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Timothy James McVEIGH
Classification: Mass murderer
Characteristics: Revenge for "what the U.S. government did at Waco and
Ruby Ridge"
Number of victims: 168
Date of murder:
April 19,
1995
Date of arrest:
Same day
Date of birth:
April 23,
1968
Victims profile: Men, women and children (Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building)
Method of murder: Bombing (ammonium nitrate and
nitromethane)
Location: Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, USA
Status:
Executed
by lethal injection at the Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute,
Indiana, on June 11,
2001
The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Trial
of Timothy McVeigh
A Chronology
April 23, 1968
Timothy James McVeigh is born.
June 1984
Tim's parents, Bill and Mickey,
permanently separate.
May 24, 1988
McVeigh, already with developed "survivalist"
inclinations (having read, among other books, the
Turner Diaries), joins
the army. He meets Terry Nichols in basic training in Georgia.
They both serve later at Fort Riley, Kansas.
May
15, 1989
Nichols receives an honorable
discharge.
March 1991
McVeigh returns from four months
service in the Persian Gulf War. He begins 30 days of Special
Services training at Fort Bragg, before returning to Fort Riley.
April 1991
McVeigh moves into an off-base home
in Herrington, Kansas, where he will live for the next eight
months.
December 1991
McVeigh leaves his army unit and
moves to upstate New York, near Buffalo, to live with his father.
He begins working for a security company.
1992
McVeigh becomes increasingly
disenchanted with politicians, taxes, anti-gun activists, and U.
S. foreign policy. He experiences bouts of serious depression,
including thoughts of suicide. He writes angry letters to
newspapers and to his congressman on subjects such as his
objection to inhumane slaughterhouses and a proposed law
prohibiting the possession of "noxious substances." He urges
friends to read the Turner
Diaries, a book urging violent action against the United
States government.
Summer 1992
McVeigh has a long stay at the
Michigan home of Terry Nichols, who shares McVeigh's growing
hatred of the federal government.
August 21-31, 1992
McVeigh follows with great interest
news stories about the government's 10-day effort to arrest Idaho
survivalist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge. A deputy marshal and
Weaver's 14-year-old son are killed the first day. The next day
Randy Weaver is wounded. The incident ends with a federal agent
shooting and killing Weaver's wife, leading to Weaver's surrender.
McVeigh finds the government's conduct appalling.
October 1992
McVeigh moves out of his father's
home and into a Lockport, New York apartment.
January 26, 1993
McVeigh quits his job at the
security company, sells most of his belongings, and begins a
series of long road trips. He begins selling guns and military
items at gun shows, including one show where he meets and
befriends a gun dealer named Roger Moore.
February 28, 1993
The U. S. Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), using about 80 armed agents, attempts
to execute a search and arrest warrant (for possession of illegal
weapons) against the Branch Davidians, a religious community
headed by David Koresh and based in central Texas, near the city
of Waco. The raid ends unsuccessfully and badly, with six Branch
Davidians and four agents killed. What will turn out to be a 51-day
stand-off begins at the Mount Carmel compound.
March 1993
McVeigh, incensed by reports of the
siege at Mount Carmel, travels to Texas to visit the site. He is
blocked at a checkpoint three miles from the Branch Davidian's
compound. On March 30, an interview with McVeigh about the siege
and his feelings toward the government, including a photo, runs in
the S.M.U. college newspaper.
April 19, 1993
The FBI and army attack the Mount
Carmel compound of the Branch Davidians. Tanks ram holes in the
building and CS gas is pumped inside. Pyrotechnic devices are
fired into the building, igniting a fire that soon became an
inferno. Seventy-four men, women, and children are found dead
inside the building. McVeigh watches reports on the dramatic
events from the Nichols family farm in Michigan.
May-September 1993
McVeigh meets Andreas Strassmeir,
security head for the militant, far-right compound "Elohim City",
at at Tulsa gun show.
McVeigh, visiting Michael Fortier in Kingman, Arizona, tells
Fortier it is time to take violent action against the United
States government. McVeigh stays in Kingman for five months,
working a security job for minimum wage. During this time,
McVeigh and Fortier discuss forming a militia for battle against "the
New World Order," represented--they thought--by the government's
actions at Waco.
McVeigh continues to sell weapons at gun shows. In the fall, he
leaves for Michigan to see Nichols.
October 12, 1993
McVeigh and Nichols drive to Elohim
City, a compound for members of the militant right in eastern
Oklahoma. The meeting at Elohim City includes person later to be
convicted for a series of bank robberies in the Midwest. (A
speeding ticket two months later, for an infraction just a few
miles from Elohim City, indicates that McVeigh made repeat visits
to the compound.)
October 1993-January 1994
Nichols and McVeigh go to a gun
show in Arkansas, where they consider buying a house. The two men
return to Michigan. McVeigh, using the name "Tim Tuttle," begins
buying nitromethane (a key ingredient in explosives) at hobby
shops.
February 1994
McVeigh takes a job in lumberyard
in Kingman, Arizona.
Spring-Summer 1994
McVeigh's behavior moves
increasingly out of the mainstream. He turns his Arizona home
into a bunker and begins making and exploding small bombs. On
March 16, he renounces his U. S. citizenship. He openly promotes
his apocalyptic world view and begins using methamphetamine. In
July, he and Fortier steal various items from a National Guard
armory and McVeigh trespasses on top secret government land, "Area
51" near Roswell, New Mexico.
August-September 1994
In August, McVeigh cases a bank in
Buffalo, Oklahoma, but decides not to rob it. In early September,
McVeigh travels to Gulfport, Mississippi to investigate a rumor
that the town had become a staging area for United Nations troops
and equipment.
September 12, 1994
McVeigh participates in military
maneuvers at Elohim City. (A September 13 hotel receipt confirms
his presence in the area.).
September 13, 1994
McVeigh begins plotting to blow up
the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. On the same day,
and not coincidentally, a new ban on assault weapons becomes law.
(According to the government's complaint filed after the bombing,
this date represents the beginning of the McVeigh-Nichols
conspiracy to destroy the federal building.)
September 22, 1994
McVeigh rents a storage unit in
Herington, Kansas, which he uses to store explosive ingredients.
September 30, 1994
McVeigh buys his first ton of
ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer that is a key
ingredient in McVeigh's bomb, at a farm cooperative in McPherson,
Kansas.
October 3, 1994
McVeigh burglarizes a quarry near
Marion, Kansas, and steals dynamite and blasting caps. He and
Nichols drive to Arizona, where they stay for two weeks.
October 18, 1994
McVeigh and Nichols buy a second
ton of ammonium nitrate in McPherson, Kansas.
October 20, 1994
McVeigh and Nichols drive by the
Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. They get out of their car, and
time the distance to a place McVeigh would be at the time the bomb
would go off.
October 21, 1994
Wearing a biker disguise, McVeigh
purchases nearly $3,000 worth of nitromethane, a racing fuel used
in bomb construction, from a Dallas, Texas track. After
purchasing the fuel, they travel to Kingman, where McVeigh and
Fortier test the explosives mixture.
November 1994
In a plan arranged by McVeigh,
robbers breaks into the home of Arkansas gun dealer Roger Moore,
and makes off with guns and valuables.
Meanwhile, Andreas Strassmeier and (Elohim City) and Dennis Mahon
(Tulsa, associated with KKK) make the first of three trips to
Oklahoma City to investigate possible bombing targets. The ATF,
through the reports of undercover agent Carole Howe, is aware of
their plans.
December 1994
McVeigh and Michael Fortier drive
to Oklahoma City, where McVeigh points out his target. FBI
documents also point to McVeigh's participation this month in bank
robberies, along with other criminal elements from Elohim City.
January 1995
McVeigh and Nichols discuss bombing
plans while living out of rented rooms in Kansas.
February 1995
Explosive material is moved from
Arizona into McVeigh's Herington, Kansas storage unit. In the
middle of February, McVeigh moves into Fortier's Arizona home,
where he will stay for one month.
After a meeting involving officials of the ATF, FBI, and U.S.
Attorney's Office, a planned raid of Elohim City is called off.
March 1995
Terry Nichols thinks about backing
out of the bombing plan. McVeigh obtains a fake ID. By the end
of the month, he is clear that he doesn't want to be involved on
the day of the bombing, now set to coincide with the second
anniversary of the attack at Waco.
April 5, 1995
McVeigh places a 15-minute phone
call to Elohim City.
April 5-12, 1995
McVeigh lives out of a rented motel
room in Kingman, Arizona. Fortier tells McVeigh he doesn't want
to participate further in the bombing plot. On April 8, McVeigh
is videotaped by a security camera in a Tulsa strip club. He is
at the club with Andreas Strassmeir and Michael Brescia, two
residents of Elohim City. McVeigh can be heard on the tape
telling a dancer at the club, "On April 19, you'll remember me for
the rest of my life."
April 13, 1995
McVeigh visits Oklahoma City and
finds a place to leave a car to use after the bombing. He
inspects his storage shed in Herington, Kansas.
April 14, 1995
McVeigh buys a 1977 Mercury Marquis
in Junction City, Kansas. He also calls a rental shop in Junction
City to reserve a Ryder truck. He meets with Terry Nichols at
Geary Lake (Nichols gives McVeigh some cash) before checking into
the Dreamland Motel in Junction City.
April 15, 1995
McVeigh, using the name "Robert
Kling," puts down a deposit for a Ryder truck at Elliot's Body
Shop.
April 16, 1995
McVeigh meets Nichols at a Dairy
Queen in Herington. They drive in separate cars to Oklahoma City,
where McVeigh leaves his getaway car. The two men then drive back
to Kansas.
April 17, 1995
McVeigh picks up the Ryder rental
truck in Junction City and drives the truck back to the Dreamland
Motel.
April 18, 1995
McVeigh leaves the Dreamland Motel
in the Ryder truck in the early morning. McVeigh drives to his
storage unit where he meets Nichols. The men load bags of
fertilizer and drums of nitromethane into the truck. McVeigh and
Nichols drive separately to Geary Lake park in Kansas, where the
two men mix the explosive components. In the afternoon, McVeigh
heads south toward Oklahoma in the Ryder truck. He parks the
truck for the night near Ponca City, Oklahoma, and sleeps in his
truck.
April 19, 1995
McVeigh awakes near Ponca City and about 7 A.M.
begins driving toward Oklahoma City. He wears a T-shirt with a
drawing of Abraham Lincoln and the words (shouted by John Wilkes
Booth) "SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS" ("thus ever to tyrants"). About 8:50
A.M., McVeigh enters Oklahoma City. As he drives the Ryder truck
up NW 5th Street shortly before 9:00, he lights two bomb fuses.
He parks the truck at a drop-off point in front of the Murrah
Federal Building, locks the truck, and walks quickly toward a
nearby YMCA building. At 9:02 A.M., the truck explodes, taking
with it much of the Murrah Building and seriously damaging many
nearby buildings. Eventually, it will be determined that 167
people died, and over 500 were injured, in the explosion. McVeigh
hops into his Mercury and heads north out of the city. At 10:20
A.M., while driving north on I-35, McVeigh is stopped for having
no license plates on his vehicle. He is arrested for having no
vehicle registration, no license plates, and carrying a concealed
weapon without a permit. He is booked and lodged in the county
jail in Perry, Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, federal agents find the vehicle identification number
of the Ryder truck, and head off to Junction City, Kansas to
determine who might have rented it.
At 9 P.M., white supremacist Richard Snell is executed in Arkansas
after having told prison officials for four days that there would
be a big bombing or explosion on the day of his execution
(Denver
Post story). Snell is connected with
several of the men in Elohim City involved in a plot to attack
federal buildings.
April 21, 1995
A former co-worker in New York
identifies Timothy McVeigh as the "John Doe No. 1" depicted in
police drawings. A warrant is issued for McVeigh's arrest.
Authorities discover that McVeigh is still in Perry, where he is
scheduled to appear before a judge on his misdemeanor charges.
McVeigh is taken to Tinker Air Force base near Oklahoma City.
McVeigh is arraigned in the evening.
Terry Nichols turns himself in to authorities in Herington,
Kansas. He consents to a search of his home.
April 28, 1995
A U. S. magistrate orders McVeigh
held without bail.
May
4, 1995
Due to the instability of the
remaining structure, the search for additional bodies at the
explosion site is called off.
May
10, 1995
Terry Nichols is charged in
connection with the bombing.
June 14, 1995
Authorities call off the search for
"John Doe No. 2," concluding the sketches are of an innocent
person.
August 8, 1995
Michael Fortier and his wife
testify before a grand jury investigating the bombing.
August 11, 1995
A grand jury indicts McVeigh and
Nichols on murder and conspiracy charges.
October 20, 1995
Attorney General Janet Reno
authorizes prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
December 1, 1995
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
removes Oklahoma District Judge Wayne Alley from the case and
assigns the case to Judge Richard Matsch of Denver.
February 20, 1996
Citing the defendant's right to an
impartial jury, Judge Matsch moves the trial from Oklahoma City to
Denver.
October 25, 1996
Judge Matsch orders separate trials
for McVeigh and Nichols, with McVeigh to be tried first.
February 28, 1997
Newspapers publish reports that
McVeigh has confessed.
March 31, 1997
Jury selection begins in the
McVeigh trial.
April 24, 1997
Opening statements are presented in
the McVeigh trial.
May
21, 1997
The prosecution rests after having
presented 137 witnesses.
May
28, 1997
The defense rests after having
presented 25 witnesses. Closing arguments are set for the next
day.
June 2, 1997
McVeigh is convicted on all eleven
counts.
June 13, 1997
After hearing arguments in the
penalty phase of the trial, the jury unanimously decides that
McVeigh should be sentenced to death.
September 29, 1997
The Terry Nichols trial opens.
December 23, 1997
Nichols is convicted of conspiracy
to use a weapon of mass destruction and involuntary manslaughter.
He is found not guilty of use of a weapon of mass destruction.
January 7, 1998
The jury deadlocks on the sentence
for Nichols.
May 27, 1998
Michael Fortier, who failed to warn
authorities of the bombing plan but testified against McVeigh and
Nichols, is sentenced to 12 years in prison.
June 4, 1998
Terry Nichols is sentenced to life
in prison.
September 8, 1998
The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
upholds McVeigh's conviction.
March 9, 1999
The U. S. Supreme Court refuses to
hear McVeigh's appeal of his conviction.
July 13, 1999
McVeigh is transferred to the
federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
March 12, 2000
McVeigh is interviewed by Ed
Bradley on the CBS program 60 Minutes.
April 19, 2000
Dedication ceremonies are held at
the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The event marks the fifth
anniversary of the bombing.
January 16, 2001
After McVeigh says he wants to drop
all appeals of his death sentence, an execution date of May 16 is
set.
May 10, 2001
Six days before the scheduled
execution, the Justice Department admits that it found over 4,000
pages of evidence that should have been turned over to the defense
before trial, but wasn't. Attorney General Ashcroft postpones the
execution for 30 days to allow defense attorneys to review the
newly released documents.
June 1, 2001
McVeigh changes his mind and allows
his attorneys to file appeals to delay the execution.
June 7, 2001
An appeal court denies McVeigh's
request for a stay of execution, and McVeigh announces that he is
ready to die.
June 11, 2001
McVeigh is executed as survivors
and relatives of victims watch on closed-circuit television.
McVeigh is pronounced dead at 7:14 A.M.
May 26, 2004
After being tried in state court in
Oklahoma on 160 charges of first-degree murder, Terry Nichols is
found guilty of all charges. The jury deadlocks on the death
penalty, thus sparing his life.
January 20, 2006
Michael Fortier is released from
prison after serving 10½ years of his 12-year sentence.
