Timothy McVeigh: America's Deadliest Domestic Terror Attack
How a former soldier killed 168 people in Oklahoma City and became the first federal execution in nearly four decades
Quick Facts
On the morning of April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., Timothy James McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck in the handicap zone outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Inside was approximately 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane—an improvised explosive device that would level one-third of the building and reshape American understanding of domestic terrorism.
When the bomb detonated, it killed 168 people, including 19 children. Another 684 were injured. More than 300 buildings in the surrounding area sustained damage. The attack would remain the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history until September 11, 2001.
McVeigh, born April 23, 1968, was a former U.S. Army soldier with ties to the extreme right-wing Patriot movement. According to prosecutors, he had assembled the bomb at Geary Lake State Park in Kansas alongside Terry Nichols, an accomplice who would later be convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter. A third figure, Michael Fortier, had advance knowledge of the plot but was convicted only for failing to inform authorities.
The motive was rooted in rage. McVeigh was avenging the deaths of more than 70 people killed during the Waco siege exactly two years earlier, on April 19, 1993. His ideology was shaped partly by *The Turner Diaries*, a white supremacist novel that served as a blueprint for anti-government violence.
McVeigh's capture came swiftly. Within hours of the bombing, he was pulled over on Interstate 35 for having no license plate. Already in Noble County jail on unrelated charges—carrying a concealed handgun and lacking vehicle registration—he was linked to the bombing as a 2,000-member federal investigation team quickly pivoted from initial suspicions of Middle Eastern involvement.
