Richard Jewell: The 2002 60 Minutes interview — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:0160 minutes rewind in any high-profile
2. 0:06federal investigation of a terrorist act
3. 0:09like the September 11th attack on
4. 0:11America there are bound to be successes
5. 0:13and failures promising leads that pan
6. 0:15out but also innocent people swept up in
7. 0:18the dragnet one American who knows all
8. 0:21about that is Richard Jewell who was
9. 0:23falsely accused of a terrorist act back
10. 0:25in 1996 the setting off of a bomb at the
11. 0:29Atlanta Olympics in a very public
12. 0:31investigation by the FBI and the Atlanta
13. 0:34Police Jewell was branded the chief
14. 0:36suspect in the bombing we got to know
15. 0:39Richard Jewell back in 1996 but it
16. 0:41wasn't till recently
17. 0:42that we've realized how deeply affected
18. 0:44he was by his ordeal and why it's been
19. 0:47so difficult for him to recover from
20. 0:49what happened five years ago it all
21. 0:57began when the bomb exploded in
22. 0:59Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park just
23. 1:02after 1:00 a.m. on July 27th 1996
24. 1:05Richard Jewell was working as a private
25. 1:07security guard there and he helped
26. 1:10escort many of the spectators to safety
27. 1:12he was called a hero and then everything
28. 1:16changed he may not want to go back and
29. 1:19relive it but how did it happen you were
30. 1:21a hero and then you were a villain and
31. 1:26it happened it happened like that and
32. 1:28what started the vs Co the headline of
33. 1:32the Atlanta journal-constitution that
34. 1:34afternoon which so much started the
35. 1:36whirlwind FBI suspects hero guard may
36. 1:40have planted bomb Lynwood is Richard
37. 1:43Jewell's lawyer he wrote in quotation
38. 1:45marks sarcastic banner headline that was
39. 1:50read to the world verbatim as breaking
40. 1:55news on CNN and then of course ap picks
41. 1:58it up and it just mushrooms the story
42. 2:04leaked to the media was the jewel wasn't
43. 2:06a hero at all but was himself the bomber
44. 2:09who perversely sought publicity for
45. 2:12saving people from the explosion
46. 2:14Richard Jewell fits the profile of the
47. 2:16lone bomber apps absolutely false
48. 2:19but everybody then assumed that this
49. 2:21bizarre character as he was being
50. 2:24portrayed had decided that this was
51. 2:25going to be his 15 minutes of fame that
52. 2:29he was going to set up this situation
53. 2:32where he would literally bomb a park and
54. 2:34then claim to be a hero the FBI put
55. 2:37jewel under round-the-clock surveillance
56. 2:39and conducted a very public search of
57. 2:41his apartment all of it broadcast on
58. 2:44live television
59. 2:45it was not until many weeks later that
60. 2:48the FBI finally acknowledged jewel was
61. 2:50not a suspect in the bombing did live
62. 2:52free or anyone from the FBI ever called
63. 2:56you up and say mr. jewel we made a
64. 3:01mistake we're sorry
65. 3:04no sir nobody's ever called me written
66. 3:07me a letter sent me an email called any
67. 3:10of my attorneys five years no sir a
68. 3:12Richard Jewell in fact saved over a
69. 3:16hundred innocent people's lives that
70. 3:19night and no one has ever bothered to
71. 3:22even say Thank You mr. Jewell not the
72. 3:26city of Atlanta not the state of Georgia
73. 3:28not the Olympic Committee in Atlanta not
74. 3:31the International Committee because he's
75. 3:34so tainted that even when he was
76. 3:36exonerated no one still wanted to really
77. 3:39be identified with him I don't
78. 3:40understand it
79. 3:41it's the taint that will live with this
80. 3:44man forever because he will forever
81. 3:46still be identified as a man that the
82. 3:49public believed bombed the park Lynn
83. 3:53what you told me last night that you
84. 3:57thought he was guilty I did I actually
85. 4:00believed what I saw on television what I
86. 4:03read in the newspapers and I thought
87. 4:06that the FBI had their man and their man
88. 4:08was Richard Jewell I'm gonna tell you
89. 4:10something mr. Wallace there's six seven
90. 4:12people in this room with us right now
91. 4:13yeah and I don't care what they say now
92. 4:15that first week everybody in this room
93. 4:18thought I was the bomber that's true
94. 4:20including me
95. 4:21yes sir
96. 4:23when I first met him a few weeks after
97. 4:25the bombing jewel was still a suspect
98. 4:26and he is right I did think he might
99. 4:30indeed be the bummer but I changed my
100. 4:32mind after he described to me back then
101. 4:35what had happened that night in July
102. 4:37when he noticed a suspicious-looking
103. 4:39package under a park bench and pointed
104. 4:42it out to a federal ATF agent he was
105. 4:45laying flat on his stomach and he was
106. 4:47undoing the top of the bag with his hand
107. 4:49and he was doing his flashlight like
108. 4:51this and all of a sudden he just froze
109. 4:53what really made me think this is uh
110. 4:56this is bad is there was like a little
111. 4:59line in training that they taught you
112. 5:01that would instill in you you know and
113. 5:04it was if you see an ATF agent running
114. 5:06you better be in front of him so did you
115. 5:09start to run to mm no sir you stayed
116. 5:12there within ten yards of where the
117. 5:15package was yes sir we were just
118. 5:17concerned with getting the people as far
119. 5:19away as we could as quickly as we could
120. 5:26that summer Jewell was besieged by the
121. 5:28media wherever he went and the FBI kept
122. 5:32following him too when he went out for a
123. 5:34drive they were always there not just
124. 5:36that one agent in the blue Jeep but a
125. 5:39whole FBI convoy which chased him on and
126. 5:42off the interstate a total of five or
127. 5:44six FBI vehicles the FBI also searched
128. 5:48the home of Jule's mother Bobby what
129. 5:50they take out of your apartment
130. 5:51they took Richards guns which he has
131. 5:55always hunted he deer hunts then they
132. 5:57took all of my Tupperware I mean every
133. 6:01piece of Tupperware
134. 6:02they took twenty-two of my Walt Disney
135. 6:06tapes and the TV cameras were always
136. 6:09there I felt like it was a movie
137. 6:11production every light there must have
138. 6:14been 20 satellite trucks in our parking
139. 6:18lot I'm living a nightmare I don't know
140. 6:21if you ever saw this that's right I'd
141. 6:26say yeah as the week's went by the
142. 6:28torment by the media turned to ridicule
143. 6:30Jay Leno called you unit doofus a
144. 6:33federal agent was quoted as saying
145. 6:35you were you know Bubba your mother was
146. 6:36called the UNAM mama yes her in late
147. 6:42October of 96 the US Attorney finally
148. 6:45wrote this letter saying jewel was not
149. 6:47considered a target of the federal
150. 6:49criminal investigation a statement
151. 6:52delivered to one of Jule's lawyers at
152. 6:54this out-of-the-way coffee shop far away
153. 6:57from the TV cameras and unlike the
154. 7:00public FBI investigation of jeweled
155. 7:02there was no FBI press conference jewel
156. 7:05and his attorney Lynn would say the FBI
157. 7:07was simply too embarrassed we now know a
158. 7:10lot more than we knew at the time when
159. 7:14we sat down and talked with you
160. 7:15initially we know for example that the
161. 7:17FBI was interested in Richard but had
162. 7:21really not decided whether Richard
163. 7:22Jewell was a possible suspect or a
164. 7:25potentially valuable witness but before
165. 7:29they could execute their plan the banner
166. 7:31headline gets published and now all of a
167. 7:34sudden the FBI's got to come to grips
168. 7:37with Richard Jewell in a public
169. 7:40investigation and that changed I think
170. 7:42the whole approach that the FBI took
171. 7:45Joel was originally planning to sue the
172. 7:48FBI but eventually decided it would be
173. 7:51futile to sue the federal government he
174. 7:53did sue a number of media organizations
175. 7:55and several settled NBC CNN the New York
176. 7:59Post and an ABC radio station for a
177. 8:02total believed to be in excess of 2
178. 8:05million dollars the Atlanta Journal in
179. 8:07Constitution though has refused to
180. 8:09settle with jewel and five years after
181. 8:12the bombing the paper is still fighting
182. 8:14the case in court attorney Peter
183. 8:16Canfield is defending the newspaper the
184. 8:18plaintiff has consistently claimed that
185. 8:21he should never have been a suspect of
186. 8:23the FBI and the bombing but he's never
187. 8:26sued the FBI instead he's asserted that
188. 8:30the journal Constitution is to blame for
189. 8:32all of his troubles by being the first
190. 8:34to accurately report that he had in fact
191. 8:37become the investigations focus what
192. 8:40he's saying is that the paper was
193. 8:41accurately reporting what it had been
194. 8:44told that Richard Jewell was a suspect
195. 8:47look call him
196. 8:49suspect put it in your newspaper you
197. 8:51will not be sued for calling Richard
198. 8:53Jewell a suspect you will be sued when
199. 8:55you publish in your newspaper that he's
200. 8:56a villain a bad man he fit the profile
201. 9:00of the lone bomber of the park
202. 9:02he sought publicity and he's like Wayne
203. 9:04Williams a convicted murderer
204. 9:06of children put that in your newspaper
205. 9:08and you will be sued that's what the
206. 9:11Atlanta journal-constitution said about
207. 9:13this man the story will continue after
208. 9:15this
209. 9:21same-same
210. 9:23for the past five years Richard Jewell
211. 9:25has been trying to put his life back
212. 9:27together he did manage to find a job as
213. 9:30a police officer in a small community
214. 9:32he lost 65 pounds got married last
215. 9:35September of private affair no TV
216. 9:37cameras no chance and jewel is still
217. 9:41just as angered at what the media did to
218. 9:43him as he was back in 1996 I want to
219. 9:48show you what you said then and get your
220. 9:52reaction to it okay let's take a look
221. 9:56people will never forget my name people
222. 10:00will be 90 years old that we're at the
223. 10:02Olympic Games and go do you remember
224. 10:04when that bomb went off that Jill fella
225. 10:06that they accused of that you remember
226. 10:08that and people will be going yeah I
227. 10:10remember that can you believe all that
228. 10:12it will never answer and it has not
229. 10:18ended you say no swear it hasn't and it
230. 10:21won't I mean I know that you know you'd
231. 10:26be surprised to know how many people
232. 10:27come up to me and I'll still nudge me
233. 10:30and say hey so tell me do you really do
234. 10:32it that question is still last you go to
235. 10:38a grocery store and you hear people
236. 10:41whisper your name do they stare at you
237. 10:44they point at you driving home from work
238. 10:48you're always looking in your rear-view
239. 10:50mirror if you see a car they're the same
240. 10:53car for a long time you turn off even
241. 10:56though it's not your turn just see if
242. 10:58that car follows you
243. 10:59you drive different Drive a different
244. 11:02way home every night
245. 11:03five years later yeah doesn't make when
246. 11:06you come out to get in your your car in
247. 11:08the morning you walk around it and look
248. 11:10under it you look around the parking lot
249. 11:13to see if somebody's sitting in a car
250. 11:14wait a minute you you you it turns out
251. 11:16that you were a hero not the bomber sir
252. 11:20I've never been treated like a hero
253. 11:22never I don't I mean I don't know what
254. 11:24heroes treated like but my mother and
255. 11:28I've never been treated like that wait a
256. 11:30second you were in fact a hero
257. 11:34I thought you've realized what what was
258. 11:38going down well I did my job that night
259. 11:42that's correct and that undoubtedly
260. 11:45saved a lot of lives in doing it well
261. 11:48thank you sir not many people say that
262. 11:49most people say you're the ex suspect
263. 11:53still yes sir