Timothy McVeigh Biography

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and security guard who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He was convicted of 11 United States federal offenses, and was sentenced to death and executed for his role in the April 19, 1995 bombing. His act, which killed 168 people, was the deadliest event of domestic terrorism in the United States, and the deadliest act of terrorism within United States borders until the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Biography

McVeigh was born in Lockport, New York, and raised in nearby Pendleton, New York. He was the middle child of three, and the only male child. His family was Irish Catholic. He was picked on by bullies at school, and took refuge in a fantasy world in which he retaliated against them; he would later come to regard the U.S. Government as the ultimate bully. He earned his high school diploma from Starpoint Central High School.

His parents, Mildred Noreen ("Mickey") Hill and William McVeigh, divorced when he was in his teens. McVeigh was known throughout his life as a loner; his only known affiliations were voter registration with the Republican Party when he lived in New York, and a membership in the National Rifle Association while in the military. His grandfather introduced him to guns, with which he became fascinated. McVeigh told people he wanted to be a gun shop owner, and he sometimes took a gun to school to impress the other boys.

After graduating high school with honors, he became intensely interested in gun rights and the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and devoured right-wing, pro-militia magazines such as Soldier of Fortune and Spotlight. He went to work for Burke Armored Car Service. McVeigh was shy and was said to have only had one girlfriend during his high school years. McVeigh would later tell journalists that he always said the wrong thing to women he was trying to impress.

Religious beliefs

After his parents' divorce, McVeigh lived with his father; his sisters moved to Florida with their mother. He and his father were devout Roman Catholics who often attended daily Mass. In a recorded interview with Time Magazine McVeigh professed his belief in "a God", although he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "never really picked it [back] up". The Guardianreported that McVeigh wrote a letter claiming to be an agnostic. He was given the Catholic sacrament of Viaticum before his execution.