November 1994: Future Oklahoma City Bombing Conspirator Robs Gun Dealer, Leaves Instructions for Fellow Bomber, Ex-Wife

White separatist Terry Nichols (see November 1993 and After) allegedly robs Roger Moore, a gun dealer and acquaintance of Nichols’s partner, Timothy McVeigh, in a robbery planned by McVeigh. Nichols gets away with guns and some $60,000 in cash, and flees to Las Vegas, where he hides the cash in the home of his ex-wife Lana Padilla. Nichols leaves a note to be opened only if he does not return from the Phillippines (see Late 1992-Early 1993 and Late 1994) by January 28, 1995—days after the terrorist plot Operation Bojinka was to be executed (see January 6, 1995). The note instructs Padilla to send all of his cash and valuables to his wife Marife Nichols in Cebu City, Phillippines. The note also leaves a message for McVeigh, reading in part: “Go for it. As far as heat, none that I am aware of.” The note instructs McVeigh on retrieving a large cache of fertilizer Nichols has placed in storage (see Bad link: a0913101894mcveighbomb). Based on the instructions regarding the fertilizer, federal authorities will come to believe that Nichols is instructing McVeigh to go ahead with plans to bomb a federal building in Oklahoma City (see April 19, 1995). Nichols will return to the US in January 1995 and settle in Herington, Kansas. [Washington Post, 12/24/1997; Douglas O. Linder, 2001; Nicole Nichols, 2003] After the bombing, Padilla will tell authorities that Nichols gave her a key to a storage locker; the locker, she will say, contained thousands of dollars in gold and silver bouillon, tubular pipe, ski masks, and other items (see Bad link: a050995nicholsconspire and Bad link: a051195okctnaffidavit). [New York Times, 5/9/1995; New York Times, 5/12/1995]