Kathy Scruggs, reporter portrayed in 'Richard Jewell,' was 'dedicated' in SC, friend says

Nikie Mayo | Anderson Independent Mail

Show Caption Hide Caption Olivia Wilde defends her 'Richard Jewell' character amid backlash Olivia Wilde said she heavily researched her role in "Richard Jewell," emphasizing Kathy Scruggs' "dynamic, multidimensional, nuanced personality."

Kathy Scruggs would walk into the Independent Mail newsroom and drop her purse and notebook on her desk, a daily effort that caused two loud, distinct thuds. She'd launch into a story — maybe something about the person she had just run into, the interview she had just finished.

Perhaps the subject wouldn't be as commanding as she was.

"You always knew when Kathy was in the room," said her former colleague John Gouch. "She would announce herself. She had this big personality — the kind you never forget."

She was charming and kind, generous and profane, according to Tony Kiss, a former colleague at the newspaper in Anderson, South Carolina, who became her longtime friend.

She liked white wine and Johnnie Walker Red, and she smoked "like a chimney," Kiss said. Always Marlboro Lights.

Her former colleagues said she didn't cross ethical boundaries to land a story, as is suggested in "Richard Jewell," the movie that includes a portrayal of her as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It was the early 1980s when Scruggs arrived in Anderson to be an education reporter. She was young and driven, according to those who knew her.

She liked a good party, too. And she could be loud and brash if the mood struck her. But she was always a good reporter with a tremendous work ethic, said Gouch and Kiss.

"She was just out there, charging ahead," Gouch said. "She was aggressive. She would get upset when people were supposed to tell her something but wouldn't. She hated being lied to or used. And she would get frustrated if people were keeping something from her. She would wear that frustration on her sleeve. But she was a good reporter. There was nothing unethical about how she did her work."

Decades later, how Scruggs is portrayed as a journalist is at the center of controversy that surrounds the film "Richard Jewell." The movie focuses on the security guard who was heralded for saving lives when a bomb went off in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park in 1996, but who later became a suspect in the bombing. Richard Jewell was under FBI scrutiny for about three months before he was cleared.

The movie is directed by Clint Eastwood.

Scruggs, who was a reporter at Atlanta Journal-Constitution at the time of the bombing, broke the story that Jewell was considered a suspect. The film implies Scruggs gave sexual favors to get the information, according to multiple media outlets.

In a letter sent this week to Eastwood, screenwriter Billy Ray, Warner Brothers and others, the AJC is demanding a "prominent disclaimer" be added to the film to acknowledge that some of the events portrayed in it were "imagined for dramatic purposes, and artistic license and dramatization were used in the film’s portrayal of events and characters," the AJC reported.

“The AJC’s reporter is reduced to a sex-trading object in the film,” the letter says, according to the newspaper. “Such a portrayal makes it appear that the AJC sexually exploited its staff and/or that it facilitated or condoned offering sexual gratification to sources in exchange for stories. That is entirely false and malicious, and it is extremely defamatory and damaging.”

The Independent Mail is seeking a copy of the letter from Lavely & Singer, the California law firm that sent it on behalf of the AJC and the newspaper's parent corporation, Cox Enterprises.

In a statement, Warner Bros. called the AJC's claims in the letter "baseless" and said the film was based on "a wide range of highly credible source material," according to Variety magazine.

Kiss, who worked with Scruggs in Anderson and then later at the Asheville Citizen-Times in western North Carolina, is livid about the film's portrayal of his co-worker and one of his dearest friends.

"She did not have to sleep with anyone to get a story," Kiss said.

Kiss said he is "just appalled" at the film's portrayal of Scruggs, whom he described as hardworking, fearless and a reporter who took pride "in getting the story right."

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The AJC and other media were sued after Jewell was cleared. The claim was that Jewell's reputation had been injured by the AJC and others. While other outlets settled, the AJC didn't.

"The court found that what Kathy reported was true at the time she reported it," Kiss said. "He was a suspect at the time she reported that he was."

Eric Rudolph, the actual bomber, was found in 2003, rummaging through trash behind a grocery store in Murphy, North Carolina. He is serving multiple life sentences for his role in several bombings. The FBI still lists Rudolph on one of its pages about "famous cases and criminals."

The Georgia Court of Appeals dismissed the Jewell case against the AJC in 2011.

By then, Scruggs had been dead for a decade. She was just 42 when she died in 2001. She struggled with chronic health issues and had been on medical leave from the newspaper for about a year when she died, Kiss said.

Scruggs died of "acute morphine toxicity," Kiss said, and he believes the stress of the Jewell story and the related litigation contributed to her death.

"It destroyed her," Kiss said quietly.

Scruggs left the Independent Mail in Anderson after she got into an altercation at a bar, Kiss said.

"She was upset, and she sort of implied to the bar owner she could put him in the newspaper," Kiss said. "He called the paper, and the editor told her she needed to apologize. Instead, she quit."

That decision ultimately led her to Asheville and then Atlanta, to the story that would change her life.

"She was such a good and dedicated journalist," Kiss said. "It's heartbreaking to think that the only thing some people will ever hear about Kathy is how she is portrayed in that movie."

Olivia Wilde, the actress who portrays Scruggs in the film, took to Twitter on Thursday to share her perspective.

"Contrary to a swath of recent headlines, I do not believe that Kathy 'traded sex for tips,'" Wilde wrote. "Nothing in my research suggested she did so, and it was never my intention to suggest she had. That would be an appalling and misogynistic dismissal of the difficult work she did."