How Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh changed the fringe right Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh with his lawyers Rob Night, on left, and Stephen Jones in prison June 23, 1995, in Oklahoma City, Okla. (Getty Images file photo)
By Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck
Published April 19, 2020|Updated April 19, 2020
Pendleton native Timothy J. McVeigh set domestic terrorism on a new course 25 years ago when his truck bomb slaughtered 168 innocent people and injured 800 more in the Oklahoma City bombing.
McVeigh said the 7,000-pound truck bomb he ignited in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, was an attack against the U.S. government. In reality, government workers and ordinary citizens who had nothing to do with his grievances were murdered, including 19 children.
It was, and remains, the worst act of domestic terrorism by a U.S. citizen. And it had a lasting impact on America’s fringe right. In the 25 years since, extremists, fanatics and the mentally disturbed have stepped from the shadows, frequently occupying the headlines with their terrorist acts.
Before the Oklahoma City bombing, terrorists in this country generally targeted specific people or groups they considered enemies. Since then, domestic terrorists and deranged individuals have repeatedly cut a wide swath of carnage. They will kill anyone to make a point, whether it is at a place of worship or a shopping mall.
“Mass murder has come to be an explicit aim of these people and in very many ways we have Timothy McVeigh to thank for that,” said Mark Potok, a retired senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Now, if you think about what has happened since Oklahoma City, it is: How many people can we kill?”
McVeigh’s actions also altered the course of the militia movement that spawned his own ideology, taking the steam out of mainstream militia groups as they sought to distance themselves from McVeigh and denounce his act of terrorism.
But, in a troubling sign for those who study terrorism and hate crimes, there remains today a small number of extremists and racists who hail McVeigh. They include a white nationalist from Lockport who calls McVeigh a "hero" and a neo-Nazi blogger who once suggested that a monument be made to him.
McVeigh failed to ignite the revolution he hoped his bombing would spur. But in the last 25 years, times have drastically changed.
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Poster Comment:
The Murrah Building in OKC was meant to be a total collapse. When it was discovered some of the charges on the columns did not detonate, the EMTs were called out and the Bomb Squad was sent in. Tim McVeigh was another patsy just like Lee Harvey Oswald. This can be shown to be true since Dave from the X22 Report has interviewed the guy that set the charges on the columns in the Murrah Building. The author of this piece has invoked the input of SPLC and for that fact alone it demolishes this article as a bunch of hooey.