Take Me Down to Elohim City

Look, although it helps, you don't have to be a full-on nutjob to still have doubts in your head about the whole official Oklahoma City story. But it sure does not help to ground things in reality when the FBI botches what should be a routine records search in support of a theory that white supremacist bank robbers had something to do with the bombing.

Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue maybe completely off-base with his theory, but the Bureau simply must be able to find files that Trentadue knows it has. Besides, if Trentadue succeeds in shedding any light on possible government informants in those racist ranks in the mid-90s, as well has anything on the still mysterious Elohim City connection to Tim McVeigh, the whole enterprise will be worthwhile.

I must confess that things seemed odd to me from the minute I learned that McVeigh was stopped due to a missing license plate by a state trooper headed in the opposite direction. Maybe that was the greatest act of police diligence in history, or dumb luck, or karma blowback, could be. It is hard to quietly roll with that, however, as long the government keeps acting like it has something to hide.

Comments

[Smith]

Has anyone seen Jon Ronson's Secret Ruler's of the World episode about Oklahoma City? It gets played once in a while on Trio (was a BBC production)...pretty amazing stuff that I've never seen much about otherwise, great interviews with neo-Nazi Dennis Mahon, German Elohim-city-crasher/global-spook? Andy Strassmeir, and strippers who talked with McVeigh a couple weeks before the bombing.

The other episodes of the series focus on de-mystifying other conspiracy theories/bugaboos (Bildeberg & Bohemian Grove), but this one suggested the opposite for OK City...

[Phil]

I must confess that things seemed odd to me from the minute I learned that McVeigh was stopped due to a missing license plate by a state trooper headed in the opposite direction. Maybe that was the greatest act of police diligence in history, or dumb luck, or karma blowback, could be.

Without comment on any conspiracy theories or anything else, let's all remember that David Berkowitz was picked up because of a parking ticket and a noise complaint from a neighbor.

[McGruff]

Berkowitz was nabbed because of a ticket, but only after cops ran down the addresses of all tickets issued on the evening of a shooting, and then tracked down all cars not from the nieghborhood. Boring, routine police work.

Stopping a car of a missing plate ont he other side of the road is more luck than good police work.

[Don]

Missing front plate or rear plate?

My jeep only has a rear plate, here in CA it is supposed to have one on the front as well. I've been told at several immigration check points that I should have a front plate. I always thank the officer.

[GH]

Why do I remember (and I know the report reads otherwise) that the license plate was hanging by one screw, not necessarily completely removed?

[Lowdog]

Ha, I was looking for a conspiracy that I had read about the OKC bombing, claiming that FBI (I think, maybe ATF) agents were the ones that "suggested" the idea to McVey and/or Nichols while they were posing as white supremecists. I didn't find much about it, cuz I got side-tracked reading about the Bohemia Club. Anybody ever hear of that? Just google it, and you will...

[Lazlo Nibble]

Stopping a car of a missing plate ont he other side of the road is more luck than good police work.

Except that's not what happened, at least according to the transcript Jeff linked. McVeigh and the trooper passed in opposite directions, but after getting orders not to continue on to OKC, the trooper turned around and started back north. Along the way he came up on McVeigh from behind.

[Isaac Bartram]

The first link yields (among other things) this gem:

...of little or no sulphuric content found at the blast site (meaning it was NOT a fertilizer bomb);

I may be missing something, but why would ammonium nitrate leave behind any "sulphuric content"?

[Mo]

My jeep only has a rear plate, here in CA it is supposed to have one on the front as well. I've been told at several immigration check points that I should have a front plate.

Don,
Be careful driving on Sunset on weekend nights or in Santa Monica. They'll slap you with a ticket for revenue enhancement.

[Will Scovill]

Here in Oklahoma front plates are not required or even issued (something I get hassled about every once in a while when driving through other states).

[rob]

Normally I'm the first to turn my nose up at a conspiracy theory, but the OKC bombing strikes me as a little too well carried out for a couple of guys who were just former Army tank unit guys rather than Explosive Ordnance Disposal whiz kids or something.

Besides, there appears to be a lot to recommend the idea that they at least had good advice on how to do it from someone else. And there were some reports that there was another guy with McVeigh...