Timothy McVeigh Biography

Timothy McVeigh set the bomb which killed 168 people at the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on April 19, 1995. The bomb, made of fertilizer and oil packed into the rear of a rented van, destroyed the front half of the building and killed 149 adults and 19 children.

Timothy McVeigh, who had served in the U.S. Army from 1988-91, was an extreme conservative who later told investigators he was angry over the federal government’s clashes with white separatist Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992, as well as with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians at Waco, Texas in 1993.

McVeigh was convicted of the bombing in 1997 and sentenced to death; he later insisted all appeals on his behalf be dropped and asked to be executed. McVeigh’s co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, was convicted but sentenced to life in prison.

Timothy McVeigh was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on May 16, 2001 in a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. In early May of that year, the FBI revealed it had withheld from McVeigh’s lawyers documents relevant to the case, and the execution was delayed one month. McVeigh was then killed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001.