Product Description

A major news event: The first book to tell the true and complete story of the most horrific act of domestic terrorism in US history - as informed by exclusive interviews with the bomber Timothy McVeigh, as well as his family and 300 others. On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a bomb that claimed 168 lives, including those of 19 children. In June of 1997, 29-year-old Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the bombing and sentenced to death. But McVeigh, whose case is currently up for appeal, has never publicly confirmed or denied his role in the bombing; he has never given a complete accounting of exactly what happened that day, or in the days and months preceding the event. Until now. Investigative journalists Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck have covered the story of the Oklahoma City bombing since McVeigh was first named as a suspect. And now they have secured an extraordinary coup: the first extensive interview with the killer McVeigh, conducted over more than 75 hours and furthered by an extensive correspondence with the authors. In these pages, the authors have reconstructed every last detail of the conception, planning, and execution of this tragedy. McVeigh has given this exhaustive account freely, without any compensation or approval, and his contributions have been supplemented by over 300 other interviews with others - from his family to survivors of the bombing. The details of this account will on their own make this book a page-one newsmaker - and will almost certainly influence the fate of others whose day in court awaits. But Michel and Herbeck have gone beyond merely reconstructing the bombing. In these pages they offer the first complete portrait we have had of McVeigh's life: of the formation of his character from childhood through his Gulf War experience and the plunge into the world of anti-government extremists and gun-show agitators that fanned the flames of his hatred. This will be the definitive account of the making of America's most chilling mass murderer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #951461 in Books
• Published on: 2002-04-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 560 pages

Review
"This impeccably reported book...represents good journalism."Cleveland Plain Dealer"American Terrorist is the closest we'll get to the official testimony of Timothy McVeigh."The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"An important contribution to history."New York Daily News"In calm, unadorned prose, the authors methodically reconstruct...McVeigh's swift journey into ...hell."The Buffalo News"The book is history. Michel and Herbeck have done us all a service."New York Newsday"Compelling. It gets inside the mind of a monster..."The Daily Oklahoman"American Terrorist unfolds as the warped reflection of teh American Dream."Fort Worth Star Telegram"Probably the best recounting of the biggest true crime story in modern times, told by two crack investigative reporters."Minneapolis Star Tribune"The chill lasts long after you put the book down."Denver Rocky Mountain News

Customer Reviews

Written by religious fundamentalist!
1. I bought this book based on a very positive review in the Guardian Weekly.

2. I am a reasonable modern agnostic Norwegian. When I started to read the book, I reacted to the fact that the writer without any distance assumes a strongly religious viewpoint, from himself and implicitly from the reader. There are numerous religious references to for example praying and God in the text. I find the text higly disrespectful to people of different life perspectives. I was so annoyed by this that I stopped reading the book after 50 pages.

3. For more persistent and less lazy readers this element might in fact be positive, as it gives an illustration of possible cultural differences between modern European societies and the United States.

Pure Class
When i first heard about McVeigh i thought that the death penalty was the best outcome. But after reading this book i changed my mind. People haven't been told the whole story and i got the impression he was just sick. Firstly, this book tells the whole story from a totally unbias point. he did what he did because the FBI screwed up the waco scenario, and the building he blew was the murrah building which belongs to the FBI. he felt this was "revenge". I don't agree with the deaths of innocent people but by reading this book i saw his views and his troubles and how the usa let him down after the gulf.
This book is well worth the few pound it costs and does really reveal alot about the case and Timothy McVeigh.