The Suspect

An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle

By: Kent Alexander, Kevin Salwen

Narrated by: Paul Michael

A contributing source for the Warner Bros.’ film Richard Jewell starring Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, and Paul Walter Hauser!

A gripping insider account of the terrorist bombing at the 1996 Olympic Games that captured the world’s attention, and the heroic security guard-turned-suspect at the heart of it all

On July 27, 1996, a hapless former cop turned hypervigilant security guard named Richard Jewell spotted a suspicious bag in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park, the town square of the 1996 Summer Games. Inside was a bomb, the largest of its kind in FBI and ATF history. Minutes later, the bomb remotely detonated by the attacker amid a crowd of 50,000 people. But thanks to Jewell, it only killed two and wounded 111, not the hundreds who authorities estimated could have otherwise died. With the eyes of the world on Atlanta, the games continued. But the pressure to find the bomber was intense. Within 72 hours, Jewell went from the hero to the FBI’s main suspect, a false accusation that forever changed his life and let the true bomber roam free to strike again.

In a triumph of reporting and access, Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen’s The Suspect is a gripping story of the rise of domestic terrorism in America, the advent of the 24/7 news cycle, and an innocent man’s fight to clear his name.

©2019 by Kent Alexander and Kevin Salwen. Published in 2019 by Abrams Press, and imprint of ABRAMS, Inc. All rights reserved (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Great!

This is an intriguing account of a tragic(in many ways)episode of U.S. history that I heard of but was too young to comprehend at the time. What a hero Mr.Jewell, and his mother, truly were. This is a great book!

So much we didn’t know!

Even though I live in the Atlanta area and was even in the park the day of the Bombing, there is so much I didn’t know about the event and it’s aftermath. Kent Alexander does a thorough job of laying out the entire story and leading us step by step along the torturous path to the eventual capture of the true culprit. There it all is, the warts, the trauma and the truth. Kent let’s you draw your own conclusions and let’s you see how the process worked from the inside. This is a great read and I highly recommend this book.

Very well written, from multiple perspectives

Very well written, from multiple perspectives. The authors write about the Olympics, the media and reporters, the investigators, about Richard Jewell and his family and friends, and finally about the real bomber, in a segmented fashion. Chapters about one group, then another, give a great sense of how they all mesh together. For me, Jewell became the real person, much more complicated and human than newspaper accounts and TV interviews ever did. He was very human and apparently likable to those who could ignore his quirks and bad driving. But those people were few and far between.

If this were on paper it would have been a page-turner. It maintains a high level of interest all the way to the end.

It also carries an important message: Just because a lot of intuitive conclusions seem to point to a guilty party, they mean nothing without real evidence, and opinion is not evidence. In the end, the only "evidence" they had against Richard Jewell was the conjectures of an FBI profiler, who apparently knew some of Jewell's life story as he was preparing the profile. The problem with that was that Jewell was an innocent hero. There was never a single bit of physical evidence against him, and there was some exonerating evidence in his favor. But because one FBI agent's "gut" decided Jewell was the man, he did all he could to dig up proof that didn't exist. Innocent until proven guilty is the cornerstone of our criminal justice system, for good reason.

Side note: There were many familiar names in the cast of FBI agents. They have been in the news a lot in the last four years. And author Kent Alexander was one of the DOJ lawyers who worked on the case.

Perfectly told

This was a very well written book. I was at the Olympics in 96 and had no idea all that was going on behind the scenes of this thing.

great cautionary tale

I just finished The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle. “The media has descended upon us like vultures upon prey. They have taken all privacy from us, they have taken all peace. They have rented an apartment which faces my home in order to keep their cameras upon us around the clock. They watch our every move. They watch and photograph everything we do. We wake up to photographers, we go to sleep to photographers. We cannot look out the window.” — Richard Jewell’s mother, Barbara “Bobi”

The Suspect: An Olympic Bombing, the FBI, the Media, and Richard Jewell, the Man Caught in the Middle is a great, well written and fair articulation of the the Richard Jewell tragedy. Richard Jewell was definitely a quirky guy but It is hard to imagine the hell Richard Jewell endured for years. He was the hero who saved hundreds if not of thousands of lives at the Olympic Park bombing in July 1996 and falsely accused by the media and the court of public opinion.
This story should be a cautionary tale of the consequences of the 24 hour news cycles, social media and the need to break the news first.

Again if you like non-fiction, history or crime novels this one is great. #readingin2020

Great book

I enjoyed learning the full story about Richard Jewell. A lot of us are quick to think that he did it and that’s the end of the story. Interesting how even over 20 years ago, the media could shape public opinion and contribute to changing a man’s life. Thanks for bringing the truth to light.

Surprisingly taut, engaging, and necessary read

Very pleasantly surprised to discover the full backstory to the Jewel / Rudolph cases. As a native Atlantan and Olympic volunteer in 1996 I had long relegated the Jewel case to a far back burner of my mind. Now that we have a bigger and more accurate picture of the events discussed in the book there is no question it was a book that had to be written... and one whose themes remain painfully timely. My only critique of the audio book is the narrater’s pronunciation of “A.C.O.G.” as “aeseeohgee” (ph.) and not as the acronym that it had become to us Atlantans: “akog” (ph.). Otherwise a fine narration.

Great but sad true story

This is a great story about an ordinary hero wrongly accused. It's also one of the best narrations I've heard in an audio book. Don't miss it.

Great book

I didn’t like the way the author tried to do the southern accent. Made me cringe every time. Author needs more vocal accent training before attempting any other accents. The book is great otherwise. Well written and very interesting.

Excellent book

Saw the movie first and then got this book. I lived in Atlanta during the Olympics and remembered this as if it was yesterday. I remembered how this guy got screwed royally and I am amazed he was able to put his life back together. He was definitely a hero. R I P