The jury hearing Clayton Lee Waagner's trial on firearms and car theft charges listened Wednesday to FBI interview tapes and a taped interview with an anti-abortion activist. On the tapes, Waagner threatened to kill abortion providers and said he mailed fake anthrax letters to abortion clinics.

"My goal was to shut down abortion clinics as long as I could," Waagner, of Kennerdell, Venango County, said on one tape. "You know, I really hate those people. I hate what they do. I hate that they kill babies."

At Waagner's request, U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott allowed the jury to hear the tapes, rejecting the prosecutor's argument that some of the content was not relevant to the trial.

The firearms and car theft charges are separate from a federal investigation into whether Waagner mailed anthrax hoax letters last fall.

Waagner, 45, is defending himself even though he is not an attorney. He could get a life sentence because he has been convicted of at least three prior violent crimes.

The prosecution wrapped up its case Wednesday. Waagner planned to question a U.S. Marshals Service investigator today before closing arguments.

Federal authorities have said Waagner could be taken next to Philadelphia for questioning in whether he sent at least 550 threatening letters to abortion clinics around the country last fall.

The jury Wednesday listened to a taped interview Waagner did in November with anti-abortion activist Neal Horsley at Horsley's home in Carrollton, Ga. Waagner said he knew where 42 abortion providers lived and what cars they drove.

"I haven't taken a life. But I'm going to," Waagner said, adding that he would spare people who quit their jobs at abortion clinics.

"I believe I'll die in this struggle. I have nothing to lose," Waagner told Horsley. "I have a beautiful wife, beautiful children. ... I love my family. But this is bigger than my family, bigger than me."

Before he was arrested Dec. 5 in suburban Springdale, Ohio, Waagner had been one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives. He escaped 10 months earlier from a jail in Illinois, where he had been awaiting sentencing on separate federal charges.

"Anything you want to know about my war with the abortion industry, I'll talk about. Anything else, I'm not interested in," Waagner told the FBI on the tape.

In FBI interviews, Waagner told the agents he used fake names and sent threatening letters stuffed with flour or insecticide by overnight express and regular mail.

Waagner said he avoided mailing any of the fake anthrax letters to the New York City area after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "That was after 9-11," Waagner told the agents. "I wasn't comfortable mailing to New York."