Plea Deal in '96 Olympic Bombings

Eric Rudolph has agreed to plead guilty to setting off a deadly bomb at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and three other blasts in a deal that allows the anti-government extremist to escape the death penalty, Justice Department officials said Friday.

"The many victims of Eric Rudolph's terrorist attacks ... can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Hearings have been scheduled in Birmingham and Atlanta Wednesday, where Rudolph is scheduled to admit his guilt. The plea deal calls for four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Rudolph had faced a possible death sentence.

Defense lawyer Bill Bowen did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Rudolph, 38, of Murphy, N.C., was charged in the Georgia for the bombing attack at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996, which killed one female Olympic spectator and seriously injured more than 100 other people.

Rudolph, a former soldier and survivalist who is thought to be a follower of white supremacist religion, was taken into custody in 2003 in the same wilderness region of North Carolina where he long was suspected of living on the lam.

The Olympic blast was caused by a bomb in a backpack. In the next two years, he allegedly set off bombs at a lesbian nightclub in Atlanta and at two abortion clinics — one in Alabama and one in Atlanta. The Alabama abortion clinic blast killed an off-duty police officer and critically injured a nurse.

Rudolph, 38, then slipped away into the mountains of western North Carolina, where the former soldier used survivalist techniques to live off the land for more than five years — all while being on the FBI's list of 10 Most Wanted fugitives. Then in May 2003, he was captured after being seen scavenging for food near a grocery store trash bin in Murphy, N.C.

Jeff Lyons, whose wife was severely injured and left blind in one eye in the Alabama bombing, said he and his wife were "extremely disappointed" in the life sentences for Rudolph. "As they say, let the punishment fit the crime. That was a death sentence," he said.

But Lyons said he understood prosecutors' reasons for agreeing to a plea deal since Rudolph directed them to the explosives — something that likely would not have happened had the case gone to trial.

Word of the deal came amid reports that federal agents have been in western North Carolina this week detonating explosive materials in the region where Rudolph spent his time on the lam.

Under the deal, Lyons said Rudolph confirmed the location of about 250 pounds of dynamite that he had hidden in the mountains of western North Carolina.

"He told them where the stuff was, pointed it out on a map, as I understand it," Lyons said.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives FBI promptly dispatched teams to locate the dynamite and hidden bomb, the Department of Justice said. The search located nearly 25 pounds of dynamite, hidden in close proximity to a road, homes and businesses.

"The many victims of Eric Rudolph's terrorist attacks in Atlanta and Birmingham can rest assured that Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars," said Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. "The best interests of justice are served by resolution of this case and by the skillful operation that secured the dangerous explosives buried in North Carolina."

Rudolph became an almost a mythic figure to some residents of the region during a search across 550,000 acres of Appalachian wilderness that at one time involved 200 agents. Many in the region mocked the government's inability to root him out. He inspired two country-western songs and a top-selling T-shirt bore the words "Run Rudolph Run." A $1 million reward offer from the government went unclaimed.

Investigators suspect that sympathizers in the countryside may have assisted Rudolph during his time on the run.

Justice Department officials chose the Birmingham bombing as the one to try first, and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to seek the death penalty if Rudolph was convicted. Right after Rudolph's capture, Ashcroft predicted the Alabama trial would be "relatively short and straightforward."

Rudolph is scheduled to plead guilty Wednesday, April 13.