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Posted: December 5, 2001
Clayton Lee Waagner, 45, a self-described anti-abortion
"warrior" who believed he was "anointed by God," was
arrested by federal agents today outside of Cincinnati, Ohio after a nationwide
manhunt for the fugitive suspected of being behind a flood of anthrax hoaxes
mailed to hundreds of abortion providers in September and October. Waagner was
caught after being identified by an employee at a Kinko’s store who recognized
him from a wanted poster. He had a loaded handgun, a stolen Mercedes-Benz,
computer material, and $10,000 in cash in his possession.
Waagner, who had previously been convicted on charges of possession of a
firearm by a felon and interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle,
escaped from a county jail in Illinois on February 22, 2001, where he was
awaiting sentencing and facing a term of 15 years to life. Since his escape,
Waagner is believed to have committed a number of bank robberies in West
Virginia and Pennsylvania and is also wanted for firearms violations in
Tennessee and a carjacking in Mississippi.
Donald Spitz, a Virginian who runs Army of God, a virulently anti-abortion
Web site that displays pictures of mutilated babies and messages condoning the
killing of abortion providers, has been posting messages allegedly written by
Waagner.
One such message by Waagner, posted in June, stated:
So the abortionist doesn’t get the wrong idea, I don’t plan on
talking them to death. I’m going to kill as many of them as I can…Anyone
who works at an abortion location or Planned Parenthood (I don’t care if
their location actually performs abortions or not. ALL Planned Parenthood
locations are targets.) It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a nurse,
receptionist, bookkeeper, or janitor, if you work for the murderous
abortionist I’m going to kill you.
Waagner professed to have compiled a list of 42 employees of abortion
providers, complete with their names, addresses, and pictures. He has also
claimed to have followed clinic employees home and that, on three occasions, he
planned to kill these employees but lost his nerve.
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