Asheville News

Western North Carolina’s ‘Lone Wolf’

Jason Sandford November 26, 2006

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

A new book out this month takes what sounds to be a compelling look at one of the most notorious characters ever to come out of Western North Carolina – bomber Eric Robert Rudolph.

The book is called Lone Wolf by Maryanne Vollers. She’s an author of some note, a National Book Award finalist in 1995 for Ghosts of Mississippi.

Vollers is the only reporter that Rudolph corresponded with, and that connection, plus access to other police and court sources, helped Vollers put together a compelling look at Rudolph, the Olympic Park bomber who hid from the law for five years in the wilds of WNC.

Sounds interesting. The reviews we’ve seen have been mostly positive. Here’s a sample:

In the end, the moon was just another enemy. It hadn’t always been that way. When he started writing about his fugitive years the word he chose was “addicting”: “There is something addicting about the full moon on an early summer or fall evening in the South …” Now the moonlight pinned him to the shadows, kept him off the roads and dirt tracks where the breeze would disperse his scent before the hounds could follow it. The damp grass and foliage would hold his trail for days. The years of hiding, he later said, had turned him into a nocturnal creature, sleeping in the day, prowling for food at night, always watchful.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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4 Comments

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Dad November 27, 2006

This sounds like a good read.

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Catnap November 27, 2006

I wouldn’t believe two words Rudolph says. He showed himself to be nothing but a coward and a dumpster diver, not a brave survivalist who lived off the land to thwart an evil government. If he had any brains or courage he would have gotten out of town in a hurry never to be seen again. The truth is he was too afraid to go someplace new where he might not know where the dumpsters were.

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Globetrotter November 27, 2006

Beautiful writing. I’ve been waiting for this book.

The (late, great) writer Willie Morris (whose book "My Dog Skip" was unfortunately his most famous writing and by far his least compelling) introduced me to Vollers. She’s an amazing writer, something very rare in the serious non-fiction/political book world.

Rudolph and his trail of destruction has been all but forgotten in this age of the global war on terror.

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