This week's hero is....
Richard Jewell
Richard Jewell was born on December 17, 1962, in Danville, Virginia. He grew up being raised by his mother and step-father before he chose to start working in law enforcement. By the year 1996, he was employed as a security guard down in Atlanta, Georgia. But nothing could have ever prepared him for the events that come in July.
That month, the world was celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Summer Olympics. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the olympics had more than 10,000 athletes from 197 nations that came to compete. This was coupled with over 2 million visitors who came to attend the games from the stands, while more than 3.5 billion watched from their television sets. Despite having a high security presence, nobody could have predicted an impending disaster.
On the night July 17, thousands of people gathered in the Centennial Olympic Park for a concert by the band, Jack Mack and the Heart Attack. Richard Jewell was doing a routine grounds check when he spotted a suspicious looking green knapsack under a bench near the NBC sound tower. Following his job's protocol, Richard quickly informed the Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers of the suspicious bag. When the responding officers, opened the bag, they discovered three pipe bombs surrounded by three inch long masonry nails.
Knowing that the bomb could go off at any second, the officers and security guards (Richard Jewell included) immediately began to organize an evacuation of people in the area. Just three minutes later, the bombs went off. More than 100 people were caught in the blast and received various injuries. When the dust settled, 2 people were dead and 111 were wounded. Due to the early warning and evacuation efforts by the security however, hundreds of people were successfully saved from the bombing. This was directly due to Jewell's discovery and alerting authorities to the bomb's location.
For a short period, Richard Jewell was heralded by the press as a hero who had saved many people from being killed in the bombing. Unfortunately the public's attitude changed when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) got a leak from the FBI saying that the latter had named Jewell as a suspect in their investigation. The public's view of him quickly soured, and Jewell went from, "hero" to "villain" overnight.
For the next 88 days of his life, he was heckled by news media who followed him as he went to work and came home. His movements were also routinely monitored by FBI agents who believed he was indeed the terrorist. Jewell was advised by his attorneys not to speak to the media and mostly tried to go about his business. But when the FBI began to pressure him into waiving his Miranda rights, and searched his home twice, he hired an ex-agent to administer a polygraph test (which Jewell passed). Once the results of his polygraph were revealed, the FBI began to ease back on their investigation. On October 26, 1996, Jewell received a letter from the FBI saying that he was no longer a suspect. A year later, Attorney General Janet Reno, expressed regret over the agency's leaking of information to the AJC and offered an apology to Jewell and his family.
Despite being cleared by the FBI, Richard Jewell's life was never the same again. Many people still believed that he something to do with the bombing. He later sued many of the news agencies that had accused him of being the terrorist (some had even compared him to serial killers). Although some of the agencies settled out of court, the case against the AJC has still not been resolved. Ultimately, Richard Jewell was not officially exonerated until 2005, when the real perpetrator of the Centennial Park Bombing (a former soldier named, Eric Rudolph) was arrested and plead guilty to carrying out the attack along with three other bombings.
Sadly, Richard Jewell never got to confront the AJC in a court of law. On August 29, 2007, he passed away due to heart failure from complications of diabetes. He was 44 years old. Even today, Richard Jewell is not widely remembered as a hero who did his job when he was needed. I believe that he should be remembered as a great American hero who fought back against domestic terrorism and made a critical difference in saving many people from dying a terrible death. Hopefully some day, he will finally receive the credit and respect he was so wrongfully denied.
https://www.ajc.com/news/opinion/years-later-still-lose-sleep-over-the-centennial-olympic-park-bombing-here-why/ev1xfMrlsHtRU08v3qut6K/
https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/1fd2d7ae-10d8-474b-9bf1-d1558af697be
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/us/30jewell.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/O/Olympic%20Games
I recently watched Clint Eastwood's movie about Richard. I must admit, it was a very moving and accurate portrayal. Even if the movie wasn't as successful as Joker or Once upon a time in Hollywood, I still think that we owe it to the late Richard Jewell to hear his story.
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