed to themselves, but that was not so unusual in the Bible belt mountains. Eric got his GED and
eventually went to Western Carolina University. He dropped out after a year and a half to join the army. Well, he
was disillusioned mostly by the fact that he wanted to be a trooper and uh he was put into the
101st, which is a repelling outfit. they jump out of helicopters and he was not fond of that at all because he saw too
much that occurred. Um, in fact, three or four different accidents. One in which he was very
close to the one group that was wiped out. From what I heard from the others, and I don't know how true it is, he was
dismissed for smoking marijuana. [Music] Eric lived at the family home in the Nahala Forest. He worked on carpentry
projects around town with his brother Dan until they sold the family house. Eric then went west looking for a
new home in the Rocky Mountains. According to his mom, he eventually came back to North
Carolina and settled in Murphy, a small town down the road from his family home. The FBI has charted Eric Rudolph's
travels. And one part of his youth that they've re-examined, concerns a time when he was a teenager and his mother
brought him to a so-called Christian identity church. I went there mainly for the schooling. We were having difficulty
getting good schooling in Nana Halo. Eric and and Jamie both needed more stimulation. So I thought if I could
expose them to Christian education and do homeschooling. By some accounts, Eric Rudolph, for instance, was a, you know,
a fairly nice young man, uh, kind of growing up in Florida and then the hills of western North Carolina. Uh the fact
is is that once he and his family uh started to get involved in identity and in an identity church in Shell City,
Missouri as well, he in particular became more and more violently uh uh opposed to those he saw as his enemies.
The church of Israel is run by Pastor Dan Gaiman, and he has strongly denied to Court TV that his church espoused
anti-Semitic, anti-government, and racist theology associated with Christian identity.
[Music] According to some Nahala locals, Eric Rudolph had expressed extremist views.
In high school, he wrote a paper calling the Holocaust a hoax and voiced suspicions that the federal government
was using social security numbers to spy on people. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a hate watchdog group, claims to
have linked Eric Rudolph to a North Carolina militia group and to Christian identity leader Nord Davis Jr. Patricia
Rudolph doesn't believe there's much truth to these rumors or to the federal government's charges. She says that Eric
never expressed an opinion on abortion, enjoyed watching the Olympics, and just months before he disappeared, went to
visit his gay brother and his companion in New York. Eric and I visited them two months
before this bombing occurred. He was very amiable involved. We went to dinner together, saw a video, I believe,
together. As the FBI pursued its investigation, the Rudolph family began to feel the
pressure of the media spotlight. Hardest hit was Eric's brother, Dan. He set up a
video camera in his workshop and proceeded to cut off his own left hand with a power saw. The Justice Department
got the tape but won't release it. I can't really comment on the uh on the on on the reason for that as well as the uh
the incident itself. Uh it was a very unfortunate event. We were not uh expecting that. We certainly would have
taken steps to prevent it had we known that was going to happen. I just cried, screamed, cried, screamed and cried all
night, all day. They wouldn't allow me to see him. They had uh police at his door in the hospital and I could not
visit him. Daniel was like a father substitute for Eric and uh this hit him very very hard.
While the FBI may have been sympathetic to Patricia Rudolph, they were hunting a
cold-blooded killer who just might be her son. He was considered armed and dangerous and was to be taken alive if
possible. Why would he be dangerous? I've never seen any arms on him or in his truck. I mean, this is a mother
speaking about her son, and I had no indications of him being dangerous to anyone. I think that it's a conspiracy.
I've always felt this way. I don't think these things happen accidentally. I think they pinpoint
people, and he's one of them. Coming up on Mugshots, we follow the FBI's trail as they search for signs of
an alleged anti-abortion underground called the Army of God. Could there be a secret group whose mission is to end
abortion with deadly violence? [Music] Eric Rudolph has vanished and he has become an obsession by forces on both
sides of the abortion civil war. To the defiant religious right, he is a foot soldier who has outmaneuvered the FBI
and embarrassed the Clinton administration. To pro-choice activists, he is a nightmare who is still out there
somewhere. and just maybe ready to strike again. I am not going to give up hope that he'll ever be caught. I have
to assume that he's not caught, that he is still alive, that he can still do this to someone else. Give him a medal
and key to the city, something like that. I don't think they should prosecute him. The nurse was an
accessory to a murderer. She helped to murder kill innocent people. The guards stood guard while they killed innocent
people. So, they were accompllices to murder. I believe that the place behind me is just an American death camp. Uh
they killed innocent people probably by the tens of thousands over the last 25 years since Roie Wade. So uh if you ask
how I feel about it, I feel like this place got what it deserved. Over the past decade, as the rhetoric from
extreme anti-abortion leaders has embraced a holy war, the individual acts of murder by gun and by bomb have
followed. People are out there encouraging the violence and encourage killing reproductive healthc care
providers. And then you get somebody who hears that and they take it up as as another
hate. Hate leads to violence. Hey, don't mess with my son, buddy. Don't mess with my son. They see the
pictures and the picture makes them angry. These type of people that stand around and protest, they make things
worse than what they are. Well, why is it that we choose to play God then? It's cuz people like this. That's when you
have these bombings and you have this guy that running around the country that nobody knows who, you know, he's number
one on America's Most Wanted. Cuz of what? Cuz of these people. You are the people that that drive people like that
to do that. I all evil. Yeah. Get in the car. What is that in the car? Shut up. That's
what they do in there. Little children. Shut up, man. Just shut up. Over 40,000 babies have
died in this. Don't show me your stupidity. 40,000 babies have died here. What? And people for your cause abortion.
[Music] Abortion protesters in Alabama sought to distance themselves from the bombing.
It's obvious to me that that the act was not really an abortion issue anyway because an police officer was killed and
and an employee. Um I mean it's if someone had really wanted to do something, they would have done done
destroyed the building or the doctor, you know, so it's pretty obvious that it really had nothing to do with abortion
anyway. I think that Eric is has some problems. He's not pro-life. he wouldn't have uh killed someone and caused a bomb
to occur if uh he didn't have u some problems. I think Eric uh needs to know that uh pro-life uh stands for uh life
and the life of the babies and also life of uh the workers or doctors and anybody
else. [Music] FBI profilers working on the Eric Rudolph case are trying to determine if
earlier acts of violence by anti-abortion activists influenced him. They're looking at the case of Paul Hill
in Pensacola, Florida. Hill went from protester to gunman and assassinated an abortion doctor. That death touched off
a fierce debate over the use of violence to stop abortion. And it was a group of
priests and extremely religious followers that stood up for Hill's actions. If what Paul Hill did is
violence, it would be the same as if a gunman went into the local elementary school, lined up the first graders, and
was shooting them one by one, and Paul Hill came and shot that person and killed them. More will die, I believe.
So this is a war and we will be pushed aside very soon by people who are far more militant including Muslims. Imagine
the phrase pro-life Muslim state that it's an atomic bomb. Imagine if even a couple of thousand Christians in this
country decide to go to Paul Hillway. We'll have chaos. We'll have an ocean of blood. They must ban abortion now. The
extremist rhetoric heard in Pensacola, Florida, seemed to confirm the fears of pro-choice activists that a so-called
army of God had been formed to take violent action against abortion clinics. I feel that there is at least a
nationwide conspiracy, if not an international conspiracy, that filters information and funds and bodies to the
different locations. They target hotspots around the nation. This has been um done for quite a few years. They
can't seem to accept that each individual is acting on their own initiative out of belief and
relationship with Almighty God. No faction of the anti-abortion movement has come forward to declare themselves
members of the Army of God. To do so would make them immediate targets of the FBI. However, letters were sent in the
name of the Army of God taking credit for the clinic attacks in Birmingham and Atlanta. The FBI also has a taped phone
call from a man saying he's a member of the Army of God. Eric's brother, Jaime Rudolph, told Court TV in an off-
camerara interview that investigators wanted to know if the voice, even though it's disguised, is Eric Rudolph. He
didn't think it sounded like his brother. Whether Eric made the call or not, the shadowy name of the so-called
Army of God haunts this case. But what is the Army of God? Is it a deadly organized and secret group? as the
pro-choice people fear? Or is it a mythical creation, a catchphrase spouted by individuals united only in their
thirst for violence against abortion clinics? Certainly, fringe ministers and priests have tried to justify lethal
force in a higher cause. Death is a message that people understand. Well, you don't know who is going to come out
next to do something or who they will do it against. And uh this is uh made been
made clear by the folks advocating violence. Professor Dallas Blanchard believes there's a link between the
murders which began in Florida and have escalated around the country. He studies
the radical anti-abortion movement and predicted before Eric Rudolph's alleged attacks that there is more violence and
death to come. Local officials, politicians, and police tend to think that Paul Hill is an aberration. He
isn't. is a normal outgrowth of what happens in social movements. And as social movements get more and more on
the defensive, they tend to get more and more violent. And so all communities in
the nation need to be, I think, alerted to that possibility that it could be them. Kill a few here and there, have it
over more than one part of the country, and uh the the terror will spread. Paul Hill was convicted and awaits
execution in Florida. The Birmingham bombing remains unsolved and the search for Eric Rudolph continues. The mystery
surrounding his disappearance has intensified and the FBI struggles with the dark possibility that Eric Rudolph
is being sheltered by the army of God and could be hiding anywhere. Coming up, the unthinkable for the FBI. Eyewitness
accounts from people who believe Rudolph was not only sheltered but has been given a helping hand to flee the
mountains of North Carolina despite the massive FBI drag net. Time dragged on and Rudolph
continued to elude capture. The suspicious Bible belt folks of the Smoky Mountains remained tight-lipped and the
terrain gave Eric Rudolph a homefield advantage. For 30 months, he eluded the FBI and to some, he even became a folk
hero. I use it every day. Let's go see. Okay. It was given to me by the man who bought
the house from Eric and his mom up in Nala. Well, the guy gave it to me and I said, "Well, I'll just use it as a
conversation piece." A lot of people are all for him. A lot of people are against
him. Matter of fact, there were some people in here yesterday, two guys, younger guys from Ohio, and they said
that they they would they would shoot him. Live and direct from top Red Mountain, overlooking the beautiful city
of Birmingham, Alabama, this is Back Talk 1070, I'm Richard Dixon. I spend most of my weekends up there uh in the
summertime paddling whitewater. And judging by some of the locals that live there, I wouldn't doubt for a second
that he's living with somebody up there. What happened was the group uh took Rudolph who was getting too high profile
and they killed him and they buried him somewhere. They stuck him under the cabin, you know. Yeah, that's one that
gets thrown around a lot. I don't think he's there anymore. Don't think he's been there since about 6 months after it
happened. They catch everybody else. That's what make me wonder why they can't catch him. You know, you know, if
they saying they using that much manpower with all the technology they got now, you know, it's funny they
hadn't rooted him out. The suspect, I believe, has a wonderful network of help in his
community. They do not believe he's done anything wrong. Therefore, he shouldn't
be turned in. So, I think he's got all the support he needs in that area and that indeed he may be in somebody's
basement uh receiving that help and, you know, eating and showering every day just like
everybody else. I doubt if he's in the wilderness now. He probably was at first, but somehow someone's befriended
him. Well, he got to be helped, you know. That's that was a major thing, you know, because, you know, it's it was
just like they missed him by 10 minutes that morning for him to get away. And, you know, they was hot on the trail.
They hadn't found him yet. Everybody wondering why. really I think he put in an appearance in North Carolina and then
he's out west with one of the groups like Posi Kamatus or something like that that went deep underground. In order to
disappear, you've got to kind of have somebody who's helping you. And with the abortion issue as polarized as it is, I
just don't think it'd be too hard to find supporters for that. He could go really anywhere. Mhm. I mean, as long as
he got out of the country, there are several countries that he could go to that would a never know he's there, and
b if they did, would we can give him up. Shortly before Rudolph surfaced again during July
1998, many were speculating that he was dead or in Mexico or in Canada, but few were convinced that he was still in this
area. He demonstrated then that this is where he feels comfortable, and we believe he still feels that way. Eric
Robert Rudolph was a was a paramilitaristic. All right. They never do anything without having an escape
route planned. They he had an escape route planned from day one. Mhm. He got up there in North Carolina, was there
for a short time, they used ham radio communications with the Montana groups to to communicate a route of escape.
Somebody has him so far under, you know, it may be decades before anything about
him, you know, is ever brought to light. I don't believe for a second that Eric Robert Rudolph was not able to slip the
net and is sitting down somewhere in the Bahamas or is over I you know who really
springs to mind when I think about this Dennis? Abby Hoffman. Abby Hoffman. Abby
Hoffman lived a second life for 20 years. Well, when you got people that are sympathetic to your cause, it's not
that difficult to do. Rudolph's ability to avoid capture has led many to believe that the Christian
right now has its own underground. Does the bureau believe that there's an anti-abortion or anti-government
underground that could be helpful? Uh there's no indication that that uh has occurred in this case. We don't uh
completely uh rule out that possibility, but right now we're looking for a single
fugitive and the search in response to your question extends uh beyond North Carolina. In June of 2000, despite the
FBI's vow to capture Rudolph, they packed up their compound and moved out of Andrews. The local residents were
glad to see them go. But the FBI could run a lower profile search indefinitely. They're keeping a dozen agents in the
area to follow leads and hope that Eric Rudolph makes a mistake. The Defiant T-shirts declared Rudolph the winner,
but only for now. He can never rest easy because he will not know what we are doing define him.
Whether it happens while he's 32 years old or 62, we will be there. Coming up on Mugsh shots, a mother's tearful
message to her son, the most wanted man in America. [Music] The bombings in Birmingham and Atlanta
have left deep scars. As America's struggle with extremism moves on to the next battle,
it has left many victims in its wake. It's been very hard on me and the whole family not to have Eric around because
he is such a stimulating person and uh not only my son but a good friend. If the person who's ever
caught, it will be a relief for me because I know at least that part of our life will be over. we'll move on to
another section and then if he's ever convicted that'll be another part of our life. It'll everything's just in steps.
The decision of surrender or not is um is up to him. It's has nothing to do with whether I want it or I don't want
it. I think that if I get to see him that will be all that I'll need. Uh see him and ask why. Why did he do it? Was
it for the abortion issue? Was it a government issue? You know, what was the purpose
behind it? Because nobody at this point knows. He's in hiding. Nobody knows why he did it. To those who have been
injured by this, you know, um family members are also upset and perhaps even seek
revenge. Uh that's between them and their god. and there's not much I can say or do to comfort them.
Um, nor him. I am angry about what I've lost, my abilities that I've lost, my career that I've lost, all the aspects
of my life that have changed. The hardest one is the vision. Cuz you go to bed at night,
everything's dark and you look and it's like, I do have two eyes because it looks all the same. But then when you
get up in the morning, it's like, "No, we're back down to one eye again." Patricia Rudolph cannot accept a
life where her son has vanished into thin air. She desperately wants to see her son once again. She believes he's
innocent and she's gone back to North Carolina to retrace the steps of the FBI. She's determined to find her son.
And until she does, she has this advice for him. I would tell you, Eric, to trust in your heart. What your heart is
telling you will not steer you wrong. Perhaps your mind is in overload, but find that solid, silent place within
you and follow that and you can't go wrong. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music]
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music]

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Brief Summary

The episode details the manhunt for Eric Rudolph after deadly bombings, focusing on community reactions and insights from his mother.

Key points

Eric Robert Rudolph Charged. The federal government charges Eric Robert Rudolph with multiple bombings, including the 1996 Olympics.
The Manhunt Begins. The FBI launches a massive manhunt for Eric Rudolph, who vanishes into the Appalachian wilderness.
Birmingham Clinic Bombing. A deadly pipe bomb detonates at an abortion clinic, marking a tragic escalation in the abortion debate.
Patricia Rudolph's Perspective. Eric's mother, Patricia, believes her son is innocent and targeted by the government.
Eric Rudolph's Troubling Past. Eric Rudolph's teenage years reveal extremist views and a troubling association with a Christian identity church.
The Family's Struggle. As the FBI investigates, Eric's brother Dan faces immense pressure, leading to a tragic incident.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

To these people, he's a god.

0:37WatchJul 29, 2014

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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