Rudolph was 15, an impressionable age, and surely affected by his father’s death. But while the movie is more focused on Richard, Manhunt Deadly Games is the story of Eric Rudolph. “Much of the terrain was rugged and remote,” he said, “but some was near houses. This time, an off-duty police officer was killed in the blast and a nurse severely injured. After his arrest, details began to emerge about Rudolph’s years on the run. The show came back with a second season in February 2020 and fans have been swooning over … “They suspected that was Rudolph.”, Meanwhile, authorities continued to comb the mountains around Murphy. “He had a bunch of 55-gallon barrels buried in the ground, full of grain, soy, and oats. Dig through the papers of the time and you’ll see that dynamic play out on a wider stage. There was speculation that Rudolph had died somewhere out there in the dense, wet woods. Confronted back at the station, Rudolph quickly owned up to his identity. No dirt on it, just a clean uniform. Nordmann says he declined to help, but he didn’t report the encounter until two days later when Rudolph stole his truck and 75 pounds of food. On my drive into town, I passed a smattering of pro-life billboards, and it’s no secret the way politics lean in most small, Southern towns. "Manhunt" executive produce r Andrew Sodroski - who has yet to see Eastwood's film - said metro Pittsburgh provided quicker access than Atlanta to … After that, things kind of steadied for him. Over the next eighteen months a string of other bombings followed. The frustration in his voice mounts as he recounts the events around the day that Rudolph went missing. Eric Robert Rudolph, seen here in an undated photo, is the one-time carpenter who vanished in early 1998 and vaulted to the FBI’s Most Wanted list after a bombing at a Birmingham, Alabama abortion clinic. Eric Robert Rudolph(born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is an American terroristconvicted for a series of bombings across the southern United Statesbetween 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injured over 100 others,including the Centennial Olympic Park bombingat the 1996 Summer Olympicsin Atlanta. This time the target was the Otherside Lounge, a gay nightclub in Atlanta. “The FBI made it known that they were looking for people with local knowledge of the terrain,” he said. Eric Rudolph is an anti-government extremist, Rudolph who was convicted of the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics. Rudolph’s final bomb detonated a year and a half after the Atlanta Olympics outside of the New Woman All Women Health Care Center in Birmingham, Alabama—a clinic that also provided abortions. Sometimes he’d dig through the dumpster at the movie theater for popcorn. In that version of the story, Rudolph paints himself as a survivalist. Plot Summary | Add Synopsis It was defeat. My route from Asheville leads me through the Nantahala National Forest, where Rudolph lived before moving to Murphy. As shown in the series, between the years of 1996 and 1998, Rudolph was also responsible for four other explosions that occurred around the Atlanta area. He clearly was anti-government and anti-abortion, anti-gay, ‘anti’ a lot of things. He was sent to ADX Florence Supermax federal prison in Colorado, and it is there where he will spend the rest of his days. “They said, ‘Absolutely not. Branham was outraged at what he saw as a major invasion of privacy. In the end, his manhunt cost millions and set off a culture clash that reverberated throughout the mountains and beyond. The Rudolph manhunt is a bit better because a couple drone shots of hills and trees can deliver a semblance of that scope. After that, Patricia had the responsibility of raising all those kids on her own and it tested her faith. Authorities finally closed in on Rudolph, but before they could nab him, he fled into North Carolina’s Nantahala National Forest. Rudolph was born in Homestead, Florida, a flat savannah popping with palm trees, a landscape void of the forested ridgelines and plunging gorges he would one day call home. He would later be exonerated but not until his reputation was left in tatters. Rudolph, a simple mountain man, eluded the best that the government could throw at him during the most publicized manhunt in … Nantahala is a Cherokee word that means “land of the noonday sun,” but the hemlock, oak, pine and rhododendron are so thick beyond my windshield that it’s a wonder the light in these woods can reach the ground at all. Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a statement saying, “American law enforcement’s unyielding efforts to capture Eric Robert Rudolph have been rewarded. Rudolph ultimately confessed. That paid off. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The man behind the bombing was 29-year-old Eric Rudolph, a terrorist who went on to carry out three more bombings over the next year and a half. But from the stories he tells his mother, it sounds as though Rudolph spent much of his time lurking in the shadows on the edge of society, living off the excess of the community. Eric Rudolph in Manhunt: Deadly Games: What’s the Real Story? He was the kind of person who felt like if more than one person knows something, it’s no longer a secret.”. Postell while rummaging through a trash bin behind a rural grocery story in Murphy, North Carolina,” the FBI explains. “Suddenly there were snipers on top of every building,” remembers Hughes. That’s when the bounty hunters came crashing into town, determined to make a fortune off of finding Rudolph. A few minutes later, I pass the Western Carolina Regional Airport, where, as Bill Hughes tells it, a Learjet carrying a man with a briefcase would land just about every week while Rudolph was on the run. Though he’d dropped 30 or 40 pounds, the fact that he wasn’t a wild-haired, rag-wearing vagrant added to the speculation that he’d had help along the way. But that’s just me,” she says. And he remained gone for a very long time. He had access to news; he had newspaper articles in his camp. Twenty minutes later, I arrive in Murphy, the town where Rudolph was living when he disappeared, and park my car behind the modest public library. After that, Eric earned his GED and attended a few semesters of college at Western Carolina University. Kelly Bryant lives in a little community called Marble that sits halfway between Andrews and Murphy. I don’t think he would have made himself vulnerable to being compromised or betrayed by letting anyone know where he was,” he said. “We all knew how to read maps, we knew the terrain, we were all outdoorsmen and women, and we didn’t mind being uncomfortable in any weather. They named Eric Robert Rudolph to their Most Wanted List and put a $1,000,000 price tag on his head. Bill Hughes was angry then, and it still gets his guff now, that some of the media portrayed the town of Murphy as a backwoods dot on the map filled with townies that ideologically supported Eric Rudolph. He didn’t know Rudolph, but they shared the same occupation. Learn where Eric Rudolph is now. Jewell's eventually exonerated, though his reputation is tarnished. I figured he would stay in hiding for as long as he could.”. They were seen as city slickers who swooped into the mountains without any real knowledge of the terrain they were working with. Take a WanderLove Road Trip Along the Skyline Drive to Waynesboro. He told stories of raiding dumpsters at McDonalds and the grocery store. While “Richard Jewell” only briefly touches on Eric Rudolph, the real bomber, in the closing moments, “Manhunt: Deadly Games” spends several episodes on the FBI’s hunt for the domestic terrorist. In 1996 he toyed with the idea of leaving North Carolina, lamenting the fact that the mountains were becoming too populated. Once again, Rudolph came back to the Nantahala Mountains. He’d pluck food from gardens and pilfer grain from silos, transporting it all in a truck he stole from a used car lot. “I was mad at God,” she told Rolling Stone. Jewell had started out as a hero because he discovered the suspicious backpack before Rudolph’s bomb exploded and ushered people to safety. According to the FBI, a woman who traveled with her daughter to watch the 1996 Summer Olympics “was killed and more than 100 others were injured in the blast. 'Manhunt: Deadly Games' tells the story of 1996 Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph, who is played in the CBS/Spectrum series by Jack. It was often cold and there was a lot of snow. Cartoon from Charlotte Observer, May 2003. When he dropped out of college he joined the Army and served with the 101st Airborne Division. Some people point to this moment in time as Rudolph’s extremists beginnings, noting that the family may have blamed the federal powers-that-be for not green-lighting an experimental treatment that could have saved his life. Manhunt season 1, called Unabomber depicted a fictionalised account of the FBI's hunt for the Unabomber. Through it all, Rudolph denied having any help surviving in the woods. On July 27, 1996, Eric Rudolph bombed the summer Olympics in Atlanta. Copyright © 2021 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. At the end of the week, they’d meet with FBI agents in their black Suburbans at a rendezvous point and report anything questionable they had seen. It stars Paul Walter Hauser as Jewell, alongside Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, and Olivia Wilde. You can read his full confession here. These cookies do not store any personal information. We could have given them help with the terrain, shown them spots they need to check out—caves, caverns, old mountain homes. “Maybe using it to get more publicity and get more funding.”. “Well, it took them three hours to get to Atlanta. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. What's the real story of Eric Rudolph, the bomber featured in Manhunt: Deadly Games on Netflix? But Rudolph wasn’t a funny guy, and many construed those actions as a distasteful expression of support for the bomber. The furious manhunt for Eric Rudolph, who almost got away with the Olympic Park bombing A new movie recounts the story of Richard Jewell, who was wrongly accused. Religion was a major part of their lives. I can find no current or historical expression of fear from anyone discussing Eric Rudolph. “[God] didn’t heal Bob. Thankfully, authorities were on the track of the real perpetrator, Eric Rudolph, and in 1998, Rudolph’s name was officially tied to the bombing. "Manhunt: Deadly Games" has some to Netflix, meaning a whole new set of viewers are wondering about the accuracy of its portrayals of Richard Jewell and Eric Rudolph. I wonder if the lack of fear came from knowing that a small town with conservative values would never be Rudolph’s target. By 2000, the search had been scaled back. When federal and local authorities arrived at Rudolph’s trailer, they found the door swinging open and the lights on. There were TV trucks everywhere. Almost relieved in a sense. “You know it’s interesting,” Hughes tells me, “when Postell had him in the back of the car he mumbled something like, “I’m glad it’s over. But just seconds before they arrive at his trailer, he has moved out into the wilderness. The Rudolphs were pissed about it too. It was fun.”. Then on May 31, 2003, a 21-year-old rookie with the Murphy Police Department named Jeffrey Postell caught a man dumpster diving behind the Save-a-Lot in the middle of the night. Rudolph was responsible for a series of bombings. When Rudolph was 17, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided Branham’s home. The first, which is also very good and available to stream at Netflix, focused on the hunt for the Unabomber. He didn’t use credit cards or bank accounts because he believed that authorities would track him through his card number. “He’s faded into memory,” says Kelly Bryant. “Richard Jewell” opens in the US on December 13, 2019. Security guard Richard Jewell is lauded as a national hero after he discovers a massive bomb at the Games and saves hundreds of lives by clearing the area. We spent a fair bit of time observing within four miles of his last known habitation.”, Each week the scout and his team, who were assigned aliases and called by those names, would receive a map with grids to search. When asked his name, the man said he was Jerry Wilson of Ohio. Where is he now. “We still have his library card,” she tells me. “Rudolph is such a loner that we strongly believed he simply wouldn’t have trusted anybody. Yet newspapers of the time reported that residents printed bumper stickers that said “Run, Rudolph, Run,” and wore t-shirts that read “1998 Hide and Seek Champion Eric Rudolph.” After his arrest, the local coffee shop served “Captured Cappuccinos” and a sign posted outside of town read “Pray for Eric Rudolph.” The Christian Science Monitor ran a story claiming that Rudolph autographed his “Wanted” posters for sheriff’s deputies after his arrest. Robert got a job with Trans World Airlines and they had six kids. “Let me be clear,” came one letter from Raleigh, “overwhelmingly, the people of North Carolina believe Eric Rudolph to be a bigoted and cowardly killer.”, The years have passed in Murphy and the name Eric Robert Rudolph is no longer on the tip of anyone’s tongue. They lasted four months before retreating back home to the mountains of North Carolina. A few years earlier, the International Olympic Committee had voted to separate the winter and summer games, holding them in alternating years, and this was the first time the summer games were to be held on their own. Getty His hair was cropped short and he had a mustache. Manhunt: Deadly Games is the second season of Spectrum Original’s Manhunt series. We’re going to surround the trailer so he can’t get out.’” But the FBI had other plans. On May 31, 2003, former FBI Top Ten Fugitive Eric Robert Rudolph “was arrested by police officer J.S. The next day, news organizations began receiving anonymous letters crediting the Virginia-based Christian anti-abortion terrorist group Army of God with the bombings. “Unless there is an anniversary or someone makes a point of bringing it up, he isn’t talked about anymore.”. Shortly after, Rudolph bombed two more locations in Georgia and one in Birmingham, Alabama, resulting several more injuries and the death of a police officer. Former FBI executive Chris Swecker explained on an FBI website devoted to Rudolph’s capture: “He had borrowed ideas from a lot of different places and formed his own personal ideology. Eric Rudolph was apprehended here, dumpster diving behind the Sav-A Lot in Murphy, N.C. Once again, the media descended upon Murphy. It also has a lot of people wondering: Where is Eric Rudolph now? But Rudolph eventually got … “You have 30 minutes.” A security guard discovered the explosive hidden inside an abandoned backpack and began evacuating the area. I’m tired of running.” After five years and one of the nation’s most costly manhunts, the whole thing ended in an anticlimactic whimper. She didn’t live in Murphy when Rudolph was on the lam, but she did come to town for vacation one year and remembers when the Armory was used as FBI headquarters and helicopters roamed the sky searching for Rudolph. “They said we were able to identify with Rudolph and were sympathetic to him, which was totally false.”. But they haven’t asked us.”, Doug Franklin was living in Nantahala during the manhunt years. But he wasn’t a native North Carolina boy. She’s quoted as saying, “I taught [my kids] to be creative thinkers. According to the FBI, “He pled guilty and is currently serving multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.”. The librarian tells me that Rudolph describes in his memoir how he would steal books from the Book Mobile they used to have parked out back, right there in the middle of town. A new film by Clint Eastwood tells the other part of the Olympic Park bombing story. After his arrest, I counted 26 satellite trucks in Murphy. “A skilled outdoorsman, Rudolph had managed to elude law enforcement officials for five years while hiding out in the mountains after bombing four sites in Georgia and Alabama. He was an anti-government extremist, but he borrowed his ideologies from different places. Over the next eighteen months a … I drive past Andrews High School, where Rudolph sometimes sat in a tidy mountaintop camp only 200 yards away, a spot that provided him a birds-eye-view of town. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. They hunted all around the Nantahala National Forest within a 45-minute drive of Wesser, North Carolina. It’s doubtful that Rudolph, who was likely still 120 miles away in Murphy, saw any of this. He’d come in sometimes to borrow books before he disappeared into the forest. “There is a bomb in Centennial Park,” said the caller. The miniseries "Manhunt: Deadly Games" tells the story of the 1996 Olympics bombing from the false suspicions of Richard Jewell (Cameron Britton) to the pursuit of bomber Eric Rudolph … These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. It depicted a fictionalized account of the FBI's hunt for the Unabomber and premiered on Discovery Channel on August 1, 2017. Letters to the editors of papers in Asheville and Atlanta illustrate how some viewed Rudolph as a folk hero. From the very beginning, there seemed to be a rift between the federal authorities and the locals who knew the area well. He knew he was being pursued. “I assumed that’s the only way he could stay alive in the woods that long. According to Rolling Stone, he also believed that the bigwigs in Washington D.C. were plotting to provoke a national catastrophe and use it as a reason to declare martial law. He knew he was defeated.”. Authorities suspected the security guard—no one yet knew the name Eric Robert Rudolph. Didn’t do anything.”. When I asked the scout if he received any special training to hunt for Rudolph, he said that it was easy to prepare. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. However, he managed to evade capture until 2003. A 44-year-old woman named Alice Hawthorne was killed and over 100 others were injured. Unlike in bombings past, this time a vigilant bystander saw a man walking away from the chaos and tracked him back to his truck, taking note of his North Carolina license plate. Rudolph spent a lot of time outside and a lot of time with his neighbor, Thomas Wayne Branham, a man of radical politics who considered himself to be free of the confines of state and local laws. So that told me that they hadn’t been very far out in the woods looking for him.”, It’s probably not a far stretch to assume that many people in town viewed the FBI with a skeptical eye. “I didn’t have a clue who he was,” Postell later told MSNBC. The author of the letter wondered if investigators would find that people aiding Rudolph were just “merely a product of their Appalachian upbringin’ where folk learn to take care of one another,” adding that perhaps helping those in need is “the very nature of the natives of Western North Carolina.” Another letter to the Citizen-Times states flatly, “If I had lived in Murphy, I would have helped him.”, But an opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that ran the same week reminded readers that “eluding capture in the wilds of North Carolina doesn’t make Rudolph a folk hero.” And when an author from North Carolina wrote a sentimental and sympathetic op-ed in The New York Times called “Why We Fed the Bomber,” responses published a week later pushed back. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. They document the days after Rudolph’s capture, when the media descended upon the tiny hamlet and Murphy, North Carolina became the center of the world. But the Murphy Public Library bought their copy directly from Rudolph’s own mother. In 1998, Chris West, who at the time was the assistant police chief of Andrews, told the Citizen-Times, “The FBI is keeping it pretty hush. Blue Ridge Outdoors is your guide to fly fishing in the Southeast, moutain biking in the Blue Ridge and adventure travel from the Highlands to the Piedmont. “They painted a picture of us being illiterate hillbillies down here—just a little two-bit, sawmill, every other building a church sort of thing,” says Hughes. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. The family lived off the grid, growing food and herbs and raising goats, ducks and chickens. He lived alone and supported himself doing carpentry jobs in the region. But before that day, there were five years that preceded it. Their end game, thought Rudolph, was to throw all Christians, including himself, into concentration camps. As I tweeted Thursday night, it’s hard not to get incredibly angry whenever watching or reading anything about Richard Jewell. He was just their extremist in the woods. Meanwhile, the true bomber, Eric Rudolph (Jack Huston), remains free for years, and embarks on another reign of terror in a series of four bombings in …