McVeigh became obsessed with reading about survivalism and Second Amendment issues. He acquired several guns, and set up a generator and a store of canned food and potable water in his basement so that he would be self-sufficient in case of emergency. One of the books he read, The Turner Diaries, a racist novel popular in neo-Nazi and militia circles about an angry man who blows up the FBI building in Washington, would become a long-time favorite.
McVeigh found work as a security guard, but the teenager spent his free time pursuing an obsession with survivalism. To escape the Buffalo area and have a place for target practice, McVeigh purchased a parcel of land in western New York. But though the getaway provided a respite, McVeigh still found his everyday life dreary. One day he showed up at home and informed his father that he was joining the Army.
McVeigh thrived in the armed forces, embracing the disciplined lifestyle he was expected to lead and finding comfort in the solidarity of his fellow recruits. His peers were impressed; one told Michel and Herbeck, "He was more or less, to me, the epitome of infantry. You know, the extremist, 'follow me,' kind of guy. Whatever reservations McVeigh had didn't get in the way of his success -- he received the best score possible for infantry recruits on a test taken at the end of basic training.
He was assigned to Fort Riley, Kansas, a training ground for the operation of tanks and other armored vehicles. Chosen to be a gunner in a Bradley fighting vehicle an armed transport- like a light tank , McVeigh scored an unprecedented out of points in a live-fire test.
But McVeigh wouldn't get his chance. Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and he, along with thousands of other American soldiers, was sent to the Persian Gulf. When allied generals finally decided to go on the offensive, McVeigh drew a dangerous assignment. His Bradley would spearhead a column of vehicles, leading the way for a tank and likely drawing the first enemy fire. It happened to be my vehicle," McVeigh later said Michel and Herbeck.
He decided that the nine lives in the Bradley are worth doing it this way. At the time, however, McVeigh wasn't so sanguine about the plan. But McVeigh's fears turned out to be groundless as the battle -- and the war in general -- quickly turned into a rout.
And on the second day of the conflict, McVeigh's shooting skills paid off; he made a shot so astounding that he was awarded several medals for it. From a distance of nearly yards, McVeigh hit an Iraqi soldier manning a machine gun nest in the chest with his cannon. I saw everything above the shoulders disappear, like in a red mist," he recalled. The incident shook McVeigh, especially when he later discovered that many of the Iraqi soldiers did not want to be fighting and were equipped with vastly inferior weaponry.
Because of him, I killed a man who didn't want to fight us, but was forced to. He was on the front line and had seen death and caused death. McVeigh may have had his misgivings about the war, but he was also proud and patriotic after the victory. One of the first soldiers to return to America, he was treated to a hero's welcome.
In addition, he was extended another invitation to try for Special Forces. The problem was that McVeigh couldn't hack it. His time in the Gulf had left him drained and out of shape. McVeigh returned to his assignment at Fort Riley, bitterly disappointed. Back in Kansas, he grew more aloof and alienated from his fellow soldiers. In addition, McVeigh developed a reputation as a racist. At one point, he even signed up for a trial membership in the KKK, although he chose not to renew because he found the Klan too focused on issues of race and not enough on Second Amendment rights, he later claimed to Michel and Herbeck.
Less than a year after he had returned to America a hero, McVeigh dropped out of the Army, telling his commanding officer, "I just feel I need to leave. McVeigh returned home with high hopes of finding a good job and settling down into civilian life. Without a college degree and in the midst of a recession, however, McVeigh found obtaining a good job difficult and eventually settled for a security guard position he found tiring and tedious. But his employment difficulties were only part of a general malaise, one that he attributed to the adjustment from his time at war.
Who gives a s about conversation about the weather, or who's late for work, or who stubbed their toe? The daily grind, all of a sudden, has gotten much more intolerable," McVeigh would later tell his biographers. As McVeigh became more and more disenchanted with developments in his life, his criticism of government also became more heated. What would turn out to be a day stand-off began. The federal government's actions so infuriated McVeigh that he traveled to Texas in March to sell bumper stickers with slogans such as "Fear the Government that Fears Your Gun.
Tanks rammed holes in the compound and agents fired CS gas inside. Pyrotechnic devices fired into the building turned it into a raging inferno. When it was over, 74 men, women, and children were found dead inside the compound.
McVeigh, in Michigan, sat stunned and appalled: "What is this? What has America become? The Widening Conspiracy. There is no shortage of people in the United States who have serious beefs with the federal government.
In addition to the anti-gun control crowd, there are anti-tax fanatics, white supremacists who resent government's race and immigration policies, and a wide variety of persons who think the United States government is full of communists or "one-world-government" proponents.
Timothy McVeigh had most of these complaints with the government, and over the next two years would find himself in the company of many who shared much of his somewhat paranoid world view. At an April gun show in Tulsa, for example, McVeigh met Andreas Strassmeir, the grandson of a founder of the Nazi party and then the head of security for Elohim City, a acre compound on the Arkansas-Oklahoma border founded by a white supremacist.
There is interesting, but inconclusive, evidence suggesting that Strassmeir might have been a federal undercover operative. In Kingman, Arizona, McVeigh renewed his friendship with army buddy Michael Fortier, an anti-gun control protester with a passion for far-right politics. In the fall of , McVeigh and Terry Nichols made their first visit to Elohim City, a hotbed of anti-government activity--including a plot to blow up a federal building in Oklahoma City.
For McVeigh, it would be the first of at least two, and most likely four or more visits to the compound.
In , McVeigh's activities became overtly criminal. According to FBI reports, it is probable that McVeigh participated in a series of bank robberies around the Midwest with a gang from Elohim City in an effort to raise money for projects involving anti-government violence.
McVeigh cased banks, and most likely drove the getaway car in some of the heists. He also plotted and carried out, with the help of either Nichols or Elohim City residents, an armed robbery of an Arkansas gun dealer that he had befriended at various gun shows. Some of McVeigh's activities bordered on the bizarre. He turned his modest Arizona home into a bunker, renounced his U. According to a book by two inmates who later shared death row with McVeigh, his recipe for the bomb he would use in Oklahoma City came from a patriot friend, who used his chemistry degree from the University of California as a Meth manufacturer.
About this same time, McVeigh's own use of methamphetamines increased. He became increasingly vocal in promoting his apocalyptic world view. In July , he and Michael Fortier trespassed on to "Area 51," a top secret government reservation for weapons testing located near Roswell, New Mexico. Two months later, he journeyed to Gulfport, Mississippi to investigate a rumor that the town had become a staging area for United Nations troops and equipment.
A farewell letter written by McVeigh in July to his boyhood friend, Steve Hodge, revealed the evolution of his thinking: "I have sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and I will I have come to peace with myself, my God, and my cause. Blood will flow in the streets, Steve, Good vs Evil.
Free men vs. Socialist Wannabe Slaves. Pray it is not your blood, my friend. In September , according to both McVeigh and the findings of a federal grand jury, the ex-Army sergeant began plotting to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
The date identified by the grand jury for the start of the conspiracy was September On that day, McVeigh was--according to FBI records showing a receipt for a motel room in Vian, Oklahoma--visiting Elohim City, and probably participating with other anti-government activists in a series of military maneuvers. September 13 also marked the day, coincidentally or not, that a new federal law banning assault weapons became law. By the end of September , McVeigh's plot we will, in this trial commentary, call it "McVeigh's plot," although there is a body of evidence to suggest that others played significant planning roles as well started to unfold.
On September 22, he rented a storage unit in Herington, Kansas , that would later be used to house explosive materials. A week later, Terry Nichols bought a ton of ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in the bomb that would be used in Oklahoma City.
Ammonium nitrate is a commonly used agricultural fertilizer and the purchase was made at a farm cooperative in McPherson, Kansas. October was a busy month for McVeigh and his co-conspirators. He and Terry Nichols bought a second ton of ammonium nitrate from the same farm cooperative. A burglary at a quarry near Marion, Kansas on October 3 netted McVeigh and Nichols a supply of dynamite and blasting caps.
In between these supply-gathering missions, McVeigh found time to visit Oklahoma City to inspect the building he had targeted, and to calculate his own position at the time the bomb would be likely to explode.
McVeigh also managed to fit in two separate visits in October to Kingman, Arizona. He rented another storage locker and, with Michael Fortier watching, tested the explosive mixture that he had chosen for the Murrah Building bombing.
McVeigh tried to recruit Fortier to assist in the actual bombing, but Fortier balked, and asked, "What about all the people? McVeigh's close association with white supremacists and other government-haters at Elohim City continued throughout In addition to joining in bank robberies, there is evidence to suggest that people at the compound were involved in the bombing plot itself. Howe informed her supervisor of these developments. Attorney's Office, the planned operation is called off.
There is no way of knowing whether the raid, if conducted, might have prevented the tragedy in Oklahoma City--but that remains a real possibility.
In March , when Terry Nichols told McVeigh that he wanted to back out of the bombing plan, McVeigh had to turn elsewhere for the assistance he would need in the final stages of the plot. There is speculation that his help came from Elohim City.
McVeigh wanted to be seen at the mastermind of the plot, and in his statements discounted the role of others in the conspiracy, leaving uncertainty as to exactly what roles others played. A polygraph test taken by McVeigh showed him to be truthful in regards to his own role in the bombing, but "evasive" concerning the roles played by other persons not charged in the bombing.
Fellow death row inmates David Hammer and Jeffrey Paul, in their book Secrets Worth Dying For , contend that McVeigh revealed to them that he and four members of the Aryan Republican Army, with Elohim City connections, met several times in March and April in the Arizona desert, where "they conducted 'dry runs' of the 'planting the bomb and getting away.
The contents of that phone conversation are unknown, of course, but there has been considerable speculation in books and on Internet sites, that McVeigh sought to coordinate bombing plans with some compound residents.
Three days after his phone call, McVeigh arrived in Oklahoma, where he was seen at Lady Godiva's , a Tulsa strip club, in the presence of Elohim City militants Andreas Strassmeir and a third man, who some people suggest might have been Michael Brescia.
A security camera in a dressing room at the strip club apparently recorded McVeigh telling a stripper, "On April 19, you'll remember me for the rest of your life. In the final days leading up to the bombing, Aryan Republican Army members and perhaps bomb expert "Poindexter" converged in east central Kansas where final preparations were being made. This is a matter of dispute, as the trial record only hints at this possibility and McVeigh told authorities otherwise, but a growing body of evidence suggests several Elohim City activists played critical roles in April This history is supported by the chronology of events reported in Secrets Worth Dying For , based on McVeigh's alleged death row revelations.
Any book written by convicted death row inmates raises credibility concerns, but the inmates' account corresponds fairly well with the timing of various sightings of " John Doe No. The men most likely camped at Geary Lake, the same place where McVeigh said he received some cash from Terry Nichols on April 14, before he checked into room 25 at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City.
A Junction pizza delivery man later told an FBI interviewer that he delivered a pizza to "Bob Kling" in room 25 that night--and that the man taking the pizza was not Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh parked the old Marquis, which was to be his getaway car, in a lot near the Murrah Building, and then rode back to the Dreamland Motel with Nichols and John Doe 2.
In a form he filled out at Elliot's, McVeigh said he planned to use the truck for a four-day trip to Omaha. McVeigh left the Dreamland Motel in the Ryder truck about the next morning. Stories of what happened next diverge considerably. Either alone one story or after picking up Brescia another story , McVeigh drove to his Herington storage locker where he or they met depending on which account you believe either bomb expert Poindexter or Terry Nichols.
McVeigh is said to have complained, "He and Mike [Fortier] were men who liked to talk tough, but in the end their bitches and kids ruled.
In his authorized biography, McVeigh claimed that he and Nichols also loaded bags of fertilizer into the truck and then completed the assembly of the bomb later that morning at Geary Park. In this version of events, McVeigh set off alone later that afternoon, heading south down I for Oklahoma. He parked the Ryder truck for the night near Ponca City, Oklahoma, sleeping in the cab.
In his alleged prison revelations to inmates, on the other hand, McVeigh reportedly said that the fertilizer had previously been loaded into a second "decoy" truck, and that two trucks--not one--were driven to Oklahoma City that afternoon. Assembly of the bomb was said to have been completed that night at a warehouse in the Oklahoma capital city with the help of Poindexter, McVeigh, and A. In this far more dramatic version of events, related in Secrets Worth Dying For , Poindexter was killed by a throat slashing administered by an A.
The explanation given to McVeigh for the killing: "Soldier, he was only hired help, not one of us. FBI interviews provide some support for each of the conflicting stories. The couple who own the Santa Fe Trail Diner in Herington, the site of McVeigh's storage locker, told federal interviewers that they saw McVeigh, Nichols, and a third man who resembled John Doe 2 having breakfast in their establishment around 8 a. Witnesses also reported seeing a Ryder truck and another pickup truck at Geary Lake an hour or two later.
Owners of a steakhouse in Perry, Oklahoma told agents they saw McVeigh and "a stocky companion" eat dinner in their restaurant around 7 in the evening. What to make of these various sightings? We might never know exactly who assisted McVeigh in the 24 hours leading up to the dreadful events of April 19, but the McVeigh-and-McVeigh-alone theory, and the McVeigh-and-just-Nichols theory, both seem to stretch credulity. April 19, A surveillance camera captures an image the Ryder truck being driven by McVeigh, just minutes before the truck blows up in front of the Murrah Federal Building.
For Timothy McVeigh, April 19 stood out as a date with multiple historical meanings. It was, probably foremost to the former visitor to Waco, the date in that the federal government launched its attack on the Branch Davidian compound in Texas, with the horrific loss of life that resulted. McVeigh also knew April 19 to be the date in that the Battle of Lexington occurred, marking the beginning of the armed uprising by colonialists against British control.
In his getaway car, McVeigh included a bumper sticker that he expected--probably wanted--authorities to find. In the version of events related by McVeigh in his authorized biography, American Terrorist , he began driving south in his Ryder truck from Ponca City about 7 a. At , McVeigh pulled the truck into an Oklahoma City tire store to ask directions. According to the store employee who talked with McVeigh, a second man wearing a baseball cap sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle as McVeigh sought directions to a downtown address six blocks away.
A video camera at a. The Ryder truck drove up NW 5th street shortly before McVeigh lit two fuses. He parked the truck in the handicapped zone in front of the Alfred P. At a. On May 26, , he was convicted of all charges and sentenced to consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! His resignation came amid rumors that he would soon be under investigation by the United States and Sweden Before the Civil War, citizenship was often limited to Native Americans of one-half or less On June 2, , Queen Elizabeth II is formally crowned monarch of the United Kingdom in a lavish ceremony steeped in traditions that date back a millennium.
In an event that is generally regarded as marking the end of the Civil War, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signs the surrender terms offered by Union negotiators. The year-old race car driver Bruce McLaren dies in a crash while testing an experimental car of his own design at a track in Goodwood, England on June 2, Born in Auckland, New Zealand, McLaren contracted a childhood hip disease that would keep him in hospitals for On June 2, , Babe Ruth, one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, ends his Major League playing career after 22 seasons, 10 World Series and home runs.
The following year, Ruth, a larger-than-life figure whose name became synonymous with baseball, was one of Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox. President Grover Cleveland becomes the first sitting president to marry in the White House on June 2, Cleveland entered the White House as a bachelor and left a married man and father of two.
His new wife was a young woman 27 years his junior named Frances Folsom. Set in at a fictional all-male preparatory school called Welton Academy, the film starred Robin Williams as John Keating, a charismatic English Leonard Lake is arrested near San Francisco, California, ending one of the rare cases of serial killers working together.
Lake and Charles Ng were responsible for a series of particularly brutal crimes against young women in California and the Pacific Northwest during the On June 2, , Austro-Hungarian and German troops continue their attacks on the Russian soldiers holding Przemysl now in Poland , the citadel guarding the northeastern-most point of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
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