Episode 434: Bill Cooper Does OKC Part 1

Dan and Jordan begin an exploration of how Bill Cooper covered the bombing of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.

Topics covered include:

• Bill Cooper is concerned about a bill supposedly going through the Minnesota legislature that would convene a Conference of States. There is no such bill that appears to have passed the MN state house or senate in 1995. This was all about a plan being put together by the National Association of Governors to gather state legislatures to assert state power, but the idea had been largely deflated after the GOP won control of Congress in the 1994 midterms. It lingered as a paranoia among folks like Phyllis Schlafly after this point, however.

• Bill is upset about death estimates going around in the media. It’s unclear what exactly he was referring to, but UPI’s reporting reflects responsible coverage. Bill appears to be talking about estimates from Washington by 4:30, which was when Bill Clinton and Janet Reno held a press conference. No estimates matching Bill’s version was in the conference.

• Bill is correct that 50 Penn Place in Oklahoma City was evacuated, as well as Penn Square Mall across the street. He is unclear about the subject, and it’s not suspicious.

• Times of various events are from the Document Management Team’s report.

• The anchors who discussed a phone call claiming that the Nation of Islam took responsibility for the bombing also were clear it could have been a prank call. Also, Dave McCurdy made reference to Hamas.

• The ATF has gone on the record that there were no explosives in their office. Mike Shannon testified that one of the devices that was suspected to have been found was a desk clock.

• There was a rocket launcher found in the debris. It was not hidden, nor unexplained.

• The Medallion Hotel does exist. It started a renovation project in Feb. 1995, and completed it in October 1996. Also, while there covering the bombing, Tom Brokaw allegedly yelled at a clerk for losing his reservations. There is no reason that Bill’s investigative team should be confused about whether or not this is a real hotel.

• Bill claims that an April 20 bombing in Prince Edward Island was connected with the OKC bombing. This is definitely not true. It was the work of a serial bomber named Roger Charles Bell, who taunted the police under the alias, Loki 7.

• The Omnibus Counterterrorism Act of 1995 did not pass the Senate as S390. It also did not pass when it was introduced again as S761.

• There is no solid evidence that there is any security camera footage of the bomb detonating. The former assistant building manager Richard Williams testified that the cameras on the outside of the building had been not functional for two years at the point of the bombing. A Secret Service log references a tape of suspects exiting the Ryder truck, but it has been explained that this log contained unconfirmed reports, and it is possible that this piece of information has been misconstrued.

• OKC Police Lt. Bill Martin, who had been quoted in Relevance saying that there had been fulminate of mercury taken out of the building, testified to a grand jury that this was a “complete falsehood.”

• There were two wave signals approximately 10 seconds apart on the morning of April 19, but subsequent studies have demonstrated that this is indicative of one explosion, not two.