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

by Wendy S. Painting

Underneath the surface of McVeigh’s life story, as told by himself and others, is a mystifying, enigmatic, and at the same time all-too-familiar tale of dysfunction, patriotism, medical abuse, torture, interrogation, militarism, the frightening reach of technology, perceived betrayal, secrecy, misdirection, violent spectacles, and remorseless murder. The complete history of the OKC bombing and the events leading up to it will probably never be known, due to withheld, ignored, manipulated, redacted and destroyed evidence. It is, in all its details and variations, a story about expendable people in a cauldron of hate.