Wood and Bryant, who still runs a law firm with Nadya, are all still based in Atlanta. Jewell was formally exonerated in 2005, two years before his death, when the real bomber Eric Rudolph was convicted.
In December 1996, NBC negotiated a settlement with Jewell for a reported $500,000. CNN and ABC settled, too, as did Piedmont College, which Jewell had sued for allegedly supplying false information.
Kathy Scruggs, who died in 2001, was working at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution when she broke a story that the FBI was investigating security guard Richard Jewell for the bombing in Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics.
While Richard died in 2007 from heart failure, his mother is still alive. She even attended the premiere for âRichard Jewellâ in Los Angeles in November and was photographed holding hands with Bates, UPI reported.
Kathy Scruggs' death was caused by acute morphine toxicity. Kiss also stated that he believed that the stress of the Jewell story and the related litigation had contributed majorly to her death.
The cause of death was acute morphine toxicity, according to the GBI medical examiner, who was unable to determine whether the overdose was intentional or accidental. The examiner also said severe coronary artery atherosclerosis might have contributed to her death.
Dana JewellRichard Jewell / Wife
Well, what differs from reality is the movieâs portrayal of Bryant as Jewellâs one and only lawyer. Jewell actually had several lawyers. In fact, he had an entire team. In addition to Bryant, he had a legal team including Lin Wood, Wayne Grant, Jack Martin, Richard Rackleff, and Watson's brother Bruce, according to Slate.
Jewell was formally exonerated in 2005, two years before his death, when the real bomber Eric Rudolph was convicted. Editor's note: This story has been modified to reflect that Wood and Grant joined Jewell's legal team the day before a press conference was held to announce that Jewell passed a polygraph test.
He's consistently loyal to him and in the end, his tenacity pays off as Jewell is cleared as a possible suspect after 88 days of intense scrutiny.
Watson Bryant Jr. attends the "Richard Jewell" Atlanta Screening at Rialto Center of the Arts on December 10, 2019. Photo: Getty Images.
Both Wood and Bryant attended Jewell's funeral. Bryant spoke and Wood was asked to give the eulogy, according to Wood. "It was the hardest public statement that I ever made," Wood told Oxygen.com. He called Jewell "a man that I loved and was dedicated to for 16 years. He had a big impact on my life and career.".
Jewell died in 2007 at age 44. The Journal-Constitution has maintained that there is no evidence that Scruggs slept with anyone involved in the investigation and has demanded that Warner Bros. and the filmmakers release a statement acknowledging that they took dramatic license in their portrayal of Scruggs.
Olivia Wilde as Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs in the movie 'Richard Jewell.'. Warner Bros. The attorney for Richard Jewell, who came under suspicion in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing before he was exonerated, criticized the movie "Richard Jewell" on Thursday night, calling its depiction of a reporter at the center ...
The movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, strongly suggests that the reporter, Kathy Scruggs of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, slept with an FBI agent to get information on the investigation. Many journalists have strongly criticized the portrayal as perpetuating a pernicious and false stereotype that some female journalists trade sex ...
Richard Jewell's lawyer agrees the movie smeared Atlanta newspaper reporter. "There was NO evidence to support a storyline" that Kathy Scruggs traded sex for tips about Richard Jewell, his attorney tweeted. "We never made such a false & damning claim.".
Richard Jewell loved movies, particularly anything with John Wayne or Clint Eastwood. Living with his mother, Bobi, in her Atlanta apartment, Jewell, who worked as a security guard, would sometimes tell her when there was a film he thought sheâd like so they could watch it together. âHis schedule was iffy â he was gone at night most ...
Bryant hopes âRichard Jewellâ will finally erase any lingering doubts about Jewellâs role in the bombing. âLook, to this day I run into people and when you say Richard Jewell, they say, âOh, heâs the guy that got off,ââ says Bryant, who is still outraged at the way Jewellâs reputation was tarnished.
Watson Bryant and Bobi Jewell, who are portrayed by Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates in the new film âRichard Jewell,â photographed by The Times on Nov. 20, 2019, in West Hollywood.
Bobi Jewell says sheâs grateful that Eastwood has made that ordeal the subject of his latest film â with Paul Walter Hauser as Richard, Kathy Bates as Bobi and Sam Rockwell as Bryant â and that those who may have only vague memories, if any, of the bombing and its aftermath will know that her son really was a hero.
Josh Rottenberg. Josh Rottenberg covers the film business for the Los Angeles Times. He previously worked as a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly, and his work has also appeared in the New York Times, Fast Company and other publications.
Jewell died in 2007 at the age of 44. He reportedly had been suffering from health complications stemming from diabetes, the New York Times reported. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously blasted the FBI sex-exchange plot line.
Jewellâs lawsuit against the AJC was dismissed in 2011 after the Georgia Court of Appeals concluded the articles they published were true at the time. Scruggs died in 2001 at the age of 42 from an overdose of prescription pain pills, according to Poytner.
Jewell was cleared as a suspect by the FBI 88 days after the bombing . Lin Wood, a defamation lawyer who represented Jewell in lawsuits filed against The Journal-Constitution and other media outlets for defamation, spoke out against the movieâs portrayal of Scruggs. "I handled Richard Jewell's case against AJC for 16 years,â he tweeted.
James Rawls, an Atlanta-based lawyer who helped Mr. Wood with some of the Ramsey family matters, said working with him was easy âwhen we were all on the same team.â.
Doug Collier/Agence France-Presse â Getty Images. Mr. Woodâs biggest break came in 1996 when he represented Mr. Jewell, a security guard wrongly suspected of planting a pipe bomb in Atlanta during the Summer Olympics that killed one person and injured more than 100 others.
Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a veteran of Georgia politics , said that control of the Senate was too important to squander. âI like Lin.
He is also representing Nicholas Sandmann, a student whose encounter with a Native American protester made national news, in his libel suit against The New York Times.
W. Ray Cleere had gotten into several disagreements with Richard Jewell when Jewell worked as a police officer for the college. While exploring the Richard Jewell fact vs. fiction, we confirmed that Cleere called the F.B.I. tip line in Washington and expressed concerns about Richard Jewell.
Richard Jewell, who was working as a security guard at the Olympics, discovered a green backpack underneath a bench sometime after midnight. The backpack contained a fragmentation-laden pipe bomb that was filled with nails and screws.
Bobi Jewell (played by Kathy Bates in the movie) was healing from a foot operation at the time. It was in Atlanta that Jewell, then 33, found temporary work as a security guard at the 1996 Summer Olympics. To learn more about Bobi Jewell, watch our episode Richard Jewell: History vs. Hollywood that is featured below.
Yes. As strange as this sounds, the Richard Jewell true story confirms that it is accurate. His tummy trouble comes straight from Marie Brenner's 1997 Vanity Fair profile of Richard Jewell, titled "American Nightmare: The Ballad of Richard Jewell".
Yes. Southern lawyer Watson Bryant (portrayed by Sam Rockwell in the movie) was an old friend who Jewell hadn't spoken to in years. It's true that they had met while they were both working at the Small Business Administration (Jewell as a clerk and Bryant as a lawyer).
He was convinced it was from a bad hamburger he had eaten the day before. Richard Jewell (left) and Paul Walter Hauser (right) as Jewell in the Clint Eastwood movie.
Though this didn't make it into the movie, the Richard Jewell true story confirms that he was obsessed with law enforcement and was always eager to accommodate. Him purposely wearing a bright shirt is included in Marie Brenner's February 1997 Vanity Fair article.