Prior crimes
Waagner had previously been sentenced to 4–10 years for attempted robbery in 1992. Years later as a convicted felon released from prison, early in September 1999, he was pulled over by the Pennsylvania State Police, but fled into the woods and evaded capture, leaving behind a stolen car that contained firearms, explosives, false identity papers, and a list of abortion clinics.
Later in September 1999, while on a self-described "mission from God", he took his wife and their nine children on a cross-country road trip headed west in a stolen Winnebago, planning to murder various abortion doctors, beginning with one in Seattle, Washington. However, after crossing into Illinois his vehicle broke down, and Waagner was arrested when Illinois State Police stopped to investigate. Waagner was convicted on charges of interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle and for being a convicted felon in possession of firearms.
While he was awaiting sentencing and facing a term of 15 years to life, Waagner escaped from DeWitt County Jail in Clinton, Illinois, on February 22, 2001.
Escaped fugitive crime trail
As an escaped fugitive felon from Clinton, Illinois, Waagner made his way back east to Pennsylvania, where three months later he became wanted for the bank robbery of a First Union in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in May 2001.
His fugitive trail then led southwest, where he was next identified as having abandoned a vehicle in Memphis, Tennessee, following a hit and run accident. Authorities recovered law enforcement-type equipment, anti-abortion literature, and weapons from the car. He next became wanted for carjackings across the state line in Tunica, and Robinsonville, Mississippi, and firearms violations in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 7, 2001. Later that month, the FBI placed him on the list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, in the wake of the September 11 attacks. [2]
Anthrax hoax
Waagner's eventual notoriety is largely attributable to the hoax he then perpetrated in November 2001, in which he sent envelopes containing a white powder to more than 500 abortion providers. The envelopes also contained a note, which said, "You have been exposed to anthrax. We are going to kill all of you. From the Army of God, Virginia Dare Chapter". The threat was considered serious, as it arrived shortly after the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, as well as the then-recent delivery of genuine anthrax letters to various governmental officials. A United States Marshals Service Top 15 Fugitive since March 6, 2001, Waagner also became an FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive because of the more than 280 letters that threatened to contain anthrax, which he mailed to Planned Parenthood, with return addresses of the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Secret Service beginning in October 2001. In the wave of mailed letters, Waagner was accused of stalkings and threats to kill 42 low-level abortion clinic employees up through November 23, 2001.
On November 29, 2001, the FBI took the unusual step of releasing a press release of new information about Waagner seeking the public's assistance, while also pointing out that Waagner's letters were not associated with the recent letters that had been sent to the offices of Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy which actually did contain anthrax. [3] The white powder in Waagner's letters initially tested positive for anthrax, due to the addition of a powdered insecticide known to trigger false positive results.
Capture and conviction
Waagner was captured on December 5, 2001, after a clerk at a Kinko's copy shop in Springdale, Ohio, identified him from a photograph on a wanted poster circulated by members of the United States Marshals Service. Waagner had been known to patronize Kinko's stores in the past, and for this reason the Marshals sent a copy to every store in the chain. When arrested, he was preparing to fax a bomb threat to a mass list of clinics. In addition to his earlier 15 years to life sentence in Illinois, he was convicted April 18, 2002, in Cincinnati, Ohio's U.S. District Court on separate firearms and car theft charges. For the anthrax letter spree, he received a 53-count indictment, and on December 3, 2003, he was convicted on 51 of the 53 counts, including charges of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, threatening the use of weapons of mass destruction, and mailing threatening communications. He was sentenced to 19 years in a federal prison.
James Charles Kopp is an American who was convicted in 2003 for the 1998 sniper-style murder of Barnett Slepian, an American OB-GYN physician from Amherst, New York who performed abortions. Prior to his capture, Kopp was on the FBI's list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. On June 7, 1999, he had become the 455th fugitive placed on the list by the FBI. He was affiliated with the militant Roman Catholic anti-abortion group known as The Lambs of Christ.
Otis O'Neal Horsley, Jr. was a militant anti-abortion activist and Christian Reconstructionist who produced a website called the Nuremberg Files, which provided the home addresses of abortion providers in the United States.
Anthrax hoaxes involving the use of white powder or labels to falsely suggest the use of anthrax are frequently reported in the United States and globally. Hoaxes have increased following the 2001 anthrax attacks, after which no genuine anthrax attacks have occurred. The FBI and U.S. postal inspectors have responded to thousands of "white powder events" and targets have included government offices, US embassies, banks and news organizations.
Army of God (AOG) is an American Christian terrorist organization, members of which have perpetrated anti-abortion violence. According to the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security's joint Terrorism Knowledge Base, the Army of God is an active underground terrorist organization in the United States. In addition to numerous property crimes, the group has committed acts of kidnapping, attempted murder, and murder. The AOG was formed in 1982 and, while sharing a common ideology and tactics, the group's members claim that they rarely communicate with each other; this is known more formally as leaderless resistance. The group forbids those who wish to "take action against babykilling abortionists" from discussing their plans with anyone in advance.
The Montana Freemen were an anti-government Christian Patriot militia based outside the town of Jordan, Montana, United States. The members of the group referred to their land as "Justus Township" and had declared their leaders and followers "sovereign citizens" no longer under the authority of any outside government. They became the center of public attention in 1996 when they engaged in a prolonged armed standoff with agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Anti-abortion violence is violence committed against individuals and organizations that perform abortions or provide abortion counseling. Incidents of violence have included destruction of property, including vandalism; crimes against people, including kidnapping, stalking, assault, attempted murder, and murder; and crimes affecting both people and property, as well as arson and terrorism, such as bombings.
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives during the 2000s is a list, maintained for a sixth decade, of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. At any given time, the FBI is actively searching for 12,000 fugitives. During the 2000s, 36 new fugitives were added to the list. By the close of the decade a total of 494 fugitives had been listed on the Top Ten list, of whom 463 have been captured or located.
In 1952, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a third year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
In 1969, the United States FBI, under Director J. Edgar Hoover, continued for a twentieth year to maintain a public list of the people it regarded as the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.
Emigdio Preciado Jr. is an American criminal, gang member and a former fugitive who was added to the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on March 14, 2007. Preciado is the 485th fugitive to be placed on the list.
Shauntay L. Henderson is an American felon. She was a fugitive wanted for murder for several months until she was apprehended by the FBI on March 31, 2007, after being on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for less than 24 hours. A reward of $100,000 for information leading to her arrest was offered. She had a bench trial and the judge gave her parole with a 10-year suspended sentence, due to her being her own main witness in her trial and claiming self-defense. Five months later, while out on parole, she was pulled over and caught with narcotics and an illegal firearm, leading to a 17-year sentence with a release date in 2027.
Donald Spitz is an American Pentecostal minister and anti-abortion extremist who serves as the spokesperson and webmaster for the Army of God, an anti-abortion Christian terrorist organization that has been identified as an active underground terrorist organization by the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security's joint Terrorism Knowledge Base. He lives in Chesapeake, Virginia, where he has been watched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for over 20 years.
Christopher Lawrence Jeburk is an American convicted felon who successfully committed a string of bank robberies along the East Coast of the United States. He escaped four times from prison, twice from a regional detention center and twice while in federal custody, to commit more crimes. He is currently incarcerated in a maximum security penitentiary USP Terre Haute.
Maghfoor Mansoor was a U.S.-based Pakistani native who worked as a cab driver and tour guide. He was a fugitive in the United States who had been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Basil Hugh "The Owl" Banghart Jr. was an American criminal, burglar, and prison escape artist. Although a successful "stickup artist" during the 1920s and early 1930s, he is best remembered for his involvement in the hoax kidnapping of Chicago mobster Jake "the Barber" Factor, a crime for which Roger Touhy and he were eventually proven innocent after nearly 20 years in prison.
The Holden–Keating Gang was a bank robbing team, led by Thomas James Holden and Francis Lawrence Keating, which was active in the Midwestern United States from 1926 to 1932. Holden was described by a spokesman for the FBI as "a menace to every man, woman, and child in America" and was the first fugitive to be officially listed on the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted List in 1950.
The Federal Correctional Complex, Petersburg is a United States federal prison complex for male inmates in Petersburg, Virginia. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.
The Hunt with John Walsh is an American investigation/documentary series that debuted on CNN on July 13, 2014. The series is hosted by John Walsh. The second season premiered on July 12, 2015, and the third season premiered on June 19, 2016. The fourth season premiered on CNN's sister station, HLN, on July 23, 2017. A successor to the show, In Pursuit with John Walsh was announced in early 2018. It premiered in January 2019 on Investigation Discovery.
Myloh Jaqory Mason is an American man who was listed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States within the FBI list of the ten most wanted persons for crimes alleged committed. Mason is described by the FBI as a violent felon.
Michael Alfonso is an American former fugitive who was convicted of multiple felonies, including two counts of murder, in the state of Illinois. In January 2003, a year and half after the second 2001 murder, he was placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list, with a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. After a year and half of being on the run, he was captured during a manhunt in Mexico and extradited back to the U.S.
