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

by Wendy S. Painting

would inspire and catalyze other revolutionary acts.2 FBI Special Agents Jon Hersley and Larry Tongate, two lead investigators in the case, felt compelled, in their 2004 book Simple Truths: The Real Story of the Oklahoma City Bombing Investigation, to correct “various inaccurate and irresponsible theories that this notorious event spawned” and “tell the real story” of the Oklahoma bombing. Restating their intentions throughout the book, the authors offer “a much-needed factual history of the case” and Simple Truths purports to offer a “contribution to accuracy in history.” Tongate and Hersley summarize and advance the FBI’s conclusion and the case prosecutors presented at the criminal trials of McVeigh and Nichols and assert that, having turned over every stone and followed every lead, “all other theories proved implausible [and] no credible evidence existed that anyone other than McVeigh and Nichols were involved.”