Untitled Document

June 1, 2003

RUDOLPH CAPTURED: Victim's husband tearful, angry;
Olympic bombing devastated family

By Lateef Mungin

When John Hawthorne Jr. got word of Eric Robert Rudolph's arrest, he drove to his mother's Alabama home and cried.

"It is very emotional for us," said Hawthorne of Albany, whose wife, Alice, 44, was the only person killed in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. "I've been waiting for this for seven years, and that is a long time to wait."

Hawthorne was in Albany on July 27, 1996, when he received the news that his wife and his then-teenage stepdaughter, Fallon Stubbs, were victims in the park bomb blast.
He made the four-hour hike north to Atlanta listening to his car radio and hoping not to hear bad news about his family. At the hospital, he received the good news about his stepdaughter at the same time he heard about his wife.

Fallon, now 20, rarely talks about that day and the tremendous explosion that sent shrapnel into her arm and leg, Hawthorne said.

"We try and deal with it in a private way," said Hawthorne, 54. "We relive it almost every day, and it would bring too many of those feelings back to talk about it."
Before the bombing, Hawthorne and his wife owned an ice cream parlor and youth center in Albany. Alice was a "community activist" who ran youth education programs and was very active in the local chapter of the American Legion.

Though Hawthorne has sold the ice cream shop and community center, he is trying to further his late wife's work.

He has been working to raise money for a 71-acre park and community center he plans to call Alice's Wonderland. He also established a scholarship in Alice's name for students who want to go to Albany State University --- his wife's alma mater.

"I'm still trying to open another community center," said Hawthorne. "I want to further her vision of helping at-risk youth, but I had to sell the ice cream parlor and all that. I couldn't even go back in there. The memories were running so deep."

Rudolph's arrest also means that Hawthorne can serve the suspect with a lawsuit, said Hawthorne's attorney Gilbert Deitch. Hawthorne sued Rudolph for wrongful death in 1998 when Rudolph became a suspect.

Hawthorne says he will go to Rudolph's court hearings when they begin.

"I am angry about this," Hawthorne. "Based on the evidence and what the FBI has told me, I believe he did it. I can't be angry at him personally, because he did not know my wife. But I have to say I still have a lot of anger about this."