Zero Hour (2004–…): Season 2, Episode 2 - One of America's Own - full transcript

On April 19th, 1995, Timothy
McVeigh took my life away.

The life I had then, I don't have anymore.

It was a beautiful spring day,
and it should have stayed that way.

But it didn't. We all changed.

It felt like

someone had grabbed a handful of pea gravel

off of their, uh, driveway,
and had thrown it at me.

And as I found out later,

that was the shards of glass

from the front of the building,

coming through and slicing through my head



and through my arms and through my body.

NARRATOR: He was an ordinary American,

with an all-American childhood
of Little League baseball,

Santa Claus, and cowboys and Indians.

They were just ordinary Americans,
going about their daily routines.

Then, one bright spring
morning in April, 1995,

their destinies became
locked together forever.

It was the worst peace-time atrocity
on United States soil at that time.

And it shocked America
and most of the world.

The perpetrator, not as was
first assumed an Islamic terrorist,

but a self-styled American
patriot and a Gulf War hero.

Using court records and
other published sources

including interviews with the killer
himself, together with new material,

this film tells the story of
the minute-by-minute build-up



to this terrible tragedy, as we seek
to understand the mind and motives

of Timothy James McVeigh,

the mass murderer of 168
Americans, including 19 children.

For he was no Islamist
bomber from a foreign land.

But one of America's own.

In one hour, Oklahoma and the
United States will be changed forever.

(CLOCK TICKING)

Aaron and Elijah Coverdale lived
with their grandmother, Jannie,

less than two blocks from McVeigh's target,

the Alfred P. Murrah
Building in Oklahoma City,

which also happens to
accommodate a day care center

on the second floor, which the boys attend.

JANNIE: Aaron was the smart
kid, the good kid, the quiet kid.

Elijah was just the opposite.

-That's not your car. -My car!

That morning they hid in the kitchen

and I remember pretending
I couldn't find them,

and I kept saying, "Well, evidently
they've gotten on the elevator

"and gone on to the day care center,

"so I guess I'll just go on and leave."

And I could hear them
laughing in the kitchen.

NARRATOR: Timothy McVeigh is
45 miles from his target, and closing.

That target not only houses
Aaron and Elijah's day care center,

but an assortment of
Federal government offices.

By far the largest is the Department
of Housing and Urban Development.

These people aren't government
agents, they're simply civil servants.

Susan Hunt is the department's
administrative officer,

and as such, the mother
figure for most of the employees.

-(INDISTINCT CHATTERING) -Of the 124 people

that were assigned to the
Alfred P. Murrah Building

and employed by the U.S. Department
of Housing and Urban Development,

we were to lose 35 on that day.

If I could have sat next to Timothy McVeigh

the day that he drove
the truck to Oklahoma City,

I would have reasoned with him.

First, I would have said,

"What happened to you?"

- Have a good day. Bye.
- Thank you. You too. Bye

"Why would you even think that killing
innocent people would make a difference? Why?"

I would also say,

"Think. Think about the good that
you can do. You're a young man."

I have a child the same age as McVeigh

who is a wonderful man.

What could we as a nation do to
change other Timothy McVeighs,

not to act, not to see
the world so negatively?

NARRATOR: Timothy McVeigh is now just
50 minutes from taking his place in history

amongst the pantheon of mass murderers.

But this is no impulsive act of the moment.

Should he be captured,

McVeigh carries with him in
the cab of his bomb on wheels

an envelope he's prepared, containing
newspaper cuttings, quotes and random jottings

that represent a frightening
political philosophy

that he's honed to a
murderous edge since his teens.

But his winter of discontent

had once been a more glorious
summer for this son of New York.

I used to be an English teacher.

And we would discuss what he
was doing in his English class.

The poetry, the short
stories, and Shakespeare.

He always loved Shakespeare
because they had a common birthday.

He really related to
younger kids very, very well.

I mean, I can picture him with
our son Paul on his shoulders.

You know, Paul...

I don't know, three, four years old,

throwing the basketball toward the hoop.

He, um...

He was a people person,
there's no question.

NARRATOR: For a people person, with an
all-American childhood and a love of Shakespeare,

during his last years at high
school, and after he graduated,

McVeigh's interests and obsessions
began to take a more sinister turn.

He was increasingly fascinated by America's
underbelly world of gun culture, survivalism,

and hatred of government
interference in the right to bear arms.

His bible became a shady work of fiction

by former American Nazi
Party official, William L. Pierce,

written under the pen
name of Andrew MacDonald.

It tells the story of a true patriot

who bombs the FBI headquarters in
Washington, killing more than 700 people.

"If we don't destroy the
system before it destroys us,

"if we don't cut this cancer out of
our living flesh, our whole race will die."

For a young, impressionable
man like Tim McVeigh who was

totally in love with the
idea of the gun culture,

The Turner Diaries was just the
kind of book that he was looking for,

because it was a book about gun rights,

it was a book about hatred
for the U.S. government,

and it was also a book

about a terrorist act.

"The explosion will take place
in a large central courtyard."

It hooked into something with
Timothy McVeigh's personality

that started with his
love of guns, and he...

And it inspired him to
become a gun collector.

"And is that not a key
to the whole problem?

"The corruption of our people by the Jewish
Liberal Democratic equalitarian plague

"which afflicts us, is more clearly
manifested in our soft-mindedness,

"our unwillingness to recognize
the harder realities of life

"than in anything else.

"All the Liberals and the Jews had to do was
begin screeching about inhumanity or injustice

"or genocide..."

It was, of course, more than
an anti-government book.

It was anti-Semitic, it
was white supremacist,

and it talked about the
takedown of the U.S. government.

"But there is no way that
we can destroy the system

"without hurting many thousands
of innocent people. No way."

NARRATOR: At the Regency Apartments,

just a stone's throw away
from the Murrah Building,

Jannie Coverdale is taking
Aaron and Elijah to day care.

Timothy McVeigh is still on the
freeway with 30 more miles to drive.

Oklahoma's cataclysm is 40
minutes away and counting.

JANNIE: For some reason,
I cannot remember that trip.

I can tell you some things
that have been told to me.

Okay, go on out, guys, go on out. Bye-bye.

I had a friend that lived at the
Regency, her name was Charlotte,

and she would always sit in the lobby,

waiting for her ride to come and
pick her up to take her to work.

-Hi, have a nice day. -Hi.

She told me the boys always
said, "Good morning, Charlotte."

But she said for some reason that
morning when we walked through the lobby,

the boys said, "Good-bye, Charlotte."

And I asked her, I said, "Are
you sure that's what they said?"

And she said, "Yes."

She said, "And I thought it was strange

"because they'd never
said good-bye to me before."

But that morning they told her, "Good-bye,"

like they knew they weren't coming back.

NARRATOR: McVeigh has decided that his bomb
must be set to cause maximum casualties.

He believes that while the government
can rebuild bricks and mortar,

it's only when lives are lost in great
numbers that the justice of his cause,

that the federal government
is totally out of control,

will be recognized.

It's a cause that stems
from his love of guns.

He had his own love affair with guns,

which came to him through his grandfather,

who, when I asked him who he loved,

he spontaneously said, "My
grandfather." And then, later, his father.

And when I pointed out he did not
mention any of the women in his life,

his mother or his sisters, he said,
"Well, you know, I noticed that."

But the only real close love relationship
he ever had was with his grandfather.

And his grandfather loved guns and hunting,

and Tim's love of guns evolved from
that relationship with his grandfather.

NARRATOR: Not everyone
appreciated McVeigh's love of guns

as much as his grandfather.

McVeigh himself later related what happened

when he upset a neighbor with a
shooting range he'd set up in the backyard.

What the fuck are you
doing, you little prick?

Has that been you,
shooting all summer long?

Do you know how close
my house is back there?

These rounds gotta be...
Travel two or three miles!

McVeigh loved shooting so much
that he would, uh, shoot at groundhogs

- in his father's garden out of his back window.
- (SNICKERS)

So he'd actually be standing in
the kitchen, shooting out the window

at groundhogs in his
father's garden, and we...

Actually Lou Michel asked McVeigh,

"Isn't that a bit unusual, with
all that smoke in your kitchen,

"and the smell of gunfire
going off in your kitchen?"

And he thought it wasn't at all unusual.
He thought it was very normal to do that.

NARRATOR: McVeigh planned his
Oklahoma operation with military precision.

He talked of "theaters of operation"

and used acronyms and army-speak.

Not surprising, really, as he
was a battle-hardened soldier.

After high school and a
series of dead-end jobs,

McVeigh decided in May,
1988, to join the army.

With his love of guns, it
was a natural home for him.

McVeigh had very strong beliefs,

and, uh, he always called himself,

this is his self-explanation,
he was a survivalist.

And he didn't believe
in big government at all

and he honestly, in his mind, he would...

He told me many, many times that he
thought, he didn't know exactly what it was,

but something was gonna
happen and you had to be ready.

You had to have guns, you had to
have ammo, you had to have food, water

to last you a significant portion of time.

And he'd always say, "At least
six months, you really need a year."

And he had it. He had a
year's worth of all of those.

INTERVIEWER: Did he... Now, you shared
a room with him for a considerable time.

Tell me a little bit about

his political opinions, how he talked
about them, did he try and convert you,

that sort of thing.

He really talked less, when
you say political opinions.

He talked in a broad range,

never, like, specific, Democratic,
Republican, something like that.

It wasn't that. It was all broad
range, big government, you know.

He just thought the government
shouldn't really be involved

in anything other than national defense.

He really just didn't think they should
be in the day-to-day lives of people,

that big government should
not have any power there.

INTERVIEWER: Why did
he think that, do you think?

I'm not sure... See, that's
something he came into the army with.

He had these survivalist opinions and

when he got there, because I
remember him in basic training

and I had known him
maybe two or three weeks,

and him talking all of it and,
you know, telling how he had land

where he was gonna build bunkers,

and, you know, that
came off as kind of strange.

You meet some strange people
when you go in the army, and, uh...

But with him, he was
such... The all-American look.

Clean haircut, never drank,
never smoked, never cursed.

I maybe heard him say two or
three curse words in all those years.

I mean, you know, so his manners
were so good. He was super polite.

You know, so...

He didn't come off as a crazy.

He didn't come off as, you know,
somebody that was off the wall.

He came off as some...

He was very intelligent also, that's
one thing you have to understand.

He was a super intelligent person.
He would figure things out so quick.

We'd get a new weapon,

within three hours he's taking
it apart, putting it back together.

He'd play little games where he'd
blindfold himself and put it back together,

and everybody else is
sitting round trying to figure out

how to put it together the first time.

-(GUNFIRE) -When we became
gunners, he excelled from the start.

And about a year into it,

we went to a gun range, which
we had to do to qualify every year.

Not only did he qualify,

he got the first perfect score

on that gun range with a Bradley,

1,000 out of 1,000 shots, which is amazing.

Because if you get 850 out of 1,000 shots,

you're considered a very good gunner.

NARRATOR: In January, 1991,
McVeigh, who was by now a sergeant,

and the top Bradley Fighting
Vehicle gunner, was sent to Iraq.

(EXPLOSION)

On day two of the ground war, he
becomes a killer of men for the first time.

- Get that son of a bitch raghead!
- (EXPLOSION)

MAN: Did you see that? Great shot!

Why did you stop firing? Keep firing.

I got him, sir. I got him.

NARRATOR: McVeigh had killed two men
more than half a mile away with one shot.

What he'd done was unprecedented.

After Desert Storm,

McVeigh was invited to try out for the
United States Army's elite Special Forces.

This should have been the
culmination of his military dream,

but he failed the physical tests.

This once super-fit soldier was out of shape
after months of inactivity in the desert.

It was a cruel blow, and he
resigned from the Forces in disgust.

Unemployed and angry,

this was a man who had
taken lives for his government

only a few months earlier in the desert.

Now he was beginning to think
that he may need to take lives again,

closer to home.

MCVEIGH: Dear sir,
politicians are out of control.

Their yearly salaries are more than an
average person will see in a lifetime...

At a point when the world
has seen Communism falter

as an imperfect system to manage people,

democracy seems to be
headed down the same road...

What is it going to take to open
the eyes of our elected officials?

America is in serious decline...

Is a civil war imminent? Do we have to
shed blood to reform the current system?

I hope it doesn't come
to that, but it might.

Timothy McVeigh.

NARRATOR: Three years later, and the threat
of bloodshed is about to become reality.

(CLOCK TICKING)

In 30 minutes, McVeigh will
take the final step over the edge.

His victims will include men like him,

Gulf War veterans working on
the sixth floor of the Murrah Building

in a Marine Recruiting Station.

RANDY NORFLEET: Sergeant
Davis was a very squared-away Marine.

He was married and had a little
daughter that was two years old.

Captain Randy Guzman, who was our executive
officer, was in the building that day

and Randy was a single Marine,

but he was, um, engaged
to a very beautiful young lady

and was looking forward to
starting a new married life.

NARRATOR: Another
person on collision course

with Timothy McVeigh
that day, is Lou Klaver,

a staff attorney with the
Oklahoma Water Resources Board

across the road from the Federal Building.

I was working at my computer at
my desk, drafting up a document

based on another hearing,
findings of fact, conclusions of law,

and drafting that up to make a
recommendation on a water right to the Board.

And I was trying to finish that
up because I had another hearing

and I was trying to catch up on my
workload, just kind of a regular day.

NARRATOR: Far from it being a regular day.

In just 26 minutes,

Lou will unwittingly provide an
extraordinary record of McVeigh's crime.

McVeigh has been careful to
drive at or just below the speed limit,

and to signal every lane change.

But as he was later to tell a reporter,

just as he approaches the
outskirts of Oklahoma City

he finds he has an unexpected
and unwanted companion on his tail.

(MUMBLES) Oh, shit! Oh, shit! Oh, shit!

MCVEIGH: Why is he following me?

I know it's not my driving.

Is there a problem with the truck?

If he tries to stop me
I'll run him off the road.

NARRATOR: After several
miles, the cop simply peeled off,

and McVeigh was free to continue
his mission of death unimpeded.

McVeigh's journey that
ended in Oklahoma City,

almost certainly began to take root

when he witnessed two events on
television more than two years previously.

- (MAN SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)
- WOMAN: Tell everybody.

How much longer will you let this go on?

Wave that American flag,
yeah! Wave it, wave it high!

NARRATOR: Randy
Weaver was a white separatist

accused of selling an illegal
shotgun to a police informant.

The 11-day siege of his cabin,
following a shootout with federal agents,

became a right wing cause celebre.

(PEOPLE SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)

And McVeigh's sister, Jennifer,

was later to tell of her
conversations with her brother

about what was wrong with America.

REPORTER: Agents say
they seized a cache of weapons.

They say all of the
firearms here are legal.

The Second Amendment says
we have the right to carry guns

and the goddamn government
doesn't give a damn.

The government can go to hell.

They just wanna disarm us
so we won't be able to resist

when they come in with their UN
buddies to take all us real patriots away.

Think about it.

How many screwdrivers does the
average American have in his tool box?

McVeigh looked upon
guns as, like, the tools of life.

He in fact used the toolbox as a metaphor.

Standard Phillips, long handle,
short. It's the same thing for guns.

In your gun chest you have several guns.

-(INAUDIBLE) -One for hunting for food,

another for target practice,
another for self-defense.

Come on. Ask the storekeepers in
the L.A. riots if that's so unreasonable.

MICHEL: A couple of pistols just
to have, and maybe a few to trade.

He figured that if the
government ever collapsed

and there was no currency,
people could trade in guns.

That guns would take on
a great deal more value.

And there was a point in his life
where he actually started collecting guns.

The Feds will stop at nothing.

You see,

they've got these crematoria. They're huge.

They're gonna build 130 concentration camps

so they can exterminate their enemies.

And that means people like me and...

Well, they're gonna try and
disarm us slowly. I mean...

Look at Ruby Ridge. Randy Weaver.

McVeigh's paranoid,
extreme right wing ideology

came from real events

and real political concerns that existed

within the mainstream political discourse.

However, with a conspiracist
mindset and a survivalist inclination,

he was able to twist these things
into something that was bigger

and far more sinister than
the average person would think.

So things like the Los Angeles
riots were an example of how

the society was going
to hell in a hand basket

and the government was ill-powered
to protect decent, God-fearing citizens.

It won't be long before the UN
tanks are parked everywhere.

I tell you, it's the New World Order

and our government's
right in there with them.

Timothy McVeigh

was not only a right wing
terrorist, he was also a bigot.

And that really didn't come out as much

in the American press during his trial.

NARRATOR: If Ruby Ridge had
been the spark that lit the fuse,

six months later, events in Texas were
to lead McVeigh directly to Oklahoma

this sunny April morning in 1995.

(CLOCK TICKING)

He's now on the outskirts of Oklahoma City,

piloting a bomb big enough to
wreak havoc over several city blocks

in 21 minutes' time.

Though he's inspired by an all-consuming
passion of hatred of his government,

a specific trigger for today's mission

is a desire to avenge events 270 miles away

in the neighboring state of
Texas two years previously.

(GUNS FIRING)

REPORTER: For ATF
agents, it was the day from hell.

A small army of federal agents came
face-to-face with destiny this Sunday,

hoping to arrest David Koresh,

the leader of the Branch
Davidians, a religious cult,

and execute federal weapons warrants.

No warrants necessary,
weapons were waiting.

NARRATOR: The siege that
followed the first assault at Waco

became a call to arms for
anti-government crusaders nationwide.

And no one followed the
developments more avidly...

-(GUNFIRE) -...than Timothy McVeigh.

After a few weeks, McVeigh,

who was by now living the life
of a disaffected drifter in Florida,

could stand being a bystander no longer.

He had to go and see for himself.

He had to go to Waco.

After a journey halfway across
America, from Florida to Texas,

he never made it to the Branch
Davidian compound, much to his disgust.

What is this?

(POLICE RADIO CHATTERING)

Where are you going, sir?

I'm turning on to this public
road and visiting the compound.

-Are you press? -No.

Then you can't visit it.

- Well, this is a public road.
- Turn around, sir.

Take the whole lot of
you out with one grenade.

NARRATOR: So that the
journey should not be in vain,

McVeigh set up a stall on his car,

as close to Waco as he
could, selling bumper stickers.

He was interviewed there by a
student journalist, Michelle Rauch.

So why are you here?

'Cause the ATF have no right to be here.

They just want a chance to play with
their toys paid for by government money.

The government is afraid
of the guns people have

because they have to
control people at all times.

Once you take the guns away,
you can do anything with the people.

He was very worried about the
intense government presence

on what he saw as one man
and his followers' private life,

and that was really what
concerned him. How they stormed

the Branch Davidian complex,
their continuing presence there,

and he thought it was
a sign of more to come.

You give them an inch, they take a mile.

As someone who has been
described as obsessed with this,

he didn't come across as obsessed.

He came across as very low-key, although
passionate, about what he believed.

I believe we are slowly turning
into a socialist government.

The government is continually
growing bigger and stronger,

and we need to protect ourselves
against government control.

When I was talking with him, he
was very articulate, very intelligent.

I left that interview, again,
fascinated by what he had to say,

but I remember the one thing that
kept sticking out in my mind was,

being that we were close in age,

I thought it's amazing that
we grew up in the same country

but have completely different views of how
the government is involved in our lives.

JAMES NICHOLS: Tim! Tim!

Get in here. It's on fire!

What the hell are you talking about?

It's Waco. The Feds.
They've gone in, it's on fire.

Holy shit!

NARRATOR: McVeigh was long gone
from Waco when on April 19th, 1993,

federal agents finally broke
the 51-day deadlock there.

In the fire that followed,
as many as 80 Davidians,

including 17 children
under the age of 10, died.

McVeigh watched the drama
unfold with his old army buddy,

Terry Nichols, and Nichols' brother James.

REPORTER: Still no sign of
anyone coming out, Bonnie.

- Uh, smoke is billowing 150, 200 feet into the air.
- Oh!

Keep in mind there's heavy
munitions and heavy arms in there.

And also keep in mind this is an area...

MCVEIGH: What is this?

Those people are dying in there.

What has become of America?

JOHN SMITH: He told me that

when you heard that the
government had attacked with tanks,

and that the entire compound
had gone up in flames,

that he was overcome with an anger, a rage,

like he had never previously experienced.

He never shed a tear
for the children who died

at the day care center
at the Murrah Building,

but plenty of tears for
the children at Waco.

It's like Hitler's Germany. Fucking Nazis!

Terry, we gotta do something.

NARRATOR: Two years to the day
after the apocalyptic events at Waco,

and Timothy McVeigh is
seeing out the final minutes

of the plan he began to hatch
with his friend Terry Nichols.

McVeigh is determined to kill his
fellow countrymen in far greater numbers

than has ever been achieved by anyone,
anywhere, previously, in peacetime.

For another Gulf War veteran,
Marine Captain Randy Norfleet,

bloodshed is the last thing on his mind.

Norfleet is serving a tour of duty
as a Marine Recruiting Officer,

but has just left an
invigorating prayer breakfast

at Oklahoma City's
Myriad Convention Center.

NORFLEET: After the prayer breakfast,

my friend and I walked to the parking
garage and walked directly to my car.

And we were just chatting about general
topics and our activities of the day,

when I got to my truck about 8:45.

NARRATOR: Norfleet normally works
at a Marine Recruiting Station out of town,

but since he's in the city, he
decides to drop in on his colleagues

at the Murrah Building,

where more than 1,000 Americans

are just 16-and-a-half
minutes from tragedy.

(CLOCK TICKING)

You're desperate for a
smoke, I know. Take your break.

McVeigh has planned every aspect
of his operation down to the last detail.

Together with one of his two confederates,
another army buddy, Michael Fortier,

he's driven every inch
of the route in advance,

checking for speed traps, highway
construction, possible road hazards,

and, especially, underpasses
too low for his bomb on wheels.

Whereas a government bomb, which
could wreak the same destruction,

would cost many hundreds of
thousands of dollars to make,

and even more to deliver,

extraordinarily, McVeigh's weapon
of choice has cost less than $5,000,

including the cost of the
getaway vehicle afterwards.

The getaway car had been driven
to Oklahoma City three days before,

on Easter Sunday.

But this part of the plan
had not gone smoothly.

Terry, where the fuck are you?

Tim, I can't make it.

You're kidding me.

(SIGHS) Listen, Tim, it's Easter Sunday.

Josh is here. I can't do it.

You get your fucking
ass over here right away!

-(SIGHS) -Get in your frigging truck now!

This is for keeps. We gotta do it.

-Tim. I can't do it. -Fuck you!

Mike Fortier's pulled out and now you.

I'll kill you, you bastard.
And your frigging family.

Okay...

I'll be there.

-Tim? -Yeah.

Listen.

Uh, Tim's got my old TV
he's brought from Vegas.

I've got to go get him in Oklahoma
City and bring him back here.

You know it's my last day
here before I go to Mom.

I can come with you.

I can't do it, son.

It'll be too uncomfortable in
the truck with all three of us.

Okay, let's go! You follow me.

NARRATOR: McVeigh had already been let down

by his other co-conspirator,
Michael Fortier,

who'd got cold feet as the day
of the bombing had approached.

Fortier had a wife and young family,

and ultimately, was not prepared
to risk his life for McVeigh's plot.

Nichols also had a family, of course,

but McVeigh knew he
couldn't do it all on his own.

If he had to get nasty to
keep Nichols on side, so be it.

And ultimately, McVeigh's
threats were just too powerful

for Nichols to bail out.

During his earlier reconnaissance mission,

McVeigh had chosen an
out-of-the-way parking lot

to leave his getaway car, a few
hundred yards from the Murrah Building.

With three days to go to the bombing,

the car was parked, ready and waiting.

In some American states, cars only
have one license plate, at the back.

Before he left, McVeigh
removed this rear plate,

just in case anyone
should try to trace the car

in the three days that it would be
parked unattended before the bombing.

It was an act of caution that was
ultimately to be his death warrant.

As he made his getaway later,

for some reason he
never replaced the plate,

and less than two hours after his crime,

he was picked up for this small
infringement by an alert highway patrolman.

For all his meticulous planning,

his arrest for the petty misdemeanor

would lead him to the
execution chamber six years later.

Let's go.

Timothy McVeigh was not
a suicide bomber as such,

but he had developed an indifference
to life, his own in particular.

Like the hero of his favorite
book, The Turner Diaries,

he had decided that his cause was
more important than either his life

or that of his fellow Americans.

Although to McVeigh
this was a combat mission,

the envelope which he prepared
earlier and carried with him

would tell the world what he believed

and why he carried out this ruthless crime.

The package contained random jottings,

selections from his
bumper sticker collection,

quotes about liberty from Winston
Churchill, John Locke, Samuel Adams

and Thomas Jefferson amongst others.

And a copy of the
Declaration of Independence,

on the back of which he'd
written the defiant threat

to the politicians he so hated.

"Obey the Constitution
and we will not shoot you."

McVeigh's chosen attire for the bombing
just had to be his favorite patriot t-shirt.

The one he had got when he
briefly joined the Ku Klux Klan.

The Latin inscription on
the front contains the words

shouted by Abraham Lincoln's
assassin as he shot the President,

"Thus ever to tyrants,"

while the back contained McVeigh's
favorite quote from Thomas Jefferson,

"The Tree of Liberty must
be refreshed from time to time

"with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

In addition to the blood
of patriots and tyrants,

McVeigh is to spill the blood of
hundreds of his fellow citizens,

including small children.

When I think of Elijah and Aaron, I
think of all the good times we had,

and how much I miss them.

You have to realize they were
my second chance raising children.

I'd raised my boys. I could
see some mistakes I had made,

and I was determined I wasn't
gonna make those mistakes with them.

NARRATOR: This is the moment for which Timothy
McVeigh has planned for nearly two years.

Just after 8:54 a.m. he stops
to light the first of two fuses.

A massive explosion is now inevitable.

The bomb contains 1,200 pounds
of highly volatile nitromethane fuel

which McVeigh has purchased
from a race track in Texas,

posing as a motorcycle racing enthusiast.

This is to be mixed with nearly 6,000
pounds of simple ammonium nitrate fertilizer

he and Terry Nichols had
legally bought in stores.

And finally, the lethal cocktail would
be detonated with explosives and fuses

they've stolen from a quarry in Kansas.

This is taking too long.

Well, why don't we just mark
up what we need on the barrels?

MCVEIGH: Yeah, good thinking.

Shit!

Close the door. If they
come near I'll shoot them.

Close up the back door, too.

NARRATOR: Fortunately
for Richard Whal and his son,

they did not investigate
the strange goings-on

in the Ryder truck at Geary Lake that day.

McVeigh's first fuse, which he
estimates will take five minutes,

has been burning for three minutes already.

At 8:57:05, the security camera in
Jannie Coverdale's apartment block

captures McVeigh's truck as he
stops to light the second, backup fuse.

Although both fuses burn
longer than he's planned,

the countdown to
catastrophe is unstoppable.

In less than five minutes,
the name "Oklahoma City"

will become inextricably linked
with the words "bomb" and "terror."

NORFLEET: I came to the stoplight
in front of the Murrah Building.

As I was stopped there at the red
light, I noticed the yellow Ryder truck

sitting in front of the Murrah Building.

And I began to wonder, "Why is it there?"

Because there were no other
cars parked on that side of the street

and it was a loading zone,
it was a no-parking zone.

And I, uh...

The truck was not open and
no one was unloading anything,

and so I thought it very peculiar
that the truck was parked there.

A young man stepped out of the vehicle,

closed the door and ran across the street.

I pulled up and I parked in
front of the yellow Ryder truck,

and walked into the Murrah Building.

Normally, the building is very busy
and it takes a while to get an elevator.

But on this morning, there
was no one in the lobby

and there was an
elevator with its doors open,

waiting for a passenger to walk in.

As I got to the sixth floor, I walked
directly into our operations office.

Captain.

-Sergeant. Long time no see. -I know, sir.

Hey, Captain, would you
mind calling headquarters?

You know the Board met
about my promotion yesterday

and the results are out
but they're not yet posted.

-Sure, Sergeant. -Thank you.

NORFLEET: Sergeant
Davis had worked very hard

and his family had
sacrificed very much for him

to make this jump in
promotion in the Marine Corps.

So I immediately called
Headquarters Marine Corps.

Sergeant, the line was busy.

But give me five or
ten, and I'll try again.

I just need to talk to Captain Guzman.

Maybe later.

(CLOCK TICKING)

(PEOPLE CHATTERING)

...application 95501 for
a ground water permit.

My name is Lou Klaver,
and I have been designated

by the nine-member Water Resources Board

to service the hearing
examiner on this matter.

With regard to this
proceeding, basically...

WOMAN: ...four elements that I
have to receive information regarding...

(EXPLOSION AND RUMBLING)

WOMAN: Watch the electricity lines!

NORFLEET: My whole world went dark.

And I could hear what was
going on, but I could see nothing

and it fractured my skull,

broke my nose and left me bleeding,

unconscious, with two open arteries,

on the floor,

on the sixth floor of the Murrah Building.

(CHATTERING OVER RADIO)

I was in the hospital for two days

and as the recovery efforts
began to go on, I watched it intently.

And one day, we noticed

that all the machinery there had stopped

and the whole site, it became very quiet

because they had found a Marine,

and that was Sergeant Davis.

And they found Sergeant Davis

and they were able to identify him

by the red blood stripe

that all Marines proudly carry
on their dress blue uniforms.

And next to him, not but
two or three feet away,

was Captain Guzman,

and he was still holding
on to the same phone

that I had been holding
onto 10 seconds before,

sitting behind the same desk

that I had been sitting behind
not but 10 seconds before.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Benjamin
L. Davis did get his promotion,

but did not live to know about it.

On that day to lose these precious souls,

to lose the folks

that had so much to give the world

and sought tomorrow so aggressively,

um, it...

It's just so unbelievably sad to know that

Linda Florence will not hold her little
boy that she wanted so bad and finally had.

It's so sad to know that
Teresa Lauderdale...

I never saw their faces before they died.

Susan Ferrell and Mike Weaver,
Don Burns and Lanny Scroggins.

George Howard and Tony Reyes.

If I could have gathered them all up and
taken them back to my office I would have,

but I couldn't, and I know that.

And I've learned to
deal with my grief of living

and my guilt of living.

April 19th, 1995

was a typical morning.

I thought I was going to
get off work that evening

and go pick Aaron and Elijah up,

but when I dropped them off at
the day care center that morning,

I didn't know that I would
never see them again.

I didn't get to see them
after I dropped them off.

My sons wouldn't let me see their bodies.

That's how bad they were.

I don't know where God was.

I've asked Him that over the
years. I've screamed at Him.

I asked God to just let
Aaron and Elijah be alive.

But for some reason my
prayers weren't answered.

And my counselor had me to write a letter

to Aaron and Elijah

and I explained to them why I didn't

go back to the building to
pick them up that evening.

I explained to them about Timothy McVeigh,

what he did to them

and why they were in heaven with Jesus.

I also told them I would
never stop loving them.

NARRATOR: Timothy McVeigh was
stopped for a minor motoring offense

- less than two hours after his bomb exploded.
- (POLICE RADIO CHATTERING)

He'd not replaced the number
plate on his getaway car.

He was then arrested for
having an unlicensed firearm.

Two days later, just before
he was due to be released,

the FBI connected him to the atrocity.

MAN ON RADIO: Timothy James
McVeigh has been executed by lethal...

NARRATOR: Six years on, he
was executed by lethal injection

at 8:14 a.m. on June 11th, 2001,

after a final meal of two pints
of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

The horror for the United States,

for all of us that were involved
in the Murrah Building bombing

was that this young man
was from the United States.

And so, instead of fearing the unknown,

it brought the United
States a fear of our own,

which is a very, very scary thing.

Timothy McVeigh, to me,

is worse than the
middle-Easterners that ran...

That flew those planes into the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon,

because Timothy McVeigh was an American.

Americans don't do things like that.