Oklahoma City Bombing

It is not coincidental that Timothy McVeigh chose to set off his bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. McVeigh had publicly criticized the FBI’s handling of the David Koresh case, as well as an earlier deadly confrontation between federal agents and a former Green Beret and believed white supremacist Randy Weaver. McVeigh in fact mentioned both in his bombing manifesto. His paranoia, along with earlier army military training, set the stage for one of the most notable domestic terror incidents.

On this day, April 19, in 1995 McVeigh approached the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City building in a rented Ryder truck laden 4,800 pounds of explosives, parked it near the entrance, got out and went to his getaway ride waiting nearby. The bomb exploded, shearing off a third of the nine-story building and shattering windows in buildings for miles around.

The bombing was a bitter lesson on keeping safe federal structures. Many increased security measures were introduced since the incident, including anti-vehicle “Jersey pikes” that jut out of ground at fender level, sturdier blast-proofing, and enhanced closed-circuit camera monitoring. A new non-explosive fertilizer was recently developed to replace the ammonium nitrate fertilizer that McVeigh used in his bomb, and which he legally purchased from a farmer’s store in Kansas.