Richard Jewell
| Richard Jewell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Richard White December 17, 1962 Danville, Georgia |
| Died | August 29, 2007 (aged 44) Woodbury, Georgia |
| Other names | Richard Allensworth Jewell |
| Occupation | Police officer, security guard |
| Known for | Discovered planted pipe bomb at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States and helped evacuate people from the area before the bomb exploded. He was later falsely accused of planting the bomb himself, but was exonerated by an FBI investigation. |
Richard Allensworth Jewell (born Richard White; December 17, 1962 – August 29, 2007) was an American police officer and security guard. While working as a security guard for AT&T, he became known in connection with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Discovering a backpack filled with three pipe bombs on the park grounds, Jewell alerted police and helped to evacuate the area before the bomb exploded, saving many people from injury or death. Initially hailed by the media as a hero, Jewell was later considered a suspect. Jewell's case is considered an example of the damage that can be done by reporting based on unreliable or incomplete information.
Despite never being charged, he underwent a "trial by media" with great toll on his personal and professional life. Jewell was eventually completely exonerated, and Eric Rudolph was later found to have been the bomber. In 2006, Governor Sonny Perdue publicly thanked Jewell on behalf of the State of Georgia for saving the lives of those at the Olympics. Jewell died on August 29, 2007 of heart failure from complications of diabetes at age 44.
Jewell was born Richard White in Danville, Georgia, the son of Bobi, an insurance claims co-ordinator, and Robert Earl White, who worked for Chevrolet. Richard's parents divorced when he was four. His mother remarried, to John Jewell, an insurance executive, who adopted Richard. Jewell was married to Dana Jewell.
Centennial Olympic Park was designed as the "town square" of the Olympics, and thousands of spectators had gathered for a late concert and merrymaking. Sometime after midnight, July 27, 1996, Eric Robert Rudolph, a terrorist who would later bomb a gay nightclub and two abortion clinics, planted a green backpack containing a fragmentation-laden pipe bomb underneath a bench. Jewell was working as a security guard for the event. He discovered the bag and alerted Georgia Bureau of Investigation officers. This discovery was nine minutes before Rudolph called 9-1-1 to deliver a warning. Jewell and other security guards began clearing the immediate area so that a bomb squad could investigate the suspicious package. The bomb exploded 13 minutes later, killing Alice Hawthorne and injuring over one hundred others. A cameraman also died of a heart attack while running to cover the incident.
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