27 Facts About Eric Rudolph

Eric Rudolph's stated motive was an opposition to "the ideals of global socialism" and to "abortion on demand", both of which he claimed were condoned by the United States government.

For five years, Rudolph was listed as one of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives until he was caught in 2003.

In 2005, as part of a plea bargain, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to numerous state and federal homicide charges and accepted four consecutive life sentences in exchange for avoiding a trial and a potential death sentence.

Eric Rudolph remains incarcerated at the ADX Florence supermax prison near Florence, Colorado.

Eric 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 Eric Rudolph was 18, he spent time with his mother at a Christian Identity compound in Missouri known as the Church of Israel.

Eric Rudolph 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, Eric Rudolph had attended the Air Assault School at Fort Campbell.

Eric Rudolph joined several white supremacist groups in the years before he perpetrated the bombings.

At age 29, Eric Rudolph perpetrated the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, which occurred on July 27,1996, during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Eric Rudolph made two anonymous 911 calls, warning about the bomb before it detonated.

Eric Rudolph's statement cleared Richard Jewell, a Centennial Olympic Park security guard, of any involvement in the bombing.

Eric Rudolph was first identified as a suspect in the Alabama bombing by the Department of Justice on February 14,1998, following tips from two witnesses, Jeffrey Tickal and Jermaine Hughes.

Tickal and Hughes observed Eric Rudolph departing the scene and noted his appearance and truck license plate.

Eric Rudolph was named as a suspect in the other Atlanta and Alabama incidents on October 14,1998.

Eric Rudolph spent more than five years in the Appalachian wilderness as a fugitive, during which time federal and amateur search teams scoured the area without success.

Eric Rudolph's family supported him and believed he was innocent of all charges.

Eric Rudolph was arrested in Murphy, North Carolina, on May 31,2003, by rookie police officer Jeffrey Scott Postell of the Murphy Police Department while Eric Rudolph was looking through a dumpster behind a Save-A-Lot store at about 4:00am Postell, on routine patrol, initially suspected a burglary in progress.

Eric Rudolph's revealing the hiding places of the dynamite was a condition of his plea agreement.

Eric Rudolph released a statement explaining his actions; he rationalized the bombings as serving the cause of anti-abortion and anti-gay terrorism.

The terms of the plea agreement were that Eric Rudolph would be sentenced to four consecutive life terms.

Eric Rudolph was sentenced July 18,2005, to two consecutive life terms without parole for the 1998 murder of a police officer.

Eric Rudolph was sentenced for his bombings in Atlanta on August 22,2005, receiving two consecutive life terms.

That same day, Eric Rudolph was sent to the ADX Florence Supermax federal prison.

Eric Rudolph unsuccessfully tried to have part of his sentence vacated in 2021.

Essays written by Eric Rudolph that condone violence and militant action have been published on the Internet by an Army of God anti-abortion activist.

Eric Rudolph is portrayed by Eric Mendenhall in the 2019 film Richard Jewell.