feel very free in talking, because i know you're using the information appropriately. here, i'm letting it all come out. >> oklahoma city bomber timothy mcveigh never confessed his crimes to the fbi, the courts or the media, except for a single series of interviews that have never been heard publicly until now. >> death and loss are an integral part of life everywhere. people in oklahoma that lost loved ones, i'm sorry, but you know what? you have to accept it and move on. >> mcveigh's voice will lay out his version of events. using new facial replacement technology, we transform recreation shot with actors into visuals that graphically place mcveigh into the very scenes he describes. drawing from 45 hours of exclusive audiotapes, we'll go deeper than ever thought possible into the mindset of this calculating killer. >> people have compared oklahoma
and timothy mcveigh is sitting quietly in a perry, oklahoma, jail cell. he's not being held in connection with the vicious act that killed 168 people just the day before, but rather for misdemeanor charges. an international manhunt is issued for two suspects, john doe number 1, and john doe number 2. several witnesses claim to have seen a second man in the ryder truck prior to the bombing. as this is happens, mcveigh is biding his time, waiting to see how long it will take for authorities to figure out who he really is. >> while mcveigh's in prison in this little relative ocean of solitude, you know, just waiting for something to happen, the rest of the country is just uptight, in knots, wondering, is there going to be another attack? people are wondering, is this something from the middle east? who could do this? >> fbi agents comb the debris for clues to who could have been
by may of 1999, mcveigh has been convicted and sentenced to death for the oklahoma city bombing. but he's still appealing the conviction. >> mcveigh is sitting there drumming his fingers across the table, and he says, "you're late." you know, timothy mcveigh considered himself a military man. i said, you're right, i'm late, but it was because of all of the security checks i had to go through. and then he smiles at me and he says, "i knew it was the government." >> the men spend the first several hours of the interview with basic small talk. mcveigh eventually delves into a darker place, pulling lou michel into the mindset of someone facing imminent death. >> i'm not going to go into that courtroom and curl into a fetal ball and cry just because the victims want me to. i've already accepted my death and that said to the victims, you can have what you want. i'll go to my death.
what has america become? i just remember that scene. it burned into my memory. i'm emotional as i talk about it. you know, i felt absolute rage. >> tim saw this as an act of war against the people. >> it was the bully again, this time the horns were on the head of the federal government. >> the rules of engagement, if not written down, are defined by the actions of an aggressor. okay? now, what rules of engagement would you interpret in examining waco? kids are fair game? women are fair game? >> i think that that was the final moment for mcveigh, and he says so himself, right? after waco, now is the time for action, right? now we're going operational. >> with oklahoma city being a counterattack, i was only fighting by the rules of engagement introduced by the aggressor. waco started this war. hopefully oklahoma would end it.
>> he was very unassuming, literally very casual sitting on the hood of his car, very articulate. tim said, people need to watch what's happening and heed any warning signs. at the time, i thought, well, what does that mean? well, when i went back and read that in my article, it gave me chills. i thought, did that mean oklahoma city? was he foreshadowing? >> after camping in his car outside the branch davidian compound for a few days, mcveigh drives to terry nichols' farm in northern michigan. >> in less than an hour, the compound was destroyed in a raging inferno. >> on april 19th, 1993, mcveigh and nichols watched the violent end of the waco siege on television. >> watching flames lick out windows, and i'm watching tanks ram walls, and my eyes just welled up in tears, and tears started coming down my cheeks, and i'm watching this scene unfold, just stood there in stunned silence. what is this?
without pretending i'm not, pretending to be worried about being arrested. >> that's when he caught his first glimpse of the murrah building, and his first reaction was, damn, i didn't take the building completely down. so he's got that in his memory when he goes up to the holding cell. >> mcveigh was just wondering, do they know i'm involved with the bombing? i don't think they know. >> he sits in that jail waiting to see if they're going to figure it out or not, but, you know, he's not going to help them. in a way i think what's really going on is mcveigh does essentially plan on being caught. he wants the credit for this. he wants to be the oklahoma city bomber, but he's not going to help them at all. it's some kind of weird game he's playing with law enforcement. >> he waits that first day to be identified, but nothing happens. meanwhile, the hunt for the bomber is on.
he also shared tim's anti-government views and mcveigh has an edge over him intellectually and can manipulate him as well. >> in mid-december of 1994, mcveigh and fortier are traveling from the nichols' farm in michigan to fortier's trailer in arizona. they make a detour to get an up-close look at their target. >> mcveigh and fortier took a drive through oklahoma city and looked over the murrah building and mcveigh said, "that's the one." he liked it because it was uncluttered. >> mcveigh's focus and belief in the mission is becoming laser sharp. but by late winter 1995, nichols and fortier are having doubts. >> you've got to remember, fortier and nichols are more family oriented. they have wives, they have kids. mcveigh, in my opinion, had nothing to live for.
guilt to the court, mcveigh claims that ending up on death row is exactly how he planned it. >> death is not a penalty, it's an escape. i recognized that well before i was driving away from oklahoma city without a license plate. i in fact maybe in a sense am a groundbreaker in a new suicide by cop. >> if you're going to commit suicide, fine, go ahead, put a gun to your head, jump in a lake, but to take all these people with you, that it makes a point? that it illustrates something? for me it's the height of vanity and selfishness. it's beyond words. >> the reason i'm different and call myself make a groundbreaker is that i knew a lot of this before it happened. i knew my objective was state-assisted suicide, and when
explosives, ready to ignite. >> he had initially intended to bomb the building at about 11:00 in the morning, but he finally decides at the very last minute, despite all his talk about how he had ever detail of the plan worked out, he decides he has to go right away, there's too much of a chance of being caught. he actually leaves at about 7:00 in the morning. >> mcveigh carefully pulls the truck on the highway, heading south on i-35 toward oklahoma city. >> i believe he was getting antsy and didn't want to take any chances. he was probably worried that somebody might blow the whistle on him. he had the whole route mapped out from previous trips to oklahoma city.
sometimes i get angry then, too. they were little boys, and you just don't murder little kids. aaron would be 20 years old now, elijah would be 17. sometimes during the day you're going to cry. or there's going to be something that's going to remind you of the bombing, and you're right back where you were on april 19th, 1995. we don't ever get too far from there. >> there were reports of up to 50,000 people in the oklahoma city area suffering symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. i looked at all the photographs from the crime scene. i looked at all the photographs from the coroner's office.