Rudolph pleads guilty in series of bombings

Bold admission
“I certainly did, your honor,” Rudolph said.

With his admission, the nurse began weeping in the front row.

“He just sounded so proud of it. That’s what really hurt,” said Emily Lyons, who was nearly killed in the bombing and lost an eye.

Believed to be a follower of a white supremacist religion that is anti-abortion, anti-gay and anti-Semitic, Rudolph hid out after the attacks for more than five years in the mountains of western North Carolina, apparently using the survival skills he learned as a soldier.

He was captured in Murphy, N.C., in 2003, scavenging for food behind a grocery store, after becoming something of a folk hero to some people in the countryside for his ability to elude an all-out manhunt by the government.

As part of the plea agreement, Rudolph told authorities where to find more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in North Carolina. The government said some of the explosives were near populated areas and could have become unstable and blown up.

He offered no apology or explanation in either court appearance, waiting until later to issue his written statement.

Victim angry at plea deal
At times Rudolph rocked in his chair in the Atlanta courtroom but otherwise stared straight ahead as federal prosecutors detailed the Atlanta-area bombings down to the brand of nails, duct tape and plastic food containers used to make the bombs.

In court in Birmingham, he drummed his fingers on the side of a lectern as a prosecutor told of the Wal-Mart hose clamp that was found inside the body of the off-duty officer and the pieces of a remote control receiver in the nurse’s body.

Outside the courthouse, the nurse said she was “nauseated” that Rudolph’s plea will allow him to dodge the death penalty.

“We’ve always felt the death penalty is what he deserved. The punishment should fit the crime,” Lyons said. “It’s just a sickening feeling.”

‘Living under government control’
Deborah Rudolph, Rudolph’s former sister-in-law, said he is hardly getting off easy. She said being kept in solitary confinement with only one hour a day of fresh air is a fitting punishment for an outdoorsman who hated the government.

“Knowing that he’s living under government control for the rest of his life, I think that’s worse to him than death,” she said from her home in Nashville, Tenn.

In the Atlanta courtroom, as prosecutors read details about the bomb that killed 44-year-old Alice Hawthorne at the Olympics, Hawthorne’s daughter, Fallon Stubbs, 22, crossed her arms over her chest and looked at her feet. Hawthorne’s widower, John, rocked slightly and covered his head with his hands. Other family members wept.

Afterwards, Stubbs described the day as “exhausting, to say the least” and said she would address the court at Rudolph’s sentencing. “It’ll be my time to get it out,” she said.

Richard Jewell, the security guard who was initially hailed as hero for helping evacuate the park just before the blast, but was later reported to be under FBI investigation, was also in the courtroom but refused to comment on the plea.

Jewell was eventually cleared by the FBI and now works as a police officer.

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