Oklahoma City bombing

Also known as: Murrah Federal Building bombing, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols

Active: 1995–1995
Region: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA
States: AZ, CO, KS, OK
Kind: Mass
Status: Convicted
Victims: 0

At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a truck bomb destroyed much of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, 19 of them children, and injuring hundreds more. It was the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in US history. Timothy McVeigh, an Army veteran with anti-government views, was stopped by an Oklahoma state trooper on I-35 about 90 minutes later. He was convicted in federal court in 1997 and executed in 2001. His accomplice Terry Nichols was convicted in federal court and, in 2004, in Oklahoma of 161 counts of murder; he is serving life without parole.

Ask the Atlas about this case →

Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

1994
McVeigh's residence area, Kingman, Arizona (Killer's residence, approximate area)
McVeigh lived in Kingman, Arizona, in the period before the attack.
February 1995
Nichols's home and storage unit, Herington, Kansas (Killer's residence, approximate area)
Nichols bought a house in Herington in February 1995. Bomb supplies were kept in a storage unit in the town. He turned himself in on April 21, 1995, after learning he was wanted for questioning.
April 15, 1995
Truck rental, Junction City, Kansas (Other, approximate area)
McVeigh stayed at a Junction City motel and rented a Ryder truck under a false name on April 15. Investigators traced the truck's VIN from the wreckage to the rental agency here, whose staff helped produce the sketch that identified him.
April 18, 1995
Geary Lake, Kansas (Other, approximate area)
McVeigh and Nichols assembled the bomb in the rented truck at Geary Lake on April 17-18, 1995.
April 19, 1995
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (now the Oklahoma City National Memorial) (Crime scene)
A truck bomb parked outside the federal building exploded at 9:02 a.m., killing 168 people, including children in the building's day care center. The site is now the Oklahoma City National Memorial, with a chair for each person killed.
April 19, 1995
Traffic stop on I-35 near Perry, Oklahoma (Arrest, approximate area)
About 90 minutes after the blast, State Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped McVeigh on I-35 in Noble County for driving without a license plate and arrested him on a concealed weapon charge. He was held in the Perry jail until federal agents took custody on April 21.
April 24, 1997
Federal trials, Denver (Court / trial, approximate area)
Moved to Denver, McVeigh's federal trial ended with guilty verdicts on June 2, 1997, and a death sentence. Nichols was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter that December and sentenced to life without parole in June 1998.
June 11, 2001
Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute (execution) (Prison)
McVeigh was executed by lethal injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001, the first federal execution in 38 years.
March 1, 2004
Pittsburg County Courthouse, McAlester (Court / trial, approximate area)
Oklahoma tried Nichols on 161 counts of first-degree murder. He was convicted on all counts on May 26, 2004, and sentenced on August 9 to 161 consecutive life terms without parole.

Watch, listen, read

Watch

Oklahoma City (2017, Barak Goodman, PBS American Experience)

Read

American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing (2001, Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.