U.S.

Profile Of A Zealot

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 29, 2001 / 4:18 PM EST / CBS

To the radical edge of the anti-abortion movement he was known as "Atomic Dog," a committed warrior. To doctors and health care workers who provide abortions he was a feared zealot. To the FBI he was one of the "Ten Most Wanted."

The background of James C. Kopp reveals a long, circuitous path to the violent fringe of the anti-abortion movement and then life as a fugitive from justice following the murder of Buffalo doctor Barnett Slepian in 1998.

Kopp, of St. Albans, Vt., was arrested in Dinan, France on Thursday in connection with Slepian's murder and attacks on other abortion providers. He is being held pending an extradition request from the U.S.

Described as a quiet and shy young man, Kopp grew up in Marin County, Calif., north of San Francisco, an Eagle Scout and trombone player in his high school band, reports The New York Times.

The Times reports that he earned a degree in marine biology and 1976 from the University of California at Santa Cruz and later a master's degree in biology. His mother was a nurse and his father a corporate executive.

Three events apparently sent Kopp on a quest for spiritual meaning that led him to the anti-abortion movement. According to family members quoted by the Times, his sister's death from leukemia and his parents' bitter divorce pushed Kopp toward religion.

But it may have been a college girlfriend's abortion that galvanized his militant anti-abortion stance. "He was upset because it was his child and he was not consulted," his stepmother, Lynn Kopp, told the Times magazine in 1999. "When he found out about it, he just flipped out."

Kopp became involved in a Protestant fundamentalist movement, but later converted to Catholicism, attending services daily.

In the mid-1980s, he became increasingly active in anti-abortion demonstrations. Beginning in 1984, Kopp was arrested nine times outside San Francisco clinics on charges ranging from trespassing to assault, the Times reports.

In 1988, Kopp moved to Binghamton, N.Y., where Randall Terry was running Operation Rescue, a radical anti-abortion group. Kopp became a key aide to Terry and innovated many of the now familiar tactics used by protesters. Kopp also protested frequently with the militant Lambs of Christ group.

He spent 10 weeks in jail in Vermont after a blockade in a clinic, reports the Buffalo News.

Kopp's nickname, "Atomic Dog," apparently refers to his technical expertise. He is adept at telephone and lock installation, carpentry, masonry, welding, and typing, skills that proved useful to the anti-abortion movement.

The FBI described him as a white male 5'10", 150 to 175 pounds, with reddish brown straight hair, blue-gray eyes and a ruddy complexion. He walks with a slight limp.

Authorities said he used 29 aliases, including John Kapp, Clyde Swenson, Clyde Swanson, Jack Cotty, Jack Crotty, Jacob Koch, Charles Cooper, Jim Cobb, Samuel E. Weinstein, Jaco I. Croniger, Enoch A. Guettler, Jonathan H. Henderson, Samuel E. Blanton, SolomanE. Aranburg, Aaron A. Bernstein, Eli A. Hochenleit, Dwight Hanson, K. Jawes Gavin, P. Anastation, B. James Milton, and Catfish.

In addition to the charges involving Slepian, Kopp is also charged with the 1995 attempted murder of Hugh Short, a Canadian doctor shot at his home in Ancaster, Ont., near Hamilton.

And Kopp is wanted in the shooting of a doctor in Winnipeg, Canada, another in Vancouver and he has been implicated in a similar shooting in Rochester, N.Y.