I recently listened to a three part series on the OKC bombing posted by The Last Podcast on the Left. For the most part the main sources they used were Oklahoma City: What the investigation missed and why it still matters, and the approved biography of McVeigh, American Terrorist. Between the jokes about Trump and White Supremists there were nuggets of information that I had not heard on other podcasts.
For starters I have had a difficult time with the dental issues detailed in Dr Wendy Paintings book Aberrations in the Heartland of the Real, a highly detailed account of McVeigh’s life. The book discusses the onset of McVeigh’s tooth decay problem having started in the military before he served in Desert Storm. I can’t say that I am an expert of subjects like meth but I have seen more than my fair share of Summer teeth smiled in meth infested Michigan. Once I had seen the image of McVeigh’s dental X-ray the only thought I had was “meth mouth”.
Jump ahead several weeks to yesterday and three times during the “left” podcast there was mention of McVeigh’s chronic use of meth and how it was introduced to him by Michael Fortie, an army buddy he met at bootcamp. While the podcast said that Forte introduced McVeigh to the drug after he left the military I have a feeling, although I can’t back it up, that this timeline is most likely made up. If this story came from McVeigh he would not admit to using while in the service in order to keep his perfect soldier reputation intact. To stay on the road for the traveling gun show scene Forte supplied McVeigh with meth.
Then came the story of Jennifer McVeigh, Tim’s sister, who was working as a nude jello wrestler as Tim was on the road with the gun show circuit. During one visit home Tim gave his sister three one hundred dollar bills telling her it was from a bank robbery. Whether or not Jennifer believed him is up for debate. This woman that is suspected of laundering money for her bank robbing brother and former nude jello wrestler now works as a public school teacher. What is it with strippers becoming teachers later in life?
The more I dive into this subject the more questions I have about who to believe. From my understanding American Terrorist is a garbage book that sells the official narrative and sold through the confessions of Timothy McVeigh. The mental debate that is raging at the moment is juggling between McVeigh the meth addict and McVeigh the straight shooter square at the party. While I want to trust the vast knowledge that Wendy Painting gathered over the years I also know meth mouth when I see it.
While much of the podcast spend well deserved time bashing McVeigh as a white trash, neo-nazi thug, they clearly didn’t know about McVeigh’s academic career of being a grade A student, earning a scholarship, and being a hacker before most people knew what the internet was going to become. While so much information was left out of the McVeigh story the new fun facts kept my interest. The drug addiction made sense to me. Long hours on the road, constantly on the move, meth, the secret ingredient for a successful trucker. The drug abuse also fits with a career in the military. The German blitzkrieg was fueled by meth. The Japanese Kamikaze pilots were high on meth. The long distance bombing runs of the allied forces was run on meth. The number one prescribed drug in the 1950s to housewives was… meth. Desert Storm is called the 100 hour war and my guess is that McVeigh was awake for all of it. “Bad Company” blaring from his headphones as he blew a man’s head off and ran over bodies in the middle of the desert. I don’t know what to make of the rotten teeth in McVeigh’s mouth but can say he did spend a lot of time in Michigan and if this state had a drug of choice outside of weed it would be the blue Heisenberg rock from Breaking Bad.
The most interesting part of this tale as told by the “Left” podcast is the trailer park, white trash culture they portray the McVeigh clan living in. Meth fueled bank heist, nude jello wrestling, Terry Nichols being cuckold by McVeigh, and bombs being blown up in a field for a “hold my beer” moment. The tale told by these guys makes the OKC bombing sound like a spin off of Jackass gone wrong. How a clusterfuck of idiots would have been able to pull off a stunt like the bombing of the Murrah Building and not be caught beforehand is beyond comprehension. Believe it or not I think some answers were given to questions that had been bugging me. But I will say that the jello wrestling I never expected.