Timothy McVeigh Classification: Mass Murderer - Patriot Bomber Born: Date of Attack: April 19, 1995 Arrested: Dead: June 11, 2001, by lethal injection, Terre Haute Federal Prison, Terre Haute, Indiana No. Victims: 268 Victim Profile: Government workers, 18 children Weapons:Truck Bomb made with ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel Twisted reasoning: At war with the government, victims were collateral damage Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

September 6, 2001 - Oklahoma City's new district attorney said he will press ahead with state murder charges against Timothy McVeigh's co-conspirator, Terry Nichols. District Attorney Wes Lane said he would pursue 160 first-degree murder charges and other counts against Nichols and will seek the death penalty. Nichols, 46, was convicted in federal court of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter and is serving a life sentence for his role in the blast, which killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others. The deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers were the focus of the federal trial. The state charges, which involve the other 160 victims, were filed in 1999 by Lane's predecessor, Bob Macy, who retired in June. Since then, Lane has been re-evaluating the case.

June 29, 2001 - U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch, who presided over McVeigh's trial, released the bill accrued by the U.S. Justice Department in the defense of Oklahoma City bomber. According to the figures, the federal government spent $13.8 million in public funds to defend McVeigh during his trial in Colorado as well as other cost that were incurred up to his death. Stephen Jones, who represented McVeigh at trial, said before the figures were released that the expenses were justified and that McVeigh got a good defense.

June 12, 2001 - The McVeigh Virus: Hours after the execution of Timothy McVeigh, a computer virus popped up throughout the internet offering a video of his execution. Instead, the virus downloaded a malicious program that allowing hackers to take control of the infected computer.

June 12, 2001 - Prison authorities said the black hearse seen leaving the execution chambers of the Terre Haute prison following the McVeigh execution was a decoy used as a security measure. The body of the unrepentant Oklahoma City bomber was actually removed from the U.S. Penitentiary in a van shortly after the execution. Explaining the use of the decoy Dan Dunne, the spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons, told the Associated Press: "Someone could have tried an ambush or something. There are all kinds of possibilities that could have happened." McVeigh's body was taken to a local funeral home, where he was cremated and his ashes given to one of his attorneys, said the Rev. Ron Ashmore of St. Margaret Mary Church.

June 11, 2001 - Unrepentant Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh died at 8:14 a.m. with his eyes open after receiving a lethal drug cocktail of sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride from federal prison authorities. Instead of making an oral statement, McVeigh, 33, issued a copy of the 1875 poem "Invictus", by William Ernest Henley. According to witnesses McVeigh acted as if he was in control, was cooperative, and defiantly stared straight into close circuit TV camera. The execution was broadcast from Terre Haute to Oklahoma City were 232 survivors and victims' relatives watched the encrypted feed. No hacked versions of the execution have yet surfaced on the Internet.

In a recent letter to The Buffalo News, McVeigh said his body would be released to one his attorneys and cremated, and his ashes would be scattered in an undisclosed location. In the letter he added that he thought the bloodshed was unfortunate, but he was not sorry about the bombing which he saw as a "legit tactic" in his solitary war against the federal government.

Prison officials said McVeigh spent his last day on planet Earth writing letters, sleeping, watching television and meeting with his lawyers. His final meal consisted of two pints of mint-chocolate chip ice cream. According to his lawyers Mcveigh was "upbeat" about his date with death, saying that he preferred dying to life in prison.

June 8, 2001 - Ending three weeks of legal turmoil, Timothy McVeigh said he wanted to stop all further appeals on his behalf and is prepared to die. McVeigh's decision, which clears the way for his execution, came minutes after a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his request for an execution delay. He could have petitioned for the full appeals court to consider his request, taken the case to the U.S. Supreme Court or asked President Bush for clemency. Instead, McVeigh was prepared to die, said attorney Rob Nigh.

June 6, 2001 - The judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case refused to delay the execution of Timothy McVeigh, saying newly released FBI documents do not change the fact that he is guilty. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch issued the ruling even though he had commented to lawyers that he found it "shocking" that the documents had been withheld until last month. He said the findings of the jury, which convicted McVeigh in 1997, still stood. The execution is scheduled in five days. Attorneys for McVeigh, 33, said they would appeal Matsch's ruling to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "We are extremely disappointed in the court's ruling today," McVeigh attorney Rob Nigh told reporters outside the courthouse.

June 2, 2001 - Timothy McVeigh's attorneys asked for a delay of his execution so they will have enough time to review recently released FBI documents and possibly identify others who played major roles in the Oklahoma City bombing. In a brief filed in U.S. District Court, the attorneys also said the government continues to withhold evidence.

"The overt acts alleged against Mr. McVeigh, together with the circumstantial evidence and absence of proof concerning the making of the bomb, created the impressions that Mr. McVeigh was the primary actor bearing full responsibility for the bombing," McVeigh attorney Richard Burr wrote. "In this context, any credible evidence that other specific individuals played a major role in the bombing, for example construction of the bomb, would have cast doubt on the overt acts committed by Mr. McVeigh. If Mr. McVeigh's execution is stayed and he is given access to the tools of civil discovery, there is reason to believe that a nexus between some of these individuals and Mr. McVeigh will be established"

May 30, 2001 - Furthering the Oklahoma bombing legal free fall, attorneys representing Michael Fortier said Federal prosecutors lied in an effort to get a harsher sentence for their client. Fortier, 31, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after testifying that he helped his army buddy Timothy McVeigh sell stolen weapons to raise money for the bombing.

During his sentencing hearing, prosecutors argued Fortier's sentence should exceed guidelines because of the magnitude of the crime. Prosecutors argued that Fortier knew profits from the sale of stolen guns would be used to help finance the bombing because he was present when his wife, Lori, and McVeigh discussed it. In a May 15 brief filed with the appeals court, prosecutor Sean Connelly conceded there was no evidence Fortier was present during the conversation between his wife and McVeigh or was told by either one of them what had been said.

May 23, 2001 - In a rush to be the first to publish a picture of Timothy McVeigh after his death, the Weekly World News came out with a photo on their cover showing the convicted Oklahoma City bomber on a "morgue slab." Curiously, Mcveigh is still very much alive and his execution date has been pushed a month back to June 11.

May 15, 2001 - In light of the FBI-documentgate Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols is asking for a new trial claiming that his defense was based on the existence of the elusive John Doe Number 2. Most of the documents that were not handed in to defense lawyers involve the John Doe investigation.

May 14, 2001 - President George "Witless" Bush and Attorney General John "Grand Wizard" Ashcroft met at Camp David to discuss the FBI's bungling of 3,135 pages of records in the Oklahoma City bombing. Thousands of miles away in Terre Haute, Indiana, Timothy McVeigh is said to be reconsidering his refusal to appeal his conviction and is leaving all options open. McVeigh's attorney, Rob Nigh, said his client, who had already come to terms with his imminent death, was frustrated and possibly reconsidering his earlier decision against challenging the execution order. "He's distressed about this in that he knows the impact that it has upon his family and those who care about him," Nigh said.

May 11, 2001 - After turning over thousands of withheld FBI documents to attorneys representing Timothy McVeigh, Attorney General John Ashcroft postponed his execution until June 11. Apparently, 3,135 documents from 46 FBI offices were "inexplicably"withheld from Tim's lawyers before his 1997 trial. Prosecutors said much of the material involved interviews and information about the suspected John Doe Number 2 which they later called a dead-enbd investigation. Lawyers representing Mcveigh have started the lengthy review of the documents to determine if there was any evidence pointing at the bombing being part of a larger conspiracy or a solitary act perpetrated by their client. Separately, lawyers for convicted conspirator Terry Nichols, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the bombing, told CNN he will file a new appeal for Nichols with the U.S. Supreme Court.

May 10, 2001 - The hollier than though eBay auction site issued a statement announcing a ban on all Timothy McVeigh related merchandise on their web site. "It has long been eBay's policy to disallow the sale of items that promote hatred, violence or racism. As the eBay community expands to include many nations, it is important that our policy regarding these items be consistent throughout our global marketplace", declared the new policy statement posted to the eBay marketing announcement board. Curiously the new rules are not set to take effect until May 17, the day after the scheduled McVeigh execution date. Until then eBay -- who in reality puts money way above policy -- will continue allowing the sale of McVeigh-related items.

May 9, 2001 - A Los Angeles composer has created a 12-minute musical "prequiem" that will, he hopes, escort Timothy McVeigh's soul to heaven when he is lethally injected on May 16. David Woodard said he has been in contact with McVeigh and is trying to coordinate a performance of the piece, called "Ave Atque Vale" (Onward Valiant Soldier), to be broadcast on an Indiana radio station just before his execution. Woodard, 33, said he does not support McVeigh's anti-government cause, but is "awed by who (he) is and his circumstances." Woodard originally composed the piece for Jack Kevorkian, the Michigan doctor who has assisted in numerous suicides. It was first titled "Farewell to a Saint."

April 22, 2001 - With thousands expected to travel to Terre Haute, Indiana, to participate in the Timothy McVeigh execution media circus, local entrepreneurs are hoping to cash in with T-shirt sales. The T-shirts available range from the commemorative, "Hoosier Hospitality/McVeigh/Terre Haute/May 16, 2001, Final Justice" with a picture of a syringe, to the pro-death-penalty, "Terre Haute Extra Hangin' Times, Die!, Die, Die!" and the anti-death-penalty "Stop the Killing, Let McVeigh Live" with an image of Mcveigh strapped to a gurney.

Rod Henry, president of the Greater Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, said city officials frown on local residents profiting from McVeigh's death. "We just kind of hope that we can escape that kind of vendor activity," he said. Suzanne Carter, who chairs the Terre Haute chapter of Unitarian Universalists for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the shirts were in poor taste. "I just think it's completely inappropriate to create souvenirs for this event," she said. Still,residents, in true American fashion, have shunned good taste and have been printing shirts and selling them "like hotcakes."

April 18, 2001 - A web firm wants to show a live webcast of the McVeigh execution on a pay-per-view basis. Saying that people have a First Amendment right to watch, lawyers for Entertainment Network Inc. argued in court that they should be allowed send a cameraman to the executiuon chamber or to webcast the feed from the closed-circuit video that will be relayed to victims' families in Oklahoma City. ENI is know for the the web site VoyeurDorm.com in which, for a fee, viewers could watch the daily activities of female college students via 55 Webcams in their home. Derek Newman, the attorney for ENI, said they would charge viewers $1.95 for watching and the money would be donated to charities established for the 168 people killed in the bombing.

April 17, 2001 - In a letter to PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Timothy McVeigh said the although he sympathises with their cause, he will not request that his last meal be vegetarian. PETA first wrote to the Warden of the prison in Terre Haute asking that McVeigh's last meal have no meat because "Mr. McVeigh should not be allowed to take even one more life." When the Warden refused, PETA wrote directly to McVeigh. McVeigh, enjoying his last moments on planet Earth, sent PETA a page-and-a-half, hand written letter, discussing his feelings on vegetarianism.

"Truth is, I understand your cause - I've seen slaughter houses myself - but I still believe in reasonable taking and eating of game (as an outdoorsman and hunter)," he wrote. "My one main problem with the 'veg' movement is this (besides the fact I'm a libertarian): Where do you draw the line and what standard is used to define that line?" McVeigh questions whether "grubs/worms/etc." suffer. He also argues that "plants are alive, too. They react to stimuli (including pain); have circulatory systems, etc... To me, the answer is as the Indians believed: respect for the life you take to sustain yourself, but come to terms with your place in the 'food chain'."

He also congratulated PETA on the media attention generated by its request that his last meal be veggie. "You should have seen the local editorial response to your letter," he wrote. "You gotta remember, this is meat-eatin' farm country; still, good job getting the attention to your cause (like protesting dead rats on 'Survivor')."

McVeigh ended the letter saying he could not "sustain a prolonged intellectual debate on the subject, as my time is short" but suggested they should contact his friend Ted Kaczynski who would be more likely to take up the vegetarian issue.

March 14, 2001 - Lawyers for Timothy McVeigh have asked a federal judge to approve the Tim's request that his body not be autopsied after his execution. The lawyers submitted request on the grounds that McVeigh has religious, ethical and philosophical objections to an autopsy.

February 2, 2001 - The U.S. government is sending out 1,100 letters to people asking if they want to attend the May 16 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh is set to die by injection at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. Eight seats in the death chamber are open to victims, but that number could expand, U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman Dan Dunne. Some Oklahoma City residents want the government to put the execution on closed-circuit television. Eight bombing survivors have asked attorney Karen Howick of Oklahoma City to go to court if necessary to get the closed-circuit telecast. She said that she knows of no execution in the United States that was shown over closed-circuit television, but no law forbids it.

January 12, 2001 - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh allowed a deadline for resuming his appeals expire, putting him one step closer to a date with the deadly needle. Barring a presidential pardon, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons will set a date - as early as May - for his injection.

December 28, 2000 - Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had his request to drop all appeals and get a prompt execution date granted by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch in Colorado. McVeigh participated in the Denver hearing via closed-circuit television from the maximum-security prison in Terre Haute, Indiana where he is on death row. Most probably his execution date will be set for about May of 2001.

December 13, 2000 - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has decided to end his appeals and asked to have his execution date set within the next 120 days. McVeigh offered no explanation for his decision, but many believe he hopes to become a martyr for the patriot militia movement nationwide.

April 15, 1999 - - The attorney for Terry Nichols said that information given to them near the end of his Oklahoma City bombing trial contained enough leads about another suspect to warranted a new trial. "Government counsel argued that Mr. Nichols mixed the bomb and that he was with Mr. McVeigh for long periods on April 17 and 18," attorney Michael Tigar noted. "The withheld evidence contradicts this key government theory." During Nichols' trial, defense attorneys sought to show others were involved by calling witnesses who said they saw McVeigh with an unknown suspect identified as John Doe No. 2 or other people during key periods.

March 30, 1999 - Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols -- already serving a life prison term after being convicted in federal court in Denver -- has been charged with 160 counts of murder by state prosecutors who have vowed to seek the death penalty. Oklahoma prosecutors are vying for a state trial for convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh, but decided to try Nichols first and wait to see how McVeigh fares in the appeal of his federal death sentence.

March 8, 1999 - The Supreme Court rejected Tim McVeigh's appeal for a new trial, claiming his previous one had been improperly tainted by a juror who prejudged his guilt and by news reports he had confessed to his lawyers.

February 5, 1999 - Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh & Ramzi Yousef - Three of America's most notorious bombers -- Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing, and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski -- see each other during their daily one-hour exercise time at Colorado's "SuperMax"prison

According to Yousef's attorney, Bernard Kleinman,his client and McVeigh talk about movies they've seen on television, prison food and other minor matters. Kaczynski "is there physically, but he really doesn't discuss what they discuss," Kleinman said. The attorney described the conversations as "innocuous" because guards are always within earshot.

Yousef has complained in a $1.1 million lawsuit against the federal government that McVeigh gets far more privileges than he, even though McVeigh is a death row inmate. Bureau of Prison officials say McVeigh and Yousef never have direct contact and are kept in their concrete and metal maximum-security cells 23 hours a day. Craig said the prisoners could "have incidental, verbal contact" while being escorted from place to place.

September 23, 1998 - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh wants an appeals court to overturn his conviction on the grounds that one of the juror's remarked that "we all know what the verdict should be."

A three-judge panel on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided earlier this month that there was no misconduct when a juror apparently decided McVeigh's guilt before his trial was over. The panel said the juror's comments were ambiguous. McVeigh's lawyer -- taking a different approach -- asked the court to rehear arguments that his conviction and death sentence should be overturned on grounds the remark may have influenced other jurors.

June 4, 1998 - - U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch citing that his actions "were a crime against the Constitution of the United States," sentenced Terry Nichols to life in prison. Matsch had indicated he would consider a lesser sentence if Nichols answered lingering questions about the bombing, but the grumpy assistant bomber refused to reveal new information about how he helped Tim McVeigh plan and pull off the Oklahoma City bombing.

June 2, 1998 - Dr. James S. Gordon , a defense psychiatrist, said Terry Nichols should be given a short prison sentence for the Oklahoma City bombing because he's not a threat to society. "It is clear he is a kind of libertarian and that he resents government interference in his private life. There is, however, no evidence that he is fanatical or was ever particularly preoccupied about Waco -- in the way that Tim McVeigh was," Gordon wrote.

March 16, 1998 - In a strange "the pot calling the kettle black" type scenario, Timothy McVeigh said the district attorney who may prosecute him on state charges in Oklahoma City was, "a bloodthirsty killer." In a two-page letter addressed to KOCO-TV reporter Terri Watkins, McVeigh complained about his appeal and called those who want him tried in Oklahoma "a lynch mob.". Not mincing words, McVeigh said District Attorney Robert 'Cowboy Bob' Macy was a "bow tie Bozo."

January 22, 1998 - Cheyne Kehoe, who is serving a sentence for a videotaped shootout with police, said he believes his brother, Chevie, was involved in the Oklahoma City bombing. He refused to elaborate, saying he feared his brother. Chevie Kehoe, described as a white supremacist, faces both a trial in the shootout and federal charges in Arkansas, where he and two other men are accused of planning a revolt against the U.S. government. FBI spokesman Ray Lauer said the agency was investigating claims by a former Spokane, Wash., motel manager who said Chevie Kehoe may have known in advance of Timothy McVeigh's plans to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building.

January 6, 1998 - Terry Nichols escaped the death penalty when a jury deadlocked over his punishment for his participation in the worst bomb act of terrorism on U.S. soil. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch dismissed the jury and will instead impose a sentence himself. Under federal law, the judge could give him life, but not the death penalty.

December 22, 1997 - A Denver jury, after deliberating 41 hours over six days, convicted Terry Nichols of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the Oklahoma City bombing. Nichols, who could recieve the death penalty for conspiracy, was safe in his Kansas farmhouse more than 200 miles away at the time of the blast. Jurors concluded that the circumstantial prosecution case built on fertilizer receipts, phone records and Ryder truck sightings was not enough to make him an equal to McVeigh. Still, there are 160 murder charges pending against him in Oklahoma.

December 18, 1997 - Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh told The Dallas Morning News in a letter that he expects his appeals to fail. "Because of the intense public pressure and demand for my blood, I do not see an appeals court ruling in my favor." Still living out some weird Soldier of Fortune fantasy, he wrote: "I have no fear of execution. If anything, death by execution is much more predictable than normal life or combat -- because I at least know when and how I'm checking out."

November 18, 1997 - Tears streamed down Terry Nichols' face as his former wife testified about a sealed letter he gave her nearly five months before the Oklahoma City bombing telling her how to distribute his belongings in the event of his death. In the November 1994 letter, Nichols asked Lana Padilla to clean out a storage locker and divide his assets -- including a life insurance policy -- between their son, Josh, and his new wife and daughter in the Philippines. "I was very concerned, real concerned," Mrs. Padilla testified. "I cared about Terry and I was concerned that there was something awful, that he was not coming back." In the storage locker she found a ski mask, wig and pantyhose in a bag. "I looked at the mask and said, 'What is he doing, robbing banks?'"

November 15, 1997 - In the second week of testimony in the Terry Nichols trial in Denver, Colorado, prosecutors called 46 witnesses and showed the members of the jury more than a dozen weapons -- including rifles and a gas grenade gun -- found in cabinets, cupboards and above the garage ceiling of Nichols' home in Herington, Kansas. During cross examination by lead defense attorney Michael Tigar key prosecution witness Michael Fortier said Timothy McVeigh told him that Nichols wanted to pull out of the plot a month before the explosion. "Tim told me that Terry no longer wanted to help him mix the bomb," he testified.

November 3, 1997 - After nearly two months of jury selection, the trial of suspected Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols opened in Denver with prosecutor Larry Mackey stating that Nichols was just as guilty as Tim McVeigh, although he was safely at home in Herington, Kansas, at the time of the blast. Nichols is accused of robbing a gun dealer to raise money for the bombing, helping McVeigh stow a getaway car in Oklahoma City and helping assemble the bomb. He faces the same murder, conspiracy and weapons charges for which a jury convicted McVeigh. Attorneys are expected to paint much different pictures of Nichols -- from a brooding former soldier unhappy with the federal government to an independent adventurer and devoted family man.

September 14, 1997 - According to Newsweek, Terry Nichols has been using the adjoining cell to his in Denver's Federal Correctional Institution as an office to help prepare his defense. He has the cell jammed with documents aswell as a VCR which he uses to view footage related to the bombing. With a keen eye for detail, Nichols -- through his attorneys -- challenged the seating arrangements at the trial. Apparently he wants the two seats next to the jury box to be kept open so he can make eye contact with the jurors.

September 8, 1997 - Attorneys for suspected bomber Terry Nichols feel they were duped by federal prosecutors into disclosing their legal strategies and want a federal appeals court to void the death penalty notice against their client.

August 28, 1997 - Adam Thurschwell, an attorney for Terry Nichols, "conceded" that Timothy McVeigh carried out the Oklahoma City bombing "and did so for reasons that are crystal clear," but said there was no proof his client participated in the plot.

August 17, 1997 - In the first of a two-part jailhouse interview published in Sunday's edition of The Buffalo News, Tim McVeigh said his chances of avoiding the death penalty through an appeal were "slim to none."

Discussing the government's case against him, McVeigh said: "Some of it (the evidence) was false or some could be reasonably explained by other phenomenon." According to the convicted bomber, lab tests could have shown that the traces of explosive materials found on his clothes when he was arrested came from his own handgun. "What does that tell you about the objectivity of the FBI lab?"

August 15, 1997 - Making no apologies, speed freak/bomber Timothy McVeigh made his first court statement before being formally sentenced to death by lethal injection. Quoting from a 1928 opinion written by Justice Louis Brandeis in a wiretapping case, McVeigh said: "In the words of Justice Brandeis, our government is the hope, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches people by its example. That's all I have, Your Honor." Unsaid was the remainder of Justice Brandeis's dissention which posits that when the government becomes a law-breaker, so should its citizens.

June 18, 1997 - The chairman of the Senate Veteran's Affairs Committee proposed to strip Tim of his veteran's benefits -- including his eligibility for burial in a national cemetery -- following his bombing conviction.

June 13, 1997 - Betraying no emotion Tim sat stoically in the courtroom as a federal jury sentenced him to death for masterminding the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The jury, after deliberating for nearly 11 hours over two days, decided unanimously that the 29-year-old decorated Gulf War veteran should die by lethal injection. The decision is binding on U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch who, after reading the verdict, told the jurors, "You've done your duty and you've done it well."

June 12, 1997 - In a last-ditch attempt to save Tim's life, his lawyer abandoned all pretence that he was innocent, telling a Denver jury that, while the devastating terrorist attack was perhaps the ultimate in evil deeds, his client was "not a demon". The prosecution pointed out in their closing statement that after killing 168 people the jury had a moral obligation to make McVeigh pay with his life for his actions. "Look into the eyes of a coward and tell him you will have the courage... Tell him he is no patriot. He is a traitor and deserves to die."

June 10, 1997 - After showing a tearful video of Tim as a happy, young boy growing up in upstate New York, the defense rested their four-day penalty phase case in the trial against the convicted mass murdering bomber.

Saving their trump card until last, the defense had Mildred Frazier and William McVeigh, Tim's parents, pleading for the life of their son. Choking back tears, Mrs. Frazier, who left her husband when McVeigh was 16, described the defendant as a human being who deserved to live. "I still cannot believe to this day he could have caused this devastation," she said. "Yes, I am pleading for my son's life. He is a human being, as we all are. He is not the monster he has been portrayed as."

His father narrated a 15-minute compilation of home videos of the young McVeigh as an average boy growing up in suburban America. Mr. McVeigh then was shown a photograph taken in the family kitchen between 1989 and 1992 of him and his son in a one-armed embrace. "It's a happy Tim -- the Tim I remember most of my life," the father said. "He was good-natured, fun, always fun to be with, always in a good mood."

June 5, 1997 - Norman Olson, who leads the Northern Michigan Regional Militia, urged Tim McVeigh to demand to be executed. "Targeting noncombatants is wrong and cannot be condoned by honorable men," Olson said,. "As a soldier, you must die for your war crime."

Olson, a Baptist minister, gun shop owner and co-founder of the Michigan Militia, made his appeal to McVeigh in a letter sent through McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones. "Do the right thing now, Tim," the letter states, "Die for Janet Reno's sins for allowing Waco. Here is your chance to tell the world the true cause of your action. Let her forever live with that!"

June 4, 1997 - In an emotional outpouring unlike anything seen in a U.S. court, prosecutors drew tears from at least six jurors as they paraded a series of bomb survivors and relatives of the dead in an attempt to win a death sentence for McVeigh. After hearing about headless babies and bloody carnage, U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch decided to recess so the jurors had time to compose themselves. In an attempt at fairness the judge disallowed some of the more dramatic testimony so to not turn the hearing into a public "lynching." He also asked the jurors not to "seek revenge" or be guided by emotions when making what he called a "moral judgment" on the life of the 29-year-old Gulf War veteran.

June 2, 1997 - After deliberationg for four days a jury of seven men and five women found Tim McVeigh guilty of all 11 charges against him. The trial now enters its penalty phase in which both side will present additional testimony to determine whether the convicted bomber will get a life sentence or the death penalty.

May 29, 1997 - Lawyers for Timothy McVeigh rested their case after presenting only three and a half days of evidence. McVeigh did not take the witness stand in his defence and no alibi was offered. Nor did the defense come close to presenting "the rest of the story" that would establish absolute proof of Timmy's innocence, as promised by his chief lawyer, Stephen Jones, in his opening statement. McVeigh's legal aid defense spent most of their $10 million budget searching for an international terrorist conspiracy as well as investigating homegrown militia movements to blame. All the defense hopes crumbled when the judge ruled that alternate theories about a broader conspiracy were irrelevant to the trial.

Saving their biggest salvo until last, the defense sought to discredit Michael and Lori Fortier, star prosecution witnesses, who said McVeigh told them in detail about bombing the federal building. The Fortiers, who admitted under oath that they had lied to the Feds, were portrayed by Jones as drug users trying to save their white-trash butts and cash in on film and book rights to their stories. He played FBI wiretaps in which Fortier bragged of making $1 million from the tabloids by concocting a story to mislead agents.

May 22, 1997 - Attorneys for Tim McVeigh, in their first day of testimony, tried to shift blame for the bombing on a stray leg found in the ruins of the Oklahoma City federal building. "We have one left leg which we don't know where it belongs," Oklahoma State Medical Examiner Fred Jordan said under questioning from defense attorney Stephen Jones.

While Jones never said the leg could have belonged to the real bomber, he implied it. Thomas Marshall, the former chief pathologist for violence-torn Northern Ireland, testified that the leg likely belonged to someone who was near the bomb when it went off. Marshall also said it was telling that no missing person's report was filed about someone near or in the bombed building: "If nobody misses them, then it reinforces the suggestion that the deceased is involved in the bombing."

May 21, 1997 - Government prosecutors rested their case against Timothy McVeigh after four weeks of testimony in which they presented a mountain of largely circumstacial evidence that they hope will prove that Timmy was the perpretator of the worst act of terrorism in US soil in modern history.

April 25, 1997 - After much fanfare McVeigh's trial beganin the Denver federal courthouse. Joseph Hartzler, the wheelchair-bound leading prosecutor, emotively described McVeigh's intent to declare war on the American Government. The prosecutor told the jury of McVeigh's disaffection with the US Army after the Gulf War and his failure to join the elite Green Berets. His anger and dissafection led him into the murky world of guns and militias which, in turn paved his way to become the worst mass murderer in US history.

Having striken a deal with the prosecution, the government's main witness, Michael Fortier, told the jury had staked out the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building with McVeigh and that his buddy was so intent on killing federal workers that he was prepared to crash a bomb-filled Ryder truck into the front doors of the building. McVeigh's sister, Jennifer, identified her brother's handwriting on a series of letters he had written in which he expressed his hate for the government and promised retaliation for the Waco massacre.

Other evidence included receipts linking the suspect to large purchases of ammonium nitrate (one of the main components of the bomb). Authorities where able to extract a latent print of the suspect from a rental application for a 20-foot Ryder truck. Prosecutors also presented a piece of video evidence from a surveillance camera near the federal building placing a Ryder truck in it's vicinity minutes before the blast.

April 19, 1995 - Speed freak Timothy McVeigh and fellow white-trash-neo-nazi-ex-soldier Terry Nichols decided to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people, including 20 children. With a twisted sense of logic, McVeigh and Co. decided the assault on the Branch Davidian compound by federal authorities in 1993 was a step towards civil war and it was their duty to act accordingly.

To avenge this transgression by the feds, McVeigh, Nichols, and perhaps other paramilitary freaks decided to blow up a government building. On the two-year anniversary of the fiery assault in Waco they parked a Ryder rental truck full of gas and fertilizer in front of the federal building and blew it to smithereens, thus perpetrating the worse act of terrorism in the United States.