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

by Wendy S. Painting

authentic self. But alongside of him, working concurrently, likely without his knowledge, are imposters implanted and controlled by shadowy intelligence agencies. Whether the real McVeigh went rogue, went off the reservation, or carried out his orders as directed, it matters little, as there is always another McVeigh ready to fill to his shoes. Three years before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover informed the State Department there was a possibility that an “imposter” was attempting to pass himself off as Lee Harvey Oswald and thanked them in advance for any information they could provide about him.80 The FBI of the 1990’s sought to avoid these types of mysteries in McVeigh’s case. But unlike Oswald, who insisted certain incriminating pictures of him were doctored and faked, once McVeigh became America’s Face