Alleged anthrax hoaxer captured

Associated Press

SPRINGDALE, Ohio – An escaped convict suspected of mailing hundreds of anthrax hoax letters to abortion clinics was captured Wednesday at a copy shop outside Cincinnati after an employee recognized him from his wanted poster.

Clayton Lee Waagner – who once testified that God told him to kill abortion doctors – was one of the FBI’s 10 most-wanted fugitives.

He had been on the run since February, when he escaped from a jail in Clinton, Ill., while awaiting sentencing for weapons offenses and auto theft.

Federal marshals had distributed a wanted poster to Kinko’s stores after learning Waagner was using the stores’ computers to log on to anti-abortion Web sites and check e-mail.

He was arrested with $10,000 cash in his pocket, computer components, and a loaded handgun in his waistband, officials said.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has called Waagner the primary suspect behind anthrax hoaxes committed against 280 clinics last month. The clinics received envelopes containing white powder and letters signed by the “Army of God.” The powder was not anthrax.

Waagner, 45, claimed responsibility for the letters when he showed up with a gun at the Georgia home of an anti-abortion activist last week, according to authorities. The FBI had offered a reward of $50,000 for information leading to his arrest.

The employee, whose name was not released, could be eligible for the reward, officials said.

The FBI has taken the hard drive from the computer Waagner used in Ohio, said agent Bob Burnham.

Waagner, who was being held in Cincinnati, was expected to make a court appearance Thursday. U.S. Attorney Gregory Lockhart in Cincinnati said he would ask that Waagner be held without bond and charged with illegal possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.

Waagner was driving a stolen Mercedes-Benz, and lived lavishly by robbing banks, said Ben Reyna, new head of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Drew Wade, spokesman for the Marshals Service, said Waagner was caught after trying to run away. Just last Friday, Wade said, Waagner was spotted at a Kinko’s in Norfolk, Va., but police arrived 15 minutes too late.

Waagner also was sought for bank robberies in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, weapons offenses in Tennessee and carjacking in Mississippi.