04x09 - Chasing the Olympic b*mber Part 1

[bunniefuu]

- I declare open
the games of Atlanta.

- Everybody thought it was
the safest place in the world

and nothing's
going to happen.

- All of a sudden, boom!

- People began to scream.
They were crying.

People were hurt.

- Then there's another bombing.

- The ab*rtion clinic, where
a police officer was k*lled

and a nurse
was seriously wounded.

- We clearly believe that we are
dealing with a deranged k*ller.

- Someone notices someone
walking away from the scene.

- Now we have a suspect.

That launched probably one of
the most extensive manhunts

and fugitive investigations
in the FBI's history.

- Even as he was on the run,
he hadn't given up

trying to k*ll people.

He was planning to b*mb
the FBI command post.

- Time is of the essence.
People are dying.

And we don't know where the
next b*mb is going to go off.

[distant blast]

[Narrator]: In the FBI
we make a lot of headlines.

Drug busts, mob stings,

t*rror1st takedowns.

We understand why people
want to tell stories about us.

- Mark it.
- Freeze!

- FBI.
- FBI!

[Narrator]: But they
don't know the half of it.

What really goes down?

We save that for each other,

when we're talking
agent to agent.

This is FBI True.

July 27, 1996.
What was your assignment?

[Narrator]: Kristy Kottis is
a 24-year veteran of the FBI.

She worked gangs,
crimes against children

as well as human
and drug trafficking.

- I was a special agent
b*mb technician.

And I was dispatched to the
Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

[Narrator]: Frank Brostrom
served for 28 years in the FBI,

working as a special agent
b*mb technician

and was a joint
terrorism task force leader.

I was assigned to
lead a diagnostic team

like the other
special agent b*mb technicians.

When someone called in
a suspicious package,

we might do an X-ray
or a physical examination.

Then we were to contact
the command post

and they would
send a b*mb squad out.

- And Bill, how about you?

- I also was working as
a special agent b*mb technician.

[Narrator]:
Bill Forsyth is a retired

FBI special agent
b*mb technician,

serving on several
high profile cases,

including the Unabomber
and the Oklahoma City bombing.

- We were assigned that night

to be in the Olympic
Centennial Park.

There was a concert going on.
Jack Mack and the Heart Attack.

- Atlanta, you gotta
make some noise!

- The beer vendors were doing
very well, you could tell.

Think of 40,000 people

crammed into about


And the loud music.
It was hot, very hot.

So it's a few
minutes before 1 AM.

and we get a call to respond
to the base of the NBC tower

regarding a unattended backpack.

We met up with the security
officers that had called it in.

They went on to say that
there was these five young men

that were obviously overserved

with their beverages that night.

And they got up
and started to leave.

The security people asked them,
is that your backpack?

And they indicated
that it was not.

And they walked on.

So the security personnel
called into the command post.

My partner and I walk up
to the to the pack.

I'm not at all
concerned about it

because this is a very
routine call for us.

And my intention
was to pick it up

and to put it on the bench
where I could sort of open it

and examine
the insides more easily.

As I did...

That law enforcement
sixth sense came upon me.

Words came to my mind
that were almost audible

that said, stop.

You weren't trained like that.

I was just within inches of it,

and it was just this very
sickening feeling

in my, you know, in my gut.

I realized that I needed
to get my head in the game.

Got down on the ground and tried
to look to see if I could see

any kind of wires, if I could
see if I could hear ticking,

which I couldn't.

- Why couldn't
you hear anything?

You were down right
on top of it.

- It was because of
how loud the music was

and there was people
all around me.

[crowd cheering]

I reach up and I carefully
and very gingerly,

squeeze the pack to
kind of see if I can feel

if it squishes at all.

I can feel that it
was extremely firm

and definitely wasn't someone's
lunch or somebody's clothes.

As I flipped the flap back,

now I can see three large pipes.

And through the center of each
of the of each of the pipes

were wires coming out.

I can smell it.
I can almost taste it.

And now I'm close enough

that I can hear
the ticking of a clock.

- It's a b*mb.
- Oh, my God.

- Ready to explode.

This is what I refer to
as my BABE.

A big angry b*mb almost
ready to explode.

The real scary thing is I don't
know if it's the next second,

you know, if it's going to be
the next tick

or if we have 30 minutes
left on the timer,

and with each tick,
I'm getting more unnerved.

I'm in absolute shock.
I'm scared.

Is this going to be the end?

I was on my hands and knees.

People were tripping
over my feet.

It's just hard to
understand

just how crowded
and loud it was.

[crowd cheering]

I jump up, I talk to my partner,

I asked him to call
the command center,

tell them that we need the b*mb
squad here as soon as possible.

I went over and met
with the security people

and I told them we don't know
how much time we have.

And we need to get everybody
as far away from that device

as we can and get them out.

There must have been, you know,


- So when you're moving


from a festival where people are
c*ck up.

Are people still stumbling

and meandering into
the area you just cleared?

- It was a mess. Yeah.
It's like herding cats.

You know, only
they're drunken cats.

And that process of trying
to move people back

as far as we can,
our backs are to the device.

All of a sudden.

- Right about now we have

the privilege of
working with this...

[loud blast, then ringing]

- We were approximately


- Wait a minute. What?

- We have the privilege
of working with this...

[loud blast]

- What pushed us to the ground
was the blast wave.

At first I was just
in absolute shock.

And what was surreal about it

is that time almost stood still.

- Nobody's bothered you, right?
- Well...

[nearby blast]

- And everything in that park

for about three
or four seconds went quiet.

- During that quiet time,
were you like, am I still here?

- Well, yeah. I'm not sure
if I had, you know...

Had crossed over
to the other side or not.

Or, um...

People began to scream.
They were crying.

People were hurt.

I was dazed and everybody
around me was dazed.

There was officers beside
me who were bleeding.

And I wasn't sure
if I was hurt or not.

[sirens]

- Do you have any idea
how many are hurt?

- Well, there are people hurt,
that's all I can say.

There have been some injuries.

[reporter]: We talked to
one man who gave an account

of what appeared to him
be shrapnel wounds.

- This thing came down,
hit me in the leg,

I heard a couple pieces
of metal land on the ground.

- This is a piece of shrapnel,
it was hot four minutes ago.

It hit me in the head.

- There was steel hitting people

and we were rushing
people to medical.

And we came out here and
this lady just fell over.

- Now we have
this huge crime scene.

There's officers
and other agents

that are picking stuff up.

Pandemonium is going on.

People are tramping
through our crime scene.

I was walking around trying
to look for, you know,

used napkins, just
anything that we could use

to maybe help control bleeding.

And that's when I came across

Alice Hawthorne.

- Tell me about
Alice Hawthorne.

- Alice Hawthorne was there at
the park that night

with her daughter.

They were enjoying the concert.

She was actually sitting
about another 45 feet

from where we were at, just over
my shoulder and to the left.

And her daughter was sitting
right next to her.

Kristy, there was
at least 10,000 people

that was between her
and where we were trying to

move people back.

There was at least two large
pieces of pipe that hit her.

And somehow they
missed all of us.

All of us and all of
the other people in between.

And she didn't survive this.

[reporter]:
One person was k*lled.

She's been identified as Alice
Hawthorne of Albany, Georgia.

- I'm still having trouble now

really believing
that she's not here.

- We must not let these attacks
stop us from going forward.

We cannot let terror win.

The Olympics will continue.
The games will go on.

The Olympic spirit will prevail.

[trumpet playing]

- It's the next day
after the carnage.

- Now we're on high alert.

I just remember running from
incident to incident,

call to call to call.

- Is this because it
was not just security

and law enforcement
calling it in,

but citizens were now more aware

and were feeling
a little bit panicked?

Absolutely, kind of like when
you have a major crime,

they put out an 800 number,
and you just get 1000 calls.

Anybody that saw anything.

Our first call was a briefcase
sitting under a tree.

Who's gonna leave a briefcase
sitting under a tree?

We're thinking this is
the next b*mb, right?

Your heart rate's up,
you're thinking, you know,

I can be Bill, we might be
facing this next threat.

And you can't call the b*mb
squad to every call,

'cause there are so many.

And you want to just say, let's
bring the b*mb squad first,

but you can't,
we're a diagnostic team.

So we had to try
to minimize that

and see if we could
clear it ourselves.

We were able to get an X-ray
really quick and determined

that this briefcase
was not an IED.

- So Bill, what's the next
thing you remember?

- Well, it was about 11 AM
when I found out that

there was a 911 call
the night before,

presumably by the b*mber
in relation to the pack.

The 911 call that came in
at the Centennial Park

it had a male voice and it
warned that the b*mb

would go off in 30 minutes,

when in fact it was
more like 20 minutes.

That means one of two things.

He meant to harm somebody,
to w*r that you had 30 minutes

to catch people off guard.

Or something happened
in the timing

with the initiation
of the b*mb.

- Bill's on top of it, and had
no idea there was a 911 call.

- Correct.

[Bill]: Between bad phone
connections and jammed lines

at the police command center,
the 911 call

didn't get passed
on to us in time.

I had worked
all through the night

and into the afternoon
of the of that same day.

- Oh my God, so you've almost
been up now for 24 hours.

- Yeah, yeah.

And so I was
emotionally spent.

But I couldn't get to sleep.

And so I turn on the TV, and I
see one of the security guards.

- I am a person that did the job
that I was supposed to do.

- So you turn on the TV
and you see the security guard

that you recognized
from the night before.

And this is where
you learned his name?

- Richard Jewell.

- I was in the right place
at the right time.

And used my training
in the way I was taught.

- I remember the only time that
I had talked to him or saw him

was after we determined
that this was a b*mb for sure

and we need to get people away.

So obviously,
it sparked my attention

with what he was trying
to communicate and convey.

- What was he saying
that surprised you?

First of all,
he was taking credit

for finding the b*mb.

- I spotted the bag laying on
the ground under the bench.

[reporter]:
And what did it look like?

- It looked like a green bag.

I can't really get much
more detail than that.

Once we identified it as a
suspicious package,

we, neither one of us
got too much closer to it.

- They noticed that there was
a backpack on the ground,

we didn't know it was a b*mb
until I opened the pack

and looked inside.

- I feel for the victims
and their families.

And I just hope we catch
the people that did it.

Because, I just,
we did everything we could.

- Is that the only time
you saw him on TV?

- No, he was on a lot.

He was became quite
a celebrity for a while.

[Jewell]: I just happened to be
at the right place

at the right time

and did the job that
I was trained to do.

- And there was a myriad of
other things that started

going through my mind, one
of which was

the 1984 Summer Olympics
in Los Angeles,

where we had a law enforcement
officer make,

place, discover and dismantle

a device that was
to get credit

and to bolster
a struggling career.

[Kristy]: Richard Jewell
had some indicators.

He had been arrested
and prosecuted

for impersonating
a police officer,

where he
arrested an individual.

[Bill]:
And Mr. Jewell was not assigned

to work that night in the park.

And he traded with someone
that was there closer

to the tower and to the stage.

We had to consider him
as a person of interest.

[Bill]: Richard Jewell
was a person

that we could not overlook.

There was just a lot
of unusual things,

coupled with his background
that we found out about.

[man]: FBI has suspect b*mber.

[reporter]: Richard Jewell
has gone from a hero

to a man under siege.

- Can you stop for
a second please?

- Can you categorically say
that you did not do this?

- I did not do it.

- The FBI invited Richard Jewell
to come in and talk about

first responders under
the guise of,

hey, look, this is
a training video.

And he was all happy to come
in and talk about that

and was willing.

[Bill]: We had to figure out
a way to read him his rights

without scaring him away.

[FBI agent]: I'd like to preset
you with this form,

I'd like you to
kind of read it over,

tell me if you understand
everything that's on that form.

- I don't know if I should
call an attorney now or not,

cause I don't know
if this video is for...

I don't know if I'm being
investigated for this,

or if this is for what you
have told me it is for.

- Richard Jewell
answered every question

the agents asked him
during the interview.

- Did they read him
his Miranda Rights?

- No, they did not.

- This was
a noncustodial interview

and you read
someone their rights

when they're in a custody
situation, and he was not.

He was invited to the office,
he came voluntarily.

- Often we offer main subjects
in matters

to come in and talk to us.

And surprisingly
a lot of them do.

- Regardless,
he requested an attorney

and he ended the interview.

And that's how
it's supposed to work.

- This is to advise you that
based on the evidence

developed to date,
your client, Richard Jewell,

is not considered a target
of the federal

criminal investigation
into the bombing

on July 27th, 1996,

at Centennial Olympic Park
in Atlanta.

- Frank, so, what
else is happening

during the investigations
in Atlanta?

What else is going on
that you guys learned?

- So, the Atlanta Olympics ends.

We're working every
lead that we have,

but we don't have
anything solid to go on.

Then, six months later,

we get information about the
Sandy Springs bombing

of the women's clinic
near Atlanta.

So in the women's clinic,
the b*mb goes off.

Nobody's k*lled.

I don't even think it
was open at the time.

And so you got first
responders coming,

and while they're standing
there with the cameras rolling

in the parking lot between
the cars and the garbage bin,

boom, a dynamite b*mb goes off.

[reporter]: Where were
you in the building

and where was
the expl*si*n?

[expl*si*n]

Oh my God!

[sirens]

- Back off the street!

- The secondary
devices are intended

to target first responders.

[blast]

[man]: Get back,
get back, let's go!

[reporter]: That blast,
felt for miles,

tore through a dumpster on
the other side of the building.

- Whoa, we had
a b*mb just go off.

- Our whole ER room and our
recovery room is gone.

Our whole clinic is gone.

- Then there's another
b*mb that goes off.

Right, the l*sbian bar called
the Other Side Lounge.

There's a bombing there.

Again, no one's
injured or k*lled.

But when the first
responders arrive,

a secondary device
is located.

And again, the secondary device
is planted far enough back

and to the side of the parking
lot where people are pulling in,

that's going to detonate and
harm or k*ll first responders.

After getting everybody to a
safe distance, they use a robot.

They want to try to
preserve the evidence.

So they use the robot arm
to try to take this

and get photographs
as they're opening the pack.

And as it slowly
kind of with its hook arm,

you know, pulling it apart

and something happens
and the b*mb goes off.

- What ties the three
bombings together now

is the metal plate.

[Kristy]: So we're talking about
the Centennial Park bombing,

the women's clinic bombing

and the l*sbian bar bombing
are tied together.

And how we know this?

[Bill]: The first b*mb
in Olympic Centennial Park

was three 14 inch pipes.

They were large pipes
with cement nails

and wood screws glued
to the outside of the pipe

to add more shrapnel so that
more people can be injured.

I also saw a steel plate
the b*mb was resting on.

The plate was used
to directionalize

the blast spray
as it goes off.

The connection is they all have
the steel plate

and they're used to
directionalize the force,

almost like a shaped charge.

Forensically,
we were able to find out

that all three metal pieces

came from the same
sheet of steel.

- Probably the same
person made them?

- Yes.

- Then the investigative
team received a letter

that was claiming credit for
the two most recent bombings,

at the g*y nightclub
and the women's health clinic.

And it contained
statements that expressed

really extreme ideology.

The letter was signed
"Army of God."

As our investigation progressed,

we learned that he targeted
the Olympics to protest ab*rtion

and because he thought the games
promoted global socialism.

- We clearly believe that we are
dealing with a deranged k*ller.

[Frank]: Time is of the essence.
People are dying.

And we don't know where the
next b*mb is going to go off.

- Then there's another
b*mb that goes off.

- The Birmingham
ab*rtion clinic b*mb.

The bad guys actually waited
for the proper moment

to cause as much harm and death
as he could when it detonated.

- He pulls the switch.

- He's willing to k*ll.
He's committed.

- Someone notices someone is
walking away from the scene.

- Now we have a suspect.

- That launched probably one
of most extensive manhunts

and fugitive investigations
in the FBI's history.

Even as he was on the run,

he hadn't given up
trying to k*ll people.

He was planning to b*mb
the FBI command post.