Oklahoma City is a riveting account of one of the deadliest acts of terrorism on American soil, combining groundbreaking investigative research with a thrilling and true conspiracy story that has implications for national security and law enforcement today.
April 19, 1995: Timothy McVeigh drove into downtown Oklahoma City in a rented Ryder truck containing a fertilizer bomb that he and his army buddy Terry Nichols had made the previous day. He parked, hopped out of the truck, and walked away. Shortly after 9:00 a.m., the bomb obliterated one-third of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people, including 19 infants and toddlers.
Weaving together key elements of personal correspondence with co-defendant Terry Nichols, hundreds of hours of interviews, and thousands of government documents, Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed—and Why It Still Matters by investigative reporter Andrew Gumbel and retired U.S. Marine Corps lieutenant colonel Roger G. Charles is a riveting piece of journalism and a cautionary tale for our times.
Veteran journalists Andrew Gumbel and Roger G. Charles give the fullest account yet of the Oklahoma City bombing plot and investigation, with unprecedented access to government documents, voluminous correspondence with Timothy McVeigh's partner, Terry Nichols, and more than 150 interviews. In Oklahoma City, Gumbel and Charles document what went wrong: in particular, the dysfunction within law enforcement agencies that squandered opportunities to prevent the bombing, as well as the unanswered question of who inspired the plot—and who else might have been involved.
To this day, the FBI heralds the Oklahoma City investigation as one of its great triumphs. In reality, though, its handling of the bombing foreshadowed many of the problems that made the country vulnerable to attack on 9/11. Oklahoma City gives the most complete, honest story of both the plot and the investigation, drawing a vivid portrait of the unfailingly compelling—driven, eccentric, fractious, funny, and wildly paranoid—characters involved.
"The most comprehensive account yet...will dash the smug assertions at the time that the feds had caught all the perpetrators."
