If you didn't catch this when MSNBC aired it, The Rachel Maddow Show and MSNBC did a really excellent job with this special. Ashley Michelle Papon gave this really great description of the documentary.
Presentation of ‘McVeigh Tapes’ on Bombing Anniversary Raises Questions of Politics, Terrorism:
Monday, April 19 marked the 15-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing. The most destructive act of domestic terrorism that nearly destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Building murdered 168 people, injured more than 800 and threatened to bankrupt the city with an estimated cost topping $652 million. For days, the nation sat, captivated, with cameras rolling on Oklahoma while the tangible toll raised.
One question was raised immediately following the disaster: who would do this? The answer came more quickly than most would have expected: Timothy McVeigh. After McVeigh’s consequent arrest, trial and execution, the American public only wanted to know why.
Last night, MSNBC correspondent Rachel Maddow gave the American public the answer. In a two-hour presentation that included previously unreleased audio tapes, video clips and computer simulation, “The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist” delivered a chilling portrayal of America’s most prolific mass murderer. The interviews were conducted by journalist Lou Michel, who later authored the nonfiction account of the bombing,. Michel spent over 45 hours interviewing McVeigh and opted to share those tapes with MSNBC. Expressing his characteristic justifications, viewers witnessed McVeigh’s nonchalance in planning the bombing, executing the lighting of the bomb’s fuses and ultimately, catching the broadcast of the carnage he created.
It’s something that, in the nine years leading up to his execution from the date of the bombing, he never expressed any remorse over. Read on...
You can watch the rest of the special by hitting the Playlist button once the video starts.
