The Claim
On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people — including 19 children in a daycare center — and injuring hundreds more. Timothy McVeigh, a Gulf War veteran with anti-government views, was convicted and executed for the bombing. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols received life imprisonment. Alternative theories claim that additional conspirators were involved, that foreign governments assisted McVeigh, or that the bombing was a government-staged false flag operation to justify crackdowns on militia movements.
What the Investigation Established
The FBI's OKBOMB investigation was one of the largest in the agency's history, involving 28,000 interviews, 3 million law enforcement hours, and the examination of 1 billion pieces of information. McVeigh and Nichols were identified through a vehicle identification number found in a truck axle recovered at the blast site, and traced to a rental under McVeigh's alias.