Angelo Fuster was at the legendary Manuel's Tavern during the height of the 1996 Summer Olympics when the news broke. A bomb had exploded in Centennial Olympic Park.

A group of Atlanta police officers raced from the bar to the park. Fuster reached to his side for the police radio issued to him as the city of Atlanta's press secretary.

Jessica McGowan/jmcgowan@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Former mayoral press aide Angelo Fuster talks with guests at a recent book-signing at Manuel's Tavern.

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He didn't have it any more. Fuster had resigned six months earlier, but the impulse to find out what was going on and explain to the press was still there.

From 1978 to 1996, Fuster worked primarily as a spokesman for three Atlanta mayors — Maynard Jackson, Andrew Young and Bill Campbell — although he held other positions in the city's economic development department and as deputy chief operating officer.

Many Atlantans remember Fuster as the man who kept the city, and the world, updated during one of its darkest hours — the Atlanta child murders between 1979 and 1981.

"It was an unbelievably draining experience," Fuster said over breakfast one recent morning.

Without him, friends say, Atlanta would have been in greater turmoil.

"The thing that amazed me is how [Fuster] gave the right advice and information to keep the city from falling apart," said Samit Roy, who was closely involved in the investigation as head of the city's Information Technology department.

"With all the tension and fear in the city, someone had to be the point person on it," said Lee Brown, then Atlanta's public safety commissioner. "[Angelo] did an extremely good job."

Today, Fuster, 61, is less visible on camera. But he is still a major player in Atlanta's media and political scene.

Fuster works with clients hoping to do business or get their projects approved by local governments. He advises aspiring politicians and elected officials hoping to keep their jobs.

"He still is the most connected person in Atlanta," said author and Wall Street Journal Atlanta bureau chief Douglas Blackmon.

Blackmon covered City Hall for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution during Jackson's last term 1990-93. "He is really no less a player now than at any point in the past."

Fuster, who fled Cuba with his family in 1961 after Fidel Castro's takeover, came to Atlanta from Miami by way of the Jimmy Carter presidential campaign in 1976. Two years later, Jackson hired Fuster to handle community relations with Atlanta's Hispanic community.

After running through at least five press secretaries during his term, Jackson tapped Fuster to be in charge of the city's press operations. Fuster quickly got a lesson on dealing with the media, and more important, with the larger-than-life mayor.

Shortly after Fuster got the job, a reporter approached him and Jackson as they walked back to City Hall. Fuster stepped back to let the two talk. Jackson admonished his new media man.

"First lesson, don't let me talk to a reporter by myself," Jackson told Fuster.

Fuster soon encountered a greater test.

In 1979, Atlanta police began investigating the cases of missing children later found dead. Reporters from around the world clamored for news. It was Fuster who had to keep the press informed and the public calm, Fuster who often had the task of telling Jackson when the body of another child was found.

"Not again," a dejected Jackson told Fuster after one of the grim discoveries.

In 1996, with businesses in search of people adept at navigating the worlds of politics and the media before the Summer Olympics, Fuster left city government.

Fuster says he hasn't missed the daily grind of his past work, except for that summer night in 1996 when the unthinkable happened.

For a moment, Fuster seems eager to be back in that world. Then, he considers his less stressful life and taps his knuckles against the wood dining table.

"It's going better than ever."

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