I was deeply saddened, today, to hear about the death of
Richard Jewel. I remember how the media viciously hounded him. But the real fault was the FBI's.
Why did it take them nearly three months to tell people what they knew from the beginning -- that there was never a shred of evidence against Jewell in the
Olympic park bombing. All they ever had against him was the fact that Jewell was an unmarried, low-income guy, which matched some FBI desk jockey's "lone bomber" profile.
In fact, the FBI should have been hailing Jewell as a hero he was for spotting the bomb and getting dozens of people out of the way of the deadly blast set by racist
Eric Rudolph. I'll never understand why the FBI allowed the injustice of Jewell's torment to go on so long. I just don't get it.
Richard Jewell Dies at 44; Wrongly Linked to Olympic Bomb
ATLANTA (AP) -- Richard Jewell, the former security guard who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
The blast killed one and injured 111 others.
Three days after the bombing, an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described him as ''the focus'' of the investigation.
Eighty-eight days after the initial news report, U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander issued a statement saying Jewell ''is not a target'' of the bombing investigation and that the ''unusual and intense publicity'' surrounding him was ''neither designed nor desired by the FBI, and in fact interfered with the investigation.''
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