All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S04E10_English

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Welcome to
"How it Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

Timothy McVeigh detonated
a 7,000-pound truck bomb

in Oklahoma City,

killing 168 innocent people,
including 19 children.

After McVeigh was arrested,

Americans were told
the shocking news.

This was not the work
of a foreign terrorist,

but a horror committed
by one of our very own,

a young man who'd once
fought for American lives

in the first Gulf War.

The question everyone
asked now was,

How could a decorated
American soldier

turn into a deadly
American terrorist?

Here's how it really happened.

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Woman: There are four elements

that I have to receive
information regarding --

[ Rumbling ]

♪♪

Man: This information just now
coming into the CNN center,

and we have learned
that there has been

a large explosion
at the Federal Building.

Woman: In the Alfred Murrah
building, some type of explosion

has blown the side
of the building off.

Man: There was a boom,
and the building shook,

and the ceiling fell in.

Woman: It just kept falling.

It was a horrible noise,

horrible noise.

Man: There was nothing left.

♪♪

Woman: I thought it was the end
of the world.

I just didn't know what else,
what other explanation

it could be
for what I was experiencing.

Even after I got out of the
building, I was scared to death.

I just thought for sure that my
life was going to end that day.

Being six months pregnant,

I was really scared
for my daughter.

I hadn't felt her move
since the explosion.

Man: We rush down there.

It was pandemonium and hysteria.

My stepdaughter, Frankie, worked
at the federal credit union

in the Murrah building.

It was on the third floor.

When we got down there,

there was no Frankie.

Frankie had a daughter
by the name of Morgan,

who was 2.

You hope for the best
and prepare for the worst,

but that's easy to say
and hard to do.

Man: Dogs were brought in,

and highly sensitive microphones
were used

in hopes of finding people
still alive.

Woman: I couldn't see anything.
I was completely buried alive.

I was actually still in my chair

and upside down
in this rubble pile.

Rescuers came and began
working to get me out,

and they worked until about
3:00-something that afternoon

until they were able
to pull me out.

And I remember looking around
and thinking,

"This is a movie.

This isn't real."

It looked like a war zone.

Man: At one point,
rescuers found a woman

trapped under debris.

She was pinned underneath this
enormous amount of wreckage,

pinned by one of her legs.

Man: She was lying in water.
She was hypothermic.

Her blood pressure was falling.

And so, at that point,
there was no decision

made other than to crawl
into the space

and perform an amputation
and bring the patient out.

The only choice really was
to either do that or to die.

Potok: And ultimately he runs
out of scalpels,

and he remembers he has a little
pen knife in his pocket,

and the doctor actually manages
to finish the amputation

with this pen knife
that's about that long.

-How is she now?
-She's doing fine.

I think she's stable.

Man: I don't understand how
anybody in this world

could conceive to do something
like that to innocent people.

♪♪

Less than two hours
after the bombing,

Timothy McVeigh
got arrested.

The police really got
a lucky break.

McVeigh didn't have a license
plate on his getaway car.

Investigators soon tied
Timothy McVeigh

back to the rental truck
that was carrying the bomb.

And the world was introduced

to the 26-year-old terrorist
from upstate New York.

Man:
McVeigh, when you met him,

you were surprised
at how affable he was,

easy to talk to.

We learned that he was
from a very ordinary,

normal American family.

Like many young men,
his parents were divorced.

He was bullied as a kid
and struggled to find his way.

Then he found a true friend
in his grandfather.

His grandfather was
really into guns

and taught Timothy McVeigh

at a very young age
how to shoot.

Man:
He had a great love of guns,

and I believe that's what
led him to sign up

and join the Army.

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He loved being in the Army,
and he loved shooting.

He was an expert marksman.

Soldiers did not see
a terrorist in the making.

They saw him as being a true
battle buddy, a true comrade.

Man: McVeigh's end game
with the Army

was to become a member of
Special Forces, a Green Beret.

He wanted to be a part
of the elite.

The Army is satisfying
his desire to shoot weaponry.

And one of the things
he really excelled at

was the Bradley
fighting vehicle.

It's an armor-plated vehicle.

It has a 25-millimeter
cannon on it.

And he actually becomes
the top gun in his company.

So, at this point McVeigh
feels like

he's at the top of the world.

But then one event
would really change everything.

Man: Probably the most single
important moment

in the kind of radicalization
of Tim McVeigh

is when he takes a shot
at an Iraqi soldier

standing 2,000 yards away.

[ McVeigh ]

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People we talked to who were
in his unit that witnessed

this told us that it was like
seeing somebody step up

and get a hole in one
on the first hole.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Man: He was a hero for that.

He got a Bronze Star and later
would be promoted to sergeant.

You think that would something
he'd be proud of,

but for McVeigh, it became,

"Why am I killing
Iraqi soldiers?

They haven't done
anything bad to me.

I'm out here shooting
these people.

They're just like I am."

McVeigh talked about it
in an interview on "60 Minutes."

I went over there hyped up,
just like everyone else.

Not only is Saddam evil --
all Iraqis are evil.

What I experienced, though,

was an entirely
different ball game.

And being face-to-face,

close with these people
in personal contact,

you realize they're
just people like you.

He started to realize
that America, in his mind,

was the biggest, meanest,
cruelest bully

in the entire world.

Man: To see those images
of children

being pulled out of that
building is just incredible.

[ Shouting indistinctly ]

Woman: I remember screaming,
and I said,

"I left my boys
in there this morning."

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[ McVeigh ]

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Man: For McVeigh, he couldn't
really understand,

"Why am I killing
Iraqi soldiers?

They haven't done
anything bad to me."

All: Hoo-ah!

Man: He's still not quite sure,
though,

he's gonna continue
in the military

because what he really
wants in life

is to be in Special Forces.

Tim McVeigh wants to be
a Green Beret.

Man: He gets this call
for the Special Forces,

and he's heading back
to the States

to go through
the training for that.

I think he would have put aside
his growing hatred

for the government
if he could have been going out

after the enemies of the state
around the globe.

But you have to be
in optimum physical shape

for the Special Forces,
and he's nowhere near that.

He essentially flunks.

Man: This is a massive
disappointment for McVeigh.

He quits the Army altogether.

He's disillusioned, and he moves
back to Pendleton

in upstate New York.

It's cold.
It's wet.

His family isn't much to him.

And he's just kind of kicking
around, not knowing what to do.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Man: He came home with
a whopping case of PTSD

from the war,
as evidenced by the fact

that one day
in the middle of February,

he shows up
at his grandfather's house...

[ McVeigh ]

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Man: He was just going through
so much pain

because he was considered
a war hero,

and he just couldn't make it in
the real world outside the Army.

Ultimately, Timothy McVeigh
leaves New York.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Man: He essentially becomes
kind of a road warrior.

He's simply rootlessly moving
around the country.

He was searching for something,
something to belong to,

something to take
the place of the Army.

And he found that at gun shows.

There's nothing that McVeigh
loved more in the world

than guns.

Man: Once he enters the world
of the gun shows,

he's really in the universe
of the radical right.

The gun shows are just alive

with the anti-government
movement.

Man: He would meet people there

that were convinced that
Bill Clinton

was going to send soldiers
to every home in the country

and take guns away
from law-abiding citizens.

As smart as he was,
he was very impressionable.

More and more, he's getting
wrapped up

in their conspiracy theories.

People are selling books
like Hitler's diary,

"Mein Kampf,"
at these shows.

But the book that influenced him
the most was a book

he had been reading
before he joined the military.

It's called
"The Turner Diaries,"

which becomes sort of
a must-read

for people in that
right-wing group.

"The Turner diaries" was written
by the leader

of the most serious
neo-Nazi group in America,

the National Alliance.

Man: The backbone of
"The Turner Diaries"

is this story about this
right-wing patriot

who sees tyrannical
government overreach

and that he has to be
the one to save the day.

Ultimately, the book kind of
culminates in this man

blowing up the FBI headquarters
building in Washington, D.C.

It is a work of fiction,
but it may have been a blueprint

for what happened
in Oklahoma City.

McVeigh copied those details
down to very small matters --

the same kind of truck bomb

and a whole number of
other factors.

Tim McVeigh, he's already
absorbed quite a lot of ideology

about the wickedness
of the government,

and he's angry.

And then things start happening
that just fuel his anger.

♪♪

Woman: Scores of federal agents
and police have surrounded

the Idaho cabin
of 44-year-old Randy Weaver.

Weaver is reputedly a member
of the white-supremacist group

the Aryan Nation.

Man: Weaver had been under
surveillance since February 1991

after refusing
to appear in court

on a federal
weapons charge.

After Randy weaver fails
to appear in court,

U.S. Marshals go to his property
to arrest him.

Then, disaster ensues.

There was a fire fight between
Randy weaver's family

and U.S. Marshals.

Man: Weaver's 14-year-old son,
Sam, and Marshal William Degan

were killed August 21st.

The next day, weaver's wife
was shot in the head

by an FBI sniper.

Man: Anti-government people
feel very strongly

that Randy Weaver's family
was slaughtered there.

You gonna kill all the children?

You're gonna have nightmares
about this!

Baby killer!
Baby killer!

You're a baby killer!

Baby killer!

Man: Ruby Ridge became
a rallying cry

for the anti-government folks,

Tim McVeigh included.

[ McVeigh ]

Man: And that was just
the beginning.

Man: How much longer will you
let this go on?

♪♪

I just arrived today.

Man: Now we have a very
large-scale fire breaking out

on what must be
the south side.

Man: I was actually there
as a reporter in Oklahoma City,

covering the story.

And as I'm kind of running
towards this huge police scene,

enormous crowds,
cops everywhere,

I realized,
"My God, it's April 19th.

It's the whole Waco thing
come back to life."

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Man: About six months
after Ruby Ridge,

something happens
down in Waco, Texas,

that enrages Timothy McVeigh
even further.

An ATF task force is
investigating a compound

run by a sort of
religious cultist,

a man named David Koresh.

Man: The so-called
"Branch Davidians"

were people who sold weapons

and manufactured
illegal weapons for money.

So, they were very much
in the kind of gun trade.

Man: The ATF makes a bold move.

They decide to storm
the compound in a surprise raid.

[ Gunfire ]

♪♪

No one's gonna hurt me
or my family.

That's -- that's -- that's
American policy here,

'cause this ain't America
anymore when the ATF

has that kind of power
to come into anybody's home

and kick doors down
and things like that.

Woman: Four agents were killed
and more than a dozen wounded

in a blistering
45-minute shoot-out

when agents arrived
at the compound this morning.

Man: Inside the compound,
David Koresh was shot.

Six of his followers
were killed.

Man: The whole world
is watching this,

and with the whole world
is Timothy McVeigh.

And what McVeigh and the rest
of the radical right is seeing

is, this is what the government
will do to people

who have unusual political ideas
and are into weaponry.

And after that disaster,
when David Koresh refuses

to lead his followers out,
the FBI takes over.

Man: And the Waco confrontation
begins --

what ultimately turns out
to be a 51-day standoff

between an enormous array
of Federal Forces

and something like 100 of these
so-called "Branch Davidians."

There were completely, 100%
innocent children in there

who were in there
because their parents were.

What about the babies
and the women?!

Don't you care about them?!

Woman: How could you miss what
was going on in Waco back then?

It was on the news
every single night.

I was a journalism major,
and I went down to Waco

to find another angle to that
story to write for the paper.

Just arrived today.

I met this gentleman sitting
on the hood of his car,

selling bumper stickers.

He felt strongly that
David Koresh

had his rights violated
by having his compound stormed,

and he also felt that Americans
were losing their rights.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Rauch: His overall message was,
"We need to fear the government.

They're coming, just like
they did with David Koresh."

Man:
McVeigh eventually went home,

but like the rest of the world,
he kept watching.

And, finally, after about
seven weeks of negotiations,

the FBI decides
to make a move --

a very aggressive move.

♪♪

Man: Federal Agents bring in
Bradley fighting vehicles,

and they start to inject
CS gas into the building.

Man: See, they've made
a massive hole

in the side of that building.

All of the sudden,
there's a lick of flame.

Comes out of one side
of the building.

Man: Now we have a very
large-scale fire

breaking out on what
must be the south side.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Man:
There are children in there,

as well as some 65-other people

who are burning to death
at this very moment.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

After Waco, McVeigh started
to formulate his plan.

This was his act of war
against the U.S. Government.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

And he goes through a number
of different scenarios.

But none of these things
seem like

they're really gonna be enough,

that they're not gonna
get the attention,

grab the government
by the throat

and make it change
its evil ways.

Man: McVeigh was gonna commit
a bombing

and make it the worst bombing
America had ever seen.

So, he started little by little
to gather the materials

he needed to make this bomb.

Man: A bomb he planned to carry
in the back of a truck,

and to build it,

he needed to get his hands
on ammonium nitrate,

a highly explosive
fertilizer.

So, he starts going to places
that sell ammonium nitrate.

Man: And he knows, for the size
explosion he wants,

he's gonna have to get
a ton of fertilizer.

But he also doesn't want
to raise suspicion.

Man: So, he buys a couple
of hundred pounds here,

and then he buys a couple
of hundred pounds here,

trying to stay below the radar.

Man: But McVeigh realizes
at some point

that he can't do this all alone.

Man: So, he turned to two
fellow soldiers

that he had met
in the Army years earlier,

Terry Nichols
and Michael Fortier.

Both of them shared McVeigh's
really intense

hatred of the government.

But the planner of all this
was McVeigh.

The other two guys
were basically flunkies.

They got a couple of
storage units,

and they put in five or six

50-pound bags of
ammonium nitrate.

What is tougher is the fuel
that they need to mix with it.

For that you need
a very high-powered fuel.

Nitromethane racing fuel to act

as the main accelerant
in the bomb.

Man: So, they end up going down
to the Texas Motorplex

south of Dallas,

and McVeigh poses
as a rider needing the fuel.

People he's trying to buy it
from are a little shocked

because you use
tiny amounts of this fuel.

To buy three barrels
is unheard of.

The first guy in fact
refuses to sell to him.

He doesn't believe that he's
really gonna use this

for racing, as he claims.

Ultimately, he finds a second
seller, who does sell it to him.

And so, they gradually
built up their supplies.

Man: During this time, McVeigh
is scouting the country,

trying to determine
where the bomb is going

to have the most impact.

There are several federal
buildings in the country

that get looked at
as possible sites for the bomb.

[ McVeigh ]

Man: McVeigh's criteria was to
cause the maximum amount

of damage
to law enforcement.

He picked the Murrah building
after finding it in a phonebook.

Man: He wanted the building,
once it was bombed,

to present an incredible
spectacle.

[ McVeigh ]

Man: And he chose a date
in history

that for him
was very significant --

the second anniversary
of the fire at Waco.

♪♪

Man: McVeigh was kind of
the ultimate soldier.

All that mattered to him
was the mission,

and, by golly,
he was gonna carry it out.

Welcome back.

The Oklahoma City bombing
took the nation by surprise,

forcing Americans everywhere
to confront an evil

they never knew existed.

Timothy McVeigh
claimed his bomb

was meant to sent a message to
the U.S. Government.

But, in reality, the devastation
in Oklahoma City

was felt most by
the everyday Americans

he claimed to be
fighting for.

Man:
McVeigh got up that morning,

looked around his truck,

and headed off
to Oklahoma City,

ready to wreak havoc
on the world.

Woman:
With regard to this proceeding,

basically there
are four elements

that I have to receive
information regarding --

[ Rumbling ]

Man: A car bomb ripped apart

a federal building
in Oklahoma City.

Hundreds are injured.
Many are dead.

Woman:
I remember screaming,

"I left my boys in there
this morning."

I had two grandsons
in the daycare center

at the Murrah Building.

Aaron was 5, and Elijah was 2.

When I got them dressed
that morning,

I think Elijah had on a shirt
with a teddy bear.

When I got to the building,

I approached the building
from one side

that didn't have any damage.

And so, some of the panic
went away

until I walked around to
the other side of the building.

There was no building.

All the building was laying
in the street.

When I saw that,
I sort of went crazy.

Man: My goodness.

There's got to be people
dead in there.

Coverdale: I kept saying,
"I've got to go in there."

Somebody grabbed my arm,

and I remember jerking
my arm away from them,

and I got upset

because they wouldn't let me
go in the building.

But there was no place to go,
anyway.

Some of the other parents,
and they came up to me,

and I was still screaming,

and they didn't know where
their children were, either.

[ Screaming indistinctly ]

Let me in!
[ Screaming ]

Man: You can't help that.

The parent in you comes out.

If that were my kid in there,

I would hope somebody would run
in there and get my kid.

Man: Now it's like
there's people

trying to get into the building.

In your mind, you're always
thinking you're gonna maybe

find that one more person alive.

That drove a lot of people
to keep going.

Man: There's injured people all
over the place, way up there.

I always had a lot of faith,

and I remember talking to God
and I'd say,

"Just let them be alive.

If they're injured, that's okay.

I'll take care of them.

But just let them be alive."

I mean, they were babies.

Man: My partner had just picked
up a little boy,

and he was walking out
with him, holding him.

He had this look on his face,
and I asked, "Is he alive?"

And he said,
"No, Jerry, he's not."

And I remember that he had
a sweater on,

and it had a picture of a
teddy bear on the front of it.

I took this little boy over to

what now has become
a makeshift morgue,

which is the playground
where the kids played.

We laid him down,
and a nurse came by,

and she took a tag,

and she wrapped it
around his little foot,

and, boy, I tell you what,
that hit home.

That really hit home.

♪♪

Man: We're hoping that some
of these youngsters

that are still trapped in that
building will not come out dead,

but we can find them.

Bill Clinton:
The bombing in Oklahoma City

was an attack on
innocent children

and defenseless citizens.

It was an act of cowardice,
and it was evil.

♪♪

Coverdale:
Three days after the bombing,

I heard somebody call my name.

That's when they told me
they had found their bodies.

And I remember screaming,
screaming at God, "I begged you.

I begged you to let them
be alive,

and you didn't even hear me."

To see those images of children

being pulled out of that
building is just incredible.

I think this sends a shock wave
throughout America.

The photograph that's really
become iconic

of the Oklahoma City bombing

is of a fireman holding one
of the youngest victims,

Baylee Almon.

A gentleman came up to me and
said he had a critical infant.

And he handed me a baby.

And the first thing I did was
check her for any signs of life,

which I didn't find any.

So, I walked across the street
with the baby

and looked at the paramedic
and told him,

"I have a critical infant."

And I remember looking at her,
thinking that somebody's world

is getting ready
to be turned upside down,

'cause I knew her fate.

Woman: He's a toddler.
He's about 20 months old.

Man: At the end of the day,
there were 168 people killed,

and that 168 people included
19 small children.

Man: Got one here!
Got a child here!

Man: Out of the way.

Man: We got the call.

Frankie had been
positively identified.

I just don't know that there's
any formula

that you can follow
to prepare for the worst

and especially when it comes
to losing a child,

not at 23,
in the prime of life.

And then you're thinking,
"What are you gonna tell

a two-year-old?
What about her mom?"

Man: On the morning of
April the 19th, 1995,

my daughter Julie Marie died.

Julie worked as a Spanish
translator for Social Security,

on the first floor
of the Murrah Building.

She had gone to
the Social Security

waiting room
to get a client,

and had she been at her office,
she would have been okay

because there was no one killed
in her work area.

But she was killed
because she had left

and went to the front
of the building.

After Julie's death,
I went through a lot of grief,

and I went to
the bomb site each day,

felt a special closeness
by going there.

Man: A cleansing rain
fell in Oklahoma City,

as thousands of mourners
in a solemn processional

made their way
past the bomb site.

The survivors and families
of victims

each placed a single rose
amidst the debris.

It was a void
that you can't fill,

and that became
the beginning of a long road.

Woman:
The judge has sworn the jury,

and opening statements
have begun.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Woman:
The jury is in the courtroom.

The judge has sworn the jury,

and opening statements
have begun in the trial

of United States
versus Timothy McVeigh.

Man: When McVeigh came in
every morning

before the jury showed up,
he was smirking, laughing,

flirting with any women
on his team.

[ McVeigh ]

Potok: But when it was time
to all rise,

he would go
into his soldier mode.

I think the prosecution put on
a very, very good case.

They went through how
they acquired the materials,

how the bomb was built.

I remember every Friday
afternoon,

some of the last witnesses
of the day

for that week would be victims

so that the jurors were left
over the weekend

with a feeling
of what it was like to be there

or to have lost someone
during the bombing.

[ McVeigh ]

Man: The picture that emerged
of McVeigh

was of this very manipulative
and very selfish person,

who didn't really care about
any of the people around him.

Coverdale:
Sitting in the courtroom,

I'd just stare at him,

and I would wish
that my mind would reach out

because I wanted to know why.

Why did you do this?

Potok: Timothy McVeigh wanted
to have a necessity defense,

that he needed to blow up
the federal building

because the federal government
was an imminent threat

to the life and liberty
of American citizens everywhere.

But Tim McVeigh's lawyer
absolutely disagreed.

McVeigh's attorney argued that
this was a broader conspiracy

and that Timothy McVeigh
was really just a foot soldier.

But I think anyone who sat
through the trial

would believe the same thing:

that Timothy McVeigh
was guilty of the bombing.

Woman: It is a decision that has
had much of the nation

holding its breath.

Today, the federal jury
handed down its verdicts

against Timothy McVeigh --
guilty on all counts.

[ Reporter ]

Man: And now the question
for the jury was,

"Should McVeigh
be sentenced to die?"

Coverdale: You know, I wanted
Tim to get the death penalty.

I have never believed
in capital punishment,

but that's what anger
does to you.

I want the man
to spend a very --

till he draws his last breath
in solitary confinement.

Tom Kight: Marsha thought it was
too easy.

She was gonna have to live
the rest of her life

without Frankie each day,

and she wanted McVeigh
locked up

to suffer every day
and think about what he did.

I mean, lethal injection,
putting somebody to sleep

that has created such pain
for so many,

I mean,
that's too damn easy.

Man: I was so angry
and so full of revenge.

It's hard to explain
what you go through,

but I finally decided
that killing him

was not what I wanted.

Is that going to help me
to heal?

Tim McVeigh wanted the world
to think that he didn't care

if he was put to death.

He felt he had already won.

[ McVeigh ]

♪♪

Woman: The jurors in

the Timothy McVeigh sentencing

of the Oklahoma City bombing
trial

have sentenced
Timothy McVeigh to death.

[ McVeigh ]

Man: McVeigh sees himself
as a martyr to the cause,

and he decides
to drop his appeals

and to not put
any roadblocks in the way

so that his execution
can go on as planned.

♪♪

When McVeigh's execution day
came around,

it was quite a big deal.

Outside the execution chamber,

you have enormous numbers
of people

demonstrating against
the death penalty.

Man: It's wrong to take
a person's life.

God will forgive you
for all sins.

Man: And you also had
an enormous amount of people

demonstrating, you know,
"Kill him."

Man:
Reference to older times.

♪♪

And he's on this gurney with
this huge, white sheet on him.

Man: And they ask him two,
maybe three times

did he have anything to say?

What I was looking for was maybe
some apology or something,

just saying, "I'm sorry.

And he never uttered a word.

There was a moment where
he sat up as best he could

and made eye contact
with each person

and deliberately spending
at least a second

with each of us,
and then moving down the row.

That was the moment
where he still seemed

to be holding on
to Tim McVeigh, the soldier.

Man: And all of a sudden,
you started seeing the tubes

were kind of swaying

as the chemicals
came up into them one at a time.

[ McVeigh ]

33-year-old Timothy McVeigh,

a decorated
Persian Gulf War veteran

and a mass murderer,
was executed this morning.

We watched the execution
here in Oklahoma City,

and I felt nothing.

I didn't feel any sadness.

I didn't feel any happiness.

I just felt dead inside.

George W. Bush: The victims of
the Oklahoma City bombing

have been given not vengeance
but justice.

For the survivors of the crime,

and for the families
of the dead, the pain goes on.

Coverdale: There's not a day
that goes by

that I don't think about
my boys.

And I'd love to see them now
because they'd be young men.

Welch: My daughter Julie is on
my mind most all the time.

When your parents die, you go to
the hilltop, and you bury them.

And when your children die,
you bury them in your heart,

and it's forever.

It never goes away.

Tom Kight: And I see Frankie
in her daughter.

You know, she'll turn
a certain way,

and she doesn't look
exactly like her,

but there will be
a certain just -- you know?

Woman: The years that followed
the bombing were really dark,

but I kept going back in time
to that moment

when I looked up at the sky,
and I promised God,

"I'll never live
my life the same."

I had a second chance.

I've worked to improve by losing
weight, from over 355 pounds.

I was buried alive
wishing I had a child,

thinking I'm gonna die
without ever being a mother.

And today, I'm the proud mother
of a 19-year-old.

I've gone back to school.

I became president,
CEO of the same credit union

that I was working at that day,

the same credit union
I started out as a teller.

I can't even explain to you
how dramatically different

my life is now
than my life was before.

Woman: I have just tried to live
a good life

and try to appreciate
every day that I have.

My daughter ended up
being born on her due date.

She came out perfectly healthy.

And she is now 23,
and she graduated from college,

and she is aspiring
to be a teacher.

Man:
When something bad happens,

there is this tendency to think
that it's somebody else.

"It's not us."

The thing that I think
we learned

is not only can
an American do this,

but somebody that served
in the military.

This is homegrown.

McVeigh really thought
that this bombing

would kick off
the revolution,

that Americans
from coast to coast

would realize how evil
the government had become

and would rise up
and smash the state.

And I think he realized quite
clearly by the time he died,

it didn't happen,
and it wasn't gonna happen.

♪♪

Timothy McVeigh's accomplice
Terry Nichols

was sentenced to life
in prison without parole.

Michael Fortier agreed
to testify against McVeigh

in exchange for
a 12-year prison sentence

and is now in
the witness protection program.

Five years after
the cowardly attack,

President Bill Clinton
dedicated a memorial

to the victims and survivors
on the site

where the Alfred Murrah Building
once stood.

It features 168 empty chairs,
one for each of the lives lost.

I'm hill harper.

Thanks for watching.