After 10:17 a.m. April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City Bomber Incarcerated in Local Jail; Authorities Do Not Immediately Connect Him to Bombing

Timothy McVeigh’s Mercury Marquis and two Oklahoma state trooper vehicles, in a photo taken shortly after McVeigh was pulled over for not having a license plate. [Source: University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law]Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), who has been stopped by a state trooper for having no license plates on his vehicle and arrested for that violation and for carrying a concealed weapon (see 9:03 a.m. -- 10:17 a.m. April 19, 1995), is incarcerated in the Noble County jail in Perry, Oklahoma. McVeigh tells another inmate, burglary suspect John Seward, that he had been stopped because he did not have a driver’s license or inspection sticker on his car. Seward will later tell investigators that during McVeigh’s stint in the jail, he makes two phone calls. Seward does not know who McVeigh may have called, though he believes one of the calls is to a local bondsman. McVeigh will remain in the Noble County jail, identified as Inmate 95-057, for two days before authorities connect him to the bombing (see After 10:00 a.m. April 19, 1995, April 20, 1995, 3:15 p.m. and After, April 21-22, 1995, and April 21, 1995). [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 1-10]