Wrongfully Accused

Now that the Olympics are in full swing, I am reminded of the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Remember the Olympic Park Bombings? The FBI originally thought that Richard Jewell, a private security guard working in Centennial Olympic Park, was the bomber. On July 27 at about 1:00am, Jewell noticed a suspicious package and beginning moving away from it. The package turned out to be a bomb which injured 100 people and killed one.

Jewell’s name was dragged though the mud for 12 weeks when he was eventually cleared of all charges. The FBI’s theory was that he moved people away from the bomb and then set it off to cast himself as a hero. They were wrong. Reporters camped outside Jewell’s apartment and recorded his every move. Jewell later sued the FBI and several medial organizations. CNN and NBC did settle with Jewell.

It turned out that the real bomber was Eric Robert Rudolph who pleaded guilty to the bombing in April 2005.

Richard Jewell died on August 29, 2007 due to natural causes (he had had kidney failure and diabetes). He was 44 years old.