The most infamous crime in Super Bowl history | ATLVault

Atlanta’s very first Super Bowl remains arguably the most exciting in NFL history.

The crime that happened only hours later remains the Super Bowl's most infamous.

Hours after the St. Louis Rams withstood a furious, late-game and last-second surge from the Tennessee Titans to win their first-ever NFL championship, two men were stabbed to death outside a Buckhead nightclub.

Ray Lewis - a Baltimore Ravens linebacker already well on his way to an NFL Hall of Fame career - was leaving Buckhead’s Cobalt Lounge when the fight broke out at the nightclub. Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar were stabbed to death

Eleven days later, Lewis and two friends - Joseph Sweeting and Reginald Oakley - were arrested and charged with double murder. Lewis later pleaded guilty to obstruction, received one year’s probation, and was fined by the NFL for $250,000. Less than a year later, he would be named MVP of Super Bowl 36, which was won by the Baltimore Ravens.

Tim Livingston recently finished a three-year investigation into the murders, which remain unsolved. He is the host of 'The Raven,' and his podcast can be heard wherever you receive your podcasts.

Listen to all of Atlanta News First’s podcasts, now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.

he old offices where legendary Atlanta newspapermen like Ralph McGill toiled, and a long-forgotten African-American burial ground in the heart of Buckhead have been listed as places in peril by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Each year, the trust releases a list of 10 places in peril throughout the state, a list the organization hopes will raise awareness about Georgia’s historic, archaeological and cultural resources that are threatened by demolition, neglect, lack of maintenance, inappropriate development or poor public policy.

“This is the Trust’s nineteenth annual Places in Peril list,” said W. Wright Mitchell, president and CEO of the trust. “We hope the list will continue to bring preservation solutions to Georgia’s imperiled historic resources by highlighting 10 representative sites.”

Paige Watts is the author of a new book, "What's With Atlanta?" The travel writer and blogger shares some fascinating aspects about life in the ATL.

On April 6, 1972, a fire began at the Triangle Refinery in Doraville, starting with an overfilled storage tank. Vapors from the tank reached nearby homes on Doral Circle and ignited a pilot light at one of the homes causing an explosion. The explosion then set three storage tanks on fire. 

In all, 300 people were evacuated from their homes, staying at nearby elementary schools, hotels, or with friends and family. Two people died in the fire, whose flames reached up to 400 feet and were visible from downtown Atlanta.

In 2022, Valerie Biggerstaff wrote a 50-year retrospective on the famous Doraville refinery fire, and shares her research with digital content producer Tim Darnell and ATLVault on Atlanta News First. 

Founded in 1871, Doraville is one of Georgia's oldest cities, but features an amazing diversity. Mayor Joe Geierman talks about his city's rich history; the old General Motors plant that was a catalyst for Doraville's economic growth; the new Assembly Atlanta; and the challenges facing this intown Atlanta suburb.

On Sept. 5, 1955, two Atlanta businessmen - Joe Rogers and Tom Forkner - opened the very first Waffle House, located in DeKalb County's Avondale Estates community. Rogers started in the restaurant business as a short-order cook in 1947 
at the Toddle House in Connecticut.
By 1949, he was a regional manager, then moved to Atlanta. He met Forkner 
while buying a house from him in Avondale Estates.
Today, Waffle House has more than 1,900 locations in 25 states.
Njeri Boss, vice president of public relations, and Virginia Angles, curator of the Waffle House museum, talk about this national iconic culinary brand.

On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most famous speeches in human history. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in an address that culminated the march on Washington, King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. Lasting less than 18 minutes, King's speech has inspired millions around the world. 

But where did King actually draft his speech? Conventional history records he wrote the speech at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. But David Yoakley Mitchell of the Atlanta Preservation Center and Dr. Robert Adams of the Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, say one of history's most influential speeches has its roots elsewhere.

One of the world’s most celebrated and influential speeches was delivered 60 years ago.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., made his now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, capping the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” event.

King gave his speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Here is a recording of what became a speech that has inspired millions around the world.

 Mary Phagan had only two things on her mind on April 26, 1913. First, it was Confederate Memorial Day in Georgia, and she was excited to show off her new dress. Second, she had to pick up her paycheck of $1.20 from Leo Frank, her boss at the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, where she worked to help support her widowed mother who ran a local boarding house.

Phagan ate a late breakfast of cabbage and bread around 11:30 a.m., and then headed to the factory. She would never be seen alive again.

Phagan’s body was discovered early the next morning by night watchman Newt Lee, who was making his rounds and came upon her in the factory’s filthy basement. Two days later, police arrested Frank - believed to be the last person to have seen Phagan alive - and charged him with her murder.

Phagan’s murder and Frank’s trial captured the nation’s attention, and until the Atlanta child murders of the late 1970s and early 80s, was the city’s most sensational. Two years after he was convicted, Frank was abducted from his cell at the Georgia State Prison in Milledgeville, driven to Marietta and lynched.

Read more here: https://bit.ly/3JFU4c9

On June 3, 1962, many of Atlanta’s civic and cultural leaders were returning from a museum tour of Europe sponsored by the Atlanta Art Association when their chartered Boeing 707 crashed upon takeoff at Orly Field near Paris, France.

Of the 122 passengers that died, 106 were Atlantans (eight crew members also died; two stewardesses sitting in the tail section survived). In an instant the core of Atlanta’s arts community was gone. Thirty-three children and young adults lost both parents in the crash.

Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. traveled to Paris to assist with the recovery efforts.

Hala Moddelmog is the current president and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center, which was born out of that tragedy, 61 years ago.

ATLVault is a digital series of articles and podcasts that bring Atlanta’s history to life.