All language subtitles for How It Really Happened s08e07 The Atlanta Olympic Bombing 2.eng

[audio logo]

EMILY LYONS: It
was premeditated.

Oh, my god.

EMILY LYONS: He planned it.

[explosion]

Run!

EMILY LYONS: He
made those bombs.

WOMAN (ON PHONE):
A bomb explosion.

MAN (ON PHONE):
A bomb explosion.

EMILY LYONS: He
killed those people.

There's not a day goes by
that I don't think about him.

There's not a day goes by
that I don't think about him.

There's not a day goes by
that I don't think about him.

There's not a day goes by
that I don't think about him.

He is always in my head.

People told me I
should have died.

Out!

Back up.

Back up, people!

[screaming]

[theme music]

Hello and welcome to
How It Really Happened.

I'm Jesse L. Martin.

There is a specter hovering
over the 1996 Summer

Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Someone planted a bomb
designed to kill or maim

spectators at Centennial Park.

And when a second device
explodes at another location

just 15 miles
away, investigators

suspect there is a serial
bomber stalking Atlanta.

This is part two
of Atlanta Bombing.

[suspenseful music playing]

RICK SCHWEIN (VOICEOVER):
There is entertainment

at Centennial Park, the beating
heart at night of the Olympics.

Oh, yeah.

You having a good time?

[cheers, applause]

[explosion]

We have had word
now of an explosion

at the Centennial Olympic Park.

RICK SCHWEIN (VOICEOVER):
Security guards were saying, get

out, get out, get out, get out.

[whistling]

Hey!

Hey!

RICK SCHWEIN (VOICEOVER):
I looked around

and people were screaming.

Many injured laying around.

REPORTER: At this
point, we understand

that we have 110 injured and
two people who have died.

RICK SCHWEIN (VOICEOVER):
So now, you've

got a bombing at an Olympiad.

What's the motivation
behind the bombing?

At this point, we don't
know because we don't

have the bomber identified.

[police sirens]

MAN (ON PHONE): This was a
loud explosion about 9:30 this

morning in a
professional building,

mostly housing medical offices,
including an abortion clinic.

TOM BUSH: The first
bomb device had gone off

in the rear of the
building into the windows

of the abortion clinic.

There's still a very initial
response is underway.

REPORTER: Some windows broken.

Eyewitnesses said that the
explosion shook nearby office

buildings as well.

As we say, no injuries
reported so far

and no cause of the explosion.

We're standing there
talking about next steps.

[explosion]

TOM BUSH: And that
second device goes off

and the level of noise
and first reaction

is literally, what was that?

ALAN DUKE (ON PHONE):
The second explosion

was outside the building
near the entrance to this

professional services clinic.

It happened about 25
yards from where I was.

I certainly felt the
force of this blast.

And immediately in front of
me, the people standing right

in front of me were hit,
and they're bleeding

from the head and elsewhere.

And it's quite a
chaotic scene here.

HENRY SCHUSTER: This idea
of having a secondary device

at the abortion clinic is
something that other bombers

had used in other places.

It's something that
Al-Qaeda and its operatives

would use to great effect.

The bomb goes off.

People come out.

Law enforcement comes out.

The media comes out.

The secondary device goes off.

[explosion]

This was meant to kill.

Go!

Go!

Go!

BILL CAMPBELL: It was directed
at the abortion clinic.

We have been the scene of a
number of abortion protests

here, Operation Rescue, and a
number of others that took place

over the last several
years, but never

the type of violence
that occurred here today.

JOE KENNEDY: We started to
put together a picture of what

for both devices were made of.

And in both cases, we had
evidence of mechanical timers.

There were nails in
secondary device.

MIKE RISING: There were
26 sticks of dynamite

in it, 5 pounds of
masonry cut nails.

JOE KENNEDY: Dynamite is a
high explosive that can only

be initiated with a detonator.

Dynamite went off.

It blew it all
into one direction.

[explosion]

MIKE RISING: With
all the cut nails.

MAN: Oh, my god.

RICK SCHWEIN: So you
set a device off.

First responders
arrive at the scene,

and then you set another
device that you either detonate

remotely or is timed to go off
sometime after the first device,

you're doing that to kill the
people that are responding.

That's a different
level of evil.

BILL CAMPBELL: The first act
is a political statement.

The second one is a particularly
heinous act that seemed designed

to injure those federal and
local officials that were there

to assist in the evacuation of
the emergency medical personnel.

JOE KENNEDY: After the
Sandy Springs bombing,

we had a good idea of the
components that were used

in the bombs from Centennial
Olympic Park and the two bombs

in Sandy Springs.

They were a number of
components that were the same--

mechanical timer,
nails, steel plates.

So these types of similarities,
we like to use a term

called a �bomber signature.�

By that I mean, when you
have a serial bomber making

multiple bombs, subsequent
bombs that he makes

will generally incorporate
similar design concepts.

And they do this because it's
what's comfortable to them.

WOODY JOHNSON: That's
pretty solid evidence.

You're dealing with the same
person or same group that

is doing this because bombers
will traditionally build them

the same way every time,
because they know what works

and they know how dangerous it
is putting the thing together.

Everyone wanted to know.

Are we dealing
with someone that's

putting the public at risk
and how worried should we be?

[suspenseful music playing]

JACK DAULTON: I got a phone call
at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning,

and it was Tom Bush.

And he said, hey, we
had another bombing.

We're all at the
other side lounge.

It was a tremendous boom.

It's like-- it's like a cannon
or something in a circus,

that kind of boom sound.

So really, actually,
nobody even moved.

They were too afraid
to even move, you know?

And then I think after
maybe a minute or so,

everybody realized
something had happened.

TOM BUSH: It was determined
upon arriving at the scene

that that bomb was
placed behind the club.

Shrapnel nails came into
the back of the club.

And people were injured
as a result of that.

REPORTER: Five people were
injured in the initial explosion

at the Other Side
Dance Club, a business,

which caters to a gay and
alternative lifestyle.

HENRY SCHUSTER: The
first bomb goes off.

They move people back.

They spot a secondary device
nearby a retaining wall.

REPORTER: The first explosion
was set off on the club's

back porch, and
when police arrived,

they found a second
more powerful bomb.

It was safely
detonated about 2 AM.

[explosion]

JOE KENNEDY: The
bomb technicians

collaborated with each other and
worked on a series of techniques

to render that device safe.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

REPORTER: Multiple explosive
devices have been rare in the US

until recently, but Atlanta
now has three unsolved bombings

within the past year.

Last July, the Olympic Park
bombing injured hundreds.

[explosion]

[screaming]

REPORTER: In January,
two bombs were set off

at a suburban business plaza.

Investigators theorize a second
bomb is intended for officials

who arrive at the scene.

They looked at militia groups.

They looked at terrorist groups.

We assumed that it was somebody
who lived close by because they

were all local bombs.

We all recognize that
there are similarities here.

We will be searching
out the possibility

that we have a serial bomber.

[suspenseful music playing]

TOM BUSH: Letters are
sent to multiple media

outlets purporting to
be from the Army of God.

JIM RUSSELL: There were some
letters received claiming

that the work of the Olympic
bombing and the clinic

and Other Side
Lounge bombing was

perpetrated by an organization
called Army of God.

And the mindset behind those
letters indicated that somebody

had a warped view
of Christianity,

had a warped view of humanity.

There was anti-semitic,
anti-gay rhetoric.

He's now saying who he is.

They're in this
block letter and it

says the bombings in
Sandy Springs and Midtown

were carried out by
units of the Army of God.

So units, army, at least this
person saying it's more than one

person, then the
attack in Midtown

was aimed at the sodomite
bar (The Other Side).

We will target sodomites,
their organizations and all

those who push their agenda.

TOM BUSH: Basically the
individual saying we,

the Army of God, are
against the liberal agenda

of the government,
homosexuality, and abortion,

and basically saying
we're declaring

war on those particular
aspects of American society.

REPORTER: Even law enforcement
says it can't pin down

any group called
the Army of God,

but is looking at
the possibility

of a lone serial bomber.

Are they a group?

Are they an organization?

No, I don't think
they ever have been.

But there are people who
believe in the rhetoric and the

philosophy of the Army of God.

REPORTER: A philosophy of hatred
against Washington, abortion,

gays, and any event
like the Olympics

that might force the
United States to join

a so-called new world order.

JACK DAULTON: So the
Army of God letters,

they basically took
credit for the bombings

and the assumption was
that it was somebody

involved in that organization.

But as we looked into it, it's
not really an organization.

It's just a bunch
of individuals.

So that further led us to just
one person we're dealing with.

HENRY SCHUSTER: It's kind
of apparent to the FBI

that there's no army.

And that, of course,
is the hardest

thing to crack
because that means

you've still got a lone wolf.

And then he goes quiet.

The FBI says there is probably
a link between last year's

Centennial Olympic Park bombing
and two others around Atlanta.

They hope a blurry picture
from that might hold a clue.

We are now displaying an
enhanced video frame taken

at approximately 12:20
AM that shows the outline

of an individual
sitting on the bench

where the bomb later exploded.

As you can see, this
video is extremely blurry.

VERNON KEENAN: So the FBI
arranged for the picture

to be sent to NASA to see if
they could enhance it with all

of their specialized equipment.

DAVID HATHAWAY: It was
many months of working.

We came up with a
process that would

stabilize and
register the images,

brighten them up,
reduce the noise.

so it was a much
cleaner image and you

could see important details.

The main thing is we got a
description of what he looked

like the night of the bombing.

TOM BUSH: And it took a
considerable amount of time,

but we ultimately got
down to an individual

that you could identify some
physical characteristics.

DAVID HATHAWAY: We knew
how tall the bench was.

We knew how tall the wall
and back of them was.

So we could use that
to estimate his height

and from build his weight.

And we figured he was
about 6' 0", maybe 180.

TOM BUSH: And what
he was wearing.

DAVID HATHAWAY: Khaki
shirt and shorts.

TOM BUSH: Even
shoe size, size 9.

So it was fascinating to
see what we started with.

What we ended up with
was pretty amazing.

DAVID HATHAWAY: The picture
we presented of the bomber

could help identify the
bomber, or at least if you had

a suspect, see
whether that suspect

was right size and shape to be
consistent with what we had.

[suspenseful music playing]

HENRY SCHUSTER:
It's January 1998.

Emily Lyons is
opening up the clinic.

EMILY LYONS: At the
clinic, we did perform

abortions up to 15 weeks.

We did adoptions.

We did pregnancy
tests and ultrasounds.

Before I started working
there, I had no major concept

of abortion as an issue.

HENRY SCHUSTER: This was
a place that had more

than its share of protesters.

So that's why they've
got an off duty

police officer
there for security,

Officer Sandy Sanderson.

And he sees something.

He starts looking at it.

EMILY LYONS: It was
a green toolbox.

Sandy was standing beside it.

I was up closer to the door.

He pulls out a
baton, and as Officer

Sanderson gets closer to
figuring out what it is,

it detonates.

[explosion]

That force just--

[vocalizing]

Pushed him back.

And then the nails and
stuff went to the building,

and then I hit the window.

Sandy was literally
torn to pieces.

KITTY PILGRIM:
When we got there,

the scene was very disturbing.

There was glass all over.

You could smell burnt things.

And it was
extraordinarily chaotic.

KITTY PILGRIM (VOICEOVER):
The Birmingham fire and rescue

service arrived to find
an off duty police officer

had been killed by the blast.

A nurse at the clinic
had severe injuries

and was taken to the hospital.

KITTY PILGRIM: It got
worse and worse and worse.

Also very upsetting because
it's an abortion clinic.

It's an environment that's
a vulnerable, environment.

KITTY PILGRIM (VOICEOVER):
Investigators describe it

as an act of cowardice,
the first fatal bombing

of a women's health
clinic in the US history.

JEFFREY LYONS: I went
on over to the hospital.

Emily was on her
way into surgery,

and they said she
might lose both legs.

She might die.

The bomb had a
lot of nails, over

7 pounds of nails and shrapnel.

One nail or a piece of
copper went into this eye,

acted like an egg beater.

And so there was
no hope for that,

so they had to take that out.

My face was covered in
shrapnel holes, tears.

My eyelids were torn back.

JEFFREY LYONS: I didn't
see her until that night,

and I honestly thought I'd
walked into the wrong room.

It was kind of in shock.

I still didn't know if she
was going to live or not.

EMILY LYONS: The fireball is
over 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

So I had first, second
and third degree burns.

It tore the skin
off, both my shins.

Pretty much destroyed
the muscle there, too.

And it took weeks
for that to even

get to where it wouldn't bleed.

JEFFREY LYONS: I knew
that if she did live,

it was not going to be
the life she had before.

EMILY LYONS: There have been
54 surgeries and four of those

were this year.

She had a lot of
surgeries from the skin

grafts and the broken bones.

But most of Emily's surgeries
were foreign body removals,

and most of the foreign
bodies were nails.

Many of them, they left
because going in after them

would have caused more damage.

EMILY LYONS: I am a survivor.

Fighting is pretty
much what you had to do

every day in the hospital.

Jeffrey's what
got me through it.

Always said he was my lifeline.

She's amazing.

She's the superhero.

I'm the sidekick.

You know?

So she survived a bomb.

I'm fortunate to be married
to such an amazing woman.

REPORTER: The federal
bombing task force set up

after the Olympic Park
bombing in Atlanta in 1996,

is now operating in
Birmingham, trying

to learn if there are any links
between the family planning

clinic bombing and
the Atlanta bombings

over the past year and a half.

JOE KENNEDY: We arrived
the day of the bombing

that afternoon to
see the bomb scene.

I remember Lloyd
Erwin commenting

that he had suspicion
that there might be parts

of an improvised detonator.

Well, I saw somebody
that had seen that day

that told me remote control.

TOM BUSH: There had
been time devices left

at the other locations
at the Olympics,

at Sandy Springs,
Other Side lounge.

The difference and the
deadly difference in this one

was that this particular device
was remote-control detonated.

They used a remote control
device to detonate the bomb,

but everything else was pretty
much the same -- the metal plate

the nails, dynamite.

It was basically identical
to the other bombs,

except for remote
control to detonate it.

When somebody setting
the remote control device,

he has to be able
to see the device.

So he had to be in line of
sight in order to set it off

when you want it to go off.

RICK SCHWEIN: He watched the
officer lean over the device

and executed the officer.

Killed him.

It's cowardly, but it's also--

it's just evil.

He had control over that device.

It was remotely
detonated by his finger.

EMILY LYONS: Sandy was
doing his job that day.

I'm thankful for that.

It's not the way to die, though.

Sandy didn't believe
in abortions.

He was not pro-choice, but
he knew what his job was.

He came to work.

That was to protect women coming
in and out of that clinic.

And that day he
protected me too.

Welcome back to
How It Really Happened.

Three bombings and investigators
have little more than a blurry

image of the deadly bomber.

Then, as first responders
and investigators

rushed to the site
of another explosion,

they get a possible break.

A witness noticed a man
walking away from the scene.

RICK SCHWEIN: An alert
University of Alabama Birmingham

student saw this individual
walking away from the explosion

site while everybody
else is running to it

and responding to it and
thought, that's suspicious.

The witness was doing his
laundry on the balcony of one

of the dorms and he
saw somebody walking

away after the
bomb had exploded,

walking calmly
with a blonde wig.

And he followed him.

TOM BUSH: He follows
this individual

on foot and in a vehicle, sees
this individual change clothes,

take a wig off,
put a hat on, put

sunglasses on,
changes an overcoat,

and now is dressed differently.

JIM RUSSELL: It was quite an
involved route that he followed

to finally get the individual
placed inside a vehicle, which

was a Nissan pickup truck.

And the witness was
able to jot down

the North Carolina tag number.

Once the witness had provided
the license plate number to law

enforcement, they would run the
tag through our National Crime

Information Center,
and they were

able to get the registration
to that vehicle, which would

include a name, an address.

RICK SCHWEIN: And
the license plate

is registered to Eric
Rudolph and at an address

in Asheville, North Carolina.

JIM RUSSELL: When I
received the information

from my headquarters,
the instructions

were there was an individual
that was acting suspiciously

at the scene of the bombing,
go out to Asheville,

and identify if, in
fact, this person

was in Birmingham that day.

And if he was, what was
he doing in Birmingham?

That was the actual
beginning of the manhunt

because they knew who
they were looking for.

Investigators in
Birmingham, Alabama

are looking for a
man who may have

witnessed yesterday's deadly
bombing of a women's clinic.

One person was killed, another
severely wounded in the blast.

TOM BUSH: Those
initial description

fits a lot of what
we were looking

for from the description from
the Centennial Park bombing.

He was about 6' 0", 175
pounds, size 9 shoes.

That's the kind of detail
we were able to get off

of that blob man photograph.

Once we had reasonable belief
that Eric Robert Rudolph

could be a person of interest.

You look everything
you can possibly

find about him, his personal
stuff, his credit cards.

He had no credit cards.

He hadn't paid taxes.

He had no income.

He didn't have a
job at that time.

We start doing
interviews, surveillance,

bank records, things like that.

Anybody that knew
him were interviewed,

looked at every
aspect of his life

that you can find through
your investigation.

But then you're also
looking at his background.

He had a short military career.

He was trained in
bombing techniques.

He was trained in what
they called L-shaped ambush

techniques, which is
again, setting up an ambush

using secondary devices.

[explosion]

As we did more in
his background,

he's known to be
anti-government,

anti-abortion, anti-homosexual.

Once we do interviews with
different family and friends,

and it became clear that a lot
of aspects of his life to date

fit the type of individual
that could be our bomber.

[suspenseful music playing]

JIM RUSSELL: Randy Cochran
opened the door to us.

And before we could do anything
more than identifying ourselves,

Randy said, well, I guess
you must be here about Eric.

And we were kind of dumbfounded.

And asked Randy,
why do you think

we're here for Eric Rudolph?

And he said, well, because
he's all over the news.

We have issued a warrant
for a Mr. Eric Robert Rudolph,

a white male, age 31.

RICK SCHWEIN: There
was a media leak.

Information was going to be
transmitted about Rudolph

and the US attorney in
Birmingham, Doug Jones,

decided to hold a
press conference.

Last known address was in a
small North Carolina community

in western North Carolina
called Marble, North Carolina.

JIM RUSSELL: We were
just pretty much upset

that that information
was now being broadcast

to the general public.

Shortly after the name became
available and was announced,

they assumed that he was
going to flee at that point.

Again, this is a
material witness warrant

and no one should jump to any
conclusions about the fact

that we are looking to
question Mr. Rudolph.

We talked to Randy
and said we need to get

in touch with Eric Rudolph.

Do you have any
idea where he's at?

He said my thought
is he's somewhere

in western Cherokee
County, out near the city

of Murphy, North Carolina.

As soon as he said
that, got on the phone

with the Sheriff of Cherokee
County and asked him to run

a public records
check on Eric Rudolph,

if he's ever been
arrested out there.

Sheriff said, yes, I've
got an Eric Rudolph.

He's never been in any
of our arrest records,

but he's getting power
on a trailer that's

located off a Caney Creek
road, which is located

west of Murphy, North Carolina.

There is some
optimism this evening

that the bomber of a Birmingham,
Alabama women's clinic

will be found soon.

REPORTER: A North Carolina
man is being sought

for questioning as a material
witness in the Birmingham

clinic bombing.

At a late afternoon
press conference,

law enforcement officials
put out this description.

Eric Robert Rudolph, a
31-year-old white male.

JIM RUSSELL: We drove to
Murphy and it was determined

at that location that
myself and an ATF agent

was going to make at least
an initial reconnaissance of

the residence of Eric Rudolph.

It's dark out.

It's in the middle of winter,
and we're getting more and more

certain that this
individual that

has already committed
a bombing in Birmingham

has killed a police officer.

We had to be careful for any
kind of booby traps or IEDs

as we were making the
approach to the trailer.

The front door was wide
open, and this was January

and it was cold.

And I thought, geez,
you know, with that door

being wide open
like that, no truck,

it looks like, in my opinion,
that he must have just

exited that trailer in a hurry.

It looked like he took at
least a rifle and he left other

firearms back there and
left $1,600 in cash, in $100

bills hidden behind a picture.

It just reinforced
in my opinion,

that he left that
trailer in a hurry.

And I had just got
there a little too late.

RICK SCHWEIN: He missed
Rudolph by, I believe,

less than an hour.

But at that point, it
was very apparent that

Eric Rudolph was on the run.

REPORTER: Who is Eric Rudolph?

And where is he?

Federal agents continue to
search for the elusive material

witness in the
January 29 bombing

of an Alabama abortion clinic.

JIM RUSSELL: We dug into the
background to Eric Rudolph.

It became apparent that
this was a loner, never

had any real close
friends, never

had any real close
girlfriends, was never married,

never had a legitimate job.

He was raised in Florida and
his mother moved the family

to North Carolina to be ready
for any terrible event that

could happen, any
cataclysm, the apocalypse,

to be bunkered
and hunkered down.

In this case, they lived
in this little community

called Topton, North Carolina.

There are a lot of people that
have moved into the area that

were anti-government and
felt that they would be more

accepting in that area because
of the community itself

and the community's beliefs.

ART HARRIS: He
didn't have a father

figure after his father died.

DEBORAH RUDOLPH: Mr.
Rudolph had passed away.

He had melanoma.

They had wanted to
administer Laetrile,

which is not approved by the
FDA, and he ended up passing.

It sort of fell into that...

�Well, the government is
keeping these sort of cures

away from us.�

So, you know, they're just
become layers of conspiracy.

ART HARRIS: Suddenly, here's
Eric with grief in his mind.

But no one to--

to single out except the
feds, the bureaucracy

that denied his father the
one elixir of hope he wanted,

who he thought would
cure his cancer.

And looking back, I
think, OK, they already

had these sentiments,
but I think it

progressed after Robert died.

His mom seemed to be somebody
who was a spiritual searcher.

ART HARRIS: Eric Rudolph
grew up in somewhat

of a preached-at childhood
where his mother would visit

different churches that
were very fundamentalist

or had a new Christian
identity movement.

Eric is exposed to a
really toxic mix of ideas--

white nationalism,
white separatism,

white supremacy, all mixed in.

DEBORAH RUDOLPH:
How it was explained

to me is if you want
to further your race,

you need to be
true to your race.

You need to breed
within your race.

You need to stay in your lane.

TOM BUSH: He'd had
some education.

He'd been in the
military, and he'd had

bomb training in the military.

DEBORAH RUDOLPH: It
was such a shock when

Eric went into the military.

When he went in
the military, OK,

you're this
anti-government dude.

Why would you do that?

I know that lifestyle.

If you're anti-government
and you're narcissistic

and you're very
self-centered, that's

not going to work because you
have to be part of a team.

TOM BUSH: He was dishonorably
discharged from the military

for use of marijuana.

DEBORAH RUDOLPH: He became
a little more aggressive

about his sentiments about
the government, about the FDA,

about the races,
and about abortion.

He used to say the Olympics is
all the races coming together,

but he turned it
into something ugly.

Now we have a picture
of an individual,

so we know where his hatreds and
motivations and problems are.

JOE KENNEDY: By then,
Eric Rudolph's name

had been circulated
through the news media,

and the owner of a mini
storage unit called

said, hey, I rented a
unit to this Eric Rudolph.

So we proceeded to get
into that storage unit

and that's when a bag
of nails was collected.

Those were cut nails.

LLOYD ERWIN: It was later
identified as the same type

of nail, the same
manufacturer as the ones

in Sandy Springs device.

A mobile home is one
focus of the investigation

into last week's
bombing of a women's

health clinic in Alabama.

Federal agents searched the
Marble, North Carolina home,

which is the last known
address of a material

witness to the attack.

Eric Rudolph is still at large.

Authorities say that even though
he's simply wanted as a witness,

Rudolph should only be
approached by the police.

RICK SCHWEIN: Now,
the manhunt is on,

and we're looking for him.

We have a start point.

We have this trailer.

JOE KENNEDY: There were items
that contained the presence

of trace explosives, EGD
in particularly, which

is only found in dynamite.

There was the Walmart
receipt and on the receipt

was a number of items that
could be used to manufacture

improvised explosives.

Now, you're not going to find
improvised explosives per se

at Walmart, but the measuring
cup, gloves, other things

that you would think a person
in a makeshift chemical lab

might want to use to
formulate a high explosive.

[suspenseful music playing]

REPORTER: Federal
authorities have descended

on the community of Murphy,
North Carolina, in the

woods nearby.

They have found what could be
a link to last month's bombing

of a women's health clinic
in Birmingham, Alabama.

JOE KENNEDY: On
February the 7th,

Eric Rudolph's truck
was located by some

hunters in Nantahala Forest.

It was within five
miles of his trailer,

but it was off the road,
hidden deep into the woods.

REPORTER: Federal
agents pulled Eric

Robert Rudolph's vehicle from
a deeply wooded area

Monday afternoon.

The truck, wrapped
in plastic, was

being taken by flatbed
for extensive analysis

in a forensic lab.

I swabbed the door handles,
swabbed the steering wheel,

the gearshift lever.

We got dynamite residue
off the steering wheel.

JOE KENNEDY: This was
just another indication

that this is the bomber
of the Birmingham attack.

So this combination of
parts were indications

of a serial bomber, and
most of us on the task force

felt confident that the
bomber was the same guy that

was responsible for Sandy
Springs and for Centennial Park

as well.

We found a receipt
for groceries--

canned tuna, oatmeal,
raisins, stuff that he

could take to the woods.

And the belief was that he could
probably live for about five

or six months with what he had.

JIM RUSSELL: He was on the run.

He knew he was being hunted.

REPORTER: From the
air and on the ground.

The hunt intensifies
for an elusive

witness to that fatal bombing
at an Alabama women's clinic.

With the abandonment of
the truck and no report

of any other vehicles
stolen in the area.

We were confident that we
had our fugitive on foot.

RICK SCHWEIN: He's in the
Nantahala National Forest area,

so it's very rural, it's rugged.

It's a five-county area in the
far western part of the state.

REPORTER: Searching for
a needle in a haystack.

Scouring the southern
Appalachians for Eric Rudolph.

The 31-year-old North Carolina
carpenter and laborer has been

sought for questioning
about the clinic bombing

for a week and a half now.

RICK SCHWEIN: It was an area
that we knew he had grown up in.

He knew how to navigate.

He knew how to move.

He knew the best routes.

He knew all the game trails,
and he knew how to stay hidden.

There are areas where you can't
see more than a couple of feet

in front of you, particularly
if you get off the path.

So there's the physical danger
of having an armed confrontation

with a wanted fugitive that has
no compunction about killing.

REPORTER: You know, here,
he's been living out

here in the woods and all this.

I mean, you think some
folks might be helping him?

I'd say he's had some
help somewhere or another,

but I won't say for sure.

But I would have helped
him if I'd had seen him.

REPORTER: And why is that?

Because I figure he didn't do
what they got him charged with.

I don't believe he done it.

RICK SCHWEIN: You
would see the signs.

Eric Rudolph, hide
and seek champion,

fill in the blank
number of days.

There were certainly
small pockets

of people who were sympathetic
and may have assisted Eric.

REPORTER: But the FBI says he
is armed and dangerous, still

hiding in these mountains.

JIM RUSSELL: The manhunt
would ebb and flow

and then there would be a
potential sighting of Rudolph

by members of the public.

So that would kind of send
us out back into the woods.

And we spend weeks and
months and ultimately

years searching the
mountains for our bomber,

for Eric Rudolph.

JIM RUSSELL: '99,
2000, 2001, 2002.

Four years.

No sightings of
him in four years.

I became firmly convinced
that Eric Rudolph had

died out there in the woods.

[suspenseful music playing]

ART HARRIS: Small town cop just
doing his drive bys at night,

3:00 or 4:00 in the morning,
sees a guy wandering around

behind a shopping center
and stops him and gets

him out of the dumpster
where he's been

dumpster diving for food.

RICK SCHWEIN: They took him
to the sheriff's department.

And they started talking to him.

And his story
wasn't matching up.

He said he was an indigent
living under the bridge,

couldn't produce any ID,
and finally pulled out

a wanted poster and
held it up to his face

and said, who are you really?

And he admitted his identity,
said, I'm Eric Robert Rudolph,

and you got me.

We have some breaking news
to report to you this morning

regarding a long
FBI and multi-agency

investigation that
has been going

on early since the late 90s.

RICK SCHWEIN: Jeff Postell, a
young 21-year-old rookie police

officer, ran across America's
most notorious top 10 fugitive

and domestic terrorist,
diving in a dumpster at 3:00

in the morning in a Save-a-Lot
grocery store in Murphy,

North Carolina.

I'm just glad I was
out there doing my job

and was glad I was in the
right place at the right time.

RICK SCHWEIN: Ending
one of the longest

manhunts in American history.

As we speak, Eric
Rudolph is in the jail

building, which is right
behind this courthouse

over my shoulder.

It's expected that
sometime tomorrow,

he'll be transported to
Asheville, North Carolina,

where he'll make
a first appearance

in a federal courtroom Monday
morning, 10:00 AM Eastern time.

It's then expected he will
quickly be transferred

to either Alabama or
Georgia, the states

where the bombs went off.

By then, there's
enough evidence

for the federal government
to levy charges against Eric

Rudolph for the bombings.

And so he's charged and
held in federal custody.

JIM RUSSELL: The US
Attorney's office

was going to seek the death
penalty against Rudolph.

But if he didn't want
the death penalty

he had to offer
some cooperation.

JIM RUSSELL: Rudolph had
offered, through his attorneys,

to provide us with the
locations of some IED components

and an actual intact IED and
over 200 pounds of dynamite.

RICK SCHWEIN: He had buried
his explosive devices

in the dynamite cache.

That was important
because we didn't

want somebody to run across
that and have somebody

else get hurt or killed.

It was decided to accept
his offer and in return,

not seek the death penalty.

The dynamite was so unstable
we had to blow it in place.

[explosion]

And I do remember it.

It rattled windows in
that five-county area.

It was quite the hole
that that explosion made.

REPORTER: Today, Eric Rudolph
pleaded guilty to those bombings

in several court appearances.

His pleas will spare him
the death penalty, which

some of his victims
believe is a worse

deal than they got from him.

EMILY LYONS: I am angry he
didn't get the death penalty.

He should have.

It was premeditated.

He planned it.

He made those bombs.

He killed those three people.

How much more do you need?

[suspenseful music playing]

WATSON BRYANT: Richard
Jewell was there

when Eric Rudolph pled guilty.

It was sort of like a
big weight came off.

But people still think of him
with some shame associated

with his name because
of the park bombing

instead of being a guy
that saved a lot of lives.

MARK WINNE: You can stand there
in Centennial Olympic Park

today and see where
Eric Rudolph perpetrated

this huge act of terror.

Then you can look to
the south, and you

can see the towering
federal courthouse

where Eric Rudolph pled guilty.

You can see the
beginning and the end

of the Eric Rudolph saga.

It took a long time,
but justice got there.

Richard Jewell,
married in 1998

and eventually became
a deputy sheriff.

Tragically, he died from
heart disease in 2007

at the age of 44.

Captured after more
than five years

on the run in the North
Carolina wilderness,

Eric Rudolph is now serving
multiple life sentences.

He's in the federal supermax
prison in Florence, Colorado

living in a tiny cell
where he gets only

one hour of daylight a day.

I'm Jesse L. Martin
Thank you for watching.

Good night.

[music playing]

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