Oklahoma City Bombing (1995): Domestic Terror in the Heartland

The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist attack on 19 April 1995 in which a truck bomb destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. It killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured more than 680. Carried out by two American anti-government extremists, it remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in United States history.

Background

The Murrah Building, a nine-storey office block completed in 1977, housed regional offices of federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It also had a day-care centre, America’s Kids, on its second floor.

The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was a decorated US Army veteran of the 1991 Gulf War. After leaving the army he drifted among gun shows and the anti-government fringe of the early 1990s militia movement. He was enraged by two federal operations: the 1992 standoff at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in which the wife and son of a fugitive were killed, and the 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, which ended in a fire on 19 April 1993 that left about 76 people dead.

McVeigh planned the attack with Terry Nichols, an army acquaintance. An army friend of McVeigh’s also knew of the plan in advance and later testified against both men. They chose the second anniversary of the Waco fire as the date.

The attack

In the days before the bombing, McVeigh and Nichols assembled a bomb of about 2,200 kg (4,800 lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, fuel and nitromethane in blue barrels inside a Ryder rental truck. On the morning of 19 April McVeigh drove the truck to Oklahoma City, parked it in a drop-off zone in front of the building, lit the fuses and walked away.

At 9:02 a.m. the bomb exploded. The blast destroyed a column supporting the building’s front, and about a third of the structure collapsed. More than 300 nearby buildings were damaged, windows were shattered across a wide area and cars burned in the street. The explosion was felt dozens of kilometres away.

Rescue and recovery

Police, firefighters and ordinary citizens rushed into the ruins within minutes. Over the following two weeks thousands of rescuers, including federal urban search-and-rescue teams from across the country, worked in dangerous conditions to reach survivors and recover the dead. The last survivor was pulled from the rubble on the evening of the attack. A nurse who came to help was struck by falling debris and died days later.

In the first hours many commentators speculated that Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible, and some Arab Americans faced harassment. Within two days investigators had shown that the attack was home-grown.

The investigation

About 90 minutes after the blast, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper stopped McVeigh near the town of Perry, about 100 km north of Oklahoma City, because his car had no licence plate. Finding a concealed pistol, the trooper arrested him.

Meanwhile FBI agents found the rear axle of the Ryder truck in the debris. Its vehicle identification number led them to a body shop in Junction City, Kansas, where the truck had been rented under a false name. Witnesses helped produce sketches of a suspect, and on 21 April investigators discovered that McVeigh was already in jail in Perry. He was held on federal charges just before he was due to be released. Nichols surrendered to police in Herington, Kansas, the same day.

The FBI’s investigation, codenamed OKBOMB, became one of the largest in its history, gathering billions of pieces of information and interviewing tens of thousands of people.

Trials and sentences

Because of concerns about a fair trial in Oklahoma, the federal cases were moved to Denver, Colorado, under Judge Richard Matsch. McVeigh was convicted on 2 June 1997 of all eleven counts, including conspiracy, use of a weapon of mass destruction and the murder of eight federal law enforcement officers. He was sentenced to death.

On 11 June 2001 McVeigh was executed by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, the first federal execution in the United States since 1963. Nichols was convicted in 1997 of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison. In 2004 a state court in Oklahoma convicted him of 161 counts of first-degree murder; the jury could not agree on a death sentence, and he received 161 consecutive life terms. McVeigh’s army friend who had known of the plan served a prison sentence for failing to warn the authorities and for related offences.

Consequences

The bombing changed how the United States protected public buildings. Federal offices gained concrete barriers, setback distances and blast-resistant designs, and in October 1995 President Bill Clinton created an Interagency Security Committee to set standards. In April 1996 he signed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which expanded federal anti-terrorism powers and limited appeals in death penalty cases.

The attack also prompted intense scrutiny of the militia movement and of right-wing extremism. Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and many local leaders praised the cooperation of residents and rescuers, which became known as the “Oklahoma Standard”.

The memorial

The damaged building was demolished on 23 May 1995. On its site the Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated on 19 April 2000, the fifth anniversary. A shallow reflecting pool runs between two bronze gates inscribed 9:01 and 9:03, framing the moment of the blast. On the lawn stand 168 empty chairs, one for each victim, with 19 smaller chairs for the children. An American elm that survived the explosion, now called the Survivor Tree, grows beside the site, and a museum tells the story of the day.

The victims

The 168 people who died ranged in age from infants to people in their seventies. Most worked for federal agencies in the building or were visiting its offices, while others were in nearby buildings or on the street. Among the dead were eight federal law enforcement officers. Many of the survivors suffered lasting injuries, and the attack left more than 200 children with a parent killed.

The death of the children in the day-care centre shocked the nation. Asked about them years later, McVeigh dismissed them as “collateral damage”, a remark that deepened public revulsion against him.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1993, 19 April: The Waco siege ends in a deadly fire.
• 1995, 19 April, 9:02 a.m.: The truck bomb explodes outside the Murrah Federal Building.
• 1995, 19 April, about 10:30 a.m.: McVeigh is stopped and arrested near Perry, Oklahoma.
• 1995, 21 April: McVeigh is identified as a suspect; Nichols surrenders in Kansas.
• 1995, 23 May: The remains of the Murrah Building are demolished.
• 1996, 24 April: The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act becomes law.
• 1997, 2 June: A federal jury convicts McVeigh; he is sentenced to death.
• 2000, 19 April: The Oklahoma City National Memorial is dedicated.
• 2001, 11 June: McVeigh is executed in Terre Haute, Indiana.
• 2004, May: Nichols is convicted on state murder charges in Oklahoma.

Why it matters

The Oklahoma City bombing showed Americans that devastating terrorism could come from within their own country. Until the September 11 attacks of 2001 it was the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil, and alongside the Lockerbie bombing it shaped the security measures that now surround government buildings, airports and public spaces.