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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Charles Stone

Aired May 31, 2003 - 17:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: The fruitless search for Eric Rudolph haunted Charles Stone's life for years. Before his recent retirement, Stone was one of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents joining the FBI in the hunt. And he's with me here at the CNN Center. Charles, thanks for joining me again.
CHARLES STONE, FORMER GBI AGENT: You're quite welcome.

CHOI: So what do you think about how his capture came down, after he was so clever about, you know, hiding out for so long?

STONE: I think he just portrays what most everybody in the task force thought, that if you stuck with routine police work, kept him, the media was very helpful in keeping the case in the forefront, the local officers had been briefed on him over the years, and everybody up there knew him, and just good police work on the part of the uniformed officers that spotted somebody acting suspicious.

Most people, most criminals get caught simply because they make mistakes, and in this case Eric made a mistake in being behind a shopping center late at night.

CHOI: You talked to so many people in your investigation of this case in that area. And you were convinced after talking with so many people and coming up with kind of a profile of Eric Rudolph that he would be in that area, that he would not leave that area.

STONE: In talking to all the witnesses, we were able to determine that Eric did not like cities. He disliked minorities. And he was comfortable in that area. And traditionally, fugitives go back to the area they're comfortable with. I think in some sense it became a game to him that we knew he was there, but we couldn't find him. And he didn't feel comfortable leaving, because he had a high degree of confidence in his ability in that area.

Several of us never wavered in the idea that he would be found in western North Carolina. And thankfully, today we were proved right.

CHOI: Did he talk to you guys?

STONE: Did he taunt us? He -- left some evidence, both some evidence he -- of course, the forensic evidence dealing with the bombs themselves. And then the letters and things like that. Gave us some insight into his personality type and what he was doing, in that sense he did taunted (ph) us. But in the overall scheme of things, I think he just felt comfortable. He withstood a tremendous manhunt in which we had a lot of tactical operations ongoing and was able to weather that, and stay through all the different seasons over a period of five years. So he felt comfortable.

I think -- I haven't talked to anyone in North Carolina since early this morning, and I would suspect he's worn down physically and emotionally. I heard the press conference that the sheriff and police chief had. And they talked about how skinny he was. But he had altered his appearance somewhat. He'd cut his hair, and cut his beard off. So he was trying to fit in and knew that he could go in and out of that area.

CHOI: We know this guy is anti-government. We know he's a loaner, we know he's an outdoorsman. What more can you tell us about his personality that we haven't heard yet?

STONE: Well, I think you all have about covered everything. He's paranoid. He became increasingly paranoid before his campaign of bombings started. And this is from conversations dealing with his friends and family members, in which he became more and more incensed at what in particular the federal government was doing, and just the overall government intrusion upon his life.

CHOI: Charles Stone, thanks so much for joining me again. Formerly with the GBI. Glad you're with us.

STONE: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired May 31, 2003 - 17:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOPHIA CHOI, CNN ANCHOR: The fruitless search for Eric Rudolph haunted Charles Stone's life for years. Before his recent retirement, Stone was one of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents joining the FBI in the hunt. And he's with me here at the CNN Center. Charles, thanks for joining me again.
CHARLES STONE, FORMER GBI AGENT: You're quite welcome.

CHOI: So what do you think about how his capture came down, after he was so clever about, you know, hiding out for so long?

STONE: I think he just portrays what most everybody in the task force thought, that if you stuck with routine police work, kept him, the media was very helpful in keeping the case in the forefront, the local officers had been briefed on him over the years, and everybody up there knew him, and just good police work on the part of the uniformed officers that spotted somebody acting suspicious.

Most people, most criminals get caught simply because they make mistakes, and in this case Eric made a mistake in being behind a shopping center late at night.

CHOI: You talked to so many people in your investigation of this case in that area. And you were convinced after talking with so many people and coming up with kind of a profile of Eric Rudolph that he would be in that area, that he would not leave that area.

STONE: In talking to all the witnesses, we were able to determine that Eric did not like cities. He disliked minorities. And he was comfortable in that area. And traditionally, fugitives go back to the area they're comfortable with. I think in some sense it became a game to him that we knew he was there, but we couldn't find him. And he didn't feel comfortable leaving, because he had a high degree of confidence in his ability in that area.

Several of us never wavered in the idea that he would be found in western North Carolina. And thankfully, today we were proved right.

CHOI: Did he talk to you guys?

STONE: Did he taunt us? He -- left some evidence, both some evidence he -- of course, the forensic evidence dealing with the bombs themselves. And then the letters and things like that. Gave us some insight into his personality type and what he was doing, in that sense he did taunted (ph) us. But in the overall scheme of things, I think he just felt comfortable. He withstood a tremendous manhunt in which we had a lot of tactical operations ongoing and was able to weather that, and stay through all the different seasons over a period of five years. So he felt comfortable.

I think -- I haven't talked to anyone in North Carolina since early this morning, and I would suspect he's worn down physically and emotionally. I heard the press conference that the sheriff and police chief had. And they talked about how skinny he was. But he had altered his appearance somewhat. He'd cut his hair, and cut his beard off. So he was trying to fit in and knew that he could go in and out of that area.

CHOI: We know this guy is anti-government. We know he's a loaner, we know he's an outdoorsman. What more can you tell us about his personality that we haven't heard yet?

STONE: Well, I think you all have about covered everything. He's paranoid. He became increasingly paranoid before his campaign of bombings started. And this is from conversations dealing with his friends and family members, in which he became more and more incensed at what in particular the federal government was doing, and just the overall government intrusion upon his life.

CHOI: Charles Stone, thanks so much for joining me again. Formerly with the GBI. Glad you're with us.

STONE: Thanks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com