Local reporter recalls learning the identity of the Oklahoma City bomber

Yahoo

20-04-2025

On April 19, 1995, I was about as far away from Western New York as you can get while remaining in the continental United States.
I was sitting in a press trailer, across the street from the Los Angeles County Courthouse, in what was known among journalists at the time as Camp O.J. It was the compound that housed the operations of the news media organizations that were covering the 'Trial of the Century,' the murder case against Pro Football Hall of Famer, former Buffalo Bill and Hollywood actor O.J. Simpson.
I was covering the case for WIVB-TV and CBS News and had been called at about 7:30 a.m. on the west coast with the news of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. By the time I reached the trailer an hour later, I was told to keep covering the trial, but not to expect to have stories aired that day.
So I continued to cover the trial, while my News 4 colleague Jacquie Walker headed to Oklahoma City.
Two days later, on April 21, I was still in the CBS News trailer, covering the Simpson case, when the FBI released a pair of sketches of two suspects who were believed to have been involved in renting the truck that contained the bomb that had blown up the Murrah building. The sketches were called 'John Doe 1' and 'John Doe 2.'
I took note of the release of the sketches. I thought they looked like most of the artist sketches released by law enforcement, based on witness descriptions, which was to say, they were nondescript.
Since the bombing story was not my assignment, I returned to the trial coverage, until I received a call from the News 4 assignment desk. Our afternoon assignment editor, Martha Meegan, had taken a call from someone who said he recognized Suspect #2.
She asked me to speak to the caller and prepared to transfer the call to me.
I protested.
Pointing out that the caller was local and I was on the other side of the country, I thought a reporter back in Buffalo should take the call. I will never forget her reply.
'Ricco, you are our investigative reporter,' she said rather tartly. 'And you're not even doing a trial story today. You can take the call.'
After that rebuke, I heard a clicking sound and a male voice on the other end of the line. The person on the line wouldn't give me his name, but did say, 'You know that bomber sketch they put out earlier?'
Yes,' I replied, with a tone I will admit probably sounded like boredom or annoyance.
'John Doe 1 looks just like a guy I worked with doing security at Calspan by the (Buffalo) airport,' the voice said. 'His name is Tim McVeigh.'
I thanked the caller for his information, suggested that he call the FBI, and hung up. Then I called Meegan back.
After expressing my sense that this was likely a dead end, shot-in-the-dark, kind of call, she bluntly reminded me that it was my job to 'check it out.'
So I called a reliable, well connected federal law enforcement source. When he picked up the phone, I laughingly said, 'Hey, sorry to bother you, but are you checking out some guy named McVeigh, who lives (in Buffalo) in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing?'
My source's silence was deafening. But it sounded like he was in a car, driving.
After what seemed like an exceptionally long pause, my source said, 'Look up that name in the phone book.'
Remember, it was 1995, and people still relied on phone books.
'There's only one (McVeigh) in Pendleton,' he continued. 'Send a live truck. We're on our way there now.'
And he hung up the phone.
I was stunned. I called Meegan back.
As she scrambled a live truck and crew to head to the Pendleton home of William McVeigh, I alerted the CBS techs and producers in LA about what I has just learned.
I told them we had confirmed that the FBI was about to raid a home tied to a possible suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing. And that the suspect was named Tim McVeigh.
They contacted the network's justice correspondent, Jim Stewart, one the most well connected law enforcement reporters in Washington, D.C. Stewart's sources confirmed what my source had told me.
At about 4 p.m., CBS broke into its late afternoon programming and Stewart told people, for the first time, that one of the men believed to be involved in the horrific destruction of the Murrah building was Tim McVeigh of Pendleton.
By 4:30 p.m. a News 4 crew was on the scene and reported that Bill McVeigh's home was being swarmed by a small army of federal agents. And by the next day, Tim McVeigh was being walked out of a Perry, Oklahoma jail for transport to Oklahoma City to be charged as the bomber.
Sometimes news breaks in the most random of ways.
When my source reached out, days later, and asked how I had known about McVeigh and his connection to the bombing, I told him, 'it was a phone call I didn't want to take.'