WEBVTT - TWINBOMB 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.359 Flashpoint is released weekly and brought to you absolutely free, 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.080 but for ad free listening, early access and exclusive bonuses. 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:13.480 Subscribe to tenderfoot Plus at tenderfootplus dot com or on 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:14.480 Apple Podcasts. 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:20.759 You're listening to Flashpoint, a production of tenderfoot TV and 0:00:20.840 --> 0:00:25.200 association with iHeartMedia. The views and opinions expressed in this 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:29.360 podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast. 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.159 This podcast also contains subject matter which may not be 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.519 suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:41.880 --> 0:00:50.839 They argue that you stop for a second, please. For months, 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.200 Richard Jewel, the security guard who was initially hailed a 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:57.560 hero for discovering the bomb, was investigated by law enforcement 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.240 and bombarded by the press, who framed him as the 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:05.000 prime suspect. They speculated that he was a villainous attention seeker, 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:07.480 one suffering from hero syndrome. 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:12.520 It's also called the Messiah complex, a person who wants. 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:13.240 To be godlike. 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.280 It's again that power thing they want to feel superior 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:18.640 to all others. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.680 Then six months later, those accusations quietly faded after he 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.080 was cleared by the US government. 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.959 With regard to Richard Jewel, I deeply regret that his 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.520 name was linked to the media. This not only damaged 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:36.840 mister Jewell and his reputation, but it caused the FBI 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:39.600 substantial damage to its investigation. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.240 Richard answered a lot of questions the FDI and other 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.400 long enforces who followed up, and at the end of 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:49.920 the day, there certainly wasn't substantial evidence. It looked like 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:50.640 he didn't do it. 0:01:51.560 --> 0:01:55.080 Retired US attorney Kent Alexander remembers the man hunt for 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.480 the Centennial Park bomber well. He showed up to our 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.920 interview in the nineteen ninety six at Leant Olympics Polo 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:03.240 with a framed letter that he sent to Richard Jewel 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.600 during the investigation. Can you can you read the letter? 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:12.760 Sure? It's addressed to Jack Martin, who's one of several 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.040 attorneys for Richard Jewel. Says, Dear Jack, this to advise 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:20.160 you that, based on the evidence developed to date, your client, 0:02:20.280 --> 0:02:22.680 Richard Jewel, is not considered a target of the federal 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.000 criminal investigation at the bombing on July twenty seven, nineteen 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.959 ninety six, at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. Barring any 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.800 newly discovered evidence, the status will not change. I'm hopeful 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.400 that mister Jewel will provide further cooperation as a witness 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.480 in the investigation. Sincerely, Kent be Alexander, US Attorney. 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:48.880 After clearing Richard Jewel, the FBI, atf and GBI, collectively 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:51.799 known as the Scent Bomb Task Force, we're left with 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:52.960 really no leads. 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.720 We had no shortage of potential bombers. The more you 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.679 dig into things, you realize there are just a lot 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:07.320 of crazy people out there, so there wasn't one particular suspect. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.520 In fact, at that point, there was still poster that 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.840 some agent had drawn up. It was a squiggly figure 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:16.799 of a guy sitting on a bench and something under 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:21.519 the bench, and then written in black marker was wanted 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.880 by the FBI. We called him Blobman because there was 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:28.440 a picture of the actual bomber, but it was so 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.720 grainy that we could make out no facial features at all, 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.440 So you just basically had this guy who looked like 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.680 kind of a blob sitting on the bench. So that 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:42.720 Blobman pretty much captured the investigation. There were plenty of 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.720 people we kept looking at, but nobody really jumped a 0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:50.360 four as the likely bomber, much less the primary. 0:03:49.920 --> 0:04:10.720 Suspect episode two. Twin bomb. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:19.400 My wife at the time, and we had twins arrive 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.359 about eight months previous, so it was kind of a 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:26.240 crazy household when you get invaded with kids all of 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:30.039 a sudden. So my day started at four am, and 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:31.760 it was a regular work day. 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.360 It's January sixteenth, nineteen ninety seven, six months after the 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.760 bombing at the Olympics, and Rob Stadler is the news 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.239 director at Star ninety four, a popular radio station in Atlanta. 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.560 And because we have the twins, I was able to 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:54.160 get away after the show ended at nine and go 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.039 to my wife's law office was located on the third 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.040 floor of the Sandy Springs Profes Building. 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.880 Just off Roswell Road. The Sandy Springs Professional Building was 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.200 a three story complex that housed a handful of different offices. 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.919 On the top floor was Rob's wife's law firm. On 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:17.680 the first was Atlanta North Side Planning Services, an abortion clinic. 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:20.960 Rob's wife was a few counties north that morning for 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:21.480 a trial. 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.520 We'd set up a kind of a nursery inside the office, 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:30.440 so I would stop by and scoop them up and 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.600 take them home. And it was dad duty the rest 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.120 of the day, and I called the office up on 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.920 my cell phone and it was probably the most important 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:43.479 call I made in my life. I told them the 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.159 folks at the office, I said, I'm kind of a rush. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.600 I won't really want to get home, so if you 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.520 could take the girls out of the crib and have 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.960 them ready to go in their carry all chairs, that 0:05:55.000 --> 0:05:58.279 would be great. And I went up to the third 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.400 floor and walked into the office there the girls were 0:06:02.560 --> 0:06:04.840 right there in the lobby part of the law office, 0:06:05.720 --> 0:06:08.839 and I sat down just for a second to hold 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:14.640 one of them and noticed a blue light, bright flash 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:24.200 in the window, and then a tremendous, tremendous blast, and 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:29.520 it just the shaking was unbelievable. Ceiling tiles started coming down, 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:33.680 things were happening in the office is collapsing and one 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:36.320 of the people in the office said that was a bomb. 0:06:38.120 --> 0:06:39.640 Rob and his twin girls made it out of the 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:44.279 building safely with many of the staff. Immediately, yellow tape 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.719 was rolled out and the area was labeled a crime scene. 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:51.880 We put the girls, my daughters in my mini pickup, 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.760 and the office staff, one of them, drove them to 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.440 our house in Sandy Springs, away from the site. That 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:03.080 gave me a chance then to do my job being 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:05.520 the news guy on Star ninety four. It's like, okay, 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:09.120 this is a news story. I got as close as 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:14.720 I could to where the smoke was coming out from 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.000 the first floor window where the abortion clinic was located. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:23.400 So then I dialed up my cell phone and then 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.720 called the radio station and jumped on Live. 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:28.960 E three Industrial Boulevards, darn ninty four. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.240 It's nine thirty five and we go to Rob Standler, 0:07:31.280 --> 0:07:33.320 our news director, with a breaking news story. 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.920 Steve, I am at two seventy five Carpenter Drive. This 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.320 is a three story building that parallels Roswell Road. It's 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:43.680 right behind Good Old Days in Sandy Springs where a 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:47.720 suspected bomb has gone off in this building. I was 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.239 on the third floor of this building at the time 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.440 when we were rocked by a flash and a loud boom, 0:07:54.880 --> 0:08:00.000 and it shattered windows on the southeastern part of the building. 0:08:02.920 --> 0:08:05.680 I was in the car with a couple of my 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:09.480 friends and we were listening to radio. 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.080 You can hear the sirens coming. Fire and Cruise are 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.960 just now arriving. I can tell you what happened as 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:16.760 best as I can. 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:18.880 I was on the third floor of. 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:21.520 The facility so and I think it was in the morning, 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.920 and they said there had been an explosion at an 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:32.520 abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, and my stomach dropped and 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:37.080 I couldn't speak. I mean, all I could think was 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.040 holy shit, Like, what am I going to do? Now? 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.920 I'm talking again with Leah. You probably remember her from 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:52.800 the last episode. Leah also grew up in Atlanta, lived 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.720 here all her life, and she remembers of the Olympic 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:59.600 Park bombing well, but at the time, she couldn't know 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.600 that the bombing was just the first in a series 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:04.640 of events that would forever change her life in the 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:05.959 lives of her entire family. 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.920 I was born knowing what I want to do from 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:12.520 day one, knowing what I want to be, where I 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.840 want to go to college. I didn't want to get married, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.440 didn't want kids. I've always known. 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.360 Among the many stories connected to the Olympic Park bombing, 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:29.120 Leah's was unexpected and powerful, also complicated. It began the 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:31.120 year before the Centennial Olympics. 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:36.880 I met Bo when I was fifteen. I was a sophomore. 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:41.040 Bo was three years older. He had gotten involved with 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:45.280 a group of guys that were stealing cars. He was 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:49.199 awaiting trial for a series of felonies. 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.120 Leah and Bow began dating, but the way you do 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:55.079 in high school, and you don't know much yet, and 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:57.120 there's not much to a relationship except the fact that 0:09:57.160 --> 0:10:01.080 you're just together. It wasn't too long before Bow would 0:10:01.080 --> 0:10:03.360 be convicted it would have to serve time in prison. 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:07.360 After six months behind bars, he took a deal which 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.640 required him to serve six additional months of boot camp, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:11.440 followed by house arrest. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:16.679 And for me, the absence and the time away made 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:20.600 me realize, this is a lot to wrap my head around. 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:26.360 I mean, I didn't get into a relationship with someone to. 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.320 Settle down at fifteen. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:34.760 I wasn't choosing a lifelong partner. And Bo wrote me constantly. 0:10:35.720 --> 0:10:37.520 I don't know if I would say that he was needy, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:44.240 but he was more talking about long term. I love you, 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.240 I want to marry you. I remember he would always 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.800 put at the bottom of the letter, relax and hang 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.080 in there, baby. To this day, if somebody tells me 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:57.560 to relax, it makes my skin crawl, just assuming that 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:58.959 I belonged to him. 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:02.680 That's the most selfish thing. That's not loving somebody. 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.040 While Bou was in boot camp, Leah was living her 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.320 high school life. Bo was less and less on her radar, 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:15.720 but she was still very much on his. Their time 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.520 apart made her realize that their relationship was over. 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.360 It was more one of those things where I just 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.880 decided to wait to discuss it until he was out. 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:33.120 So Bo was released from boot camp and my best 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.800 friend and I drove down to pick him up, and 0:11:37.080 --> 0:11:42.080 he's super excited to see me, want to ride in 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:48.640 the backseat with me, and was overly affectionate. All he 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:50.800 could focus on was the fact that he was going 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:55.199 to spend the next several months in house arrest, and 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:59.200 that I was going to spend it with him. It 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:04.640 was the longest car I feel like I've ever had. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.280 I did eventually muster up the courage to tell him, 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:14.280 and it went as terribly as you could imagine, and 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:20.120 it became a dynamic where it felt more territorial, and 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.480 he wanted me to come over every night because he 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:29.200 couldn't leave the house. There were times that if I 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.200 didn't go to Bow's house and I didn't go stay 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.560 with him, Bou would show up. 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:41.000 He would break house arrest and come to find me. 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:45.760 I didn't know how to get out of what I 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:51.880 was in with bo. I remember, he was upset and 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.120 he called me and called me and called me repeatedly, 0:12:56.360 --> 0:13:01.000 and so I went to his place and I staying 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.160 in the night with him. We had sex that night, 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:11.439 which I don't know why, but we did. I overslept 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.560 the next morning for work. I left his house in 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:18.920 a panic, and I ended up getting in a wreck 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:25.240 and totaling my car, not knowing that I had just 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:26.880 conceived a child. 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:40.240 Leah was pregnant at age seventeen. She spoke in confidence 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:42.800 to a teacher at her school about it, and her 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.040 teacher told her that she should tell her mom. Leah 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:46.760 decided not to. 0:13:48.120 --> 0:13:52.040 It wasn't real to me, but in my mind there 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.319 was no choice. I knew I was having an abortion, 0:13:55.840 --> 0:13:59.400 and that's it. It was just very, you know, matter 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:02.920 of fact, like okay, well you just do it. 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:07.440 I mean, I didn't have an option in my mind. 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:12.360 My mom didn't believe an abortion, so I knew there 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:15.640 was no discussion to be had, and I knew I 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:16.920 didn't want kids. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:17.960 So I don't think. 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:21.440 I don't think I felt anything at the time, or 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:23.800 I didn't let myself think about it. 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.520 It didn't feel real to me. 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.080 Leah did, however, break the news to Bo. They scoured 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.400 the Yellow Pages for an abortion clinic in Atlanta. They'd 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.520 eventually land on an office in Sandy Springs, but since 0:14:36.520 --> 0:14:39.680 she was under eighteen to legally have the procedures, she 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:43.280 needed parental permission or a parent with her. But Bo 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:44.360 had a solution to that. 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:51.200 So given his skill sets, he made an id for 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:55.480 me and we scheduled an appointment. Yeah, and I thought 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.560 at the time that that was it, that's what was happening. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:14:59.000 There'd be nothing more to it. 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:05.440 Leah scheduled the appointment January seventeenth, nineteen ninety seven. She 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.360 wasn't scared. She decided it needed to be done. But 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:11.520 the day which would forever take root in her memory 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.760 was the day before January sixteenth, the day the clinic 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:17.320 was bombed. 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.160 I'm sitting at my desk and my boss, Jim Tapman, 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.600 came out and he goes, Mike, she's been a bomb 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:29.080 went off an abortion clinic up in Sandy Springs. Here's 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:30.520 the address, Get on up there. 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:35.080 Mike Rising as a cold case homicide investigator in Walton County, 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.640 which is about forty minutes outside Atlanta, but back in 0:15:38.720 --> 0:15:42.160 ninety seven. He was a supervisory special agent with the FBI. 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:46.720 So I drive up to the location and when I 0:15:46.800 --> 0:15:50.400 arrived at her ems people, some fire trucks, a lot 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:56.880 of government cars. An FBI agent came up to me. 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.440 I didn't know him, but he knew me and identified 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.640 himself and took me over to where the door of 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.440 the abortion clinic was and they had just taped it off. 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:10.520 My role was find out the lay of the land. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.040 So who had responded to take a look at the site, 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.600 and I walked around to the northwest corner. I had 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:22.480 gotten my phone out. This was an old, antique, huge 0:16:22.520 --> 0:16:25.720 Miami vice looking goofy old phone with an antenna that 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:29.640 you would pull out, and then I typically answered directly 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.080 to the number two guy in the US Attorney's office, 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.520 John Davis. Called John Davis and let him know what 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:39.360 was going on. At that point, I want to say 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.600 there were two or three other attorneys in the office 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.760 because they had me on a speakerphone. When the second 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:51.240 device went off, it goes off and I just remember 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:58.120 going fuck. I had this immediate deja vu flashback to 0:16:58.800 --> 0:16:59.960 September fifteenth. 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:01.680 It's nineteen sixty nine. 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:07.560 I was hit with a rocket propel grenade in Vietnam, 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.280 and when it hit, it came from the left side. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.919 I was actually holding a radio set and in this 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:18.080 case I'm holding a cell phone and a force of 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:21.639 the blast just shoved me a couple of feet, and 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.600 I'm thinking, I don't think I said it, but I'm 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:24.480 going not again. 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.119 Where were you in the building and where was the explosion. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:33.360 This second explosion, about an hour later, injured a television photographer, 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:38.480 an ATF agent, and at least four others. 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:41.720 Rob Stadler's wife rushed back from trial to her law firm, 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.760 which was housed just two stories above the abortion clinic 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.000 in the same building. Both she and Rob were standing 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:50.600 at the top of the hill overlooking the crime scene 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:52.280 when the second bomb exploded. 0:17:53.400 --> 0:17:56.240 It was kind of like when you're too close to 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.040 a firework and you feel it in your chest if 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.080 it goes off way too close. It was like that, 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:07.960 except the shockwave from the bomb enters the front part 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:11.720 of your brain, goes through your brain and exits the back. 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:15.560 It's the weirdest feeling in the world. Split second, but 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.480 it seemed like it lasted forever. Shrapnel was buzzing by 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:24.080 our heads, so at that point it was like, Okay, 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.399 they're going to be a third boone, and that's a 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:28.240 really frightening thing. 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:35.240 No one has claimed credit for these explosions. 0:18:35.280 --> 0:18:38.280 Police say there were no calls to nine one one beforehand, 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:40.840 and clinic workers received no threats. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:46.680 I was in a funk for about six to nine months, 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:52.480 definitely a PTSD. That weekend, we have remote broadcasts that 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:54.919 we go out to a store or something and we 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:59.400 bring our radio truck and all that stuff, and we 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:02.880 always have helium balloons that we blow up and give 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:06.879 the kids or whatever. One of the balloons popped, and 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:11.840 I swear I jumped about five feet because again that's 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.439 just that PTSD, and it kind of gave me a 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:23.080 feeling of impending doom, and it really caused me. I 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:26.320 just wanted to stay at home a lot, so many 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:30.760 sleepless nights and thinking about how come we managed to 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:35.560 survive this. I really felt that I was a chest 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:40.399 piece being moved around that day. It's weird, bizarre feeling. 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:44.480 I mean. That was the thing is we came within 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:50.240 so close of losing my twin daughters. I said earlier 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:53.560 that it was the most important phone call I made 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:59.760 their playpen was directly two floors above where that bomb 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:03.800 went off. When the bomb went off, the first bomb, 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:11.680 it brought down the entire ceiling and the broken glass 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.960 and the debris that had piled up in the crib. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:20.960 If I hadn't made that phone call, they probably still 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.320 would have been there. I can't tell you how many 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:26.080 times that my wife and I would go into their 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:30.800 bedroom and you know, we start crying because we came 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.080 so close to losing them, and now they're healthy and 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.960 twenty five years old, and you know, tearing up the world. 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:43.399 But I think that was what weighed especially heavy on us. 0:20:48.960 --> 0:20:51.080 It's worth noting that the timing and placement at the 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.879 second bomb is a well known military tactic used by 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.440 the US and by foreign terrorists. But what's new here 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:02.639 is that this was a Domestically, it may have been 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.119 the first such incident on home soil, so to speak. 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:09.560 In light of this, law enforcement was scrambling, just trying 0:21:09.560 --> 0:21:11.639 to get their ducks in a row. But at this 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:14.080 point it didn't help that there were so many cooks 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:14.679 in the kitchen. 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:20.000 I remember that bombing situation especially well because we were 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.560 all standing in this command center. Woody Johnson was head 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:27.440 of the FBI, and a guy Jack Calaurin, whose first 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:30.560 day on the jobs, head of the Atlanta ATF, were there. 0:21:31.359 --> 0:21:34.080 They were each on the phone with their respective bosses, 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:38.000 and Woody's case it was Louis Free and each of 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:41.680 the directors of the FBI and ATF were saying, fine, 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.720 glad you're working together, as long as we're in charge. 0:21:44.880 --> 0:21:47.919 So there was no decision on the ground who was 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:51.720 going to actually run the investigation for the Sandy Springs 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:56.000 clinic case. Unbelievably, they decided to call it twin bomb, 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:58.399 which is unfortunate for an abortion clinic, but it was 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.840 because the twin bombs. So the status was he still 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.800 had sent bomb the task force. He had the separate 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:08.560 bombing task force for TWM bomb the abortion clinic bombing, 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:14.120 so they were going on parallel courses, sharing information here 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:14.520 and there. 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.280 The Sandy Springs bombings came six months after the bomb 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:22.159 at the Olympics. There were serious injuries this time, but 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:25.440 no one was killed. There had now been three bombings 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.000 in Atlanta, but no streamlined, cohesive plan of action from 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:32.760 law enforcement. Not yet. All they had to run on 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:34.960 were theories that didn't quite connect. 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:38.199 As far as a motive. I know a lot of 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:42.040 you are assuming this is related to abortion clinic violence. 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:44.960 That is definitely a possibility, but we are not ruling 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:48.640 out the possibility of domestic terrorism unrelated to clinic violence. 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:52.360 We took a look at what the purpose could possibly 0:22:52.359 --> 0:22:54.359 be of the second bomb. It was put in a 0:22:54.400 --> 0:22:57.679 location where law enforcement would gather, So there was a 0:22:57.720 --> 0:23:01.240 working theory almost right off the bat that whoever did this, 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.640 they might have been after abortion clinics to make a statement, 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:07.440 but there was a good chance they were after something else, 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:11.359 and the theory was it was law enforcement. Going forward, 0:23:11.359 --> 0:23:15.520 the protocol became always checked the perimeter for a second bomb. 0:23:16.880 --> 0:23:19.639 The various task forces may not have been in lockstep yet, 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:21.800 but they were starting to put the pieces together. 0:23:23.119 --> 0:23:26.000 One of the things that we focused on from the 0:23:26.040 --> 0:23:29.399 Olympic bomb there was a directional plate, a steel plate 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:30.560 that backed the bomb. 0:23:31.359 --> 0:23:34.119 This directional plate was the first big clue. 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:38.959 Fast forward to January the Sandy Springs clinic bombing, there 0:23:39.040 --> 0:23:43.320 was directional plate in that bomb as well, so they 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:47.080 took samples from there and started comparing it. Not too 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:49.760 long after that, it was clear that these plates came 0:23:49.800 --> 0:23:53.680 from the same basically piece of large metal, same production. 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:59.400 It looked like it was either unbelievable happenstance or these 0:23:59.440 --> 0:24:01.639 bombs might be connected. 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:05.840 While the motivation behind these three bombs was still unclear, 0:24:06.720 --> 0:24:11.360 what was clear is that these bombs were related. Three bombs, 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:14.440 two locations, one with a warning called a nine to 0:24:14.440 --> 0:24:19.520 one one, the others no warning. The pieces were beginning 0:24:19.520 --> 0:24:22.520 to come together, but the bomber was still on the loose, 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:27.879 standing by, ready to strike again, just waiting for the 0:24:27.960 --> 0:24:28.480 right time. 0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:41.080 Holy crap, what am I going to do? That was 0:24:41.119 --> 0:24:42.119 my initial thought. 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:45.520 With an appointment set for the following day at the 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:48.560 clinic that was just bombed, Leah's seventeen year old mind 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:49.920 was racing. 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:53.040 This is like, maybe I'm not supposed to just make 0:24:53.040 --> 0:24:56.040 another appointment. Maybe I need to tell my mom. Like 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:59.119 That's where I think it became an actual reality. I 0:24:59.200 --> 0:25:02.680 was actually pregnant. I was actually about to just go 0:25:02.760 --> 0:25:06.159 have an abortion without even saying anything. I think in 0:25:06.200 --> 0:25:09.119 the back of my mind I thought that by saying 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:11.560 something to my mom, deep down, it meant I was 0:25:11.600 --> 0:25:14.360 going to have to keep the baby, because I knew 0:25:14.359 --> 0:25:16.520 if I told her, she wouldn't allow me to have 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:17.080 an abortion. 0:25:17.800 --> 0:25:18.920 That's what I thought. 0:25:20.760 --> 0:25:23.240 My stepdad was out of town, so I thought it 0:25:23.280 --> 0:25:26.679 was a good opportunity. We were talking one night and 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:30.679