Atlanta’s Grim Anniversary No Cause to Celebrate

It was the one night of the Atlanta Olympics when I had planned to get close to six hours of sleep. My head hit the pillow around 11 pm as July 26 came to an end, day 9 of the Games.

It turned out to be the shortest night of sleep for me during the entire ’96 Games.

Less than two hours later my pager started buzzing and the telephone was ringing, insistently rousing me from a deep sleep. There’s been an explosion in Centennial Olympic Park, I was told. My marching orders: get to our office in the Main Press Center, just across the street from the park.

Now 25 years later, I still wince from the experience. Earlier this month organizers of the Atlanta Olympics marked the silver anniversary of the opening ceremony. Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron, an unforgettable Olympic moment. The bombing is an uneasy remembrance that lingers alongside Ali with the Olympic flame. A Georgia woman was killed by the force of the backpack bomb, a Turkish TV cameraman had a fatal heart attack, and more than 100 people were injured.

“A momentous anniversary and a reminder how domestic terrorism is nothing new to America,” Kent Alexander tells Around the Rings.

A former U.S. attorney who helped prosecute bomber Eric Rudolph, Alexander and journalist Kevin Salwell wrote The Suspect, a 2019 book about the search for the park bomber. The book served as the basis for a Clint Eastwood directed film titled “Richard Jewell”, named for a contract security worker at the park.

Jewell helped move people out of harm’s way when he found the abandoned back pack under a bench in the park. But his actions also attracted scrutiny of investigators and the media. Camera crews parked themselves feet from the front door of an apartment he shared with his mother. The attention was unforgiving – and misplaced. He was cleared of any involvement in the bombing in a letter from the Justice Department. But his life was never the same after the frenzy. Jewell became a police officer in Georgia and suffered health issues. He died in 2007, age 44.

The person they were looking for turned out to be Eric Rudolph, a sociopath with survival skills and a knack for building IEDs. He carried out three more bombings in Georgia and Alabama, targeting a gay night club and two abortion clinics. The FBI named him as a suspect in 1998 although he wasn’t arrested until 2003.

He pleaded guilty to avoid a death sentence. His home for the rest of his life is the formidable federal prison in Colorado nicknamed Supermax. Rudolph is said to have launched an age discrimination lawsuit a few years ago as a ruse to spend more time out of his cell.

Alexander notes that the team of prosecutors involved with the park bombing have moved on to some prominent positions. Alexander’s main liaison at the Department of Justice for Olympic Security Planning was Merrick Garland, now US Attorney General.

Sally Yates, a lead prosecutor for the Rudolph case in Atlanta, gained fame as deputy attorney general. Doug Jones, the US attorney who indicted Rudolph in Birmingham became a U.S. Senator. And David Nahmias, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta who oversaw the Rudolph conviction, is the new Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

Amazingly, there is still unfinished business from this chapter of Atlanta Olympic history.

Centennial Olympic Park, billed as the crown jewel of the city’s legacy from the Games, was shuttered for most of the last year starting in mid 2020. A portion opened a few weeks ago. It is only open part time, from Wednesday though Sundays.

The park’s owners -- the Georgia World Congress Center Authority -- say that until the convention and meeting business improves, it won’t have the money to operate the park on a full time basis.

Besides the question of the viability of Centennial Olympic Park, the GWCC is still lingering over one final decision from the aftermath of the explosion 25 years ago. The public authority that oversees the park and the neighboring convention complex voted in 2019 to honor Richard Jewell with a plaque.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said the authority chair.

But as another anniversary of Jewell’s heroics passes, the plaque has yet to be seen. A spokesperson for the Georgia World Congress Center tells ATR that the authority still has not decided where in the park to place the honor to Jewell. They are aiming for autumn this year.

Finally.