Oklahoma City Bombing

In Oklahoma City, at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a Ryder truck full of fertilizer and fuel oil parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building exploded, blasting a crater 30 feet wide and 8 feet deep. The front third of the nine-floor building disintegrated in a blast that was heard 15 miles away. The final death count would be 149 men and women and 19 children, with more than 500 people wounded.

The government and the American people initially suspected outside terrorist responsibility, but in reality the plan was devised by two American antigovernment survivalists in response to the Branch Davidian fire that had resulted in 84 deaths in Waco, Texas in 1993. They targeted the Murrah Building because they erroneously believed that the Waco assault order had originated from offices in that building.

Within 90 minutes after the explosion, Timothy McVeigh, one of the two eventual suspects, was arrested on an unrelated firearms charge in Billings, Oklahoma. When authorities determined that he had been involved in the bombing, he was transferred into federal custody. His coconspirator, Terry Nichols, surrendered to authorities in Kansas and was officially charged on May 10, 1995.

After a lengthy legal process involving change of venue and appeals, Terry Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, and Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death by lethal injection. That sentence was carried out in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001, 3 years after the end of the trial. It was the first federal execution in 37 years.

The Murrah Building was completely demolished on May 23, 1995, after a lengthy rescue effort, and the government decided not to rebuild on the site. Instead, a 3.3-acre memorial was built to honor those who died. There are two arched entryways, one marked with “9:01,” the time when everything was normal, and one with “9:03,” when nothing would ever be the same. The inscription reads, “We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever…. May all who leave here know the impact of violence…. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.”

Between the two entryways is a shallow reflecting pool watched over by 168 chairs (19 are smaller, children's chairs), arranged by floor, inscribed with the names of the victims. On the south wall of a nearby building that became the memorial museum are the words written by one of the rescue workers of Team 5, dated “4-19-95”: “We search for the truth…. We seek justice. The courts require it. The victims cry for it. and GOD demands it!”

Until the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Oklahoma bombing was the worst terrorist attack ever to take place on American soil.