The FBI Files by Dale Anderson

Author:Dale Anderson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-05T16:00:00+00:00

Agents examine a tree for evidence at a campsite used by Eric Robert Rudolph in 2003. The tree contained nails holding a trash container that agents believed Rudolph had used to protect his food from animals.

There was another common element in the bombings: timing. In 1996, a caller told police that the Centennial Olympic Park bomb would go off in 30 minutes. It exploded after just 22 minutes. It was timed, officials believed, to make sure it would strike law enforcement personnel responding to the warning call. In both 1997 attacks, Rudolph actually planted two bombs, with the second one timed to explode 45 minutes to an hour after the first. Again, law enforcement officers believe that the bomber took this step to maximize damage by using the second bomb to kill the paramedics, police, and firefighters who would respond after the first one exploded.

Digging into Rudolph’s background revealed that he had come to view the government as oppressive and controlling. As a young man, he had lived in a remote area of western North Carolina and eastern Georgia that was home to right-wing extremists. Some of these extremists were ready to battle the government. He had also been in the army but had been discharged, reportedly for drug use. That experience might have added to his anti-government feelings.

Manhunt

After the 1998 bombing, Rudolph became the target of what was, to that point, the largest dragnet in history. Federal and state law enforcement used motion detectors, infrared tracking equipment, and dogs in an effort to find him. Rudolph, however, had disappeared into the wilderness. He hid in forests in a remote area in western North Carolina that he knew well. An outdoorsman and survivalist, Rudolph was well suited to living on his own. Despite the FBI’s best efforts, he remained hidden from 1998 to 2003. For five years, there were no confirmed sightings of him.

The FBI did not give up, though. Law enforcement officials set up a permanent base in the area. Though the size of the task force decreased over the years, the effort continued. Some people questioned whether even a survivalist like Rudolph could have lived that long on his own. Some believed he escaped the area somehow. Others suspected that someone was helping him, either because of similar beliefs or for personal reasons.

Chris Swecker, the head of the FBI’s field office in Charlotte, North Carolina, later recalled the atmosphere:

A lot of people at the highest levels said, “He’s dead; he’s gone.” But three members of the task force in particular kept the focus on western North Carolina. If not for them, the whole investigation might have dwindled down to just one or two agents. They were adamant he was in the area, absolutely adamant, in the face of a lot of skepticism. I think 90 percent of the population had written off Rudolph as being out of the area, long gone, or dead.

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