Terry Nichols chances of avoiding the death penalty in Oklahoma are slim -
Born: 1955; Sanilac County, MIFamily: Wife, Marife Torres; 1 son, 1 daughter Education: Graduated, Lapeer High School, MI; Dropout, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MIMilitary Service: Enlisted, U.S. Army, 1988; Basic training, Fort Benning, GA; Assigned to 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, KS; Discharged 1989Additional Background: Parents divorced; Married Lana Padilla, 1981; Divorced, 1988; Terry Lynn Nichols is the second man charged in the Oklahoma City bombing (see Timothy McVeigh); dropped out of college, drifted from job to job, enlisted in the Army at age 33, divorced, took a hardship discharge to care for his young son, remarried a Filippina teenager who was pregnant by another man (the child died in unclear circumstances), fell deeply into debt, came under the influence of extremist right-wing groups; Nichols lost a civil suit to Chase Manhattan bank over delinquent credit card payments, engaged in angry exchanges with the judge, cut up his driver's license, voter registration and passport, tried twice to renounce his citizenship; Nichols formed a close friendship with McVeigh who also came from a broken blue-collar home and had an interest in firearms and far-right politics.
Related site:CNN: Oklahoma City Bombing Trial special section Source: Washington Post.
Terry Lynn Nichols is the second man charged in the bombing
of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. Timothy McVeigh has been found
guilty and sentenced to death.
The third of four children, Terry Nichols was born on the family
farm in Sanilac County, some 70 miles north of Detroit. Nichols'
father farmed and worked in auto plants in Flint, 30 miles
away, sold the Encyclopedia Britannica and worked on construction
jobs.
When Nichols was a senior at Lapeer High School, his parents
divorced. After graduation, he went to Central Michigan University
in Mount Pleasant, but stayed for less than a year. He returned
to work on the 160-acre farm his mother and older brother bought
in Decker, Michigan.
In 1981, Nichols married a divorcee five years his senior,
with two children. In 1983 they had a baby boy.
Nichols did a number of part-time jobs; sold land, securities
and life insurance. He managed a co-op grain elevator and did
some carpentry. His wife worked at building a career in real
estate. Nichols stayed at home and did housework. He cared
for the children, did laundry, grew organic vegetables and
cooked. About that time, he became interested in survivalist
literature, and began to stock up on canned goods and drinking
water to prepare for the impending nuclear war.
Nichols wife regularly traveled to Detroit to see her ailing
mother, and her oldest son developed a drug habit. Nichols
became depressed. He and his wife discussed their situation
and decided the best thing would be for him to join the Army.
Although he was 33-years-old and had children, Nichols enlisted
on May 24, 1988. He went through Ft. Benning, Georgia, for
basic training and there became friends with fellow recruit
Timothy McVeigh.
Because of his age and apparent ability to handle responsibility,
Nichols was quickly made platoon leader. He and McVeigh soon
became drawn together by their common experiences -- small
town backgrounds, broken blue-collar homes, and an interest
in guns and right-wing politics. They both had survivalist
philosophies. After they completed basic training, both were
transferred to Ft. Riley, Kansas.
In late 1988 Nichols' wife Lana filed for divorce and planned
to pursue her real estate career in Las Vegas. With less than
a year service in the Army, Nichols was released on a hardship
discharge to take care of their 6-year-old son. He returned
to Michigan, worked as a carpenter for a while in Cass City,
then moved back into his mother's and brother's farmhouse in
Decker. There he sometimes helped on the farm, or went to Las
Vegas where he sold water or water filters. He also went to
school to become a slot machine mechanic.
In 1990, he flew to the Philippines to find a wife and dealt
through an illegal mail order bride enterprise in Cebu City.
In early 1991 Nichols married 17-year-old Marife Torres, returned
to the United States without her, and began the immigration
process that would permit her entry. It took seven months to
get the government's permission, but in the meantime, his young
bride had become pregnant by her previous boyfriend. Nichols
begged her to come to the United States anyway, and promised
to give the child his own name and treat the child as his own.
Nichols and his Philippina wife and child settled on the Nichols
farm in Decker. The seven-month wait to get immigration clearance
for his wife had changed his attitude toward the U.S. government.
His anger toward the government was reinforced by his older
brother who tried to renounce his U.S. citizenship and covered
his car with anti-government, pro-firearm bumper stickers.
Nichols bought a pickup truck, but declined to register it
or get license plates. He made a plate for the truck himself.
He did not believe the Constitution empowered the government
to print money. Fearing a government conspiracy to get people's
savings by causing an economic crash, he put his money in precious
metals.
In early 1993, Nichols took his wife and child and settled
in the Philippines. Overcome by the air pollution, heat and
humidity and suffering from severe diarrhea, he moved himself
and his family back to Decker a month later.
Nichols was out of work for a long period, and ran up a debt
of more than $35,000 on credit cards. He used the money to
buy farming equipment, clothing, and airline tickets for his
wife to visit the Philippines. The bank took him to court for
nonpayment, and there, conducting his own defense, he claimed
the lawsuit was groundless because he had written the bank
a letter retroactively revoking his signature from the credit
card. He countersued the bank, tried to pay off his debt with
a bogus check issued by a right-wing organization, and lost
the court case. Nichols sent the township in which he lived
a letter surrendering his voting rights, claiming corruption
in the entire political system.
In the spring of 1993, his Army buddy Timothy McVeigh moved
in with him at the Decker farm. By then, McVeigh wore camouflage
pants, Army underwear and usually carried a .45 pistol. McVeigh
traveled to gun shows, traded in guns, and spoke of his bitterness
at the government's siege of the Branch-Davidians at Waco,
Texas. Soon, McVeigh, Nichols and his brother were practicing
setting off explosives on the farm. They attended some meetings
of the Michigan Militia Corps, and spoke of the necessity to
take on lawyers, judges and the police. In time they stopped
going to meetings when they found the membership too slow to
rise to action. McVeigh and the two Nichols instead formed
their own cell of a local paramilitary organization called
the "Patriots."
In November 1993, Nichols, his wife, the 2-year-old and their
newborn baby were preparing to move to a resort town in Utah.
Nichols' wife found the 2-year-old dead, suffocated with a
plastic bag over his head. Police called the death accidental,
but were uncomfortable with the decision, suspecting that the
child had been deliberately killed.
The Nichols then moved to Las Vegas. Nichols' wife made trips
back to the Philippines. He traveled in the Ft. Riley, Kansas
area, telling people he intended to set up a military surplus
business. He did not however, and in what appeared to be a
turn for the better, moved to Kansas in the spring of 1994
and worked as a farm hand. He worked long hours on the farm,
and seemed content. In late August however, Timothy McVeigh
appeared, and Nichols said that he was leaving to sell surplus
Army items at gun shows. His employer recalled that on one
occasion, Nichols said that he knew how to make a bomb.
The same day that Nichols left the farm, a person using the
alias "Mike Havens" bought 40 50-pound bags of ammonium
nitrate from a local farm co-op. The sales slip was found in
Nichols' house after the bombing attack in Oklahoma City. And
the day after the purchase of the ammonium nitrate, 299 sticks
of dynamite and 544 blasting caps were stolen from a quarry
nearby. In the following two months, Nichols rented two storage
sheds under an alias. And the same person, using the name Mike
Havens, bought 40 more bags of ammonium nitrate.
