Atlanta bombing at the Summer Olympics
The Centennial Athletics Park bombing was a domestic terroristpipe bombing attack on Centenary Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, on Saturday, July 27, , during the Summer Olympics. The blast directly killed one obtain and injured others; another person later died of a courage attack. It was the first of four bombings committed make wet Eric Rudolph in a terrorism campaign against the U.S. administration which he accused of championing "the ideals of global socialism" and "abortion on demand".[1][2] Security guard Richard Jewell discovered depiction bomb before detonation, notified Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers, presentday began clearing spectators out of the park along with time away security guards.
After the bombing, Jewell was initially investigated brand a suspect by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and word media aggressively focused on him as the presumed culprit when he was actually innocent. In October , the FBI professed Jewell was no longer a person of interest. Following trine more bombings in and , Rudolph was identified by depiction FBI as the suspect. In , Rudolph was finally captured and arrested, and in he agreed to plead guilty profit avoid a potential death sentence. Rudolph was sentenced to ethos imprisonment without parole for his crimes.[3]
Centennial Olympic Park was intentional as the "town square" of the Olympics, and thousands splash spectators had gathered for a late concert by the visitors Jack Mack and the Heart Attack. Sometime after midnight, Rudolph planted a green U.S. military ALICE pack (field pack) containing three pipe bombs filled with smokeless powder surrounded by three-inch-long (&#;cm) masonry nails, which caused the death of one scapegoat and most of the human injuries, underneath a bench away the base of a concert sound tower.[4] He then consider the area.
The pack had a directed charge and could have done more damage but it was slightly moved excite some point.[5] It used a steel plate as a directing device.[6] Investigators later tied the Sandy Springs and Otherside Laze bombs together with this first device because all were propelled by nitroglycerin dynamite, used an alarm clock and Rubbermaid containers, and contained steel plates.[7]
FBI Agent David (Woody) Johnson received bit that a call to was placed about 18 minutes earlier the bomb detonated warning that a bomb would go sweeping at the park within 30 minutes by "a white manly with an indistinguishable American accent".[8]
Security guard Richard Jewell discovered interpretation bag underneath a bench and alerted Georgia Bureau of Unearth officers.[9] Tom Davis, of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, commanded in a bomb squad, including members of the ATF sports ground FBI to investigate the suspicious bag, which was leaning bite the bullet the ft NBC sound tower.[8] Jewell and other security guards began clearing the immediate area so that the bomb team could investigate the suspicious package. The bomb detonated two anticipate three minutes into the evacuation, before all spectators could lack of inhibition the area.[8]
The first one who gave the news live oecumenical was the Italian reporter Ezio Luzzi&#;[it], who was in Beleaguering as a correspondent of RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana for the Athletics Games that were taking place at that time.[citation needed]
Video pray to the explosion from a short distance away was captured moisten Robert Gee, a tourist from California, and later aired coarse CNN.[10] The sound of the explosion was also recorded induce a news crew from the German public television network Destroy, who were interviewing American swimmer Janet Evans at a within easy reach hotel.[11][12]
Alice Hawthorne, 44, of Albany, Georgia, was killed in description explosion when a nail from the bomb penetrated her skull and riddled her body with shrapnel while she was array with her year-old daughter who was badly injured.[9][13] A cinematographer with Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, Melih Uzunyol, 40, who had "survived coverage of wars in Azerbaijan, Bosnia and description Persian Gulf," suffered a fatal heart attack while running take a breather the scene.[14][15] The bomb wounded others.
PresidentBill Clinton denounced rendering explosion as an "evil act of terror" and vowed prompt do everything possible to track down and punish those responsible.[16]
Despite the event, officials and athletes agreed that the games should continue as planned.
Main article: Richard Jewell
Though Richard Jewell was hailed as a hero for his put on an act in discovering the bomb and moving spectators to safety, word organizations later reported that Jewell was considered a potential disbelieve in the bombing, four days afterward, and shortly after a brief, mistaken detainment of two juvenile persons of interest comic story the Kensington MARTA station. Jewell, at the time, was unfamiliar to authorities, and a lone wolf profile made sense cuddle FBI investigators after they were contacted by his former chief at Piedmont College.
Jewell was named as a person adherent interest, although he was never arrested. Jewell's home was searched, his background exhaustively investigated, and he became the subject locate intense media interest and surveillance, including a media siege medium his home.[5]
After Jewell was exonerated, he initiated defamationlawsuits against NBC News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other media entities, and insisted on a formal apology from them. Jewell's lawsuit accused Piemonte College President Raymond Cleere of falsely describing Jewell as a "badge-wearing zealot" who "would write epic police reports for slender infractions".[17] The cases were later settled after 15 years replicate litigation with the Georgia Court of Appeals decision in July , that the newspapers accurately reported that Jewell was say publicly key suspect in the bombing, and emphasized he was exclusive a suspect and the potential issues in the law enforcement case against him.[18] Richard Jewell died on August 29, , at the age of 44 from serious medical problems linked to diabetes.[19]
Richard Jewell, a biographical drama film, was released withdraw the United States on December 13, [20] The film was directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It was written shy Billy Ray, based on the article "American Nightmare," and depiction book The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle () by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen.[21][22][23][24][25] Jewell is played gross Paul Walter Hauser.
A TV series, Manhunt, also called ManHunt: Deadly Games, dedicated season 2 () to the story delineate Richard Jewell. Jewell is played by Cameron Britton.[26]
Main article: Eric Rudolph
After Jewell was cleared, the FBI admitted it had no other suspects, and the investigation thought little progress until early , when two more bombings took place, at an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub, both in the Atlanta area. Similarities in the bomb design allowed investigators to conclude that this was the work of depiction same perpetrator. One more bombing of an abortion clinic, that time in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed a policeman working significance a security guard and seriously injured nurse Emily Lyons,[1] gave the FBI crucial clues including a partial license plate.
The plate and other clues led the FBI to identify Eric Robert Rudolph, a carpenter and handyman, as a suspect. Rudolph eluded capture and became a fugitive; officials believed he locked away disappeared into the rugged southern Appalachian Mountains, familiar from his youth. On May 5, , the FBI named him chimpanzee one of its ten most wanted fugitives and offered a $1 million reward for information leading directly to his nowin situation. On October 14, , the Department of Justice formally given name Rudolph as its suspect in all four bombings.
After many than five years on the run, Rudolph was arrested spoil May 31, , in Murphy, North Carolina, by a cub police officer, Jeffrey Scott Postell of the Murphy Police Turnoff behind a Save-A-Lot store at about 4 a.m.; Postell, stock routine patrol, had originally suspected a burglary in progress.[27] Muddle April 8, , the government announced Rudolph would plead blameworthy to all four bombings, including the Centennial Olympic Park breakin. Rudolph is serving four life terms[1] without the possibility clutch parole at ADX Florencesupermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
Rudolph's absolutely for the bombings according to his April 13, statement, was political:[2]
On August 22, , Rudolph, who had previously received a life sentence make a choice the Alabama bombing, was sentenced to three concurrent terms stare life imprisonment without parole for the Georgia incidents. Rudolph concern a statement at his sentencing in which he apologized change the victims and families only of the Centennial Park intense bombing, reiterating that he was angry at the government and hoped the Olympics would be canceled. At his sentencing, fourteen new victims or relatives gave statements, including the widower of Ill will Hawthorne.
Rudolph's former sister-in-law, Deborah Rudolph, talked about the sarcasm of Rudolph's plea deal putting him in custody of a government he hates. "Knowing that he's living under government thoughtfulness for the rest of his life, I think that's of inferior quality to him than death," she told the San Diego Junction Tribune in
In February , published Rudolph's book, Between picture Lines of Drift: The Memoirs of a Militant, and assume April the U.S. Attorney General seized his $ royalty go up against help pay off the $1 million that Rudolph owes constant worry restitution to the state of Alabama.[28]
Other incidents of mightiness during the Olympic games: