Domestic Terrorism: The Case of U.S. vs McVeigh

Introduction 

Terrorist attacks have been a real concern for threat in the world, and particularly, the United States. In the recent past, there has been prevalent of domestic terrorism in the U.S. with attacks mostly aimed at shopping malls, schools, and other places of the public. As such, whether international or domestic terrorist attacks, the U.S. government has put extraordinary efforts in developing strategies for preventing or curbing terrorism since the 9/11 attacks because of the dangers and adverse effects terrorism bring to the citizens of the country. In this context, Hoffman and Riley (2015) define domestic terrorism as the attacks by residents against their own country, and it can occur as a violent activity or far-right extremists, economic crime, and hate crimes. Economic crimes are in general driven financial gains. Therefore, when fewer economic opportunities exist for all cultures of the population, a country may be at a higher risk for an attack by terrorists. 

On the other hand, crimes of far-right extremist (FRE) are remarkably dangerous since the attacks on victims may result in murders. As such, factors contributing to FRE include rising unemployment and election of an African American president, which creates a conducive environment for increasing FRE levels. Hate crimes have also encouraged domestic terrorism attacks both in the U.S. and abroad. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a crime amounts to hate crime if an offender chooses a victim based on characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, race, or sexuality, and when considerable evidence shows that the attacks are influenced by hate for the fatalities. Hate crime may persecute property, society, or people. April 19, 1995, Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is an example of both hate crime as both facilitated by domestic terrorism and as domestic terrorism. These crimes of domestic terrorism in the U.S. are conducted by the local terrorist groups such as the right-wing groups (white supremacists) and far-right extremists (Hoffman & Riley, 2015). 

Usually, when such cases of attacks happen, the first action the law does is to prosecute the offenders. As such, for the offenders to be charged guilty and convicted or otherwise acquitted, the crime has to investigated to provide enough evidence for the prosecution in the court of law. On this background, this paper focus on April 19, 1995, Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (the case of U.S. vs. McVeigh), which was a domestic terrorist attack. The first section will address the information concerning the crime, while the second section discusses the methods used in the investigation. The next section addresses the highlights of the investigation, and the last part will address the summation of the verdict. Finally, a concluding paragraph based on the observation from the discussion. 

Information about the crime (The April 19, 1995, Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City) 

The explosion of Murrah Federal in Oklahoma City happened on Wednesday, April 19, 1995, at around 9:02 a.m. when the bomb detonated in front of the building. The weapon was positioned within the borders of a 24-foot Ryder rental truck (Jones & Hillerman, 1998). According to Dinsmore (2000), the mixture of explosive had been set for a charge with an explosion cord and pre-positioned, parked similar in a loading lane on the Murrah Building to its north side, near the intersection of Robinson Avenue and N.W. 5th Street (Dinsmore, 2000). The explosion force was of such a high magnitude that it destroyed one-third of the Murrah Building averagely. The entire north side of the building was reduced to debris, and every floor among the nine stories and the roof were extensively damaged. Contents of the second and first floors were blustered against the structure’s southern portion, while the third through ninth floors were firstly raised by the blast and progressed to pancake one atop the other at street level. By the time the dust cleared, almost one-third of the building was situated in a pile of rubble, measuring in certain areas 35-feet in height and running the structure length (Dinsmore, 2000). 

Dinsmore (2000) adds that at the time of the bombing, the Murrah Building housed an approximate of 600 contract and federal workers, as well as a projected 250 visitors (Dinsmore, 2000). The federal agencies that were housed in the structure included the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Social Security Administration; the General Accounting Office; the Bureau of Tobacco, Firearms, and Alcohol; the Secret Service; the offices of the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army recruitment; Department of Housing and Urban Development; the Department of Defense; the Veterans Administration; the U.S. Customs Service; the General Services Administration; the Department of Agriculture; and, the Department of Transportation. Additionally, the “America’s Kids” Child Care Development Center and the Federal Employees Credit Union office was also housed in the structure (Dinsmore, 2000). 

Because of the high magnitude of the blast, damage extended throughout the downtown city of Oklahoma, covering an approximated 48-square-block area. The blast overturned automobiles, and several vehicles erupted into flames after the explosion (Dinsmore, 2000). The extensive physical damage was only restricted to the Murrah Building but also stretched to the Regency Tower, which is a 24 story with a 273-unit apartment complex, situated one block to the west of the Murrah Building. Besides, directly north to the structure, a two-story building office for Oklahoma Water Resources Board, the three-story Athenian Building, and the historic six-story Journal Record Building received massive damage (Dinsmore, 2000). On top of that, the nearest structures which received the explosion brunt included the federal courthouse to the south; U.S. Post Office, and the St. Joseph's Old Cathedral and Rectory to the west; and the YMCA and the First Methodist Church to the east (Dinsmore, 2000). In overall, the powerful blast damaged close to a total of 350 other buildings within a radius of 16 blocks, crushed glass in 258 surrounding buildings, destroyed over 86 cars, resulting to an approximated damage of worth $652 million. Reports from news indicated that the explosion was felt at a distance of 55 miles away from the site and recorded a 6.0 on the Richter scale (Dinsmore, 2000). 

Additionally, by the end of the day of the attack, six children and 14 adults were confirmed dead, and over 100 wounded. Eventually, the toll reached 168 people who were confirmed dead and among them were 19 children most of them from the daycare center on the second floor and injuring almost 700 more people (Dinsmore, 2000). Those who were killed included 163 who were from the Murrah Federal Building, one woman from the parking lot across the streets, one person from the Athenian Building, a woman and a man from the Oklahoma Water Resources Building, and a rescue worker who was struck on the head by debris. In overall, according to (Dinsmore, 2000), the dangerous explosion left 219 children orphans, over 400 people remained homeless, seven thousand people lost their places of work and some 16,000 individuals who were downtown at the time when the attack occurred. 

The blast also knocked-out primary and back-up of Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) telephone line, which is the local ambulance service leaving 9-1-1 as the only means of communication. Immediately after the blast, a rescue operation was carried by various departments (Dinsmore, 2000). These departments included fire, law enforcement personnel, emergency medical, workers of voluntary organization and many other civilians, entered the Murrah Building in a rescue effort and massive search. In certain instances, chains of human were created to accommodate the rapid and safe removal of the victims as soon as they were identified. However, a minimum of two consecutive “bomb scares” forced these rescue team to evacuate, and no rescue workers were allowed to re-enter until confirmation was given that there were no additional explosive devices located in the building. Without delay, an Incident Command System (ICS) was speedily formed by the Oklahoma City Fire Department, to manage the intensive rescue and search mission (Dinsmore, 2000). The ICS expertly handled the massive resources influx including state, local, federal, and voluntary agency response equipment and personnel. Also, the Oklahoma City Police Department dealt with the security and traffic aspects of the event in coordination with the Oklahoma Sheriff of the county, federal and state agencies (Dinsmore, 2000). The recovery and rescue efforts continued and were concluded on May 5 by which all bodies of the victims except three had recovered from the debris of the building (Dinsmore, 2000). As Hersey, Larry, and Bob (2004) assert, April 19, 1995, Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City was the deadliest terrorist attack on the soil of America until September 11 attacks and remains the fatal domestic terrorism incident in the history of the United States. 

Methods of investigations and Highlights of the investigation and trial 

Immediately after the attack of Murrah Building, the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) formed a Task Force to lead an official investigation of the crime known as OKBOMB, with Weldon L. Kennedy as the Inspector in charge. The Task Force at its peak consisted of 900 states, local and federal law enforcement personnel including 200 officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department, 300 agents from FBI, 55 Oklahoma Department of Public Safety officers, and 125 Oklahoma National Guard members (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). The investigations used techniques such as witness interviews, inspection, profiling (used to detect and classify main behavioral characteristics and personality of the suspect based on crime analysis or crimes the person has committed). Also, the investigator's employed methods such as searching for and reviewing any information that is publicly available concerning the suspects, request of information from foreign partners and other agencies and tasked a force to report on the suspects (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

Additionally, the investigative officials also conducted some interviews with individuals beyond the initial complainant, for instance, when they were searching for the owner of the truck that was used to bomb the Murrah Building; they issued subpoenas for email and telephone subscriber information when they were investigating the primary suspect, Timothy McVeigh like the name and the signatures he used while doing transactions at different places; and physical surveillance with no expectation of privacy (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). OKBOMB was deemed the largest criminal case in the history of the U.S., with the investigators conducting 28, 000 interviews, followed over 43, 450 investigative leads, collecting close to one billion information pieces from 26 databases, amassing evidence amounting to 3.5 short turns, and reviewed over 13.2 million records of hotel registration, 682,000 records of airline reservation, and 3.1 million records of Ryder truck rental By the end of the investigation, all the suspects had been arrested including McVeigh (identified as the main perpetrator), Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

Investigation Timeline 

Within 90 minutes of the blast, Oklahoma State Highway Patrol Trooper, Charlie Hanger stopped a yellow Mercury Marquis that was driven by Timothy McVeigh on Interstate 35 near Perry in Noble County, Oklahoma for the failure of having a license plate (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). He discovered that McVeigh was carrying a handgun (45 caliber semi-automatic), and he ran a routine criminal record check and found that McVeigh had no outstanding warrants. He then arrested McVeigh for failure to give proof of the insurance of the vehicle, failure to display a license plate, unlawful firearm transportation in a motor vehicle, and illegal carrying of a concealed weapon. McVeigh was then taken to the Noble County jail in Perry, Oklahoma. After transporting McVeigh into jail, Hanger his police car and got a business card that was hidden by McVeigh while he was handcuffed, and on the back of the card was writing from Wisconsin military surplus store “TNT at $5 a stick. Need more”. The card was used as evidence later during the trial of McVeigh (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

After that, a rear axle that belongs to a large track was found roughly a block from the Murrah Building. A partial Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) was found on the axle. This VIN is distinctive to every vehicle. Later, a trace through the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) revealed the full VIN and the truck were linked to being registered to a Rider Rental, which is situated in Miami, Florida. Early afternoon the same day, the FBI learned that truck was rented from Elliot’s Body Shop, in Junction City Kansas (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). At approximately 3:00 p.m., the FBI went to Elliot’s Body Shop and found that the truck had been rented on Monday, April 19 for four days to a person by the name Robert “Bob” Kling, with a final destination indicated as Omaha, Nebraska (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). The license of the driver is in the name of Robert Kling with a birth date of April 19, 1970. The FBI agents then started to explore if there is a possibility of a connection between Kling’s birth date, the incident of Waco on April 19, 19993, and the April 19 Murrah Building bombing. Employees in the shop described Robert Kling, and two of them thought he was accompanied by another man at the time he was renting the truck (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

Early morning of April 20, 1995, a sketch artist made drawings of the people who rented the truck, and in the afternoon the sketches were released to the public as John Doe #1 and #2. The agents from FBI canvassed the area around Elliot’s Body Shop to discover if anyone may recognize the two persons in the sketches (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). As such, Dreamland Motel owner, Lea McGown was able to remember John Doe #1 as a guest who had a yellow Mercury as well as Ryder truck. McVeigh had signed the registration card at the motel under his real name “Tim McVeigh,” using an address which matched the one at the Perry Police Station charge sheet, and the one on the license he forged. Before McVeigh signed his real names at the motel, he had used false names to carry out his transactions. McVeigh stayed in the motel from April 14 to 17th, but McGown could not recognize John Doe #2, and she said McVeigh was alone (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

The registration card of McVeigh listed a Decker, Michigan address, which was determined to be James Nichols’ family farmhouse, who is the brother of Terry Nichol. From there, the FBI agents learned that the brothers had conveyed their hatred for the federal government. Morning the following day, Las Vegas FBI agents in Nevada, spoke with Lana Padilla who is the ex-wife of Terry Nichol (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). Padilla told them that she lives in Herington, Kansas, which is 25 miles south of Junction City. Additionally, the agents learned that Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols became friends while they were at a boot camp in May 1988 (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). Thereafter, a National Crime Information Center (NCIC) search was initiated and revealed that Timothy James McVeigh was arrested the morning of April 19, 1995, and a call was made to the Noble County Jail which determined that McVeigh was still under custody after his hearing in court, and then hurriedly taken into federal custody (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

This was followed by a warrant the federal agents obtained to search the house of Bill, McVeigh’s father after which they broke down the door of the house and wire the house, and telephone with listening devices. The FBI investigators used the resultant information gained from home search, together with the fake addresses that McVeigh was using to commence their search for the brothers of Nichol, James, and Terry. In the morning of April 21, 1995, Terry Nichol suspected that he was being hunted; thus he became apprehensive and went to Herington Police Station to confirm why the news reports mentioned his name concerning the Oklahoma bombing (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). During the search, the investigators found incriminating evidence at the home of Nichols: books on bomb-making, blasting caps and ammonium nitrate, an electric drill, which is used in drilling the out the quarry locks. They also found Hunter copy (which is a novel of 1989 written by William Luther Pierce, the chairman and founder of National Alliance which is a group of white nationalist), and a map of downtown Oklahoma City, which was hand-drawn and where Murrah Building and the site at which the gateway car of McVeigh was hidden were marked on the map (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

Carus (2012) adds that some evidence were also found including fingerprints of McVeigh on a receipt for 2000 pounds of bomb-making fertilizer at Nichols’ home, and also the clothe McVeigh wore while he was arrested, together with a set of earplugs in his pocket tested positive for residue of chemical used in the explosive. Early morning through a nine-hour interrogation of Terry Nichols and Marife, who was the current wife of Terry Nichols, plus the information from his ex-wife Lana Padilla, the officials determined that they had satisfactory evidence to officially arrest Terry Nichols as a material witness of the Oklahoma City bombing. Terry Nichols was then held in custody until his trial (Hersey, Larry, & Bob, 2004). 

James Nichol was also arrested on April 25, 1995, Jennifer the sister of McVeigh was also accused of unlawfully mailing bullets to McVeigh, and Ibrahim Ahmed was arrested in what is referred to as “Initial dragnet” while traveling from his home in Oklahoma city to Jordan to visit his family (Jenkins, 2018). Ahmad was a Jordanian-American, and there was a fear that the terrorists from Middle Eastern could have behind the attack of Murrah Building, and that is the reason why he got arrested. However, further investigation cleared Ibrahim of any bombing involvement. Besides, James Michael Fortier, a friend McVeigh met in the army, was also arrested. The investigation linked him that he had spent time with McVeigh before the bombing and McVeigh shared his plans with him. He also assisted in financing the plot by selling the guns that Nichols and McVeigh had stolen (Jenkins, 2018). 

Evidence from the Investigation 

The investigation revealed evidence that Murrah Building destruction killed 163 people inside the building and five individuals outside. That the fifteen children in the day care center in Murrah Building and four other children were included among the victims, and eight officials from federal law enforcement also died in the blast (Carus, 2012). Secondly, the investigation indicated that Murrah Building was damaged by a 3,000-6,000 pound bomb made of an ammonium nitrate-based explosive which was carried in inside a Ryder rental truck. McVeigh and Nichols bought, sought, and stole all materials required to make the bomb in the fall of 1994 (Carus, 2012). 

The chronology of bomb construction was as follows: McVeigh purchased ammonium nitrate amounting to a total of 400 pounds from the McPherson branch of the Mid-Kansas Cooperative using the alias “Mike Havens” on September 30, 1994 (Carus, 2012). Second, Nichols and McVeigh stole a Primadet nonelectric blasting caps box and seven Tovex explosives cases from a quarry rock of Martin Marietta near Marion, Kansas. Third, McVeigh bought three drums of nitromethane at a race track exterior to Dallas, Texas on October 21, 1994. Using different aliases, Nichols and McVeigh rented numerous storage lockers in Kansas, in which they stored the components for the bomb. In order finance their conspiracy, Nichols and McVeigh robbed a gun dealer in Arkansas in November of 1994 (Carus, 2012). 

Additionally, the evidence also revealed a letter that McVeigh wrote to Michael and Lori Fortier near September of 1994, where McVeigh unveiled that he and Terry had decided to take some form of positive offensive action against the federal government in order to respond to the siege of the government of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in 1993. On a consecutive visit to their home, McVeigh told the Fortier’s’ of his plans of blowing a federal building. Also, the investigation recovered some letters which discussed the unjustified use of violence against the agents of federal as retaliation for the Waco events. In the letter, McVeigh told his friends and his sister that he progressed from the stage of propaganda to the stage of action in his clash with the federal government (Carus, 2012). 

Summation of the Verdict 

On August 10, 1995, the United States grand jury returned an indictment of eleven-count against Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and unknown others charging: one conspiracy account for use mass destruction weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2332a and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) & (b); one account of explosive destruction in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(f) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) & (b); one account of the use of mass destruction weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2332a and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) & (b); and eight first—degree murder counts in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1111 & 1114 and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) & (b). Only Nichols and McVeigh entered the pleas of not guilty by August 15, 1995 (Carus, 2012). After that, the court granted a Petition by Nichols for Writ of Mandamus to rescue Judge Wayne Alley of the Western District of Oklahoma, and the writ was granted. In 4th December 1995, the case was assigned to Chief Judge Richard P. Matsch of the District of Colorado, who was to preside over proceedings of the future. Then, the district court approved the motion for Nichols and McVeigh for venue change on February 19, 1995, and the case was transferred to Denver, Colorado. Following that, on October 25, 1995, the district court also granted a Severance motion by Nichols and McVeigh and ordered that the trial for McVeigh to proceed first (Carus, 2012). 

The trial of McVeigh started with a prospective juniors’ voir dire on March 31, 1997. On April 24, 1996, a jury of twelve judges with six as alternates was sworn in by the district court, and statements of opening commenced the same day. The government started the guilt phase of the trial, which encompassed 23 testimony days, by presenting the all the evidence of the investigation highlighted above to prove set of facts. After that, on May 29, 1997, closing comments were made, and the jury was charged by the district court on May 30, 1997. After four deliberation days, the jury returned guilty judgments on all eleven Indictment counts. The penalty trial phase started June 4, 1997, and finished with jury instructions and summations on June 12, 1997 (Jones, & Hillerman, 1998). After that, the jury conducted a two days deliberation before bringing back special findings which recommended that McVeigh should be sentenced to death. After McVeigh was denied a motion for new trial, the district court accepted the recommendation that was given by the jury on August 14, 1997, thus, convicting McVeigh on a death sentence on all the eleven counts, and finally executed by lethal injection (Jones, & Hillerman, 1998). 

On September 18, 1997, jury started the trial of Terry Nichols. Terry Nichols avoided the death penalty but was found guilty convicted of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy and was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole on June 4, 1998. Michael Fortier was considered coconspirator for his foreknowledge of bombing planning and assisting McVeigh to scout the Federal building. He was fined $ 200, 000 for not warning authority of the plan of McVeigh to bomb Murrah Building, and sentenced to 12 years I jail (Jenkins, 2018). 

Conclusion 

The Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma was the deadliest of all the domestic terrorism in the history of US and remains one until today. The blast leads to the death of 168 people and several others injured, which called for a quick response from the rescue team. The immediate establishment of OKBOMB to lead the investigation of culprits enormously assisted in the arrest of the principal perpetrators and other involved parties. The FBI conducted a powerful and recommendable investigative job within a short time and gathered huge evidence that was used in the court to convict the offenders. The attack remains in the memory of Americans and American history due to the big impact it brought to the people of Oklahoma and America in general. In overall, terrorism has been a significant concern of threat worldwide including America, and therefore, the government should devote many efforts for counterterrorism through its intelligence agencies to protect his people from such dangers. 

References 

Carus, W. S. (2012).  Defining weapons of mass destruction . NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIV FORT MCNAIR DC CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. 

Dinsmore, J. (2000). Responding to Terrorism Victims: Oklahoma City and Beyond. 

Hersey, J., Larry, T., & Bob, B. (2004). Investigation: The First Days of the Oklahoma City Bombing . Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association. 

Hoffman, B., & Riley, K. (2015). Domestic Terrorism: A National Assessment of State and Local Preparedness.  Santa Monica: RAND. Google Scholar . 

Jenkins, P. (2018). Oklahoma City bombing. Retrieved April 4, 2018, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Oklahoma-City-bombing 

Jones, S., & Hillerman, H. (1998). McVeigh, McJustice, McMedia.  U. Chi. Legal F. , 53.