According to Brenner, the two had met 10 years earlier, when Jewell worked in the mailroom at Bryant’s office. Kathy Bates as Bobi Jewell, Richard's mother, Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser in 'Richard Jewell'. From the archives, 11Alive looks back at the coverage of the Olympic Park bombings when Richard Jewell went from being a hero security guard to a suspect. You can unsubscribe at any time. Claire Folger - 2019 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved. The police were keeping them 200 yards away. Soon, Jewell was a reviled national laughingstock. For the first time, the 34-year-old security guard tells his extraordinary story, to MARIE BRENNER: his brief moment as a national hero, his hounding by the Feds and the press, and his eccentric friendship with the unknown southern lawyer who helped him through his public torment In an 11-page confession released in 2005, he claimed to be motivated by hatred of gay rights, abortion and the federal government. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know now on politics, health and more, © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. CREDITS: The 1996-97 Bryant College Men's Basketball Guide was written and edited by John White, sports information director. Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. Bryant triumphed in the ordinarily heavily Republican year by a margin of 80–20% over his GOP opponent, Dan Ivy, an attorney and former Democrat. Jewell, a former sheriff’s deputy and later a campus police officer, was working security at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta when he came across a suspicious backpack near his post at a light and sound tower at Centennial Olympic Park. Special thanks to Coni Fichera and Jerry Hassard. A spokeswoman for the Atlanta Police Department said that by Saturday there had been 250 crimes directly connected to the Olympics, by location, victim or perpetrator. In 1996, he ran for … Warner Bros., the studio behind the movie, responded, calling the paper’s claims “baseless” and defending the film, which they say was “based on a wide range of highly credible source material,” according to a statement obtained by Variety. Reporters were camped outside the apartment where Jewell was living with his mother. / Watson Bryant, attorney for Atlanta Olympics bombing suspect Richard Jewell, enters, then leaves Jewell's apartment / The press surrounds Watson as he leaves Jewell's apartment / Watson says he believes 'Richard Jewell is getting screwed' / Watson gets into car and leaves. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. There’s the bull-headed righteousness of the film’s FBI investigators, led by Agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm), who mercilessly try to pin the 1996 Olympic bombing on the bumbling would-be hero, and the loudmouthed, protective righteousness of lawyer Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), who stands up to the g-men. When the FBI finally cleared Jewell after three months of investigation, he and Bryant went on the offensive, suing NBC, CNN, the New York Post. The FBI had him under 24-hour surveillance. Reporters and camera crews continued to be staked out near Mr. Jewell's apartment today. This article originally appeared in our December 1996 issue. Richard Jewell is a 2019 American biographical drama film directed and produced by Clint Eastwood and written by Billy Ray.It is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair article "American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell" by Marie Brenner and the 2019 book The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen. As the paper wrote: “Richard Jewell, 33, a former law enforcement officer, fits the profile of the lone bomber.” CNN quickly broadcast the story, and other news organizations followed suit. Photography was done by Tom Maguire and Dave Silverman. “I think it’s a shame that she has been reduced to one inferred moment in the film,” she told a Variety reporter during a red-carpet interview. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. The truth of the Richard Jewell Legal Team: 1/ After Richard & Watson Bryant retained me as counsel for Richard in early August of 1996, I developed strategy for Bobi Jewell press conference, 60 Minutes & Richard’s press conference after “not target” letter of October 1996. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Weeks later, five FBI cars would tail Jewell and Watson Bryant, one of his attorneys and an old friend, to Braves games, flashing their badges to bypass the ushers and follow Jewell to … In the film, security guard Richard Jewell is accused of planting a bomb at the This is your last free article. All Rights Reserved. Leading up to Richard Jewell’s release, controversy has erupted over perspectives seemingly deprioritized in the film’s telling, especially in its portrayal of real-life journalist Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) as a man-eating, less-than-ethical scoop artist. 's prime suspect in the Olympic Park bombing. Please try again later. After the bombing, the security guard had a moment in the spotlight, appearing on CNN and landing a Today Show interview with Katie Couric. In real life, it took many more years and a good deal more police work to bring the real bomber to justice. Kathy Scruggs was a modern, independent woman whose personal life should not detract from her accomplishments.”. In a December 9 letter to the filmmaker, lawyers for the Journal-Constitution wrote that Richard Jewell’s depiction of Scruggs, who died in 2001 at 42, “makes it appear that the AJC sexually exploited its staff and/or that it facilitated or condoned offering sexual gratification to sources in exchange for stories.” That implication, they wrote, “is entirely false and malicious, and it is extremely defamatory and damaging.” They asked that the film include a prominent disclaimer saying that it took dramatic license in portraying some of its events and characters. / The press surrounds Watson Bryant, attorney for Atlanta Olympics bombing suspect Richard Jewell, as he emerges from Jewell's apartment / Watson gets into car and leaves / People enter Jewell's... Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images Write to Alejandro de la Garza at alejandro.delagarza@time.com. Richard Jewell's mother Bobi and his attorney Watson Bryant react to the true story of the 1996 Olympic bombing being told on the big screen. By signing up you are agreeing to our, French Oscar Entry Two of Us Is a Romance and Thriller, The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance. But Mr. Jewell's lawyer, Watson Bryant, refused to allow his client to provide investigators with a … Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. Please attempt to sign up again. Within minutes, the bag’s contents, a pipe bomb loaded with nails, exploded, killing one person and injuring more than 100 others. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. The progress was slow. On July 30, 1996, the media identified Richard Jewell as the F.B.I. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which had originally reported the story, fought back against Jewell’s suit. Apparently he was also approached for a book contract. The authorities have declined to comment on a CBS News report that Federal investigators had completed an analysis comparing Mr. Jewell's voice with that of a man who warned of the bomb in a 911 phone call, and had found no apparent similarities. For those looking to separate fact from creative license, here’s the true story behind Richard Jewell. "I knew him to be a good, decent guy," Bryant said. Without Jewell’s watchful eye, the tragedy could have been many times worse. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. While serving as Attorney General, Bryant waged two separate campaigns for the United States Senate. Federal agents are continuing to focus their investigation on a security guard but are still insisting that he is just one of a number of possible suspects in the pipe bombing at Centennial Olympic Park more than a week ago. That case was eventually dismissed by the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2011, after the bench concluded that the paper’s reporting had been “substantially true” when it went to print. Bryant wasn’t exactly a hot-shot defense lawyer—at the time, he was practicing real-estate law. Watson Bryant told the AP in a July 30, 1996 article about the FBI search of Jewell’s mom’s apartment: “Quite frankly, we welcome this.” He predicted nothing would be found. Over the weekend, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation took fingerprint and hair samples from the guard, Richard Jewell, a 33-year-old former sheriff's deputy who remained secluded in his apartment in northeast Atlanta. In the film, Scruggs wanted intel into who the FBI were investigating after the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing in Atlanta. The meeting at Mr. Bryant's office lasted for a little more than an hour, and the men were scheduled to meet again on Monday. But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client’s name, while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him. Cleere suggested that Jewell himself might have been the bomber, planting and then “finding” the explosive in a clumsy plot to achieve law-enforcement stardom. After offering sex, an FBI agent told her that they were looking at Richard Jewell, the security guard who discovered the pipe bomb device Centennial Olympic Park. Set to hit theaters on Dec. 13, 2019, the film is the first of two major projects about the 1996 events. In 2005, anti-abortionist Eric Rudolph plead guilty to a series of bombings, including the 1996 Olympic bombing. “Clint Eastwood portrays journalists in a way that plays to a lot of misconceptions about how professional reporters work,” Kevin Riley, editor of the AJC, told TIME earlier this week. Subscribe for just 99¢. Guard Gets New Scrutiny in Atlanta Bombing. August 5, 1996, Section A, Page 10 Buy Reprints. Ukraine Releases ‘Shock’ Call With Giuliani. But that’s not the only view of what happened. See the article in its original context from. But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client’s name, while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him. Getty Richard Jewell (C) his mother Barbara (L) and attorneys Watson Bryant (R) and Wayne Grant (far R) look on during a press conference 28 … Subscribe for just 99¢. But Mr. Jewell's lawyer, Watson Bryant, refused to allow his client to provide investigators with a voice recording they had requested, saying he wanted to determine if the agents were entitled to it. Southern lawyer Watson Bryant (portrayed by Sam Rockwell in the movie) was an old friend who Jewell hadn't spoken to in years. That self-justified sense of virtue isn’t just the driving motive of the Richard Jewell’s action; it’s an attitude that suffuses the filmmaking project itself. He’d give you the shirt off his back." ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 28: Richard Jewell (C) his mother Barbara (L) and attorneys Watson Bryant (R) and Wayne Grant (far R) look on during … Shortly after the bombing, Jewell was labeled the principal suspect in the FBI’s investigation. Based on a 1997 Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner, Richard Jewell’s broad narrative cleaves closely to reality. Meanwhile the police in Doraville, a town of about 7,500 just north of Atlanta, were investigating a shooting early today in which one off-duty Indiana National Guardsman helping to provide security for the Games was killed and another was wounded. In Clint Eastwood’s Richard Jewell, righteousness is the name of the game. Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. Marc Mulherin and Noel Watson. 's office in Atlanta, declined to comment on the investigation of the bombing, which killed a woman and injured 111 people. Actor Olivia Wilde also defended her character in the same publication. Within days, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Kathy Scruggs and Ron Martz published the scoop: Jewell, the heroic security guard, was the focus of a federal investigation. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. But he added that the security lessons learned from the Games here would be strongly impressed on Sydney, Australia, the host for the Summer Games in 2000. You have 1 free article left. It's true that they had met while they were both working at the Small Business Administration (Jewell as a clerk and Bryant as a lawyer). No character in Richard Jewell more thoroughly embodies the film’s view of an amoral, mercenary media than Kathy Scruggs, the cackling, trash-talking crime reporter who breaks the story on the FBI’s Jewell probe after (as the movie strongly implies) offering a liaison with Hamm’s Agent Shaw. It was not clear whether Mr. Martin was being retained or simply consulted on some aspect of the investigation. The movie unfurls a stark morality tale about what happens when the powers that be—law enforcement, the media, the entire world, it seems—gang up on a couple of lionhearted little guys. “The young, jolly revelers, many waving cups of beer, didn’t take directions very well,” reported the 1996 TIME cover story on the bombing. The other being Lionsgate’s upcoming season … Watson Bryant, left, poses with Hollywood mogul Clint Eastwood and Bobi Jewell, mother of Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of setting off a bomb in Centennial Park during the 1996 … On television, Jay Leno labeled him the “Una-doofus.”. Jay Spadafore, a spokesman for the F.B.I. Design and Bryant stands by the depiction in … But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client’s name, while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him. But enraged by what he saw as the unfair treatment of Jewell, he took up his friend’s defense with ferocious intensity. G. Watson Bryant Jr., a longtime friend of Richard Jewell, was brought on to represent Jewell when he became a suspect in the bombing at Centennial Olympic Park on July 27, 1996. Late this afternoon Mr. Bryant and Mr. Jewell met with Jack Martin, an Atlanta lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said someone answering the telephone in Mr. Bryant's office who declined to give her name. The ending of the Games provided an opportunity for Olympic and police officials to review the effects of crime on the event. That version of events has garnered controversy leading up to the film’s release, especially from Scruggs’ former employer, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The two men, both in civilian clothes, were returning from a restaurant about 3:20 A.M., police officers said, when an assailant jumped from bushes and fired seven shots at them. Reaching out to independent, anti-establishment attorney Watson Bryant, Jewell staunchly professes his innocence. There’s the overzealous righteousness of the film’s title character (Paul Walter Hauser), a security guard who busts dorm parties with the jaded swagger of a Law & Order police detective. The culprit, Eric Robert Rudolph, wasn’t captured until 2003, after evading the FBI for five years and perpetrating three other bombings. G. Watson Bryant, Jr. PC Jun 1989 - Present 31 years 9 months. "If he had $2, he’d spend $4 buying you presents. Bryant moved on and was working as a lawyer for real estate closings. That’s pretty common in any industry.”, Wilde later elaborated on Twitter, saying that she has “deep respect for the essential work of” journalists, and that she understood her character and Hamm’s to be “in a pre-existing romantic relationship, not a transactional exchange of sex for information.” She added: “I do not believe sex-positivity and professionalism are mutually exclusive. There’s the bull-headed righteousness of the film’s FBI investigators, led by Agent Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm), who mercilessly try to pin the 1996 Olympic bombing on … But Bryant finds he is out of his depth as he fights the combined powers of the FBI, GBI and APD to clear his client’s name, while keeping Richard from trusting the very people trying to destroy him. Watson missed a par putt at the 14th, but made it up with a neat birdie on 18 to tie Bryant. In the last daily press conference by Olympic officials, Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the International Olympic Committee, said he did not think the bombing would dominate people's memories of the Atlanta Games. Watson Bryant, left, poses with Hollywood mogul Clint Eastwood and Bobi Jewell, mother of Richard Jewell, who was falsely accused of setting off a bomb in Centennial Park during the 1996 … However, the White House chief of staff, Leon E. Panetta, on the CBS News program ''Face the Nation,'' said today of Mr. Jewell, ''I've talked to Louis Freeh, the director of the F.B.I., who says that he remains a suspect but that they are obviously looking at other suspects as well.''. There was an ongoing concert, but suspecting the worst, Jewell and police began clearing the immediate area around the bag. But that moment of fame was about to turn sour, as law enforcement and the media began searching for a likely suspect, and settled on the rent-a-cop who had been first to spot the bomb. Asked if … “She was also a woman working in the news in 1996; yeah, she had relationships with people she worked with. All three cases were settled out of court. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. According to Brenner, a tip-off came from one of Jewell’s former employers, Piedmont College president Ray Cleere, who had had disagreements over campus policing with Jewell. 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