Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing Explained (2001)

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• published: 29 Apr 2015
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Timothy James "Tim" McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American terrorist. He detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Commonly referred to as the Oklahoma City bombing, the attack killed 168 people and injured over 600.[5] According to the United States Government, it was the deadliest act of terrorism within the United States prior to the 9/11 attacks, and remains the most significant act of domestic terrorism in United States history. McVeigh, a militia movement sympathizer and Persian Gulf War veteran, sought revenge against the federal government for their handling of the Waco Siege, which ended in the deaths of 76 people exactly two years before the bombing, as well as for the Ruby Ridge incident in 1992. McVeigh hoped to inspire a revolt against what he considered to be a tyrannical federal government. He was convicted of eleven federal offenses and sentenced to death. Surprisingly, his execution was carried out unusually quickly, as most convicts on death row in the United States spend many years there before being executed. McVeigh was executed only four years later, by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier were also convicted as conspirators in the plot. Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 life terms without parole. Fortier was sentenced to 12 years and has since been released. McVeigh was born in Lockport, New York, the only son and the second of three children of Mildred "Mickey" Noreen (née Hill) and William McVeigh.[1] His Irish[6] parents divorced when he was ten years old, and he was raised by his father in Pendleton, New York.[1][7] McVeigh claimed to have been a target of bullying at school, and he took refuge in a fantasy world where he imagined retaliating against the bullies.[8] At the end of his life, he stated his belief that the United States government is the ultimate bully.[9] Most who knew McVeigh remember him as being very withdrawn and shy, with a few describing him as an outgoing and playful child who withdrew as an adolescent. McVeigh is said to have had only one girlfriend during his early childhood, later stating to journalists he did not have any idea how to impress girls.[10] According to his authorized biography, "his only sustaining relief from his unsatisfied sex drive was his even stronger desire to die."[11] While in high school, McVeigh became interested in computers and hacked into government computer systems on his Commodore 64, under the handle "The Wanderer", borrowed from the song by Dion DiMucci. In his senior year, McVeigh was named Starpoint Central High School's "most promising computer programmer,"[12] but he maintained relatively poor grades until his 1986 graduation.[1] McVeigh was introduced to firearms by his grandfather. He told people he wanted to be a gun shop owner and sometimes took firearms to school to impress his classmates. McVeigh became intensely interested in gun rights after he graduated from high school, as well as the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and read magazines such as Soldier of Fortune. He briefly attended Bryant & Stratton College before dropping out. In May 1988, at the age of 20, McVeigh graduated from the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia.[15] While in the military, McVeigh used much of his spare time to read about firearms, sniper tactics, and explosives.[16] McVeigh was reprimanded by the military for purchasing a "White Power" T-shirt at a Ku Klux Klan protest against black servicemen who wore "Black Power" T-shirts around the army base.[17] McVeigh was awarded a Bronze Star medal for his service as an vehicle crewman in the Persian Gulf War. He was a top-scoring gunner with the 25mm cannon of the Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by the 1st Infantry Division to which he was assigned.[18] He was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, before being deployed on Operation Desert Storm with the Division. Speaking of his experience in Iraq in an interview before his execution, documented in McVeigh's authorized biography American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & the Tragedy at Oklahoma City, he stated he decapitated an Iraqi soldier with cannon fire on his first day in the war and celebrated. He said he later was shocked to be ordered to execute surrendering prisoners and to see carnage on the road leaving Kuwait City after U.S. troops routed the Iraqi army. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_McVeigh Image by Olaf Growald [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons