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Fri. Apr 08, 2005

Rudolph Alleged No More

You’ve probably heard the news by now about Eric Rudolph:

Rudolph has signed agreements with the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices in Birmingham and Atlanta in which he agreed to plead guilty to the three Atlanta bombings and the Birmingham bombing and agreed to waive all appeals. The plea agreements provide for multiple life sentences for Rudolph without the possibility of parole.

Pursuant to the plea agreements, Rudolph disclosed to the government the existence and locations of more than 250 pounds of dynamite buried in several locations in the Western North Carolina area.

AJC: “Text of Department of Justice announcement”

It’s been nearly nine years since the bombings began, right here in my home town. After three of them over the course of seven months, investigators still had no valid leads, yet had managed to nearly destroy the life of an innocent man, Richard Jewel. To get the real bomber, they had to wait for him to kill again, this time in Birmingham. They got a break because some citizen followed Rudolph’s truck leaving the scene and got a license plate number. Then they blew that break immediately thereafter, when an Alabama DA released Rudolph’s name live on CNN, yet the FBI hadn’t been able to get their team in place to arrest Rudolph in North Carolina.

By the time they got there, they found an open door and signs that indicated Rudolph had just left. Though it should have been unnecessary, one of the more massive and lengthy manhunts in federal history ensued, but nearly six years passed with Rudolph as a ghost in the woods. He was only caught when a rookie cop stumbled upon him dumpster diving. The feds were completely ineffective on this case, from top to bottom. And now they get to avoid taking him to trial, plus recover 250 pounds of dynamite Rudolph had stashed around the area they searched.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. There’s an angry part of me that wants the whole thing laid out on the record, in detail, with Rudolph’s repugnant views and acts front and center. But given the demi-bungling history, I also fear that the government’s case could somehow be mishandled and blow any form of conviction. And I couldn’t live with that.

Because from the day it happened, this has been like a dark place in my heart. And when he was captured nearly two years ago, it not only brought that out, it brought out people who actually supported his murderous ways:

People were ready to hang John Lindh Walker, when he was actually totally ineffectual in his actions. Eric Rudolph was not. He methodically killed Americans, in a most cowardly manner. I get the impression Walker was ready to die for “his cause.” Eric Rudolph is not. He wants you to die for his cause.

“American Terrorist and Coward, Eric Rudolph”

Americans, claiming to be Good Christians, killing in the name of God.

Well, if you want to kill in the name of your God, before you face His judgement, you get to face it here on Earth, from the society of your peers. You get to look Alice Hawthorne’s family in the face, and see how her innocent daughter is coping with having no mother for the past 7 years. You get to face Emily Lyons, so disfigured by Rudolph’s bomb that her own husband did not even recognize her.

“You Can Run, But Only For So Long”

All Alice Hawthorne did was go to the park. She didn’t seek an abortion, she wasn’t gay or Jewish. She was just … at … the … park.

Yet your “brave man” left a backpack bomb … and then ran away like the coward he is. He didn’t care who he killed. He hoped to kill a lot more. Whites, blacks, Democrats, Republicans, pro-lifers … those thousands of nails tore flesh of all kinds, without regard to political or sexual orientation.

Yet you are proud of the murderer, and support his actions? I suppose you are also proud of another murderer of innocents, who is also very certain that his beliefs allow him to kill women or children to advance his cause. Because he thinks it’s right. And thousands of people love him for that.

His name is Osama bin Laden. Do you love him, too?

A terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist.

“Eric Rudolph’s Fan Club”

After September 11, a lot of Americans called on Muslims to speak out against the terrorism. It was said that they must police themselves from the inside, and publicly condemn those who claimed to be their peers, yet killed innocents.

Well, I’m from North Carolina, and I’m from the same generation as Eric Rudolph (8 years separate our ages). And I’m here to tell you, he’s a cowardly terrorist, and those who supported him are at best, severely misguided, and more likely, scum.

“Eric Rudolph’s Fan Club, Part 2”

I’ve been pilloried in an e-mail (anonymous, of course) because of my failure to use “alleged bomber” when describing Rudolph, followed by a heated suggestion that if I’m going to be so biased, perhaps I shouldn’t write about it.

“Eric Rudolph’s Fan Club, Part 3”

Alleged bomber. Even today, we get this ironically redundant headline: “Media Reports: Alleged Olympic Bomber to Plead Guilty.” Exactly when do you stop being “alleged”? Perhaps, when you plead guilty?

And then there’s this little tidbit: “While many thought Rudolph was living off the land in the five years he was in hiding, sources say he was living with a man who has since died.” Other local TV reports I’ve seen indicate he got other help during that time from people he knew in the area.

To me, it’s quite bothersome that he still finds such support. I fail to see how he is any different than Timothy McVeigh, except in body count, and alleged religious motivation. Should his relative incompetence at blowing people up be cause for a lesser sentence? It’s likely if he were to get the death sentence, he’d become some kind of martyr to those who support him. On the other hand, for the rest of his life he’ll be a living hero to those same folks. I don’t know which way makes the better example.

I imagine some of them will show up here, as they did last time in the links above, to say that a Godly man has suffered a great injustice … or some similar hoo-ha. How do you reconcile your support with the fact he plead guilty? In doing so he has admitted he is a sinner, a violator of the most dear of the Ten Commandments.

And yet there will be people who claim to be highly religious who will defend him, and his actions.

Which include making a 13 year old girl grow up without her mother. She’s about 22 now. And I understand the families of Rudolph’s victims are mixed in their feelings about this plea as well.

I don’t know. It may not be very Christian, but after writing this, I think I’d rather see him turned into the same river of blood he created. But I’m vengeful when people try to terrorize my home town. Even nine years later.