Red Dirt Report | April 16, 2010
Andrew W. Griffin
OKLAHOMA CITY – An important press conference addressing “unanswered questions” related to the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building was held Thursday afternoon on the second floor of the Oklahoma State Capitol.
These speakers, including American Free Press reporter Pat Shannan, who has reported extensively on the case, to former federal grand jury member Hoppy Heidelberg, the common thread was that the bombing was not accomplished by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols alone, that others were involved, including agents of the federal government.
Among the speakers assembled at the press conference, an event coordinated in part by documentary filmmaker Chris Emery, were Jannie Coverdale, whose two grandchildren, Aaron and Elijah, were killed in the bombing.
“We want to know who blew up the building,” Coverdale said. “I was told to attend the trials in Denver and my questions would be answered. They were not.”
Beyond a form letter from Gov. Brad Henry, which Coverdale promptly tore into small pieces, state and federal politicians have ignored her calls for a true investigation into the bombing and the numerous anomalies surrounding it.
“My grandchildren died in ’95. We lost a lot of babies that day. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about those babies and wonder who killed them,” Coverdale said.
Wendy Painting, a graduate student and researcher from upstate New York told the group that she has been thoroughly investigating various aspects of the bombing.
Noting the 1996 “suicide” of Oklahoma City Police Department Officer Terry Yeakey and the unsolved issues surrounding that case, Painting noted, “Questions can be mortally dangerous.”
Oklahoma City researcher Joe Cooley also spoke and said that after hearing about the Yeakey case he was “horrified.” But he began digging and was soon subject to “surveillance” by people who did not want him to seek the truth.
Cooley said a source told him that Yeakey – who was found brutally murdered in a remote area in Canadian County – had been killed by “federal agents” but that the source could not say much more than that.
Emery, who has been working for several years on a documentary about the mysteries still hanging over the Oklahoma City Bombing, reminded the press that those seeking the truth “have no political agenda” that this is simply “about right and wrong.”
One man who was in a victim of the blast that day in April 1995 was Oklahoma City resident V.Z. Lawton. He recalled feeling the building shake violently before being knocked out by something that hit him on the back of the head.
“I never heard the truck bomb,” Lawton said, who noted that retired USAF Brig. Gen. Ben Partin had reported that the building came down after “explosive devices were wrapped around the columns” of the Murrah building.
“Who wanted that building brought down?” asked Lawton. Speculating, he noted that documents and records related to the Clinton Whitewater case and information detailing BATF involvement in the massacre at the Mt. Carmel compound near Waco, Texas in 1993 were stored in that building and were either removed or destroyed.
Lawton continued and said that up to four “John Doe 2’s” were seen around downtown Oklahoma City that morning, one of which was with McVeigh. He speculated that McVeigh dropped off his accomplice who then stealthily removed the license plate from the ’77 Mercury McVeigh was driving. Lawton wondered if this was done so McVeigh would be caught driving the car without a tag – as he was, hours later, near Perry – and pinned with being the bomber.
Lawton also said that tag – stolen from a vehicle registered in Arkansas – eventually made its way to TV reporter Jayna Davis who then passed it on to the FBI.
Continuing, Harmon Taylor, the Dallas, Texas-based attorney who was granted a 30-day stay of execution of McVeigh in May 2001, spoke more about the legal aspects of the judicial system and how the system did not do things properly, including the fact that the case should never have been transferred to Denver, where the case was ultimately held.
“How does this system continue to murder people and get by with it?” Taylor asked.
Indeed.
Monday, April 19th, is the 15th anniversary of the bombing.
