From USA Today:
Former security guard Richard Jewell, who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.
Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.
“There’s no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play. He had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems,” said Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley.
The GBI planned to do an autopsy Thursday, Bankhead said.
Lin Wood, Jewell’s longtime attorney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he was “devastated” by the news. He declined to comment further, saying he was in New York trying to get back to Atlanta.
Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm’s way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.
The blast killed one and injured 111 others.
Three days after the bombing, an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described him as “the focus” of the investigation.
Other media, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation. He was never arrested or charged, although he was questioned and was a subject of search warrants.
As recently as last year, Jewell was working as a sheriff’s deputy.
Eighty-eight days after the initial news report, then-U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander issued a statement saying Jewell “is not a target” of the bombing investigation and that the “unusual and intense publicity” surrounding him was “neither designed nor desired by the FBI, and in fact interfered with the investigation.”
Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala. Those explosives killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.
Rudolph was captured after spending five years hiding out in the mountains of western North Carolina. He pleaded guilty to all four bombings last year and is serving life in prison.
Jewell told the AP last year that Rudolph’s conviction helped, but he believed some people still remember him as a suspect rather than for the two days in which he was praised as a hero.
“For that two days, my mother had a great deal of pride in me  that I had done something good and that she was my mother, and that was taken away from her,” Jewell said around the time of the 10th anniversary of the bombing. “She’ll never get that back, and there’s no way I can give that back to her.”
Notes Ace:
The media was pretty eager to run with that [Jewell-as-attention-whore/mad bomber] story. “Local security cop finds bomb evidence FBI didn’t, ergo he must be a crazed psychopath in on the crime.” It’s almost as if they don’t believe someone could just have a quite-healthy interest in protecting the public from harm, or have difficulty accepting the possibility that someone not formally credentialed by a prestigious institution could have any talents to contribute to society.
Well, that — and because some of them have no capacity to act selflessly themselves, they can’t even fathom that people exist who aren’t as cynical and self-centered as they are.
The power of the press, indeed.
Jewell had a difficult time holding a job, it seems. In addition to the Meriwether sheriff’s office, he also worked for a time for the police departments of Senoia and Luthersville, both towns near my Coweta County home (Luthersville is in Meriwether County, Senoia is in Coweta). What the Urinal-Constipation did to him is just one more reason why I’ve utterly refused to subscribe to it the whole time I’ve lived in metro Atlanta — though there was never any shortage even before the Atlanta Olympics.
I remember feeling absolutely horribly for the guy. Really brought home how our press had just become a rumor mill with Journalism School credentials and an “austere” history.
44. So young. I’d say he’s led a more useful life than many, though. I hope he’s where good deeds maybe get rewarded.
Well, that  and because some of them have no capacity to act selflessly themselves, they can’t even fathom that people exist who aren’t as cynical and self-centered as they are.
I’ve concluded this based my first hand experiences with bleeding heart liberals. They do not practice what they preach, particularly when comes to help to selflessly helping people.
Selflessly helping others does not lead to big bureaucracies. Nor 28,000 sq. ft mansions.
It does say something that at the time Mr. Jewell went and did his job. You know, that funny archaic word, “duty”.; and that the press thought that very unusual.
If somebody ever writes a history of journalism, this whole episode has to be included on their list of Top 10 examples of why the MSM is teh suxxor.
What 44 year old dies of natural causes?
The GBI. I’m so sure.
Diabetic 44 year olds do. It’s actually a common Southern affliction, what with our fatty, sugary diet, and our morbid obesity. Jewell was a real load, as you can probably see from photos online.
Crisz, he died from complications of diabetes.
An opportunity for self-pimpage: You can see pictures I took of a Korean dance troupe in Olympic Park in Atlanta during the Olympics. Go here, and scroll down to Sunday, November 27, 2005.
“Jewell had a difficult time holding a job, it seems. In addition to the Meriwether sheriff’s office, he also worked for a time for the police departments of Senoia and Luthersville, both towns near my Coweta County home (Luthersville is in Meriwether County, Senoia is in Coweta).”
Maybe his problem was that he was formally credentialed by too many prestigious institutions.
Yeah, that’s got to be it. The credentials killed him.
So, how’s law school going, markel?
Should I go? I’ve heard lawyers make a lot of money. But also that they work too much. Doesn’t sound like a smart trade-off.
Working a lot and making a lot of money does not sound so bad as compared to living in a corner of your parents unfinished basement.
You’d have thought they’d have learnt something from that experience (or at least felt bad about it) — but then the media, and the FBI (including A.G Ashcroft) did the same to Dr. Steven Hatfill.
But really, how’s law school going? I didn’t say you should go, I just asked how law school is treating you.
RIP, Mr. Jewell. It would be nice to think we learned from our mistakes.
You could be a journalist.
There’s really no money to be made in law school. Afterwards, maybe. How’s that going, anyway?
markel-
Should I go? I’ve heard lawyers make a lot of money. But also that they work too much. Doesn’t sound like a smart trade-off.
I know a guy that makes $8700/yr collecting bottles and cans… but, he’s probably much smarter than you.
May I suggest the “Rat Suit” at your local “Chuck E. Cheese”– it seems appropriate for both your knowledge and conduct…
[comment removed to keep toxic stupidity from making the comments section uninhabitable for years to come. Hazmat suit used – ed]
Uh, this is from the post, genius:
Do me a favor and don’t post here any more. You creep me out, and your drinking or pill popping commits you to writing sentences whose internal referents remain buried somewhere inside your skull. Which is why they come off as so strangely paranoid.
And I’ve had experience with that kind of commenter.
If you don’t take me seriously, then you have no reason to be here, commenting constantly on how you don’t take me seriously.
It’s your only point — a kind of serial, obsessive point — and we all have internalized your criticisms to the extent that we’re going to.
Your work here is done. Go peddle the crazy elsewhere.
Fucking nutjob.
OK yeah that’s a bad sentence, but “anti-government extremist” is pretty darn neutral there. I guess it being Jewell and all they were on good behavior today.
Jeffy, calm down. I didn’t know this was some sort of restroom club that others were not let into.
Your cut and paste was clear. I was only commenting on your and other’s comments.
Your and others’ comment on the MSM is not complete without the same examination of why Rudoplh was able to survive for so long bfore he was caught.
The man that you are now profiting from (hit, blegs, etc) was not the one who did this.
You, Jeffy, decided to make your like cave here on the internets the place that those few, Darleen, JD, Pablo, can call home.
You did that Jeffy, not me.
Jeff G – She is really fixated on you, and even moreso, on rightwingsparkle. She needs help.
happyfeet=jeffy and not worth responding to.
Hey Mechgee, I live in Senoia! I met Richard in his brief time as a cop here. He was simple as dirt (Which is a damned good thing.) and just wanted to be a cop. That’s all he wanted man.
Do we ask a person a week not to post here? I thought we weren’t supposed to feed the trolls.
Okay, clearly another tactic is in order.
If you note Michelle comments disappearing, that’s me disappearing them. Because she’s more than a moron, she’s a stalker.
Bye bye now.
Why yes I do. Thanks for caring.
You are still a complete fucking nutjob.
Jeff – I will quit responding to her lunacy. My bad.
She can really bring teh krazie.
What is it about socialist women in the teaching profession?
By the way, anybody here support Eric Rudolph or his methods? Anybody here support Olympic Park bombings?
Anyone?
Thought not.
MYSTERY SOLVED!
Michelle. You have a face like a constipated troll and the mind of a seventh grader who’s been picked on by the popular girls.
You are a pit of bile, and you do nothing — nothing — but stalk and prattle.
Seek help. You need it. Desperately.
Comment again, and I’m posting your picture.
Eric Rudolph was hiding out in my basement, and I smuggled leftovers down to the basement to feed him, without my wife and daughter knowing, the entire time.
While I have a real job, and I won’t be able to entertain you in this way for long, look for me every time you all act up.
Later Taters
[she’ll give up soon enough, I hope]
[removed by “Jeffy”. Some people can’t take a hint. Others can’t take a direct request to bugger off. The University of Houston-Downtown scored a real coup when they hired this “lady,” wouldn’t you say?]
Here is Michelle Estep in all her glory — with the very kind of pinched countenance one would expect to find on such a lonely would-be provocateur.
Buzz off, honey. I’m serious. I’ve asked you not to comment, so don’t. This is not a progressive site, so your entitlements are precisely nil.
Jeffy, have you figured out how to complain?
[I haven’t considered it until now, Michelle. But if you keep posting here after I’ve asked you to stop, I’ll figure it out. And you can ask around about how good I am at it.
Now stop posting here. Vamoose. Scat. I’m serious]
Thanks a lot, Jeff. Nightmares for sure, now.
I’ll ask again. Jeffy, have you found a way to conplain?
That was kinda surreal. She needs to change her dose.
I haven’t considered it until now, Michelle. But
BS, you have done so already.
Uh, no, Michelle, I have not. Ever. Not once. Even considered it. Much less wasted my time doing so.
You mean nothing to me. But as I’ve asked you to stop commenting, and you refuse, even though I’ve deleted your comments, here’s the path I’d take were I interested in forcing you to stop:
Were I so inclined, I would gather up your posts — and my requests that you stop stalking this site — and start here:
University of Houston-Downtown
English Language Institute
Ms. Gail Kellersberger, Director
One Main Street
Houston, TX 77002
U.S.A.
Telephone: 1-713-221-8047
Fax: 1-713-221-8546
e-mail: eli@uhd.edu
Or, if I wished to go further, here:
Castillo, Max President Office of the President 713-221-8001 S-990 Castillo@uhd.edu
Having had previous experiences with a stalker, I already have an attorney who would make the calls for me. Last time, I didn’t delete the comments, because I had some idealistic notions about free exchange of ideas. But you have no ideas to offer — only a kind of pervasive creepiness.
Take a hint. And buzz off.
Once upon a time, I was at a bar in Gainesville to see Cheap Trick in concert. There was this chick there who was acting pretty whacked out. She kept going up to these guys in front of us trying to talk to them. I couldn’t hear what was being said, but it was plain that they had decided she was nuts. They would look at each other and laugh and shrug, then go back to watching the band. Finally, the girl just took her purse and turned it upside down, emptying all the contents at one of the guys’ feet. He looked at her like “wtf?” and then stepped over a few paces and went back to watching the concert. She sat down in the floor then, and spent the rest of the evening picking her shit up out of the floor, and slowly putting it back in her purse. Strange.
I can’t be certain, but I strongly suspect that drugs were involved.
Ards – This is likely similar, though I suspect that it is the failure to take the prescribed drugs that is driving this one.
Figures — Cougar High prof (actually, the downtown branch job would make her more of a Cougar High Triple-A prof).
My wife has friends who work fairly high up in the UH system. They’re reasonable, good people who wouldn’t take kindly to Teh Krazy being bandied about by one of theirs. Just sayin’.
“Here is Michelle Estep in all her glory  with the very kind of pinched countenance one would expect to find on such a lonely would-be provocateur.”
Equity feminism strikes again. Touche!
OT — Hilly Kristal died (only a year after being forced to close the legendary CBGBs in the Bowery), and this makes us very, very sad.
I’ll leave it to Karl to write a better obit for him on his site (when he recovers from the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome), and I’ll just say that without him, we probably never hear of the Ramones, Television, Talking Heads, and Patti Smith…and Malcolm McLaren and Pete Shelley and Paul Weller and so many more never hear of them, either. One guy took a chance on strange bands he didn’t think anybody would like, and they changed the notion of what music is and isn’t.
Yeah. Not like I’ve ever taken shots at the appearance of men, right?
I’m going to take your comment to mean you support this kind of stalking, even in light of the history of such happenings here.
Which means you can buzz off, too, Markel.
Jeff,
I do believe Michelle is desperate for attention, and sadly we feed her need for attention by replying to her posts. Treat her like the spoiled misbehaving child she is and ignore her, and once she realizes no one is paying any mind to her, she will stop and troll somewhere else.
markel, In Re #51: if you don’t know what happened about a year ago with “she who shall not be named”, I think you ought to do a little research before ragging on Jeff about this. I’m just sayin’.
Have you ever noticed that professional “educators” cannot spell, have no understanding of grammer, and usually cannot communicate ideas effectively?
I have done a lot of legal work defending public schools in various kinds of lawsuits and in the course of such work have had to pour through teachers’ personnel files and otherwise communicate with teachers in writing.
I have found that most have the writing abilities of high school freshmen at best – and usually not even that high a level. If you look at M’s writings here or at her website, or she who will not be named’s writings, they follow the same pattern, lack of spelling, grammer, and ability to effectively communicate thoughts and ideas.
Now, everyone misspells words, has typos, and makes grammer errors at times. But, I’m talking about consistent errors of that nature.
I have no real point here, just something I have noticed over many years of representing and dealing with such “educators.” Also, b/c many of my cases deal with teachers as plaintiffs, I’ve noticed that the teaching profession seems to have a much higher share of crazy people than the norm. I don’t know if such over-representation of crazy is from the strange sense of entitlement that comes with the overpaid, underworked, almost impossible to fire, teaching profession, or the fact that they basically live their whole lives in the world of children. I have to assume, based on many examples at this site and elsewhere, that the same holds true for college-level “educators.” And, indeed, I have had a few such cases representing colleges which followed the same pattern, but not nearly as many.
I would love to see a study done on this sort of thing. All I know is, being intimate with the people who make up the teaching profession in the public shools around where I live, I would never, never, never send any children to such schools.
Caveat – I know that there are some very good and dedicated public school teachers out there. My experience, however, is that such individuals are the exception.
Now, everyone misspells words, has typos, and makes grammer errors at times.
Yes. Yes, they do.
(Pssst, it’s “grammar.”)
Damn, I knew that too. I’m sure there are other misspellings and grammar errors in my comment as well.
However, keep in mind that I am talking about the difference between a comment that I wrote quickly to post anonymously to a web-site, and a formal document, be it a letter, an employment application or something else that is going to reflect on the person’s competence and professionalism. Those are the type of documents I was reviewing and finding glaring spelling, grammar, and basic competence errors.
I go away for 12 hours to eat and sleep and I miss a troll infestation?
Lesson learned: never sleep!
Now, everyone misspells words, has typos
And/Or has a bad case of eye-floaters.
Yeah, a Grammer mistake is Down Periscope. Or flipping over a new Dodge Viper.
Argh, SarahW, why did you have to bring that up? The only thing worse than growing old is the alternative. I was fine until I woke up one morning with several floaters in my right eye. It makes trying to swat a mosquito on the right side a real adventure…
That was the impression I got, though I never met him myself.
That he died from diabetes just plain hurts. I was already 45 when I was diagnosed and six months later I sometimes, in my stupider moments, almost allow myself to think I’ve beaten it.
MarkD:
I’ll see you those floaters and raise you Fuchs Corneal Dystrophy. It sounds horrific but is only a pain when symtomatic. The inner corneal cells (epitheleal) swell causing moistute to not move very efficiently. Pressure pain, perpetual dry eye and irritation ensue. I’m now taking drops and ointments, cursing the 2 other optometrists who missed it when it was asymptomatic.
whining over…
>>”She can really bring teh krazie. What is it about socialist women in the teaching profession?”
You forgot about the ones with twenty cats.
Eleanor Abernathy perhaps?
I’m thinking she may be a man trapped in a woman’s body, or perhaps may regret a procedure that’s been completed.
For some reason, an image of D.J. Qualls comes to mind.
http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Qualls,_DJ/gallery/SGG-010678/
I remember when the media was hounding this guy. Leno would do jokes about him being overweight. I wondered then why someone who’s sole “crime” was saving people’s lives had to put up with being ridiculed on national tv about his weight. I wondered how he would have been treated if he looked like Brad Pitt.
So, just so we’re clear, no one who disagrees with us is allowed on this thread? or any other?
yeah, that’s the lesson to be learned. Also no tall people. Clearly the case here.
vandalay – feel free to disagree. But be prepared to back it up with facts and sources and then be prepared to back those up. its called running with the big dogs in the high grass – u got to bring your A game on here.
Simply spouting tired lefty talking points (Bush Lied, Marines Died, Blood for Oil, etc, etc) will get you the intellectual spanking you deserve.
On the other hand, being a douchebag (aka Markel/Actus/Timmyb) or bringing on the crazy will get you the back door … and really its only after really persisting in being a MEGA TOOL and adding no value – our host here has tolerated some who have long since worn out any welcome.
Vandalay —
You can disagree here. You just can’t ignore the post topic, turn the thread into a spectacle of your own lunacy, poke at the site owner, and then hope to be invited in for scones.
I’m old school that way.
I would suspect Vandalay knows all that, but its much more fun to play with the straw man.
Teh krazy tends to attract teh krazy.
Did the Atlanta Journal Constitution ever apologize to him in a manner equivalent to the manner in which they attempted to ruin his life?
That hysterical laughter you hear from far away? That’s me. The Urinal-Constipation, apologize for ruining an innocent man’s life?
You were kidding, right?
Argh! Too late to the party. I agree entirely with the concerns over media bias, but in this case, there needs to be some clear, out-loud public acknowledgement that it was the FBI who leaked to the media that Jewell was a “person of interest” to fuel the flames, with subsequent FBI leaks smearing the man. I just don’t think it’s fair to lay this particular injustice all on the media without simultaneously pointing out that the FBI was most culpable in that unfortunate spectacle. The media were likely willing accomplices I agree, but it was vermin within the FBI who are most to blame. Given that that to this day, they never issued an apology to Jewell (that I’m aware of), the FBI’s actions were unforgiveable.
McGehee – My bet is they never apologized, even at the point where their liability insurance carrier was cutting a fat check to Mr. Jewell.
The case of Jewell and That disgusting newspaper was still in progress. As the disgusting paper itself states. They’re pretty happy about that I suspect.
Jeffy it didn’t work.
Whatever you and your ding-dongs did, didn’t work.
I’m still employed.
Jeffy, since you know so much about me that you decided it was ok to post it, did it give you any satisfaction? Did you achieve any ends except to annoy?
Look podpeople: Stop coming to my blogs. You are annoying.
Questions? Ask the dip that runs this circus. His name is Jeffy.
I don’t get it.
What?
In case you hadn’t noticed, nutjob, the minute you quit commenting, I took all the info down.
Now you’ve come back again — using yet another name — against my express wishes that you keep clear of my site. So back up it goes.
As for what I’ve done to this point — precisely nothing. But that’s fixing to change, and quickly, if you keep posting here.
Don’t try me, Michelle. I’m serious. As serious as you are a pathetic lunatic seething with jealousy over the fact that Sparkle wasn’t cursed with the same pinched maw as you, and that I have readers who actually care about what I write, and don’t show up at my site just to share lonely stories about their cats.