April 5, 1995: Friend of Oklahoma City Bomber Refuses to Participate Further in Conspiracy

Michael Fortier, the friend of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995) who has been helping McVeigh in the plotting (see February - July 1994, February 17, 1995 and After, Mid-March, 1995, and April 3-4, 1995), tells McVeigh that he will no longer help him (see (April 1) - April 18, 1995). With McVeigh’s co-conspirator Terry Nichols refusing to take an active role in the actual bombing (see March 1995 and March 31 - April 12, 1995), McVeigh wants Fortier to assist in the bombing itself. McVeigh asks Fortier if he will go to Oklahoma City with him to detonate the bomb. Fortier replies, “Never.” McVeigh then asks if Fortier will help him escape, saying, “If I can make it to Las Vegas somehow, give me a ride out into the desert.” Fortier replies, “I won’t do that either.” Fortier will later recall that McVeigh has become increasingly disgusted with him, calling him “domesticated,” and says that McVeigh calls him “names” and gives him “dirty looks.” Fortier will recall: “He said it [domesticated] like it was a curse word. As if that was something that was bad. He was urging me to leave my wife and travel with him on the road, sort of like being desperadoes or something.” Fortier tells McVeigh that he would never abandon his family. “I’m not going to help you do this.” McVeigh tells Fortier: “We can’t be friends any longer. I’m going to Colorado to find some real friends, some manly friends.” After their conversation, McVeigh calls his father and tells him he and Fortier have had a falling out, and that he can no longer contact McVeigh by dialing the Fortier’s telephone number. [PBS Frontline, 1/22/1996; Serrano, 1998, pp. 123-124]