Richard Jewell

Richard Allensworth Jewell (born Richard White; December 17, 1962 – August 29, 2007) was an American police officer and security guard. He was born in Danville, Georgia. 

He was known for working as a security guard for AT&T during the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He found a backpack filled with three pipe bombs on the park grounds, Jewell called the police and helped to evacuate the area before the bomb exploded, saving many people from injury or death. 

After the bombing, Jewell was seen as a hero but later he was viewed as a suspect, before being cleared. Jewell's case is considered an example of the damage that can be done by media reporting based on unreliable or incomplete information.

Despite never being charged, the media continued to criticize Jewell and calling him the suspected bomber. Jewell was eventually found not guilty, 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 caused by diabetes in Woodbury, Georgia at age 44.

In 2019, Clint Eastwood directed a movie about him titled Richard Jewell.

References

Other websites
"Richard Jewell v. NBC, and other Richard Jewell cases" . Libel and Slander. May 18, 2011
Farnsworth, Elizabeth (October 28, 1996). "OLYMPIC PARK: ANOTHER VICTIM" . PBS NewsHour.
"'All I did was my job': Decade later, pain of being called bombing suspect fresh to Richard Jewell". NBC News/Associated Press. July 27, 2006.

ESPN 30 for 30 clip

Category:1962 births
Category:2007 deaths
Category:Deaths from diabetes
Category:Deaths from heart failure
Category:American adoptees
Category:American crime victims
Category:People from Georgia (U.S. state)