Oklahoma City Bomber

I was sitting in Dick DeGuerin’s office in Houston on the night of April 20, 1995 ─ the day after Timothy McVeigh planted the bomb that blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 innocent bystanders.

I was the expert on Dick’s defense team for the Operation Lightning Strike trial about a contaminated FBI undercover sting at the Johnson Space Center. Five of us were sitting around, drinking beer and planning the next day’s strategy in court when Dick’s phone rang.

Dick DeGuerin was one of the best defense attorneys in the country. He’d defended notables like Texas governor Kay Bailey Hutchinson, New York Mets Lenny Dykstra and Keith Hernandez, and Branch Davidian guru David Koresh.

Dick was a cowboy who owned a ranch, wore a cowboy hat and cowboy boots, and spoke with the southern Texas twang.

Dick answered the phone and listened for almost a minute while we observed in silence. And then he stopped listening and spoke with authority, “Son … I don’t defend murderin’ bastards.”

“Who was that?” we all asked him with our eyes.

“Timothy McVeigh,” Dick told us. “The sonbitch wanted me to defend him.”

Why did he call Dick?

Simple. One of Tim McVeigh’s hard-ons was about the ATF’s attack on David Koresh’s Waco complex two years earlier and he knew that Dick was Koresh’s lawyer. In fact, only two non-Davidians had ever entered Koresh’s Mount Carmel complex prior to that attack ─ and Dick was one of them.

At that time, we were so involved with that trial for the next several months that I never learned much about what happened in Oklahoma City that day. So yesterday, when Netflix suggested the 2017 documentary Oklahoma City, I decided to watch it.

I don’t usually like documentaries but because I had that tangential connection I decided to watch it ─ and I learned a lot about McVeigh and the white supremacist movement that was taking place at that time.

I’m America’s Best Crime Writer – Barry Bowe – & I approve this message.

My first book – Born to Be Wild – was published in 1992 and is still selling on Amazon & Kindle. it’s a true story about certain members of the Warlocks motorcycle gang.

The story took 21 years to play out with many twists & turns. It’s an amalgam of Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad – but these outlaw bikers make the Sons look like Cub Scouts.