Oklahoma City Bombing Documentary Sparks New Conversation

As the Sooner State enjoyed what was a beautiful Sunday afternoon yesterday, it was impossible not to be reminded of the date and reflect on the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I bet everyone who was alive at the time can remember where they were when the news got to them. I was sitting at my desk in Ms. Phelan's sixth-grade class.

Like I told my nephews when they asked, this was a different time. We didn't get an alert on our phones or see it on social media. In the 90s, we learned of things a much different way... By overhearing adults talk about stuff, and that's how the rumblings of a bombing in Oklahoma City came up that morning. By the time lunch was over, Ms. Phelan felt it was important enough of a current event that she rolled a TV into the classroom and let us watch the coverage for one hour each day until the 24/7 coverage ended a week or two later.

Between that hour each weekday in the classroom and every Oklahoma parent staying glued to the coverage at home, it's safe to say that most Oklahomans who were around during that time likely feel like they know the whole story... but a documentary that popped up in 2024 suggests we really don't.

It's an HBO documentary titled 'An American Bombing.'

Like every good documentary, it rolled through so much more information than we were all aware of at the time, and it left far more questions than answers. There was a much bigger picture that never really made it into the news coverage or public knowledge until now.

We all knew how the inspiration for this attack was the insane government actions at Waco and Ruby Ridge, but the whole backstory goes deeper. This whole anti-government movement can be traced back to the failed policies of President Jimmy Carter and more during President Reagan's terms.

While your older, conservative-leaning family members love to talk about how Hilary Clinton had this building blown up, HBO frames this story very differently.

At the time, American farmers were being pushed into bankruptcy by the federal government, and during this crisis, they turned radical and violent. The anti-government groups that spawned at the time not only inspired McVeigh and Nichols, but also allegedly funded the bombing as well.

John Doe Number Two

While you're probably current on the official story of how the government quickly brought Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols to justice, there were efforts to track down another person of interest. You remember him as John Doe #2.

Officially, the FBI cleared John Doe #2. According to them, he was simply just an enlisted Army soldier at Fort Riley, Kansas, who happened to be renting a truck the day before McVeigh, but the documentary insists that's not the case at all.

Still to this day, victims, survivors, and eyewitnesses gave statements that this John Doe #2 was with McVeigh in downtown OKC more than once. Even seen walking away from the rental truck with McVeigh on the morning of the bombing.

It's a heavy accusation inside the documentary and begs the question, why wasn't this information tracked and shared by federal investigators?

Don't let great get in the way of good enough.

That's an aggravating sentence, isn't it? It's a mantra of corporate America, but also the highest-held belief of the US justice system. It means that you shouldn't strive for an A when you can pass with a C. Like how some murderers get a slap on the wrist and only a few years in a cell on a plea bargain. That's what this documentary suggests happened within the FBI and Department of Justice.

The picture this documentary paints.

They gave up on the search for John Doe #2 because they believed their best chance for success was pinning the whole thing on Timothy McVeigh.

That doesn't mean to suggest that McVeigh was innocent in any of this, but it implies he wasn't alone, and the government knew this. The belief was if they charged more people for this crime, in the sense of shared responsibility, each might walk away with a reduced punishment.

Long story short... There could be one or many people who were directly responsible for this attack who are still walking free among us.

Is any of this true?

Ehh, even if it were, we'd never know about it. The federal government, FBI, and DOJ wouldn't publicly come out and say, "Hey, about that. We messed up."

Of course, as with any documentary, it's intentionally made to guide your thought process in the direction the filmmaker wants you to think, so can you trust it more than the government either?

Either way you see it, which side you choose is up to you. It's an interesting theory from an interesting viewpoint that is sure to make good conversation in your own circle of friends, definitely worth a watch.