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A TWISTED TALE OF TWO BROTHERS | PAGE 1, 2
Jamie Rudolph was "shocked" when the FBI later named his brother a suspect in the Birmingham bombing, according to Jamie's lover and musical partner, Cameron Ferguson. "He was almost dumbfounded. Like, 'This is really not legitimate, this is not true, this cannot have happened.'" For several months afterward, the FBI parked unmarked surveillance cars near their apartment. They assumed their telephone was tapped. "I think he feels like a victim, too," Ferguson continued. "He thought, 'Here I am trying to get away from this weirdo world of North Carolina, trying to get away from my strange family.' "Bombing the clinic was like bombing the family," Ferguson said, "because his mother is trying to retire peacefully in Florida, his brother lost his marriage because of his reaction to this -- this psychosis, or political statement, or whatever it was." His brother, Daniel Rudolph, lost more than his marriage. Six weeks after the bombing, Daniel, Eric and Jamie's older brother, went into his garage in South Carolina, turned on a video camera, intoned a Biblical verse and sliced off his right hand with a buzz saw -- a protest against pressure from the government and media, said law enforcement sources who saw the videotape. Daniel now lives in Florida with his mother, Patricia. His hand was reattached in a hospital. Patricia Rudolph "had gone through traditional religious systems and things like that previously, and I think she was kind of really into self-awareness and contentment," according to Cameron Ferguson. "She was nice. A very motherly type." And how did Eric, now a suspected serial bomber, come off? "He seemed like he was a pretty nice guy," Cameron said, chuckling at the apparent irony. "He seemed comfortable with Jamie's sexuality," he added. "[Jaime] had come out to his mother the year before, and it didn't seem to be an issue among any of them." Eric Rudolph's own sexual orientation has been the subject of some speculation. Some people who knew him in North Carolina thought of him as a bit fey, I told Ferguson. Additionally, he was notoriously awkward around the few women he went out with. I asked if Eric gave off any clues to his own sexual orientation. Cameron paused. "I've always had a very bad 'gay meter,'" he said. "I didn't really evaluate him." I pressed. "Well, you add up factors like, has he been married, had a girlfriend and so on." No, and no. "I hate this, because sometimes you just don't know, but he was pretty understanding and comfortable and tolerant around Jamie, whereas if you're a 100 percent straight macho guy, it might feel weird." Their last night together in New York was odd, Jamie said. Eric insisted on renting a movie and having the four of them watch it. "It was about an IRA terrorist," Jamie said. He couldn't remember the name of it, but he recalled thinking, "Why are we watching this?" Eric Rudolph has managed to elude a task force of 200 state and federal agents deployed to North Carolina since January 1998, despite popping up once at a local resident's cabin last July to ask for food. The agents hoped the sparse winter foliage would give them a better shot at finding their quarry, an experienced woodsman and less-than-honorably discharged Army paratroop veteran, but the towering mountains and thousands of abandoned mine shafts have so far defeated them. A citizen militia of beer-bellied veterans, their wives, children and dogs, led by self-styled populist and ex-Green Beret officer Gritz went home empty-handed after much hoopla last summer. A shot fired into the federal task force command post in Andrews, N.C., last fall has gone unsolved. Law enforcement officials were planning a press conference in Birmingham Friday to issue a progress report on the case. Nothing new is expected. "We're here, and he's there," said Craig Dahle, the FBI spokesman in Birmingham. A memorial service for James Sanderson, the cop slain at the Birmingham abortion clinic, was also scheduled for the same day in Birmingham. "He was the straightest guy in here," said Quest Club owner Robert Clark. "He just had a way of relating to everybody. Everybody really liked him." "People don't need to forget this," said Emily Lyons, the clinic nurse and mother of two who lost an eye and was severely maimed by nails in the bomb. Since then, she's become an outspoken advocate for abortion rights. On Friday she'll be posting the first part of an autobiography on her Web site. It's called "Life's Been a Blast."
Jeff Stein covers criminal-justice issues for Salon. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here. |
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