authorized biography of the oklahoma city bomber. 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 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 just because the victims want me to. i ve already been sent to my
a gun too. he sits there and thinks about, okay, am i going to kill the police officer or not? and makes this decision to simply be arrested. charlie disarms him and arrests him on some minor traffic counts. mcveigh is handcuffed, taken to the nearest local lockup in the small town of perry, oklahoma. he s charged with misdemeanors of driving a vehicle without plates and carrying a weapon without a permit. at booking, mcveigh is calm and unassuming. i talked to the people who booked him in. nice boy, not nervous, didn t show any inkling. this kid can mask what s going on inside of him very well. mcveigh is booked about two hours after the bombing and still doesn t know the degree of damage he has inflicted. but while waiting for a cell to
city, they drop off the getaway car. at this point there s a lot of fury between them. they re barely talking as they drive all the way from kansas to oklahoma city and then back again. and at this point mcveigh s thinking to himself, i still need terry nichols to help me build the bomb. i was the principal planner for this. i did manipulate people, including terry nichols. on the way back from dropping off the getaway car in oklahoma city, nichols drives mcveigh to the dreamland motel in junction city, kansas, a short distance from his own home. two days later, mcveigh hitches a ride to elliott s auto shop and rents the ryder truck that will act as the vessel for the bomb. all the pieces are in place and ready to go. mcveigh also settles on a specific date for the bombing. the two most significant events in the history that
lou michelle s intense interview is approaching the core of timothy mcveigh s grisly narrative. it s april 18th, 1995, just 24 hours before the tragedy in oklahoma city, and mcveigh is in possession of the rented 20-foot ryder truck. the horrific plan is in motion, but co-conspirator terry nichols is trying to back out, yet again. he told mcveigh, i m out, i don t want to be involved with this. mcveigh got him on the phone and yelled and screamed at him, and told him, you re in this. you are going to help me put this bomb together. mcveigh convinces nichols to stick with him, to see the mission through. mcveigh is in charge. mcveigh becomes the alpha male in this small conspiracy to get even with the federal government. from a military perspective, to get a message across, you need to hurt them where they hurt the most.
within a minute after the massive explosion at the alfred murrah building in oklahoma city, bomber timothy mcveigh is approaching his getaway car, a car he purchased for $250. a car so broken down that it nearly strands mcveigh, threatening to hinder his getaway. i got in the car, cranking it over. i pumped the gas like one half pump. i m thinking [ muted ] you re smelling gas, you drained the battery. it s flooded. hold it to the floor. it started right up, so i m gunning it, try to warm it up. it s not going anywhere. i m, okay, i m about five minutes from the blast, you don t want to be apprehended in oklahoma city five minutes after. it s fairly remarkable to listen to him talking about how he finally gets things started. meanwhile, there s absolute carnage behind him.