1984 Olympic Pin ~ The Lone Terrorist ~ 84 Games ~ Jimmy

Fake Bomb at the 1984 Olympics: The Lone Terrorist Pin

On August 13, 1984, an LAPD officer named Jimmy Wade Pearson placed a homemade fake bomb on the baggage bus of the Turkish Olympic team at Los Angeles International Airport, then "found" it and defused it. Police Chief Daryl Gates praised him as a hero. A day later he failed a lie detector test and confessed. He pleaded guilty and received probation and a fine. The official 1984 security report calls the incident the Games' only blemish out of 645 recorded incidents, 61 of them bomb threats.

This pin appears to mock that story: dynamite, a clock showing almost midnight, "The Lone Terrorist," "84 Games" and "Jimmy."

width: 5/8" height: 1 1/8"
single post with military type clasp

Pin Guide Reference: #124, page 77 (Government section, 1985 Pin Collector's Guide)

The story came back in 1996

After the July 27, 1996 bombing at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, the Los Angeles Times recalled Pearson's hoax when Richard Jewell, a security guard who found the bomb, became a suspect. Jewell was later cleared, and Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to the bombing in 2005.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, July 28, July 31 and August 1, 1996; Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee Official Report, Vol. 1.

Packaging

All orders shipped in corrugated box for extra protection, we don't use bubble mailers.

Shipping

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