colorado. the prosecution presents first and lays out a timeline of events that led up to the bombing. by mid-1994, mcveigh and nichols, along with their army friend michael fortier, were ready to put their plan into action. mcveigh decided the most effective weapon would be a truck bomb. in september 1994, mcveigh and nichols begin stockpiling ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer often used in truck bombs. you combine the ammonium nitrate, the oxidizer with the fuel and you have an explosive mixture. it s cheap, readily available and not particularly complicated to make. over the next few months, the two men start quietly gathering more components, including racing fuel, explosive charges, and 544 blasting caps they steal
it s hard to believe americans blowing up americans. it just boggled my mind. what tim mcveigh did was the worst act of domestic terrorism in american history. the entire country was shocked and riveted that somebody could come from white-bred suburbia and commit such a hellacious act. i have a daughter that s 3, and to think she ll grow up in this is scary. investigators are certain that mcveigh is the john doe number one in the police sketch, but they still have not identified john doe number two. john doe number two, if the fbi can t find him, does he exist? fbi chief louis freeh sent him this message, there is no place on earth where you will be safe. the michigan address on mcveigh s driver s license is the home of a man named james nichols. it s a critical development. nichols brother, terry, has
please do not tow. will move by april 23rd. needs battery and cable. two days later, mcveigh and nichols rendezvous at geary lake state park near junction city where they assemble the bomb in the truck. the ammonium nitrate and fuel would have been mixed in some barrels, something akin to a 55-gallon plastic barrel. those barrels were then likely connected with this detonating cord which led to the boosters. and ultimately that detonating cord would have come together where the detonators or blasting caps were. but at the last minute, terry nichols, like michael fortier, bails out. as time grew near to the time of the bombing, nichols got cold feet. he decided he didn t want to do that. he decided that was going too far. mcveigh screamed at him,
tim mcveigh said he never went there. there are people, however, who claim to have seen mcveigh at elohim city. and probably the strongest evidence that he was there is a ticket he received from an arkansas highway patrolman about four miles into arkansas from oklahoma on a road that takes you straight to elohim city. so if he wasn t at elohim city, where was he? timothy mcveigh made some calls to elohim city. he drove near the area, we know, but beyond that, any connection to elohim city or the notion that there were others involved is speculation heaped on top of speculation. but even assuming others were involved, why would mcveigh so strongly insist that he acted alone? with help only from nichols and fortier?
he believed that, in lying, he would protect the others so they wouldn t be convicted. and he spun a series of lies to shield the other side. i think it s possible that there were other people that helped along the way but did not know they were helping with the bombing. but i believe that the only ones who actually knew what they were working on were the three men that were punished by the government. mcveigh, fortier, and nichols. we got him. two years and 44 days after the worst terrorist attack on united states soil, a verdict has been rendered in the bombing trial of timothy mcveigh. reporter: on june 2nd, 1997, timothy mcveigh is found guilty on all 11 counts of murder and conspiracy. he is sentenced to death. outside the courthouse in