What we can learn from the Oklahoma City Bombing in 2023
The Oklahoma City Bombing was one of the most devastating homegrown terrorist attacks in America in modern times. The event left hundreds injured, homeless, and killed. The attack tallied up to 168 death, 850 injured, 250 children lost at least one parent and claimed the lives of 19 children. The culprits of this event were non-other than Mr. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. These two mass murders were led by an extreme right-wing ideology and belief that the federal government led by the corrupt Jews needed to be stopped and supported the notion of exterminating all Jews and non-white people. This led McVeigh and Nichols to build a 4800-pound bomb strapped to a Ryder truck and detonated outside a federal building. Soon after the explosion, an array of theories and opinions of what exactly happened on April 19, 1995 (Oklahoma City Bombing, 2022). Many believe that the bombing was due to radical Muslims due to the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 at the hands of Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil. Few could have expected the perpetrators would have been white, suburban, and "decent" looking men. During the investigations of the bombing site, forensic scientists found the origin of the blast site, which was a 30-foot wide and eight feet deep crater outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. About a block and a half, forensics found a truck axle roughly 1000 feet from the crater. At that point, investigators concluded that a truck was located at the center of this bombing. Luckily, investigators found the truck's VIN on the axle that was found at the bombing site. This VIN identified the truck as connected to a Ryder rental truck rented to a "Robert Bob Clean." Later it was identified that Robert Bob Clean" was an alias Timothy McVeigh was using during the rental process of the truck (Oklahoma City Bombing, 2022). After 90 minutes after the bombing Timothy McVeigh was pulled over by a local state trooper who noticed that the vehicle Timothy McVeigh was driving was missing a license plate. Shortly after the state trooper pulled over Mr. McVeigh, the law enforcement officer noticed a concealed firearm under McVeigh's jacket. This led to the state trooper arresting Timothy McVeigh and placing him in jail.
Shortly after, investigators concluded that "Robert B. Clean" was an alias for Tim McVeigh, the name he used at a motel in Junction City, Kansas, roughly 273 miles from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Fortunately, investigators connected Tim McVeigh with the recently arrested Timothy McVeigh by the Oklahoma state trooper. During the interrogation of Timothy McVeigh, a Forensic Scientist and bomb technician was busy analyzing the bombing site and testing their finding for trace bombing chemicals. What was constantly found was Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, also known as PETN, and Nitroglycerine which are both found in bombing sites and high explosives. Forensic scientists used IMS (Ion Mobility Spectrometry) to identify the chemicals surrounding the bombing site and to analyze what was used during this bombing (Saferstein & Roy, 2022).
The scientist did this by collecting evidence by placing them in plastic bags or jars to avoid contamination of evidence, transporting the evidence to the FBI crime laboratory, and placing samples inside the IMS machine, which is stored inside an ion funnel. Once the Ions are formed, they pass through a drift cell, which is mass-selected and ultimately detected. This machine allows forensic scientists to identify chemicals involved in the bombing that was executed in Oklahoma. After hundreds of samples of evidence were analyzed and identified, it was clear that ammonium nitrate (which is common in fertilizer), nitroglycerine (common in dynamite), nitromethane (which is common in diesel fuel), where the common chemical elements of this bombing site. So, at this point, forensic scientists know what was used to cause this explosion. A truck containing fertilizer, dynamite, and gasoline was detonated outside the Alfred P. Murrah federal building. The truck used in this bombing was rented out to Robert B. Clean, who later was identified as Tim McVeigh, who was recently arrested by local law enforcement in what seems unrelated. At this point, all fingers point to Timothy McVeigh being suspect number one for the bombing. Still, forensics later confirmed it after finding the same chemical agents peppered the bomb scene at the federal building on timothy McVeigh's clothing. This included trace bombing chemical evidence on two of his tee shirts, both his pockets, and on Mr. McVeigh's pocketknife. The bomb used in the Oklahoma City bombing is considered an IED (Improvised explosive device) made from "homemade" elements instead of high explosives. Forensic scientists and forensic techs can use several methods to determine the chemicals used, such as scanning electron microscopy, chromatography-mass spectrometry, capillary electrophoresis, and stereomicroscope to identify explosive residue on objects and bomb items (Saferstein & Roy, 2022). Other techniques in bomb detection include x-ray imaging, vapor detection, inferred imaging, radar-based imaging, and specially trained bomb dogs. Vapor detection is probably the most accessible tool when looking for explosion residue. K9 units are now more widely used as of recent times, but sadly during the time period of the Oklahoma City Bombing, k9 units were rare, and no article I could find has any mention of them being used in this event. X-ray imaging is commonly used in airports and other transportation hubs. X-ray imaging is a great tool when detecting a bomb that hasn’t exploded yet, and not so much after the event.
No doubt these tactics were used in the Oklahoma City Bombing case. In this scenario, whole bomb parts could not be found at the bombing site, and forensics had to conduct an explosive residue analysis of the crime scene after the blast. This includes post-blast items near the bombing site and clothing to test for trace explosive residue. Forensic experts determined that the trace explosive elements found at the bombing site were also found on Timothy McVeigh. The techniques used to analyze explosives are thin-layer chromatography, chromatographic techniques, gas chromatography, and high-pressure liquid chromatography (Saferstein & Roy, 2022). The most effective is GC/MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry) because it is used to understand the characteristics and identify many different materials, including explosives. TLC can be used on-site, too, and provide results quickly, but it provides less information than the other forms of spectrometry. HPTLC (high-pressure thin-layer chromatography) operates very similarly to TLC but provides much more information about a component's quantitative and qualitative traits. HPTLC also provides an electronic image of the sample under testing. Finally, we consider high-pressure liquid chromatography, which places the chemical in a solvent during the liquid mobile phase instead of utilizing a gas. In evaluating these processes, I assume that GS/MS is the most effective spectrometry for explosives. Though it is preferred, the time to conduct this process is much longer than the TLC. TLC could provide a quick on-site to help forensics understand what happened there. As well as cost-effective but provides limited information. The HPTLC would confirm what TLC deduced and provide a 3d image of the components found at the bomb site, yet this process would take longer and not be as cost-effective as the TLC (Benoit, 2016). Finally, HPLC would be helpful if we needed to separate the mixture to identify and determine how much each component makes up the compound, yet it takes longer to conduct.
The references chosen for this paper are credible. The first reference I would like to evaluate is the Oklahoma City Bombing reference which source is the FBI. The information provided by the FBI has historically been reliable. The next reference I would like to evaluate is the Saferstein reference. This source has proved itself credible because this reference was suggested by the school that I am currently attending. Benoit, C proved to be reliable and credible because it has a .gov link indicating that it has been research and verified. All references have proven to be credible and verifiable to be used in this essay assignment.
References
Benoit, C. (2016, July 20). Principles of Explosive Chemistry Examinations. https://www.justice.gov/archives/dag/file/877711/download
Oklahoma City Bombing. (2022, May 10). Federal Bureau of Investigation. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/oklahoma-city-bombing
Saferstein, R., & Roy, T. (2020). Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science (13th ed.). Pearson Education (US). https://purdueuniversityglobal.vitalsource.com/books/9780135268414