At the same conference, a panel devoted to Jaynes was also held, with John Limber ( University of New Hampshire ), Marcel Kuijsten, John Hainly ( Southern University ), Scott Greer ( University of Prince Edward Island ), and Brian J. McVeigh presenting relevant research.

Within 90 minutes of the explosion, Timothy McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon.

Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Terry Nichols to the attack ; Nichols was arrested, and within days both were charged.

McVeigh, an American militia movement sympathizer who was a Gulf War veteran, had detonated an explosive-filled Ryder truck parked in front of the building.

McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, and Nichols was sentenced to life in prison.

Michael and Lori Fortier testified against McVeigh and Nichols ; Michael was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to warn the U. S. government, and Lori received immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.

McVeigh wore a printed T-shirt with the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Sic semper tyrannis (" Thus always to tyrants ", which was shouted by John Wilkes Booth immediately after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln ) and " The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants " ( from Thomas Jefferson ).

After booking McVeigh, Hanger searched his police car and found a business card McVeigh had hidden while he was handcuffed.

McVeigh was also identified by Lea McGown of the Dreamland Motel, who remembered him parking a large yellow Ryder truck in the lot ; McVeigh had signed in under his real name at the motel, using an address that matched the one on his forged license and the charge sheet at the Perry Police Station.

McVeigh's sister Jennifer was accused of illegally mailing bullets to McVeigh, but she was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against him.

McVeigh later stated that he was unaware of the day-care center when choosing the building as a target, and if he had known "... it might have given me pause to switch targets.

McVeigh was represented by a defense counsel team of six principal attorneys led by Stephen Jones.

According to law professor Douglas O. Linder, McVeigh wanted Jones to present a " necessity defense "— which would argue that he was in " imminent danger " from the government ( that his bombing was intended to prevent future crimes by the government, such as the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents ).

Jones also believed that McVeigh was part of a larger conspiracy, and sought to present him as " the designated patsy ", but McVeigh disagreed with Jones arguing that rationale for his defense.

They included a confession said to have been inadvertently included on a computer disk that was given to the press, which McVeigh believed seriously compromised his chances of getting a fair trial.

On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on eleven counts of murder and conspiracy.

Although the defense argued for a reduced sentence of life imprisonment, McVeigh was sentenced to death.

Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped McVeigh for driving his yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis without a license plate, and arrested him for having a concealed weapon.

McVeigh admitted to the police officer ( who noticed a bulge under his jacket ) that he had a gun and McVeigh was subsequently arrested for having driven without plates and illegal firearm possession ; McVeigh's concealed weapon permit was not legal in Oklahoma.

Timothy McVeigh was wearing a T-shirt with this phrase and a picture of Lincoln on it when he was arrested on April 19, 1995, the day of the Oklahoma City bombing.

As an investigative reporter for the newspaper, Kennedy obtained the first interview with the officer who arrested Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh and broke numerous other health care and metropolitan area stories.

Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, writes that Cooper was well known within the militia movement for his book, Behold a Pale Horse and his anti-government shortwave radio program that reportedly included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh as a fan.

*' Red ' Joe McVeigh ( 1925 – 90 ) of Armagh renown won several All-Ireland titles in the 1950s.

McVeigh spent more time on the gun show circuit, traveling to 40 of the 50 states and visiting about 80 gun shows in all.

* 1997 – In Denver, Colorado, Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

McVeigh stated in his authorized biography that he wanted to minimize nongovernmental casualties, so he ruled out a 40-story government building in Little Rock, Arkansas, because of the presence of a florist's shop on the ground floor.

In October 1994, posing as a motorcycle racer, McVeigh obtained three drums of nitromethane on the pretense that he and some fellow bikers needed the fuel for racing.

Specifically, McVeigh arranged the barrels in the shape of a backwards J ; he later said that for pure destructive power, he would have put the barrels on the side of the cargo bay closest to the Murrah Building ; however, such an unevenly distributed load might have broken an axle, flipped the truck over, or at least caused it to lean to one side, which could have drawn attention.

McVeigh about to exit the Perry, Oklahoma, courthouse on April 21, 1995

As the rescue effort wound down, the media interest shifted to the investigation, arrests, and trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and on the search for an additional suspect named " John Doe Number Two.

After President George W. Bush approved the execution ( McVeigh was a federal inmate and federal law dictates that the President must approve the execution of federal prisoners ), he was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11.

Even many who agreed with some of McVeigh's politics viewed his act as counterproductive, with much of the criticism focused on the deaths of innocent children ; critics expressed chagrin that McVeigh had not assassinated specific government leaders.

McVeigh believed that the bomb attack had a positive impact on government policy.

President George W. Bush made note of the anniversary in a written statement, part of which echoed his remarks on the execution of Timothy McVeigh in 2001: " For the survivors of the crime and for the families of the dead the pain goes on.

Timothy James " Tim " McVeigh ( April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001 ) was an American domestic terrorist who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

While in high school, McVeigh became interested in computers and hacked into government computer systems on his Commodore 64, under a handle – " The Wanderer " – borrowed from the song by Dion DiMucci.

In between watching coverage of the Waco siege on TV, Nichols and his brother began teaching McVeigh how to make explosives out of readily available materials ; specifically, they combined household chemicals in plastic jugs.

The government's use of CS gas on women and children angered McVeigh ; he had been exposed to the gas as part of his military training and thus was familiar with its effects.

McVeigh noted that he had no knowledge that the federal offices also ran a daycare center on the second floor of the building, and noted that he might have chosen a different target if he had known about the daycare center.

Michel and Herbeck quote McVeigh, with whom they spoke for some 75 hours, on his attitude to the victims:

Shortly after the bombing, while driving on I-35 in Noble County, near Perry, Oklahoma, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma State Trooper Charles J. Hanger from Pawnee, Oklahoma.