THE OLYMPIC BOMBER – CASE STUDY

ERIC ROBERT RUDOLPH

Between 1996 and 1998, bombs exploded four times in Atlanta and
Birmingham, killing two and injuring hundreds and setting off what turned out
to be a five-year manhunt for the suspected bomber Eric Robert Rudolph.
A
skilled outdoorsman, Rudolph managed to elude law enforcement officials for
years while hiding out in the mountains in western North Carolina before being
captured in 2003.

FOR FIVE YEARS, RUDOLPH WAS LISTED AS

ONE OF THE FBI TEN MOST WANTED
FUGITIVES UNTIL HE WAS CAUGHT IN 2003.
RUDOLPH WAS FEATURED IN LIST OF TOP 5
DEADLIEST BOMBERS OF 1990’S.
EARLY LIFE

Rudolph was born in Merritt Island, Florida, in 1966. After his father,
Robert, died in 1981, he moved with his mother and siblings
to Nantahala, Macon County, in western North Carolina.
Rudolph attended ninth grade at the Nantahala School but dropped
out after that year and worked as a carpenter with his older brother
Daniel. When Rudolph was 18, he spent time with his mother at
a Christian Identity compound in Missouri known as the Church of
Israel.
After Rudolph received his GED, he enlisted in the U.S. Army,
undergoing basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia. He
was discharged in January 1989, due to marijuana use, while serving
with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. In
1988, the year before his discharge, Rudolph had attended the Air
Assault School at Fort Campbell. He attained the rank of Specialist/E-
4.
Rudolph drifted in and out of white supremacist groups in the years
before he perpetrated the bombings.

MOTIVATION BEHIND CRIME

He had borrowed ideas from a lot of different places and formed his
own personal ideology. He clearly was anti-government and anti-
abortion, anti-gay, ‘anti’ a lot of things. The bombings really sprang
from his own unique biases and prejudices. He had his own way of
looking at the world and didn’t get along with a lot of people.
Most people came to the Olympics to enjoy sporting events at least
one came to destroy that joy. People have the right to come to clinics
to consult doctors at least one came to interrupt that right. Most
people came to the lounge in Atlanta to meet with friends at least one
came with hatred and the intent to injure.

THE ATTACKS
Rudolph began his violent attacks on July 27, 1996. As spectators
watched the 1996 Summer Olympics, he planted a bomb in
Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. The subsequent blast killed one
woman who had traveled with her daughter to watch the Olympics
and harmed more than 100 other people. Before the bomb detonated,
Rudolph twice called 911 to warn about the bomb.
Over the next two years, Rudolph placed two more
bombs in Georgia and one in Birmingham, Alabama. The resulting
blasts caused several injuries and the death of a police officer.
The FBI placed Rudolph on the Ten Most
Wanted Fugitives list on May 5, 1998.

PROFILING OF ERIC RUDOLPH IN INVESTIGATION THROUGH-

1.THE TARGET
2.CRIME SCENE AFTER EXPLOSIONS
3.AREA OUTSIDE THE BOMBING CRIME SCENE
ARREST AND GUILTY PLEA

Rudolph was arrested in Murphy, North Carolina on May 31, 2003, by

rookie police officer Jeffrey Scott Postell of the Murphy Police
Department while Rudolph was looking through a dumpster behind
a Save-A-Lot store at about 4 a.m. Postell, on routine patrol, had
initially suspected a burglary in progress.
Rudolph was unarmed and did not resist arrest. When arrested, he was
clean-shaven with a trimmed mustache, had dyed black hair and wore
a camouflage jacket, work clothes, and new sneakers. Federal
authorities charged him on October 14, 2003. Rudolph was initially
defended by attorney Richard S. Jaffe. After Jaffe withdrew, he was
represented by Judy Clarke.
As part of his plea deal, Rudolph also revealed where he had stashed
250 pounds of dynamite. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives dispatched teams to locate the
dynamite and dispose of it.
Rudolph released a statement explaining his actions; he rationalized
the bombings as serving the cause of anti-abortion and anti-
gay terrorism. In his statement, he claimed that he had "deprived the
government of its goal of sentencing me to death," and that "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 of the government to judge this matter or impute my guilt.“

The terms of the plea agreement were that Rudolph would be
sentenced to four consecutive life terms. He was sentenced July 18,
2005, to two consecutive life terms without parole for the 1998
murder of a police officer. He was sentenced for his bombings in
Atlanta on August 22, 2005, receiving two consecutive life terms.
That same day, Rudolph was sent to the ADX
Florence Supermax federal prison. Like other Supermax inmates, he
spends 23 hours per day alone in his 80-square-foot (7.4-square-
meter) concrete cell.
PUNISHMENT AND CURRENT STATUS
Today, he is still incarcerated at the ADX Florence Supermax prison
near Florence, Colorado, and he will never again set foot outside the
prison walls, for as long as he lives.
RELATION WITH SERIAL KILLER PSYCHOLOGY

1. HARSH CHILDHOOD DISCIPLINE IS THERE WITH THE

BOMBER IN THIS CASE AS WELL.
2. PATTERN OF BOMBING AND TARGET IS SAME.

3. THINKING HIMSELF AS A SOLDIER OF THE ARMY OF GOD .

4. SUDDEN VIOLENCE TO VICTIM.
5. BODY LEFT AT SCENE/WEAPON AND EVIDENCE PRESENT
6. PLANNED CRIME

*THE END*