What happened to Kathy Scruggs? Learn about the reporter who broke the Jewell story

The American true-crime drama show Manhunt Deadly Games released its season 2 in 2020. The show chronicles the story of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. The show is based on the true story of the incident and features the people who were either involved or got pulled into the FBI investigation that followed the incident. Richard Jewell, an American security guard and a police officer got entangled in a web of investigation and media trial after he became a suspect in the investigation. Another such figure was Kathy Scruggs, who was a reporter at Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time of the bombing. She was the first to break the story that Jewell was considered a suspect in the case. Read on to find out, “What happened to Kathy Scruggs?”

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What happened to Kathy Scruggs?

Source: @BrattyEbonyDoll (Twitter)

Decades after the Atlanta bombing incident, the ensuing manhunt as well as the investigation were put to rest, movie director Clint Eastwood made a movie named Richard Jewell. Kathy Scruggs is portrayed as a journalist is at the centre of a controversy that surrounds the film and is portrayed by Hollywood actor Olivia Wilde. A report in Independent Mail reveals that the film portrays many fictionalised elements that were not a part of what had happened in reality. However, Kathy Scruggs was dead long before the film came along. The report reveals that Scruggs passed away in 2001 when she was only 42.

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Kathy Scruggs' cause of death

She had struggled with chronic health issues and had been on medical leave from the AJC newspaper for about a year when she died. The report also reveals that the cause of her death as revealed by Tony Kiss, a former colleague at the newspaper in Anderson, South Carolina. Kathy Scruggs' death was caused by acute morphine toxicity. Kiss also stated that he believed that the stress of the Jewell story and the related litigation had contributed majorly to her death.

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What happened to Richard Jewell?

Another report in Columbia Journalism school's website reveals that Richard Jewell, the security guard from the Atlanta stadium, was put through an excruciating media trial for a period of 88 days. Jewell was mistakenly suspected of planting the bomb and subjected to public scrutiny that took a toll not only on his private but also his professional life. His name was cleared after the FBI could not find any evidence proving his involvement with the bombing incident. 

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