Hi everyone, this is Deb from Dying to be Found. Before we get started, I just wanted
to say that episodes contain disturbing discussions on harmful acts and crimes against animals
and or humankind. Recordings are not intended for young or sensitive audiences due to the
content nature of this podcast. Listener discretion is strongly advised.
Hi everyone, thanks for joining me on Dying to be Found True Crime Podcast. If this is
your first time listening, you found us at part 2 of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma
City bombing. Today's episode is going to be pretty phenomenal, but I would recommend
that you go back to listen to part 1 because I would say that that's a prequel to who
Timothy McVeigh is and how he turned out to be one of the most prolific mass murderers
known in US history. It's been a while since we've done a two-parter, but let me start
off with a very quick recap. In part 1, we talked about Timothy McVeigh's early life
and career in the United States Army. And I'm not going to lie, I actually found myself
feeling very sorry for McVeigh for some of the circumstances that he faced early in his
life, but I'll never ever feel sorry for him as the monster that he turned into. After
a stellar career in the military as a decorated soldier, Timothy McVeigh ultimately suffered
from PTSD during a tour of duty in the Gulf War back in the 1990s. His growing paranoia
against the US government began to surface after leaving the military, as you will find
out today. That may have had a smidgen to do with what he did in Oklahoma City. I'm
leaning a little bit more toward the fact that he was just another wackadoodle with
a vengeance to pay and his sights were on the US government. On the morning of April
19, 1995, after two years of careful planning, Timothy McVeigh drove a Ryder rental truck
filled with almost 5,000 pounds of explosives into Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and parked it
at the entrance of the Elford P. Murrah Federal Building downtown. McVeigh got out of his
vehicle and simply walked away. At 9.02 a.m. that morning, the van exploded, taking down
one third of the Federal Building and killing 149 adults, 19 children and injuring over
800 more. By mid-afternoon on April 19, 1995, a command center was established with 190
telephone lines taking in tips on the explosion. Bomb squads were deployed, SWAT teams were
installed for security detail, and Oklahoma City began swarming with investigators and
FBI agents. Officials needed to secure the perimeters of the city, divvy out local emergency
crews and manage what information was going to be released to the public. American news
media outlets immediately began speculating what had happened that morning. They originally
reported speculation on a natural gas explosion, but later theorized that this was a terroristic
attack brought on by the Middle East. And of course, this can be compared to the 9-11
attack that occurred in New York City six years after the Oklahoma City event. But let
me put this into perspective for you. The Oklahoma City bombing was and still is considered
the deadliest domestic act of violence within the United States comparative to the 9-11
attacks. Police quickly established that whoever had done this had done so by using a truck
bomb. Police acted quickly and during their initial investigation, they began accumulating
multiple vehicle parts that looked like they were a part of the plot to bring down the
federal building. So investigators were able to put the puzzle pieces together rather quickly
in this case. Just one day after this attack, the rear axle of a rental truck was located
two blocks away from the detonation site. The good news here is that according to the
FBI, this truck axle provided investigators with an ID number, which they were able to
trace back to a body shop in Junction City, Kansas. Junction City is located approximately
273 miles or 439 kilometers away from Oklahoma City and is somewhere around a four hour drive.
So McVeigh had a lot of time to think about what he was about to do here on his way to
his target. He had time to abort this mission if he really wanted to, but unfortunately
this was not the case. With the help of the body shop employees, the FBI was able to put
together a composite of the man seen driving this rental truck. When questioned, a Junction
City motel owner recognized the television sketch of a man from eyewitness accounts.
The motel owner quickly called police after seeing the news report and positively identified
Timothy McVeigh through his guest registration records, making McVeigh the authorities number
one suspect. Once authorities discovered McVeigh's identity, they found that he was already incarcerated
in Perry, Oklahoma. McVeigh had been pulled over by Officer Charlie Hanger, an Oklahoma
highway patrolman, just 90 minutes after the Oklahoma City bombing because McVeigh did
not have a license plate on the car he was driving. The only reason that McVeigh was
still behind bars when authorities tracked him there is because the judge who McVeigh
would have gone before encountered a delay before court proceedings began the next day.
His son had missed the school bus and the judge had to drive him to school that morning.
If it had not been for this very small bit of fate, McVeigh would have likely been released
for his misdemeanor charge of driving without proper vehicle equipment.
On the morning of April 19, 1995, McVeigh was pulled over in a resting yellow 1977 Mercury
Marquis sedan about 80 miles or 128 kilometers just outside of Oklahoma City. It's unclear
if this car was rented, borrowed, or stolen, but it wasn't in great condition, which
may have been one of the reasons why it captured Officer Hanger's attention.
When McVeigh was first pulled over, Officer Hanger stayed back near his own vehicle as
he asked the driver to get out of the car. Officer Hanger was no rookie here because
he was super observant on several accounts. As McVeigh exited his vehicle, Hanger observed
him to be a tall, slender, clean-cut young man wearing military boots, a windbreaker,
and a t-shirt with a quote that read, The Tree of Liberty must from time to time be
refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
When Hanger told McVeigh that he was being pulled over for no license plate, McVeigh
seemed genuinely surprised. Hanger found it odd that McVeigh looked toward the back of
the vehicle to see if there was indeed no license plate. Given these circumstances,
Hanger immediately began watching McVeigh's body language.
McVeigh did not have proof of insurance nor a car registration. He told Officer Hanger
that he was in between residence but was headed back to Arkansas to retrieve his belongings.
Still observant, Officer Hanger did not see any kind of suitcase or traveling supplies
from his vantage point, so when McVeigh indicated that he was currently on a road trip, things
just weren't adding up and Hanger asked to see McVeigh's driver's license.
As McVeigh reached for his wallet, Officer Hanger noticed a bulge in McVeigh's shoulder
as his windbreaker tightened. We know windbreakers are typically made of nylon and don't stretch,
so to Hanger, this was a good indication that McVeigh was carrying a concealed weapon.
This was the turning point of the two men's exchange. According to Hanger, things became
very tense in a matter of seconds, which McVeigh seemed to sense as well. McVeigh and Hanger
locked eyes, then McVeigh said that his gun was loaded. Officer Hanger replied back,
So is mine.
For whatever reason things took a turn, call it fate, call it divine intervention, Officer
Hanger was able to keep the situation under control as he placed Timothy McVeigh under
arrest and got him into the back of his patrol car.
So many things could have gone wrong here, because as it turned out, Timothy McVeigh
did indeed have a loaded Glock under his windbreaker.
Let's not forget what we discussed in our first episode, which is the fact that McVeigh
was a trained military vet who possessed the natural ability to take down his intended
target and was on the fast track to join the US Army's elite special forces. He could
have easily fought back, but why he didn't, we'll never know.
McVeigh was promptly arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. As it turns out, he also
had a hunting knife on his belt. Once Officer Hanger had McVeigh detained, he was transported
over to the county jail. During that drive, McVeigh made small talk by asking Hanger how
fast his police car would go and what kind of gun he carried. Remember, he was all about
bearing arms so he was probably quite knowledgeable on this topic. Again, was he calculating his
next move?
Hanger thought that this was all just nervous chatter, not knowing until hours later that
he had just arrested the most wanted man in America.
Remember now, Officer Hanger was out on patrol, so when he initially stopped McVeigh for no
license plate, he had not yet received a full report on the Oklahoma City bombing, nor had
he seen the police sketch that was quickly circulating on national television. Hanger
later said that if he had not been so observant during his interactions with McVeigh, he only
planned to let him off with a ticket.
Now when you're first booked into jail, all of your belongings are bagged and tagged, and
you are given a lovely striped or orange jumpsuit to wear while you're awaiting your time before
the judge. McVeigh was fingerprinted, all of his things were checked in, so of course
everything was readily available to turn over to authorities by the time the FBI arrived.
McVeigh's belongings were confiscated and immediately tested for chemicals used in the
explosion of the Elford P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. When testing foreign
substances, the forensics teams matched traces of the same chemicals used in the explosion
on McVeigh's clothing, plus a set of earplugs and a business card which read, TNT at $5
per stick. Need more.
You know, and I know, in the United States that you are supposedly innocent of a crime
until you're proven guilty. So authorities quickly went to work putting their case together
against Timothy McVeigh. Over the next 32 months, the FBI left no stone unturned. They
logged more than 1 million hours of investigated resources. Authorities conducted more than
28,000 interviews and followed 43,000 leads. They collected 3.5 tons of evidence, searched
for more than 13.2 million hotel registration records, 3.1 rental vehicle records, and over
682,000 airline reservations. By the end of this investigation, the Oklahoma City bombing
was considered to be one of the FBI's most exhaustive domestic terrorism cases in U.S.
history. And thank goodness they caught McVeigh so quickly because we'll never know how much
more damage or what other plots he could have been working on at the time. Remember, he
had a vendetta against the U.S. government due to his beliefs that his right to bear
arms were being impeded upon. So let's back up just a little bit. In part one of this
two-part series, I made a very brief reference on two of McVeigh's Army buddies that he
went to go visit a time or two in Michigan and Arizona. During their investigation, the
FBI uncovered the names of these two men and quickly linked them as accomplices to the
Oklahoma City bombing. Terry Nichols, one of these men, first met Timothy McVeigh during
their military enlistment, and they shared the same beliefs and conspiracy theories by
the U.S. government. Nichols was identified as helping Timothy McVeigh build the truck
bomb that took the majority of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building down. When authorities
came to search Nichols' home in Arizona, they discovered a receipt for 2,000 pounds
of fertilizer plus Timothy McVeigh's fingerprints on that receipt. Terry Nichols was later found
guilty of conspiracy and eight counts of manslaughter later that year. He was sentenced to life
in prison with no possibility of parole. The second person of interest connected to the
Oklahoma City bombing was Michael Fortier, McVeigh's Army buddy from Michigan, who was
also in on the plot to attack the federal government. Fortier was told of McVeigh's plans to place
explosives inside a truck but kept this information to himself. Instead of going to the authorities,
Fortier helped McVeigh scope out the federal building and helped raise money to finance
the bombing by selling stolen guns out of his vehicle. After all was said and done,
Fortier was fined $200,000 and 12 years behind bars for failing to warn authorities that
the Oklahoma bombing was about to take place, plus lying to authorities after the commission
of this crime. On October 10, 1995, both Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted on
11 counts of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill human beings and
to destroy federal property which resulted in death or grievous bodily injury, malicious
destruction of federal property through the use of explosives, and eight counts of first-degree
murder of federal law enforcement officers. McVeigh would spend the next two years behind
bars awaiting his trial. Over the next several months while incarcerated,
Timothy McVeigh wrote a few letters to the newspaper in his hometown where he actually
expressed remorse over the amount of lives that he had taken during his attack. McVeigh
wrote to the Buffalo News outlet saying, quote, I am sorry for those people who have lost
their lives, but that's the nature of the beast, unquote. He went on to say that the
bombing was a legitimate tactic in his war against the US government, but wished that
he had, quote, put his marksmanship to use instead of focusing on police and government
assassinations, unquote. Although McVeigh seemingly took ownership for his actions,
he made comparisons between the 19 children he was responsible for killing in the Oklahoma
City bombing with Harry Truman's orders to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Japan,
in order to save lives. So was he truly remorseful or was he simply
proving his point by bragging that he had successfully pulled off such a tragic event
of mass destruction? In all, those atomic bombs killed 200,000 people, mostly women
and children, who were considered collateral damage. McVeigh said his actions were a small
price to pay in comparison. Timothy McVeigh's trial began on April 24,
1997, where he was found guilty of all charges on June 2 that same year.
One hundred and thirty-seven witnesses took the stand to testify against McVeigh, including
Michael Fortier, one of the two men who had aided McVeigh in this plot of destruction.
It took the jurors 23 hours over four days to find Timothy James McVeigh guilty on all
counts. McVeigh did not have one family member present in the courtroom when the verdict
was read. He received the death penalty and was transferred
from his holding cell in the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, and was escorted
to the execution chamber where he was administered a lethal injection on June 11, 2001. This
procedure took four minutes. McVeigh made no public statement before his
death. He did, however, have a handwritten poem at his execution. The poem that was read
was titled Invictus by W. E. Henley, and it read,
Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul.
Those present at McVeigh's execution did not recognize this poem and thought that McVeigh
had written this himself. However, this poem, which is titled Invictus, was written by William
Ernest Henley, a late 19th century English poet. McVeigh had written down the very first
verse of this poem, and many people feel that he was indicating that he had acted in selfless
and heroic deeds. McVeigh was then given his last rites by a
Catholic priest and pronounced dead in the early morning hours of June 10, 2001. He expressed
the desire to have his ashes spread over the Branch Davidian in Waco, Texas, but also considered
having his ashes scattered at the Oklahoma City bombing memorial site.
Now, before you get angry about this, McVeigh decided against the latter because he thought
it was too vengeful. Well, this ends the story of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing.
Let's end with one of my teachable moments here. And that's to love the ones you're
with, because you don't know when the last time is going to be when you will ever talk
with them. On April 19, 1995, 149 adults, 19 children,
and over 800 more injured got up to go about their day as usual. They had their coffee,
ate their breakfast, drove to work or daycare, and probably had plans that afternoon with
friends or family. None of them made it home, except for the ones who were fortunate to
survive the Oklahoma City bombing that day. We tend to take things for granted that we
will live a long, healthy life and die of old age and natural causes. But go to the
Center of Disease Control or your State Department's transportation websites and you'll see just
how many people woke up today with a plan but never made it home.
I'm grateful that I'm still here. I'm grateful that you were here with me. We live our lives
with no guarantees, so make the best of it and love the ones you're with. And that's
my teachable moment. All right, we would love to receive feedback
from our listeners on this storyline or any of our episodes. Be sure to DM us on Instagram
to let us know what you think. Check out our link tree in our show notes to find out more
about Dying to be Found podcast. And before we go, I want to tell you about our brand
new docu-series scheduled to drop in just a couple of weeks called Insinuation, which
you can find on Instagram and TikTok now at Insinuation podcast. Insinuation is a different
kind of podcast where I'm teaming up with Mary Ann from Social Detective podcast to
help bring awareness to a broken justice system. Dying to be Found will be taking a hiatus
as we get this project underway because I feel very strongly about making a difference
to help the innocent. And if you know Mary Ann, she gets things done. So keep watching
social media as we get Insinuation podcast up and running and be sure to follow us on
Instagram and TikTok. I've got one more episode coming to you for our Dying to be Found series
where my daughter Shelby and I get together in the same room. I don't know what the sound
quality is going to be like, but you are not going to want to miss it. Be sure to tune
in next Thursday as I bring Shelby and one final crazy case to our series finale. I'm
sure that I will be dropping additional episodes. So keep watching us on social media at Dying
to be Found and talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to Dying to be Found. Before we
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Be Whether It Isant, Dying to Be Found