Aug. 29, 2007: An Olympic security guard wrongly accused of bombing dies at age 44

Monday 29 August 2011

During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga., security guard Richard Jewell found a bomb in a backpack and evacuated everyone out of the area before it exploded. Three days later, authorities investigated him as a suspect, and both the police and the media looked heavily into his background. Jewell was cleared of suspicion in October 1996 but never fully recovered in the public eye. He sued several news organizations for libel and settled with some out of court. He died Aug. 29, 2007, of natural causes at age 44.