The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

The Aftermath and Subsequent Bombings The na-

tion was horrified, and the White House vowed to

bring those responsible to justice. Although offi-

cials considered closing down the Olympic Games,

the decision was made to allow the athletes to com-

pete. Desperate to find the culprit, officials looked

in the wrong direction.The Atlanta Journal-Constitu-

tionran a story saying that security guard Richard

Jewell, who had earlier been regarded as a hero, was

being investigated. Although Jewell was never ar-

rested, he suffered greatly at the hands of the me-

dia, and two of the victims even brought lawsuits

against him. Three months later, he was cleared

and issued a public apology by Attorney General

Janet Reno. Jewell said publicly: “I am not the

Olympic Park bomber. I am a man who has lived

eighty-eight days afraid of being arrested for a

crime I did not commit.” Before his death in 2007,

he settled libel lawsuits against various television

networks and a former employer.

While Jewell was wrongfully accused in the bomb-

ing case, the real culprit, Eric Rudolph, was free. On

January 16, 1997, a bomb exploded at the Atlanta

Northside Family Planning Clinic, an abortion

clinic, and another bomb exploded on February 21

at the Otherside Lounge, a lesbian nightclub in

northeast Atlanta. Both bombs were similar in de-

sign to the Olympic Park bomb. On January 29,

1998, another bomb exploded at the New Woman,

All Women Health Care Clinic, an abortion clinic in

Birmingham, Alabama, which resulted in the death

of police officer Robert Sanderson but also provided

648 
 Olympic Park bombing The Nineties in America

Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, after an explosion during the 1996 Summer Olympics killed one person and injured more
than one hundred people.(AP/Wide World Photos)