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Some fear truth behind Oklahoma bombing will die with McVeigh
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Some worry the truth behind the Oklahoma
City bombing will die on May 16 when Timothy McVeigh is executed.
A handful of survivors and even the bomber's former lawyer
believe McVeigh hasn't been honest about who or how many people
planned, financed and carried out the deadly blast.
"I don't know if the truth will ever come out," said Jane
Graham, 61, who was injured in the April 19, 1995, bombing. "It's
easy to put everything aside and blame one individual. I think
everybody just wants to wipe it away."
Graham was buried under furniture in the Housing and Urban
Development office on the ninth floor of the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building.
Shortly before the explosion, Graham said she saw two mysterious
men in the building. Her theory is that someone placed bombs inside
the building and that the truck bomb was a decoy that killed only a
few of the 168 victims.
McVeigh's former attorney, Stephen Jones, also believes there
was a wider conspiracy.
"The bombing was the work of somewhere between six and eight
people directly involved," Jones said. "He was a member of a
terrorist group and terrorist groups protect their members."
Jones described his former client as clever, manipulative and
cunning.
"Tim McVeigh is certainly capable of elaborate lies," he said.
Kathy Wilburn, whose two grandsons died in the Murrah building
day-care center, thinks McVeigh deserves to die but doesn't want
him executed.
"I believe with him goes the truth," she said.
Wilburn has spent the last six years doing research, including
visiting terrorist-training compounds and white supremacist groups.
She believes the bomb plot was concocted in Elohim City, a
survivalist compound in eastern Oklahoma. She also thinks
authorities may have had a warning before the 9:02 a.m. blast.
Wilburn's daughter, Edye Stowe, wants to know why no Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms agents were killed and why most weren't in the
building.
"Where the hell was the ATF?" Stowe said, still mourning her
sons. "I want to know. All 15 or 17 of their employees survived,
and they were on the ninth floor. Did they have a warning sign? Did
they think it might be a bad day to go into the office?"
The FBI is confident all of those responsible for the bombing
were arrested, Dallas-based special agent Lori Bailey said.
Terry Nichols was convicted on federal conspiracy and
manslaughter charges and sentenced to life in prison. Michael
Fortier is serving a 12-year federal sentence after pleading guilty
to knowing of the bombing plan but not alerting authorities.
"There were literally over a billion records that were created
because of our investigation," Bailey said. "As soon as a theory
came out, we investigated it. We double-backed and triple-backed
and interviewed and researched to see if there was any veracity to
any of it."
McVeigh said in the book "American Terrorist," that Nichols
helped mix the fertilizer bomb, but claims he alone carried out the
bombing.
Other conspiracy theorists have launched Web sites, most
claiming more than one bomb exploded and more than one man was
responsible.
One conspiracy theory organization, The Oklahoma Bombing
Investigation Committee, plans to release a report this month
detailing its contentions.
Committee chairman Charles Key, a former state representative,
says he doubts McVeigh will ever admit the bombing was the work of
a wider conspiracy. But, he doesn't think McVeigh should be
executed.
"Dead men don't talk," Key said.
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