Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and security guard who was convicted of bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the Waco Siege, as revenge for, or to inspire a revolt against what he considered a tyrannical federal government. The bombing killed 168 people and was the deadliest act of terrorism within the United States prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was convicted of 11 federal offenses, sentenced to death and executed on June 11, 2001.
Childhood
McVeigh was born into an Irish Catholic family in Lockport, New York to William McVeigh and Mildred Noreen "Mickey" Hill. His parents divorced when he was 10 years old and was raised by his father in Pendleton, New York. His mother and two younger sisters later moved to Florida.
McVeigh claimed to have been a target of bullying at school, and that he took refuge in a fantasy world where he retaliated against those bullies; he also stated that he believed the United States Government to be the ultimate bully. Those who knew McVeigh remember him as being withdrawn, and is said to have had only one girlfriend during his childhood. He stated to journalists that he did not know how to impress girls. According to his authorized biography, "his only sustaining relief from his unsatisfied sex drive was his even stronger desire to die." Contrary to accounts of McVeigh being introverted, a few childhood friends described him as having been outgoing and playful as a young child, and only subsequently becoming withdrawn as an adolescent.
While in high school, he became interested in computers and he hacked into government computer systems on his Commodore 64, under the handle "The Wanderer," which was borrowed from the song by Dion DiMucci. In his senior year, McVeigh was named the school's "most promising computer programmer." McVeigh graduated from Starpoint Central High School on June 2, 1986, with grades relatively poor.
McVeigh was introduced to firearms by his grandfather and became increasingly fascinated by them. McVeigh 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.
Beliefs
Political
McVeigh's only known political affiliations were his voter registration with the Republican Party when he lived in Buffalo, New York, and a membership in the National Rifle Association while in the military. McVeigh self-identified as a libertarian in a statement that was reported by MSNBC.com and The Washington Post ; and while in federal prison, he voted for Libertarian candidate Harry Browne in the 1996 United States presidential election.
Religious
Throughout his childhood, he and his father were Roman Catholic and regularly attended daily Mass at Good Shepherd Church in Pendleton, New York. In a recorded interview with Time magazine McVeigh professed his belief in "a God", although he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "I never really picked it up, however I do maintain core beliefs." The Guardian reported that McVeigh wrote a letter to them claiming to be an agnostic. McVeigh once said that he believed the universe was guided by natural law, energized by some universal higher power that showed each person right from wrong if they paid attention to what was going on inside them. He had also said, "Science is my religion."
Military career
In May 1988, McVeigh enlisted in the U.S. Army. He had little interest in the bar scene, preferring to use his spare time to read about guns, sniper tactics, or explosives. He once ordered a "White Power" T-shirt from the KKK in protest against black servicemen who wore what he viewed as "Black Power" T-shirts around his army camp , but was reprimanded.
He was a decorated veteran of the United States Army, having served in the Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. He had been a top-scoring gunner with the 25mm cannon of the Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division to which he was assigned. He served at Fort Riley, Kansas, before Operation Desert Storm. At Fort Riley, McVeigh completed the Primary Leadership Development Course (PLDC). McVeigh later would say that the Army taught him how to switch off his emotions. He had special lifesaving training and may have saved the life of a comrade who had life-threatening shrapnel wounds.
McVeigh wanted to join the United States Army Special Forces. After returning from the Gulf War, he entered the selection program for United States Army Special Forces to become a SF soldier, but was quickly dropped from the program after failing to meet the physical fitness requirements. Shortly thereafter, McVeigh decided to leave the Army. He was discharged on December 31, 1991. McVeigh was given an honorable discharge from the Army Reserve in May 1992.
Post-military activities and lifestyle
After leaving the Army in 1992, McVeigh grew increasingly transient. At first he worked briefly near his hometown of Pendleton as a security guard, where he sounded off daily to his co-worker Carl Lebron, Jr. about his loathing for government. Deciding the Buffalo area was too liberal, he left his job and began driving around America, seeking out his old friends from the Army.
McVeigh wrote letters to local newspapers, complaining about taxes:
McVeigh also wrote to Congressman John J. LaFalce, complaining about the arrest of a woman for carrying Mace:
The long hours in a dead-end job, the feeling that he did not have a home and his failure to establish a relationship with a woman brought McVeigh to the breaking point. He sought romance, but was rejected by his co-worker Andrea Peters and still felt nervous around women. He felt he brought too much pain to his loved ones. He grew angry and frustrated at his difficulties acquiring a girlfriend and took up obsessive gambling. Unable to pay back gambling debts, he took a cash advance and then stiffed the credit card company. He then began looking for a state without heavy government regulation or high taxes. He became enraged when the government informed him that he had been overpaid $1,058 while in the Army and he would need to pay back the money. He wrote an angry letter to the government inviting them to:
McVeigh introduced his sister to anti-government literature, but his father had little interest in these views. He moved out of his father's house and into an apartment that had no telephone, which had the advantage of making it impossible for his boss to contact him. He also quit the NRA, viewing its stance on gun rights to be too weak. He became fascinated with the syndicated TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation, admiring Jean-Luc Picard for his knowledge and diplomacy; Worf for being the consummate warrior; Data for his logic; and Geordi La Forge for his proficiency.
In 1993, he drove to Waco, Texas during the Waco Siege to show his support. At the scene, he distributed pro-gun rights literature and bumper stickers, such as "When guns are outlawed, I will become an outlaw." He told a student reporter:
For the five months following the Waco Siege, McVeigh worked at gun shows and handed out free cards printed up with Lon Horiuchi's name and address, "in the hope that somebody in the Patriot movement would assassinate the sharpshooter." He wrote hate mail to the sniper, suggesting that "what goes around, comes around," and later considered putting aside his plan to target the Murrah Building to instead target Horiuchi, or a member of Horiuchi's family.
McVeigh spent more time on the gun show circuit, traveling to 40 of the 50 states and visiting about 80 gun shows in all. McVeigh found that the further west he went, the more anti-government sentiment he encountered, at least until he got to what he called "The People's Socialist Republic of California." McVeigh sold survival items and copies of The Turner Diaries. One author said:
McVeigh had a road atlas with hand-drawn designations of the most likely places for nuclear attacks and considered buying property in Seligman, Arizona, which he determined to be in a "nuclear-free zone." McVeigh lived with Michael Fortier in Kingman, Arizona, for a spell and grew so close to him that he served as best man at Fortier's wedding. McVeigh experimented with cannabis and methamphetamine, after first researching their effects in an encyclopedia; however, he was not as interested in drugs as Fortier. Indeed, one of the reasons they parted ways was McVeigh's boredom with Fortier's drug habits.
McVeigh defended the practice of owning multiple guns, saying it was like the common practice of keeping an assortment of screwdrivers in one's toolbox; one needed to be sure of having the right tool for the job. He said that five particular guns were essential: a semiautomatic, magazine-fed rifle (for defending against large mobs); a bolt-action hunting/sniper rifle (for killing large game or defending against an entrenched marauder); a shotgun (for fowl hunting); a .22 caliber rifle (to hone shooting skills and bag small game); and a pistol (for close-in self defense). He viewed guns as the first tool of freedom, necessary to protect supplies in the event America fell into chaos.
In April 1993, McVeigh headed for a farm where convicted co-conspirator Terry Nichols lived. In
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