Killing McVeigh: The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure

by Jody Lynee Madeira

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a two-ton truck bomb that felled the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. On June 11, 2001, an unprecedented 242 witnesses watched him die by lethal injection. In the aftermath of the bombings, American public commentary almost immediately turned to “closure” rhetoric. Reporters and audiences alike speculated about whether victim’s family members and survivors could get closure from memorial services, funerals, legislation, monuments, trials, and executions.  But what does “closure” really mean for those who survive—or lose loved ones in—traumatic acts? In the wake of such terrifying events, is closure a realistic or appropriate expectation?  In Killing McVeigh, Jody Lyneé Madeira uses the Oklahoma City bombing as a case study to explore how family members and other survivors come to terms with mass murder. As the fullest case study to date of the Oklahoma City Bombing survivors’ struggle for justice and the first-ever case study of closure, this book describes the profound human and institutional impacts of these labors to demonstrate the importance of understanding what closure really is before naively asserting it can or has been reached.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2012

Reviews

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
a valuable work, if slightly mismarketed (less focused on the death penalty than the title would imply)

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would recommend to anyone with an interest in the process of making meaning out of trauma... author isn’t a survivor or family member of someone killed, she came to the project with a lens informed by the death of her dad and how she had to reorganize the narrative of her life after. She stays focused on the stories told by victims in her interviews, which is really cool. This apparently only included people who didn’t question the official story, which is a little disappointing because some survivors/family members did, and I would have liked to see what she made of that tension. she addressed other points of contention (like the dynamics between survivors, bystanders, and family members of those killed) in really interesting ways, and the many, many reasons to doubt the completeness of the lone wolf story seems like a rich place for discussing the relevance of factual truth (and what can be done where facts can’t be established) in narrative building as part of life after trauma. Overall though she makes a lot of very interesting points, obviously is very connected with her interview subjects, and worked hard to represent their stories faithfully and respectfully

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating research of crime victims' reactions to violence and the death of loved ones. Though it's a work of science, not literature, it's readable and engaging enough for the lay person. Most impressively, the book reflects and honestly reports the views of the Oklahoma City bombing victims and survivors without being pedantic about the author's own views or judging the victims' views.