Former fugitive Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty last night for the bombing of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a string of subsequent blasts.
He cited a hatred of abortion, gay rights and the federal government as his motivation for the attacks.
In separate appearances in federal courts in Atlanta and Birmingham, the survivalist (38) confessed to planting the nail bombs that killed two people and wounded more than 150 others in the cities.
Eric Robert Rudolph is escorted from the Cherokee County Jail for a hearing in federal court in June, 2003
He admitted his guilt as part of a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, who agreed to drop the death penalty. The convicted serial bomber will be sentenced to multiple terms of life in prison without parole.
Rudolph, who was on the run in the North Carolina mountains for five years until his capture in 2003, explained why he committed his crimes in a defiant statement issued after his second court appearance in Atlanta.
In the 11-page document, Rudolph said the US government's tolerance of abortion was the driving force for three of the four bombings, including the blast during the Summer Games on July 27th, 1996.
Alice Hawthorne, a spectator, died from wounds sustained in the explosion in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park.
"The purpose of the attack on July 27th was to confound, anger and embarrass the Washington government in the eyes of the world for its abominable sanctioning of abortion on demand," said Rudolph, who also called President George W. Bush a "coward" for failing to end the practice.
He expressed no apparent remorse when describing how he planted the bombs that exploded outside an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, Georgia in 1997 and one in Birmingham the following year.
Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer, was killed in the explosion at the New Woman All Women Health Care clinic in Birmingham. Emily Lyons, a nurse at the same clinic, was blinded and disfigured.