Page 246 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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224———McVeigh, Timothy (1968–2001)

revolutionaries: Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), EARLY LIFE
the BLA radical serving a life sentence for killing a
New Jersey state trooper in 1973, and Willie Morales, McVeigh grew up in the small, predominantly white,
a leader of the FALN. These unique collaborations blue-collar, and overwhelmingly Christian town of
triggered new concerns about “urban terrorism,” which Lockport, outside of Buffalo, New York. His parents
led the administration of U.S. president Ronald first separated when he was 11; McVeigh staying with
Reagan to reopen investigations, dormant since the his father while his two sisters moved with his mother.
mid-1970s, of the radical left. At 13, his grandfather gave him his first gun. When
In February 1983, May 19 members Silvia McVeigh graduated from high school with honors, he
Baraldini and Michelle Miller were jailed for refus- was already a considerable gun enthusiast and bud-
ing to testify against the FALN. That September, ding survivalist.
three more May 19 members, Linda Evans, Marilyn After brief attendance at business school,
Buck, and Laura Jane Whitehorn, pleaded guilty to McVeigh joined the Army in May 1988. He received
charges relating the 1983 bombing of the U.S. basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he
Capitol and other Washington, D.C., targets. In 1985, befriended Terry Lynn Nichols and Michael Fortier,
Elizabeth Duke, the head of May 19 in Austin, Texas, then joined the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley,
was indicted on federal charges for her suspected Kansas. When the Gulf War broke out in 1990,
involvement in several bombings, including a 1982 McVeigh was deployed to the Gulf with the Bradley
New Year’s Eve bombing in New York City that Fighting Vehicles. There, he distinguished himself as
injured two police officers. These May 19 members best shot in his platoon and was awarded a Bronze
are still considered political prisoners by those who Star upon his return. He was invited to join the Green
share their beliefs. Berets; his brief three-day stint was followed by
his resignation from the Army after 43 months of
See also BLACK PANTHER PARTY; KATHERINE BOUDIN; JOANNE service.
CHESIMARD; WEATHERMAN In 1993, McVeigh began to travel state to state sell-
ing antigovernment literature and survival items on
Further Reading the gun show circuit. He also traveled to Waco, to

Castellucci, John. The Big Dance: The Untold Story of protest the government siege of the Branch Davidian
Kathy Boudin and the Terrorist Family That Committed complex, believing that the members of the Bureau of
the Brinks Robbery Murder. New York: Dodd, Mead, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) were violating
1986. the Davidians’ Second Amendment rights. McVeigh
Frankfort, Ellen. Kathy Boudin and the Dance of Death. watched the final fiery standoff, on April 19, 1993, on
New York: Stein and Day, 1983. television. This moment solidified McVeigh’s hatred
Jacobs, Ron. The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the of the federal government and initiated his quest to
Weather Underground. New York: Verso, 1997.
stop the ATF.

PLANNING THE ATTACK
MAYES, MELVIN EDWARD. See
EL RUKNS. Over the following months, as new gun laws further
enraged McVeigh, he plotted to blow up the Alfred
P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which
he mistakenly believed housed the ATF. His plan was
MCVEIGH, TIMOTHY (1968–2001) taken almost directly from the plot of The Turner
Diaries, a 1978 novel that described not only a full-
scale race war but also the plight of Earl Turner, who
Timothy James McVeigh was condemned to death truck bombed the FBI headquarters in Washington,
for bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in D.C., in protest of gun control laws. McVeigh had
Oklahoma City, on April 19, 1995. One hundred and pushed the book on family and friends since he first
sixty-eight people, including 19 children, were killed read it, just after high school.
and more than 500 were injured. At the time, the Evidence and testimony later showed that McVeigh
bombing was the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil. and his former Army buddy, Nichols, bought and stole