The Oklahoma City Bombing

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The Oklahoma City Bombing

• Timothy McVeigh An American Terrorist
• Presentation by Jeff Jones

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902 a.m. April 19, 1995

• Residents of Chandler, Oklahoma heard a loud
  noise.
• Some thought it was a sonic boom.
• Others wondered how thunder could be heard on
  such a clear and sunny day.

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40 miles away in Oklahoma City

• 168 dead and over 500 injured
• 320 structures in surrounding area damaged
• 651 million of damage

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Timothy McVeigh

• Born April 23, 1968
• Western New York
• Loved the Outdoors
• Interested in Guns

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Joined the Army in 1988

• Expert Marksman
• Gunner on Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicle
• Served in Gulf War
• 5 Medals for Service in War
• Failed in Bid to Join Special Forces

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Army Buddies

• Terry Nichols
• Older than other soldiers
• Called Old Man
• Michael Fortier
• Fulfilling family tradition of military service

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Disenchanted with Army

• Passed out Copies of Turner Diaries
• Mailing List for the KKK
• Questioned the necessity of Gulf War
• Turned down promotion and left army at end of 1991

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Ruby Ridge, Idaho

• Felt that government was intending to disarm the
  American public
• August 21, 1992
• Federal Agents in gun battle trying to arrest
  Randy Weaver
• Weavers wife and 14 year old son were killed
  during standoff

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Waco, Texas

• February 28, 1993
• Gun Battle between agents of ATF and members of
  David Koreshs cult, the Branch Davidians
• 4 Agents and 6 Cult Members Killed
• Siege followed

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McVeigh at Waco

• Sold Bumper Stickers
• A man with a gun is a Citizen. A man without a
  gun is a Subject
• Interviewed by SMU student, Michelle Rauch
• The government is afraid. Afraid of guns people
  have because they have to have control of the
  people at all times. Once you take away the
  guns, you can do anything to the people.

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End of Waco Siege

• McVeigh said the federal government had murdered
  the people at Waco
• Blood will flow in the streets, good vs. evil,
  freemen vs. socialist wannabe slaves.
• Began to experiment with chemicals that could be
  used to make a bomb

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September 30 and October 18, 1994

• Terry Nichols purchased a combined total of 4,000
  pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer
• McVeigh purchased three drums of nitromethane
  racing fuel under the pretense of using it for
  motorcycle racing

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Planning the Truck Bomb

• This is a drawing by Timothy McVeigh diagramming
  the placement of 55-gallon drums filled with a
  combination of nitromethane and ammonium nitrate.

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Picking the Target

• Criteria for Potential Attack Sites
• Must have at least two of the following three
  federal law enforcement agencies
• ATF
• FBI
• DEA
• Additional agencies such as the Secret Service
  and US Marshals would be a bonus
• Considered buildings in Arkansas, Missouri,
  Oklahoma, Arizona, and Texas

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Alfred P. Murrah Building

• Opened in 1977
• Offices for ATF, DEA, and Secret Service
• Front of building was glass that would shatter
  creating more damage
• Plenty of open space allowing for news photos and
  television footage
• High Body Count
• Likened the federal employees in the building to
  the storm troopers in the movie, Star Wars

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McVeighs Map
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April 14-18, 1995

• Rented 20-foot Ryder Truck from Elliotts Body
  Shop in Junction City, Kansas
• Spent several nights at the Dreamland Motel

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April 19, 1995

• Original Plan was to detonate the bomb at 11 a.m.
  but changed his mind and decided to detonate at 9
  a.m. instead
• These pictures show where the truck was parked

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902 a.m.

• Blast occurred and was the equivalent of 3 tons
  of TNT
• McVeigh claimed the force of the blast lifted him
  a full inch off the ground
• He said buildings were wobbling from side to side
  and plate glass showered down into the street
  around him
• Every building in a sixteen block area
  surrounding the blast was damaged. Some had to
  be demolished

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• A 4-foot long section of truck frame landed on
  the roof of a building two blocks away
• The rear axle of the Ryder truck traveled 200
  yards away and crashed down on the hood of a red
  Ford Festiva

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168 Killed and over 500 injured

• 163 were in the Murrah Building
• Nurse who rushed to the scene died while
  assisting in the rescue effort
• Woman in Athenian building across the street
• Man and Woman in Oklahoma Water Resources
  Building across the street
• Woman killed as she was walking through a nearby
  parking lot
• 20 more than the 148 Americans killed in the Gulf
  War
• 8 were Federal Law Enforcement Agents
• 99 worked for the Federal Government in some
  capacity
• 19 children killed
• Most of the dead would not be identified for
  several days several took weeks to identify
• Ages ranged from 3 months to 73 years old

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19 Children Killed

• Americas Kids Day Care was on the second floor
  of the Murrah Building
• McVeigh claimed," I didnt know there was a day
  care center. Ive never been in the building in
  my life.
• McVeigh never expressed any remorse over the
  deaths of the many federal employees in the
  building, just the children.

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Arrest

• McVeigh left Oklahoma City taking I-35 North
• Claimed he left the license plate off his car on
  purpose
• Pulled over by Trooper Charles Hanger for the
  missing plate

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• McVeigh exited the vehicle and Hanger noticed
  bulge underneath the jacket
• McVeigh announced he had a loaded gun in a
  shoulder holster
• Hanger pulled his weapon and arrested McVeigh
• He was taken to Noble County Jail in Perry
  Oklahoma
• Charged with transporting a loaded firearm in a
  motor vehicle unlawfully carrying a weapon
  failing to display a current license plate and
  failing to maintain proof of insurance
• Remained in Jail for two days awaiting his court
  appearance

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• Investigators found the rear axle and part of the
  rear bumper with Florida license plate
• VIN number on rear axle along with the tag led to
  finding the truck had been rented in Junction
  City, Kansas
• Composite sketches of Kling and another man were
  distributed
• Dreamland Motel manager recognized Kling as
  Timothy McVeigh
• APB showed that McVeigh was already in custody in
  Noble County on other charges

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Federal Custody

• He was arguably the most notorious despised
  criminal defendant in America since Lee Harvey
  Oswald. He had blown up an office building,
  killing 168 people of almost every age, race and
  religion.
• Michel and Herbeck, American Terrorist Timothy
  McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, 276.

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• Refused to plead guilty to the charges against
  him, but he made no pretense of innocence to his
  lawyers.
• He said his actions were a justifiable response
  to the tyranny of the federal government.
• Wanted his lawyers to craft a necessity defense
  claiming the bombing was an absolute necessity
• Wanted to use the trial to make his case about
  the federal government

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Guilty

• On June 2, McVeigh was found Guilty on all eleven
  counts filed against him
• Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction
• Use of such a weapon
• Destruction of government property with
  explosives
• 8 counts of first degree murder of the federal
  law enforcement agents killed in the blast
• On June 13, McVeigh was sentenced to death

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Co-Conspirators

• Nichols was sentenced to life in prison
• Fortier became the chief witness for the
  prosecution and was sentenced to 11 years in
  prison
• There was no big conspiracy. It was mostly me.
  The few friends who helped me were acting under
  some duress, and none of them had any control
  over when I was going to blow up the Murrah
  building.

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Effects of Terrorism

• Increase a sense of vulnerability and show the
  government cannot keep us safe
• Use media coverage to get message to a larger
  audience
• The coverage by the media can extend the horror
  far beyond the number of people immediately
  affected by the blast.

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McVeighs Motivation

• McVeigh viewed himself as the ultimate defender
  of America against a violent and illegitimate
  federal government.
• His refusal to ask for clemency and his eventual
  execution gave him a great sense of historical
  accomplishment.
• In correspondence with Gore Vidal, he compared
  the justice of his act to the justice behind
  President Harry Trumans 1945 attack on Hiroshima

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Mahmud Abouhalima, Convicted Terrorist in 1993
WTC Bombing

• It was done for a very, very specific
  reasonthey had some certain target, you know, a
  specific achievement. They wanted to reach the
  government with the message that we are not
  tolerating the way that you are dealing with our
  citizens. If they believe that the government
  unjustifiably killed the people in Waco, then
  they have their own way to respond. It was
  morally justified.
• Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God The
  Global Rise of Religious Violence, 64-65.

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McVeigh claimed that his attack also led the
Federal Agents to back down from the deadly
attacks they had formerly used at Ruby Ridge and
Waco

• There was a standoff between federal agents and
  the Montana Freemen, a militia group who claimed
  to have established a sovereign nation on 960
  acres of land in Montana. After 81 days, the
  standoff ended peacefully with the surrender of
  23 adults and four children.
• McVeigh said, I am convinced the Freemen would
  be dead if not for the Murrah Building bombing.
• He also pointed to the 3.1 million settlement
  reached between the federal government and Randy
  Weaver and his surviving children. In return,
  they agreed to drop a 200 million civil suit
  they had filed against the government.

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Further Effects of Oklahoma City Bombing

• Unfortunately the new individual terrorist is
  much more difficult to stop. This type of
  megalomaniacal hyperterrorist is incessantly
  looking for original ways to surprise and
  devastate their enemy. They know their actions
  will foster public outrage, yet they do not care.
  They believe history will judge them in a more
  favorable light.
• The government will need to keep a much closer
  watch on known terrorists and should increase
  investments in human intelligence aimed at
  identifying hitherto unknown or potential
  megalomaniacal foes.
• Ehud Sprinzak, "The Lone Gunman," Foreign
  Policy, November, 2001 72-73.

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Oklahoma City Memorial

• The bombing brought us to our knees, but we got
  back up. If anything, it made us stronger.
• Richard Williams, Assistant Manager of the Murrah
  Building