Essay On Timothy Mcveigh

On the morning of April 19, 1995 at 9:02 AM, a truck-bomb explosion was set off in the front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast left 168 people dead including 19 children and hundreds of other people injured. It also leveled approximately one third of the federal building, as well as about another 300 other buildings. The blast was orchestrated by an ex-military and anti-government militant, Timothy McVeigh. However, McVeigh did have help from a co-conspirator by the name of Terry Nichols. This attack was the most deadly and outrageous terrorist attack on United States soil until the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (McVeigh).

In his early teen years while being raised in western New York, Timothy McVeigh began acquiring a penchant for guns and survivalist skills which he felt would be necessary in the event of a Cold War with the Soviet Union. He graduated high school in 1986 and enlisted into the United States Army in 1988. It was while he was in the Army McVeigh befriended a fellow soldier and his future partner in crime, Terry Nichols because Nichols shared McVeigh’s survivalist interests.

Moments later, the truck that contained a powerful bomb consisting of a mixture of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel, and several other deadly chemicals ("Oklahoma City Bombing"). Later in the morning following the explosion, Timothy McVeigh was stopped while driving a 1977 Mercury Marquis by an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer. The officer found a loaded firearm in the vehicle and McVeigh was charged with transporting a firearm. During the investigation, the rear axle of the Ryder truck was located and a serial number on the axle traced the vehicle back to a body shop in Junction City, Kansas ("Oklahoma City Bombing")