Wrongly Accused Olympic Bomber Suspect Richard Jewell Dies

By Anastacia Mott Austin

"I am not the Olympic Park bomber," Richard Jewell announced to the press in 1996 after finally being cleared of all suspicion in the case. "I am a man who has lived 88 days afraid of being arrested for a crime I did not commit."

The man widely regarded as a hero and then as a villain has died. He suffered for years from diabetes and kidney problems, and his death has been ruled "of natural causes."

Jewell had been working as a security guard at Centennial Olympic Park in July of 1996, during the Atlanta Olympics, when he noticed a "suspicious-looking" backpack and urged bystanders to step away from it. He also successfully evacuated a nearby tower filled with television and press reporters.

Moments later, a bomb inside the backpack exploded, killing one person and injuring 111.

At first, Jewell was widely regarded as the hero of the day, hailed for saving the lives of many.

But three days later an article in the local Atlanta Journal-Constitution cited a "federal law enforcement source" that named Jewell as "the focus of the investigation."

News outlets immediately picked up on the unsubstantiated story, and suddenly Jewell went from hero to reviled suspect.

Jewell told reporters that the FBI did not respect his rights "in its rush to show the world it would get its man," and for the next three months Jewell suffered intense negative media scrutiny.

After eighty-eight days of being considered the prime suspect, at least in the public eye, U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander finally released a statement to the press saying that Jewell was not, nor ever had been, a suspect in the case.

But the damage had been done. Friends of Jewell said that he never recovered from the public humiliation he suffered. He filed lawsuits against The Atlantic Journal-Constitution, NBC, CNN, the New York Post, among others. Though some cases were settled out of court, the suit against the Atlantic Journal-Constitution is still pending, and due to be heard next January. Any monies received from the suits was primarily donated to charity, say sources.

"I’m not rich by any means monetarily," said Jewell to the press in 2006, the 10th anniversary of the bombing. "I’m rich because of my family. If I never got there, I don’t care. I’m going to get my say in court."

In 2005 Eric Rudolph, who had bombed several locations in the area, confessed to the Centennial Park bombing.

And while the conviction of Rudolph helped ease any lingering suspicions about Jewell, he stated to the press that he knew that some people would only remember him as the suspect.

"For that two days [after the bombing], my mother had a great deal of pride in me, that I had done something good and that she was my mother," said Jewell to reporters last year. "And that was taken away from her. She’ll never get that back, and there’s no way I can give that back to her."