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- [00:07]
Vanessa Richardson
This is Crime House. During the week of June 2, 1997, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of one of the deadliest acts of mass murder in American history, the Oklahoma City bombing. 78 years earlier in 1919, U.S. attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was nearly kill when a massive explosion rocked his Washington D.C. home, making this week's theme Bombings welcome to Crime House the Show. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Every Monday we'll be revisiting notorious crimes from this week in history. From serial killers to mysterious disappearances or murders. Every episode will explore stories that share a common theme. Each week we'll cover two stories, one further in the past and one more rooted in the present. Here at Crime House. We know none of this would be possible without you, our community. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House the Show wherever you get your podcasts and for ad free and early access to Crime House the Show plus exciting bonus content, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. This week's theme is Bombings. First we'll go to June 2, 1997 when domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murdering 168 people in Oklahoma City. Then we'll jump back to the same week in 1919 when a group of anarchists tried to spark a radical uprising. Using the subjects of today's cases had wildly different worldviews, but they did agree on one thing. A bomb is a powerful way to get the attention of the entire country. All that and more coming up.
- [02:21]
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- [03:25]
Vanessa Richardson
On June 2, 1997, the mood was somb. A packed Denver, Colorado courtroom. For the last five weeks, prosecutors had presented mountains of evidence against 29 year old Timothy McVeigh. Now it was up to a jury to decide if he was guilty of bombing the alfred p. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Timothy sat silently, his hands clasped on the table in front of him, as the judge read the verdict. And guilty on all counts. Survivors and families of the victims cried tears of joy as u. S. Marshals escorted an emotionless timothy back to his cell to await sentencing. Justice had been served, but it couldn't reverse the damage he'd already inflicted because Timothy had chosen to orchestrate the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in a major American history. Born in April 1968 in the small town of Pendleton, New York, Timothy felt a deep sense of isolation from an early age. Growing up in a rural community close to the canadian border, his parents taught him that the world was a scary place and the only way to survive was to be prepared. As Timothy watched his family stockpile food and supplies ahead of major blizzards, the young boy learned how important it was to be self reliant. And the older he got, the more essential that lesson became. When Timothy was a teenager, his parents divorced. During this turbulent period, he spent a lot of time with his grandfather. Most days, Timothy's granddad would take him into the woods to go hunting. And When Timothy turned 13, his grandfather gave him one of his most treasured gifts. A.22 caliber rifle. It it sparked a lifelong fascination with firearms. But the gesture didn't help Timothy feel any less alone. After hitting puberty, Timothy had a huge growth spurt. He was so tall and skinny, classmates would bully him by calling Timothy noodle mcveigh. On one occasion, a couple of older kids even grabbed Timothy by the legs and dangled him over a torch toilet, trying to dunk his head inside. The abuse only led Timothy to become even more shy and withdrawn. In high school, he turned away from the new friends he did have and focused on the one thing that made him feel powerful. Guns. Using money from his part time job at burger king, Timothy added to his firearm collection, including an AR15 and an enormous desert eagle handgun. But he didn't want to just collect guns. He wanted to use them. After graduating from high school in 1986, Timothy got a gig driving an armored truck. The work was boring but his co workers said he loved having a job where he got to wear a uniform and carry a weapon. After a couple of years, though, Timothy was ready to move. Move on to a new position, One with fancier uniforms and more powerful weapons. In 1988, at the age of 20, Timothy McVeigh joined the u. S. Army. For the first time in his life, Timothy felt like he really belonged. After finishing basic training, he was stationed at fort riley, kansas. There, he aced his military aptitude exams and was one of the first, first men in his group to be promoted to sergeant. He also finally made a friend, a fellow soldier 13 years his senior named Terry nichols. Terry shared Timothy's love of weaponry, and the two would often unwind by watching red dawn, an action movie about armed teens waging guerrilla warfare. And soon he got a taste of combat himself. When the gulf war broke out in 1990, Timothy and his company were sent to iraq. Timothy served with distinction, receiving a bronze star and a combat infantry badge. After the war ended in 1991, Timothy tried to take his military career to the next level by applying for the army's elite special forces unit, the green berets. Becoming a green beret is extremely demanding. Applicants have to go through weeks of grueling physical challenges. Despite Timothy's time in Iraq, he failed the program after only two days Due to being psychologically unfit. According to the rules, he wasn't allowed to reapply. Being rejected by the green berets was a devastating blow to Timothy's sense of purpose. He quickly lost all interest in the military and took an honorable discharge from the army in December 1991. At 23 years old, Timothy had no career, no direction, and barely any friends. It was a recipe for disaster. After leaving the army, Timothy returned to upstate New york, where he lived with his father and worked a dead end job as a security guard. In his spare time, Timothy channeled his feelings of dissatisfaction into politics and conspiracy theories. He grew increasingly furious about gun control laws and wrote scathing letters to the local paper about taxes. Around this time, he became obsessed with a book called the turner diaries. In it, the main character blows up FBI headquarters after the government signs a gun control law. The more time that passed, the more Timothy began to identify with the characters in the story. And soon life began to imitate fiction. In the summer of 1992, federal agents killed the wife and son of a survivalist in ruby ridge, Idaho, while trying to arrest him on weapons charges. This event became a rallying cry for people like Timothy and inspired him to make A change. That year he quit his job in New York and went to Michigan to stay with a friend named Terry Nichols. Terry had left The army in 1989, a couple years before Timothy. Since then, Terry had also struggled to find meaning. He'd become increasingly withdrawn and got involved with the sovereign citizen movement, A fringe group that believed the government had no authority over them. By the time Timothy came back into his life, 37 year old Terry was deeply in debt, mostly unemployed and angry at the world around him. Over the next few months, the two men fueled each other's growing fury. And it only got worse from there. In February 1993, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the compound of a cult called the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas in search of illegal weapons. The raid turned into a shootout, then a 51 day standoff, and then a bloodbath. It ended when a fire broke out and killed over 70 people living there. For most of America, the botched raid was a tragedy. For Timothy and Terry, it was a call to action. After Waco, they decided to take a page out of the Turner diaries and show the government exactly how they felt about disarming its citizens. They were going to bomb a federal building. For the next two years, Timothy and Terry studied bomb building manuals. Late into the night, they robbed a local gun dealer, stealing $60,000 worth of weapons, gold and silver. Then they sold their loot and bought the materials to put a massive bomb together. Everything was going according to plan for Timothy and Terry, but but they needed some help if they were going to succeed. So they reached out to another one of their old army buddies, Michael Fortier. They told him what they were cooking up and Michael was happy to get involved. He let Timothy and Terry stay on his property in Kingman, Arizona, where the trio designed their bomb and selected a target. In December 1994, Timothy and Michael took a road trip from Arizona to Oklahoma City to check out the Alfred P. Murray, a federal building in person. The nine story facility was home to 14 federal agencies, including the DEA, the ATF and the Secret Service. More than 500 federal employees went to work there every day. Timothy McVeigh had found the perfect target. Now he just had to build a bomb powerful enough to take it to down.
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- [13:21]
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- [14:26]
Vanessa Richardson
In December 1994, 26 year old Timothy McVeigh selected a target for his bombing attack, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. For the next few months, he and his co conspirators Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier Frank, finalized their plans and picked a date. They decided on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the Waco Fire. On April 14, 27 year old Timothy checked into the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kansas, four hours away from Oklahoma City. Terry met him there and they spent the next few days assembling the bomb at a lakeside campground. When it was finished, they loaded the 4,800pound bomb into a Yellow Rider box truck Timothy had rented. On the night of the 18th, the two men drove their own vehicles to Oklahoma City, where Timothy parked a getaway car four blocks away from the Murrah Building. Terry gave Timothy a lift back to the motel in Kansas where the Ryder truck was waiting, then said goodbye and headed back home. From here on out, Timothy McVeigh was on his own. Early on the morning of April 19th, Timothy woke up and donned his favorite T shirt, a picture of Abraham Lincoln with the words John Wilkes Booth shouted when he assassinated him. Seek semper tyrannis. The Latin phrase translates to thus always to tyrants and is often used to suggest that Tyrannical leaders will be overthrown. That day, Timothy got behind the wheel of the Ryder truck and made the drive south to Oklahoma City. At 9am he arrived at the Murrah building After parking the car directly beneath the facility's daycare center. He lit the fuse on his deadly cargo and then he locked the doors and walked away. Two minutes later, the bomb detonated. The blast was so powerful it damaged or destroyed 324 buildings. Shards of glass flew in every direction, hitting pedestrians blocks away. Seismometers in Nearby towns registered a 3.3.0 on the Richter scale. The explosion obliterated load bearing support beams inside the Murrah building and within 7 seconds, 1/3 of the 9 story structure began to collapse. Upper floors pancaked down onto lower floors, burying the injured and the dead under hundreds of tons of rubble. Police, firefighters and bystanders. Bystanders rushed to the smoldering remains of the building and desperately tried to dig survivors out of the rubble. Rescuers found one woman, 20 year old Dana Bradley, trapped with her leg pinned under a pile of cement. She was bleeding to death. With time running out and no other options, first responders were forced to amputate her leg then and there. Bradley survived, but would later learn that her mother and two young children had died in the bombing. All told, Timothy's bomb killed 168 people, including 19 children in the daycare center, and left hundreds of others with severe injuries. The attack brought the entire nation to a standstill. But unlike the protagonist of the Turner Diaries, Timothy would not go on to lead a revolution. In fact, he would be in a jail cell before the end of the day. An hour and a half later, Timothy was driving along a highway outside of Oklahoma City when he saw red and blue lights flashing in his rearview mirror. The getaway car he'd stashed a few blocks away from the Murrah building didn't have a license plate, and Oklahoma Highway Patrol had noticed. After pulling over, Timothy got out of the car to talk with the state trooper. As he tried to come up with an excuse for why he didn't have any plates, the officer noticed Timothy was carrying a pistol. Because Timothy didn't have an Oklahoma concealed carry permit and the car had no license plate or registration, the officer placed him under arrest. While Timothy McVeigh sat in a cell at the Perry Oklahoma County Jail, federal agents scoured the area around the Murrah building, searching for the source of the attack. The following day, they made some progress. On April 20, forensic experts located the rear axle of the Rider truck used in the bombing. The explosion threatened through the 250 pound hunk of metal a block away from the Murrah building, where it landed on a parked car. Investigators found a vehicle identification number printed on the charred twisted axle. They ran the number and discovered the vehicle belonged to a Rider truck rental shop in Junction City, Kansas. FBI agents spoke to the staff and learned that a man named Robert Kling had rented the truck. They gave the FBI a description of Kling, which the agency used to create a sketch. Agents fanned out across Oklahoma City with the sketch, looking for anybody who might recognize the man known as Robert Kling. A day later, they got a hit. On April 21, two days after the attack, the manager of the Dreamland Motel, located just four miles from the writer shop, spoke to the FBI. She recognized the man in the sketches as one of her guests, but she didn't know him as Robert Kling. According to her records, his name was Timothy McVeigh. Agents ran Timothy's name through a Department of justice database and were shocked to discover he was currently in custody on an unrelated charge. Their most wanted fugitive was locked up in a small town jail 200 miles away and was only minutes away from being granted bail. At that moment, Timothy was waiting to be led to the courthouse. He thought his ordeal was about to be over. He didn't know that upstairs the sheriff had just gotten some news. The chief suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing was sitting in his jail and Timothy wasn't going anywhere. The sheriff had his deputies set up a security perimeter around the building. Courthouse staff shut off the phones to prevent Timothy from contacting the outside world. And helicopters full of federal agents took flight, heading for Perry at top speed. Moments later, the sheriff went up to Timothy's cell and said said he had visitors. The sheriff escorted Timothy to his office where two FBI agents were waiting. One of them asked, do you know why we're here? Timothy said, yes, that thing in Oklahoma City, I guess. Then he asked for a lawyer. 29 year old Timothy McVeigh went to court two years later, in April 19, 1997. Because of all the publicity the attack generated locally, a judge moved Timothy's trial elsewhere. They decided that Denver, Colorado would provide an impartial jury. It was one of the most expensive trials in American history. Prosecutors called over 100 witnesses, including Timothy's friend Michael Fortier, who cut a deal for a reduced sentence in exchange for his testimony. Their other co conspirator, Terry Nichols, had turned himself in shortly after Timothy was arrested. He was also convicted for his role as an accomplice to the bombing. He was sentenced to life without parole and is currently incarcerated at the ADX Florence Supermax Prison in Colorado. As for Timothy himself, the government's massive effort to hold him accountable paid off. Thanks to all the testimony against him, the evidence was overwhelming. On June 2, 1997, the jury found him guilty of bombing the Murrah Federal Building. With so many casualties, Timothy was sentenced to death. Even in the face of his impending execution, Timothy was unrepentant. The day before he was set to die on June 11, 2001, he said, I am sorry these people had to lose their lives, but that's the nature of the beast. A few hours later, 33 year old Timothy McVeigh was killed by lethal injection. When asked if he wanted to make a final statement, Timothy declined. It seemed his actions spoke for themselves. It was clear that his quest to get back at the US Government had backfired. Instead of igniting a revolution, Timothy ruined hundreds of lives, including his own. Coming up, another bombing that spread fear across America.
- [24:17]
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- [24:41]
Vanessa Richardson
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Stories of mysterious deaths, epic survivals, animal encounters, tragic history, and even some paranormal thrown in. But it's not all chills and thrills. They also share inspiring tales and their passion for protecting our planet's wild places. And episodes include stories about a romance gone wrong in Glacier National Park, a thru hiker's fight for survival against a criminal on the run, and a heartbreaking goodbye to one of the world's most beloved grizzly bears. It's a show that's perfect for true crime addicts, outdoor enthusiasts, and travel junkies alike. Plus, they even cover stories from the listeners in their special Trail Tales episodes. So if you're ready to lace up your hiking boots and take a walk on the dark side of the wilderness, listen to National Park After Dark wherever you get your podcasts. 78 years before Timothy McVeigh went on trial, another terrorist bombing sparked a giant manhunt. Like Timothy, these radicals used violence to advance their political agenda. But unlike him, they managed to stay one step ahead of the authority authorities. At 11:15pm on the night of June 2, 1919, U.S. attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer was preparing for bed when his floor started shaking. But it wasn't an earthquake. It was a bomb. The force of the explosion knocked many of Palmer's neighbors out of their beds, including the future President of the United States States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Luckily, FDR was fine and so was his home. Palmer and his family were also uninjured, though their house was badly damaged. But they didn't know the chaos was just beginning. Over the next two hours, nine more bombs would explode at homes in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Ohio, and New Jersey. The targets included judges, a state legislator, a wealthy industrialist, and the mayor of Cleveland. None of the intended victims were killed, but all of them had one thing in common. They had spoken out or taken action against America's growing anarchist movement. And now the anarchists were fighting back. In the early 1900s, large numbers of Italians, Eastern Europeans, and Russians started immigrating to the U. S, fleeing poverty and political instability at home. Many of these new arrivals were sympathetic to extreme political movements that had been popular in their home countries. Some came to the U. S specifically because they were being persecuted for their political political beliefs in their countries of origin. One of the most popular radical movements at the time was anarchism. Their goal was to eliminate all forms of government and free working people from what they saw as capitalist oppression. Some anarchists believed the only way they could succeed was through violence. One of these people was Luigi Galliani, an Italian immigrant who'd built a large following in America. At first, the US Government didn't take Luigi's threats too seriously. But after the Russian monarchy was overthrown in 1917. American leaders got nervous. They worried people like Luigi would do the same here and replace u. S. Democracy with socialism or even worse, communism. And president Woodrow Wilson was determined not to let that happen. In October 1918, he signed the alien anarchist exclusion act, also known as the Immigration act of 1918. This bill made it legal for the government to deport people without due process if they were members of an anarchist group. A number of Luigi Galliani's followers, known as Galleonists, decided to show president Wilson exactly. Exactly how they felt about his choice. About six months later, on April 29, 1919, a small, neatly wrapped package arrived at senator George W. Hardwick's home in Atlanta, Georgia. When Hardwick's maid tried to open it, the package exploded, blowing her hands off and severely injuring Hardwick's wife. But neither of them were the intended victims. The package was meant for senator Hardwick, who'd co sponsored president Wilson's bill. The attempted assassination made national news and caught the attention of a New York city postal clerk named Charles Kaplan. Two days earlier, Kaplan had encountered 16 small brown paper packages identical to the one that arrived at Hardwick's doorstep. They didn't have the proper postage, so Kaplan had set them aside. He'd planned to return the packages to the sender, which was listed as Gimbel brothers novelty samples. But after seeing the news, Kaplan decided to call the police instead. When they examined the packages, Kaplan's worst fears were confirmed. They were mailbombs. The authorities quickly quickly alerted postal workers around the country to be on the lookout for any similar parcels. Before long, ten more were intercepted. The undelivered bombs were addressed to some of America's most prominent business and political leaders. On the list were J.P. morgan, John D. Rockefeller, several senators, governors, and congressmen, including attorney general A. Mitchell Palmer. He'd just been appointed the previous month. And whoever the Gimbel brothers were, they knew what they were doing. Police couldn't find a single fingerprint on any of the 26 explosive devices or their packages, which was a problem because the terrorists were still at large and they weren't surrendering just yet. On the night of June 2, 1919, nine more bombs exploded at several homes around the country, including Attorney General Palmer's D.C. residents. In the aftermath of the attacks, first responders found anarchist leaflets scattered nearby. The printed manifestos, titled plain words, called for a social revolution against the ruling class. Despite all the anarchists big talk, their bombing campaign was largely unsuccessful. Instead of killing businessmen or politicians, they killed a night watchman. In New York City. Exactly the sort of common laborer the anarchists claimed to be fighting for. And it seemed like karma was right around the corner. Because the following day, on June 3, the authorities made a harrowing discovery. Outside. Outside of Palmer's home. The police found their second victim. Though once again it wasn't one of America's elite. It was one of the bombers. The assailant had planned to leave the explosives outside of Palmer's house, but before he could set it down, the bomb went off accidentally. While he was still carrying it, one of his legs landed on top of a car above block away, while part of his spinal column flew through a neighbor's bedroom window. Although it would take years to identify the remains as 24 year old anarchist Carlo Valdinocci, police did find clues at the scene. The most telling was the charred remains of an Italian to English dictionary. For Palmer, the dictionary confirmed his suspicions. His attackers were members of the Italian immigrant community. As detectives worked to trace the book back to its owner, Palmer cast his own net even farther. With the President's blessing, Palmer started to plan his own terror campaign. But this one would target America's immigrant communities. And he didn't care whether they were anarchists or not.
- [34:12]
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- [34:38]
Vanessa Richardson
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- [34:40]
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- [35:15]
Vanessa Richardson
In the late spring of 1919, America was gripped by panic and paranoia. In April, anarchists inspired by the Italian radical Luigi Galliani had sent 26 mailbombs to prominent businessmen and political leaders across the country. After those bombs were intercepted by police, the anarchists struck again. On June 2, they detonated nine bombs at the homes of several political leaders, including Attorney General a. Mitchell Palmer. 47 year old Palmer had been criticized in the past for not doing enough to root out domestic enemies. But after he, his wife and their young daughter were named, nearly killed, Palmer was ready for revenge. And he had the resources of the entire Justice Department at his disposal. Palmer's first step was to create a new branch of the Justice Department called the Radical Division. It would be tasked with investigating and rounding up political extremists of all stripes. And Palmer knew just the man to run the operation. A 24 year old lawyer named J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover came in swinging. He took full advantage of recently passed laws like the Espionage act and the Anarchist Exclusion act to carry out what would become known as the Palmer Raids. The first major crackdown of the Palmer Raids came on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution, November 7, 1919. Agents from the Radical Division descended on more than a dozen cities to raid properties belonging to an organization called the Union of Russian Workers. The anarchist organization also offered night school classes and hosted social activities. So Palmer's agents charged into the group's New York City offices and arrested everyone who was there taking an auto repair class. Then the agents smashed typewriters, destroyed furniture and beat many of the detainees so badly that blood splattered on the floor. By the end of the night, the Department of Justice had arrested and interrogated 1,182 people. And it was only the beginning. On January 2, 1920, they launched raids in more than 30 cities and towns. The targets included a community dance, a vegetarian restaurant and a choir rehearsal. The Radical Division didn't keep careful records, but historians estimate that roughly 10,000 people were arrested in six months during the Palmer raids. The detainees were held at various federal facilities. In New York, more than 1, 500 people were crammed into holding areas. At Ellis Island. Several inmates later died of pneumonia. In Detroit, 800 men and women were kept in a windowless corridor with one toilet and one drinking fountain for six days. And while the Palmer raids certainly spread fear across immigrant communities, they didn't help the government find the anarchist bombers. Despite detaining thousands of people, Palmer still didn't know who tried to murder him. Finally, in February 1920, eight months after the attack, he inched closer to figuring it out. That month, operatives from the Radical Division traced the leaflets from bombing sites back to a print shop in Brooklyn. They arrested two of the shop's owners, Italian anarchists Andrea Salcedo and Roberto Elias, and held them at a federal building in New York City. For the next three months, neither man was allowed to speak to a lawyer or their families. As Justice Department officials interrogated them. Palmer's agents wanted them to name other co conspirators in the anarchist movement. But Salcedo and Elia wouldn't talk, and time was running out. On May 3, 1920, Andrea Salcedo fell to his death from the 14th floor of the Federal Building where he was being held. Justice Department officials claimed he jumped instead of giving in to their demands, but anarchists claimed he was pushed by vengeful police. Either way, the authorities had lost one of their only credible sources. Even after Salcedo's death. The other detainee, Robert Elia, refused to name names. But Palmer wasn't so easily swayed. For months, he'd been issuing warnings about a nationwide uprising. In May, police were put on high alert. But when the date came and went without issue, the general public and more importantly, members of Congress were officially done with Palmer's antics. Soon after, the raid quietly came to an end. Mitchell Palmer's mass raids generated a lot of headlines, but they didn't make the American public any safer. The perpetrators of the anarchist bombing campaign were never caught. It's believed that the same group was responsible for a bombing that killed 40 people on Wall street on September 16, 1920. Looking back on this week in crime history, we can see that none of these explosives had the desired effect. Whether it was the anarchist's mail bombs or Timothy McVeigh's truck bomb, they didn't spark a glorious uprising. They just made innocent people suffer. Foreign thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson and this is Crime House the Show. Crime House the Show is a Crime House original. Powered by Pave Studios. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community, for making this possible. Please support us by rating, reviewing and following Crime House the Show. Wherever you get your podcasts, your feedback truly matters. And for ad free and early access to Crime House the Show plus exciting bonus content. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. We'll be back next Monday. Crime House the Show is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson and is a Crime House Original power by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Crime House the Show team. Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Natalie Pertzovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Truman Capps, Haniya Saeed and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening.