January 28, 2004

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A federal inmate who is expected to testify at bombing conspirator Terry Nichols' murder trial will name other suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing, according to a published report.

Peter K. Langan Jr., serving a life prison sentence for bank robbery and weapons violations, told the McCurtain Daily Gazette for a copyright story Wednesday that he would tie several men to the bombing conspiracy. Langan, who led a gang of neo-Nazis that robbed at least 22 banks in seven Midwestern states, said he will also tie the suspects to at least one other crime in which the government alleges Nichols was involved.

Nichols, convicted of federal bombing charges and sentenced to life in prison, is charged with 161 counts of first-degree murder in Oklahoma for the April19 , 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Nichols' attorney Brian Hermanson has consistently refused to comment on the case, citing a judge's gag order.

In a telephone interview from a federal facility in Jonesville, Va., Langan told the newspaper he will tie bombing coconspirator Timothy McVeigh and the bomb plot to several men associated with Elohim City, a white supremacist enclave in eastern Oklahoma.

ATF informant Carol E. Howe testified at Nichols' federal trial in Denver that she saw McVeigh walking with one of the men at Elohim City before the bombing. Howe has also disclosed conversations she says she participated in where two of the men discussed plans to attack federal installations in Oklahoma.

The government has said it investigated connections between McVeigh and persons in Langan's group but linked only Nichols and McVeigh to the Oklahoma City bombing. McVeigh was convicted of federal bombing charges and sentenced to death. He was executed in 2001.

Langan, who met with an attorney for Nichols on Tuesday, is also expected to testify that blasting caps and other evidence seized by the FBI after gang members were arrested would link elements of the ARA to the Oklahoma City bombing as well as a gun robbery in November 1994 near Hot Springs, Ark.

The FBI has alleged that Nichols robbed gun collector Roger Moore to help finance the bomb plot. Langan is expected to testify that members of his gang committed the robbery, not Nichols.

Just a little reminder...

Tim McVeigh, domestic terrorist, was a Gulf War I veteran, called himself a patriot, and so on.

This link is to a TIME magazine interivew with him where he talks a bit about his war experience.