PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Jury selection began Tuesday in the federal trial of an anti-abortion activist and former Sharon resident charged with mailing anthrax hoax letters to women's clinics around the country two years ago.

Clayton Lee Waagner, who once said he was on a mission from God to kill abortion providers, has pleaded innocent to mailing the letters and to posting a message on an anti-abortion Web site that said he had been following clinic employees home and was "going to kill as many of them as I can."

Waagner, 46, of Kennerdell, is already serving a federal sentence on other charges. He and his family once lived in Sharon.

When he broke out of jail in February 2001, Waagner was serving time for driving his wife and eight children to Illinois in a stolen camper with four stolen handguns under his seat. He was on the FBI's Most Wanted list when he was captured in December of that year.

Authorities said that while he was on the run, Waagner posted the Web site message and mailed at least 550 letters to women's clinics in 24 states. The envelopes, printed with "Army of God," contained a harmless white powder called Bacillus thuringiensis, a common insecticide.