BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Eric Rudolph was once the ultimate anti- government extremist: He hunkered down in the woods of North Carolina and lived off the land for five long years as federal agents carried out a massive manhunt to bring him to justice for a series of bombings in the late 1990s.

He became an almost mythic figure to fellow radicals, inspiring two country-western songs and a T-shirt that bore the words "Run Rudolph Run."