Latest news with #McVeigh
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MAGA returns to a faithful fantasy to tune out trouble for Trump
There has been much attention rightly paid to Project 2025 during the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. However, not enough attention has been paid to modern America's original manual of hatred, 'The Turner Diaries.' First published in 1978 and recently banned by Jeff Bezos' Amazon following the assault on the US Capitol on January 6, thanks to the combined minds of Steve Bannon and Steve Miller, this racist dystopian novel about a white supremacist insurrection undergirds the Trumpian worldview. In a nutshell, the book is an apocalyptic tale of genocide against racial minorities set in a near-future America. This narrative successfully captured 49.8% of the voting electorate in November 2024. First introduced in 2015 after Donald and Melania Trump came down the Trump Tower escalator to announce his bid for the Republican nomination, the premise was always focal to his three political campaigns and his first term of abuse, lawlessness and corruption. Soon after the failed coup d'état on Jan. 6, 2021, this narrative became the core message of Trumpism. At the same time, the persecution or victimization of the wannabe strongman became the core message of Trumpism. It is why Trump was returned to the White House instead of going to prison for his traitorous crimes against the US Constitution and the American people. This same narrative also captured and underlined the anti-constitutional 6-3 decision by the MAGA majority of the U.S. Supreme Court granting Trump and subsequent presidents criminal immunity from prosecution. I am not alone in making the obvious connections between Donald Trump, MAGA supporters, and the words and deeds and beliefs of Timothy McVeigh and company who blew up the Oklahoma City federal building back in April 1995. McVeigh's bombing killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, and the rest were federal office workers providing government services. Like other military veterans of the First Iraq War, McVeigh did not believe that the U.S. should become entangled in foreign wars at a time when his white-working class buddies back in Buffalo, NY, were suffering from the earliest waves of deindustrialization in America. McVeigh was part of an emerging rightwing militia movement that was going after or attacking a corrupt group of people that they believed were secretly running the government from within. They also believed that it was on the ordinary citizens of America to take up arms against a tyrannical ruling order, no matter what the cost to innocent lives might be. With the rise of Trumpian propaganda and disinformation, this radical conspiracy theory about a deep state and its enemies from within was going viral and eventually became the hegemonic mainstreaming narrative. Whether or not Trumpists have read the 'Diaries' authored by the 1974 founder of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, not unlike McVeigh or The Order before him and other militia types such as the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, those who voted for Trump in 2024 along with the MAGA crowd, all share the 'good old boy' white power fantasy described in the pages of the 'Diaries.' It inspired a slew of violent crimes by The Order in the 1980s, McVeigh's bombing of the federal building back in 1995, and Trump's assault on the Capitol after he lost the 2020 election. It has also accounted for why the Always Trumpers still support the Liar-in-Chief to this day and why they believe in the falsehoods that the election was 'rigged' and 'stolen' by the Democrats. It is also consistent with the justification for Trump keeping one of his campaign promises to exercise executive clemency and to provide full, complete and unconditional pardons to the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Which he did on day one of his new administration to the tune of some 1500 convicted felons, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy by juries of their peers and were serving 18- and 22-year sentences, respectively. Trump also signed the ominous executive order Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens, signed on his 99th day in office as part of his assault on sanctuary cities. If all of the parts of this order are successful, they would also usher in pathways to a police state. For example, Trump's twin 'other' wars on immigrants and on diversity, equity, and inclusion recipients are visible expressions of the same old conspiracy theories operating to defeat the cabal of Jews, African Americans, and internationalists that have allegedly been stealing the US' true identity and manifest destiny. These are the folks, as well as anyone else who disagrees with Trump's dystopian vision, that are presently being silenced, removed or eliminated at whatever cost this might have for our 'on the ropes' democratic republic. All of these declarations or projections and talking points by the MAGA forces are part and parcel of the same old lies about 'paid' protestors attending rallies to protest Trump and Elon Musk. Something that both Donald and Elon are well-steamed in, not to mention their extensive knowledge about buying both candidates and votes. Perhaps nothing captures Trump's authoritarian agenda better than ICE's illegal kidnapping and disappearing of hundreds of people or DOGE's firings or dismissals of some 250,000 federal workers – all without any due process of law. All of which makes perfect sense in the Trumpian schemes to dismantle and emasculate USAID worldwide and to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio's rationale for the proposed 'redesign' of the State Department to diminish or do away with human rights programs and others targeting war crimes or the strengthening of freedom and democracy. Namely, that of reversing the 'decades of bloat' and seeking to eradicate the ingrained thinking of globalism or of a 'radical political ideology' that Rubio now believes represents the antithesis of Trump's attempt to realign world power under the imperialistic banner of 'America First.' For nearly five decades, the 'Diaries' have been the right wing's favorite go-to conspiracy theory and many of the driving forces behind Trumpian authoritarianism today can be traced back to the hateful thesis of the 'Diaries.'
The Sun
22-04-2025
- The Sun
FBI ‘failure' at Waco siege inspired anti-gov nut Timothy McVeigh to kill 168 in Oklahoma bombing, Netflix producer says
OKLAHOMA bomber Timothy McVeigh's twisted killing of 168 people was in retaliation for the nightmare at Waco exactly two years earlier, a producer on a new film about the tragedy has told The U.S. Sun. Last weekend marked 30 years since the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was blown apart by a truck bomb planned by former U.S. Army soldier McVeigh and his co-conspirator Terry Nichols. 7 7 WACO NIGHTMARE The sickening, senseless terror attack on April 19, 1995, is the subject of a new Netflix documentary, Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror, produced by Greg Tillman, who previously worked on the explosive Waco: American Apocalypse. Loner McVeigh, who was waging a personal war against authority, had traveled to Texas in April 1993 while cult leader David Koresh was urging his followers to come out fighting against FBI and ATF agents. Some cult members were killed in early battles with the ATF. That drew widespread condemnation which fueled the 51-day Waco siege. The U.S. Sun previously sat down with former FBI agent Jim McGee, who admitted mistakes were made — errors that eventually changed how the FBI operates. McGee said the agents got it wrong on the fateful day of February 28, 1993, which sparked a two-month nightmare. It also contributed to the death of 86 people, including 28 children. "I would not conduct the assault and search warrant execution the way ATF did," said McGee, who worked the entire seven-week siege. Watching from a police perimeter was McVeigh, who was drawn to Koresh's warped vision and left incensed by how the FBI handled the situation. Tillman has pored over the grisly details of both Waco and Oklahoma City. He freely concedes that Waco wasn't the FBI's 'finest hour,' describing it as more of a military-style operation than a law enforcement response. Heartbreaking story of Oklahoma City firefighter who cradled baby girl's body in arms in haunting image of 1995 bombing But as the world struggled to come to terms with what was, at the time, the worst terror attack on US soil, Tillman said authorities quickly stepped up and brought those responsible to justice. "The way they reacted to the Oklahoma City bombing," he told The U.S. Sun, "that gave them the opportunity to showcase what they were designed to do." He compared the FBI's tactical approach to a 'basketball team playing zone defense.' The new documentary features riveting interviews with key officials involved in the eventual takedown of McVeigh and Nichols, both of whom were convicted for their roles in the bombing. 7 7 LUCKY BREAK Nichols received 161 consecutive life sentences and will die in prison. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection in 2001. FBI office chief Bob Ricks and his Kansas-based colleague Scott Crabtree detailed the painstaking statewide hunt to bring the twisted perpetrators to justice. In a strange twist of fate, local cop Charlie Hanger pulled McVeigh over for an unrelated firearms offense just 90 minutes after the bomb had wreaked carnage in downtown Oklahoma City. Hangar stopped him for having no license plates on his car, and issued an arrest for a carrying a loaded firearm. McVeigh was taken to the small town of Perry—just nine miles from the blast site—and held in jail as the scale of the devastation began to unfold. The local police had no idea the man they had just arrested was the most wanted man in America. Initial fears were of a Middle Eastern terror attack. Eventually, though, when McVeigh's name was run through the system, they realized—just hours before he was due to be released—that McVeigh was already in custody. "It's an amazing fact in the story," said Tillman of McVeigh's initial arrest, "but I think a lot of people, especially post-9/11, have forgotten about it." There was even a moment, he said, when McVeigh was driving with a trunk full of volatile explosives—blasting caps and other materials—and was rear-ended. It could have blown the car to smithereens on the spot. Tillman deliberately avoided watching previous documentaries about the attack to keep his mind clear. However, he did pore over 60 hours of previously unreleased interviews with McVeigh, recorded in prison by a seasoned reporter from the Buffalo News. After the media frenzy died down, Lou Michel visited McVeigh's family home and convinced his father, Bill, to talk his son into speaking with him. The tapes, Tillman said, offered chilling insights into McVeigh's warped mindset. CHARACTER ANALYSIS They revealed his stomach-churning lack of empathy for the victims—19 of whom were children at the daycare center inside the Murrah building. 'Tim was looking for attention," continued Tillman. "You hear that all through the interview. Someone finally listening to him—that's what he wanted.' One question from Michel's colleague Dan Herbeck came out of nowhere—and struck a serious chord. McVeigh was asked how he would define love between two people. 'There's just silence,' Tillman recalled. 'You can feel him trying to figure out the right answer to make himself look good.' The response, said the producer, revealed McVeigh's deep isolation. No real friends. No romantic relationships. 'He wanted the world to recognize him," he added. "McVeigh wanted power, attention. You see the same thing with school shooters, how they want people to notice them. They don't. They'll do something that forces the world to pay attention." Once McVeigh, Nichols, and co-conspirator-turned-informant Michael Fortier (along with Fortier's wife) were identified, the FBI launched a sweeping investigation involving over 30,000 hours of interviews. The breakthrough came via a calling card used by the perpetrators, which Tillman said became a vital "roadmap" to their actions in the months leading up to the attack. 'There was an orgy of evidence,' he admitted. TROUBLING INFLUENCES Nichols, now incarcerated in a high-security prison in Colorado, has never granted an interview and has remained uncooperative since his sentencing. Still, Tillman described him as 'a very broken person who had real problems with relationships.' The documentary also explores how McVeigh and Nichols were heavily influenced by The Turner Diaries, a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce—founder of the white nationalist group National Alliance—writing under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. The New York Times has described the book as 'explicitly racist and anti-Semitic.' 'McVeigh may never have done this if he hadn't found someone who made him feel like he wasn't alone,' Tillman said. 'He was always looking for a team.' 'He didn't have the internet back then. Today, he probably would've found a whole group of people to talk with in some dark chat room. But back then, someone like Nichols had to be broken too.' Carl Spengler, the first medic on the scene, told The U.S. Sun ahead of the documentary release that he had hoped for "closure" after carrying the pain of seeing the horrific aftermath of McVeigh's deranged plot. Tillman hopes others embroiled in the disaster will find solace in his work and that despite the carnage wreaked, perhaps the world can learn a lesson from the nightmare of the devastating Oklahoma bomb. "I think it's a great reminder in a time of a very divisive country we're looking at right now, a lot of hate is coming from both sides. "People are hurling insults and demonizing each other and not listening to each other," concluded the veteran film producer. 'I think this is what happens when you take that mindset to its extreme. "When you start to believe the people you disagree with are so horrible they don't deserve to live, it's important to remind people—this is where that leads.' 7 7
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Walk-on ferry between Anacortes and San Juans launches on trial basis
A whale watch company with a spare vessel is operating the demonstration of passenger-only ferry service from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands until June 30. (Photo by Tom Banse) This article was first published by the Salish Current. For the next 10 weeks, people can travel to and from the scenic San Juan Islands for free as the archipelago tests the waters of county-run, passenger-only ferry service. State money is paying for a twice-daily roundtrip between the three most populous islands and Anacortes using a chartered whale watching tour boat. The boat trial grew out of frustration with unreliable state ferry service in recent years. But even if the county's walk-on ferry proves popular, it's unclear how it could be sustained. 'Until people in San Juan County feel that they can count on the [state] ferries like they did 10 years ago,' San Juan County Council Chair Kari McVeigh said, 'this is a big deal.' McVeigh rode along on the inaugural round trip between Friday Harbor and downtown Anacortes. The foot ferry made intermediate stops at Orcas Landing and Lopez Island in each direction. McVeigh noted the boat was very punctual, as hoped for. Ridership was light during the opening weekend of service due to the short-notice startup and limited pre-launch publicity. Captain Brian Goodremont steered the 55-foot tour boat Sea Lion across sun-splashed seas at about the same speed as the state ferries – 17 knots – on an unusually warm Good Friday to inaugurate the service. 'I think it is mostly going to be islanders that use this service,' said Goodremont, who owns San Juan Safaris, the contracted passenger-only ferry operator. 'As we get closer to peak season for visitors – once school is out – I can see visitors using it as an alternative.' As part of the same state-funded pilot project, San Juan County also contracted with a different local tour company for emergency interisland water taxi service, which will sail only when the state interisland ferry is expected to be out of service for more than four hours. That standby water taxi contract similarly expires on June 30. In recent weeks, state ferry system leaders have told the public and their overseers in the state Legislature that the car ferries have turned the corner on reliability. Washington State Ferries chief Steve Nevey and his deputy told a state Senate panel last month that crewing is back to pre-pandemic levels and cancellations significantly reduced. 'We're clearly going in the right direction,' deputy John Vezina testified. 'We're clearing the maintenance backlog. We are on the path to building new boats. But it's been tough for our customers and we are aware of that.' The San Juans to Anacortes passenger-only ferry pilot project was designed with the needs of ferry-dependent islanders at the top of mind, but the service should be appealing to visitors from the mainland too. The foot ferry terminates in downtown Anacortes at the Cap Sante Marina where islanders can walk to a wide variety of businesses, restaurants and medical/dental clinics. Daytrippers headed to the San Juans can park at the marina for free, unlike at the state ferry Anacortes terminal. The Sea Lion vessel is certified for 49 passengers, but Goodremont said it will be limited to 35 riders for the time being so that everyone has access to the heated, indoor seating if desired. Orcas Island resident Sooz Stahl was pleased to hear about the new county-run ferry as she waited in the sun for the state ferry to take her to her job running the post office on neighboring Shaw Island. 'I think it's fantastic,' Stahl said. 'They should support ways and plans for people to get here and to visit the islands without a car.' Stahl said she was unsure whether she would use the walk-on ferry during its 10-week tryout. The county-provided service skips Shaw Island because the isle lacks a public dock suitable for the passenger-only ferry. A potential drawback of the foot ferry for visitors is that there is no public transit or Uber/Lyft on the islands. Friday Harbor is quite walkable, but Orcas Landing and the Lopez dropoff at Odlin County Park are a good distance from the main attractions of their respective islands. Traditional taxis are available on San Juan and Orcas islands, though. Bikes can be brought on board the passenger boat with prior reservation. For travelers going between Friday Harbor and the mainland, the walk-on ferry takes longer than Washington State Ferries because of the intermediate stops. In years past, Bellingham was proposed as the mainland terminus for a San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry run. But San Juan County officials only considered Anacortes as the mainland landing this time around because the point of the state funding was to backstop the state ferry service. The temporary passenger-only ferry is fare-free because the state is footing the bill. Former Gov. Jay Inslee awarded the county $1.5 million in discretionary emergency relief funds last September after hearing a litany of complaints from islanders about missed appointments, stranded schoolchildren and other disruptions caused by cancelled state ferry sailings. Just recently, the state Department of Commerce denied the county's request to spend leftover grant funds after the state's fiscal year ends on June 30 so this walk-on ferry service could be extended into peak tourist season in July. Passengers who use the free foot ferry will be surveyed to provide the county with data that it can then use to make the case for a permanent service, if that seems justified. An ongoing passenger-only run would require a big subsidy if the fares were to be kept reasonable. McVeigh said San Juan County does not currently have the deep pockets to shoulder those operating costs. San Juan Safaris' contract to operate the grant-funded temporary foot ferry costs $7,647.50 per day, which adds up quickly to more than half a million dollars for the ten-and-a-half week duration of the pilot project. Earlier this year at the Legislature, San Juan County council members testified in support of a bill dubbed the Mosquito Fleet Act to launch new, locally operated walk-on ferry routes across Puget Sound. But that proposal was stripped of funding last month and then died in the state Senate at the beginning of April. Senate Transportation Committee Chair Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, said the state government is not in a position to subsidize new ferry services in the near to medium term. 'The (2025-27) budget is really focused on making sure that our mainstay Washington State Ferries service is healthy, strong and sustainable,' Liias said in late March. 'We want to make sure that the service we're providing is top notch again and we're investing to get there. Passenger service in the future makes sense, but for now we're focused on the core of WSF service.' Absent further state support, another option would be federal grant funding. But McVeigh observed the chances of getting that look grim given the current budget-slashing tenor in the nation's capital. A third option would be to turn to local voters for approval to create a county transit district with taxing authority, as Kitsap County did previously. However, McVeigh said it is very premature to go down that path. 'We're not there yet,' McVeigh said. 'This is really just proof-of-concept, this pilot. We want to look at the data. We want to see how our constituents feel about this.' For now, the council chair from Friday Harbor said people should try out the limited-term passenger service and let the county know what they think. It's use it or lose it time, to paraphrase her. 'It's a free ferry ride for now,' McVeigh said. 'Come, come, come.' What: Anacortes-San Juan Islands passenger-only ferry service When: Limited-duration from April 18 to June 30, 2025 Cost: Free to ride. Foot passengers save $16.50 each using the county-run ferry to get to the San Juans instead of Washington State Ferries. Mainland terminus: Cap Sante Marina 'B' Dock, downtown Anacortes Island stops: Lopez (Odlin County Park dock), Orcas Landing, Friday Harbor (Spring St. Dock) Schedule: One morning round trip starting in Friday Harbor and similarly, one afternoon round trip, seven days per week For more info and to make reservations, which are strongly recommended: The Salish Current is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, online local news organization serving Whatcom, San Juan and Skagit counties. Based in Bellingham, the publication serves 400,000 residents and tens of thousands of annual visitors to the three-county area.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
Best-selling authors reflect on the Oklahoma City bombing
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — About 30 years after the Oklahoma City bombing, we look back at the tragedy and WNY's connection to it: the bomber grew up here. At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a bomb exploded at the Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people, including 19 children. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, grew up in Pendleton. And in the years following the attack, two Buffalo News reporters would be allowed access to him in federal prison, telling his story. Authors Dan Herbeck and Lou Michel recorded about 70 hours of audio from their interviews with McVeigh. Michel then witnessed his execution in June of 2001. That same year, the two wrote a best-selling book called 'American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing.' In an interview with WIVB News 4, Michel and Herbeck explain what led McVeigh to do what he did, his demeanor while they interviewed him and their roles in a new Netflix documentary that portrays the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on U.S. soil. Kelsey Anderson is an award-winning anchor who came back home to Buffalo in 2018. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter. Dave Greber is an award-winning anchor and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2015. See more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
30 years later, letters to the US&J offer insight into Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing
Thirty years ago today, what was then the worst act of domestic terrorism in American history shook the nation to its core. It was an act that appeared to have been foretold, a little more than three years earlier, in a letter to the editor of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. The letter arrived in early February 1992, written by a young man named Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was from Pendleton, a town of about 6,000 people on the southern edge of Niagara County. Pendleton was, and is still, a quiet, mostly rural community, not a hotbed of hate. But McVeigh's letter screeched with anger and rage towards the U.S. government. The managing editor of the US&J decided to print the McVeigh letter because, in the words of an unidentified former employee of the paper, 'We have a longstanding policy; we print every letter.' The letter appeared in the paper's print edition on Feb. 11, 1992. None of the editors at that time found the anti-government screed to be a cause for alarm. No one saw it as a canary in a terrorist coal mine. Only three years later would then-managing editor Dan Kane re-read McVeigh's letter, and a second one sent in March 1992, and call them 'chilling.' 'There was one paragraph in particular that made my heart stop a little bit,' Kane told a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. 'It was the one that said: 'shed blood.' After Oklahoma City, I certainly look at it as a sort of eerie and prophetic statement.' It was three years later, at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, that McVeigh would trigger the detonator on a massive truck bomb parked in front of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. The force of the explosion obliterated the building, killing 168 people, many of them children, and wounding 680 others, many of them severely. Inside the building were the offices of 14 federal agencies, including the Social Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, recruiting stations for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, and a child daycare center. The explosion devastated a 16-block area of downtown Oklahoma City, destroying or damaging 324 other buildings and causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage. HINDSIGHT Thomas Beilein served as the Niagara County Sheriff for almost 15 years, from 1994 to 2008. He says with 20-20 hindsight, McVeigh's writings should have been a warning. 'I think if that letter came today, the newspaper would want to contact authorities and let them know this looks dangerous,' Beilein said. 'Especially with what happened 30 years ago.' McVeigh was a decorated Army vet who had served in the Gulf War. In his first letter, published Feb. 11, 1992, he wrote in revolutionary terms. 'What is it going to take to open up the eyes of our elected officials? AMERICA IS IN SERIOUS DECLINE,' McVeigh wrote. 'We have no proverbial tea to dump; should we instead sink a ship full of Japanese imports?' The unidentified US&J employee who spoke with the LA Times reporter said letters like McVeigh's were not uncommon in the early 1990s. 'We have a fair amount of that kind of mail, and it's probably encouraged because we allow it (to be published),' the employee told the Times reporter, David Willman. McVeigh's two rambling letters were discovered after the Oklahoma City bombing when a reader called the paper to say he remembered having read letters to the editor signed by Tim McVeigh. 'Is a civil war imminent? Do we have to shed blood to reform the current system?', McVeigh asked in his first letter. 'I hope it doesn't come to that! But it might.' Beilein said he finds McVeigh's views from more than 30 years ago eerily similar to political rhetoric being used in the United States today. 'It's a reflection on the state of our nation,' the former sheriff said. 'Look at the reactions to the school shootings that have taken place (since the Oklahoma City bombing). Are they really any different? Are the school shooters any different than Tim McVeigh?' PROPHECY McVeigh's letters revealed a young man who deeply distrusted the federal government and who, after his discharge from the Army, had drifted into the growing militia movement of the early 1990s. He would regularly attend gun shows where he would pass out leaflets that repeated right-wing militia talking points, and he hawked copies of his favorite book, The Turner Diaries. The Turner Diaries was a 1978 novel that depicted a violent revolution in the U.S. that leads to the overthrow of the federal government, a nuclear war and, ultimately, a race war. In his first letter, McVeigh referenced a race war. 'Racism on the rise? You had better believe it!,' he wrote. 'At a point when the world has seen communism falter as an imperfect system to manage people; democracy seems to be heading down the same road. Maybe we have to combine ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government.' McVeigh's letters also contained a list of government grievances as common in conservative media today as they were then. 'Crime is out of control. Criminals have no fear of punishment. Prisons are overcrowded so they know they will not be imprisoned long,' McVeigh predicted. 'Taxes are a joke. Regardless of what a political candidate 'promises,' they will increase. More taxes are always the answer to government mismanagement. They mess up, we suffer. Taxes are reaching cataclysmic levels, with no slowdown in sight.' Finally, McVeigh made it clear in his writing that if something didn't change, the American middle class, which he believed represented him and his family, would disappear. 'Politicians are further eroding the 'American Dream' by passing laws which are supposed to be a 'quick fix,' when all they are really designed for is to get the official reelected,' he wrote. 'These laws tend to 'dilute' a problem for a while, until the problem comes roaring back in a worsened form. (Much like a strain of bacteria will alter itself to defeat a known medication.)' A SECOND LETTER McVeigh wrote to the US&J again in March 1992. This time he seemed focused less on politics and more on issues of life and death. The letter, published on March 10, 1992, attacked veganism, while speculating on how killing prey in the wild is preferable to meat processing. McVeigh wrote of the 'clean, merciful shot' taken by a hunter so that the prey 'dies in his own environment, quick and unexpected.' He compared that to the slaughter of cattle. Which, he wrote, had 'less dignity.' 'Would you rather die while living happily or die while leading a miserable life, you tell me which is more 'humane'? ' McVeigh wrote. Not long after McVeigh's arrest for the Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI came calling for the original copies of his two letters to the US&J. The federal agents also sought a third letter, written by his sister Jennifer in early 1995. Published by the US&J on March 10, 1995, Jennifer McVeigh's letter railed against 'communism, gun control, permissive sex and the L.A. riots.' She also referenced the August 1992 confrontation in Idaho between federal agents and a survivalist named Randall Weaver, and the 1993 siege by federal agents of the weapons-filled compound of the Branch Davidians sect near Waco, Texas. That siege ended in the deaths of 86 people. In a perhaps eerie echo of her brother, Jennifer McVeigh also predicted the coming of an America ruled by 'a single authoritarian dictatorship.' After taking the letters, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Kane to testify before the federal grand jury in Oklahoma City that would indict McVeigh and his co-conspirator Terry Nichols. TRIAL AND CONVICTION Beilein said he vividly remembers the phone call he received from federal agents, telling him they identified McVeigh as the Oklahoma City bomber. 'It was shocking,' he said. 'You knew (the bombing) was horrific and what made it worse was this was someone who grew up in our backyard.' The FBI asked Beilein what his investigators might know about McVeigh and suggested that he send deputies to McVeigh's family home in Pendleton, 'to see what was there and protect the occupants from possible retaliation.' What Beilein's deputies found was a gaggle of reporters. 'It was something we weren't used to,' Beilein said. 'There were satellite trucks up and down the road. The whole country was focused on Tim McVeigh.' Just over two years after the bombing, on April 24, 1997, McVeigh's trial, on 11 counts of murder and related charges, began in U.S. District Court in Denver. The case had been moved there from Oklahoma City over fair trial concerns. Nichols would be tried later both in federal court and Oklahoma state courts. McVeigh's trial featured 137 witnesses, including McVeigh's sister, and lasted roughly five weeks. A jury found him guilty on all counts. Following a hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch found factors sufficient to sentence McVeigh to death. The execution was set to take place at the United States Penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana. THE EXECUTION Former Niagara Gazette reporter Valerie Pillo was sent to Terre Haute to cover the execution. She had been involved in the paper's coverage of McVeigh in the aftermath of the bombing and during the trial. Pillo was also one of a small group of journalists who regularly attempted to speak to McVeigh's father. William 'Bill' McVeigh spoke, on the record, to only one reporter, who became a family spokesman while still covering the story and later wrote a book about McVeigh. For Pillo, her contact with Bill McVeigh consisted of what she called 'talks in the garden.' Bill McVeigh was known to be an avid gardener. Pillo said he would sometimes welcome a few reporters he had grown to know to chat while he gardened. 'I think what happened was a complete shock to Bill,' Pillo said. 'He didn't want the spotlight. He didn't know how to handle it and didn't want to handle it.' McVeigh even questioned Pillo's motivations in visiting him. 'He said, 'Are you only coming over here 'cause you want to interview me?'' Pillo recalled. As his son's execution day drew nearer, Pillo had more 'talks in the garden' with Bill McVeigh. 'There were some victim families who had reached out to (Bill) and they were very gracious,' Pillo said he had told her. 'Several became friends with him in their shared grief.' Bill McVeigh told Pillo he would not attend his son's execution. He said those were 'Tim's wishes' and he would instead visit relatives in North Carolina. 'Why would I go to that?' she said McVeigh asked her. And the bomber's father didn't like it when Pillo told him she would be covering the execution. 'He wasn't happy I was going,' she remembered. 'He said, 'Why are you going? Why do you have to be there?'' The execution took place on June 11, 2001, just three months before America would be shaken to its core again by the foreign terrorist attacks of 9/11. LESSONS Three decades later, Beilein still struggles to find lessons learned from the Oklahoma City bombing and the life of Tim McVeigh. 'I don't think America took too many lessons away from this,' he said. 'To some people and groups, McVeigh is considered a martyr and that just encourages others.' And the long-time lawman said if McVeigh were still alive, he thinks the son of Pendleton would be thriving in the America of 2025. 'It wouldn't have surprised me at all if Tim McVeigh would have been at (the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on) Jan. 6 or be a member of the Proud Boys. He was just a cold-blooded killer with no motive.'
