- 168 people, including 19 children, were killed in 1995 attack
- NBC’s Mike Boettcher was one of the few journalists to interview bomber
- 'His eyes turned steely cold,' Boettcher tells NewsNation 30 years later
Ashleigh Banfield
Updated:
On April 19, 1995, America was rocked by a homegrown terrorist attack — the Oklahoma City bombing. This Saturday, NewsNation looks back at the heroes and the journalists who were there as the chaos unfolded. Tune in to “ON AIR LIVE: Oklahoma City bombing: 30 years later” at 9p/8C.Find out how to watch.
(NewsNation) — On the morning of April 19, 1995, a 4,800-pound truck bomb exploded in front of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children, and injuring more than 800 others.
A third of the building was reduced to rubble in seconds, and nearly 300 nearby buildings were damaged or destroyed. At first, many believed foreign terrorists were behind the attack. But the truth stunned the nation — it was carried out by Timothy McVeigh, a U.S. military veteran, with help from Terry Nichols.
Both were antigovernment extremists. McVeigh and Nichols were convicted of multiple counts of first-degree murder and using a weapon of mass destruction. An accomplice, Michael Fortier, was also indicted.
NBC’s Mike Boettcher was one of the few journalists to interview McVeigh and led the network’s bombing coverage.
“It’s something I think about really every day, because I live 10 blocks from the Oklahoma City National Memorial where that bombing took place,” Boettcher told NewsNation’s “Banfield” on Thursday. “In the basement of my home are cracks in the foundation from the bombing that occurred that day, because it was like a small earthquake.”
Boettcher will share his story covering the tragedy in “ON AIR LIVE: Oklahoma City bombing: 30 years later,” which will air on NewsNation on Saturday at 9 p.m. EDT.
At the time of the attack, the initial assumption was that a foreign terrorist had set off the bomb. The truth was later revealed that one of America’s own was responsible.
Boettcher interviewed McVeigh while he awaited trial in Denver.
“I remember walking in and sitting down in a kind of sanitized room, and he came in in an orange jumpsuit. They had to unshackle him, and I had made a connection with him initially because he was a veteran of Desert Storm,” said Boettcher, who had reported there in 1991.
“He was a lot taller than I thought he would be, and he was very, very polite,” Boettcher said. “He seemed like, you know, the boy next door that you’d meet in your neighborhood.”
His demeanor changed when the conversation turned toward the federal government, he said.
“His eyes turned steely cold, and he said, ‘I don’t want to talk about that. I don’t like the U.S. government.’”
McVeigh wouldn’t answer questions about the bombing.
Boettcher said, “I was witnessing two different personalities in one sitting with Timothy McVeigh.”
McVeigh was found guilty on all counts and was executed in 2001.
“To him, the victims were collateral damage to what he saw as his final objective, which was the overthrow of the government of the United States of America,” Boettcher said.
The other two responsible, Nichols and Fortier, both served time in prison. Nichols was found guilty of conspiracy and manslaughter and sentenced to life in prison with no parole, while Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison and released in 2006.
