It was the biggest domestic terrorist act at the time. If you’re catching up with the new HBO documentary An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th, you might be wondering why Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City building.
On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., a forty-eight-hundred-pound ammonium nitrate–fuel oil bomb detonated at the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The explosion killed 168 people, injured 680, and destroyed more than one-third of the building. The City of Oklahoma City’s Final Report estimated property damage to more than three hundred buildings in a forty-eight-square-block area.
The perpetrators were Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Both were US Army veterans who became dissuaded by the United State government and held views characteristic of the broad Patriot movement, which feared authoritarian plots by the U.S. federal government and corporate elites.
An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th examines the details of that day, the experiences of the people there, the hunt for the perpetrators, the pivotal moments of the trials, and its effects still felt today.
Why did Timothy McVeigh Bomb the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building?
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Building due to their hatred of the government fueled by white supremacist and antigovernment propaganda. The date was particular as the bombing was the second anniversary of the end of the Waco siege and was coincidentally the day of the execution of Arkansas white supremacist Richard Snell, who had “predicted” a bombing.
In a letter to several publications like Fox News and The Observer, Timothy McVeigh outlined his explanations about why he bombed the Oklahoma City Building. Read it here below:
“I explain herein why I bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong. I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation.
I chose to bomb a federal building because such an action served more purposes than other options. Foremost, the bombing was a retaliatory strike; a counter attack, for the cumulative raids (and subsequent violence and damage) that federal agents had participated in over the preceding years (including, but not limited to, Waco.) From the formation of such units as the FBI’s “Hostage Rescue” and other assault teams amongst federal agencies during the ’80’s; culminating in the Waco incident, federal actions grew increasingly militaristic and violent, to the point where at Waco, our government – like the Chinese – was deploying tanks against its own citizens.
Knowledge of these multiple and ever-more aggressive raids across the country constituted an identifiable pattern of conduct within and by the federal government and amongst its various agencies. (see enclosed) For all intents and purposes, federal agents had become “soldiers” (using military training, tactics, techniques, equipment, language, dress, organization, and mindset) and they were escalating their behavior. Therefore, this bombing was also meant as a pre-emptive (or pro-active) strike against these forces and their command and control centers within the federal building. When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operation, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy.
Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile, by bombing a government building and the government employees within that building who represent that government. Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations. (see enclosed) Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option. From this perspective, what occurred in Oklahoma City was no different than what Americans rain on the heads of others all the time, and subsequently, my mindset was and is one of clinical detachment. (The bombing of the Murrah building was not personal, no more than when Air Force, Army, Navy, or Marine personnel bomb or launch cruise missiles against government installations and their personnel.)”
What was Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols was convicted with?
Timothy McVeigh was found guilty on 11 counts of murder and conspiracy and was sentenced to death. Terry McNell was found guilty of conspiring to build a weapon of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers. In 2004, Judge Steven W. Taylor determined the sentence of 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
How did Timothy McVeigh die?
Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death by lethal injection on April 11, 2001. There was an overwhelming demand of seeing his execution by the victims’ families that they had a closed circuit screening offsite. McVeigh spoke no last words, but had a handwritten transcription of the 19th-century poem “Invictus” by British poet William Ernest Henley distributed to those in attendance, which opens with the stanza:
Out of the night that covers meBlack as the pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.
For his last meal, he had two pints of mint chocolate ice cream. He received a three-drug injection needle inserted: sodium thiopental (which would render him unconscious), pancuronium bromide (which paralyzes voluntary muscles) and potassium chloride (which quickly induces cardiac arrest and ultimately causes death).
