April 17-21, 1995: Oklahoma City Bomb Plotter Calls Old Army Buddy, Possibly to Solicit Assistance

On April 17, Timothy McVeigh, planning to carry out the Oklahoma City bombing (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995) and apparently casting about for someone to help him (see March 31 - April 12, 1995 and April 5, 1995), calls his old Army friend and roommate, John Kelso from his room at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kansas (see April 13, 1995). McVeigh shared an apartment with Kelso during their days at Fort Riley, Kansas (see January - March 1991 and After). Kelso, living in an Alliance, Nebraska, apartment, does not answer the call; he is at his job as an engineer on the Burlington Northern Railroad. Press reports will later state that Kelso hears a voice on his answering machine say to someone else on the caller’s end: “He’s not home. He’s at work.” On April 21, two days after the bombing, FBI agents, tracing the call to the Dreamland Motel, quiz Kelso about the call. Kelso says he did not even know who made the call until the agents inform him it was McVeigh, and he tells them he has not seen McVeigh since McVeigh left the Army in 1992. Kelso will characterize McVeigh as a “froot loop.” [New York Times, 8/13/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996] McVeigh will later deny placing the call. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996]