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Investigators look to link Rudolph to Atlanta bombings
In this story:
Rudolph February 27, 1998
- 'If you pile up enough coincidences...'
- Unabomber investigator called in
- More than one responsible?
Web posted at: 10:04 p.m. EST (0304 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Officials say that federal investigators are trying to find out where Eric Robert Rudolph, the suspect in the Birmingham, Alabama, abortion clinic bombing, was at the time of three earlier bombings in Atlanta.
Sources say that while Rudolph has not been proven to be a suspect in those bombings, there appears to be evidence linking him to them.
And, says one senior federal agent who requested anonymity, "in this business, if you can pile up enough coincidences, sometimes you get somewhere."
Rudolph, 31, is charged with planting a bomb that killed an off-duty police officer working as a security guard last month at a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic where abortions are performed. Agents continue to hunt for him in western North Carolina.
The January 29 explosion at the New Woman All Women Clinic in Birmingham also severely injured a nurse. It is the only bombing for which Rudolph has been charged.
The effort to reconstruct his whereabouts comes as Justice and Treasury Department officials debate FBI Director Louis Freeh's plan to unify the investigations of the Atlanta and Birmingham cases.
Unabomber investigator called in
Freeh ordered FBI inspector Terry Turchie -- who led the successful Unabomber investigation -- to Atlanta to help coordinate the combined effort.
Components similar to the ones used in the bombings of:
Some agents working on the cases in Birmingham and Atlanta don't object to greater coordination, but they do oppose bringing in a new leader.
Sources say that Doug Jones, U.S. Attorney in Birmingham, and Birmingham Police Chief Mike Coppage also object.
Coppage told the Birmingham News that he indicated to Freeh that he wants the investigation to remain in Birmingham because a city police officer was killed. Coppage said he lobbied federal authorities in Birmingham to keep the investigations separate.
"We've put a lot of effort into this. We have detectives working around the clock, and they feel a sense of ownership, and they want to do all they can do to bring the investigation to fruition," Coppage said.
Federal investigators, meanwhile, have been trying to learn if Rudolph was in Atlanta when bombs exploded at Centennial Olympic Park in July 1996, at an abortion clinic in January 1997 and at a gay nightclub in February 1997.
Investigators haven't been able to learn where Rudolph was at any of those times, the senior agent said.
'He leaves no trail'
"This is a person who makes exceptional efforts to preserve personal privacy," the agent said. "He does no banking, used no credit, has no loans. He leaves no trail."
Earlier in the day, it was announced that investigators had evidence connecting the bombings in Atlanta with the one in Birmingham.
The Olympic and Atlanta abortion clinic bombs had one-eighth-inch thick steel plates that were used to direct the nails packed into the bomb.
In addition, lab analyses has shown that the that 1 1/2-inch flooring nails used in the bombs in Birmingham and at the Atlanta women's clinic came from the same batch of nails found in a storage shed rented by Rudolph. The batch of nails "was produced and sold in a small area," a federal agent said.
The agent also said that the steel plates were of the same general formulation, and that a metal-working plant in Franklin, North Carolina, where a friend of Rudolph's works has bought that kind of steel.
Jan Unger, an employee at Franklin Machine Co., said Friday that FBI agents had inspected its premises and "we have cooperated with them fully."
More than one responsible?
The bomb at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in July 1996 killed one person and injured more than 100. Seven people were injured in January 1997 when two bombs went off at a women's clinic near Atlanta where abortions are performed.
Investigators earlier had hypothesized that the same person or people might have been behind the two Atlanta incidents and a third bombing in the area which occurred in February 1997 at "The Otherside Lounge," a gay nightclub.
A series of letters signed by the "Army of God" claimed responsibility for all of the bombings but the one at Olympic Park.
Correspondent Kitty Pilgrim and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Special Section:
Related stories:
- Source: Birmingham suspect owned bomb-making book - February 25, 1998
- Nails link Birmingham suspect to Atlanta bombing - February 24, 1998
- Rudolph's family backs out of news conference - February 19, 1998
Related sites:
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- FBI - Witness to Birmingham Clinic Bombing
- Jefferson County Sheriff's Department
- U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
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