Were There More OKC Conspirators?: The Elohim City Connection
Elohim City ("The City of God") is a 400-acre compound located in isolated and rugged hill country on the Oklahoma-Arkansas border.  The compound was founded by white supremacist Robert Millar as a Christian Identity settlement in 1973.  The compound, which has had at times over 100 residents, has been considered to be a hotbed of anti-government and criminal activities.

Phone record showing calls made by Timothy McVeigh from the Imperial Motel in Kingman, Arizona on April 5, 1995, exactly two weeks before the Oklahoma City bombing.  The first call is to the Ryder Truck Rental Company and the second, just two minutes later, is a call placed to the "Elohim City" compound in Muldrow, Oklahoma. The call was an unsuccessfull attempt to reach the man pictured below, Elohim City resident, Andreas Strassmeir.

Andreas Strassmeir
 


What McVeigh's "authorized biography" says about the Elohim City connection:
McVeigh admitted calling Elohim City for Andreas ("Andy the German") Strassmeir on 4/5/95.  He 
says the purpose of the call was ask Strassmeir,who he met at a Tulsa gun show in 1994, whether
he could use Elohim City as a hideout after the bombing (p244).  McVeigh admitting discussing 
political issues with Strassmeir, the grandson of a founder of the Nazi party, but claimed that 
Strassmeir had nothing to do with the bombing itself.  A polygraph test taken by McVeigh, however,
showed that while he was truthful in discussing his own role in the bombing, he "showed signs of
evasion" when he said no persons, other than those already charged, were involved in the bombing (p351).

What federal agents said in a memo written on 4/20/1995:
"It is suspected that members of Elohim City are involved either directly or indirectly through
conspiracy..."

What McVeigh's defense attorney, Steven Jones, said:
"I don't doubt Tim's role in the conspiracy.  But I think he clearly aggrandized his role, enlarged it,
to cover for others who were involved." (AP, 2/13/2003)

What the FBI's scene commander for the Oklahoma City investigation, Danny Coulson, said in 2003:
"I think you have too many coincidences here that raise questions about whether other people are 
involved.  The close associations with Elohim City  and the earlier plan [of Elohim City residents] to
do the same Murrah Building all suggest the  complicity of other people." (AP, 2/13/2003)

What Dan Defenbaugh, retired FBI Chief of the Oklahoma City bombing investigation said in 2003:
"If I were still in the bureau, the investigation would be reopened."



What two fellow inmates on death row say McVeigh
revealed to them (from Secrets Worth Dying For, 
by David Hammer and Jeffrey Paul (2004)):
After receiving a tour of the Elohim City compound
on 10/12/1993, McVeigh and Nichols had a meeting
with Andreas Strassmeir and several other men to
discuss "direct action against the federal
government" (p158). Within months, McVeigh had
joined two of the men he met at Elohim City in 
robbing banks (McVeigh served as the getaway driver)
around the Midwest (p159).  In April 1994, in a
meeting with Strassmeir and White Aryan Resistance
leader Dennis Mahon, McVeigh first discussed blowing
up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City (p164). In
September 1994, McVeigh attended a series of planning
meetings in Elohim City (p167).  In early 1995, 
McVeigh and members of the Aryan Resistance (ARA) from 
Elohim City were conducting practice runs of the 
bombing (p173).  Michael Brescia was chosen to
accompany McVeigh on his bombing run (p174).  On April 
8, McVeigh met in Tulsa with Brescia and Strassmeir
to discuss the bombing [and watch strippers?--see box
to lower left](p175). Brescia and other
ARA members assisted McVeigh in loading explosives
into the Ryder truck and mixing them (p177-78).
Brescia rode into Oklahoma City in the Ryder truck
with McVeigh on 4/19/95, exiting at a stoplight and
NW 5th Street and Harvey.  McVeigh then parked the
truck in front of the Murrah Building and quickly
walked in the direction of his getaway car (p182-83).
What a 2003 AP report said about McVeigh's
connection to Elohim City and white supremacists:
AP writer John Solomon's investigation led him to 
conclude that white supremacists from Elohim City
played a major role in the bombing conspiracy.
Solomon noted, for example, an FBI teletype showed
that on April 16, 1995 two Elohim City gang members
left the compound for a location in Kansas close to
"where McVeigh was doing the final assembly of his
bomb."  Solomon also reported that two Elohim City
gang members, Kevin Langan and Mark Thomas, told 
federal agents that they could provide information
linking McVeigh to Ayran Resistance.  Even more
compelling evidence, Solomon reported, came from
informant John Shults, who "told agents in 1997 that
he was sure 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' he saw
McVeigh at Elohim City in 1994 at a meeting about a
mysterious delivery and use of a Ryder truck."
 
What else happened on April 19, 1995?
1.  In Arkansas:
From a 5/12/1996 story by Howard Pankratz in the Denver Post:
Former members of a radical paramilitary group and a retired FBI agent believe last year's bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City may have been revenge for the execution of one of its members.
Richard Wayne Snell, a member of the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord (CSA), was executed on April 19, 1995 - 12 hours after an oil and gas fertilizer bomb ripped the Murrah building apart, killing 168 people.
Snell and the CSA had targeted the same federal building for bombing after the 1983 death of North Dakota farmer Gordon Kahl in a fiery confrontation with federal authorities in Arkansas....
A former high-ranking Arkansas prison official told The Denver Post that during the four days before Snell's execution, Snell repeatedly predicted that there would be a bombing or an explosion the day of his death.
The official, Alan Ables, said he was so concerned that he took extraordinary personal precautions the day of the execution. "Based on what I was hearing from the management team and ... briefings, I was concerned enough" to take the precautions, said Ables, a retired Navy officer who was legislative assistant to the director of the Arkansas Department of Corrections....
2.  In Spokane, Washington
From a January 1996 story in the Spokane Spokesman-Review
According to the manager of a Spokane motel, about 7:15 PST (45 minutes before the bombing), Chevie Kehoe, a former resident of Elohim City, asked to have the motel's lobby television turned to CNN.  According to the manager, "Days before that , he had mentioned to me that there's going to be something happening on the 19th and it's going to wake people up."  The manager described Kehoe as ecstatic when the bombing was announced on television. "It is about time," Kehoe reportedly exclaimed.

McVeigh's October 12, 1993 ticket for prohibited passing on Ark. State Hwy #59, 12 miles from Elohim City.  Agents also located a hotel receipt showing McVeigh stayed at a motel in Vian, Oklahoma, just miles from Elohim City on September 13, 1994, the day that a  grand jury concluded he formulated the OKC bombing plot.
ATF Informant Carol Howe's Testimony Concerning
McVeigh's Presence at Elohim City
(Terry Nichols Trial)
 Q. Now, are you familiar with what Timothy McVeigh looks like,
 Ms. Howe?
 A.  Yes, sir.
 Q.  Have you seen photographs of Timothy McVeigh?
 A.  Yes, I have.
 Q.  Did you ever see Timothy McVeigh at the Elohim City
 compound? 
 A.  I believe I did.
 Q.  All right.  When did you see him?
 A.  It was in July of 1994.
 Q.  Okay.  And where did you see him?
 A.  He was at a section of the compound walking across a lawn
 near the church building.
 Q.  And was he accompanied by any other individuals who you
 know?
 A.  Yes, he was.
 Q.  And who were they?
 A.  A man named Peter Ward and a man named Andreas Strassmeier.
 Q.  About how far away were you when you believe you saw
 Timothy McVeigh?
 A.  Approximately 70 feet.
 Q.  At the time that you saw him, did you know his name was
 Timothy McVeigh?
 A.  No, sir.
 Q.  You subsequently came to learn his name was Timothy
 McVeigh?
 A.  Correct.
 Q.  Now, did you have occasion to--did Mr. Mahon-- strikethat.
 Did Mr. Mahon
 have an apartment in Tulsa, Oklahoma,during this time period?
 A.  A house, yes.
 Q.  A house.  And did you have occasion to spend time there
 during the time period we're talking about, fall, 1994?
 A.  Yes, sir.
 Q.  Did Mr. Mahon in your recollection--did he ever receive
 any phone calls while you were in the house with him?
 A.  Yes, sir.
 Q.  Do you recall Mr. Mahon ever saying or mentioning the name
 "Tim Tuttle"*?
 MS. WILKINSON:  Objection.
 THE COURT:  Overruled.
 THE WITNESS:  Yes, I do.
 BY MR. THURSCHWELL:
 Q.  Okay.  Could you tell the jury not any contents of the
 phone call that he related to you but how you came to hear
 his name; that is, Tim Tuttle's name?
 A.  Mr. Mahon received a phone call.  We were sitting in the
 living room. He went into the bedroom to answer the phone, and
 I heard his statements from where I was sitting.
 Q.  And what did you hear him say?
 A.  I heard him say, "Tim Tuttle, Tuttle, Tuttle, Tuttle,
 Tuttle," and laughed.
 Q.  And you subsequently had a conversation about that phone
 call that he had received?
 A.  Yes.  When he came back --

*"Tim Tuttle" is an alias that McVeigh admits having used.

"Elohim City" is located on a mountainous 400-acre tract of land in Adair County,
 Oklahoma, just northwest of Fort Smith, Arkansas.


"John Doe #2"
Michael Brescia
John Doe No. 2?
Witnesses described John Doe #2 as being a handsome, muscular man with an olive complexion.  Several people--including McVeigh, according to two men who shared death row with him--have suggested that ARA member Brescia was John Doe #2.  Brescia, in a 1997 plea bargain made the day after the government announced John Doe #2 never existed, admitted to robbing one bank and served four years in prison.  Other witnesses, perhaps more credible, insist that Brescia is not John Doe #2, and that the real John Doe #2 is taller (about 5'10") and older  (about 30) and more reclusive than Brescia.

Selected FBI Reports Concerning John Doe #2 and Others
3/1994
 Andreas Strassmeir claimed to have met McVeigh this month at a gun show in Tulsa.  (phone interview)
9/12-13/94
 McVeigh rented a room at the El Siesta Motel near Elohim City
4/14/95
 A guest at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City saw a man who resembled John Doe 2 near McVeigh's room.
4/15/95
 A man delivering pizza to McVeigh's room at the Dreamland Motel said he gave the pizza to a man who was neither McVeigh or John Doe 2.
4/16/95 According to two Dreamland guests, at 1 a.m,  man stuck his head out of the room rented to McVeigh.  The man resembled John Doe 2.
4/17/95
 A white supremacist member in Utah places the first of a series of phone calls over the next two days to the Oklahoma City Radisson Inn.
A guest at the Dreamland sees the driver (who is not McVeigh) of a Ryder truck get out of the truck and walk into the motel office.  The man resembled John Doe 2, according to the guest.
At 9 p.m.,  man at  a convenience store in Herington saw McVeigh and a man "who fit the general description" of John Doe 2.
4/18/95
 Two men saw McVeigh and John Doe 2 park a Ryder truck in front of a Hardee's in Junction City.
At 8 a.m., the couple that own the Santa Fe Trail Diner in Herington say they saw McVeigh, Nichols, and a third man have breakfast in their restaurant.  The third man "resembled John Doe 2."
Witnesses see a Ryder truck and a blue or brown pickup truck at Geary Lake around 9-10 a.m.
At 7 p.m., the owners of a steakhouse in Perry, Oklahoma see McVeigh and "a stocky companion" eat in their restaurant.  They notice a Ryder truck parked in their lot.
4/19/95
 A surveillance camera south of Witchita films a Ryder truck with two men in it, and a dark pickup following closely behind.
Two men, including McVeigh, reportedly make an early morning stop for coffee in Mulhall, Oklahoma, just off I-35.
At 8:30 a.m., according to the employee of an Oklahoma City tire store, two men driving in a Ryder truck stop and ask directions to NW 5th Street and Harvey.  McVeigh was the driver and the other man, with a darker complexion, wore a baseball cap.


Lady Godiva's, a Tulsa strip club where on April 8, 1995, a security camera
 seems to capture McVeigh on  tape telling a stripper that  he
 will be "famous" on  April  19.

What Happened at Lady Godiva's?
According to published reports, a security camera in the dressing room of Lady Godiva's, a strip club in Tulsa, captured an interesting scene on April 8, 1995.  (The tape has appeared on Canadian television and has been reviewed by the FBI.)  On the tape, a man (who witnesses at the club say was McVeigh) is heard saying to a dancer, "I'm a very smart man...And on April 19, 1995, you'll remember me for the rest of your life."  The dancer laughs and says, "Oh, really?"  The man replies, "Yes, you will."  The dancer walks out of the dressing room and says to other dancers, "Weirdo." 

Witnesses at the club, after looking at photos, say they saw McVeigh, along with Andreas Strassmeir and another man (perhaps Michael Brescia), sitting together at a table.


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