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Timothy McVeigh
1968–2001 · 33 years Tier II
Voted most promising computer programmer, Starpoint High, class of 1986
He was the only son among three children of Irish American parents in Lockport, New York. Most people who knew him remember a boy who went quiet in adolescence, with one girlfriend and, by his own later account, a habit of saying the wrong thing to women. On a Commodore 64 he broke into government computer systems under the handle The Wanderer, borrowed from the Dion song, and his classmates at Starpoint Central High voted him most promising computer programmer of 1986 and, as a joke, most talkative. His grandfather gave him his first gun. He talked about opening a gun shop, brought firearms to school to impress people, read Soldier of Fortune, dropped out of Bryant and Stratton, and guarded armored cars wearing bandoliers.
He enlisted in May 1988, met Terry Nichols in basic training and Michael Fortier at Fort Riley, outshot his whole division on the Bradley's 25mm cannon, made sergeant, and came home from the Gulf with a Bronze Star and a reputation for handing Black servicemen the worst duty. He quit Special Forces selection on day two. Ruby Ridge and Waco turned grievance into plan. He worked about 80 gun shows in 40 states, handing out cards printed with the name and address of the FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi. On April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of Waco, he parked a Ryder truck holding 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and lit a two-minute fuse. At 9:02 the blast killed 168 people, 19 of them children in the day care, and injured 684.
He said he had not known about the day care and might have chosen a different building if he had. He also told a reporter that he was sorry those people had to lose their lives, but that it is the nature of the beast and it is understood going in what the human toll will be, and said he would not go into the courtroom and curl into a fetal ball because the victims wanted him to. He believed the bombing had worked. He cited the peaceful end of the Montana Freemen standoff in 1996, the 3.1 million dollars the government paid Randy Weaver's family four months after Oklahoma City, and Clinton's public regret about Waco in April 2000. Once you bloody the bully's nose, he said, he is not coming back around.
A state trooper stopped him for a missing license plate 90 minutes after the blast, and he sat in a county jail while the FBI traced a truck axle back to him. A Denver jury convicted him on all 11 counts on June 2, 1997 and recommended death 11 days later. Clinton signed a special law barring him from any military cemetery. He dropped his appeals, called the execution state-assisted suicide, refused an autopsy on the ground that he had been sentenced to death and not to disembowelment, and chose Invictus as his last statement. He died at Terre Haute on June 11, 2001, the first federal execution in 38 years. A decoy hearse drove out empty.
Lifespan
Timothy McVeigh's life against the full span of the corpus.
Life in brief
with age at each point- 1986 aged ~18 Graduates from Starpoint Central High with poor grades and a computer prize He had hacked government systems on a Commodore 64 under the handle The Wanderer.
- May 1988 aged 20 Enlists in the Army at 20 and meets Terry Nichols in training They met Michael Fortier later, at Fort Riley in Kansas.
- 1991 aged ~23 Quits Special Forces selection on day two and leaves the Army He had come home from the Gulf with a Bronze Star.
- 1993 aged ~25 Drives to Waco during the siege and hands out gun-rights literature He worked gun shows for the next five months, distributing Lon Horiuchi's name and address.
- April 19, 1995 aged 26 Detonates a truck bomb at the Murrah Federal Building at 9:02 a.m. 168 dead, 19 of them children, and 684 injured. About a third of the building came down.
- April 19, 1995 aged 26 Stopped by State Trooper Charles Hanger near Perry, Oklahoma, 90 minutes later The stop was for a missing license plate. He was carrying an illegal firearm.
- June 2, 1997 aged 29 Convicted on all 11 counts in Denver The jury recommended death on June 13.
- November 21, 1997 aged 29 Clinton signs a law barring him from burial in any military cemetery Senator Arlen Specter had written it for him.
- June 11, 2001 aged 33 Executed by lethal injection at Terre Haute The first federal execution in 38 years. He left the poem Invictus as his final statement.
