Terry Nichols

Terry Nichols was an accomplice in the worst terrorist act ever perpetrated by American citizens: He helped army buddy Timothy McVeigh plan the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people on April 19, 1995.

Raised in rural areas of Michigan, Nichols joined the army in 1988 at 33 years of age. There, he met McVeigh during basic training. They shared a rightwing mentality and the belief that society was on the verge of self-destruction. After Nichols left the army, he had a series of menial jobs and blamed the government for all his shortcomings. When McVeigh moved onto the Nichols family farm in 1993, McVeigh, Nichols, and Nichols's brother formed their own cell of a paramilitary group called the “Patriots.”

Nichols moved to Kansas in 1994 and worked on a farm until McVeigh appeared late that year, and they left together. On that same day, a person using the name “Mike Havens” bought 40 50-pound bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer from a farm co-op. The receipt would be found in Nichols's house after the bombing.

Over the next few months, the two men stockpiled dynamite, blasting caps, and fertilizer. Two days after the bombing, Nichols turned himself in to authorities. He was tried and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.