July 26, 2024 • 17 mins
Nancy and Sheryl open today’s CRU by recounting their experiences during the July 27th, 1996 bombing on Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia. They revisit the chaotic aftermath, the ensuing investigation, and the broader implications of the bombing. They also touch on the psychological toll on the responders, and the eventual capture of Eric Rudolph, who was responsible for multiple bombings.
Show Notes:
- (0:00) Welcome! Nancy and Sheryl introduce this week’s crime roundup
- (0:10) Sheryl gives an intro to the 1996 Olympic Bombing
- (1:00) Nancy Grace's initial reaction and chaos at the scene
- (5:20) Eric Rudolph's secondary devices and their dangers
- (11:30) The manhunt for Eric Rudolph
- (14:00) Preparations for future events
- (16:00) Closing thoughts
---
Nancy Grace is an outspoken, tireless advocate for victims’ rights and one of television's most respected legal analysts. Nancy Grace had a perfect conviction record during her decade as a prosecutor. She is the founder and publisher of CrimeOnline.com, a crime-fighting digital platform that investigates breaking crime news, spreads awareness of missing people, and shines a light on cold cases.
In addition, Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a daily show hosted by Grace, airs on SIRIUS XM’s Triumph Channel 111 and is downloadable as a podcast on all audio platforms - https://www.crimeonline.com/
Connect with Nancy:
X: @nancygrace
Instagram: @thenancygrace
Facebook: @nancygrace
Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice.
Connect with Sheryl:
Email: coldcase2004@gmail.com
Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
July twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six, an anonymous caller caused
the dispatch of the Atlanta Police Department and in just
eleven words, changed the history of the Olympic Games. The
caller said, there's a bomb in Centennial Park. You have
(00:29):
thirty minutes, y'all. In reality, we had twenty two minutes
and the bomb exploded. It was a forty pound pipe bomb,
the largest in American history. It killed Alice Hawthorne, a
TV cameraman, and one hundred and eleven other victims. And
tonight on the Crime Roundup, me and Nancy are going
(00:52):
to talk about what we went through, starting at one
twenty five am. Nancy Grace, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I remember it like it was yesterday. Cheryl. I happened
to be at the Olympics at that time, exactly. Little
did I know that one day I would actually work
at CNNHLN. But I was right in front of the
building and I got a call on my cell to
(01:22):
report immediately to a certain building to start interviewing witnesses,
and everything was going mad. I remember first hearing. At
the time, I didn't know it was a bomb, but
I heard an explosion. I didn't know what it was,
and people were running. I still didn't know what had happened.
Then I got a call within minutes, had to be
(01:45):
under thirty minutes to go to an office. I can't remember.
It was Cheryl. I have to think really long and hard,
and I went there with my and met my long
time colleague and friend, Al Dixon. We immediately started interviewing witnesses.
(02:07):
We didn't even know really the extent of everything.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know, you and I trained for years, and I
remember with the Crime Commission, they sent me to a
meeting and it was all the chiefs of police and
Chief Russell couldn't go. I went in his place, and
while we were all talking, I said, well, what are
we going to do if there's a mass disaster, even
a DUI bus crash of athletes or something that happens
(02:33):
in the village. And I said, you know, God forbid
something happens in Centennial Park, but I mean that would
be the obvious bulls eye. And they said, well, then
you're in charge of it. So now I had to
put together a crisis response team all over the state
of Georgia that could happen at any venue. And you
were so instrumental in helping that happen, all of the training,
(02:55):
anything we needed. You helped get the vest, you helped
get the cell phones. You know, helped us get everything
we needed.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I don't have a lot of talents, Cheryl. I think
we can all agree on that book. The memory, the
ability to remember facts, even minute facts about a case,
it just happens to be one thing I can do.
When I think about cases that I'm involved in personally,
like being there at the bomb and what time I
(03:25):
showed up to start questioning people and where the location was.
It's actually it's not fuzzy because it seems very clear,
but it just seems like it's all swirling around hearing
the bomb, not knowing what was going on, people running everywhere,
and knowing that something horrible had happened, but I didn't
(03:46):
know what and I was enough blocks away I couldn't
understand what had happened. And it was only when I
got the call I knew what had happened. When it's you,
when it's happening to you. I remember putting witnesses on
the stand a million times, Cheryl, and I'm like, what is.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Wrong with them?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Ant you they remember?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
They've told me their story a hundred times. When it's
you and you're on the seat, you're on the stand,
you have to tell what happened to you in that moment.
It's it's very disconcerting. Everything was like it's spinning around
in my head right now.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, you know for us too. I was in the
park and I left probably about twelve fifty. I had
just walked in my house, and I mean everything I
had started ringing. Back then. I still had a home
phone on the wall, my pager, my cell phone, everything
(04:52):
was ringing at the exact same time. And I knew
whatever it was was bad. But what also resonated for me,
and the reason this scene was more chaotic than normal
was we had friends there, not just that we're celebrating
the games, but that were own duty that were still
there with the GBI in Fulton County and APD and
(05:14):
DECAB and etc. So you're getting all these calls trying
to figure out who all is hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Can I just say, right here, before I forget Cheryl McCollum,
that pos Eric Rudolph. Remember he wasn't done yet. He
then bombed an abortion clinic. Then he set it up
so and I had an investigator that raced to the
(05:41):
scene of the abortion clinic bombing, and then he had
set up another bomb to go off like thirty minutes
later once all the law enforcement got there.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's right, that secondary device, and he did the same thing.
At the other side bombing, we had a rookie you
may remember this. He comes flying up parks right in
front of the dumpster. Remember that his car was right there,
Like he hit the yellow tape and everything, and everybody's like,
look at this clown, Like, what the world are you doing?
(06:11):
You don't even know where to park your car, Like
this is an active situation. That car took twelve hundred
pounds of trapnel. That secondary device could have been disastrous
for first responders. And we had a lot of good
friends there. Again, to me, that changes that scene for
(06:33):
you and I. We're not just working. Hey, this is
a crime scene. There's a victim we don't know. These
are now people that we know. Diddie Nelson, she was
right there. If that car had not been parked where
it was, she could have died.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
You know, when I look back on it, it's just
a swirl of pain and confusion. And even when al
who is if you'll recall Al Dickson trying cases much
more methodical, Well, let me not methodical even killed, because
(07:10):
I get mad during trials. I mean really mad and
really upset, like I mean, he was never that way,
and we were in there together and he was so calm,
and I'm like, my mind was just spinning, just spinning
thinking about what all had happened. At that time, we
(07:32):
didn't know how many people were killed, and of course
suspicion turned on Richard Jewel, and I will never forget.
I think I was on GMA and you know, the FBI,
everybody who's looking at Jewel, and I said, well, okay,
it's never a good thing when the FEDS are picking
through you're trash in your backyard. And people latched onto
(07:53):
that and insist, insisted. I said Jewel was guilty. That's
not true. It was just one of several suspects, and
we all knew that. But of course, when you know
you're in a two minute segment, you can't really get
that deeply into everything. But I always suspected. I mean,
when you looked at Richard Jewell, you know he played
(08:15):
in the band, It just it didn't feel right. It
didn't feel right. Yes, I knew the FEDS were picking
through his trash translation, I knew they were looking at
him long and hard, but it didn't feel right. That's
all I knew about Richard Jewell. I trusted the FBI
had a reason for looking at him, but it didn't
(08:37):
feel right. From the beginning, Eric Rudolph felt right.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
One and again, when you're taking this profile from this expert,
in this explanation from another expert, you're almost trying to
make something fit. It should never feel that way. It
should be this is our guy. And here's why. He's
got similar pipes in his basement. He's got wires, he's
(09:03):
got the black electrical tape. He had the same clock.
There's a receipt where he bought the backpack that was
never Richard Jewel. They never had that. They said, well,
as mama's got the same tubleware, Well so did you,
So did I, so did everybody, so did everybody. I mean,
if that's going to be your baseline, sugar, we were
(09:25):
all in trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Deep deep trouble. But looking back on it, and look
thinking now about what's happening in Paris, they're getting ready.
They were expecting fifteen million people to be there. I
think that so far there's only like three million confirmed
to come. They have completely closed down the river Sand
(09:46):
that's the beautiful river that is directly in front of
the Eiffel Tower, and it cuts through the whole city.
It's all. You can't walk along it and for blocks
and blocks and blocks on either side of the sound,
and you can't go there. If you live within that area.
You have to get special permission to break through a
(10:06):
barricade to get to your apartment or your home. And
they've had that in place for oh gosh, at least
two weeks to prepare for the Olympics. It's very wise
of them, very wise. But can we talk about Eric
Rudolf for a moment to leave, because it gets me very,
(10:29):
very emotional and upset to remember that night and Alan
and I were plugging a ray until oh gosh, I
remember looking to see what time it was and it
was almost four o'clock in the morning and we were
still still going, still trying to figure out what happened.
And at that time we didn't even know the extent
(10:51):
of what had happened. Eric Rudolph was one mean, soob
absolutely he was such a loaner. Many people thought that
he had, you know, accomplices, But he was the I mean,
(11:13):
the poster boy for loaner Nancy.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
He spent weeks in the nande Hae La forest by
himself as a little boy, fishing with string in one hook,
spending the night out there with no backpack, no flashlight,
no nothing. And I remember when all of us were
at Manuals and the big hunt was going on after
the FBI came in and took everything over.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Wait wait wait, wait wait, wait, back it up, back
it up. Me at Manuals, you were having dinner, Okay,
I just want to be clear. I was not bellied
up to the bar like some people who shall remain nameless.
You know, I'm a ta timer. Don't even start putting
me at a bar.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
No, no, no, you were there having dinner. We were
all exhausted. They opened the doors for us. We're all there,
and here's what I remember. All of us are sitting
the FBI. They have their command center like at the
base of this mountain, and all these agents and y'all,
this is not a slam. I'm painting a picture so
(12:15):
you understand what's happening. They're all on ATVs and they're
sitting there gathering all their equipment to go into this
forest to hunt for this man. And they all have
bottle water and bug spray, and it might even have
been Al Dixon, but one of the men I know
it was a man that could have been Al or
Jim Birch. They basically were like, they are never gonna
(12:39):
find him. He has been in that forest by himself
since he was a child.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He could smell that bug repellent a mile away.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
That's what I'm saying. They go in there smelling like Walmart.
It's a joke. He doesn't need bug spray, he doesn't
have bottle of water, and he's gonna be fine. And
then you remember all the pies that missing and occasionally
close on a clothesline go missing, and everybody up there
thinks it's him, but not a soul in those mountains
(13:08):
are saying a word. Those mountain folks, honey. They were
going to keep that secret and help him get away
from quote the government. But you know, I just remember again,
you know, that night and then when Alice Hawthorne was killed,
her daughter Fallon was with her, and Fallon and I
talk every twenty seven, and she's doing wonderful. She's just
(13:31):
a fantastic young lady now and has a family of
her own and is just doing remarkable. But that night, Nancy,
I say night because it I think it was a nighttime.
By the time I got to the hospital because she
had to have surgery, there stood Andy Young and doctor
Lowry and all of them, every single civil rights leader
(13:54):
that Atlanta ever had, was standing right there. And I
don't know, I just oh, here, this poor child has
lost her mama, and all these wonderful men are there
to pray with her and help comfort her. And you know,
what's scary enough to have surgery, but on top of
that to know your mama has been killed right in
(14:15):
front of you. And all they wanted to do was
drive to Atlanta from al Benny and see the flame.
They didn't even have tickets for a game. And then
they went to Centennial Park just to be in the
atmosphere of that wonderful party and hear the live music.
And that's what happened to him.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And remember when Rudolph played guilty, he was defiant. He
had no remorse, no regrets, nothing, nothing, And for what
he had no ideology. He borrowed ideas from various places.
He was basically anti government, anti abortion, anti gay, anti
(14:53):
a lot of things. And the bombings came from his
own prejudice, his own hatred of so many other people
that were different from him. He had no even real
theory as to why he was doing. He was just
consumed with hate, hate, And I pray to God, I
(15:13):
pray to God that these Olympics remain safe that are
about to go down in Paris. Right now. I got
to tell you something, you know, Cheryl, Normally I laugh
so much when you and I talk because we are
fighting crime to this day, and we have fought crime
for a really long time. But thinking back on that
(15:35):
night at the Olympics just brings me nothing but pain,
Nothing but pain.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I agree, But I'm going to end on a funny story.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Anyhow, good go ahead. So I'm sure it's a big,
tall tailed translation, Lie, it is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So after the other side bombing, they decided, hey, we've
got to put people under cover at all these bars.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
So you did's your part and volunteered.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Right showed in. So me and Leslie Bailey were sent
out to one bar. You, Leslie Bailey, you remember, Oh
my goodness, so they pick us. I mean, we have
both been with our significant others our whole life. Like, okay,
why don't y'all actually pick I don't know gay officers
(16:21):
to go out, but part of the Fulton County Sheriff's Reserve,
we volunteer, we go out. So we're at a bar
trying to pretend we're a couple. You would have died
laughing if you had seen us.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Okay, what bar the herefic?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I don't even know if I should name it, because
here's the deal. Listen, here's what happened. Leslie's trying to act,
of course, all romantic, and of course I'm like, girl,
everybody knows I could do better than you, you know,
be silly. Well about that time Pat coach Alone, you know, Pat,
she walks up and she's like, what are y'all doing?
Like it was the most obvious that we did not
(16:58):
belong in that bar.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That was the story. That's you're takeaway from the Olympic bombing.
That was it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Maybe I'm just saying, you know, Pat, here we're working
undercover and Pat coach Alone walks up like this ain't working.
Everybody knows y'all are not gay, and y'all don't blog here.
You know what.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All we can do now is pray. Right, all we
can do now is pray. I agree, and we've lived
to fight another day. Right on, bye, buddy.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm Cheryl McCollum and this is the crime round Up
with zones Have It
July twenty seventh, nineteen ninety six, an anonymous caller caused
the dispatch of the Atlanta Police Department and in just
eleven words, changed the history of the Olympic Games. The
caller said, there's a bomb in Centennial Park. You have
(00:29):
thirty minutes, y'all. In reality, we had twenty two minutes
and the bomb exploded. It was a forty pound pipe bomb,
the largest in American history. It killed Alice Hawthorne, a
TV cameraman, and one hundred and eleven other victims. And
tonight on the Crime Roundup, me and Nancy are going
(00:52):
to talk about what we went through, starting at one
twenty five am. Nancy Grace, Welcome, Welcome.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I remember it like it was yesterday. Cheryl. I happened
to be at the Olympics at that time, exactly. Little
did I know that one day I would actually work
at CNNHLN. But I was right in front of the
building and I got a call on my cell to
(01:22):
report immediately to a certain building to start interviewing witnesses,
and everything was going mad. I remember first hearing. At
the time, I didn't know it was a bomb, but
I heard an explosion. I didn't know what it was,
and people were running. I still didn't know what had happened.
Then I got a call within minutes, had to be
(01:45):
under thirty minutes to go to an office. I can't remember.
It was Cheryl. I have to think really long and hard,
and I went there with my and met my long
time colleague and friend, Al Dixon. We immediately started interviewing witnesses.
(02:07):
We didn't even know really the extent of everything.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
You know, you and I trained for years, and I
remember with the Crime Commission, they sent me to a
meeting and it was all the chiefs of police and
Chief Russell couldn't go. I went in his place, and
while we were all talking, I said, well, what are
we going to do if there's a mass disaster, even
a DUI bus crash of athletes or something that happens
(02:33):
in the village. And I said, you know, God forbid
something happens in Centennial Park, but I mean that would
be the obvious bulls eye. And they said, well, then
you're in charge of it. So now I had to
put together a crisis response team all over the state
of Georgia that could happen at any venue. And you
were so instrumental in helping that happen, all of the training,
(02:55):
anything we needed. You helped get the vest, you helped
get the cell phones. You know, helped us get everything
we needed.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
I don't have a lot of talents, Cheryl. I think
we can all agree on that book. The memory, the
ability to remember facts, even minute facts about a case,
it just happens to be one thing I can do.
When I think about cases that I'm involved in personally,
like being there at the bomb and what time I
(03:25):
showed up to start questioning people and where the location was.
It's actually it's not fuzzy because it seems very clear,
but it just seems like it's all swirling around hearing
the bomb, not knowing what was going on, people running everywhere,
and knowing that something horrible had happened, but I didn't
(03:46):
know what and I was enough blocks away I couldn't
understand what had happened. And it was only when I
got the call I knew what had happened. When it's you,
when it's happening to you. I remember putting witnesses on
the stand a million times, Cheryl, and I'm like, what is.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Wrong with them?
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Ant you they remember?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
You know?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
They've told me their story a hundred times. When it's
you and you're on the seat, you're on the stand,
you have to tell what happened to you in that moment.
It's it's very disconcerting. Everything was like it's spinning around
in my head right now.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Well, you know for us too. I was in the
park and I left probably about twelve fifty. I had
just walked in my house, and I mean everything I
had started ringing. Back then. I still had a home
phone on the wall, my pager, my cell phone, everything
(04:52):
was ringing at the exact same time. And I knew
whatever it was was bad. But what also resonated for me,
and the reason this scene was more chaotic than normal
was we had friends there, not just that we're celebrating
the games, but that were own duty that were still
there with the GBI in Fulton County and APD and
(05:14):
DECAB and etc. So you're getting all these calls trying
to figure out who all is hurt.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Can I just say, right here, before I forget Cheryl McCollum,
that pos Eric Rudolph. Remember he wasn't done yet. He
then bombed an abortion clinic. Then he set it up
so and I had an investigator that raced to the
(05:41):
scene of the abortion clinic bombing, and then he had
set up another bomb to go off like thirty minutes
later once all the law enforcement got there.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's right, that secondary device, and he did the same thing.
At the other side bombing, we had a rookie you
may remember this. He comes flying up parks right in
front of the dumpster. Remember that his car was right there,
Like he hit the yellow tape and everything, and everybody's like,
look at this clown, Like, what the world are you doing?
(06:11):
You don't even know where to park your car, Like
this is an active situation. That car took twelve hundred
pounds of trapnel. That secondary device could have been disastrous
for first responders. And we had a lot of good
friends there. Again, to me, that changes that scene for
(06:33):
you and I. We're not just working. Hey, this is
a crime scene. There's a victim we don't know. These
are now people that we know. Diddie Nelson, she was
right there. If that car had not been parked where
it was, she could have died.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
You know, when I look back on it, it's just
a swirl of pain and confusion. And even when al
who is if you'll recall Al Dickson trying cases much
more methodical, Well, let me not methodical even killed, because
(07:10):
I get mad during trials. I mean really mad and
really upset, like I mean, he was never that way,
and we were in there together and he was so calm,
and I'm like, my mind was just spinning, just spinning
thinking about what all had happened. At that time, we
(07:32):
didn't know how many people were killed, and of course
suspicion turned on Richard Jewel, and I will never forget.
I think I was on GMA and you know, the FBI,
everybody who's looking at Jewel, and I said, well, okay,
it's never a good thing when the FEDS are picking
through you're trash in your backyard. And people latched onto
(07:53):
that and insist, insisted. I said Jewel was guilty. That's
not true. It was just one of several suspects, and
we all knew that. But of course, when you know
you're in a two minute segment, you can't really get
that deeply into everything. But I always suspected. I mean,
when you looked at Richard Jewell, you know he played
(08:15):
in the band, It just it didn't feel right. It
didn't feel right. Yes, I knew the FEDS were picking
through his trash translation, I knew they were looking at
him long and hard, but it didn't feel right. That's
all I knew about Richard Jewell. I trusted the FBI
had a reason for looking at him, but it didn't
(08:37):
feel right. From the beginning, Eric Rudolph felt right.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
One and again, when you're taking this profile from this expert,
in this explanation from another expert, you're almost trying to
make something fit. It should never feel that way. It
should be this is our guy. And here's why. He's
got similar pipes in his basement. He's got wires, he's
(09:03):
got the black electrical tape. He had the same clock.
There's a receipt where he bought the backpack that was
never Richard Jewel. They never had that. They said, well,
as mama's got the same tubleware, Well so did you,
So did I, so did everybody, so did everybody. I mean,
if that's going to be your baseline, sugar, we were
(09:25):
all in trouble.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Deep deep trouble. But looking back on it, and look
thinking now about what's happening in Paris, they're getting ready.
They were expecting fifteen million people to be there. I
think that so far there's only like three million confirmed
to come. They have completely closed down the river Sand
(09:46):
that's the beautiful river that is directly in front of
the Eiffel Tower, and it cuts through the whole city.
It's all. You can't walk along it and for blocks
and blocks and blocks on either side of the sound,
and you can't go there. If you live within that area.
You have to get special permission to break through a
(10:06):
barricade to get to your apartment or your home. And
they've had that in place for oh gosh, at least
two weeks to prepare for the Olympics. It's very wise
of them, very wise. But can we talk about Eric
Rudolf for a moment to leave, because it gets me very,
(10:29):
very emotional and upset to remember that night and Alan
and I were plugging a ray until oh gosh, I
remember looking to see what time it was and it
was almost four o'clock in the morning and we were
still still going, still trying to figure out what happened.
And at that time we didn't even know the extent
(10:51):
of what had happened. Eric Rudolph was one mean, soob
absolutely he was such a loaner. Many people thought that
he had, you know, accomplices, But he was the I mean,
(11:13):
the poster boy for loaner Nancy.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
He spent weeks in the nande Hae La forest by
himself as a little boy, fishing with string in one hook,
spending the night out there with no backpack, no flashlight,
no nothing. And I remember when all of us were
at Manuals and the big hunt was going on after
the FBI came in and took everything over.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Wait wait wait, wait wait, wait, back it up, back
it up. Me at Manuals, you were having dinner, Okay,
I just want to be clear. I was not bellied
up to the bar like some people who shall remain nameless.
You know, I'm a ta timer. Don't even start putting
me at a bar.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
No, no, no, you were there having dinner. We were
all exhausted. They opened the doors for us. We're all there,
and here's what I remember. All of us are sitting
the FBI. They have their command center like at the
base of this mountain, and all these agents and y'all,
this is not a slam. I'm painting a picture so
(12:15):
you understand what's happening. They're all on ATVs and they're
sitting there gathering all their equipment to go into this
forest to hunt for this man. And they all have
bottle water and bug spray, and it might even have
been Al Dixon, but one of the men I know
it was a man that could have been Al or
Jim Birch. They basically were like, they are never gonna
(12:39):
find him. He has been in that forest by himself
since he was a child.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
He could smell that bug repellent a mile away.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
That's what I'm saying. They go in there smelling like Walmart.
It's a joke. He doesn't need bug spray, he doesn't
have bottle of water, and he's gonna be fine. And
then you remember all the pies that missing and occasionally
close on a clothesline go missing, and everybody up there
thinks it's him, but not a soul in those mountains
(13:08):
are saying a word. Those mountain folks, honey. They were
going to keep that secret and help him get away
from quote the government. But you know, I just remember again,
you know, that night and then when Alice Hawthorne was killed,
her daughter Fallon was with her, and Fallon and I
talk every twenty seven, and she's doing wonderful. She's just
(13:31):
a fantastic young lady now and has a family of
her own and is just doing remarkable. But that night, Nancy,
I say night because it I think it was a nighttime.
By the time I got to the hospital because she
had to have surgery, there stood Andy Young and doctor
Lowry and all of them, every single civil rights leader
(13:54):
that Atlanta ever had, was standing right there. And I
don't know, I just oh, here, this poor child has
lost her mama, and all these wonderful men are there
to pray with her and help comfort her. And you know,
what's scary enough to have surgery, but on top of
that to know your mama has been killed right in
(14:15):
front of you. And all they wanted to do was
drive to Atlanta from al Benny and see the flame.
They didn't even have tickets for a game. And then
they went to Centennial Park just to be in the
atmosphere of that wonderful party and hear the live music.
And that's what happened to him.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
And remember when Rudolph played guilty, he was defiant. He
had no remorse, no regrets, nothing, nothing, And for what
he had no ideology. He borrowed ideas from various places.
He was basically anti government, anti abortion, anti gay, anti
(14:53):
a lot of things. And the bombings came from his
own prejudice, his own hatred of so many other people
that were different from him. He had no even real
theory as to why he was doing. He was just
consumed with hate, hate, And I pray to God, I
(15:13):
pray to God that these Olympics remain safe that are
about to go down in Paris. Right now. I got
to tell you something, you know, Cheryl, Normally I laugh
so much when you and I talk because we are
fighting crime to this day, and we have fought crime
for a really long time. But thinking back on that
(15:35):
night at the Olympics just brings me nothing but pain,
Nothing but pain.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I agree, But I'm going to end on a funny story.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Anyhow, good go ahead. So I'm sure it's a big,
tall tailed translation, Lie, it is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
So after the other side bombing, they decided, hey, we've
got to put people under cover at all these bars.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
So you did's your part and volunteered.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Right showed in. So me and Leslie Bailey were sent
out to one bar. You, Leslie Bailey, you remember, Oh
my goodness, so they pick us. I mean, we have
both been with our significant others our whole life. Like, okay,
why don't y'all actually pick I don't know gay officers
(16:21):
to go out, but part of the Fulton County Sheriff's Reserve,
we volunteer, we go out. So we're at a bar
trying to pretend we're a couple. You would have died
laughing if you had seen us.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Okay, what bar the herefic?
Speaker 1 (16:37):
I don't even know if I should name it, because
here's the deal. Listen, here's what happened. Leslie's trying to act,
of course, all romantic, and of course I'm like, girl,
everybody knows I could do better than you, you know,
be silly. Well about that time Pat coach Alone, you know, Pat,
she walks up and she's like, what are y'all doing?
Like it was the most obvious that we did not
(16:58):
belong in that bar.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
That was the story. That's you're takeaway from the Olympic bombing.
That was it.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Maybe I'm just saying, you know, Pat, here we're working
undercover and Pat coach Alone walks up like this ain't working.
Everybody knows y'all are not gay, and y'all don't blog here.
You know what.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
All we can do now is pray. Right, all we
can do now is pray. I agree, and we've lived
to fight another day. Right on, bye, buddy.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm Cheryl McCollum and this is the crime round Up
with zones Have It
Host
Sheryl McCollum
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