The Dr. Robert J. Goldstein Story

The Price of Blood

The question arises: If prosecutors really were as convinced as they claimed that Goldstein was not only a legitimate threat to an innocent group of people, but that he was motivated by political and ethnic feelings, why, particularly after the events of 9-11, was he not charged with terrorism?

In fact, authorities charged Goldstein and later allowed Goldstein to plead guilty to a raft of federal crimes, among them conspiracy to violate civil rights, conspiring to damage religious property and possession of unlicensed bombs. Yet federal authorities chose not to charge him, or Hardee or Kristi Goldstein, under federal terrorism statutes.

Judge James Moody with prosecutor and defense attorney

Kristi Goldstein, who had changed her name back to Persinger, and who claimed that she knew nothing about the plot and that she knew of the existence of only four of the bombs the ones stashed in her bedroom closet was allowed to plead guilty only to unlawful possession of the bombs. Even U.S. District Court Judge James Moody, who accepted Persinger's plea, was skeptical of that claim. According to an Associated Press account of Persinger's sentencing hearing, the judge wondered aloud how such ignorance was possible. "There were guns in the living room, there are bombs in her closet, there are plans on a desk in the living room, but she didn't know what was going on?''

"It's just hard for me to believe anybody could live with someone as poisoned as Dr. Goldstein and not know," the judge said.

Despite his doubts, Moody sentenced Persinger to three years for the offense. Hardee, who had admitted that he was part of the plot, if only as a driver who had no inkling of the bloody mayhem Goldstein had in mind, was sentenced to three years and five months. And even Goldstein himself, the architect of the conspiracy and a self-styled Rambo, was sentenced, after he finally entered a guilty plea in April 2003, to 12 years and seven months in federal prison.