Timothy McVeigh

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Timothy James McVeigh
Born April 23, 1968(1968-04-23)
Pendleton, New York, U.S.A.
Died June 11, 2001 (aged 33)
Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.A.
Conviction(s) Weapon of mass destruction, conspiracy, explosives, first-degree murder
Penalty Death penalty
Status Executed
Occupation Army soldier, security guard
Parents Bill and Mickey McVeigh

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001), commonly referred to as the Oklahoma City bomber, was a security guard who was convicted of eleven federal offenses and ultimately executed as a result of his role on the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing. The bombing, which claimed 168 lives, was the deadliest act of terrorism within United States borders until the September 11, 2001 attacks and remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in the United States (the deadliest act of terrorism against the United States prior to September 11, 2001 was the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland on December 21, 1988, as that attack killed 189 Americans, many of them traveling home for Christmas).

Contents

[edit] Biography

McVeigh was born in Lockport, New York, and raised in nearby Pendleton, New York. He was the middle child of three and the only male child. He earned his high school diploma from Starpoint Central High School. His parents, Mildred Noreen ("Mickey") Hill and William McVeigh,[1] divorced when he was 10. His parents were of Irish and German origin. McVeigh was known throughout his life as a loner; his only known affiliations were voter registration with the Republican Party when he lived in New York and a membership in the National Rifle Association while in the military.[2]

[edit] Religious beliefs

After his parents' divorce, McVeigh lived with his father, and his sisters moved to Florida with their mother. He and his father were devout Roman Catholics who often attended daily Mass. In a recorded interview with Time Magazine[3] he professed his belief in "a God", though he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "never really picked it [back] up." The Guardian reported that McVeigh wrote a letter claiming to be an agnostic[4], though his execution included a Roman Catholic ceremony.

[edit] Military career

In May 1988, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.[5] He was a decorated veteran of the United States Army, having served in the Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal. He had been a top scoring gunner with the 25mm cannon of the light-armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division to which he was assigned. He served at Fort Riley, Kansas, before Operation Desert Storm. At Fort Riley, McVeigh completed the Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC). McVeigh had always wanted to join the Green Berets, the Army's elite special forces.

After his return from the war, he entered the program for training to become a Green Beret but dropped out after the second day of an early phase due to blisters from new boots sustained on a 5-mile march. After this failure, for reasons not fully established, McVeigh decided to leave the Army entirely and received his early discharge on December 31, 1991.[6]

McVeigh was given his final honorable discharge from the Army reserve in May 1992, although controversial film producer Bill Bean released a video that claims to demonstrate that McVeigh was still a soldier at Camp Grafton, North Dakota on 3 August 1993.

[edit] Post-military activities and lifestyle

After leaving the Army, beginning in 1992, McVeigh's lifestyle grew increasingly transient. At first, he worked briefly near his native Pendleton, as a security guard (Hoffman). He also drove to Waco, Texas during the Waco Siege and sold bumper stickers. McVeigh spent time on the gun show circuit, moving from show to show, selling copies of The Turner Diaries and a flare gun that he said could shoot down an "ATF helicopter."[7][8] Said one author, "In the gun show culture, McVeigh found a home. Though he remained skeptical of some of the most extreme ideas being bandied around, he liked talking to people there about the United Nations, the federal government, and possible threats to American liberty."[9]

A few months before the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, he returned to Junction City, Kansas, outside Fort Riley.

McVeigh experimented with methamphetamine.[10] Many of his associates leading up to the years of the bombing were involved in heavy meth use and/or manufacture. Methamphetamine use is associated with paranoid ideation and may have altered McVeigh's thinking, or even led to a pathological state of mind.[citation needed]

"Most people using very high doses may become psychotic, because amphetamines can cause severe anxiety, paranoia, and a distorted sense of reality. Psychotic reactions include auditory and visual hallucinations (hearing and seeing things that are not there) and a feeling of having unlimited power (omnipotence). Although these effects can occur in any user, people with a mental health disorder, such as schizophrenia, are more vulnerable to them."[11]

[edit] Bombing

Working at a lakeside campground near his old Army post, McVeigh constructed an ANFO explosive device arranged in the back of a rented Ryder truck. The bomb consisted of about 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate (an agricultural fertilizer) and nitromethane, an explosive motor-racing fuel.

On April 19, 1995, McVeigh drove the truck to the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building just as its offices and day-care center opened for the day. Prosecutors said McVeigh strode away from the truck after he ignited a timed fuse from the front of the truck. At 9:02 a.m., a massive explosion collapsed the north half of the building. In the explosion, 168 people died and 850 more were injured.[12] The 168th victim, rescue worker Rebecca Anderson,[13] died after the initial blast, when it is believed that the back of her head was struck by a piece of debris that had fallen from the building.[14] Some of the victims were small children in the day-care center, which was on the ground floor of the building. (Later, McVeigh did not express remorse for these "collateral damage" deaths, but he said he might have chosen a different target if he had known the day-care center was there.[15])

According to the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), more than 300 buildings were damaged, and more than 12,000 volunteers and rescue workers were involved in rescue, recovery, and support operations.

[edit] Arrest, trial, conviction and sentencing

By tracing its serial number, the FBI identified the rear axle found in the wreckage as coming from a Ryder Rental Junction City agency truck.[citation needed] Workers at the agency assisted an FBI artist in creating a sketch of the renter who had used the alias "Robert Kling".[citation needed] The sketch was shown in the area and on the same day was identified by manager Lea McGown of the Dreamland Hotel as Timothy McVeigh.[citation needed]

Shortly after the bombing, while driving on I-35 in Noble County, Oklahoma, near Perry, Oklahoma, McVeigh was stopped by Charles J. Hanger, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper from Pawnee, Oklahoma.[16] Hanger had passed McVeigh's yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis and noticed it had no license plate. He arrested McVeigh for carrying a loaded firearm. He was wearing a T-shirt at that time with the motto: sic semper tyrannis, the state motto of Virginia, and also the words shouted by John Wilkes Booth after he shot Abraham Lincoln. The translation: Thus always to tyrants.[17] Three days later, while still in jail, McVeigh was identified as the subject of the nationwide manhunt.

On August 10, 1995, McVeigh was indicted on 11 counts, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, destruction by explosives, and eight counts of first-degree murder.[18] On October 20, 1995, the government filed notice it would seek the death penalty.

On February 20, 1996, the Court granted a change of venue and ordered the case transferred from Oklahoma City to the US District Court in Denver, Colorado, to be presided over by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch.

McVeigh instructed his lawyers to use a "necessity" defense and to argue that his bombing of the Murrah building was a justifiable response to what McVeigh believed were the crimes of the U.S. government at Waco, Texas, during the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex that resulted in the death of 76 Branch Davidian members.[19] As part of his defense, McVeigh's lawyers showed the controversial video Waco: The Big Lie to the jury at his trial.[20]

On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on all 11 counts of the indictment.[21]

On June 13, 1997, the same jury recommended that McVeigh receive the death penalty.[22] The U.S. Department of Justice brought federal charges against McVeigh for causing the deaths of the eight federal officers leading to a possible death penalty for McVeigh; it could not bring charges against McVeigh for the remaining 160 murders in federal court because those deaths fell under the jurisdiction of the state of Oklahoma. After McVeigh's conviction and sentencing (and after the Terry Nichols trial), the state of Oklahoma did not file the state charges in the other 160 murders against McVeigh, since he had already been sentenced to death in the federal trial.[23]

[edit] Death

McVeigh's death sentence was delayed pending an appeal. One of his appeals was taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, which denied certiorari on March 8, 1999. He was ultimately executed by lethal injection at 7:14 a.m. on June 11, 2001, at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He had dropped all of his existing appeals, while presenting no reason for doing so. He was 33 years old.

McVeigh invited California conductor/composer David Woodard to perform a prerequiem (a Mass for those who are about to die) on the eve of his execution. He had also requested a Catholic chaplain. Ave Atque Vale was performed under Woodard's baton by a local brass choir at St. Margaret Mary Church, located near the Terre Haute penitentiary, at 7:00 p.m. on June 10, to an audience that included the entirety of the next morning's witnesses. McVeigh chose William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus" as his final statement. His final meal consisted of two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream. McVeigh's execution was the first of a convicted criminal by the United States federal government since the execution of Victor Feguer in Iowa on March 15, 1963.

His body was disposed of by cremation in the retort at Mattox Ryan Funeral home in Terre Haute. The cremated remains were then given to his lawyer for disposition. McVeigh's remains were scattered in an undisclosed location.

[edit] Motivations for the bombing

American Terrorist by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck
American Terrorist by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck

McVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge for "what the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge."[24] He visited Waco during the standoff, where he spoke to a news reporter about his anger over what was happening there.[25]

McVeigh was considered by many as someone with a long background in the survivalist movement. He frequently quoted and alluded approvingly to the controversial novel The Turner Diaries, which describes acts of terrorism similar to the crimes that he was convicted of perpetrating (Michel and Herbeck). Photocopies of pages sixty-one and sixty-two of The Turner Diaries were found in an envelope inside McVeigh's car. These pages depicted a fictitious mortar attack upon the U.S. Capitol in Washington.[26]

In a book based on interviews before his execution, American Terrorist, McVeigh stated he decapitated an Iraqi soldier with cannon fire on his first day in the war, and celebrated. But he said he later was shocked to be ordered to execute surrendering prisoners, and to see carnage on the road leaving Kuwait City after U.S. troops routed the Iraqi army. In interviews following the Oklahoma City bombing, McVeigh said he began harboring anti-government feelings during the Gulf War.[27] Some question the veracity of this claim in light of McVeigh's attempts to become a Green Beret after returning from Iraq.

[edit] Alleged accomplices

In addition to McVeigh, Terry Nichols was also convicted and sentenced in federal court to life in prison for his role in the crime. At Nichols' trial, evidence was presented indicating that others may have been involved. Several residents of central Kansas, including real estate agent Georgia Rucker and a retired Army NCO testified at the Terry Nichols federal trial that they had seen two trucks at Geary State Lake where prosecutors alleged the bomb was assembled. The retired NCO said he visited the lake on April 18, 1995, but left after a group of surly men looked at him aggressively. The operator of Dreamland Motel testified that two Ryder trucks had been parked outside her Grandview Plaza motel where McVeigh stayed in Room 26 the weekend before the bombing. Testimony suggested that McVeigh may have had several other accomplices, but no other individuals have been indicted for the bombing.

An ATF informant, Carolyn Howe, told reporters that shortly before the bombing she had warned her handlers that guests of Elohim City, Oklahoma were planning a major bombing attack. McVeigh was issued a speeding ticket there at the same time. However, other than this speeding ticket, there is no evidence of a connection between McVeigh and members of the MidWest Bank Robbers at Elohim City.

In February 2004, the FBI announced it would review its investigation after learning that agents in the investigation of the Midwest Bank Robbers (an alleged Aryan-oriented gang) had turned up explosive caps of the same type that were used to trigger the bomb. Agents expressed surprise that bombing investigators had not been provided information from the MidWest Bank Robbers investigation. McVeigh was given a one week delay prior to his execution while evidence relating to the Bank Robbers gang was presented to a court.

McVeigh eventually declined any further delays and maintained until his death that he had acted alone in the bombing.

[edit] Conspiracy theories

[edit] Islamic and Neo-Nazi conspiracy theories

Mugshot of McVeigh - McVeigh was a tall man -according to the photograph 6'3' or 6 ft 4 inches in height
Mugshot of McVeigh - McVeigh was a tall man -according to the photograph 6'3' or 6 ft 4 inches in height

In Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy, Stephen Jones, McVeigh's first, court-appointed lead defense counsel (prior to the death-penalty phase of the case), and Jones's co-author Peter Israel discuss several other possible suspects and continued to implicate Terry Nichols' brother, James.[28]

Jones and Israel suggest in Others Unknown that Terry Nichols had crossed paths with suspected Islamic terrorists during his frequent visits to the Philippines before the attacks. Nichols' father-in-law at the time was a Philippine police officer who owned an apartment building often rented to Arabic-speaking students with alleged terrorist connections. Former counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council Richard A. Clarke suggests that the improvement in Nichols's bomb-making techniques, along with telephone calls to the region upon return to the U.S, points to a possible link to Philippines-based Islamist terrorists in Cebú and the southern islands. These accounts are detailed in Richard A. Clarke's 2004 work Against All Enemies, an accounting of his public service which spanned across several administrations.

McVeigh's defense attorneys also submitted a theory to the court that Islamist terrorists and American Neo-Nazis conspired in the bombing. They pointed out that location and day of the attack indicated the possibility that those seeking revenge for the execution of Richard Snell may have been involved.[29]

In presiding over the trial, Judge Matsch rejected these arguments and did not allow them to be presented as a defense. There remains no credible documented evidence of Islamist or other foreign links to the Oklahoma City bombings.

[edit] Government persecution conspiracy

Various other analysts have suggested that the government was involved in a conspiracy behind the bombing, or that the government even planned the attack in order to justify persecuting right-wing organizations in a manner similar to Nazi prosecution of legislators after the Reichstag fire. In 1995, demolitions and explosives expert Brigadier General Benton K. Partin (Ret.) issued an exhausive analysis of the destruction to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

From the General’s report:

“The media and the Executive branch reported that the sole source of the devastation was a single truck bomb consisting of 4,800 pounds of ammonium nitrate, transported to the location in a Ryder Truck and parked in front of the building. It is impossible that the destruction to the building could have resulted from such a bomb alone.

To cause the damage pattern that occurred to the Murrah building, there would have to have been demolition charges at several supporting column bases, at locations not accessible from the street, to supplement the truck bomb damage. Indeed, a careful examination of photographs showing the collapsed column bases reveals a failure mode produced by demolition charges and not by a blast from the truck bomb.”

[edit] Jose Padilla

McVeigh and Jose Padilla were thought to have met at least once[attribution needed]. Both of them at one time lived in the greater Fort Lauderdale area (Plantation, Florida.)[2][3] Following Jose Padilla's arrest, several media outlets pointed to a resemblance between Padilla and police sketches of an Oklahoma City bombing suspect known as "John Doe No. 2". [4] [5] [6]

[edit] Inside Job

Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols claims that a high-ranking FBI official was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and that the original target of the attack might have been changed, according to a new affidavit filed in US District Court. Nichols also claims that the government is protecting the official and other conspirators "in a cover-up to escape its responsibility" for the attacks.[30]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.wargs.com/other/mcveigh.html
  2. ^ Profile of Timothy McVeigh, CNN, March 29, 2001, accessed August 8, 2006.
  3. ^ Patrick Cole, "A Look Back in TIME: Interview with Timothy McVeigh," March 30, 1996, accessed August 8, 2006,
  4. ^ Julian Borger, "McVeigh faces day of reckoning: Special report: Timothy McVeigh," The Guardian Online, June 11, 2001, accessed August 8, 2006
  5. ^ Douglas O. Linder, "The Oklahoma City Bombing & The Trial of Timothy McVeigh,", online posting, University of Missouri–Kansas City, Law School faculty projects, 2006, accessed August 7, 2006; cf. People in the News: Timothy McVeigh: The Path to Death Row, transcript of program broadcast on CNN, June 9, 2001, 11:30 p.m. ET]. [Specific citations to both of these sources and other unidentified sources are still needed throughout the above article.]
  6. ^ See Hoffman, "'The Face of Terror'"; Hoffman finds many speculations published in the media about this episode in McVeigh's life as a soldier inaccurate and based on false information.
  7. ^ Editor (March 29, 2001) "Timothy McVeigh: Convicted Oklahoma City Bomber." CNN.com.
  8. ^ Editors (2000) "Gun Shows in America." Violence Policy Center.
  9. ^ Handlin, Sam (2001) "Profile of a Mass Murderer: Who Is Timothy McVeigh? Court TV Online.
  10. ^ Summary of McVeigh trial.
  11. ^ Source: Merck Manual Reference on Methamphetamine
  12. ^ MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base
  13. ^ Oklahoma city National Memorial Cite listing of deaths
  14. ^ Rebecca Anderson Scholarship Information (07/27/2004).Retrieved on Nov. 16, 2006
  15. ^ See Michel and Herbeck; cf. Walsh:
    According to Michel and Herbeck, McVeigh claimed not to have known there was a day-care center in the Murrah Building, and that if he had known it, in his own words, "it might have given me pause to switch targets. That's a large amount of collateral damage."
    Michel and Herbeck quote McVeigh, with whom they spoke for some 75 hours, on his attitude to the victims: "To these people in Oklahoma who have lost a loved one, I'm sorry but it happens every day. You're not the first mother to lose a kid, or the first grandparent to lose a grandson or a granddaughter. It happens every day, somewhere in the world. I'm not going to go into that courtroom, curl into a fetal ball, and cry just because the victims want me to do that."
    McVeigh's lack of remorse for the deaths of 19 children, as well as secretaries, clerks, administrators and others employed by the federal government, and the dozens of people who were merely visiting the building, should serve as a warning about the character of elements promoted by the ultra-right in the US. They are brutal, cowardly and ruthless.
  16. ^ See "Officer of the Month - October 2001: Second Lieutenant Charles J. Hanger, Oklahoma Highway Patrol," National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, copyright 2004-2006, accessed August 8, 2006.
  17. ^ The Timothy McVeigh Story: The Oklahoma Bomber (English). Crime Library. Retrieved on 2007-07-12.
  18. ^
    • Count 1 was "conspiracy to detonate a weapon of mass destruction" in violation of 18 USC § 2332a, culminating in the deaths of 168 people and destruction of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. ??
    • Count 2 was "use of a weapon of mass destruction" in violation of 18 USC § 2332a (2)(a) & (b).
    • Count 3 was "destruction by explosives resulting in death", in violation of 18 USC § 844(f)(2)(a) & (b).
    • Counts 4 through 11 were first-degree murder in violation of 18 USC § 1111, 1114, & 2 and 28 CFR § 64.2(h), each count in connection to one of the 8 law enforcement officers who were killed during the attack.
  19. ^ Douglas O. Linder, "The Oklahoma City Bombing & The Trial of Timothy McVeigh,", online posting, University of Missouri–Kansas City, Law School faculty projects, 2006, accessed August 7, 2006. [Specific citations to this source are still needed throughout the above article.]
  20. ^ People in the News: Timothy McVeigh: The Path to Death Row, transcript of program broadcast on CNN, June 9, 2001, 11:30 p.m. ET. [Specific citations to this source are still needed throughout the above article.]. For a description of the video by its director, Linda Thompson, see Waco: The Big Lie, hosted by wfmu.org, a New Jersey FM radio station via serendipity.li, accessed August 8, 2006.
  21. ^ Mark Eddy, George Lane, Howard Pankratz, and Steven Wilmsen, "Guilty on Every Count," Denver Post Online June 3, 1997, accessed August 7, 2006:

    Although 168 people, including 19 children, were killed in the April 19, 1995, explosion, but murder charges were only brought against McVeigh for the eight federal agents who were on duty when the 5,000-pound fuel oil and fertilizer bomb ripped away the face of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

    Along with the eight counts of murder, McVeigh was charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, using a weapon of mass destruction and destruction of a federal building.

    Oklahoma City District Attorney Bob Macy said he would file state charges in the other 160 murders after McVeigh's co-defendant, Terry Nichols, is tried later this year.

  22. ^ See "Sentenced to Die," The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Online NewsHour, PBS, June 13, 1997, accessed August 8, 2006.
  23. ^ People in the News: Timothy McVeigh: The Path to Death Row, transcript of program broadcast on CNN, June 9, 2001, 11:30 p.m. ET].
  24. ^ See "McVeigh Remorseless About Bombing," newswire release, Associated Press, March 29, 2001, reposted on rickross.com, accessed August 8, 2006.
  25. ^ Profile of Timothy McVeigh, CNN, March 29, 2001, accessed August 8, 2006.
  26. ^ See Michel and Herbeck; cf. Walsh.
  27. ^ In 1998, an imprisoned McVeigh penned an essay that criticized US foreign policy towards Iraq as being hypocritical.
    The administration has said that Iraq has no right to stockpile chemical or biological weapons (“weapons of mass destruction”) — mainly because they have used them in the past.
    Well, if that’s the standard by which these matters are decided, then the U.S. is the nation that set the precedent. The U.S. has stockpiled these same weapons (and more) for over 40 years. The U.S. claims that this was done for deterrent purposes during the “Cold War” with the Soviet Union. Why, then is it invalid for Iraq to claim the same reason (deterrence) — with respect to Iraq’s (real) war with, and the continued threat of, its neighbor Iran?
    …
    If Saddam is such a demon, and people are calling for war crimes charges and trials against him and his nation, why do we not hear the same cry for blood directed at those responsible for even greater amounts of “mass destruction” — like those responsible and involved in dropping bombs on the cities mentioned above?
    The truth is, the U.S. has set the standard when it comes to the stockpiling and use of weapons of mass destruction.See [1] by Timothy McVeigh, March 1998
  28. ^ Jones's professional website, Stephen Jones summarizes his role in the case as follows:

    On May 8, 1995, Jones was appointed by the United States District Court as the lead defense counsel for Timothy James McVeigh, charged with the largest mass murder and act of domestic terrorism in the United States, the bombing of the Alfred P. Mur[r]ah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

    A book synopsis appears in the PublicAffairs online catalogue for Others Unknown.
  29. ^ Richard Snell had planned to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1983 but was arrested, imprisoned, and convicted of unrelated murders before doing so, received the death penalty, and was coincidentally executed on April 19, 1995, the same day of the bombing of the Murrah Building that McVeigh was later convicted of carrying out. For a summary of the defense's theory involving foreign conspiracy or conspiracies, see "Petition for Writ of Mandamus of Petitioner-Defendant, Timothy James McVeigh and Brief in Support," dated March 25, 1997.
  30. ^ Pamela Manson, Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help, Salt Lake Tribune, February 22, 2007

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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