Noon and After, April 18, 1995: Oklahoma City Bomber Drives towards Target

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, having finished constructing the bomb with his fellow conspirator Terry Nichols at a state park in Kansas (see 8:15 a.m. and After, April 18, 1995), drives his rented Ryder truck carrying the assembled bomb components towards Oklahoma City. He stops either in Arkansas City, Kansas, or Winfield, Kansas, to get gas, and begins driving down Route 166, stopping at a Total gas station near the Kansas-Oklahoma border. He then pulls into a rest stop at Emporia, Kansas, on State Highway 77. He discards his map and his MREs (military meals-ready-to-eat). He checks the load to ensure that it has not shifted. He puts the truck rental agreement, in the name of “Bob Kling” (see Mid-March, 1995), and a forged student ID in the name of “Tim Tuttle” (see October 12, 1993 - January 1994) in the midst of the 55-gallon drums containing the bomb components, presumably so they will be destroyed in the blast. (McVeigh later tells his lawyers that the ID bore the name Kling, and not Tuttle, though he will also indicate that he has previously destroyed the Kling ID—see 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. April 17, 1995.) He takes I-35 to the Blackwell exit near Ponca City, and pulls into the truck parking lot so that the leaking diesel fuel can leak onto the grass. He eats at the McDonald’s restaurant across the street. Wearing a black hat, black jeans, a blue coat, sunglasses, and a pistol in a shoulder holster, he walks into either a Best Western or Days Inn to rent a room, then decides against it. Instead, he parks the truck for the night and sleeps in the truck. [New York Times, 4/26/1995; PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Douglas O. Linder, 2001]