Convicted perpetrator of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, born in Pendleton, New York, USA. He joined the army in 1988, took part in Operation Desert Storm, and was discharged in 1991. He became internationally known when he was charged with the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah US government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, in which 168 people died. At his trial in 1997, a Denver jury found him guilty of conspiracy and murder, and he was sentenced to death. Failing all appeals, he was executed by lethal injection in 2001. Two other conspirators, Terry Nichols (1955 ) and Michael Fortier (1969 ), were also later convicted.
Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American convicted of eleven federal offenses and ultimately executed as a result of his role in the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Biography
McVeigh was raised in Western New York State, being born in Pendleton (near Buffalo) and received his high school diploma from Starpoint High School in Lockport, New York .
Religious beliefs
After his parents' divorce, McVeigh and his siblings lived with their father, a devout Roman Catholic who often attended Daily Mass. The Guardian reported that McVeigh wrote a letter claiming to be an agnostic, but no text of such a letter (or tangible proof of its existence) has been published or made public in any medium. McVeigh accepted the Sacrament of Extreme Unction from a priest of the Roman Catholic Church shortly before his death, and he had been visited by a priest during his time in prison but expressed his wish to keep the details of his beliefs private.
Military career
In May 1988, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. At Fort Riley, McVeigh completed the Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC), an Army school required for specialists and corporals to be
promoted to sergeant. McVeigh had always wanted to join the Green Berets, the Army's Elite Special Forces.
After his return from the war, he entered the program for training to become a Green Beret, but dropped out after the second day of an early phase due to a lack of physical fitness (blisters
from new boots acquired on a five-mile march); after this failure, for reasons not fully established, McVeigh decided to leave the Army entirely and received his early discharge on December 31,
1991.
Post-military activities and lifestyle
After leaving the Army, beginning in 1992, his lifestyle grew increasingly transient.
McVeigh experimented with methamphetamines.
Organizational memberships
McVeigh registered as a Republican in New York and was a member of the National Rifle Association while in the military.
Bombing
Working at a lakeside campground near his old Army post, McVeigh constructed an ANFO explosive device arranged in the back of a rented Ryder truck.
On 19 April 1995, McVeigh drove the truck to the front of the Alfred P. Prosecutors said McVeigh strode away from the truck after he ignited a timed fuse from the front of the truck. (Later, McVeigh did not express remorse for these "collateral damage" deaths, but he said he might have chosen a different target if he had known the day care center was there.)
According to the Oklahoma City Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT), over 300 buildings were damaged and more than 12,000 volunteers and rescue workers were involved in rescue, recovery, and support operations. ???
Arrest, trial, conviction and sentencing
Through its serial number, the FBI identified the rear axle found in the wreckage as coming from a Ryder Rental Junction City agency truck. The sketch was shown in the area and on the same day
was identified by manager Lea McGown of the Dreamland Hotel as Timothy McVeigh.
Shortly after the bombing, while driving on I-35 in Noble County, Oklahoma, near Perry, OK, McVeigh was stopped by Charles J. Officer Hanger had passed McVeigh's yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis and noticed it had no license plate. McVeigh was arrested for driving without a license plate and carrying and transporting a loaded firearm. Three days later, while still in jail, McVeigh was identified as the subject of the nationwide manhunt.
On August 10th 1995, McVeigh was indicted on 11 counts, including conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, use of a weapon of mass destruction, destruction by explosives, and eight counts of first-degree murder.
On February 20, 1996 the Court granted a change of venue, and ordered the case transferred from Oklahoma City to the US District Court in Denver, Colorado presided over by U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch.
McVeigh instructed his lawyers to use a "necessity" defense and to argue that his bombing of the Murrah Federal Building was a justifiable response to what McVeigh believed were the crimes of the U.S. government at Waco, Texas, during the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex that resulted in the death of 76 Branch Davidian members. As part of his defense, McVeigh's lawyers showed the controversial video Waco: The Big Lie to the jury at his trial.
On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on all 11 counts of the indictment.
On June 13, the same jury recommended that McVeigh receive the death penalty. The U.S. Department of Justice brought federal charges against McVeigh for causing the deaths of the eight federal officers leading to a possible death penalty for McVeigh; it could not bring charges against McVeigh for the remaining 160 murders in federal court because those deaths fell under the jurisdiction of the state of Oklahoma. After McVeigh's conviction and sentencing (and after the Terry Nichols trial), the state of Oklahoma did not file the state charges in the other 160 murders against McVeigh, since he had already been sentenced to death in the federal trial.
Death
McVeigh's death sentence was delayed pending an appeal.
McVeigh invited California conductor/composer David Woodard to perform a prequiem (a Mass for those who are about to die) on the eve of his execution, and he had also requested a Catholic chaplain. McVeigh chose William Ernest Henley's poem "Invictus" as his final statement. McVeigh's execution was the first of a convicted criminal by the U.S. federal government since the execution of Victor Feguer in Iowa on March 15, 1963. McVeigh's remains were scattered in an undisclosed location.
Motivations for the bombing
McVeigh claimed that the bombing was revenge for "what the U.S. government did at Waco and Ruby Ridge."
McVeigh was considered by many an anti-government extremist, with a long background in the survivalist movement. Photocopies of pages sixty-one and sixty-two of The Turner Diaries were found in an envelope inside McVeigh's car.
In a book based on interviews before his execution, American Terrorist, McVeigh stated he decapitated an Iraqi soldier with cannon fire on his first day in the war, and celebrated. In interviews following the Oklahoma City bombing, McVeigh said he began harboring anti-government feelings during the Gulf War. Some question the veracity of this claim in light of McVeigh's attempts to become a Green Beret after returning from Iraq.
In 1998, an imprisoned McVeigh penned an essay that criticized US foreign policy towards Iraq as being hypocritical.
Alleged accomplices
In addition to McVeigh, Terry Nichols was also convicted and sentenced in federal court to life in prison for his role in the crime. The operator of Dreamland Motel testified that two Ryder trucks had been parked outside her Grandview Plaza motel where McVeigh stayed in Room 26 the weekend before the bombing. Testimony suggested that McVeigh may have had several other accomplices, but no other individuals have been indicted for the bombing.
An ATF informant, Carolyn Howe, told reporters that shortly before the bombing she had warned her handlers that guests of Elohim City, Oklahoma were planning a major bombing attack. McVeigh was issued a speeding ticket there at the same time. However, other than this speeding ticket, there is no evidence of a connection between McVeigh and members of the MidWest Bank Robbers at Elohim City.
In February 2004, the FBI announced it would review its investigation after learning that agents in the investigation of the MidWest Bank Robbers (an alleged Aryan-oriented gang) had turned up explosive caps of the same type that were used to trigger the bomb. McVeigh was given a one week delay prior to his execution while evidence relating to the Bank Robbers gang was presented to a court.
McVeigh eventually declined any further delays and maintained until his death that he had acted alone in the bombing.
Conspiracy theories
Islamic and Neo-Nazi conspiracy
In Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy, Stephen Jones, McVeigh's first, court-appointed lead defense counsel (prior to the death-penalty phase of the case), and Jones's co-author Peter Israel discuss several other possible suspects and continued to implicate Terry Nichols' brother, James.
Jones and Israel suggest in Others Unknown that Terry Nichols had crossed paths with suspected Islamic terrorists during his frequent visits to the Philippines before the attacks.
McVeigh's defense attorneys also submitted a theory to the court that Islamist Terrorists and American Neo-Nazis conspired in the bombing.
In presiding over the trial, Judge Matsch rejected these arguments and did not allow them to be presented as a defense.
Government persecution conspiracy
Various other analysts have suggested that the government was involved in a conspiracy behind the bombing, or that the government even planned the attack in order to justify persecuting right-wing organizations in a manner similar to Nazi prosecution of legislators after the Reichstag fire.
Some writers claim that seismographic records from a nearby research station shortly after the explosion may indicate possible multiple explosions, but other analysts claim that multiple readings within seconds more likely indicate shock waves from collapse of the building. Others Unknown: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy. American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing. "How I Became Interested in Timothy McVeigh and Vice Versa" and "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh.") Walsh, David. "Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh: the making of a mass murderer."
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