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Timothy McVeigh 

"McVeigh" redirects here. For the navy sailor, see Timothy R. McVeigh. For the Australian politician, see Tom McVeigh
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.
Penalty Death penalty
Status Executed
Occupation Army soldier, security guard
Parents Bill and Mildred "Mickey" McVeigh [1]

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and security guard who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was convicted of eleven United States federal offenses, and was sentenced to death and executed for his role in the April 19, 1995 bombing. His act, which claimed 168 lives, was the deadliest event of domestic terrorism in the United States, and the deadliest act of terrorism within United States borders until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Contents

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,[2] 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.[3]

Religious beliefs

After his parents' divorce, McVeigh lived with his father; 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[4] McVeigh professed his belief in "a God", although 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.[5] He was given a Catholic ritual before his execution.

Military career

In May 1988, McVeigh enlisted in the U.S. Army.[6] He was a decorated veteran of the United States Army, having served in the Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. 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 wanted to join the Green Berets, the Army's elite special forces. After returning from the Gulf War, he entered the program for training to become a Green Beret, but dropped out quickly after sustaining blisters from new boots issued for a 5-mile march. Shortly thereafter, McVeigh decided to leave the Army and was discharged on December 31, 1991.[7] McVeigh was given an honorable discharge from the Army Reserve in May 1992.

Post-military activities and lifestyle

After leaving the Army in 1992, McVeigh grew increasingly transient. At first he worked briefly near his hometown of Pendleton as a security guard. Then in 1993, he drove to Waco, Texas during the Waco Siege to sell bumper stickers. McVeigh spent time on the gun show circuit. He sold copies of The Turner Diaries, and a flare gun which he said could shoot down an "ATF helicopter".[8][9] One author said, "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."[10]

McVeigh also used methamphetamines.[11]

Bombing

Main article: Oklahoma City bombing

Working at a lakeside campground near his old Army post, McVeigh constructed an ANNM explosive device mounted 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, a 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 ran away from the truck after he ignited a timed fuse. At 9:02 a.m., a massive explosion destroyed the north half of the building. The explosion killed 168 people, and 450 were injured.[12] Nineteen of the victims were small children in the day care center on the ground floor of the building.[13] McVeigh did not express remorse for the deaths, what he referred to as "collateral damage", but said he might have chosen a different target if he had known the day care center was open.[14]

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

Arrest, trial, conviction, and sentencing

By tracing the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) of a rear axle found in the wreckage, the FBI identified a vehicle as 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. That day manager Lea McGown of the Dreamland Hotel identified the sketch as Timothy McVeigh.citation needed

Shortly after the bombing, while driving on I-35 in Noble County, near Perry, Oklahoma, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma State Trooper Charles J. Hanger from Pawnee, Oklahoma.[15] Hanger had passed McVeigh's yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis and noticed that 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.[16] 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 federal 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.[17] On October 20, 1995, the government filed notice that it would seek the death penalty.

On February 20, 1996, the Court granted a change of venue and ordered that the case be 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. They argued 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. The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex resulted in the deaths of 76 Branch Davidian members.[18] As part of the defense, McVeigh's lawyers showed the jury the controversial video Waco: The Big Lie.[19]

On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on all 11 counts of the federal indictment.[20]

On June 13, 1997, the jury recommended that McVeigh receive the death penalty.[21] 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. Because McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death, the State of Oklahoma did not file murder charges against McVeigh for the other 160 deaths.[22]

Execution

McVeigh's death sentence was delayed pending an appeal. One of his appeals for certiorari, taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, was denied on March 8, 1999. He was 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 his remaining appeals, giving no reason for doing so. He was 33 years old.

McVeigh invited California conductor/composer David Woodard to perform a pre-requiem (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.[23][24] McVeigh was the first convicted criminal to be executed by the United States federal government since Victor Feguer in Iowa on March 15, 1963.

His body was cremated at Mattox Ryan Funeral Home in Terre Haute. The cremated remains were given to his lawyer, who scattered them at an undisclosed location.

Motivations for the bombing

McVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge for "what the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge."[25] McVeigh visited Waco during the standoff, where he spoke to a news reporter about his anger over what was happening there.[26]

McVeigh frequently quoted and alluded to the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries. It described acts of terrorism similar to what he did. McVeigh openly rejected the book's racism and homophobia;citation needed he claimed to appreciate its interest in firearms. 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.[27]

In interviews before his execution, documented in 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.[28]

Accomplices

In addition to McVeigh, Terry Nichols was 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 the 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 Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (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. 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 Oklahoma City 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 declined further delays and maintained until his death that he had acted alone in the bombing.

Islamist and Neo-Nazi conspiracy theories

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.[29]

Jones and Israel suggest in Others Unknown that Terry Nichols had come into contact with suspected Islamic terrorists during his frequent visits to the Philippines before the attacks. Nichols' father-in-law then was a Philippine police officer who owned an apartment building often rented to Arabic-speaking students with alleged terrorist connections. Richard A. Clarke, former counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council suggested that the improvement in Nichols's bomb-making techniques, along with telephone calls to the region upon his return to the U.S, pointed to a possible link to Philippines-based Islamist terrorists in Cebú and the southern islands. These accounts were detailed in Richard A. Clarke's 2004 work Against All Enemies, a memoir of his public service spanning 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.[30]

Judge Matsch rejected these theories and did not allow them to be presented as part of the official defense.

Government persecution conspiracy

Various other analysts have suggested that the government was involved in a conspiracy behind the bombing, or that the government planned the attack as a false flag operation in order to justify persecuting right-wing organizations. They pointed to Nazi prosecution of legislators after the Reichstag fire.

In 1995, Brigadier General Benton K. Partin (Ret.) published an analysis of the bombing. From General Partin's analysis[31]:

“It is impossible that the destruction to the building could have resulted from such a bomb [as McVeigh's] 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.”

Later he writes:

“Although the truck bomb had insufficient power to destroy columns, the bomb was clearly responsible for ripping out some floors at the second and third floor levels.”

Jose Padilla

Conspiracy enthusiasts have speculated that José Padilla was an accomplice of McVeigh. Both of them lived in the greater Fort Lauderdale area in Plantation, Florida.[32] 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".[33]

Inside job

In 2007 Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols claimed that a high-ranking FBI official directed Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building, and that the original target might have been changed, according to a new affidavit filed in US District Court. Nichols also claimed that the government was protecting the official and other conspirators "in a cover-up to escape its responsibility" for the attacks.[34]

Nichols contends a high-ranking FBI director, Larry Potts, directed Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah on February 9th, 2007.

The suit, which seeks documents from the FBI under the federal Freedom of Information Act, alleges that authorities mistook Kenneth Trentadue for a bombing conspirator and that guards killed him in an interrogation that got out of hand. Trentadue's death a few months after the April 19, 1995, bombing was ruled a suicide after several investigations. The government has adamantly denied any wrongdoing in the death. Trentadue's brother, attorney Jesse Trentadue is suing for FBI teletypes to support his belief that Federal authorities were tipped to McVeigh's plans, but failed to stop the bombing and let others walk away from prosecution. A US District court judge Dale A. Kimball ruled in September 21, 2007 that Trentadue can question and videotape David Paul Hammer and Terry Nichols. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=481&sid=1849765 and http://intelwire.egoplex.com/2007_09_21_blogarchive The FBI has opposed these videotapings. The FBI claimed "there no longer existed any 'case or controversy' sufficient to confer subject matter jurisdiction" to the court after the agency's previous document disclosures. The court disagreed, noting that the FBI's responses were marked by a "troubling absence of documents to which other documents referred."

In his affidavit of February, 2007, Nichols says he wants to bring closure to the survivors and families of the attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which took 168 lives. He alleges he wrote then-Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004, offering to help identify all parties who played a role in the bombing but never got a reply.

McVeigh and Nichols were the only defendants indicted in the bombing. However, Nichols alleges others were involved. McVeigh told him he was recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military, according to Nichols. He says he learned sometime in 1995 that there had been a change in the bombing target and that McVeigh was upset by that.

References and notes

  1. ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/oklahoma/bg/mcveigh.htm
  2. ^ Ancestry of Tim McVeigh
  3. ^ Profile of Timothy McVeigh, CNN, March 29, 2001, accessed August 8, 2006.
  4. ^ Patrick Cole, "A Look Back in TIME: Interview with Timothy McVeigh," March 30, 1996, accessed August 8, 2006,
  5. ^ Julian Borger, "McVeigh faces day of reckoning: Special report: Timothy McVeigh," The Guardian Online, June 11, 2001, accessed August 8, 2006
  6. ^ 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.]
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ Editor (March 29, 2001) "Timothy McVeigh: Convicted Oklahoma City Bomber." CNN.com.
  9. ^ Editors (2000) "Gun Shows in America." Violence Policy Center.
  10. ^ Handlin, Sam (2001) "Profile of a Mass Murderer: Who Is Timothy McVeigh? Court TV Online.
  11. ^ Summary of McVeigh trial.
  12. ^ Global Terrorism Database
  13. ^ Romano, Lois, and Tom Kenworthy, "Prosecutor Paints McVeigh As 'Twisted' U.S. Terrorist", The Washington Post, April 25, 1997; Page A01
  14. ^ 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 said 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."
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ "The Timothy McVeigh Story: The Oklahoma Bomber" (in English). Crime Library. Retrieved on 2007-07-12.
  17. ^
    • 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.
  18. ^ 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.]
  19. ^ "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.
  20. ^ 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, bombing, murder charges were brought against McVeigh only for the eight federal agents who were on duty when the bomb destroyed much of the 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 destroying 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, was tried.
  21. ^ See "Sentenced to Die," The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Online NewsHour, PBS, June 13, 1997, accessed August 8, 2006.
  22. ^ 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].
  23. ^ Catherine Quayle (2001-06-11). "Execution of an American Terrorist". Court TV. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  24. ^ Rita Cosby (2001-06-12). "Timothy McVeigh Put to Death for Oklahoma City Bombings". FOX News. Retrieved on 2008-04-15.
  25. ^ See "McVeigh Remorseless About Bombing," newswire release, Associated Press, March 29, 2001, reposted on rickross.com, accessed August 8, 2006.
  26. ^ Profile of Timothy McVeigh, CNN, March 29, 2001, accessed August 8, 2006.
  27. ^ See Michel and Herbeck; cf. Walsh.
  28. ^ In 1998, McVeigh while in prison wrote 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
  29. ^ 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.
  30. ^ 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. He was sentenced to death and executed on April 19, 1995, the same day of the bombing. 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.
  31. ^ Oklahoma City Bomb Report
  32. ^ Domestic Terrorism 101 - The Middle East Connection
  33. ^ [2][3]
  34. ^ Pamela Manson, Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help, Salt Lake Tribune, February 22, 2007

See also

Further reading

External links


Persondata
NAME McVeigh, Timothy James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Army soldier, security guard, terrorist
DATE OF BIRTH 1968-04-23
PLACE OF BIRTH Pendleton, New York, U.S.A.
DATE OF DEATH 2001-6-11
PLACE OF DEATH Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S.A.
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