mcveigh blows up his truck bomb in front of the murrah building. at some point, fortier decides to not take part in the bombing. in fact, in a later plea bargain, he will agree to testify against co-conspirators. in march 1995 mcveigh creates a fake driver s license with the name robert d. kling and birth date of april 19th, 1972. on april 14th, mcveigh buys the yellow 1977 mercury marquis from a used car dealer in junction city, kansas. the next day, mcveigh reserves the ryder truck from elliots body shop using the robert d. kling alias. on april 16th, mcveigh and nichols drive the mercury to oklahoma city. mcveigh parks several blocks away from the murrah building. he removes the license plates from the car and leaves a note.
ready to put their army 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 and 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 from a quarry in marion, kansas. then that december, mcveigh and michael fortier going to oklahoma city to case the murrah building.
liking to him and loved hearing nichols spout off about his theories about government and politics. mcveigh serves during operation desert storm in 1991 and is awarded a bronze star for valor. during his service, he kills at least two enemy combatants. one thing he bragged about in saudi arabia in war he was a gunner on a bradley and told me one time about when he was shooting at a bunker and a guy came out waving his hands trying to surrender and stuff and mcveigh started shooting at him with .25 millimeter. he said there was 1,100 meters
and the first round hit the guy in the head. after returning from the war, mcveigh hopes to join the special forces but quits because he s physically unprepared. one of mcveigh s goals from early on in entering the army was special forces. when it didn t work out for him with the special forces, he lost his focus. mcveigh is discharged from the army on december 31st, 1991. he begins to drift around the country taking odd jobs and attending gun shows. he was totally against any kind of gun control. he was totally in favor of government leaving people alone, and letting them do what they want to do. distrust of a large central government goes back to our independence. it is written into our constitution. the problem is when it s taken to it s extremes and timothy mcveigh was the extreme of that ideology. but he doesn t seem to be destructive until two tragic events in the early 1990s excite mcveigh to embrace violence.
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, threatened him, may have threatened to kill him. on the morning of april 19th, mcveigh, now on his own, drives the ryder truck into oklahoma city. at 8:57 a.m., security cameras at the regency tower apartment building a few blocks west of the murrah building catch the ryder truck parked across the street. investigators surmise this is when mcveigh lights the first fuse. a few minutes later, mcveigh moves the truck up, lights the second fuse and parks on the north side of the murrah building. he then exits the truck and begins walking rapidly to the yellow mercury parked four blocks away. at the federal building, the workday is starting. hundreds of people are already inside. explosion downtown.