Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found. Before we get started today, I just
wanted to mention that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against
animals and or humankind. Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences
due to the content nature of this podcast. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Hey Shelbs, is it okay to call you Shelbs? You can call me whatever you want to. As long
as it's nice. Okay. I always say nice names. Hey everyone, this is Deb and I wanted to
thank you for joining us today. I have a special guest with me as Beth and I are attempting
to get our schedules on the right track together. We told you from the beginning that this podcast
is a family thing. And guess what? I have my special guest daughter on the show today.
This is Shelby. So Shelbs, you want to say hi to everyone? Yes, of course. Hi, I'm Shelby.
We've been talking about this for quite some time. So I'm excited to be here so soon. Yeah.
Yeah. Ashley, I asked Shelby yesterday if she could record because I just have a couple
things as far as conflicts with, with Beth here. So she's off doing things with her son
and I thought, well, I'll do something with my daughter. So here we go. Shelbs, what are
you doing? Let's see, spring break is coming up. So I'm glad I'm excited. The weather's
getting nice. And we were talking about spring break a little while ago and you get to go
on vacation. I'm jealous because I am not sure that I'm even, I have anything planned
right now. So tell me about your vacation. You might inspire me. Yeah. So in April we
have a wonderful opportunity to go to New York city, which I have never been before.
I know you have. We're super excited about that. We're going to get to see the Statue
of Liberty. I think see a few museums here and there. And so it's going to be really
fun. I love New York. That's my second favorite city. And I've been probably half a dozen
times. I, the only thing I have not seen is it was the Statue of Liberty. So really, I
didn't know that you've been that many times. Yeah. Over time. I mean, way back in the day,
while I used to be a flight attendant, so, I used to fly to New York quite a bit. And
then I, oh, Manhattan is amazing. Times Square. Yes. We're going to get to be there. Are you
going to any theaters? I don't think so. Not this go round. I just love it. I, every time
I go, I'm fortunate to see at least one off Broadway is so cool. So I have seen, what
is that one about the Wizard of Oz with the, it's not called Oz. Is it called Wicked?
Oh, Wicked. Yep. It's Wicked. Yeah. That was an awesome show. So are you ready to talk
today about this topic? I am. Yes. Since Aunt Beth was not able to join us today, I thought
this is a perfect opportunity to talk to you about the Olympics. Because when we lived
in the Atlanta area, back in 1996, you were just a wee tot. You were probably what, 1996?
That would have made you really about four and a half years old at the time. So you were
still pretty small, but we had an opportunity to go downtown to the Olympic site where this
situation occurred that we're going to be talking about the 1996 Olympic bombings. But
before we actually went there, do you remember going to South Georgia to go see your grandparents?
That's where, do you remember when the people came running through town? Oh yes. And we
had the parade. What, what do you remember about that? Oh, I was, I was so tiny. I would
assume that was when they were lighting the torch, right? They had the torch and you know
how they go through different cities and then it passed the torch to someone else. Yeah.
That's what we went down to South Georgia to go watch because they happened to be running
through the town where Grand and Poppy used to live. So, okay. Yep. So we hung out all
day and there's a, just a beautiful picture of Shelby and her grandpa with just sitting
there waiting for the torch to come through. And it was really a magnificent experience.
I remember that. So we're going to talk about the 1996 Olympic bombings today. And before
we get started, do you have a favorite Olympic event? I do actually. And I don't think it's
one that many would say is their favorite, but my favorite, I think is honestly the skeleton.
Do you know what that is? I have no idea what that is. So it's kind of like a head first
losing down a course and you would think that it is so dangerous, but honestly I've done
some research and it is actually one of the safest Olympic sports. How's it safe? If you're
going down head first. That's what I would think. I don't know if it's the way that they've
got the course set up, but yeah, it's actually one of the safest. You'll have to, you'll
have to look into that. It's really cool. It's called the skeleton. Is it a one person team
or is it like a multiple teams? Multiple people on a team. I think it's multiple, I would
assume it's multiple people. Okay. I have never heard of that. Well, I was able to go
to the volleyball, the women's volleyball team played and I was able to get tickets to go
down there and see that that day. It was midday and I just went down to watch volleyball.
And of course that's one of my favorite sports too, because I used to play volleyball way
back in the day when I was in high school. So it was just one of those games that I enjoy
doing and watching is fun. You don't get to watch that too often. No. Ultimately. All
right. I'm going to, are you ready to get started? I am. Yep. Do you have anything else
to add? No. Are you having fun? I am. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So let's talk about the Olympics.
And I had mentioned that this story hits a little bit home because I actually was downtown.
I'm going to say probably two days before this bombing occurred, Shelby, you were actually
down there with us because it was the whole family. We all went down to a jam packed Centennial
Olympic park and we just kind of went around and looked at the grounds and went to the
festival areas. There was music playing, lots of things going on. It was busy, busy, busy.
And so we were downtown just kind of strolling around the park. And I would say that that
probably occurred a couple of days before the bombing. So imagine my shock as a mother,
you would be way too young to even remember that. But we were there just days beforehand.
So kind of reflecting back on this, and this is what I'm seeing with my recordings here
is that I'm looking back on some of these events that you see on the news and you're
watching and you're following. And so I just feel like that point in time where have you
ever been in the wrong place at the wrong time or in the wrong place at the right time
or the right place at the wrong time? Definitely. I think that we were at the wrong place at
the right time. Yeah. Or right place at the wrong time. I guess, I don't know. It worked
out in our favor. So I am not saying anything about what occurred that day, but we definitely
worked in our favor because so let's go ahead and start talking about the 1996 Centennial
Olympic Park bombing. This occurred on July 27th, 1996 and ultimately killed one person
and injured about 111 other people. Now you had said that you did a little bit of research
when I asked you if you wanted to record this with me. So really I didn't get a lot of details
other than 111 people were injured and one person was killed. So did you say that you
found out more about that? Yeah. So unfortunately there was one person that was killed during
the incident. Her name was Anne Hawthorne. She was 44 years old. She was there with her
14 year old daughter who also just happened to be one of those injured. The really sad
part about it that I was reading about was the daughter was actually there celebrating
her 14th birthday. So just a sad occasion all around to kind of have that memory kind
of following her throughout the years. For sure. Were they visiting or did they live
in the area? I believe they lived in the area. It did say that she had an older daughter
who was not able to attend due to work. So I would assume they were probably in the area.
Wow. So during the events of that evening on July 27th, there was a concert going on
and a man who was working security at the time named Richard Jewell was there just doing
his job and he came across a backpack that contained three pipe bombs and it was also
packed with nails. Now I couldn't really find exactly where he found this, but if my memory
is correct, I think he found it somewhere off maybe like in the background. It may not
have been, it may have been like maybe near a park bench in the back of where all the
activities were going on. So it wasn't really getting a lot of attention. I guess he was
just doing his rounds. Right. Well, it was so late at night too. There were still quite
a bit of people there, but I just couldn't believe how late in the evening that this
actually happened. How late was it? It was a little after midnight when they got the
call and then the bomb actually went off 11 minutes after one. One in the morning? In
the morning. Wow. Well, so Richard was doing his job and he alerted the police so that
they came and helped get everybody out of that area. You said it wasn't as crowded obviously
at that hour. So I'm sure that that was probably helpful for the situation that not as many
people got hurt. They, Richard Jewell along with the police were able to get everybody
out of that area. They, they evacuated everybody before the bombs detonated. So following the
events, Richard Jewell was hailed as an American hero. Of course he was because, Oh gosh, I
can't imagine doing your job and coming up on just a random backpack sitting in a area
off by itself. And I mean, what did he do? Did he look in it? Was he trained to look
for something like that? We'll never know, I guess.
I actually have a little insert. Oh good. Tell us. I'm going to give a little backstory
in just a second. I thought it was absolutely hilarious. It's just kind of funny how he
ended up in the position that he was. From what I've researched, he did not look in the
bag that he did what he was supposed to. And he followed protocol, you know, called the
police and let them know what he had found, that it was suspicious. So a little bit of
a backstory that I found on Richard Jewell was that when he was quite young, he had always
been interested in law enforcement. He started in the jail first and then eventually moved
up to the police officer position. So after being, uh, you know, in the jailer for a little
while, he moved up to the police officer patrolling position. Unfortunately, he was demoted back
to working in the jail because he was known for wrecking police cars. Um, I'm assuming
unintentionally, but by the time he had wrecked four of them, they said no more. From there,
he actually moved to become a campus officer, but ended up leaving that job. He was not
following protocol and trying to stop people for traffic violations and DUIs. And eventually
that's he, he left that job, moved back home with his mother. Was he a uniformed officer
when he was doing that? Oh, well, he was, uh, just a college campus cop. So I'm sure
he had some kind of uniform on, but not, he was not allowed to, you know, stop somebody
because their tail light was out or stop somebody because they were drinking and driving. I
think this happened on maybe a highway right outside of the campus. So it wasn't his grounds
to be the one to enforce those laws. Got you. So he was acting like a city police officer,
but he was a campus on the campus. Right. Just to think he's a, was an officer and is
supposed to be following all these, these laws, but yet keeps wrecking his car. Well,
interesting. So Richard was never arrested for the bombings, but he was treated like
the prime suspect and a criminal for the next three months. So police office, police officials
and the news media were pretty much tearing him apart. Now I don't know how he went from
being a hailed hero in this situation to being the prime suspect. Did you find anything on
that? No, I did see that he was reprimanded for, he was reprimanded from the Olympic events.
No, maybe that's the wrong word. He, he did receive, he sued and actually basically made
some money. What is that called? Defamation, defamation of character. Yeah, maybe. So he
sued. Wait, are you saying, I'm trying to get my head around this. I don't know what I'm
trying to say. I'm all confused because you know more about this topic than I do. This
is like quick 15 minute research that I did. I'm just flabbergasted that it took you 15
minutes to research all this and it probably took me two hours. So, okay. So he was never
arrested for the bombing and he was what? I was going to say you put in there that he
won the lawsuit. I did. I'm not there yet, Shelbs. I have a little bit of an outline.
Sorry, I didn't see that. We're pulling a little bit of an outline because although
I speak for a living, I still need a little bit of an outline. Okay. Sorry. Go. No, by
all means, you just keep on doing what you're doing because you're doing a great job. All
right. So Richard was publicly and relentlessly scrutinized by law enforcement and the news
outlets and that went on for several months. So as long as I've known this case, I don't
think that he ever got out from living in the shadow of the 1996 Olympic bombings because
it always seemed like people at some point, even though he was found to be innocent and
they did not pursue him as a suspect, he just never lived past that stigma of being accused.
You know what I mean? So I kind of feel sorry for him because as I've watched this story
evolve, then it's just that poor man. I mean, the last years of his life were not the best
and just always, always in that back of people's minds that he was the one, but you know, it
was later proven that he was not the one that did it. So, but I will, I will say that Richard
Jewell was exonerated from all the charges. And so he was cleared of any involvement.
And then you had mentioned Shelbs that he had filed lawsuits against the media and won
and NBC ended up having to pay out $500,000. Is that all he got for defamation?
That's what I found. There may have been more one or two. I want to say, I'm not sure. I'm
not sure. I don't want to.
I don't think that's enough to be honest with you. All right. The Georgia governor at the
time who was Sonny Perdue publicly commended Richard for saving lives in the park that
day. And you know, that came out quite, quite a while after the events happened. And sadly,
now you said he, he got his pay out from the, from the lawsuit. And then he,
Now that was just NBC. There may have been more, but
Got you. And then he, he was only able to, he only lived in tooth until 2007. So he had
some ongoing health issues and ended up dying of complications from diabetes in August of
2007. How many years is that? Eight from the time the events happened?
96. So 11. Oh, bad at math. You all, I am bad at math. Very bad at math. Well, the good
news is, is that they actually found a suspect and they came across, or they started following
a man named Eric Rudolph between 1996 and 1998. There were four bombs that were detonated
in the Atlanta area and Birmingham, Alabama. Three of the bombs went off in Atlanta, which
would be one with the Olympics and the fourth one was in Birmingham. So the first bombing
occurred on the Olympics event of July 27th. And then in January of 1997, then two more
bombs went off at an Atlanta based abortion clinic, which injured seven people. A month
later in February of 1997, a third bomb went off at an Atlanta nightclub. So somebody is
attacking randomly. What do you, does it look like he's got an agenda here? The Atlanta
nightclub was targeting the LGBT community and four people were injured there. So, so
far he's attacking LGBTs. He's attacking people or abortion clinics. And then, I mean, so
where does the Atlanta bombing come in? I don't know if this is slightly off topic,
but it might shed some light into maybe the thoughts, or Eric Rudolph's thoughts. So when
he was younger, he got involved with a gentleman named Nord Davis. Nord was really a part of
the Christian identity movement. So they, you know, were constantly reading the Bible
and they were just dead set on living every single day. If your beliefs were not aligned
with, you know, what it says in the Bible, then they, they didn't want anything to do
with you. And so Nord Davis, he kind of wanted to find someone like Eric Rudolph, who was
a loner and, you know, could kind of come up with these, these events that were occurring
on their own. And it wasn't something that he wanted to, you know, say, Hey, you should
go and do this. No, Rudolph kind of came up with these bombings on his own. And I was
not aware, I knew there were a few bombings, but I wasn't aware of exactly where they were.
But I definitely think those very specific beliefs may have had something to do with,
you know, the LGBTQ plus community or abortions and whatnot.
So did it seem like Eric was being groomed to build up to this?
Kind of, yeah. I mean, if you've got someone, you know, just constantly in your mind saying,
this is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. I mean, that's how you're going to grow up
thinking. Obviously, that's not, you know, how our family thinks. We love everybody.
But sadly, there are, there are, you know, people who have those opinions. And it's nowadays,
it's sad and unfortunate, but it does, you know, like you said, seem like he was possibly
being groomed from a young age.
So two people were killed from those attacks and hundreds were injured. I had mentioned
111 people were injured from the Atlanta bombing, but the police were on Eric Rudolph's tail
because it seemed like several witnesses had reported seeing his pickup near the Birmingham
clinic incident. And so the authorities began to tail him based on the feedback they were
getting from tips from the public. But Rudolph was living off the grid in the Appalachian
mountains. And if you are not familiar with that, the Appalachian mountains run all the
way from Georgia, all the way up to Maine. So that kind of reminded me of a time when
I had a friend of mine actually ask me if I wanted to go walk the Appalachian trail,
which at the time I was working on, Oh, look, Shelby, you know, I've been in school your
whole entire life.
True. I was working on one of those degrees and I was like, okay, you know what? I'm going
to give myself a graduation present and I will do it. But you know, of course nothing
ever came around. So, I mean, I've taken plenty of day trips up to the Appalachian trails,
but I don't know if I would ever, I hear too many stories. Okay. Bears, lots of bears.
And then you're also talking about, okay, you've, there's a certain person that goes
out hiking. And to me it's, it's a kindred spirit amongst other hikers. I mean, everybody's
there for the same reason. We love nature. We love peace. We love tranquility. But then
you have people that, you know, if you're walking up on somebody, a stranger on a trail
that runs from Georgia all the way up to Maine, would you do it? Would you take the trip?
Not by myself, maybe with like a big group so I can run hopefully faster than somebody
else.
Oh my gosh. That's hilarious. Run faster than someone else. I never thought
of that. Okay. Remind me not to go hiking the Appalachian trails with you. Cause I'm
pretty sure you're going to outrun me.
I don't know about that. I don't know about that anymore.
So the Appalachian trail is 2100 or 2,190 plus miles, which is 3,524 kilometers. Rudolph
was up there in the Appalachian mountains, just kind of living off the land, camping.
He was also going to people's cottages or cabins whenever they were not there. So if
somebody had like a seasonal cabin where they would only go maybe during hunting season
or if they just had a vacation home there, then he would be living off the land or living
in those cabins. I don't know if he broke in. I'm sure he probably did. So he was very,
very familiar with the region because he grew up in that area. He grew up around the area
of Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. There's a little section where the three states
meet in one spot. So as an adult, Eric Rudolph could be considered an experienced outdoorsman
and he would scavenge for food in the area, go by the local dumpsters at the grocery store.
So one day Eric Rudolph was spotted in Murphy, North Carolina, which is just over the Georgia
line into North Carolina at the Appalachian foothills. And yeah, I've actually driven
through that town. It's very small, very rural. And I'm pretty sure I remember the grocery
store that they're talking about where he was spotted. So the town's pretty small and
you would not take, it would not take long for you to spot someone like Rudolph, especially
if he's, I don't know if you would consider him being out of place in a town like that
where everybody knows everybody, but if he's an outdoorsman and he has been living off
the land, I can't guarantee he showered every day. You know what I mean?
I was going to say, I feel like he would just look dirty, like unclean. So for about five
years, Eric Rudolph lived in the wilderness of the Appalachian mountains while eluding
the police. And then he would stockpile food and forage at night from the local granary.
I'm going to say it probably is a place where you would go and they would like process grains.
He would have places that he would go to the restaurants, grocery stores, loading docks,
anywhere that he could forage his food. And then other than this, he basically knew how
to live off the land. He was trained to do so. He lived in caves. He lived in abandoned
cabins like I mentioned. He actually took about six months food supply from a former
neighbor of his, but he had a heart. He left $500 at the scene to cover the grocery costs.
Wasn't that nice?
Wow.
Yeah. He's giving his neighbor, he's being kind to his neighbor and leaving him $500,
but he's bombing other people. I don't get the thinking process people. So this kind
of reminds me of goalie locks and the three bears, you know? Somebody has been sleeping
in my bed. He was a creature of habit and stayed in the area where he is familiar. And
the authorities caught up to him or they at least had several tips from sightings. And
then of course they began to keep an eye on that area of Murphy, North Carolina. Even
though they had their eyes on Rudolph at that time, he also had his eyes on them because
I guess he was pretty aware of his surroundings and he was contemplating an attack against
the agents who were assigned to the case. And he even kept extra explosives lying around
in case he wanted to attack them. And I don't think that ever happened. I never did hear
that in the news. He did consider booby trapping the national guard armory in the area, but
there were too many people around watching him at this point. So he knew that he was
probably not going to be able to get away with it. And then since that never happened
in February of 1998, although he was a fugitive, he was named as the Birmingham Clinic bomber.
So they identified him from tips that led to him as being the suspect. He was still
on the loose running free and under the cover of night and the cover of the Appalachian
trails. Well, he was named as the clinic bomber. And then he was officially in October of 1998,
he was officially charged for the Atlanta bombings. So by that time he was added to
the FBI's 10 most wanted list. And then in May of 2003, May 31st, Rudolph was arrested
while he was foraging for food in the back of the grocery store. And he eventually pled
guilty to the four counts against him, including the 1996 Olympic bombings to avoid the death
penalty. Eric Rudolph was sentenced to four life terms in prison without the possibility
of parole and is currently serving time at the super max federal prison in Florence,
Colorado. That's the story of the Olympic bombings. I'm glad they found him. Yeah, for
sure. And actually I saw that the arresting officer that ended up finding him when he
was scavenging for food was only 21 years old and had only been a part of the police
force for 10 months. Wow. No. So, okay. So how did, how did they come up on him then?
Uh, it was just late in the evening, I want to say between one and three in the morning
and he was just out of place and the officer knew it. And so he just stopped him and he
gave him a false name and went back and was like, yeah, you're, you're not coming up in
our database. He ended up eventually ended up arresting him. I mean, it wasn't until,
you know, somebody else pointed out the possibility of, Hey, this could be Eric Rudolph. And fortunately
it was him. Okay. Well, there we have it. There's our story of the 1996 Olympic bombings.
I've had fun. Thank you for having me. Thank you all for joining us. And we hope that you
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