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Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found. Before we get started today, I just

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wanted to mention that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against

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animals and or humankind. Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences

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due to the content nature of this podcast. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

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Hey Shelbs, is it okay to call you Shelbs? You can call me whatever you want to. As long

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as it's nice. Okay. I always say nice names. Hey everyone, this is Deb and I wanted to

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thank you for joining us today. I have a special guest with me as Beth and I are attempting

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to get our schedules on the right track together. We told you from the beginning that this podcast

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is a family thing. And guess what? I have my special guest daughter on the show today.

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This is Shelby. So Shelbs, you want to say hi to everyone? Yes, of course. Hi, I'm Shelby.

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We've been talking about this for quite some time. So I'm excited to be here so soon. Yeah.

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Yeah. Ashley, I asked Shelby yesterday if she could record because I just have a couple

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things as far as conflicts with, with Beth here. So she's off doing things with her son

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and I thought, well, I'll do something with my daughter. So here we go. Shelbs, what are

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you doing? Let's see, spring break is coming up. So I'm glad I'm excited. The weather's

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getting nice. And we were talking about spring break a little while ago and you get to go

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on vacation. I'm jealous because I am not sure that I'm even, I have anything planned

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right now. So tell me about your vacation. You might inspire me. Yeah. So in April we

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have a wonderful opportunity to go to New York city, which I have never been before.

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I know you have. We're super excited about that. We're going to get to see the Statue

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of Liberty. I think see a few museums here and there. And so it's going to be really

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fun. I love New York. That's my second favorite city. And I've been probably half a dozen

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times. I, the only thing I have not seen is it was the Statue of Liberty. So really, I

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didn't know that you've been that many times. Yeah. Over time. I mean, way back in the day,

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while I used to be a flight attendant, so, I used to fly to New York quite a bit. And

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then I, oh, Manhattan is amazing. Times Square. Yes. We're going to get to be there. Are you

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going to any theaters? I don't think so. Not this go round. I just love it. I, every time

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I go, I'm fortunate to see at least one off Broadway is so cool. So I have seen, what

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is that one about the Wizard of Oz with the, it's not called Oz. Is it called Wicked?

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Oh, Wicked. Yep. It's Wicked. Yeah. That was an awesome show. So are you ready to talk

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today about this topic? I am. Yes. Since Aunt Beth was not able to join us today, I thought

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this is a perfect opportunity to talk to you about the Olympics. Because when we lived

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in the Atlanta area, back in 1996, you were just a wee tot. You were probably what, 1996?

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That would have made you really about four and a half years old at the time. So you were

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still pretty small, but we had an opportunity to go downtown to the Olympic site where this

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situation occurred that we're going to be talking about the 1996 Olympic bombings. But

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before we actually went there, do you remember going to South Georgia to go see your grandparents?

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That's where, do you remember when the people came running through town? Oh yes. And we

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had the parade. What, what do you remember about that? Oh, I was, I was so tiny. I would

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assume that was when they were lighting the torch, right? They had the torch and you know

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how they go through different cities and then it passed the torch to someone else. Yeah.

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That's what we went down to South Georgia to go watch because they happened to be running

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through the town where Grand and Poppy used to live. So, okay. Yep. So we hung out all

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day and there's a, just a beautiful picture of Shelby and her grandpa with just sitting

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there waiting for the torch to come through. And it was really a magnificent experience.

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I remember that. So we're going to talk about the 1996 Olympic bombings today. And before

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we get started, do you have a favorite Olympic event? I do actually. And I don't think it's

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one that many would say is their favorite, but my favorite, I think is honestly the skeleton.

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Do you know what that is? I have no idea what that is. So it's kind of like a head first

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losing down a course and you would think that it is so dangerous, but honestly I've done

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some research and it is actually one of the safest Olympic sports. How's it safe? If you're

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going down head first. That's what I would think. I don't know if it's the way that they've

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got the course set up, but yeah, it's actually one of the safest. You'll have to, you'll

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have to look into that. It's really cool. It's called the skeleton. Is it a one person team

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or is it like a multiple teams? Multiple people on a team. I think it's multiple, I would

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assume it's multiple people. Okay. I have never heard of that. Well, I was able to go

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to the volleyball, the women's volleyball team played and I was able to get tickets to go

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down there and see that that day. It was midday and I just went down to watch volleyball.

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And of course that's one of my favorite sports too, because I used to play volleyball way

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back in the day when I was in high school. So it was just one of those games that I enjoy

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doing and watching is fun. You don't get to watch that too often. No. Ultimately. All

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right. I'm going to, are you ready to get started? I am. Yep. Do you have anything else

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to add? No. Are you having fun? I am. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So let's talk about the Olympics.

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And I had mentioned that this story hits a little bit home because I actually was downtown.

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I'm going to say probably two days before this bombing occurred, Shelby, you were actually

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down there with us because it was the whole family. We all went down to a jam packed Centennial

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Olympic park and we just kind of went around and looked at the grounds and went to the

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festival areas. There was music playing, lots of things going on. It was busy, busy, busy.

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And so we were downtown just kind of strolling around the park. And I would say that that

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probably occurred a couple of days before the bombing. So imagine my shock as a mother,

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you would be way too young to even remember that. But we were there just days beforehand.

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So kind of reflecting back on this, and this is what I'm seeing with my recordings here

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is that I'm looking back on some of these events that you see on the news and you're

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watching and you're following. And so I just feel like that point in time where have you

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ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the wrong place at the right time

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or the right place at the wrong time? Definitely. I think that we were at the wrong place at

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the right time. Yeah. Or right place at the wrong time. I guess, I don't know. It worked

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out in our favor. So I am not saying anything about what occurred that day, but we definitely

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worked in our favor because so let's go ahead and start talking about the 1996 Centennial

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Olympic Park bombing. This occurred on July 27th, 1996 and ultimately killed one person

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and injured about 111 other people. Now you had said that you did a little bit of research

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when I asked you if you wanted to record this with me. So really I didn't get a lot of details

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other than 111 people were injured and one person was killed. So did you say that you

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found out more about that? Yeah. So unfortunately there was one person that was killed during

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the incident. Her name was Anne Hawthorne. She was 44 years old. She was there with her

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14 year old daughter who also just happened to be one of those injured. The really sad

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part about it that I was reading about was the daughter was actually there celebrating

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her 14th birthday. So just a sad occasion all around to kind of have that memory kind

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of following her throughout the years. For sure. Were they visiting or did they live

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in the area? I believe they lived in the area. It did say that she had an older daughter

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who was not able to attend due to work. So I would assume they were probably in the area.

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Wow. So during the events of that evening on July 27th, there was a concert going on

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and a man who was working security at the time named Richard Jewell was there just doing

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his job and he came across a backpack that contained three pipe bombs and it was also

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packed with nails. Now I couldn't really find exactly where he found this, but if my memory

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is correct, I think he found it somewhere off maybe like in the background. It may not

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have been, it may have been like maybe near a park bench in the back of where all the

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activities were going on. So it wasn't really getting a lot of attention. I guess he was

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just doing his rounds. Right. Well, it was so late at night too. There were still quite

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a bit of people there, but I just couldn't believe how late in the evening that this

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actually happened. How late was it? It was a little after midnight when they got the

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call and then the bomb actually went off 11 minutes after one. One in the morning? In

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the morning. Wow. Well, so Richard was doing his job and he alerted the police so that

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they came and helped get everybody out of that area. You said it wasn't as crowded obviously

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at that hour. So I'm sure that that was probably helpful for the situation that not as many

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people got hurt. They, Richard Jewell along with the police were able to get everybody

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out of that area. They, they evacuated everybody before the bombs detonated. So following the

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events, Richard Jewell was hailed as an American hero. Of course he was because, Oh gosh, I

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can't imagine doing your job and coming up on just a random backpack sitting in a area

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off by itself. And I mean, what did he do? Did he look in it? Was he trained to look

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for something like that? We'll never know, I guess.

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I actually have a little insert. Oh good. Tell us. I'm going to give a little backstory

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in just a second. I thought it was absolutely hilarious. It's just kind of funny how he

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ended up in the position that he was. From what I've researched, he did not look in the

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bag that he did what he was supposed to. And he followed protocol, you know, called the

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police and let them know what he had found, that it was suspicious. So a little bit of

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a backstory that I found on Richard Jewell was that when he was quite young, he had always

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been interested in law enforcement. He started in the jail first and then eventually moved

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up to the police officer position. So after being, uh, you know, in the jailer for a little

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while, he moved up to the police officer patrolling position. Unfortunately, he was demoted back

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to working in the jail because he was known for wrecking police cars. Um, I'm assuming

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unintentionally, but by the time he had wrecked four of them, they said no more. From there,

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he actually moved to become a campus officer, but ended up leaving that job. He was not

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following protocol and trying to stop people for traffic violations and DUIs. And eventually

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that's he, he left that job, moved back home with his mother. Was he a uniformed officer

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when he was doing that? Oh, well, he was, uh, just a college campus cop. So I'm sure

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he had some kind of uniform on, but not, he was not allowed to, you know, stop somebody

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because their tail light was out or stop somebody because they were drinking and driving. I

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think this happened on maybe a highway right outside of the campus. So it wasn't his grounds

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to be the one to enforce those laws. Got you. So he was acting like a city police officer,

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but he was a campus on the campus. Right. Just to think he's a, was an officer and is

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supposed to be following all these, these laws, but yet keeps wrecking his car. Well,

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interesting. So Richard was never arrested for the bombings, but he was treated like

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the prime suspect and a criminal for the next three months. So police office, police officials

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and the news media were pretty much tearing him apart. Now I don't know how he went from

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being a hailed hero in this situation to being the prime suspect. Did you find anything on

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that? No, I did see that he was reprimanded for, he was reprimanded from the Olympic events.

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No, maybe that's the wrong word. He, he did receive, he sued and actually basically made

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some money. What is that called? Defamation, defamation of character. Yeah, maybe. So he

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sued. Wait, are you saying, I'm trying to get my head around this. I don't know what I'm

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trying to say. I'm all confused because you know more about this topic than I do. This

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is like quick 15 minute research that I did. I'm just flabbergasted that it took you 15

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minutes to research all this and it probably took me two hours. So, okay. So he was never

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arrested for the bombing and he was what? I was going to say you put in there that he

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won the lawsuit. I did. I'm not there yet, Shelbs. I have a little bit of an outline.

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Sorry, I didn't see that. We're pulling a little bit of an outline because although

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I speak for a living, I still need a little bit of an outline. Okay. Sorry. Go. No, by

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all means, you just keep on doing what you're doing because you're doing a great job. All

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right. So Richard was publicly and relentlessly scrutinized by law enforcement and the news

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outlets and that went on for several months. So as long as I've known this case, I don't

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think that he ever got out from living in the shadow of the 1996 Olympic bombings because

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it always seemed like people at some point, even though he was found to be innocent and

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they did not pursue him as a suspect, he just never lived past that stigma of being accused.

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You know what I mean? So I kind of feel sorry for him because as I've watched this story

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evolve, then it's just that poor man. I mean, the last years of his life were not the best

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and just always, always in that back of people's minds that he was the one, but you know, it

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was later proven that he was not the one that did it. So, but I will, I will say that Richard

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Jewell was exonerated from all the charges. And so he was cleared of any involvement.

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And then you had mentioned Shelbs that he had filed lawsuits against the media and won

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and NBC ended up having to pay out $500,000. Is that all he got for defamation?

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That's what I found. There may have been more one or two. I want to say, I'm not sure. I'm

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not sure. I don't want to.

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I don't think that's enough to be honest with you. All right. The Georgia governor at the

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time who was Sonny Perdue publicly commended Richard for saving lives in the park that

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day. And you know, that came out quite, quite a while after the events happened. And sadly,

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now you said he, he got his pay out from the, from the lawsuit. And then he,

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Now that was just NBC. There may have been more, but

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Got you. And then he, he was only able to, he only lived in tooth until 2007. So he had

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some ongoing health issues and ended up dying of complications from diabetes in August of

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2007. How many years is that? Eight from the time the events happened?

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96. So 11. Oh, bad at math. You all, I am bad at math. Very bad at math. Well, the good

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news is, is that they actually found a suspect and they came across, or they started following

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a man named Eric Rudolph between 1996 and 1998. There were four bombs that were detonated

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in the Atlanta area and Birmingham, Alabama. Three of the bombs went off in Atlanta, which

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would be one with the Olympics and the fourth one was in Birmingham. So the first bombing

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occurred on the Olympics event of July 27th. And then in January of 1997, then two more

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bombs went off at an Atlanta based abortion clinic, which injured seven people. A month

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later in February of 1997, a third bomb went off at an Atlanta nightclub. So somebody is

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attacking randomly. What do you, does it look like he's got an agenda here? The Atlanta

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nightclub was targeting the LGBT community and four people were injured there. So, so

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far he's attacking LGBTs. He's attacking people or abortion clinics. And then, I mean, so

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where does the Atlanta bombing come in? I don't know if this is slightly off topic,

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but it might shed some light into maybe the thoughts, or Eric Rudolph's thoughts. So when

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he was younger, he got involved with a gentleman named Nord Davis. Nord was really a part of

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the Christian identity movement. So they, you know, were constantly reading the Bible

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and they were just dead set on living every single day. If your beliefs were not aligned

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with, you know, what it says in the Bible, then they, they didn't want anything to do

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with you. And so Nord Davis, he kind of wanted to find someone like Eric Rudolph, who was

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a loner and, you know, could kind of come up with these, these events that were occurring

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on their own. And it wasn't something that he wanted to, you know, say, Hey, you should

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go and do this. No, Rudolph kind of came up with these bombings on his own. And I was

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not aware, I knew there were a few bombings, but I wasn't aware of exactly where they were.

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But I definitely think those very specific beliefs may have had something to do with,

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you know, the LGBTQ plus community or abortions and whatnot.

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So did it seem like Eric was being groomed to build up to this?

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Kind of, yeah. I mean, if you've got someone, you know, just constantly in your mind saying,

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this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. I mean, that's how you're going to grow up

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thinking. Obviously, that's not, you know, how our family thinks. We love everybody.

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But sadly, there are, there are, you know, people who have those opinions. And it's nowadays,

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it's sad and unfortunate, but it does, you know, like you said, seem like he was possibly

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being groomed from a young age.

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So two people were killed from those attacks and hundreds were injured. I had mentioned

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111 people were injured from the Atlanta bombing, but the police were on Eric Rudolph's tail

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because it seemed like several witnesses had reported seeing his pickup near the Birmingham

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clinic incident. And so the authorities began to tail him based on the feedback they were

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getting from tips from the public. But Rudolph was living off the grid in the Appalachian

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mountains. And if you are not familiar with that, the Appalachian mountains run all the

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way from Georgia, all the way up to Maine. So that kind of reminded me of a time when

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I had a friend of mine actually ask me if I wanted to go walk the Appalachian trail,

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which at the time I was working on, Oh, look, Shelby, you know, I've been in school your

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whole entire life.

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True. I was working on one of those degrees and I was like, okay, you know what? I'm going

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to give myself a graduation present and I will do it. But you know, of course nothing

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ever came around. So, I mean, I've taken plenty of day trips up to the Appalachian trails,

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but I don't know if I would ever, I hear too many stories. Okay. Bears, lots of bears.

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And then you're also talking about, okay, you've, there's a certain person that goes

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out hiking. And to me it's, it's a kindred spirit amongst other hikers. I mean, everybody's

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there for the same reason. We love nature. We love peace. We love tranquility. But then

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you have people that, you know, if you're walking up on somebody, a stranger on a trail

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that runs from Georgia all the way up to Maine, would you do it? Would you take the trip?

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Not by myself, maybe with like a big group so I can run hopefully faster than somebody

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else.

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Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. Run faster than someone else. I never thought

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of that. Okay. Remind me not to go hiking the Appalachian trails with you. Cause I'm

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pretty sure you're going to outrun me.

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I don't know about that. I don't know about that anymore.

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So the Appalachian trail is 2100 or 2,190 plus miles, which is 3,524 kilometers. Rudolph

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was up there in the Appalachian mountains, just kind of living off the land, camping.

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He was also going to people's cottages or cabins whenever they were not there. So if

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somebody had like a seasonal cabin where they would only go maybe during hunting season

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or if they just had a vacation home there, then he would be living off the land or living

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in those cabins. I don't know if he broke in. I'm sure he probably did. So he was very,

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very familiar with the region because he grew up in that area. He grew up around the area

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of Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. There's a little section where the three states

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meet in one spot. So as an adult, Eric Rudolph could be considered an experienced outdoorsman

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and he would scavenge for food in the area, go by the local dumpsters at the grocery store.

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So one day Eric Rudolph was spotted in Murphy, North Carolina, which is just over the Georgia

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line into North Carolina at the Appalachian foothills. And yeah, I've actually driven

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through that town. It's very small, very rural. And I'm pretty sure I remember the grocery

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store that they're talking about where he was spotted. So the town's pretty small and

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you would not take, it would not take long for you to spot someone like Rudolph, especially

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if he's, I don't know if you would consider him being out of place in a town like that

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where everybody knows everybody, but if he's an outdoorsman and he has been living off

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the land, I can't guarantee he showered every day. You know what I mean?

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I was going to say, I feel like he would just look dirty, like unclean. So for about five

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years, Eric Rudolph lived in the wilderness of the Appalachian mountains while eluding

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the police. And then he would stockpile food and forage at night from the local granary.

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I'm going to say it probably is a place where you would go and they would like process grains.

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He would have places that he would go to the restaurants, grocery stores, loading docks,

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anywhere that he could forage his food. And then other than this, he basically knew how

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to live off the land. He was trained to do so. He lived in caves. He lived in abandoned

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cabins like I mentioned. He actually took about six months food supply from a former

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neighbor of his, but he had a heart. He left $500 at the scene to cover the grocery costs.

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Wasn't that nice?

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Wow.

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Yeah. He's giving his neighbor, he's being kind to his neighbor and leaving him $500,

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but he's bombing other people. I don't get the thinking process people. So this kind

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of reminds me of goalie locks and the three bears, you know? Somebody has been sleeping

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in my bed. He was a creature of habit and stayed in the area where he is familiar. And

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the authorities caught up to him or they at least had several tips from sightings. And

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then of course they began to keep an eye on that area of Murphy, North Carolina. Even

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though they had their eyes on Rudolph at that time, he also had his eyes on them because

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I guess he was pretty aware of his surroundings and he was contemplating an attack against

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the agents who were assigned to the case. And he even kept extra explosives lying around

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in case he wanted to attack them. And I don't think that ever happened. I never did hear

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that in the news. He did consider booby trapping the national guard armory in the area, but

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there were too many people around watching him at this point. So he knew that he was

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probably not going to be able to get away with it. And then since that never happened

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in February of 1998, although he was a fugitive, he was named as the Birmingham Clinic bomber.

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So they identified him from tips that led to him as being the suspect. He was still

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on the loose running free and under the cover of night and the cover of the Appalachian

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trails. Well, he was named as the clinic bomber. And then he was officially in October of 1998,

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he was officially charged for the Atlanta bombings. So by that time he was added to

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the FBI's 10 most wanted list. And then in May of 2003, May 31st, Rudolph was arrested

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while he was foraging for food in the back of the grocery store. And he eventually pled

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guilty to the four counts against him, including the 1996 Olympic bombings to avoid the death

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penalty. Eric Rudolph was sentenced to four life terms in prison without the possibility

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of parole and is currently serving time at the super max federal prison in Florence,

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Colorado. That's the story of the Olympic bombings. I'm glad they found him. Yeah, for

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sure. And actually I saw that the arresting officer that ended up finding him when he

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was scavenging for food was only 21 years old and had only been a part of the police

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force for 10 months. Wow. No. So, okay. So how did, how did they come up on him then?

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Uh, it was just late in the evening, I want to say between one and three in the morning

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and he was just out of place and the officer knew it. And so he just stopped him and he

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gave him a false name and went back and was like, yeah, you're, you're not coming up in

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our database. He ended up eventually ended up arresting him. I mean, it wasn't until,

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you know, somebody else pointed out the possibility of, Hey, this could be Eric Rudolph. And fortunately

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it was him. Okay. Well, there we have it. There's our story of the 1996 Olympic bombings.

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I've had fun. Thank you for having me. Thank you all for joining us. And we hope that you

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will go visit our social media at dying to be found. You could find us on Instagram,

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Twitter and Facebook. And guess what people, I just added Pinterest out there yesterday.

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So I'm building that site right now. You can also go to dying to be found.com. You can

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listen to our episodes there. You can go to any of the podcasts that you listen to Spotify,

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go to the dying to be found.com, go to the website that spelled exactly like the logo

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joining us.