Ch. 4: The Funnel Cloud

In 2016, a serial killer was preying on Black women and girls he thought no one would miss — and getting away with it. Police in New Jersey never suspected that Khalil Wheeler-Weaver, a nerdy-looking, polite young man from a law enforcement family, was the one stalking the streets and dating apps for his next target. The journalists behind “Father Wants Us Dead” — called one of the best true crime podcasts of all time by Entertainment Weekly — bring you a deeply-reported true crime story of a serial killer hiding in plain sight and the women who took him down.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Rudolph was finally in shackles. But what would become of him? As prosecutors in Georgia and Alabama jockeyed to be first to take him to trial, a new worry emerged. It was dynamite. About 200 pounds of it. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Daniel Potter Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rookie cop Jeff Postell’s life would change forever when he found a man digging through a dumpster in Murphy, North Carolina. The man said his name was “Jerry Wilson,” but he had an awfully familiar face. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Daniel Potter Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did Eric Rudolph target abortion clinics? Friends said they didn’t know Rudolph cared about that issue. But the battle over abortion rights had been long and bloody. Meet the women who were soldiers in that movement. And its casualties. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Daniel Potter Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Memrie Cresswell stood up to tuck in her shirt as a bomb exploded at the Otherside lounge. It saved her life. Time after time luck was the thing that kept Rudolph’s body count from soaring. As he desperately tries to kill more, his bombs evolve. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Daniel Potter Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What radicalized Eric Rudolph?  Family. Neighbors. Timothy McVeigh. But there’s more. Come on a whirlwind ride through a brazen armored car robbery, an antisemitic preacher who once considered the bomber a protege, the U.S. Army, and a girl named Joy. And meet the men trying to make a whole army of Eric Rudolphs. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Chris Hoff Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Eric Rudolph was a chameleon. A Bible thumper and a skilled pot grower, a Holocaust denier and an avid reader.  Stories from family and friends reveal a dangerous, contradictory man. And his secrets. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Chris Hoff Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agents descend on Murphy, N.C. only to find a Goldilocks scene. The stove is still warm but the inhabitant is gone. Eric Rudolph disappears in the frenzy. Tales emerge of a severed hand, a would-be Rambo, and a crowd cheering “Run Rudolph Run” Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Chris Hoff Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An explosion at the ‘96 Olympics, and the bomber slips away. Two more bombs. A photo of the suspect so grainy the FBI called him “Blob Man.” Then, a college student sees a suspicious man leaving the scene of yet another bomb. Follow the unlikely hero on a daring chase that would give agents their first big break. Host, Writer: Becca Andrews Host, Writer: John Archibald Executive Producer, Co-Creator: John Hammontree Audio Engineer: Chris Hoff Field Producer: Sarah Whites-Koditscheck Social Producers: Caroline Vincent, Mila Olivera Logo Design: DJB Design Theme Music: “Birmingham” by Beth Thornley and Rob Cairns Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Olympics explode on a July night in 1996. The largest pipe bomb the country has ever seen. A string of bombings shakes Atlanta for the next year. Thousands of photos and videos produce one blurry image of the attacker, a photo so grainy the FBI called him “Blob Man.” Agents zero in on the wrong man, the media follows suit, and the real bomber slips away. Until Birmingham. In Alabama, the Blob Man finally makes a misstep. He detonates another bomb, but this time someone sees something. A college student asks himself a question: Why, when everyone else is rushing to see what happened, is that man running away? That curious student breaks open what was then the largest manhunt in U.S. history: the search for Eric Robert Rudolph.   Years pass. No trace. Does he have help? Is he planning more attacks? In American Shrapnel, the latest podcast from the Murrow-winning Alabama Media Group, join 2x Pulitzer Prize winner John Archibald and award-winning journalist Becca Andrews as they track the path of destruction — from the bombings, through the manhunt, and back to the twisted politics that fueled it. You’ll hear the stories of survivors, radicals and heroes. This isn’t a story of the past. The anger that fueled it has only grown stronger today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices