1968–2001
Who Was Timothy McVeigh?
Timothy McVeigh was a domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Raised in New York, McVeigh developed an interest in guns and anti-government sentiments as a bullied teenager. He served in the U.S. Army with distinction in the Persian Gulf War but grew increasingly disillusioned with the government after his discharge. Following months of planning, on April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated explosives outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, resulting in 168 casualties and another several hundred wounded victims. He was apprehended shortly after the bombing and was executed in June 2001 at age 33. The Oklahoma City bombing remains the deadliest instance of domestic terrorism in American history.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: Timothy James McVeigh
BORN: April 23, 1968
DIED: June 11, 2001
BIRTHPLACE: Lockport, New York
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus
Early Life
Timothy James McVeigh was born on April 23, 1968, in Lockport, New York, to Mildred and William McVeigh. He grew up nearby in the working-class town of Pendleton with his sisters, Jennifer and Patricia. After his parents divorced, McVeigh lived with his father and developed an interest in guns through target practice sessions with his grandfather. It was during this time he read The Turner Diaries, an anti-government tome by neo-Nazi William Pierce. The book described a bombing of a federal building and fueled McVeigh’s paranoia about a government plot to repeal the Second Amendment.
Tall, skinny, and quiet, McVeigh was bullied as a teenager. He was also very bright, even earning a partial college scholarship after graduating from high school in 1986, though he only briefly attended a business school before dropping out.
U.S. Army Years and Rising Anger
In 1988, McVeigh enlisted in the U.S. Army and became a model soldier, earning the Bronze Star for bravery in the Persian Gulf War. He received an invitation to try out for the Army’s special forces but gave up after only two days and was discharged in 1991.
McVeigh initially returned to New York but soon took up a peripatetic lifestyle. He followed the gun-show circuit, selling weapons and preaching the evils of the government along the way. He periodically spent time with Army buddies Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, who shared McVeigh’s passion for guns and hatred of federal authority.
Two events involving the FBI’s actions against separatists added fuel to McVeigh’s anger toward the government. First, in the summer of 1992, white separatist Randy Weaver was engaged in a standoff with government agents at his cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. He was suspected of selling illegal sawed-off shotguns. The siege resulted in the death of Weaver’s son and wife.
Then, in April 1993, federal agents surrounded the compound of a religious organization called the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, to arrest their leader, David Koresh, on illegal weapons charges. On April 19, McVeigh watched on television as the FBI stormed the compound. The resulting firestorm killed dozens of Branch Davidians, including children.
Oklahoma City Bombing
In September 1994, McVeigh put into motion his plan to destroy the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. With accomplices Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, McVeigh acquired tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and gallons of fuel to form a highly volatile explosive. McVeigh chose the Murrah Federal Building because it provided excellent camera angles for media coverage. He wanted to make this attack a platform for his anti-government message.
On the morning of April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the FBI siege on the Branch Davidian compound, McVeigh parked a Ryder truck loaded with the explosive substance in front of the Murray building. People were coming to work and on the second floor, children were arriving at the day-care center. At 9:02 a.m., the explosion ripped the entire north wall off the building, destroying all nine floors. More than 300 other buildings in the immediate area were damaged or destroyed. In the rubble were 168 deceased victims, including 19 young children, and another 650-plus wounded. The bombing remains the deadliest domestic terrorism event in U.S. history.
Arrest and Trial
Early reports suggested that a Middle Eastern terrorist group might have been responsible, but within days, McVeigh was considered the primary suspect. He was already in jail, having been pulled over shortly after the bombing for driving without a license plate. The police office conducting the traffic stop discovered McVeigh was carrying an illegally concealed handgun and arrested him. When the FBI searched his car, they found an envelope full of excerpts from the The Turner Diaries. Nichols soon surrendered to authorities, and the two were indicted for the bombing in August 1995.
Following a five-week-long trial that began in April 1997, McVeigh was convicted after 23 hours of deliberation, and he was sentenced to death. The following year, Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. After testifying against both McVeigh and Nichols, Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 1998 and was subsequently released in 2006.
While on death row, McVeigh was interviewed for a biography, American Terrorist by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck. McVeigh spoke of the bombing with some pride, referring to the young victims as “collateral damage.” Meanwhile, his requests for an appeal and a new trial were rejected.
Execution and Last Words
On June 11, 2001, following an attempted stay of execution, federal prison authorities executed McVeigh by lethal injection. He died within minutes, and his body was cremated. His death marked the first federal execution in 38 years.
The 33-year-old’s final statement was the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley. McVeigh didn’t recite it but rather gave a handwritten copy of the poem to the prison warden before he was executed.
Documentaries
McVeigh has been the subject of a number documentaries over the years. In 2017, PBS released the documentary film Oklahoma City about McVeigh’s beliefs and experiences leading up to the bombing. His criminal trial was the focus of an episode of the 2018 Oxygen docuseries In Defense Of, in which his attorneys were interviewed about their legal defense in his case.
In 2024, HBO released the documentary An American Bombing: The Road to April 19th, which explored the rise of anti-government sentiment and domestic terrorism through the lens of McVeigh’s thoughts and actions. That same year, the movie McVeigh portrayed how the terrorist, played by Alfie Allen, devised his plan to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City.
Two new documentaries, which came out in April 2025, also explore the devastating events surrounding the bombing. While National Geographic’s Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America focuses on rescue efforts and stories of survivors, Netflix’s Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror delves into the investigative efforts that led to McVeigh’s arrest and conviction.
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