April 21, 1995: McVeigh Identified as Oklahoma City Bomber; FBI Learns He Is Already in Custody

A former co-worker in New York identifies 27-year-old Timothy McVeigh, suspected of being the Oklahoma City bomber (see 8:35 a.m. - 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995), as “John Doe No. 1” depicted in police drawings (see April 20, 1995). Authorities issue a warrant for McVeigh’s arrest, and quickly learn that he is under arrest in the Noble County Courthouse in Perry, Oklahoma, for misdemeanor weapons charges (see After 10:17 a.m. April 19, 1995); a check of McVeigh’s Social Security number matches one flagged by the FBI as belonging to a suspect in the bombing, a check made because McVeigh is from out of state. McVeigh is arrested by federal agents less than an hour before making $5,000 bail on the charges. “He came desperately close to making bail,” Assistant District Attorney Mark Gibson will later say. [Washington Post, 4/22/1995; New York Times, 4/22/1995; New York Times, 4/22/1995; New York Times, 4/22/1995; New York Times, 6/3/1997; Douglas O. Linder, 2001] This afternoon, Joe Wolfinger, the head of the FBI’s Buffalo, New York, office, calls Niagara County Sheriff Tom Beilein and asks him to run a background check on McVeigh, who grew up in Pendleton, New York, just below the US-Canadian border (see 1987-1988). Beilein will later report he finds nothing. Deputies from Beilein’s force along with state police officers meet with federal agents at the home of McVeigh’s father, Bill McVeigh, who is stunned by the news that his son may be the one responsible for the bombing. Police soon find themselves working to keep members of the local and national media from overrunning the house. A state police officer lowers the McVeighs’ American flag to half-mast. [Stickney, 1996, pp. 24, 179-180] It is likely that the former co-worker is Carl Lebron, who once worked with McVeigh as a security guard (see April 20-21, 1995).