How It Really Happened

In the summer of 1996, all eyes were on Atlanta, Georgia for the centennial Olympics. On July 27 at a celebration in Centennial Park, a security guard noticed a suspicious backpack under a bench. Security and law enforcement moved quickly to evacuate the massive crowd, but time was not on their side – two people were killed, and more than 100 others were injured. Several more bombings in the next eighteen months led investigators to suspect a serial bomber was stalking Atlanta.

This special episode of How It Really Happened features interviews with former special agents and journalists who were on scene at the time of the Centennial Park bombing and investigated the case. It also features interviews with friends and the attorney of falsely accused suspect Richard Jewell.

Subsequent bombings lead investigators to suspect a serial bomber in Atlanta.

On September 29, 1982, seven Chicago-area residents were suddenly stricken with a deadly illness. At first doctors were at a loss, but they soon discovered a sinister connection: all the victims had recently taken cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules. This launched an investigation that has lasted over four decades and forever changed the way medications and other goods are packaged in stores. This episode features interviews with family members of the victims, law enforcement who were first responders on that day, medical examiners and investigators on the case. 

On July 5, 1998, a wealthy widow named Irene Silverman disappeared from her New York City townhouse. While police went on a frantic search for her, they had no idea the investigation would unravel one of the most shocking series of crimes they had ever seen – a trail of violence and fraud that stretched from the Bahamas to Los Angeles perpetuated by Sante and Kenny Kimes. This episode features interviews with Sante Kimes's son Kent Walker, Sante Kimes's attorney, NYPD officers who worked the case, and a journalist taken hostage by Kenny Kimes in prison.