The OKC Bombing thread: Surveillance Camera Footage

[Richard Booth]

Another quote from Weldon Kennedy's book On Scene Commander:

"this was going to be a case largely built from forensic evidence since there were no eyewitnesses."

This is patently false. There were over two dozen eyewitnesses who both saw McVeigh and the Ryder truck -- some who spoke to McVeigh in the half hour before the bombing. There were enough eyewitnesses to account for McVeigh's whereabouts between 8:30 AM and 9:02 AM with a great degree of accuracy.

Eyewitnesses:

• Mike Moroz, a mechanic at Johnny's Tire a couple blocks from the Murrah building gave directions to McVeigh about a half hour before the bombing, around 8:30. The Ryder truck pulled into the lot of Johnny's Tire just as Allen Gorrell, one of Moroz's co-workers, was arriving for his 8:30 AM shift. Moroz went outside and gave the driver directions to the federal building. McVeigh stepped out of the Ryder truck, and spoke to Moroz, who pointed towards downtown and gave McVeigh instructions on how to navigate two one-way streets to get to the federal building. Moroz said there was a passenger in the Ryder truck. Moroz' co-workers Allen Gorrell and Byron Marshall saw the entire scene, all three were interviewed by the FBI. Moroz was later taken downtown in OKC on April 21st where he picked McVeigh out of a lineup for the FBI. Moroz is a key witness putting McVeigh in the Ryder truck asking explicitly how to get to 'The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building' and he picked McVeigh out of a lineup before having seen him on television.
  
• About 5 minutes after the Johnny's Tire encounter, Dena Hunt, a police technician, observed the Ryder truck moving slowly down Broadway street, turning right onto Park Avenue, then turning right onto Harvey. The truck was navigating the one-way streets that Mike Moroz had just minutes before told McVeigh about. Dena Hunt identified two men in the Ryder truck, and said the truck was moving very slowly, about 5 miles per hour. She got a good look at the driver who was described as 30-40, very short hair, dusty blonde. Hunt identified the driver as the man depicted in the John Doe #1 police sketch.
  
• Shortly after Dena Hunt's sighting, the Ryder truck was evidently parked in front of the Regency Towers apartments, which had a convenience store on the first floor. This was mere yards way from the Murrah Building--right across the street and down a bit. Danny Wilkerson, the clerk, said that Timothy McVeigh came in and purchased two sodas and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes around 8:45, or 5-10 minutes after the Johnny's Tire encounter. Wilkerson, seeing the Ryder truck, asked McVeigh "Are you moving?" to which he replied simply "No." Wilkerson watched as McVeigh went outside and got into a Ryder truck which had another man in the passenger seat.
  
• Rodney Johnson, a catering truck driver, saw Timothy McVeigh and John Doe #2 run away from the Ryder truck. They had just parked the truck and were crossing the street--going directly in front of Johnson's truck. Johnson had to brake in order not to hit them. Johnson called the FBI the night of the bombing and he identified McVeigh as the man he saw two days later.
  
• Gary Lewis, a printing pressman, observed Timothy McVeigh from 10-15 feet away in the minutes before the bombing. Lewis made eye contact with McVeigh as he sped past the Journal Records building with another man in the passenger seat next to him. This vehicle is where McVeigh and John Doe #2 headed immediately after parking the Ryder truck. They had 1 to 1 1/2 minutes to reach the vehicle after parking the truck and Lewis saw them make their escape. Lewis' testimony was cited by FBI Agent John Hersley in an April 29th, 1995 preliminary hearing where Hersley talks about the encounter, the passenger in the car with McVeigh, and also talks about surveillance camera footage of the Ryder truck
  

Mike Moroz, Dena Hunt, Danny Wilkerson, Rodney Johnson, and Gary Lewis are five witnesses who could put McVeigh directly at the Murrah building--both immediately before delivering the Ryder truck and as McVeigh made his escape in a Mercury Marquis.

These are just five witnesses out of over two dozen whose accounts put McVeigh -- and another man -- both at the crime scene on April 19th and in the days immediately prior to the bombing.

When Weldon Kennedy wrote "since there were no eyewitnesses" he was lying, what he meant to say was "there were no eyewitnesses who saw McVeigh alone."

I have the FBI FD-302 reports from almost all of these eyewitnesses and they all paint a picture that shows McVeigh could have been identified at the scene of the crime. The only problem is, they also would have put another man with him, and the FBI could not account for that other man. Why? Who was he?