Now Playing
The Man Who Drove to Waco: McVeigh, Ruby Ridge & the Militia Fuse
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Timothy McVeigh stood outside the Waco perimeter selling anti-government bumper stickers — two years later, he bombed Oklahoma City. This episode traces the lethal chain from Ruby Ridge to Mount Carmel to the deadliest domestic terror attack in American history.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Two years before Timothy McVeigh parked a truck bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City, he drove to Waco, Texas. He stood outside the perimeter and watched.
To understand the aftermath, you need the sequence. And the sequence starts several months before Waco, in rural Idaho.
Then came Waco. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms had been building a case against the Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, for months.
The FBI took over. The standoff that followed lasted fifty-one days.
Timothy McVeigh was twenty-four years old when he drove to Texas during the standoff. He'd been an Army veteran with a strong service record.
McVeigh didn't radicalize in isolation. He was part of a much broader shift in American political culture that Waco and Ruby Ridge helped accelerate.
In nineteen ninety-nine, survivors and family members of those who died at Waco brought a civil lawsuit seeking six hundred and seventy-five million dollars in damages. They alleged excessive force, negligence, and government responsibility for the fire.
The question the episode title asks is clear enough. Waco inspired McVeigh because McVeigh was already looking for proof of something, and Waco looked like proof.
Chapter summary auto-generated from the verified script. Listen to the full episode for the complete content.