This information became public and Jewell’s life was turned upside down.
While he was eventually exonerated, his life, and health, were never the same and he died of heart failure at the age of 44.
However, after the events were over Jewell was looked at as a possible suspect.
The Ballad of Richard Jewell is based on a Vanity Fair news article of the same name about Richard Jewell, who was a security guard during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics who recognized a suspicious package, which turned out to be a bomb, and saved many people in the process.