TWINBOMB
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Flashpoint is released weekly and brought to you absolutely free. But for ad-free listening, early access, and exclusive bonuses, subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. You're listening to Flashpoint, a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeartMedia. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast.

This podcast also contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Hey Richard, would you mind stopping for a second? Can you stop for a second please? Can you turn around? What kind of questions were they asking? For months, Richard Jewell, the security guard who was initially hailed a hero for discovering the bomb, was investigated by law enforcement and bombarded by the press, who framed him as the prime suspect.

They speculated that he was a villainous attention seeker, one suffering from hero syndrome. It's also called the Messiah complex. A person who wants to be godlike. It's again that power thing. They want to feel superior to all others. Then, six months later, those accusations quietly faded after he was cleared by the U.S. government. With regard to Richard Jewell, I deeply regret that his name was leaked to the media.

This not only damaged Mr. Jewell and his reputation, but it caused the FBI substantial damage to its investigation. Richard answered a lot of questions. The FBI and other law enforcement followed up. And at the end of the day, there certainly wasn't substantial evidence. It looked like he didn't do it. Retired U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander remembers the manhunt for the Centennial Park bomber well.

He showed up to our interview in a 1996 Atlanta Olympics polo with a framed letter that he sent to Richard Jewell during the investigation. Can you read the letter? Sure. It's addressed to Jack Martin, who's one of several attorneys for Richard Jewell. It says,

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 27, 1996, at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. Barring any newly discovered evidence, the status will not change. I'm hopeful that Mr. Jewell will provide further cooperation as a witness in the investigation. Sincerely, Kent B. Alexander, U.S. Attorney. After clearing Richard Jewell,

The FBI, ATF, and GBI, collectively known as the Scent Bomb Task Force, were left with really no leads. We had no shortage of potential bombers. The more you dig into things, you realize there are just a lot of crazy people out there. So there wasn't one particular suspect.

In fact, at that point, there was still a poster that some agent had drawn up. It was a squiggly figure of a guy sitting on a bench and something under the bench, and then written in black marker was, you know, wanted by the FBI.

We called him Blob Man because there was a picture of the actual bomber, but it was so grainy that we could make out no facial features at all. So you just basically had this guy who looked like kind of a blob sitting on the bench. So that Blob Man pretty much captured the investigation. There were plenty of people we kept looking at, but nobody really jumped to four as the likely bomber, much less the primary suspect. Episode 2, Twin Bomb.

My wife at the time and I, we had twins arrive about eight months previous. So it was kind of a crazy household when you get invaded with kids all of a sudden. So my day started at 4 a.m. and it was just a regular work day. It's January 16th, 1997, six months after the bombing at the Olympics. And Rob Stadler is the news director at Star 94, a popular radio station in Atlanta.

And because we have the twins, I was able to get away after the show ended at 9 and go to my wife's law office, which was located on the third floor of the Sandy Springs Professional Building. Just off Roswell Road, the Sandy Springs Professional Building was a three-story complex that housed a handful of different offices. On the top floor was Rob's wife's law firm. On the first...

was Atlanta Northside Planning Services, an abortion clinic. Rob's wife was a few counties north that morning for a trial. We'd set up a kind of a nursery inside the office, so I would stop by and scoop him up and take him home, and it was dad duty the rest of the day. And I called the office up on my cell phone, and it was probably the most important call I made in my life.

I told them, the folks at the office, I said, "I'm kind of a rush. I won't really want to get home. So if you could take the girls out of the crib and have them ready to go in their carry-all chairs, that would be great." And I went up to the third floor and walked into the office. There the girls were right there in the lobby part of the law office.

And I sat down just for a second to hold one of them and noticed a blue light, bright flash in the window and then a tremendous, tremendous blast. And it just, the shaking was unbelievable. Ceiling tiles started coming down. Things were happening in the offices collapsing. And one of the people in the office said, that was a bomb.

Rob and his twin girls made it out of the building safely, with many of the staff. Immediately, yellow tape was rolled out and the area was labeled a crime scene. We put the girls, my daughters, in my mini pickup. And the office staff, one of them drove them to our house in Sandy Springs, away from the site. That gave me a chance then to do my job. Being the news guy on Star 94, it's like, okay, this is a news story.

I got as close as I could to where the smoke was coming out from the first floor window where the abortion clinic was located. So then I dialed up my cell phone and then called the radio station.

and jumped on live.

I was on the third floor of this building at the time when we were rocked by a flash and a loud boom and it shattered windows on the south eastern part of the building. I was in the car with a couple of my friends.

and we were listening to the radio. You can hear the sirens coming. Fire crews are just now arriving. I can tell you what happened as best as I can. I was on the third floor of the building. So, and I think it was in the morning, and they said there had been an explosion at an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs. And my stomach dropped, and I couldn't speak. I mean, all I could think was, holy shit, like,

What am I going to do now? I'm talking again with Leah. You probably remember her from the last episode. Leah also grew up in Atlanta, lived here all her life, and she remembers the Olympic Park bombing well. But at the time, she couldn't know that the bombing was just the first in a series of events that would forever change her life and the lives of her entire family. I was born knowing what I want to do from day one. Knowing what I want to be, where I want to go to college, where I want to go to school,

I didn't want to get married, didn't want kids. I've always known. Among the many stories connected to the Olympic Park bombing, Leah's was unexpected and powerful, also complicated. It began the year before the Centennial Olympics. I met Beau when I was 15. I was a sophomore. Beau was three years older. He had gotten involved with a group of guys that were stealing cars.

He was awaiting trial for a series of felonies. Leah and Beau began dating, but the way you do in high school, when you don't know much yet and there's not much to a relationship except the fact that you're just together. It wasn't too long before Beau would be convicted and would have to serve time in prison. After six months behind bars, he took a deal which required him to serve six additional months of boot camp, followed by house arrest. And for me, the absence and the time away made me realize that

This is a lot to wrap my head around. I mean, I didn't get into a relationship with someone to settle down at 15. I wasn't choosing a lifelong partner. And Beau wrote me constantly. I don't know if I would say that he was needy, but he was more talking about long-term relationships.

I love you, I want to marry you. I remember he would always put at the bottom of the letter, relax and hang in there, baby. To this day, if somebody tells me to relax, it makes my skin crawl. Just assuming that I belong to him, that's the most selfish thing. That's not loving somebody. While Bo was in boot camp, Leah was living her high school life. Bo was less and less on her radar, but she was still very much on his.

Their time apart made her realize that their relationship was over. It was more one of those things where I just decided to wait to discuss it until he was out. So Bo was released from boot camp, and my best friend and I drove down to pick him up. And he's super excited to see me, wants to ride in the backseat with me, and was excited.

overly affectionate. All he could focus on was the fact that he was going to spend the next several months in house arrest and that I was going to spend it with him. It was the longest car ride I feel like I've ever had. I did eventually muster up the courage to tell him and it went as terribly as you could imagine. And it became a dynamic where it felt more territorial and

And he wanted me to come over every night because he couldn't leave the house. There were times that if I didn't go to Bo's house and I didn't go stay with him, Bo would show up. He would break house arrest and come to find me. I didn't know how to get out of what I was in with Bo.

I remember he was upset and he called me and called me and called me repeatedly. And so I went to his place and I ended up staying the night with him. We had sex that night, which I don't know why, but we did. I overslept the next morning for work. I left his house in a panic and I ended up getting in a wreck and totaling my car.

Not knowing that I had just conceived a child. Time is a luxury for us, especially if you're a mom. That's why we need a skincare routine that's easy, fast, and gives us results. Plus, one of your products had thousands of five-star reviews. Were natural and affordable? Well, say hello to Dime Beauty. Dime Beauty is clean, high-end skincare that is affordable. And it really works. Not sure where to start? I highly recommend the Work System.

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Leah was pregnant at age 17. She spoke in confidence to a teacher at her school about it, and her teacher told her that she should tell her mom. Leah decided not to. It wasn't real to me, but in my mind, there was no choice. I knew I was having an abortion, and that's it. It was just very, you know, matter of fact. Like, okay, well, you just do it. I mean, I didn't have an option in my mind. My mom...

didn't believe in abortion, so I knew there was no discussion to be had, and I knew I didn't want kids. So I don't think I felt anything at the time, or I didn't let myself think about it. It didn't feel real to me. Leah did, however, break the news to Beau. They scoured the Yellow Pages for an abortion clinic in Atlanta. They'd eventually land on an office in Sandy Springs, but since she was under 18...

To legally have the procedure, she needed parental permission or a parent with her. But Beau had a solution to that. So, given his skill sets, he made an ID for me, and we scheduled an appointment. Yeah, and I thought at the time that that was it. That's what was happening. There'd be nothing more to it. Leah scheduled the appointment. January 17th, 1997. She wasn't scared. She decided it needed to be done.

But the day which would forever take root in her memory was the day before, January 16th, the day the clinic was bombed. I'm sitting at my desk and my boss Jim Tappman came out and he goes, "Mike, there's been a bomb went off in an abortion clinic up in Sandy Springs. Here's the address. Get on up there." Mike Rising is a cold case homicide investigator in Walton County, which is about 40 minutes outside Atlanta. But back in '97, he was a supervisory special agent with the FBI.

So I drive up to the location and when I arrived there were EMS people, some fire trucks, a lot of government cars. An FBI agent came up to me, I didn't know him but he knew me, and identified himself and took me over to where the door of the abortion clinic was and they had just taped it off.

My role was find out the lay of the land, see who had responded, take a look at the site. And I walked around to the northwest corner. I had gotten my phone out. This was an old, antique, huge Miami Vice-looking, goofy old phone with an antenna that you would pull out. And then I typically answered directly to the number two guy in the U.S. Attorney's Office, John Davis, called John Davis and let him know what was going on.

At that point, I want to say there were two or three other attorneys in the office because they had me on the speakerphone when the second device went off. It goes off and I just remember going, "Fuck!" I had this immediate deja vu flashback to September the 15th, 1969. I was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade in Vietnam. And when it hit, it came from the left side. I was actually holding a radio set.

And in this case, I'm holding a cell phone, and the force of the blast just shoved me a couple of feet. And I'm thinking, I don't think I said it, but I'm going, not again. Where were you in the building, and where was the explosion? This second explosion, about an hour later, injured a television photographer, an ATF agent, and at least four others. Look at that! Look at that!

Rob Stadler's wife rushed back from trial to her law firm, which was housed just two stories above the abortion clinic in the same building. Both she and Rob were standing at the top of the hill, overlooking the crime scene when the second bomb exploded. It was kind of like when you're too close to a firework and you feel it in your chest if it goes off way too close. It was like that, except the shockwave from the bomb enters the front part of your brain

goes through your brain and exits the back. It's the weirdest feeling in the world. Split second, but it seemed like it lasted forever. Shrapnel was buzzing by our heads. So at that point, it was like, okay, is there going to be a third bomb? And that's a really frightening thing. No one has claimed credit for these explosions. Police say there were no calls to 911 beforehand and clinic workers received no threats.

I was in a funk for about six to nine months, definitely a PTSD. That weekend, we have remote broadcasts that we go out to a store or something and we bring our radio truck and all that stuff. And we always have helium balloons that we blow up and give to kids or whatever. One of the balloons popped and I swear I jumped about five feet because again, that's just that

And it kind of gave me a feeling of impending doom. And it really caused me, I just wanted to stay at home a lot. So many sleepless nights. And thinking about how come we managed to survive this. I really felt that I was a chess piece being moved around that day. It's weird, bizarre feeling. I mean, that was the thing is we came within so close of

of losing my twin daughters. I said earlier that it was the most important phone call I made. Their playpen was directly two floors above where that bomb went off. When the bomb went off, the first bomb, it brought down the entire ceiling and the broken glass and the debris that had piled up in the crib. If I hadn't made that phone call,

they probably still would have been there. I can't tell you how many times that my wife and I would go into their bedroom and, you know, we started crying because we came so close to losing them. And now they're healthy and 25 years old and, you know, tearing up the world. But I think that was what weighed especially heavy on us. It's worth noting that the timing and placement of the second bomb is a well-known military tactic.

used by the U.S. and by foreign terrorists. But what's new here is that this was not common domestically. It may have been the first such incident on home soil, so to speak. In light of this, law enforcement was scrambling, just trying to get their ducks in a row. But at this point, it didn't help that there were so many cooks in the kitchen. I remember that bombing situation especially well because we were all standing in this command center

Woody Johnson, who's head of the FBI, and a guy, Jack Killoran, whose first day on the job as head of the Atlanta ATF, were there. They were each on the phone with their respective bosses. In Woody's case, it was Louis Freeh. And each of the directors of the FBI and ATF were saying, fine, glad you're working together as long as we're in charge. So there was no decision on the ground who was going to actually run the investigation.

For the Sandy Springs Clinic case, unbelievably, they decided to call it "Twin Bomb," which is unfortunate for an abortion clinic, but it was because of the twin bombs. So the status was you still had SENT Bomb, the task force. You had the separate bombing task force for Twin Bomb, the abortion clinic bombing. So they were going on parallel courses, sharing information here and there. The Sandy Springs bombings came six months after the bomb at the Olympics.

There were serious injuries this time, but no one was killed. There had now been three bombings in Atlanta, but no streamlined, cohesive plan of action from law enforcement. Not yet. All they had to run on were theories that didn't quite connect. As far as a motive, I know a lot of you are assuming this is related to abortion clinic violence. That is definitely a possibility, but we are not ruling out the possibility of domestic terrorism unrelated to clinic violence.

We took a look at what the purpose could possibly be of the second bomb. It was put in a location where law enforcement would gather. So there was a working theory almost right off the bat that whoever did this, they might have been after abortion clinics to make a statement, but there was a good chance they were after something else, and the theory was it was law enforcement. Going forward, the protocol became always check the perimeter for a second bomb.

The various task forces may not have been in lockstep yet, but they were starting to put the pieces together. One of the things that we focused on from the Olympic bomb, there was a directional plate, a steel plate that backed the bomb. This directional plate was the first big clue. Fast forward to January, the Sandy Springs clinic bombing, there was directional plate in that bomb as well. So they took samples from there and started comparing it.

Not too long after that, it was clear that these plates came from the same, basically, piece of large metal, same production. It looked like it was either unbelievable happenstance or these bombs might be connected. While the motivation behind these three bombs was still unclear, what was clear is that these bombs were related. Three bombs, two locations, one with a warning call to 911, the others, no warning. The pieces were beginning to come together.

But the bomber was still on the loose, standing by, ready to strike again, just waiting for the right time. Time is a luxury for us, especially if you're a mom. That's why we need a skincare routine that's easy, fast, and gives us results. Plus, one of your products had thousands of five-star reviews. Were natural and affordable? Well, say hello to Dime Beauty. Dime Beauty is clean, high-end skincare that is affordable. And it really works. Not sure where to start? I highly recommend the Work System.

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Holy crap, what am I going to do? That was my initial thought. With an appointment set for the following day at the clinic that was just bombed, Leah's 17-year-old mind was racing. This is like, maybe I'm not supposed to just make another appointment. Maybe I need to tell my mom. Like, that's where I think it became an actual reality. I was actually pregnant. I was actually about to just go have an abortion without even saying anything.

I think in the back of my mind, I thought that by saying something to my mom, deep down it meant I was going to have to keep the baby. Because I knew if I told her, she wouldn't allow me to have an abortion. That's what I thought. My stepdad was out of town, so I thought it was a good opportunity. We were talking one night and she, it was the worst. It was the worst setup ever because she said to me,

how proud she is of me and all my accomplishments and how well I'm doing in school and this and that. And I'm thinking, "Oh dear God, lady, stop talking, 'cause I'm about to drop the biggest bomb on you." And so I kind of turned it around and I said, "Mom, how do you always know the right thing to do?" And she said, "Well, what do you mean?" I said, "Well, it just seems like you have all the answers."

How do you know what the right decision is? And I don't know how, but she looked at me and she said, are you pregnant? And the relief I felt, because I didn't have to say it, but I said, yes. She said, well, we'll deal with it, but you're having an abortion. That was the first thing she said. And I was like, what? I thought maybe I misheard her, and I thought she said, you're not.

And she said, "Yes, you are having an abortion. This will ruin your life." I mean, I can hear it. I can hear her saying it. "This will ruin your life." I mean, that is how she—her cadence, that is exactly how she would say it. And the following day, she called the pediatrician to get a referral to an obstetrician. And she went in with me, and I was not the typical patient in the waiting room.

I mean, I was very young, obviously. I certainly was the only one there with my mommy, you know. And at that appointment when they did an ultrasound, I remember sitting, laying there in the room and deciding that I was keeping the baby. And if there is one thing about me that hasn't changed when I decide something, I'm pretty firm. Have you ever talked with mom about this? No, not, well, not until recently.

We started talking about it. And you never considered having a divorce after that moment? No. I was a very headstrong person. And once my mind was made up on something, it was made up. And I mean, I knew from the second sitting in that doctor's office that I just knew it wasn't something that I could do. It wasn't a choice that I could make. I knew I was keeping you. So yeah, that's my mom. The circumstances that led to my birth...

They're pretty complicated. I'm not okay with any of the bomber's actions. That part isn't complicated to me. But in a fucked up kind of way, you could say that bomb saved my life. There's a Jason Isbell song I always come back to. It's called "Children of Children." And there's a line in there that says, "All the years you took from her, just by being born." My mom's my best friend. So for her, I wish she could have had those years back.

But I also wish, in this ridiculous, alternative, multiverse way, that I could have been around to see what her life would have become, and what she would have done if she had the abortion. None of this is logical, it's emotional. I'm glad that I'm here, but I wonder, for her, what her life could have become without a baby at 17. I wish she'd had a chance to find out what she could do. So, obviously this particular bomb that exploded my mom's life has marked me.

And over the years I've become obsessed with the paradox. This bomber, with his demented sense of righteousness, is responsible for the birth of a child, me, but also for the death of a mother, Alice Hawthorne, at the Olympics. This story has me holding two contradictory truths at once. My life was saved, and so many others were destroyed. I'm gonna take you through all of it. I'm gonna tell you about the ripples. But back in '97, all around Atlanta, people were scared.

and the terror, the violence, all that was still far from over. Once again, a bomb in the night. It happened outside a lesbian club called The Other Side. There's nails everywhere, and I saw blood on the dance floor and all. We will be searching out the possibility that we have a serial bomber. Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. We clearly believe that we are dealing with a deranged killer

but one who is very clever as well. Flashpoint is a production of Tenderfoot TV in association with iHeartMedia. I'm your host, Cole Acasio. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsey are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV. Flashpoint was created, written, and executive produced by Doug Matica and myself on behalf of 7997. Lead producer is Alex Vespestad, along with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman.

Our associate producer is Whit Lacascio. Editing by Alex Vespestad, with additional editing by Liam Luxon and Sydney Evans. Supervising producer is Tracy Kaplan. Artwork by Station 16. Original music by Jay Ragsdale. Mix by Dayton Cole. Thank you to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA, Beck Media and Marketing, and the Nord Group. Special thanks to Angela Kew, Tali Ravid-Matica, and Tim Livingston. For more podcasts like Flashpoint,

Search Tenderfoot TV on your favorite podcast app or visit us at tenderfoot.tv. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to this episode of Flashpoint. This series is released weekly, absolutely free. But for ad-free listening, early access, and exclusive bonuses, you can subscribe to Tenderfoot Plus on Apple Podcasts or at tenderfootplus.com.

The fall is creeping up on us, but we don't have to give in just yet because summer doesn't stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. You can still get out and enjoy 60 miles of beaches, eat in the South's newest foodie haven with over 2,000 restaurants, and have endless fun at hundreds of attractions. Hold on to that sweet summer feeling a little longer at the beach. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Plan your trip at visitmyrtlebeach.com. That's visitmyrtlebeach.com.

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