|
Postell recalls Rudolph’s capture
As news of Zacarias Moussaoui fades and Memorial Day approaches, thoughts turn to one of the convicted Sept. 11, 2001, conspirator’s fellow inmates at Colorado’s “Supermax” prison – one with disturbingly local connections.
Eric Robert Rudolph, who once lived in Sylva and attended classes at Western Carolina University was sentenced in April 2005 to share Moussaoui’s fate of a life sentence to the nation’s highest-security prison, a facility that is also home to other domestic terrorists including Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Oklahoma City co-conspirator Terry Nichols.
Rudolph spent five years on the run and for a a time topped the FBI’s most-wanted fugitive list before he was captured almost three years ago by a rookie cop. He took to the woods in January 1998 after he was linked to a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic blast that killed a security guard and maimed a nurse. Rudolph was later charged with the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombing and with attempting to blow up an Atlanta-area gay nightclub.
Sylva Policeman Jeff Postell, the man who nabbed the serial bomber as Rudolph foraged through a grocery store Dumpster in the pre-dawn hours of May 31, 2003, stopped by the Cafe last week and shared his story.
Postell, who was 21 when he made the national news by apprehending Rudolph in Murphy, witnessed the saga from start to finish. Postell was a 16-year-old law enforcement explorer (a program offered through the Boy Scouts that organized interested teens into a law-enforcement officer training corps) in Andrews and a student at Andrews High School who watched as his hometown was transformed by national media coverage as federal agents combed the hills and hollows for Rudolph.
“It was amazing – it was sort of like an invasion of Andrews,” Postell said of the myriad agencies with different vehicles, dogs and SWAT teams that arrived daily. “I remember meeting lots of FBI and Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents.”
Postell remembers search coordinator Woody Enderson holding up posters that depicted Rudolph with a ponytail and said that even as a teenager, he thought the opposite – that Rudolph would have cut his hair to present a different, clean-cut appearance to avoid detection.
As the years passed and interest in Rudolph faded, Postell finished high school and joined the Murphy Police Department. As one of the junior officers, Postell said he often drew the night shifts and was working from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. on the night he nabbed Rudolph outside a Murphy Sav-A-Lot.
“I was by myself that night after 2 a.m., and I saw a silhouette in the alley behind the store,” Postell said. “It appeared he had a weapon.”
Faced with the possibility that the suspicious figure was armed, Postell called for back-up officers before exiting his patrol car in pursuit of the suspect. Though another officer arrived within minutes, Postell already had Rudolph handcuffed by the time he arrived.
The capture itself lacked the drama that had long been associated with Rudolph’s exploits: Postell requested the man come out from behind the supermarket, and Rudolph complied, though Postell at that time had no idea he had captured the most-wanted fugitive.
“I thought I had an individual ready to break into the store,” Postell said, and Rudolph’s initial answers didn’t provide any clues.
The “weapon” turned out to be a long, thin flashlight, and Rudolph told Postell he was looking for food in the Dumpster. He said his name was “Jerry Wilson” and that he was from Ohio and homeless and had recently traveled from Asheville to Murphy, where he was living under a bridge. The man had no identification but supplied his date of birth.
The first hint of the suspect’s true identity came when a county deputy who had known Rudolph before he was linked to criminal activity arrived at the scene while Rudolph was being questioned.
That deputy pulled Postell aside and said “I think he’s Rudolph.”
At that point, Postell and the other officers decided to take the man to the local detention center for further questioning. Once there, Postell got on the computer and compared the man’s appearance to the photos of Rudolph on the FBI site.
After he and others were pretty sure who they had, they confronted Rudolph.
“Tell us who you are.”
“What does that say?” Rudolph responded, pointing to the paper Postell was holding.
“Never mind that – who are you?” the officers asked.
And with that, the famous fugitive “kind of snickered,” Postell said.
“He had a cold laugh – it sent chills up my spine,” Postell said. “I’ll never forget it, and I’ll tell my kids and grandchildren about it.”
“I’m Eric Robert Rudolph,” the former fugitive said. “You’ve got me.”
|
