Oklahoma City bombing

Oklahoma City bombing (1995)
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building shortly after the bombing
Location	Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
Coordinates	35°28′22.4″N 97°31′01″W
Date	Wednesday April 19, 1995 9:02 a.m. CST (UTC-5)
Attack type	Truck bomb
Deaths	168
Injured	850+
Perpetrators	Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols
Motive	Retaliation for the Waco Siege and Ruby Ridge

In the Oklahoma City bombing (April 19, 1995), Americans Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols used a truck bomb to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a government office complex in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was the most significant act of domestic terrorism in American history prior to the September 11 attacks of 2001, claiming 168 lives and leaving over 800 people injured. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings in a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars around the site, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings. Damages from the bombing totaled at least $652 million.

McVeigh and Nichols were sympathizers of an American militia movement and were motivated by the Federal government's handling of the Waco Siege (1993) and Ruby Ridge incident (1992), and the bombing occurred on the anniversary of the Waco incident. They were abetted by accomplices Michael and Lori Fortier. Within 90 minutes of the bombing, the 26-year-old McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and was then arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon. Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Nichols to the attack, and within days the two were arrested and charged with the bombing. In the immediate aftermath of the bombing, there were widespread rescue efforts from local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies, and considerable donations from across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated eleven of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, comprising a team of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations.

The official investigation, known as "OKBOMB," was the largest criminal case in the nation's history, with FBI agents conducting 28,000 interviews, amassing 3.5 short tons (3.2 t) of evidence, and collecting nearly one billion pieces of information. The bombers were tried and convicted in 1997. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, while Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. Michael and Lori Fortier agreed to testify against McVeigh and Nichols; Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn the U.S. government, and Lori Fortier received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. As with other large-scale terrorist attacks, conspiracy theories dispute the official claims and allege the involvement of additional perpetrators.

As a result of the bombing, the U.S. government passed legislation designed to thwart future terrorist attacks by increasing protection around federal buildings. Under these measures, law enforcement has since foiled over sixty domestic terrorism plots. On April 19, 2000, the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on the site of the Murrah Federal Building to commemorate the victims of the bombing and annual remembrance services are held at the time of the explosion.

Prelude

Planning

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McVeigh and Nichols cited the federal government's actions against the Branch Davidian compound in the Waco Siege of 1993 as a reason they perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing.

The primary conspirators, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, met in 1988 at Fort Benning during basic training for the U.S. Army. Michael Fortier, an accomplice to the bombing, was an Army roommate of McVeigh's. The three shared interests in Survivalism and anti-government views including opposition to gun control and anger at the federal government's handling of the Waco Siege and the incident at Ruby Ridge. In March 1993, McVeigh visited the Waco site, and later decided to bomb a federal building as a response to the raids. Initially, McVeigh planned only to destroy a federal building, but later decided that his message would be better illustrated by killing a large number of people.

The bombing was planned over several years; as early as August 1994, McVeigh obtained nine Kinestiks from gun dealer Roger Moore, igniting the devices with Nichols outside Nichols' home. On September 30, 1994, Nichols bought 40 50-pound (23 kg) bags of ammonium nitrate from Mid-Kansas Coop in McPherson, Kansas, an amount regarded as unusual even for a farmer. Nichols bought an additional 50-pound (23 kg) bag on October 18. McVeigh approached Fortier and asked him to become involved in the bombing project, but he refused, saying he would never be part of the plan "... unless there was a U.N. tank in my front yard!" To this, McVeigh responded, "What if the tank was in your neighbor's yard? Wouldn't you go to your neighbor's aid? What if it was in the yard of David Koresh?" McVeigh was unable to convince Fortier to assist in the bombing.

Target selection

McVeigh developed a list of criteria for potential attack sites. The target would have to house at least two of three federal law-enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The presence of additional law-enforcement agencies, such as the Secret Service or the U.S. Marshals Service would be considered a bonus. McVeigh considered targets in Arkansas, Missouri, Arizona, and Texas, seeking to maximize the number of federal employees killed or injured.

The Murrah building was also chosen in part because of its glass front, which would shatter under the force of the blast. McVeigh also wished to minimize nongovernmental casualties; he had therefore ruled out a 40-story building in Little Rock, Arkansas because a florist's shop was on the ground floor. The Murrah Building was also chosen because the large open parking lot across the street would absorb and dissipate part of the concussion from the blast. In addition, McVeigh believed the large amount of open space around the building would create better photo opportunities for propaganda purposes.

In December 1994, the pair visited Oklahoma City to inspect their target: the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. McVeigh chose April 19, 1995 for the bombing to coincide with the Waco Siege as well as the 220th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The original plan was for Nichols to follow McVeigh's getaway car with his truck in the wake of the bombing, and for them then to flee in the truck back to Kansas. However, it was later decided that only McVeigh needed to bomb the building.

Early preparations

Nichols and McVeigh stole blasting caps and liquid nitromethane, keeping them in rented storage sheds. They also allegedly robbed gun collector Roger E. Moore of $60,000 worth of guns, gold, silver, and jewels, taking the property away in a van, which was also stolen from him;, although this has been called into question because, despite the fact that McVeigh visited Moore's ranch, the robbers were said to be wearing ski masks and thus a positive identification was impossible; in any event, the physical description did not match Nichols. Also, Aryan Republican Army robbers were operating in the area of Moore's ranch at the time. Moreover, McVeigh did not need to raise money for the bomb, which only cost about $5,000. All told, the truck rental cost about $250, the fertilizer less than $500, and the nitromethane $2,780, with a cheap car being used as a getaway vehicle. McVeigh wrote a letter to Moore opining that government agents had committed the robbery.

McVeigh wanted to use rocket fuel anhydrous hydrazine, but it was too expensive. In October 1994, disguised as a bike racer, McVeigh was able to obtain three 54-US-gallon (200 L) drums of nitromethane on the pretense that he and some fellow bikers needed the fuel for racing. McVeigh rented a storage space, which he used to stockpile seven crates of 18-inch-long Tovex sausages, 80 spools of shock tube, and 500 electric blasting caps they stole from a Martin Marietta Aggregates quarry in Marion, Kansas. He declined to take any of the 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of ANFO he found at the scene, since he did not believe it to be powerful enough. He wanted to build a bomb containing more than 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer mixed with about 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of liquid nitromethane, 350 pounds (160 kg) of Tovex, and the miscellaneous weight of 16 55-gallon drums, for a combined weight of about 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg). McVeigh made a prototype bomb using a plastic Gatorade jug with ammonium nitrate prills and liquid nitromethane. A piece of Tovex sausage and a blasting cap were used to ignite it. McVeigh exploded it out in the desert to avoid detection.

"Think about the people as if they were storm troopers in Star Wars. They may be individually innocent, but they are guilty because they work for the Evil Empire."

—McVeigh reflecting on the deaths of victims in the bombing

Later, speaking about the military mindset with which he went about the preparations, he said, "You learn how to handle killing in the military. I face the consequences, but you learn to accept it." He viewed his act as more akin to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki than the attack on Pearl Harbor, in that it was necessary to prevent more lives from being lost.

On April 14, 1995, McVeigh registered a motel room at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kansas. The following day he rented a Ryder truck under the name Robert D. Kling, an alias he adopted because he knew a soldier named Kling with whom he shared physical characteristics, and because it reminded him of the Klingon warriors of Star Trek. On April 16, he drove to Oklahoma City with fellow conspirator Nichols where he parked a getaway vehicle several blocks away from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. After removing the license plate from the car, he left a note covering the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) plate that read, "Not abandoned. Please do not tow. Will move by April 23. (Needs battery & cable)." Both men then returned to Kansas.

Building the bomb

On April 17 and April 18, McVeigh and Nichols loaded 108 50-pound (23 kg) bags of explosive-grade ammonium nitrate fertilizer, three 55-US-gallon (210 L) drums of liquid nitromethane, several crates of explosive Tovex, 17 bags of ANFO, and spools of shock tube and cannon fuse into the Ryder truck from their storage unit in Herington, Kansas. The two then drove to Geary County State Lake where they nailed boards into the floor to hold the 13 barrels in place and mixed the chemicals together using plastic buckets and a bathroom scale. Each filled barrel weighed nearly 500 pounds (230 kg). McVeigh added more explosives to the driver's side of the cargo bay, which he could ignite at close range, at the cost of his own life, with his Glock 21 pistol if the primary fuses failed. During McVeigh's trial, a witness stated that McVeigh claimed to have arranged the barrels in order to form a shaped charge. This was achieved by tamping the aluminum side panel of the truck with bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to direct the blast laterally towards the building. Specifically, McVeigh arranged the barrels in a backwards J; he said later that for pure destructive power, he would have put all the barrels on the side of the cargo bay closest to the Murrah Building; however, such an unevenly distributed 7,000-pound (3,200 kg) load might have broken an axle, flipped the truck over, or at least caused it to lean to one side, which could have drawn attention. Three additional empty blue steel barrels were in the cargo hold behind the main charge as a decoy for investigators after the explosion.

McVeigh then added a dual-fuse ignition system that he could access through the truck's front cab. Two holes were drilled in the cab of the truck and under the seat; two holes were drilled in the van of the truck. One green cannon fuse was run through each hole into the cab. These time-delayed fuses led from the cab of the truck, through plastic fish-tank tubing conduit (painted yellow to blend in with the truck, and duct-taped in place to the wall to make them harder to disable by yanking from the outside), to two sets of non-electric Primadet blasting caps. These were set up to initiate, through shock tubes, the 350 pounds (160 kg) of Tovex Blastrite Gel "sausages", which would in turn set off the configuration of barrels. Of the 13 non-empty barrels, nine were filled with ammonium nitrate and nitromethane, and four were filled with the fertilizer and about 4-US-gallon (15 L) of diesel fuel. After finishing the truck-bomb construction, the two men separated. Nichols returned to Herington; McVeigh to Junction City.

Bombing

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A security photo from a nearby building showing the Ryder truck approaching the Murrah Federal building.

At dawn on April 19, McVeigh changed his plans to detonate the bomb at 11:00 a.m. CST, instead deciding to destroy the building at 9:00 a.m. CST. As he drove toward the Murrah Federal building in the Ryder truck, McVeigh carried with him an envelope whose contents included pages from The Turner Diaries, a fictional account of modern-day revolutionary activists who rise up against the government and create a full scale race war. He wore a printed T-shirt with the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Sic semper tyrannis ("Thus always to tyrants", which was shouted by John Wilkes Booth immediately after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln) and "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (from Thomas Jefferson). McVeigh also carried an envelope of anti-government materials. These included a bumper sticker with Samuel Adams' slogan, "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Underneath, McVeigh had scrawled, "Maybe now, there will be liberty!" Another item included a quote by John Locke, asserting that a man has a right to kill someone who takes away his liberty.

McVeigh entered Oklahoma City at 8:50 a.m. CST. As the truck approached the building, at 8:57 a.m. CST, McVeigh lit the five-minute fuse. Three minutes later, still a block away, he lit the two-minute fuse. He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone situated under the building's day care center, locked the truck, and as he headed to his getaway vehicle, dropped the keys to the truck a few blocks away.

An aerial view of the destruction

At 9:02 a.m. CST, the Ryder truck, containing in excess of 6,200 pounds (2,800 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast destroyed a third of the building and created a 30-foot (9.1 m) wide, 8-foot (2.4 m) deep crater on NW 5th Street next to the building.

The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings in a sixteen-block radius, destroyed or burned 86 cars around the site, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings (the broken glass alone accounted for 5% of the death total and 69% of the injuries outside the Murrah Federal building). The destruction of the buildings left several hundred people homeless and shut down multiple offices in downtown Oklahoma City. Total damages from the bombing totaled at least $652 million.

The effects of the blast were equivalent to over 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of TNT, and could be heard and felt up to 55 miles (89 km) away. Seismometers at the Omniplex Science Museum in Oklahoma City, 4.3 miles (6.9 km) away, and in Norman, Oklahoma, 16.1 miles (25.9 km) away, recorded the blast as measuring approximately 3.0 on the Richter scale.

Arrests

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was arrested traveling north on Interstate 35 near Perry in Noble County. An Oklahoma State Trooper stopped McVeigh for driving his yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis without a license plate, and arrested him for having a concealed weapon. Federal agents created police sketches with the assistance of Eldon Elliot, owner of the Ryder rental agency in Junction City. Later that day, McVeigh was linked to the bombing via the VIN of an axle and the remnants of a license plate from the destroyed Ryder truck that had been rented under his alias, "Robert Kling." McVeigh also was identified by Lea McGown of the Dreamland Motel, who remembered McVeigh parking a large yellow Ryder truck in the lot; moreover, McVeigh had signed in under his real name at the motel, using an address that matched the one on both his forged license and the charge sheet at the Perry Police Station. Prior to signing into the hotel, McVeigh had used fake names for his transactions; McGown noted, "People are so used to signing their own name that when they go to sign a phony name, they almost always go to write, and then look up for a moment as if to remember the new name they want to use. That's what [McVeigh] did, and when he looked up I started talking to him, and it threw him."

After a court hearing on the gun charges, but before McVeigh was released, federal agents took him into custody as they continued their investigation into the bombing. Rather than talk to investigators about the bombing, McVeigh demanded an attorney. Having been tipped off by the arrival of police and helicopters that a bombing suspect was inside, a restless crowd began forming outside the jail. McVeigh's requests for a bulletproof vest or transport by helicopter were denied.

Federal agents obtained a search warrant for the house of McVeigh's father Bill, and accordingly broke down the door and wired his home and telephone with listening devices. They then searched for Nichols, a friend of McVeigh. Two days after the bombing, Nichols learned that FBI investigators were looking for him, and he turned himself in. Investigators found incriminating evidence at his house: ammonium nitrate and Primadet; the electric drill used to drill out the locks at the quarry; books on bomb-making; a copy of Hunter, the 1989 novel by William Luther Pierce, the late founder and chairman of the white nationalist National Alliance; and, finally, a hand-drawn map of downtown Oklahoma City which included the Murrah Building and the spot where McVeigh's getaway car was hidden. After a nine-hour interrogation, Nichols was formally held in federal custody until his trial for involvement in the bombing. Terry Nichols' brother James was also arrested but released after 32 days for lack of evidence. McVeigh's sister Jennifer was accused of illegally mailing bullets to McVeigh, but was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against him.

Initially the FBI had three theories on who had committed the bombing. The first was that it was international terrorism, possibly by the same group who had committed the World Trade Center bombing two years earlier. The FBI also thought that a drug cartel was acting out of vengeance against DEA agents, as the building held a DEA office. The last theory was that the bombing was done by Christian fascists acting on conspiracy theories.

Ibrahim Ahmad, a Jordanian-American traveling from his home in Oklahoma City to visit family in Jordan was also arrested in what was described as an "initial dragnet". Due to his background, the media initially was concerned that Middle Eastern terrorists were behind the attack. Further investigation, however, cleared Ahmad in the bombing.

Casualties

Charles Porter's photograph of firefighter Chris Fields holding the dying infant Baylee Almon won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1996. A similar photo was taken by Lester LaRue.

It is estimated that 646 people were inside the building when the bomb exploded. At the end of the day of the bombing, twenty people were confirmed dead, including six children, with over a hundred injured. The toll eventually reached 168 confirmed dead, not including an unmatched leg that might be from a possible, unidentified 169th victim. The majority of the deaths were the result of the collapse of the building, not the blast from the bomb. The 168 people killed included 163 people who were in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, one person in the Athenian Building, one woman in a parking lot across the street, a man and woman in the Oklahoma Water Resources building, and a rescue worker struck in the head by debris. The victims ranged in age from three months to seventy-three, not including gestating fetuses of three pregnant women. Of the dead, 99 worked for the federal government; the other 69 did not. Nineteen of the victims were children, including fifteen who were in the America's Kids Day Care Center. The bodies of all 168 victims were identified at a temporary morgue set up at the scene. To identify the bodies, 24 people, including sixteen specialists, used full-body X-rays, dental examinations, fingerprinting, blood tests, and DNA testing. The bomb injured 853 people with the majority of the injuries ranging from abrasions to severe burns and bone fractures.

Response and relief

Rescue efforts

U.S. Air Force personnel and firefighters removing rubble in the rescue attempt

At 9:03:25 a.m. CST, the first of over 1,800 9-1-1 calls related to the bombing was received by Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA). By that time, EMSA ambulances and members of the police and firefighters were already headed to the scene, having heard the blast. Nearby citizens, who had also witnessed or heard the blast, arrived to assist the victims and emergency workers. Within 23 minutes of the bombing, the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) was set up and included representatives of the state departments of public safety, human services, military, health, and education. Assisting the SEOC were agencies such as the National Weather Service, the Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol, and the American Red Cross. Immediate assistance also came from 465 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, who arrived within the hour to provide security, and from members of the Department of Civil Emergency Management. Within the first hour, fifty people were rescued from the Murrah Federal building. Victims were sent to every hospital in the area. By the end of the day, 153 victims had been treated at St. Anthony Hospital, eight blocks from the blast, over 70 at Presbyterian, 41 at University, and 18 at Children's. Temporary silences were observed so listening devices capable of detecting human heartbeats could be used to locate survivors. In some cases, limbs had to be amputated without anesthetic (avoided due to its potential to cause a deadly coma) in order to free those trapped under rubble. Evacuations of the scene were sometimes forced by the receipt by police of tips claiming that more bombs had been planted in the building.

At 10:28 a.m. CST, rescuers found what they believed to be a second bomb. Some rescue workers initially refused to leave until police ordered a mandatory evacuation of a four-block area around the site. The device was later determined to be a three-foot (.9-m) long TOW missile, used as a simulator in training federal agents and bomb-sniffing dogs. The device was inert but had been marked "live" to fool arms traffickers in a planned law enforcement sting. After about 45 minutes, when the missile was determined to be inert, relief efforts resumed. The last survivor, a fifteen-year-old girl found under the base of the collapsed building, was discovered at about 7:00 p.m. CST.

Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin offered to send agents with "anti-terrorist expertise" to help in the investigation. President Clinton declined, believing that acceptance of the offer would increase anti-Muslim sentiments and cause harm to Muslim-Americans.

In the days following the blast, over 12,000 people participated in relief and rescue operations. FEMA activated 11 of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, comprising a team of 665 rescue workers who assisted in rescue and recovery operations. One nurse was killed in the rescue attempt after debris hit her in the head, and 26 other rescuers were hospitalized with various injuries. In an effort to recover additional bodies, 100 to 350 tons of rubble were removed from the site each day until April 29. Twenty-four K-9 units and out-of-state dogs were brought in to search for survivors and locate bodies amongst the building refuse.

Alfred P. Murrah Building being demolished on May 23, 1995. The bombing had occurred with a Ryder truck similar to the one in the lower left of the image.

Rescue and recovery efforts were concluded at 12:05 a.m. CST on May 5, with the bodies of all but three victims recovered. For safety reasons, the building was to be demolished shortly afterward. However, McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones, called for a motion to delay the demolition until the defense team could examine the site in preparation for the trial. More than a month after the bombing, at 7:02 a.m. CST on May 23, the Murrah Federal building was demolished. The final three bodies, those of two credit union employees and a customer, were recovered. For several days after the building's demolition, trucks hauled 800 short tons (730 t) of debris a day away from the site. Some of the debris was used as evidence in the conspirators' trials, incorporated into parts of memorials, donated to local schools, and sold to raise funds for relief efforts.

Humanitarian aid

The national humanitarian response was immediate and, in some cases, even overwhelming. Rescue workers received large amounts of donated goods such as wheelbarrows, bottled water, helmet lights, knee pads, rain gear, and even football helmets. The sheer number of donated goods caused logistical and inventory control problems until drop-off centers were set up to accept and sort the goods. The Oklahoma Restaurant Association, which was holding a trade show in the city, assisted rescue workers by providing 15,000 to 20,000 meals over a ten-day period. The Salvation Army served over 100,000 meals and provided over 100,000 ponchos, gloves, hard hats, and knee pads to rescue workers. Requests for blood donations were met by local residents and also from those around the nation. Of the 9,000 units of blood donated to the victims, only 131 units were used, the rest were saved in blood banks.

Federal and state government aid

Bill Clinton's notes for address to the Oklahoma City bombing victims on April 23, 1995.

At 9:45 a.m. CST, Governor Frank Keating declared a state of emergency and ordered all non-essential workers located in the Oklahoma City area to be released from their duties for their safety. President Bill Clinton learned about the bombing around 9:30 a.m. CST while he was meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller at the White House. Prior to addressing the nation, President Clinton wanted to ground all planes in the Oklahoma City area to prevent the bombers from escaping by air, but decided against it. At 4:00 p.m. CST, President Clinton declared a federal emergency in Oklahoma City and spoke to the nation:

The bombing in Oklahoma City was an attack on innocent children and defenseless citizens. It was an act of cowardice and it was evil. The United States will not tolerate it, and I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards.

He also ordered that flags for all federal buildings be flown at half-staff for 30 days in remembrance of the victims. Four days later, on April 23, Clinton spoke from Oklahoma City.

There was no major federal financial assistance provided to the survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, However, the Murrah Fund was established and collected over $300,000 from federal grants. Over $40 million was donated to the city after the bombing to aid the disaster relief and to compensate the victims. Funds were initially distributed to families that desperately needed it to get back on their feet, while holding the rest of the money in trust for longer-term medical and psychological needs. By 2005, $18 million of the donations remained, where a portion will be used to provide a college education for each of the 219 children who lost one or both parents in the bombing. A committee chaired by Daniel Kurtenbach of Goodwill Industries provided financial assistance to the survivors.

Children terrorized

"I didn't define the rules of engagement in this conflict. The rules, if not written down, are defined by the aggressor. It was brutal, no holds barred. Women and kids were killed at Waco and Ruby Ridge. You put back in [the government's] faces exactly what they're giving out."

—McVeigh reflecting on killing children in the bombing

In the wake of the bombing, the national media seized upon the fact that 19 of the victims had been babies and children, many in the day-care center. At the time of the bombing, there were 100 day-care centers in the United States in 7,900 federal buildings. McVeigh later stated that he was unaware of the day-care center when choosing the building as a target, and if he had known "... it might have given me pause to switch targets. That's a large amount of collateral damage." However, the FBI stated that McVeigh scouted the interior of the building in December 1994 and likely knew of the day-care center before the bombing.

Schools across the country were dismissed early and ordered closed. A photograph of firefighter Chris Fields emerging from the rubble with infant Baylee Almon, who later died in a nearby hospital, was reprinted worldwide and became a symbol of the attack. The photo, taken by utility company employee Charles H. Porter IV, earned the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography. The images and thoughts of children dying terrorized many children who, as demonstrated by later research, showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

President Clinton stated that after seeing images of babies being pulled from the wreckage, he was "beyond angry" and wanted to "put [his] fist through the television". President Clinton and his wife, Hillary, showed concern about how children were reacting to the bombing. They requested that aides talk to child care specialists about how to talk to the children regarding the bombing. President Clinton spoke to the nation three days after the bombing, saying: "I don't want our children to believe something terrible about life and the future and grownups in general because of this awful thing...most adults are good people who want to protect our children in their childhood and we are going to get through this". On the Saturday after the bombing, April 22, the Clintons gathered children of employees of federal agencies that had offices in the Murrah Building, and in a live nationwide television and radio broadcast, addressed their concerns.

Media coverage

Hundreds of news trucks and members of the press arrived at the site to cover the story. The press immediately noticed that the bombing took place on the second anniversary of the Waco incident. Many initial news stories, however, hypothesized the attack had been undertaken by Islamic terrorists, such as those who had masterminded the World Trade Center bombing two years before. Some responded to these reports by attacking Muslims and people of Arab descent.

As the rescue effort wound down, the media interest shifted to the investigation, arrests, and trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and on the search for an additional suspect named "John Doe Number Two". Several witnesses had claimed to see the second suspect with McVeigh who did not resemble Nichols.

Trials and sentencing of the conspirators

The FBI led the official investigation, known as OKBOMB, with Weldon L. Kennedy acting as Special Agent in charge. Kennedy oversaw 900 federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel including 300 FBI agents, 200 officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department, 125 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, and 55 officers from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety. The crime task force was deemed the largest since the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. OKBOMB was the nation's largest criminal case in history, with FBI agents conducting 28,000 interviews, amassing 3.5 short tons (3.2 t) of evidence, and collecting nearly one billion pieces of information. The investigation led to the separate trials and convictions of McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier.

Timothy McVeigh

Main article: Timothy McVeigh

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Timothy McVeigh's mug shot from the day of the bombing; the obscured motto on his shirt reads Sic semper tyrannis

The United States was represented by a team of prosecutors, led by Joseph Hartzler. In his opening statement, Hartzler outlined McVeigh's motivations and the evidence against him. McVeigh's motivation, he said, was hatred of the government, which began during his tenure in the Army as he read The Turner Diaries. His motive grew through increases in taxes and the passage of the Brady Bill, and grew further with the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents. The prosecution called 137 witnesses, including Michael Fortier, Michael's wife Lori Fortier, and McVeigh's sister, Jennifer McVeigh, all of whom testified on McVeigh's hatred of the government and demonstrated desire to take militant action against it. Both Fortiers testified that McVeigh had told them of his plans to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Michael revealed how McVeigh had chosen the date and Lori testified that she created the false identification card that McVeigh used to rent the Ryder truck.

In his trial, whose venue had been moved from Oklahoma City to Denver, Colorado, McVeigh was represented by a defense counsel team of six principal attorneys led by Stephen Jones. According to law professor Douglas O. Linder, McVeigh wanted Jones to present a "necessity defense"—which would argue that he was in "imminent danger" from the government (that his bombing was intended to prevent future crimes by the government, such as the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents). McVeigh argued that "'imminent' does not mean 'immediate.' If a comet is hurtling toward the earth, and it's out past the orbit of Pluto, it's not an immediate threat to Earth, but it is an imminent threat." Despite McVeigh's wishes, Jones instead attempted to discredit the prosecution's case in an attempt to instill reasonable doubt. In addition, Jones believed that McVeigh was part of a larger conspiracy, and sought to present McVeigh as "the designated patsy". However, McVeigh disagreed with Jones arguing that rationale and Judge Matsch, after a hearing, ruled the evidence concerning a larger conspiracy to be too insubstantial to be admissible. In addition to arguing that the bombing could not have been accomplished by two men alone but must have been perpetrated by a conspiracy of more people whom McVeigh was protecting, Jones also attempted to raise reasonable doubt by arguing that no one had seen McVeigh near the scene of the crime and that the investigation into the bombing had lasted merely two weeks. Jones presented 25 witnesses over a one-week period, including Dr. Frederic Whitehurst. Although Whitehurst described the FBI's sloppy investigation of the bombing site and its handling of other key evidence, he was unable to point to any direct evidence that he knew to be contaminated.

A key point of contention in the case was the unmatched left leg that had been found in the building after the bombing. Although it was initially believed to be a male's leg, it was later determined to be that of Lakesha Levy, a female member of the Air Force who was killed in the bombing. Levy's coffin had to be re-opened so that her leg could replace another unmatched leg that had previously been buried with her remains. The unmatched leg had been embalmed, which prevented authorities from being able to extract DNA to determine the leg's owner. Jones argued that the leg could have belonged to another bomber, possibly John Doe #2. The prosecution disputed the claim, saying that the leg could have belonged to one of eight victims who had been buried without a left leg. It is still unknown who the owner of the leg was.

Numerous damaging leaks emerged, which appeared to originate from conversations McVeigh had with his defense attorneys. These included a confession that was said to have been inadvertently included on a computer disk that was given to the press. McVeigh believed that it seriously compromised his chances of getting a fair trial. A gag order was imposed during the trial that prohibited attorneys on either side from commenting to the press on the evidence, proceedings, and opinions regarding the trial proceedings. The defense was allowed to enter into evidence six pages of a 517-page Justice Department report criticizing the FBI crime laboratory and David Williams, one of the agency's explosives experts, for reaching unscientific and biased conclusions about the bombing. The report claimed that Williams had worked backward in the investigation rather than basing his determinations on forensic evidence.

The jury deliberated for 23 hours. On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on eleven counts of murder and conspiracy. Although the defense argued for a reduced sentence of life imprisonment, McVeigh was sentenced to death. After President George W. Bush approved the execution (McVeigh was a federal inmate and federal law dictates that the President must approve the execution of federal prisoners), he was executed by lethal injection at a U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001. The execution was transmitted on closed-circuit television so that the relatives of the victims could witness his death. McVeigh's execution was the first federal execution in 38 years.

Terry Nichols

Main article: Terry Nichols

Terry Nichols stood trial twice. He was first tried by the federal government in 1997 and found guilty of conspiring to build a weapon of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers. After he received the sentence on June 4, 1998 of life-without-parole, the State of Oklahoma in 2000 sought a death-penalty conviction on 161 counts of first-degree murder. On May 26, 2004 the jury found him guilty on all charges, but deadlocked on the issue of sentencing him to death. Presiding Judge Steven W. Taylor then determined the sentence of 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. He is currently held in the ADX Florence Federal Prison.

Michael Fortier

Main article: Michael and Lori Fortier

Though Michael Fortier was considered an accomplice and co-conspirator, he agreed to testify against McVeigh in exchange for a modest sentence and immunity for his wife. He was sentenced on May 27, 1998 to twelve years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the attack. As discussed by Jeralyn Merritt, who served on Timothy McVeigh's criminal defense team, on January 20, 2006, after serving ten and a half years of his sentence, Fortier was released for good behavior into the Witness Protection Program and given a new identity.

Others

No "John Doe #2" was ever identified, nothing conclusive was ever reported regarding the owner of the missing leg, and the government never openly investigated anyone else in conjunction with the bombing. Though the defense teams in both McVeigh's and Nichols trials tried to suggest that others were involved, Judge Steven W. Taylor, who presided over the Nichols trial, found no credible, relevant, or legally admissible evidence of anyone other than McVeigh and Nichols as having directly participated in the bombing. When McVeigh was asked if there were other conspirators in the bombing, he replied: "Because the truth is, I blew up the Murrah Building, and isn't it kind of scary that one man could wreak this kind of hell?" On the morning of his execution, a letter was released that he had written which stated "For those die-hard conspiracy theorists who will refuse to believe this, I turn the tables and say: Show me where I needed anyone else. Financing? Logistics? Specialized tech skills? Brainpower? Strategy? ... Show me where I needed a dark, mysterious 'Mr. X'!"

Legacy

Main articles: Terrorism in the United States and Domestic terrorism in the United States

The site of the building after it was imploded, three months after the bombing

Until the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest act of terror against the U.S. on American soil. Prior to this, the deadliest act of terror against the United States was the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 189 Americans. Within 48 hours after the bombing, and with the assistance of the General Services Administration, the various federal offices were able to resume operations in other parts of the city. Estimates claim that approximately 387,000 people in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area knew someone who was directly affected by the bombing.

In response to the bombing, the U.S. Government enacted several pieces of legislation, notably the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. In response to the trials of the conspirators being moved out-of-state, the Victim Allocution Clarification Act of 1997 was signed on March 20, 1997 by President Clinton to allow the victims of the bombing (and the victims of any other future acts of violence) the right to observe trials and to offer impact testimony in sentencing hearings. In response to passing the legislation, Clinton stated that "when someone is a victim, he or she should be at the center of the criminal justice process, not on the outside looking in."

In the years after the bombing, scientists, security experts, and the ATF have called on Congress to develop legislation that would require customers to present identification when purchasing ammonium nitrate fertilizer as well as have sellers retain records of sales. Critics argued against the requirement, citing that farmers used large portions of the fertilizer for lawful reasons. The identification may not be used to prevent a terrorist attack, but would allow investigators to trace the material back to the person who bought it. In the United States, only Nevada and South Carolina require identification when purchasing the fertilizer. In June 1995, Congress enacted legislation that would require chemical taggants be included with dynamite and other explosives so that a bomb could be traced to its manufacturer. In 2008, Honeywell announced that it had developed a nitrogen-based fertilizer that would not detonate when mixed with fuel oil. The company, with the assistance of the Department of Homeland Security, is working on developing the fertilizer for commercial use.

In the weeks following the bombing, the federal government ordered that all federal buildings in all major cities be surrounded with prefabricated Jersey barriers to ward off similar attacks. As part of a longer plan for United States federal building security, most of these temporary barriers have since been replaced with permanent security barriers which look more attractive and are driven deep into the ground for sturdiness. Furthermore, all new federal buildings must now be constructed with truck-resistant barriers and with deep setbacks from surrounding streets to minimize their vulnerability to truck bombs. FBI buildings, for instance, must be set back 100 feet (30 m) from traffic. The total cost of improving security in federal buildings across the country in response to the bombing reached over $600 million.

The Murrah building was previously deemed so safe that it only employed one security guard. In June 1995, the General Services Administration issued Vulnerability Assessment of Federal Facilities, also known as The Marshals Report. These findings resulted in a thorough evaluation of security at all federal buildings and a system for classifying risks at over 1,300 federal facilities owned or leased by the federal government. Federal sites were divided into five security levels ranging from Level 1 (minimum security needs) to Level 5 (maximum). The Alfred P. Murrah Building was a Level 4 building. Among the 52 security improvement factors were parking, lighting, physical barriers, closed circuit television monitoring, site planning and access, vehicular circulation, standoff distance (which is the setback of the building envelope from the street to mitigate truck bomb damage), hardening of building exteriors to increase blast resistance, glazing systems to reduce flying glass shards and fatalities, and structural engineering design to prevent progressive collapse.

According to Mark Potok, director of Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, law enforcement officials have foiled over sixty domestic terror plots since the Oklahoma City bombing. The attacks were prevented due to measures established by the local and federal government to increase security of high-priority targets and following-up on hate groups within the United States. Potok revealed that in 1996 there was approximately 858 domestic militias and other antigovernment groups but the number had dropped to 152 by 2004. Shortly after the bombing, the FBI hired an additional 500 agents to investigate potential domestic terrorist attacks.

Gate of Time next to the reflecting pool at the Oklahoma City National Memorial in September 2008

The attack led to improvements in engineering for the purpose of constructing buildings that would be better able to withstand tremendous forces. Oklahoma City's new federal building was constructed using those improvements. The National Geographic Channel documentary series Seconds From Disaster suggested that the Murrah Building would probably have survived the blast had it been built according to California earthquake design codes.

Even many who agreed with some of McVeigh's politics viewed his act as counterproductive. Much of the criticism focused on the deaths of innocent children. Critics expressed chagrin that McVeigh had not assassinated specific government leaders instead. Indeed, McVeigh had considered assassinating Attorney-General Janet Reno and others rather than bombing a building, and after the bombing said that sometimes he wished he had committed a series of assassinations instead. Those who expressed sympathy for McVeigh typically described his deed as an act of war, as in the case of Gore Vidal's essay, The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh. Other journalists compared him to John Brown.

In response to Timothy McVeigh's description of himself as a libertarian, Libertarian Party national director Steve Dasbach said:

Timothy McVeigh is not just a mass murderer; he's a very confused mass murderer. Besides having no appreciation for the value of human life, McVeigh apparently has no understanding of the meaning of the word libertarian. Just to set the record straight, real libertarians wholeheartedly reject the use of force to achieve political or social goals. Real libertarians see violence and try to prevent it, see problems and organize cooperative solutions, and see government abusing its power and work peacefully through the political system to protect our rights.

McVeigh thought that the bombing had a positive impact on government policy. As evidence, he cited the peaceful resolution of the Montana Freemen standoff in 1996, the government's $3.1 million settlement with Randy Weaver and his surviving children four months after the bombing, and April 2000 statements by Bill Clinton regretting his decision to storm the Branch Davidian compound. McVeigh noted, "Once you bloody the bully's nose, and he knows he's going to be punched again, he's not coming back around."

Memorial observances

Oklahoma City National Memorial

Main article: Oklahoma City National Memorial

For two years after the bombing, the only memorial for the victims were stuffed animals, crucifixes, letters, and other personal items left by thousands of people at a security fence surrounding the site of the building. Although multiple ideas for memorials were sent to Oklahoma City within the first day after the bombing, an official memorial planning committee did not form until early 1996. The Murrah Federal Building Memorial Task Force, composed of 350 members, was established to formulate plans in choosing a memorial to commemorate the victims of the bombing. On July 1, 1997, the winning design was chosen unanimously by a 15-member panel from 624 submissions. The memorial was designed at a cost of $29 million, which was raised by public and private funds. The memorial is part of the National Park Service and was designed by Oklahoma City architects Hans and Torrey Butzer and Sven Berg. It was dedicated by President Clinton on April 19, 2000, exactly five years after the bombing. Within the first year, it had 700,000 visitors.

After surviving the bombing, The Survivor Tree elm became an emblem of the memorial.

The museum includes a reflecting pool flanked by two large "gates", one inscribed with the time 9:01, the opposite with 9:03, the pool between representing the moment of the blast. On the south end of the memorial is a field full of symbolic bronze and stone chairs—one for each person lost, arranged based on what floor they were on. The chairs represent the empty chairs at the dinner tables of the victims' families. The seats of the children killed are smaller than those of the adults lost. On the opposite side is the "survivor tree", part of the building's original landscaping that somehow survived the blast and fires that followed it. The memorial left part of the foundation of the building intact, so that visitors can see the scale of the destruction. Around the western edge of the memorial is a portion of the chain link fence which had amassed over 800,000 personal items which were later collected by the Oklahoma City Memorial Foundation. North of the memorial is the Journal Record Building which now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum, an affiliate of the National Park Service. Also in the building is the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, a non-partisan think tank.

St. Joseph's Church

On a corner adjacent to the memorial is a sculpture titled "And Jesus Wept", erected by St. Joseph's Catholic Church. St. Joseph's, one of the first brick and mortar churches in the city, was almost completely destroyed by the blast. The statue is not part of the memorial itself but is popular with visitors nonetheless.

Remembrance observance

Rescue Team 5 remembers the victims who died in the bombing.

Each year, an observance is held to remember the victims of the bombing. An annual marathon draws thousands, where runners can sponsor one of the victims of the bombing. For the tenth anniversary of the bombing, the city held 24 days of activities, including a week-long series of events known as the "National Week of Hope" from April 17 to April 24, 2005. As in previous years, the tenth anniversary of the bombing observances began with a service at 09:02 a.m. CST, marking the moment the bomb went off, with the traditional 168 seconds of silence,—one second for each person who was killed as a result of the blast. The service also included the traditional reading of the names, read by children to symbolize the future of Oklahoma City.

Vice President Dick Cheney, former president Clinton, Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, Frank Keating, Governor of Oklahoma at the time of the bombing, and other political dignitaries attended the service and gave speeches in which they emphasized that "goodness overcame evil". The relatives of the victims and the survivors of the blast also made note of it during the service at First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City.

President George W. Bush made note of the anniversary in a written statement, part of which echoes his remarks on the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001: "For the survivors of the crime and for the families of the dead the pain goes on." Bush was invited but did not attend the service because he was en route to Springfield, Illinois to dedicate the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Vice President Cheney presided over the service in his place.

Conspiracy theories

Main article: Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy theories

A variety of conspiracy theories have been proposed about the events surrounding the bombing. Many critics allege that individuals in the government, including President Bill Clinton, knew of the impending bombing and intentionally failed to act on that knowledge. Additional theories focus on the possibility of additional explosives within the building and additional conspirators involved with the bombing. It is also believed that the bombing was done by the government to frame the militia movement or enact antiterrorism legislation while using McVeigh as a scapegoat. Experts have disputed the theories and government investigations have been opened at various times after the bombing to look into the theories.

See also

• List of terrorist incidents
• Domestic terrorism in the United States
• Lone wolf (terrorism)
• National Geographic Seconds From Disaster episodes
• 1993 Bishopsgate bombing
• List of structural failures and collapses
• 2006 Toronto terrorism case

References

• City of Oklahoma City Document Management (1996). Final Report: Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Bombing April 19, 1995. Stillwater, OK: Department of Central Services Central Printing Division. ISBN 0-8793-9130-8.
• Crothers, Lane (2003). Rage on the Right: The American Milita Movement from Ruby Ridge to Homeland Security. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-74-252546-5.
• Figley, Charles R. (2002). Treating Compassion Fatigue. New York: Brunner-Routledge. ISBN 1-583-91053-0.
• Giordano, Geraldine (2003). The Oklahoma City Bombing. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc. ISBN 0-8239-3655-4.
• Hamm, Mark S. (1997). Apocalypse in Oklahoma: Waco and Ruby Ridge Revenged. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-555-53300-0.
• Hamm, Mark S. (2002). In Bad Company: America's Terrorist Underground. Boston: Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-555-53492-9.
• Hewitt, Christopher (2003). Understanding Terrorism in America: From the Klan to Al Qaeda. London; New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27765-5.
• Irving, Clive, ed. (1995). In Their Name. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-44825-X.
• Kellner, Douglas (2007). Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Virginia Tech Massacre. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. ISBN 1-594-51492-5.
• Knight, Peter (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1-576-07812-4.
• Linenthal, Edward (2001). The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513672-1.
• Michel, Lou (2001). American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing. New York: ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-039407-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Miller, Richard Earl (2005). Writing at the End of the World. New York: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-822-95886-4.
• Serano, Richard A. (1998). One of Ours: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-02743-0.
• Stickney, Brandon M. (1996). All-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-573-92088-6.
• Sturken, Marita (2007). Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-822-34103-4.
• Wright, Stuart A. (2007). Patriots, Politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521872645.

Further reading

• Hinman, Eve E. David J. Hammond. Lessons from the Oklahoma City Bombing: Defensive Design Techniques. New York: ASCE Press, 1997. ISBN 0-784-40217-5.
• Jones, Stephen. Peter Israel. Others Unknown: The Oklahoma City Bombing Case and Conspiracy. New York: Public Affairs, 1998. ISBN 1-891-62007-X.
• Oklahoma Today. 9:02 a.m., April 19, 1995: The Official Record of the Oklahoma City Bombing. Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Today, 2005. ISBN 0-806-19957-1.
• Sanders, Kathy. After Oklahoma City: A Grieving Grandmother Uncovers Shocking Truths about the bombing...and Herself. Arlington, TX: Master Strategies, 2005. ISBN 0-9766485-0-4.
• Sherrow, Victoria. The Oklahoma City Bombing: Terror in the Heartland. Springfield, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 1998. ISBN 0-766-01061-9.

External links

• Oklahoma City Bombing Trial News archives and special reports at the The Denver Post (with updated links)
• Oklahoma City National Memorial Official website
• CNN Interactive
• List of victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing
• Bombing images
• Text, Audio, and Video of President Clinton's Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address
• Oklahoma City Bombing Trial (Timothy McVeigh Trial) on the UMKC law department famous trials site
• Coverup in Oklahoma - A documentary that explores witness testimony that was videotaped during the day of the bombing as well as evidence that contradicts the government's official story surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing.