From Fame To Imprisoned Obscurity

America’s prisons are chock-full of men and women who have traded a brief period of notoriety for a lifetime behind bars—and the daily horrors attendant to such an existence.

I make no excuses for them—and harbor no sympathy for them either. Yet, I am nonetheless intrigued by their senseless violent acts----actions that brought them the attention they so desperately craved.

No doubt some of these criminals were motivated by greed or passion. Others were just mentally unstable—and chose to act out in dramatic fashion to reveal to the masses their warped world view.

Such appears to be the case for the so-called “Olympic Park Bomber”-Eric Rudolph. Remember him?

At this moment, he is incarcerated in the supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. Who knows what occupies his days—and nights. Time spent no doubt thinking about the actions which took the lives of others—and actions which condemned him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

I wonder if he thinks it was all “worth it”.

It was on this date in 2005 that Rudolph agreed to plead guilty in order to avoid the death penalty.

His reign of terror began with the bombing in 1996 that rocked the Olympic Park in Atlanta. Below is the report from an Atlanta TV station:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbau3OG4lBc

Originally pinned on a security guard by the name of Richard Jewell (whose unfortunate designation as “prime suspect” ruined his life and warrants a blog of its own), it became apparent that Jewell was not involved. The bombing killed one woman and injured over 100 others. After a couple of medical clinics that performed abortions were bombed, there began to appear a series of clues that led to Eric Rudolph.

A crusader, some said. A coward, most agreed.

A massive manhunt was launched to find Rudolph in North Carolina. In 1998, Eric’s brother Daniel cut off his hand to protest what he considered his brother’s mistreatment by the FBI and the media. This action alone points to the possibility of mental illness within the Rudolph family.

Rudolph became one of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” fugitives, with $1 Million dollars offered for his capture. Continuing to elude the authorities, Rudolph was believed to be hiding in the Appalacians—and police suspected that area residents were actually sympathetic to his “cause”—and were offering assistance.

Finally, in May of 2003—after more than five years on the run, a rookie policeman arrested him after finding him digging through a grocery store dumpster in North Carolina.

So—after all that time—all that violence—did Eric Rudolph actually believe that his “crusade” did anything but kill, maim and terrorize innocent people?

We’ll likely never know —and maybe Rudolph won’t either. All that’s certain is that he’ll have plenty of time to ponder the answer to that question.

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