Richard Jewell

Richard Allensworth Jewell (born Richard White) is an American man who became the suspected perpetrator of the 1996 Central Olympic Park Bombing.

Background
Richard Jewell was born as Richard White on December 17, 1962 in Danville, Georgia. His father was Robert Earl White (a Chevrolet worker) and his mother was Bobi White (who worked as an insurance claim coordinator). The Whites filed for divorce when their son was just four years old and Robert left. Bobi later met and was married to a man named John Jewell, who subsequently adopted her son and gave him his present identity. Later on in life Richard Jewell met and married a woman named Diana.

The Central Olympic Park Bombing
At some point Jewell received employment as a security guard at Centennial Olympic Park. In 1996, the park was the first target of Eric Rudolph, a serial bomber who went on to attack several places. Rudolph placed his explosive (a fragmentation-laden pipe bomb) in a green backpack which he then obscured underneath a bench within the park and left. While performing his rounds as a security guard, Jewell discovered the backpack. He reported it to several GBI (Georgia Bureau of Investigation) officers and they joined Jewell in sweeping the park for anymore potential bombs in the area and evacuating civilians. Rudolph then placed a call to the authorities to warn them of the bomb nine minutes after its discovery - the bomb detonated just four after that, claiming Rudolph's first victim, 44 year-old Alice Hawthore (who was killed by a piece of shrapnel), injured over 100 others, and a cameraman named Melih Uzunyol indirectly died from a heart while attempting to film the aftermath of the explosion.

Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for discovering the bomb, but news outlets later reported that the FBI considered Jewell a suspect in the attack (since he did fit Rudolph's criminal profile). The media labelled Jewell as the bomber and he was targeted by them for several weeks. Suspicion arose that Jewell had deliberately planted the backpack at the park just so he could 'discover' it and be hailed as a "hero" for stopping the bombing. An investigation done by the country's Justice Department ultimately concluded that the FBI had not violated any of Jewell's rights. The FBI investigated Jewell extensively but ultimately found nothing. He had also passed a ploygraph test. Jewell was ultimately cleared of suspicion in October of 1996.

Trial and Aftermath
Despite this, Jewell, still outraged by his disgrace by the media, filed numerous lawsuits against several news outlets he held responsible. He was represented by Lucian Lincoln "Lin" Wood Jr. throughout the trials. He first targeted Raymond Cleere (his former employer and president of Piedmont College) and the college's spokesman, Scott Rawles. He claimed that Cleere made various false and exaggerated claims about him. The case was settled for an unspecified amount of money. He then sued NBC News for the statement made by Tom Brokaw. Despite NBC insisting on its story the network still agreed to pay Jewell $500,000. Next Jewell targeted The New York Post and sued them for $15,000,000 for the damage they did to his reputation with their false and judgmental labeling of him. The case was again settled for an unspecified amount of money. Jewell then sued the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper for supposedly starting his public disgrace (even going as far as comparing him to Wayne Williams. However, unlike the previous defendants, they did not settle with Jewell. The lawsuit was stated to have carried on even after Jewell's death and was ultimately unsuccessful. Jewell also targeted CNN and was settled for another unspecified amount. Much like NBC, they insisted their coverage of the case was still accurate.

Jewell went on to make several television appearances and was honored for his role in preventing Rudolph's attack. He worked in several Law Enforcement departments and spoke at several colleges. Jewell died on August 29, 2007 from failure and diabetic complications, at the age of 44. There is a bridge on US Highway 82 between Mile Markers 15 & 16 (Waycross to Tifton) named in his honor.

On Criminal Minds

 * Season Three
 * "Doubt" - Jewell and Rudolph were mentioned when Jewell fiasco is specifically brought up when Gideon wanted to keep the suspect in custody, believing their profile is accurate, and Morgan brings up how Jewell, who fit the profile of the Olympic Park Bomber but was innocent, was publicly disgraced in the media. Both Rudolph and Jewell also has some similarities to the suspect in question, Nathan Tubbs - Both Rudolph and Tubbs were killers who were the subject of a large FBI investigation and were given nicknames by the media. Like Jewell, Tubbs worked as a security guard who became the main suspect in the same investigation, which subsequently ruined his reputation, and he would later be exonerated without being formally charged. In the meantime, the investigation overlooked another crime (Begley's murder), which is similar to how Rudolph was able to commit two other bombings while the public was still focused on Jewell. Both Tubbs and Jewell were also still tailed by the FBI even though they were never charged with a crime.
 * "Tabula Rasa" - Jewell and Rudolph were mentioned again during the trial of Brian Matloff when his lawyer tries to discredit offender profiling by bringing up the way Jewell was falsely implicated in the Olympic Park bombing. Hotch rebutted by saying that Jewell was indeed not the perpetrator, but that the FBI's profile matched the actual bomber, Rudolph, perfectly.
 * Season Ten
 * "Hero Worship" - While not directly mentioned or referenced in this episode, Jewell's case appears to have been an inspiration for Allen Archer - Both acted to save lives during the respective bombings and were initially lauded as heroes by the media as a result. However, they were then treated as suspects in the resulting FBI investigations, and theories arose that both planted the bombs to engineer situations in which they emerged as heroes (although Archer actually did).