APRIL 28, 1997 VOL. 149 NO. 17
SPECIAL REPORT/OKLAHOMA CITY
THE SEARCH FOR JOHN DOE NO. 2
BY GERALD POSNER/OKLAHOMA CITY
Was there a third conspirator in the Oklahoma bombing case? Was more than one Ryder truck
involved? The prosecution considers these stories apocryphal, impeachable and unreliable,
but the defense is likely to exploit them as it argues that Timothy McVeigh was not the
only mastermind.
The issue of a second truck is important. The van could have been a decoy or a backup in case anything went wrong with McVeigh's rental, and might even have served to determine the amount of ammonium nitrate that would fit in the rear cabin. A second truck could have been used to construct a device to hold the bomb securely on the more than five-hour trip from Kansas to Oklahoma City. And a second truck would almost certainly have included one more conspirator. At Geary State Lake, where McVeigh is believed to have assembled the bomb, agents reportedly found physical evidence of a Ryder's presence that included tire tracks and fuel oil. But they also located several people who say they spotted a Ryder there on days before McVeigh had rented a truck. Perhaps to avoid the conflicting stories of a second truck, prosecutors may not argue that the bomb was built at Geary State Lake.
There are other accounts about a second Ryder. Lea McGown, owner of the Dreamland Motel, says that on April 14 her friend Herta King and two other women saw two Ryders in the parking lot of Denny's restaurant. There, the three women sat next to two men, one of whom King is certain was McVeigh. One of the other women, Lenora Hall, says one of the men "could have been McVeigh." She notes the other man appeared to be part Indian or Mexican, had shoulder-length hair and wore a white T shirt and jeans. McGown, a probable government witness, says she told the FBI the Ryder she saw McVeigh drive into the motel parking lot on April 16 was different from the one he brought in the next day, when he rented one at Elliott's Body Shop. The early truck had no logo on the rear panel and was a lighter yellow.
While McGown has said she saw no one else with McVeigh, she claims that during a security walk she overheard a conversation in McVeigh's motel room around midnight on April 16. "As I came back you could hear that the voices are not TV. There was a deep velvety voice and another one and Mr. McVeigh's, because I heard three different voices. And I thought I have to talk to him tomorrow, I do not allow overnight visitors." Having already given McVeigh a discount rate, she was annoyed that he would then bring in extra guests.
On Wednesday, April 19, half an hour before the blast, Mike Moroz, a mechanic at Johnny's Tire Co. in Oklahoma City, said he saw a Ryder truck pull into the station. Moroz saw two men inside as he approached the truck. The driver asked for directions to Fifth and Harvey, site of the Murrah building, but the truck did not leave the station for eight to 10 minutes more. About 15 minutes later, the bomb exploded. Moroz later picked two men out of a lineup, one of whom was McVeigh. Although Moroz admits he did not get a good look at the other man, he says the passenger had short brown hair and appeared bigger than the driver.
One story is particularly poignant. Daina Bradley lost a leg in the April 19 blast, and her mother and two children were killed. She recalls looking out the plate-glass window of the Social Security office a few minutes before the explosion and seeing a yellow Ryder pull into the driveway. That is where the terrorists left the truck. According to Bradley, it was there for three to five minutes. Then she saw a side view of an olive-skinned white man leaving the passenger side of the Ryder truck. He was wearing a dark blue jacket and a baseball cap. She does not believe that person, who left the truck and walked quickly away from the federal building, was McVeigh. After that, all she recalled was electricity running through her body and a sensation of falling into rocks. Prosecutors contend that Bradley is a trauma victim and therefore her account is not reliable.
Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed, frequently writes about criminal investigations and is working on a book about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Copyright 1997, Gerald Posner