Other than he seems to have a history of making things that go “Boom!” Is there any evidence to connect him?
Ah, that’s what his trial will be about.
I believe the bombs had very similar “signatures”. Looking for cites now.
I remember they were the same type bombs, something about the nails being the same.
The nails were different in each bomb. The bombs weren’t all that similar, either. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution gave detailed descriptions of the different bombs in an article over the weekend.)
It will be interesting to see what kind of case prosecutors can make against Rudolph for the Olympic bombing (or the other bombings in Georgia). The evidence revealed in the papers so far looks to be largely circumstantial.
For that very reason, Janet Reno (when she was in office) had planned to extradite Rudolph first to Birmingham, where the evidence against Rudolph is apparently stronger.
Let me backtrack a bit. The nails in the Birmingham bomb were supposedly similar to the nails in the abortion clinic bomb in Atlanta, but NOT to the nails in the Olympic bomb (the subject of the OP).
One other bit of evidence:
Prior to the Olympic bombing, there was a warning call to 911. I expect there will be some evidence, either via expert testimony or through testimony of persons familiar with Rudolph’s voice, to try to tie the 911 call to Rudolph.
This is an MSNBC article with some links to related articles.
I haven’t seen anything about this guy and his motives. Is there any theories as to whether or not he had some political agenda or is he supposedly just a whack-o?
Well, I used to work with someone that had a son who was a bomb forensic guy, and who actually did some work on this case. From what I was told, (this is second hand, so I could be misremembering or using bad terminology) there was a unique substance in the bombs (not the nails) - it was some type of powder or residue or something - that was found in all the bombs he’s accused of making go “boom” and that was traceable to Rudolph.
Two abortion clinic bombings and a gay nightclub? Sounds like he’s a right-wing wacko of some sort.
I would tend to think the Richard Jewel fiasco would be brought up as often as possible. It might create enough reasonable doubt in how the investigation was performed to keep the jury from convicting. I’m basing that on how the OJ defense team hammered away day after day on how the investigation was handled.
Article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on building a court case against Rudolph.