Anti-Abortion Extremist Sentenced to 19 Years
7 July 2005, AP
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A man who once claimed to be on a mission from God to kill abortion providers was sentenced Thursday to 19 years in federal prison for mailing hundreds of letters with fake anthrax to women's clinics.
Clayton Lee Waagner, 48, was convicted in 2003 of mailing the letters and of posting a message on an anti-abortion Web site claiming he'd been following clinic employees and was "going to kill as many of them as I can."
At his trial, Waagner called himself a terrorist and said people who provide abortions deserved to be shot.
Waagner sent many threatening letters from a FedEx facility in Philadelphia in late 2001 - during the height of the anthrax scares following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - and after he'd escaped from prison. He spent 10 months on the run before he was recaptured. As a fugitive, Waagner was placed on the FBI's most-wanted list.
"He wanted to exploit the moment to use the anxiety and panic caused by those other terrorist acts to fuel his own brand of terror," Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard P. Barrett said.
At the time of his 2003 conviction - on charges including extortion, threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction, and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act - Waagner was already serving a 49-year sentence for firearms and escape convictions in Illinois and Ohio.
via: The Raw Story
UPDATE - JULY 18, 2005:
Eric Rudolf Sentenced to Life in Prison
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