Aberration in the Heartland of the Real: The Secret Lives of Timothy McVeigh

by Wendy S. Painting

Remember Michael Gelles, the navy counter-intelligence professional called in by the FBI to hypnotize the woman who saw Tim McVeigh with two other guys at Maloney’s real estate office in Missouri? Gelles, not just a one-trick hypno-pony, also had some insight into the workings of McVeigh’s real or imagined career as a government-sponsored covert warrior on a secret mission. In 2000, Gelles, Chief Psychologist for Naval Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) (among his other titles) made headlines for his NCIS internship program, which trained college students and agents of regional, state, federal and international law enforcement organizations, in effective undercover intelligence-gathering methods and sting operation protocols. Students of the program, explained Gelles, learn “what it’s like to pretend to be somebody else.”106 Students took a battery of psychological tests to identify their unique personality traits with the intent of creating better, more convincing misrepresentations and then further developed and tested their new identities. The school was like an incubator for monster liars, and Gelles the midwife to the false personas the students birthed.